Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?
In 2013 I attended Epicodus in Portland, OR. At the time, it was a 17-week Ruby on Rails bootcamp.<p>I moved back to my home state of Florida following graduation.<p>Within two months I landed a Junior Rails Developer position at Listen360 - a badass company in Georgia. I relocated and have been with the company for over three years now.<p>In that time I&#x27;ve developed JrDevJobs.com, a job board for junior devs. Built several side-projects, and taken on contract work at a growing rate.<p>Bootcamps aren&#x27;t for everyone, and they don&#x27;t guarantee success. They are a spring-board and structure for those who are committed and able to learn the trade.<p>Software development is hard as hell. It challenges your abilities in every way: decision making, risk assessment, empathy, time management, and your ability to handle stress. But for those that love it know the rewards to be worth the struggle.<p>I&#x27;d like to say my bootcamp prepared me for the job I have, but I also know that I was going to become an engineer regardless. I saw the bootcamp as a way to get there faster than learning on my own.<p>I&#x27;ve toured and given speeches at several bootcamps across the country. I&#x27;ve seen patterns amongst the students: there are those that think they&#x27;re &quot;done&quot; once they graduate, and those that think they&#x27;re just getting started once they graduate. The latter tend to outperform the former. Full disclosure, this is totally anecdotal.<p>I think bootcamps are great for those who love to learn, are always challenging themselves, have a competitive nature, and love technology.