I Failed as a Self-Taught Software Engineer and Bootcamp Grad

so I failed as a self-taught software engineer and as a boot camp grad and I wanted to share with you guys my story exactly what went wrong what happened and I guess just make an unfiltered video I see mostly success videos of people going from self-taught to self in a matter of like 6 months but I guess I wanted to share more of like an unfiltered uncut version I'm a person that likees sharing not only my successes but also my failures of how things didn't go as planned but thankfully um I'm very grateful for this exactly you know for me failing because it ended up working out at the end and it was probably it couldn't have gotten better than this honestly so to try to save you to some time from my boring story I try to go through as fast as possible it all started in 2022 I have an educational background in mechanical engineering um I did do schooling for two years and did a lot of like introductory programming courses like C C++ Python and some other courses like that while doing my degree and I ended up taking basically two years off to do underrated work which I obviously just well honestly hated and did not like and I realized that I actually wanted to go back into the field but as a software engineer not really a mechanical or like electrical engineering um and I realized that software was something that I really enjoyed um software mathematics computers and I had I instantly found like just the passion for programming for coding and I thought you know what why not take a risk and try to get into this field and initially it was a pretty big mistake of me to not go back to school and finish my bachelor's degree um I seen how people went from you know on YouTube and Google saying that you could become a software engineer just without the schooling um and I was like you know what I see people are doing it um you know without the bachelor's degree and I thought you know what it shouldn't be too crazy hard to get in I have an associate degree you know mechanical engineering and I realized that it was just a big mistake I really underestimated this field so I actually take that back I wouldn't really call it a mistake I'd say it it was more of like I was unprepared of what would happen in 2023 because if you look at all those videos of people breaking in boot camp selftaught you know on YouTube whatever Reddit Google whatever um you'll notice that this was around the year 2021 2022 if you wanted to break in without an educational background I'd say those two years were the year to break in but I just wasn't prepared of what would happen in 2023 honestly I actually was just a little bit prepared so I started learning in 2022 uh I I did an online boot camp and I started learning HTML CSS typescript you know whole bunch of different text Stacks I learned C Java just so much Technologies I'll probably talk about this in another video and you know it was just overall great I really enjoyed the more I learned the more I enjoyed programming software engineering um how it worked and collaborating with others I just love this field more and more as I kept on going into it and eventually I started realizing something I was around 3 four five months into this like online boot camp studying like crazy you know going all out and I was start I started connecting with people in the programming world and I also started talking to people um not in the programming world I had a couple part-time jobs and the people that I was talking to there just random people I started noticing that whenever they asked me hey what do you do I'd tell them like oh I'm studying learning how to code to be a software engineer I started noticing so many people I met unrelated to programming unrelated to coding were saying yeah I'm trying to break into the field too I'm in a boot camp or I'm doing selftaught and honestly I met like six people and like w out Walmart paks a Google Google Walmart Pizza um you know while I was out just shopping and my part-time jobs you know people trying to break into this field and I remember calling my friend I'm like yo I think there's a bubble you know what I mean like it kind of reminded me of cryptocurrency and the housing market of 2008 when everyone was buying jobs everyone was buying crypto well right now you know when I was coding and you know seeing people everyone was trying to break in I was like dang seems like everyone wants to breaking I went on Google and I seen so many different boot camps and I was like dang I think there's a bubble so fast forward um I ended up having to take a break unfortunately due to personal issues personal reasons for 5 months and I completely forgot about tech for like 5 months I didn't even look at programming once for 5 months eventually when I went back in 2023 everything changed it was a Calamity I mean it was I just looked at my chances go from I don't know 10% to nearly less than 1% layoffs meta Google Microsoft um Banks so many Consulting companies marketing Tech Fang it was just a disaster and honestly I was kind of crushed but I just for me I just never give up I always just try to push but sometimes I realize that I I I I I mistake giving up right for me being stubborn and I realized that I was honestly being stubborn I started applying like crazy January 2023 for like 6 months straight non-stop applying networking building projects a collaborating on big projects no matter what I did it just wasn't enough I'd apply and people were like well number one there were barely any listings number two I was competing with Fang meta Google you know just a whole bunch of different types of engineers on the field so of course it was almost impossibly hard to get a job as an entrylevel software engineer with no no educational background I had my associates that kind of helped right so I continued applying non-stop I was going all out networking just applying like crazy I was I mean I'm I had PTSD from those workday portals I think if I see one more work day portal I'll probably have a breakdown or something but I just applied like you would not believe it I put my resumés through different machines asked for advice had a mentor you know just applying applying applying but I realized that my perseverance was actually more like stubbornness I was being stubborn because I zoomed out and I realized that my situation right based on my situation I could have easily went back to school my school was going to be paid off for basically I'm still I was still young 22 I mean I'm still young Now 23 I could always go back to school and breaking in right now in this economy with how things are going Fang Engineers looking for work desperately um right now it's just and you know competing with these people and me with like no bachelor's degree me with no experience just right now wasn't the time to do that so I realized you know what I should probably swallow my pride and it's not me failing it's me doing things differently so yes I Tech technically did fail as a boot camp grad software engineer and selftaught software engineer but I gu gu I just kind of changed paths because sometimes you have to realize that some things might not work out you know and from there I swalled my pride went back to school and enrolled and initially I really didn't want to do that but over time I realized how many opportunities this degree had opened for me and around the summer 23 a whole bunch of things changed for me the game changed completely for me I built a startup company um you know in a matter I'd say like 3 to four months and I'll probably start making more videos about it this is a mental health recovery app and in this channel I'll also like talk about my startup and I also want to disc discuss in like future videos I might make a future video about how one big project really big project could definitely change your life especially for like CS it Majors or even selftaught or boot camp grads one huge project can change everything for me this this project right took me around like four 3 four maybe 5 months it changed the game for me the degree and this uh startup company I built was the game changer um I started applying I enrolled I was still in school and I was building this project and I started applying with this project on my resume I had it you know as a startup on my resume and also with the degree and I just noticed how everything changed for me I started applying and way more companies were calling back way more people were calling back and I had my first couple of Fortune 500 companies Reach Out too and this is when my mentality changed you know for applying after applying for just 6 months straight honestly more than 6 months I think it was like 7even eight months straight barely getting interviews barely getting call backs my mentality changed I started becoming more confident um and things were just working out better so ultimately I started applying I sent in around 50 to 100 applications I got around 15 interviews and and after working hard and I feel like after a whole year straight of failing changing up paths realizing what was right and what was wrong for me I finally landed um a couple of um I finally sorry got my first two to three offers I won't say exactly how much and after I got it I'd say it was probably the most satisfying thing ever but the game Cher for me at first I thought was the degree but I feel like it was mostly a combination of both of them especially the project every single internship I applied for every single person I interviewed with asked about the project I was so prepared technically explaining the whole project the process who I worked with it changed the game for me and all these companies honestly most of them I applied for were fortunate 500 and I'm honestly very honored and grateful for this I really never imagined to have worked at a company like this but I'm thankful I failed selftaught but I realized that it opened a lot of doors for me and I should have never complained in the first place because I had the opportunity the time the resources the money financially to go back to school and that's what I basically ended up doing but most of his videos to tell you that not everyone's going to break into this field and I don't want to discourage you guys I believe that most people fail simp simply because it doesn't work out for most of us you could have a huge project networks you could have a great Network you know you can know every language in the world you can know almost everything but sometimes you're just unlucky you can't break in sometimes someone with one or two years 3 years seven years of experience is out there looking for the same job as you and no matter how many skills you have you just don't have the experience to break in so I definitely do encourage you guys if you guys have been in for one 2 three years and you have no luck you know look into other things you know look into a different career path look into getting a degree look at changing things up again like me you know I was really you know sad that I didn't break in I had a couple of I maybe met like one person that broke in um but most of us in our boot camp to this day most of us did not break in and that's okay and that's the reality of it reality of it in 2023 I wanted to also mention that many of you are probably going to tell me hey I failed self-taught simply because I gave up I stopped moving forward and that is true I was one one and a half years in of self-studying and applying still couldn't land anything right and you know I gave up I was like you know what I have to stop and do something else but like I mentioned earlier sometimes we can mistake you know perseverance with being stubborn or not giving up with being stubborn because think about it why would I self-study two three possibly 4 years right have a lot of uncertainty and most likely not get a job right when I could have easily went back to school for those two years broke in through some internship and had like a million more opportunities you know and passed a lot of more recruiting filters with my degree you know it just it just made a lot of sense like sometimes you know we're like we could be stubborn and you know what like I'm going to break in I have to break in you're 2 years in and you're like I'm never giving up you're 3 years in and you're like I'm never giving up but then next thing you know 3 to four years passed you could have been done with your degree by now and now you're still self studying you have no education still you know you have no educational background and you have no job so it's about being resourceful right and doing the most with what you the most with what you you can with your time I really hope not to sound crazy pessimistic I like giving you an unfiltered uncut version of you know my personal story and stuff and I failed self taught and boot camp you know like going in self taught and as a boot camp grad too cuz I tried both and I failed and that's okay you know one or two people I knew broke in that's fine I'm very happy for them but for me and most of our you know boot camp um students and grads and and classmates I had that couldn't break in we just had to take a a different path you know so I really hope that this message you're not too discouraged I believe if you you know breaking in right now with 6 months 7 months 8 months of studying keep trying that out see how it you know works out but I think if you're like one two three years in um and you can't find work then there's a possibility you might have to explore other options if you really want to work in this field this field isn't easy even if you graduate with a degree it's still very tough and you know you guys stay encouraged and keep pushing it's okay to apply to like a th I probably have a thousand applications you know selftaught and did not get in once you know I had a couple interviews it just didn't work out but yeah you guys feel free to like subscribe share if you guys want to see different content on you know what I learned you know my project itself I'll be talking about my startup company um how I built it how I went about it and my journey on trying to make it bigger and also talking about I'd say more it CS related work I'll probably be talking about my actual degree because I am not a CSG degree um I am an IT degree major who broke in with a um I had to break in with it Majors simply because of mostly finances time and a whole bunch of different factors CS major wasn't available for me online so I'll talk about that in future videos so thank you guys for watching you guys have any questions you want to hear about more of my story what I learned let me know you guys take care

Channel: CalculusCoder

Views: 153,944

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Id: MF1QSEzAeu8

Length: 15min 29sec (929 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 14 2023