[legerdemain]

ME (at not-Google): I wanna do a 12-week dev bootcamp!

MY LEAD: Uhhhh... What if it was two weeks long, tops? Or even less?

MY ASSIGNED HR PERSON: Great, let's process your leave of absence! We'll cut your benefits and convert your stock options so you'll have to buy them out a lot sooner than you were prepared to!

[thomzi12]

Taking that much time off of any job is pretty hard to do!

The real goal of a bootcamp though (besides networking) is adding a project to your portfolio. You can then show off this project to hiring managers to demonstrate your competence.

You don't need to do a full-time bootcamp to make this happen! I just checked and Flatiron school and Hack Reactor both have online part-time full-stack bootcamps. Also, while not as big of an investment, online platforms like Codecademy have career paths with a capstone project you can complete and add to your portfolio.

So, overall there are a variety of pathways to do this. Totally fair to point out though a bootcamp of some kind is a nice option in the off-chance it's a possibility.

[legerdemain]

I didn't end up doing a bootcamp in the end. I sort of wish I did: friends of mine who did ended up with some strong connections as a result. Then again, someone else I know had an extremely negative experience with Hack Reactor and lost thousands of dollars in it, so maybe it's for the best that I didn't go.