Career Karma
Is coding bootcamp worth it? Coding bootcamps are the fastest education program for aspiring developers, making this form of education totally worth it. These hot-shot courses cram years of coding expertise into months to prepare candidates for a coding job in the tech industry. Coding bootcamps are called ”boot camps” for a reason; they’re short, intense, and stretch students to their studying limits.
Bootcamp failure is not uncommon because many applicants don’t know what to expect. That’s not to say you shouldn’t go to a coding bootcamp; these programs can transform your career and double your salary in less than a year. Though the reward is great, you need to understand why coding bootcamp students fail to ensure your success.
What Is a Coding Bootcamp?
A coding bootcamp is an intensive education program designed to prepare students for a tech job. The tech industry is rapidly growing, and finding work in the tech industry is becoming a popular goal. Coding bootcamps help students learn everything they need to know for a coding career, including basic coding skills, in a shorter amount of time than a college degree.
In-Person Coding Bootcamp
There are in-person coding bootcamps all over the country. If you were to search “coding San Diego”, you would find bootcamps such as Fullstack Academy, LEARN Academy, and San Diego Code School. Or, if you search for a coding bootcamp in Nashville, you will find NuCamp and General Assembly.
An in-person coding bootcamp program requires you to attend class on a regular schedule, usually for a few weeks to a few months. You will be able to study how to become a software engineer, web developer, or even data scientist in a similar environment to a college classroom.
Remote Coding Bootcamp
A remote coding bootcamp can be completed from the comfort of your home. There are many options for this type of bootcamp, including UCF Coding Bootcamp and Hack Reactor. You will learn the same things as in an in-person bootcamp but on your own time. These are great if you have a busy work schedule, as you can work on your coding project and homework when you have time.
While a remote coding bootcamp can be a bit more difficult, there are still options for both part-time and full-time programs. This will allow you to attend code school on a schedule that works for you. As long as you have great time management skills and self-discipline, you can complete your program without having to quit your job.
What Is Bootcamp Burnout, and How Can It Lead to Coding Bootcamp Failure?
According to WebMD, burnout is a form of exhaustion caused by being constantly swamped. It is a type of extreme stress that impacts your emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing. Bootcamp burnout is a form of burnout caused by the often high-stress environment of a coding bootcamp. This type of stress and exhaustion can lead to bootcamp failure as the student feels it is impossible to continue putting in the effort necessary to succeed.
Before we can dive into how to beat burnout and avoid coding bootcamp failure, we first need to dive into what burnout is. Burnout can affect you both in and out of a bootcamp. Learning the different forms of burnout and signs of burnout can help you beat it.
The Different Forms of Burnout
There are many different forms of burnout, but the main three are:
Professional Burnout
Professional burnout describes the type of burnout caused by work. Many people experience professional burnout when they are working too hard and too much. While having a good work ethic is a highly desirable skill, many employees take this trait to an extreme and have almost no work-life balance. When you don’t have a healthy work-life balance, you are likely to experience burnout from your job.
Creative Burnout
Creative burnout is caused when you feel like you have drained all of your creative abilities. Many think creative burnout only applies to artists, but programmers often experience this form of burnout as well.
If you are stressed and exhausted, even the smallest hint of creativity can feel impossible to achieve. Whether you need to creatively problem-solve or are working on a creative project, like a video game, the possibility of creative burnout is very real.
Personal Burnout
Personal burnout is the same feeling of being swamped, stressed, and exhausted, but in your personal life. This can be caused by a plethora of things, including family emergencies, relationship problems, and medical conditions. While this form of burnout may not be caused by work or the need for creativity, it can greatly affect your ability to feel successful in all aspects of your life. Unfortunately, anyone can fall victim to personal burnout.
Signs of Burnout
It can be difficult to determine if you are facing burnout, especially if you are dealing with other mental illnesses, such as depression or anxiety. Keeping an eye out for these burnout symptoms can provide you with burnout proof and ultimately help you to beat burnout.
Exhaustion
If you need burnout proof to convince yourself and others that you are going through burnout, exhaustion is the number one symptom. Exhaustion is different from stress or feeling tired. If you are feeling exhausted, you are likely feeling drained. You are likely to feel emotionally and physically incapable of dealing with problems in your personal or professional life.
Lack of Enthusiasm
Similar to depression, people facing burnout will feel very little enthusiasm or excitement for various activities. You may also start to develop negative emotions toward the cause of your burnout, like your job or a particular friend or family member. It is common to feel very cynical and negative constantly.
Poor Performance
Perhaps the best burnout proof is poor performance. If you are a high-performing employee, or if you are good at handling conflict, decreased performance abilities can be a strong indicator of burnout. Look out for your quality of work and ability to deal with issues in your personal life degrading as this is a sure sign of burnout.
How to Beat Burnout
Now that you know about personal, creative, and professional burnout, as well as how to gather burnout proof and recognize burnout in yourself, you likely want to know how to beat it. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to beat burnout.
Assess Your Burnout Risk
One of the best things you can do to prevent and beat burnout is to determine your chance of burnout. Are you starting a new job, enrolling in a new educational program, or coping with a serious family emergency? These are all factors that increase your burnout risk. Take some time to analyze your professional and personal life to determine what your chance of burnout is.
Talk to Your Boss About Burnout
Regardless of the form of burnout you are experiencing, it is important to talk to your boss about it. Burnout among employees is increasingly common, and many bosses and managers are prepared to help you deal with it. By talking to your boss about burnout, you may be able to lighten your workload, receive some temporary extra assistance, and maybe even get much-needed time off.
Rest, Relax, and Find Support
Finally, you need to relax. Burnout can cause you to feel constantly tired and stressed. Ensuring you get a full night’s sleep is a great way of increasing your energy levels. Activities like yoga, meditation, and exercising can help decrease your stress levels. Finding and leaning on a good support system is also crucial to beating burnout.
Top Three Causes of Bootcamp Failure
Bootcamp burnout is a form of both personal and professional burnout. It affects your ability to perform well in a coding bootcamp, which can lead to coding bootcamp failure. Here are the top three causes of bootcamp failure.
Lack of Effort
Coding bootcamp might be the toughest job you ever take. If you attend a full-time coding bootcamp, you can expect at least eight hours of work each day. Programming isn’t mindless work. You must concentrate all day and actively engage in coding to be successful.
Some applicants believe that they’ll be able to cruise through coding bootcamp without failure just by showing up. Thinking you’ll succeed in coding bootcamp without constant mental effort is a dangerous and false belief. If you’re not passionately driven to succeed in coding bootcamp, you’ll probably fail.
You’ll need to master entire languages in days or weeks, depending on the length of the program. Remember, you’ll succeed if you’re dedicated and willing to sacrifice time and (often) sleep. Coding bootcamp graduates aren’t geniuses; they’re ordinary people just like you and me, with a multitude of work and educational backgrounds.
The real winners in coding bootcamps are people who aren’t afraid of failure and are determined to succeed. You’ll need a solid reason to empower yourself through the tough times, which brings us to our next point.
In It For The Wrong Reasons
There’s nothing wrong with changing careers for a higher salary. People change jobs for better pay all the time, and we’re not suggesting you have a moral responsibility to earn less. The problem arises when money is your primary motivating factor. Often, mentality determines your success or failure in coding bootcamp. Sure, you may earn enough for fancy cars and big houses after coding bootcamp, but the desire for material success is a deceptively ineffective motivator. Lots of us have families to feed and bills to pay, so keep that in mind instead.
We don’t want to sound like a motivational book, but some truths are universally evident. You need to sit down and figure out why you want to be a coder. There are a few ways to figure out if you really want to code, and we’ll get into that later in the article. Once you figure out why you want to code, you’ll be ready to take the next steps. Remember, if you don’t have a strong reason for doing the work, you’ll likely burn out and give up.
Lack of Preparation
Coding bootcamps turn beginners into programmers, but you can’t jump in unprepared. Most coding bootcamps interview prospective applicants to weed out unprepared and unmotivated individuals. Coding bootcamps are high-stress programs, so learning something beforehand will reduce your chances of failure. Coding bootcamps, like Thinkful, recommend applicants learn as much as they can before enrolling. We suggest you practice simple coding languages like HTML and JavaScript to get a good head-start. Take Career Karma’s 21 Day Challenge to get started with the learning process and see if you enjoy programming.
Here are a few tips to help you properly prepare and avoid bootcamp burnout:
Consider the Cost
Some students attribute coding bootcamp failure to high tuition costs. Before you get started, find an affordable program. Luckily, some coding bootcamps offer income sharing agreements to cover tuition until you land a job. Scholarships are also available for qualifying applicants. Career Karma can help you figure out the best program for your budget.
Prepare Your Schedule
What should be obvious sometimes isn’t, and you’re responsible for knowing your schedule. Working nights and attending a full-time program during the day looks fine on paper, but can you handle it? Applicants who sign up for full-time coding bootcamps while working can get overwhelmed if they fail to consider their ability to manage their time.
Don’t enroll in a program if you can’t put in the hours. Part-time and flexible coding bootcamps are ideal for working people, so be patient and don’t overwhelm yourself. Enough people fail coding bootcamp without the additional obligations of a job. It’s fantastic if you can manage two full-time jobs; all the more to you, but be realistic, and don’t bite off more than you can chew.
Have a Few Mock Interviews
Taking some time to study coding bootcamp interview questions and conduct mock interviews can help you prepare. Not only will this help you get accepted into a bootcamp, but it will also help you determine what to expect.
Many of the interview questions asked during the admissions process can give you an idea of what will happen once you’re in. If the questions center around time commitment, expect to need a lot of studying time. If the questions are about a certain programming language, you can expect to rely heavily on that language.
How to Avoid Failure in Coding Bootcamp
Coding bootcamp failure is common but preventable. Anybody can succeed in coding bootcamp by following these simple rules:
- Prepare and know what you’re signing up for.
- Find a reliable source of motivation.
- Do the work and give it your all.
Nobody said coding bootcamp would be easy. Those who approach it without grit and dedication sell themselves short. Remember, you’re attending a coding bootcamp to become a coder. If coding isn’t what you want to do, it’s best to re-examine your motivations. Coding bootcamp isn’t for everybody, but it opens incredible doors to those looking to transform their careers.
Bootcamp Burnout FAQ
Yes, you can fail a coding bootcamp. Bootcamp failure is in fact quite common amongst students who enter unprepared. If you do not prepare properly, you may face bootcamp burnout as well as bootcamp failure. However, by taking time to research, finding your motivation, and committing to working hard, you should be able to prevent bootcamp burnout and failure.
Coding bootcamps are definitely worth it in 2022. More and more employers in the tech industry are seeking out candidates with a bootcamp education over those with college degrees. By completing a coding bootcamp in 2022, you are setting yourself up for a good career with a high salary, high job satisfaction, and great benefits.
Yes, for many, bootcamp is stressful. This can lead to bootcamp burnout, which is why it is important to know the signs of burnout before starting a bootcamp program. If you properly prepare for bootcamp and educate yourself about burnout, you should be able to breeze through coding bootcamp with no problems.
You can be successful in coding by always learning and recognizing when you need to step back. Many in the tech industry think they know it all, pretend to enjoy their work, and work way too much. Understanding your own limitations and strengths is the best way to make sure you are successful in coding.
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Joshua Weinstein
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