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by tboyd47 3041 days ago
Yes, it is much worse now because of bootcamps.

The first thing to do is ask yourself if you really want to become a programmer. Do you like programming? Have you ever tried it before? How comfortable are you with computers? You might be the go-to guy/girl for your friends and family, but are you 40 hours a week comfortable? How much time are you willing to spend debugging a confusing error message before running for help? Do you get any internal gratification from writing a computer program that runs successfully? What's going to keep you going when nothing you try works and you've been bashing your head on the same problem for a week?

The reason is that there are tons of jobs within the software industry at all salary levels that do not require coding. QAs, IT recruiters, business analysts, DB admins, designers, product owners, system administrators, etc. All these people benefit directly from the software industry and many do not know a lick of coding.

I think part of it is this sort of national illusion that everyone can become a programmer. But programming is just not for everyone. Learning to program requires a high level of diligence and self-motivation. In other words, you have to enjoy it. Not everyone is going to be inspired by "public static void main(string[] args) {}." A lot of people take one programming class and know right away it's not for them, and that's totally fine.

2 comments

It really depends on the bootcamp. The sort operating locally here are such a gauntlet that the students who survive them are usually quite good, if not highly motivated.

Meanwhile I've seen university graduates with actual computer science degrees from respectable schools who can't do anything useful. They've never had enough practical experience writing actual production code.

Great point!

I suppose the demand for developers has led to some companies getting more relaxed with their interview's I know in the U.K some companies don't do any testing at all. :O

That's unfortunate. Developers who can't code have a stressful life.
Not to mention their cow-orkers.