5 years after bootcamp. How’s it going?

It was about this time of year, 5 years ago, that I decided to try something new (again). I had been bouncing around different opportunities for years and it sometimes felt aimless. Nevertheless, I knew I couldn’t stop trying to find the thing that would change my life for good. This time, I decided to try a coding bootcamp.

The lead up to that decision had a few driving factors behind it. As I already mentioned, I had been looking for a real career path for a while. On paper, I was only qualified for more service industry jobs — and it wasn’t like I had my pick of those either. But I felt like I was capable of more. I had already been in and out of college that did not lead to a degree. I had gone to cosmetology school, graduated and received my license, but was set back by lack of passion and a few personal factors that left me feeling defeated. The common thread through all of this was that I kept falling back to the service industry, mostly out of need and familiarity. But I started to feel like this couldn’t be my path for much longer because I was seriously burned out. The interactions that I used to love and thrive on were becoming more bitter by the day. I felt spiteful towards the spiritless foot traffic that droned in and out of the place of business. Where I used to see opportunity to brighten their day, I now felt like I was owed that same gesture. It was a terrible place to be in and I felt immensely unhappy. I also knew that my value as an employee was dropping because of these feelings and that furthered my discontent.

For a short time before this moment in time, I dated someone who was a software engineer. I got a glimpse into his life in that line of work and saw very clearly what he had and what I wanted; a stable schedule with ample time off, excellent pay, and opportunity for real problem solving and creativity. And, for real, just a job where I don’t come home smelling of sweat and food, constantly ruining my clothes, and never being able to wear nail polish because it would chip within one shift of washing dishes and counters, stocking product, touching cash, etc…All things I didn’t care as much about in my twenties but seemed like I was missing out on a dream-state in my thirties. Like I said, I was burned out.

The other very important thing I gained from the experience of knowing this person was that I believed that if he could do it, I knew I could. Yes, he had a degree and pretty privileged path to his career that allowed him to take the standard route to becoming successful. But I felt confident that we were of similar intelligence levels. I knew I had great problem solving skills, I knew I understood technology, I felt confident that I could do the same job as him if I had some training.

Yet, in dating him, I felt there was a gap between us. He was successful, thriving, healthy both mentally and physically, and I wasn’t any of those things. I was heart broken when he ended the relationship. But I see now that the pain I felt so deeply had little to do with him and mostly to do with my desire to be on the other side of that gap. I wanted the fulfillment that he had in his life and it hurt to feel that void in my own life. This is what drove me to take a risk, and it’s what still drives me today.

About that time, I had become aware of coding bootcamps and that there was a belief in the tech world that you did not need a degree to be successful in tech. It’s not a belief that is wholly adopted — there are still plenty of people who won’t even give you a chance if you don’t have one. But I knew Google hired people without degrees and that was enough for me to believe there was a chance for me.

These things; the drive to fill the gap, the dissatisfaction in my current role, and the belief that there was a chance of success, are what drove me to take the risk of quitting my job and attend General Assembly. I think if I had any less than those three things I would not have been successful. Having the mindset of “if they can do it, then I can do it too” is confidence that drives more confidence. It’s the kind of confidence you need to walk into a room full of people with degrees and ‘traditional’ career paths and hold your own space.

My first job after the bootcamp was in tech support, with an emphasis on the tech. There was some coding involved, but it was not a full engineering role. This was a choice I made. I think most people join bootcamps with a specific goal in mind — to end up with a job title that fits what they study. But for me, my goal was to have a better career. I was never fully attached to the idea of being a software engineer. I wanted the career and lifestyle that went along with tech (a stable schedule with ample time off, excellent pay, opportunity for real problem solving and creativity, and all the cushy stuff that comes with working at a tech company.) I was thrilled to join the support team, but I was also always thinking about my career path down the line. I was offered an opportunity to join a smaller, more niche product team, running their support cases and being a ‘subject matter expert’ for them. I jumped on it because I saw an open door. In the world of tech, being an expert on anything makes you more valuable. If there are less people who know what you know, you are more likely to keep your job if cuts get made. And cuts are common in tech, it’s just part of the world of business and no one is immune.

This is exactly what happened to me. After an acquisition by an equity firm, our company made cuts and I was laid off from the support team. Fortunately, the company gave the large number of employees who were let go a very long off-ramp, with the potential to be hired back in another position. The small team I had previously moved to had two implementation engineers that I worked with closely. After the acquisition, there was a mass exodus of employees that had not been laid off but just wanted out, and this included both of the IE’s on my team. As it happened, I was the only person who knew how to do the job. And I had already proven to that team that I was good to work with. So by being laid off from support, I was offered an Implementation Engineering job. Opportunity is everywhere.

Because this team was very small, and the tech part of the team even smaller, I found more opportunity. In addition to doing my IE work, I was writing training materials for the product, holding office hours for people who wanted to learn more, creating tools that made my own job easier and more scalable, and working with the product engineers and product manager to identify new solutions to our product. This set me up to be able to talk like a Product Manger.

Honestly, I was bitter about being laid off in the first role. I was balancing the growth of my career with my desire to do more. The same drive that pushed me to bootcamp was still pushing me to do more. I knew I was capable of more. I started applying outside of my company and was looking for more opportunity. I wanted to be a Product Manager eventually but didn’t think I would get so lucky to be able to jump straight to it. I applied to be a Program Manager at a company that one of my fellow GA grads worked at. He had raved about working at this place in the past on LinkedIn and so I thought I’d give it a shot. I got a call about a month later from HR. They told me that they thought I would be a better fit for a Product Manager and asked if I was interested in that role instead.

At this point, everything started to change. Opportunities that I had thought were near impossible started to open up for me. I got the Product Job, which came with a 6 figure salary. I can’t tell you how it felt to go from sixteen years in the service industry, making barely $12/hr to bringing in 6 figures only two years later. You will just have to imagine. In some ways it feels like a Cinderella, rags-to-riches Rockefeller story. It was that shock I felt consistently for the next two years when I stopped to think about it.

My time at that company was…full of experience. The thing that made this role bearable was that I worked with some truly amazing people. There was a lot about it that was almost unbearable though. The president of our company made impossible goals to hit and so the tech team was constantly chasing a goose and being blamed for never catching it. I became very ok with never being ok. That is probably the biggest skill I learned while I was there — to be fine in the midst of chaos. That is the thing you don’t consider when you dream of making that kind of money, the sacrifice. Having the opportunity to make real money but sacrificing so much to do it actually created a feeling of being trapped. I felt like I couldn’t leave such a good opportunity, but I had given up so much self care to do it. I was completely drained mentally and emotionally, I hadn’t taken care of myself physically. I was having panic attacks, bouts of depression, self doubt, self loathing, and generally feeling lost. Eventually, after two years, I did leave and it was terrifying. I had nothing but savings (or so it felt) but I had resolved that I would rather have my sanity back and have less stuff. I was suddenly day-dreaming about the simplicity of working in a grocery store again. Did I mention this was during the pandemic too? Like I said, terrifying.

I didn’t go back to the grocery store though. I spent a little time at first just unpacking the whirlwind that was the previous two years. Then I started looking at the world around me and began searching for opportunities. I was really open to many kinds of opportunities — but I was leaning towards freelancing the most. Back in bootcamp, it was actually always my end goal when I was considering where I wanted to be. Working for myself, having a fully flexible schedule, remote location, using any skill I had to sell myself. It’s what I had really wanted all along. I told that to my boss when I left and it’s where I started shifting my focus. I created two companies. One for tech and one for arts. I used my time to build ideas and skills on how I could start making money. While I was busy pouring myself into the unknown, I got a message. It was my former boss who had left that company months before I did. He was amazing to work with and I made sure he knew I felt that way before his departure. He had heard I’d left the company and that I was hoping to freelance. He told me about an opportunity…

A company where everyone was contracting their work, even the CEO and President. A new model that would not work for most people who love comfort and stability. But for those who are ok with a little chaos and the unknown, it’s perfect. High risk, high reward. And I’d get to work for myself. I took that opportunity and it is much less stressful. I have a true work-life balance, and I am still checking all my boxes; great pay, problem solving and creativity, and a flexible schedule.

Today, I am a Solutions Architect. Another title I never thought possible, with another paycheck I couldn’t have imagined. I’m working for a boss that I love working with, and feeling excited about my future and more opportunity to come. Because I quit my job to pursue opportunity, I was presented with that opportunity. The last five years has taught me that opportunity is everywhere, even in failure.

This is not a Cinderella story, this is not rags-to-riches Rockefeller story. Those have an element of fantasy. They are stories of having struggle and then having perfection — this is not that. This is a story of opportunity, one of risk and reward, one of failure and perseverance. There is no perfection and the future is uncertain. But what I have learned in the last 5 years is that opportunity is there always, you just have to keep going forward.