The Coding Bootcamp with a Supportive Community

We spoke to Hackbright alumnae about who they are, why they chose to enroll in a coding bootcamp, and who else does well in this educational environment. 

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Video Transcript

"I went from psychology to wanting to learn programming. It wasn't as abrupt as it sounds because I had always loved computers and software."

"People who come to Hackbright, a lot of my classmates and myself included,
we didn't have a ton of knowledge before the program."

"And I don't have a CS background. I don't have any education related to CS in general."

"My friend worked with Buddhist monks and they would code an hour a day because the way it trained your brain, and I'm a super martial arts nerd, so I really wanted to get into it because of that."

"I had this sort of notion in the back of my head that software engineers sit in front of a computer all day and they don't talk to anybody and that's just not who I am ,so I sort of wrote that off, continued on my path to be, I think ultimately I wanted to be a teacher."

"Immediately before Hackbright I had 150 biology students, high school students, that I was teaching and working with day in and day out."

"It really was like just the more that I did research on it, the more like online classes
that I could find that I took, I just fell so in love with it that I was like okay like I really
wish I could do this full-time. The funny part is that that whole entire time my partner's
actually a software engineer and he was like, 'You can, that's literally what I do,' and I'm like, 'Oh, oh,' and I actually yeah let's do that then."

They're not looking for someone who knows this stuff, so the fact that you don't know it is actually normal. They're looking for someone who is  good to work with and that can learn, is smart, good at learning. So I mean that is one of the things that I do see being common across programmers and successful bootcamp students: just someone who's a lifelong learner."

"It also, it uses your brain constantly, this job and the jobs that I was finding as an English major. I was bored a lot. Um, and I felt like there were more exciting things out there I could be doing."

"You're basically taking a risk on yourself and you're saying okay I don't, I'm not gonna have the stability anymore. I'm going to quit my job and then for many months I'm going to live off of my savings and try to find a job in a different industry."

"Python to me, the language, was kind of a way to use my logic and my communication skills but by myself, instead of having to broadcast that to 150 students."

"It's just it's definitely a nerve-wracking choice to make. A life choice to make. And so the more supported you feel, the more comfortable you feel with the sort of the environment that you're going into, the easier it is to make that choice."

"When I think when I started I was like, 'Ah this is not me, this is not me,' but once you get into it you're like, 'Oh, it's just it's a pattern,' and you learn how to really solve these problems that at first seem really scary but once you have the tools to do it it's not so bad and it's actually fun."

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