Written by Marco Rosenbaum

2024-08-01

Kickstart My Developer Career with a Bootcamp - Was It Worth It?

After exploring the world of web development through videos and online tutorials, I decided to attend a three-month full-time coding bootcamp with a frontend focus. The bootcamp was held remotely and was well-organized, with experienced trainers. Every day, I worked through a new section, and any questions that arose were answered during the 1-hour live session. During the last two weeks, I developed a simple concert-tracking app using Vue.js and Tailwind.
However, was it worth it, and was it enough to call myself a developer?
Yes, it was worth it, but no, it wasn’t enough. Three months is just not enough time to become proficient, though it was a good kickstart. It was an intense time, and I learned a lot. But at the same time, the more knowledge I gained, the more I realized how little I actually knew about web development. While I just scratched the surface of subjects like CSS, Tailwind, and Vue.js, I connected with proficient developers who shared their preferred resources and opinions. For me, that was the most valuable part of the bootcamp: getting in touch with people who have been in this field for many years.
Once the bootcamp was finished, I continued learning with online courses on Udemy. I decided to dive deeper into JavaScript and Vue, spending several hours learning every day. I built my first portfolio website and was so proud of it. It was the first thing I built entirely by myself, without anyone’s advice. As you can imagine, a few months later, I found myself laughing at that portfolio website and at how proud I had been of it. I had made so much learning progress and again realized how little my knowledge was when I first finished that portfolio website.

Looking back, the bootcamp was great, but in my opinion, it should be seen as a good start into coding, not as something that will land you your dream job straight away.