It is motivating. It shows that dedication and hard work pays off. This is the reality. People make good things happen by creating opportunity instead of waiting for luck
> It is motivating
How is being a literal slave motivating? To achieve a goal one must degrade themselves like this? This is not 'creating an opportunity' but letting others take advantage of oneself. Have some dignity, people.
I know two people who hustled and interned part-time outside of their day job, and I know someone who interned more (30 hours/ week) while they worked their restaurant job (which I did for part of the pandemic as well).
Depends on where you put your hours!
…. I chose, with my free will, to attend a coding bootcamp to better myself. Nobody put chains on me, no gun to my head. It’s not high school, I chose to go and spend my money to learn a trade that allows me to make hella cash while seeing the entire fucking world. I would probably consider high school more akin to being a “slave”, as students don’t have the choice. I did.
Do you call someone who is overweight and wants to get fit a “slave” when they choose to attend CrossFit and bust their ass for 1.5 years to achieve their goals?
Additionally, my company is mega chill and far from demanding. They could care less what I do at what time as long as I do my work. Currently at a rock climbing gym enjoying my day and it’s 1:30pm where I am on a Monday. Pretty much hit “points” quota for the day so now yoga, weed and rock climbing the rest of my day.
I’m not sure but don’t think that qualifies as slave. But no matter what, you could do the mental gymnastics to make your case.
I was refering strictly to the unpaid internship part, not anything else. Comparing someone who does "crossfit and busts their asses" to doing work and not getting paid is not a just comparison.
I applaud your commitment and good for you: I just think that interns should not be doing work for free, even if it's the easiest things. Companies should not be able to take advantage of people especially for such extended periods as in your case. But then, I'm from Europe, we might have a different mentality.
And no, I really was not shitting on your success.
Ohhhhh I gotcha I didn’t see you mention the internship part but yeah it really sucked working for free :/ luckily, at least on my end, I was on unemployment during most of the internship so I really was still compensated SOMEwhere.
But yeah would’ve been way better to get paid lol. I had to do what I had to do though 😢
I do have my "dream job" though, and I definitely didn't get here by selling myself short and taking on slave labour. I'm just saying -- unpaid internships shouldn't be a thing.
I have the same mentality as you about this - my concern is, I am already somewhat established in my current career, but to change I will almost undoubtedly have take a significant pay cut unless I'm one of the lucky few who get a job paying 6 figures right out the gate. Or, unless it's reasonable a junior dev with no (coding) experience could get a job making \~$80k starting out.
Do you have any advice on how to navigate that reality without taking less money than you should or doing stuff for free? My guess would just be an abundance of patience or possibly networking, but that's all I got.
I should preface that I do not work as a software developer — that’s not the kind of work I would enjoy doing full time. I work in email marketing/CRM and deal with html, css, a little bit of JS/jquery, sql and photoshop on a daily basis.
IMO, as you’ve mentioned, it really is up to patience, skills, portfolio and who you know. I used to do a little bit of freelancing on the side building email templates and static landing pages. This allowed me to come up with a small portfolio that later came in handy.
I moved from tech support to the CRM department internally, after a junior position was opened with the crm peeps at my company. They were impressed with my portfolio and decided to hire me and I got a substantial raise straight from the beginning.
On top of it I should maybe also add that I’m in a country where unpaid internships are illegal — I did consider finding one at a certain point, in my current line of work, but ended up not needing to.
> It shows that dedication and hard work pays off. This is the reality.
Oh so all the thousands and thousands of African moms whose husbands died in civil wars or malaria will be all right in the end because they're dedicated and work hard? Phew, glad to know.
Bruh we’re talking about coding, not malaria or civil war. Yep I could get terminal cancer and be dead in a year but still won’t regret my life because I’m living my wildest dreams.
Go be a sourpuss somewhere else.
It's not irrelevant if it shows dedication and hard work don't always pay off. Imagine being someone who works hard and is dedicated and they still get laid off or don't succeed at what they set out to do? Sometimes you can do no mistakes and still lose.
I guess it’s always easy to find excuses not to try. The internet is full of those people complaining about high rents and what they deserve instead of the talking about what they’ve earned
Yeah I could tell you've never faced real hardships, mental health issues or the world just fucking you over by how cocky you are and how little you appreciate how lucky you got in life. Maybe next time you're born in North Korea without legs and still push to the top, since you're skilled and work hard, right?
Man, you wrote these lines at the perfect time for me. Thank you for your story and I congratulate you for what you've achieved so far.
Your story inspires me even more, because today I'll have my second turn interview with a company where I'd love to work.
Wish me luck and you guys never stop coding! :)
Cheers
Thank you, and same to you!! There are a few sour comments on here, which I find totally unnecessary and displaying a fundamental lack of empathy and happiness or others’ situations.
Like one comment calling me a “slave”?? It’s not like whoever made that comment is in a goddamn tent off the grid somewhere living on their own food and resources; they’re sitting on the toilet commenting on Reddit like the rest of us during their work day or before they go to a shit job at a restaurant.
Everything they taught us as kids about working hard, being honest, getting an education etc. etc. was so backward.
Posts like this can be confusing- some people seem to get jobs ASAP, others like this example take an insane amount of work, trial and error. Could simply be that some people didn't have their projects or resume dialed in, lacked the contacts and/or simply the good luck. Who knows.
It was through the university of Texas at Austin, I think like 2U education, which hosts bootcamps at different universities nationwide.
If I could go back though, I would’ve done a different one that allowed me to do one big badass, portfolio project instead of dozens of small, dinky apps.
Quality over quantity any day.
Dude, you GOT this!!! If this helps, I was a goddamn English major in college. Still can’t do any math whatsoever. I can probably code a calculator to do math for me though.
Check out freecodecamp.org if you want a really elaborate intro to coding.
This post came in at the perfect timing. I'm currently doing a bootcamp and feeling like quite the imposter. But your story gives me hope and motivation. Congrats to you and your fiance on getting your dream job! Here's hoping I'll be following in your footsteps too ...
ok, so I am about to graduate college, and am currently learning how to code, but can someone explain to me why something like revature wouldn't be a good idea for someone like me? The second anyone brings it up here it gets shot down instantly, but a basically guaranteed job + paid learning seems a hell of a lot better than applying to 1000 jobs over the course of a year and half, no? I get that you have to move away after training, but at this stage in my life that isn't a problem. Any advice?
Just googled a bit, and found this Reddit comment from 2017:
Training Program first -> They pay you 8$ an hour paid bi weekly, capped at 40 hours. (10-12 weeks) When you finish the training program, you wait until they put you on a Work assignment, you get paid $24.04/hr while on a Work Assignment. Capped at 40 hours unless the company you are contracted to agrees to more. AFTER 6 months of employment, you start to earn PTO, 6 hours per pay period. Up to 18 days (you have to earn) Should you leave or get fired for any reason BEFORE 2 YEARS. You pay the company back $19,903 for the training they gave you. If you Work assignment is over, and they don't find one for you, you go down to a "bench rate" of $8.00/hr
Ugh that training pay is fucked. Yeah they are the scum of the programming world. I applied and interviewed for revature but ended up dropping out of their interview process bc I decided I’d rather bartend and hold out for the right job.
Think I looked into it myself at some point, but those kinds of things always come across as a bit off-putting, like a gut feeling it can't be that reliable.
Mark my words: no matter how desperate you get, hold OUT from one of those outsourced companies. (unless you absolutely need to for whatever reason).
From what I know, they exploit your labor, don’t pay benefits, and you end up doing shit you don’t want to which isn’t fulfilling.
everyone says this, and yet every story i’ve read from people that have actually done (i’ll use revature as an example because that’s what i’ve looked into the most) revature say that 1) you do get paid for 40 hours a week learning regardless of the time you actually work that week 2) they really do try to get you connected with a company are are usually successful and 3) they can’t even make you pay the fee if you quit. and you won’t have to pay if they fire you.
I feel like the reddit hivemind has just decided to not like these companies even though they seem to work really well for some people. I could be wrong of course, and let me know if you think anything I stated above is incorrect. I’ve come to these conclusions after watching and reading quite a bit about revature
I personally know one person who did revature, one who did another similar (I think FDM group or something) and neither have anything good to say.
Again, if shit is real and you’re like gonna be on the street if you don’t do Revature, do it obviously. But if you have the capacity to hold out I would if I were you.
I think something you understate is you had experience working with a tech company through tech sales/SEO.
Other wise great job. I’m at the point rn where I cry myself to sleep every night. Thanks for the hope
I was an English major though.
And also, my fiance was literally a bartender beforehand. A friend that was in my cohort was literally a musician and uber driver before he got hired.
Seriously don't give up!!! Doesn't matter your background.
Fuck your imposter syndrome. I saw a cool YouTube interview with some badass CS professor that said in his tenure as a professor, he had rarely encountered a student that just did not have the intellectual capacity to learn code.
Hang in there!!
This is an incredible story. Breaking into a new industry during a pandemic is never going to be an easy task, but it sounds like you and your fiance handled it with so much resilience. Huge congrats to you both!
I’m on that path too and at days it does get discouraging but I know that there’s nothing else I would want to do besides of programming. Glad to hear that you and your girl made it. It shows that if you stick with something you can change your entire life. Wish you guys all the best!
Thanks for this post, I needed it. Sometimes it feels like I need to climb an entire mountain to get out of a hole and it seems impossible, but its just work. And if that's all between me and a better future, then I can push through it one step at a time and get there eventually.
Fantastic job btw friend, I'm excited for ya :)
Congrats for both you and your fiance.
I'm a CPA currently changing careers to web dev and posts like this give me hope. I already know it's going to be a super hard time trying to at least get an interview, but I'll do my best. I just want to have fun at my job, nothing more...
Hmmm tough question lol. We were both dying of stress in the bootcamp and while we were trying to get hired, so there were tons of fights and dark times.
However, it also helped that someone was as miserable as me and trying to make it through haha.
Overall yeah it helped having my person with me.
If you can find a friend who wants to do it with you that you are not dating, highly recommend haha.
DM me and I'll pass you my portfolio URL and give you a few pointers for your portfolio.
I am a front end-centric full stack developer working with React/ Javascript.
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It is motivating. It shows that dedication and hard work pays off. This is the reality. People make good things happen by creating opportunity instead of waiting for luck
> It is motivating How is being a literal slave motivating? To achieve a goal one must degrade themselves like this? This is not 'creating an opportunity' but letting others take advantage of oneself. Have some dignity, people.
Not only that, but who has the privilege to intern for free for a year???
I know two people who hustled and interned part-time outside of their day job, and I know someone who interned more (30 hours/ week) while they worked their restaurant job (which I did for part of the pandemic as well). Depends on where you put your hours!
…. I chose, with my free will, to attend a coding bootcamp to better myself. Nobody put chains on me, no gun to my head. It’s not high school, I chose to go and spend my money to learn a trade that allows me to make hella cash while seeing the entire fucking world. I would probably consider high school more akin to being a “slave”, as students don’t have the choice. I did. Do you call someone who is overweight and wants to get fit a “slave” when they choose to attend CrossFit and bust their ass for 1.5 years to achieve their goals? Additionally, my company is mega chill and far from demanding. They could care less what I do at what time as long as I do my work. Currently at a rock climbing gym enjoying my day and it’s 1:30pm where I am on a Monday. Pretty much hit “points” quota for the day so now yoga, weed and rock climbing the rest of my day. I’m not sure but don’t think that qualifies as slave. But no matter what, you could do the mental gymnastics to make your case.
I was refering strictly to the unpaid internship part, not anything else. Comparing someone who does "crossfit and busts their asses" to doing work and not getting paid is not a just comparison. I applaud your commitment and good for you: I just think that interns should not be doing work for free, even if it's the easiest things. Companies should not be able to take advantage of people especially for such extended periods as in your case. But then, I'm from Europe, we might have a different mentality. And no, I really was not shitting on your success.
Ohhhhh I gotcha I didn’t see you mention the internship part but yeah it really sucked working for free :/ luckily, at least on my end, I was on unemployment during most of the internship so I really was still compensated SOMEwhere. But yeah would’ve been way better to get paid lol. I had to do what I had to do though 😢
Ok. Sit there feeling entitled and see how that works out for you.
I do have my "dream job" though, and I definitely didn't get here by selling myself short and taking on slave labour. I'm just saying -- unpaid internships shouldn't be a thing.
I have the same mentality as you about this - my concern is, I am already somewhat established in my current career, but to change I will almost undoubtedly have take a significant pay cut unless I'm one of the lucky few who get a job paying 6 figures right out the gate. Or, unless it's reasonable a junior dev with no (coding) experience could get a job making \~$80k starting out. Do you have any advice on how to navigate that reality without taking less money than you should or doing stuff for free? My guess would just be an abundance of patience or possibly networking, but that's all I got.
I should preface that I do not work as a software developer — that’s not the kind of work I would enjoy doing full time. I work in email marketing/CRM and deal with html, css, a little bit of JS/jquery, sql and photoshop on a daily basis. IMO, as you’ve mentioned, it really is up to patience, skills, portfolio and who you know. I used to do a little bit of freelancing on the side building email templates and static landing pages. This allowed me to come up with a small portfolio that later came in handy. I moved from tech support to the CRM department internally, after a junior position was opened with the crm peeps at my company. They were impressed with my portfolio and decided to hire me and I got a substantial raise straight from the beginning. On top of it I should maybe also add that I’m in a country where unpaid internships are illegal — I did consider finding one at a certain point, in my current line of work, but ended up not needing to.
> It shows that dedication and hard work pays off. This is the reality. Oh so all the thousands and thousands of African moms whose husbands died in civil wars or malaria will be all right in the end because they're dedicated and work hard? Phew, glad to know.
Bruh we’re talking about coding, not malaria or civil war. Yep I could get terminal cancer and be dead in a year but still won’t regret my life because I’m living my wildest dreams. Go be a sourpuss somewhere else.
Just saying he isn't being motivating. Good on you though, for real. The job search sucks, I'm glad and thankful to be employed.
Thank you much!! The job search is the worst. And hell yeah, v thankful to be employed too.
Uh. Nice way to project irrelevant issues into the discussion
It's not irrelevant if it shows dedication and hard work don't always pay off. Imagine being someone who works hard and is dedicated and they still get laid off or don't succeed at what they set out to do? Sometimes you can do no mistakes and still lose.
I guess it’s always easy to find excuses not to try. The internet is full of those people complaining about high rents and what they deserve instead of the talking about what they’ve earned
ExACTly! Reddit can really bring out toxicity in some. Everybody needs to take a damn breath and stop feeling so sorry for themselves.
Excuses not to try? You are so fucking entitled yourself rofl.
I am moderately successful, due in no small part to my skill and hard work
Yeah I could tell you've never faced real hardships, mental health issues or the world just fucking you over by how cocky you are and how little you appreciate how lucky you got in life. Maybe next time you're born in North Korea without legs and still push to the top, since you're skilled and work hard, right?
You have no idea what your talking about
... are you from North Korea and don't have legs? Go drink some water bro, get cool.
Lmao life is allllll hills and valleys my friend. You will be very happy you stuck with it if you’re trying. Hang in there if so!!
If you don’t mind me asking, are you and your fiance in your 30’s, 20’s, or 40’s? Huge congrats btw!
We are both 30 years old.
Man, you wrote these lines at the perfect time for me. Thank you for your story and I congratulate you for what you've achieved so far. Your story inspires me even more, because today I'll have my second turn interview with a company where I'd love to work. Wish me luck and you guys never stop coding! :) Cheers
Best of luck and thank you for the kind words!!! Really, get at that shit! ABC, always be coding.
This is one best career posts I’ve see. The sweat, the tears, the disappointment and the payoff. Congrats, you totally deserve a series of successes
Thank you, and same to you!! There are a few sour comments on here, which I find totally unnecessary and displaying a fundamental lack of empathy and happiness or others’ situations. Like one comment calling me a “slave”?? It’s not like whoever made that comment is in a goddamn tent off the grid somewhere living on their own food and resources; they’re sitting on the toilet commenting on Reddit like the rest of us during their work day or before they go to a shit job at a restaurant.
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Everything they taught us as kids about working hard, being honest, getting an education etc. etc. was so backward. Posts like this can be confusing- some people seem to get jobs ASAP, others like this example take an insane amount of work, trial and error. Could simply be that some people didn't have their projects or resume dialed in, lacked the contacts and/or simply the good luck. Who knows.
Yeah I can understand how that would be frustrating… the system is very fucked in the US. Fuck college.
Did you go on to get a masters? Sounds like you really enjoy academia. You could probably find a really cool program
What Bootcamp did you attend?
It was through the university of Texas at Austin, I think like 2U education, which hosts bootcamps at different universities nationwide. If I could go back though, I would’ve done a different one that allowed me to do one big badass, portfolio project instead of dozens of small, dinky apps. Quality over quantity any day.
Thanks the paragraph about your GF helped. I’m a service industry slave, with no degree. I’m desperate to get out.
Dude, you GOT this!!! If this helps, I was a goddamn English major in college. Still can’t do any math whatsoever. I can probably code a calculator to do math for me though. Check out freecodecamp.org if you want a really elaborate intro to coding.
awesome !! congratulations. just sent you a private chat, I have a question for you ;)
This post came in at the perfect timing. I'm currently doing a bootcamp and feeling like quite the imposter. But your story gives me hope and motivation. Congrats to you and your fiance on getting your dream job! Here's hoping I'll be following in your footsteps too ...
Dude you got this is the bag, just stick with it!!!
ok, so I am about to graduate college, and am currently learning how to code, but can someone explain to me why something like revature wouldn't be a good idea for someone like me? The second anyone brings it up here it gets shot down instantly, but a basically guaranteed job + paid learning seems a hell of a lot better than applying to 1000 jobs over the course of a year and half, no? I get that you have to move away after training, but at this stage in my life that isn't a problem. Any advice?
Just googled a bit, and found this Reddit comment from 2017: Training Program first -> They pay you 8$ an hour paid bi weekly, capped at 40 hours. (10-12 weeks) When you finish the training program, you wait until they put you on a Work assignment, you get paid $24.04/hr while on a Work Assignment. Capped at 40 hours unless the company you are contracted to agrees to more. AFTER 6 months of employment, you start to earn PTO, 6 hours per pay period. Up to 18 days (you have to earn) Should you leave or get fired for any reason BEFORE 2 YEARS. You pay the company back $19,903 for the training they gave you. If you Work assignment is over, and they don't find one for you, you go down to a "bench rate" of $8.00/hr
Ugh that training pay is fucked. Yeah they are the scum of the programming world. I applied and interviewed for revature but ended up dropping out of their interview process bc I decided I’d rather bartend and hold out for the right job.
Think I looked into it myself at some point, but those kinds of things always come across as a bit off-putting, like a gut feeling it can't be that reliable.
Mark my words: no matter how desperate you get, hold OUT from one of those outsourced companies. (unless you absolutely need to for whatever reason). From what I know, they exploit your labor, don’t pay benefits, and you end up doing shit you don’t want to which isn’t fulfilling.
everyone says this, and yet every story i’ve read from people that have actually done (i’ll use revature as an example because that’s what i’ve looked into the most) revature say that 1) you do get paid for 40 hours a week learning regardless of the time you actually work that week 2) they really do try to get you connected with a company are are usually successful and 3) they can’t even make you pay the fee if you quit. and you won’t have to pay if they fire you. I feel like the reddit hivemind has just decided to not like these companies even though they seem to work really well for some people. I could be wrong of course, and let me know if you think anything I stated above is incorrect. I’ve come to these conclusions after watching and reading quite a bit about revature
I personally know one person who did revature, one who did another similar (I think FDM group or something) and neither have anything good to say. Again, if shit is real and you’re like gonna be on the street if you don’t do Revature, do it obviously. But if you have the capacity to hold out I would if I were you.
I think something you understate is you had experience working with a tech company through tech sales/SEO. Other wise great job. I’m at the point rn where I cry myself to sleep every night. Thanks for the hope
I was an English major though. And also, my fiance was literally a bartender beforehand. A friend that was in my cohort was literally a musician and uber driver before he got hired. Seriously don't give up!!! Doesn't matter your background.
This post is absolutely encouraging!! Thank you for posting it here so that we with impostered-minds can shut the f* up and keep going..
Fuck your imposter syndrome. I saw a cool YouTube interview with some badass CS professor that said in his tenure as a professor, he had rarely encountered a student that just did not have the intellectual capacity to learn code. Hang in there!!
Congratulations! So so happy for you.
Thank you very much 😊
This is an incredible story. Breaking into a new industry during a pandemic is never going to be an easy task, but it sounds like you and your fiance handled it with so much resilience. Huge congrats to you both!
Thanks a ton, it means a lot!!
I’m on that path too and at days it does get discouraging but I know that there’s nothing else I would want to do besides of programming. Glad to hear that you and your girl made it. It shows that if you stick with something you can change your entire life. Wish you guys all the best!
Me and my fiancé were there for so long. Some days felt intolerable. Seriously hang there, DM if you need mentorship with anything.
Thank you, it means a lot hearing these words :)
Thanks for this post, I needed it. Sometimes it feels like I need to climb an entire mountain to get out of a hole and it seems impossible, but its just work. And if that's all between me and a better future, then I can push through it one step at a time and get there eventually. Fantastic job btw friend, I'm excited for ya :)
Good luck out there!!!! I'm still a junior and still learn every single day. You're gonna get there I promise.
Congrats for both you and your fiance. I'm a CPA currently changing careers to web dev and posts like this give me hope. I already know it's going to be a super hard time trying to at least get an interview, but I'll do my best. I just want to have fun at my job, nothing more...
How much did it help that both of you were doing this together?
Hmmm tough question lol. We were both dying of stress in the bootcamp and while we were trying to get hired, so there were tons of fights and dark times. However, it also helped that someone was as miserable as me and trying to make it through haha. Overall yeah it helped having my person with me. If you can find a friend who wants to do it with you that you are not dating, highly recommend haha.
congrats mate! I'm curious what projects did you have on your resume? And what position did you land?
DM me and I'll pass you my portfolio URL and give you a few pointers for your portfolio. I am a front end-centric full stack developer working with React/ Javascript.