I always thought that my first blog post would be written midway or at the start of my coding bootcamp, not at the end. I somehow thought that between work, class, homework and regular day to day living I would have time to sit, reflect, write and edit. No, my priority was my homework, responsibilities and well being. Here I am at the end of class reflecting on the experience. I naively expected that at the end of a 6 month part-time bootcamp that I would be fully ready to go out and apply for an engineering job. 

I’m not. My final project was described as “amateur.” I have to work to polish it. That’s okay. It’s humbling, sure. An honest review is needed though to move forward. It’s the day after the last day of class and I’m already planning how to move forward. 

Does part of me think I’m doomed and that I’m just not cut out for this?  

Of course, at 33 I’m trying to piece together a career that the media calls “oversaturated”. I absolutely feel doomed, especially if I listen to the media. 

Based on very limited research four key reasons for a downturn in the SWE hiring market are:

• outsourcing 
• layoffs 
•  increase in hiring pool (new grads + layoffs +bootcamp grads)
• AI expectation 

 All the above make sense.

 So what’s my plan if the market is “truly” terrible and that I have a lot of “competition” out there? 

1. Protect my mindset
I cannot Google  the SWE job market, go on reddit or even fully engage with the news because it’s all geared towards negativity. Sometimes I’ll find a positive story on reddit but most of the time it’s the struggles. People turn to venting or writing in the negative moment.

2. Build my mindset
Whether I get an SWE job in 6 months or 1.5 years it’s still a win. A win is a win. Yes, part of the career pivot is salary motivated but also because I want to conquer the challenge of breaking into the field. I dabbled in college, dabbled here and there with different elements and working in analytics but I want to grow. 

There’s this stubborn part of me that just wants to get to the next level like a video game that you try for hours to get to the next level. Not let that alien defeat you except this is a game of potentially years.  

I also have to let go of this idea that “ it’s too late”. I’m too old or I should have done this 10 years ago. This part is critical because if not I’ll just be ageist towards myself.

It’s not too late. 

3. Long term planning and scheduling
I decided to work in a 2 week sprint with a retrospective in the end. Yes, a moment to reflect on my own what worked well and what did not. 

While the long term plan on what to learn and when is not sketched out. I plan on tapping into the roadmap.sh, AI as a tutor, Verizon’s SkillForward and any other free tool out there. 

My current focus is spending the next month solidifying the concepts covered during bootcamp while polishing my projects so that at the end of 6 weeks I’ll have two working CRUD apps and solid concepts. 

4. Enjoy the journey 
There’s a couple of ways to make it more enjoyable 

• Adhering to my sleep schedule – I couldn’t always do that with class running so late and needing time to unwind. 
• Working in public – this worked really well when I went to local university libraries and just worked or the city library. 
• Share my milestone calendar with a friend  – this has helped with accountability but also knowing someones going to ask me about this
• Do it for me – sounds so cheeesy but when I doubt I just hope that all this problem solving will at least reduce my risk of cognitive decline. 

5. Separate happiness from career outcome This one is a tricky one because of course I want a well paying job working with smart folks on a great project. Yes, we all want success as we have envisioned or defined but pinning your happiness on it or letting failure/delay cast a negative light is a terrible way to live. 

What’s really important to me on any given day? 

• Good health
• Loving home 
• Family and friends 
• Progress 
• Consistency

Above are my priorities, no matter where this coding journey takes me.