welcome to my channel today I will be doing a Q&A video part 2 if you haven't
seen the first video yet I will link it down below in the description box and
yeah you guys haven't asked me a lot of new questions and instead of replying to
you guys directly I decided to just compile all those questions into this
video that way I can give you guys a more detailed response and I feel like
if someone has a question there must be like a million other people with the
same question maybe not a million but a lot of other people with the same
questions I will shut up now so we can get started so for the first question it
is many people making these videos have suggested that boot camp is is a better
alternative to go into college for computer science what is your take on it
yes it can be it really depends on how much time and money you have pretty much
how much you are willing to invest in this and how how much of a hurry or in
to start working in the field of course I think having that computer science
degree always looks better when you're first applying to jobs but once you get
a few more years of it once you get a few years of experience I feel like that
definitely always the very expensive degree boot camp is definitely a cheaper
and faster alternative I graduated college with a public health degree and
then and I ended up going to boot camp and switching over did I waste all that
money going to college maybe do I wish I realized that I wanted to pursue
computer science while I was going to college definitely with that being said
if you're young and you're starting to plan for college and you've all the time
in the world then I feel like you should still try to get a degree of some sort
employers in any field I feel like to see some kind of degree on your resume and
unfortunately coding boot camp certifications don't really mean much
yet so any kind of degree will give you a resume a boost if you're restricted on
time and money then coding boot camp is definitely a great alternative just
remember it won't be too easy landing your first job it was a lot harder for
me to find a job in the beginning with no experience and no degree now that I
at least have half the equation I found that it's become a lot easier to find
new opportunities which leads to my next question would you recommend
a job even if they state they require a bachelor's in science degree in computer
science degree I've only done boot camp so I find most of the jobs I've applied
to all required a computer science degree and I'm not gonna tell you to
ignore that requirement but that's pretty much what I did I feel like if I
actually listened to that prerequisite then I would have no jobs to apply to I
mean most of the jobs that I've worked at or that I got an offer from required
that computer science degree but then they never really mentioned it in their
interview and they probably knew every day that I came from boot camp like I
mentioned earlier it will be pretty hard to find your first job with no computer
science degree and no experience but once you do get that experience I feel
like companies will focus on that a lot more a great way just substitute for the
no degree no experience it's just to create projects on your own and projects
that you can put on your resume that way your resume does not look too empty and
you have something to actually talk about with the interviewer and also make
sure you guys are studying a lot for the technical interviews I feel like the
interview and the coding experience is way more important than the computer
science degree and that leads to my next question which is do you have any tips
on landing a job with no degree like I mentioned earlier having your own
projects to put on your resume is a great resume booster having an online
portfolio is also a great way to stand out but you'll also need to have your
own projects to put on there my biggest tip is to just keep applying and keep
studying don't give up it's gonna be hard especially now that
the field is getting more saturated but the great thing is that developers are
still very much needed so just don't get discouraged I mean when I was first
applying I applied to so many jobs today I got so many rejection emails and
company and other companies just plained out ignored me if I actually got
discouraged from all of that then I wouldn't be here today
so yeah just keep trying and don't give up and make sure you guys are studying a
lot for the technical interviews because you want to be as prepared as possible
when you do land your first interview okay the next question is which boot
camp did you go to I just want to know I need to recommend
a boot camp that you attended where you could suggest some yeah I went to coding
dojo and it was a great experience I go into more detail about it in the first
Q&A video and that will be linked down below I feel like there's different boot
camps for each region and I'm not too sure which region you're in but two
popular ones are hack reactor and general assembly hack reactor is
JavaScript based on javascript and general assembly kind of offers everything I've
heard both good and bad reviews about General Assembly so I think it just
depends which classes you take once you figure out which languages you want to
learn and how much time you have to learn it and how much money you're
willing to spent on it then you'll really be able to cut down
and see which boot camps are best suited for you okay the next question there's
so many languages that i'm not sure which would be the best option in order to be
employable I just don't know what I should be focusing on and I don't want
to spend thousands of dollars in a boot camp that may not pan out to a job and
any advice? javascript is really popular right now but I don't know if it
will be in like a year technology is always changing and always getting
better so you kind of always have to be on your toes and be up to date with
what's going on blocking development is also getting
really popular so I would keep an eye out for that at the end of the day you
also want to make sure you enjoy developing in that language or else you
won't really ever feel fulfilled okay the next question do you think it's too
old to start software engineering at 25 years old so I answer this question a
lot whether it's 25 years old 35 years old
40 years old I don't think you'll ever be too old to learn how to code I mean if
you're 60 and you're going to retire soon then maybe you can learn it as a
hobby it's always fun to make some projects on your own that really help
with your daily life like maybe a to-do list that you can customize to your
daily needs there's definitely no age restriction on learning how to code you
just have to make sure you give it all you got once you do decide to switch
over I actually went to boot camp when I was 24 or 25 years old and I never felt
too old to be there my classmates ranged from like 17 years old to 40 so I don't
think age should ever be an excuse to not try out something you always wanted
to okay next question as a software developer
you code for the whole day like eight hours a day straight whereas there's a
mix of meetings collaborating with other developers on ideas and other things I
have a work from home video that I just uploaded and I will link that below in
the description box but it really differs each day depending on what
projects I'm working on and the deadlines for that sometimes my days can
be full of meetings and I will barely have any time to code and other days I
will literally just sit in front of my computer and code all day if I get stuck
on something then I will usually go and bother my coworkers to try to get their
opinion and usually the problem becomes a lot easier to solve when I'm talking
about it out loud I always like to make sure I have everything I need before I
start on a project and if not then I'll go ahead and set up a meeting or I'll go
and bug my coworker for whatever missing like maybe designs next question this
bootcamp will take a year to graduate from and I just hope I am making the
right decision to attend for a year even though I need money ASAP not a year from
now any advice for me I have definitely been there not making money it's
definitely not a great feeling luckily my bootcamp was only three
months long and I also was living with my parents at the time so that made
things a lot easier I'm not sure how much time coding bootcamp is taking from
you every day but a great idea is to try and find some freelancing coding work
that way not only will you be making money but you'll be building your resume
at the same time fiverr and upwork are both great resources for that if you're
not feeling too comfortable with coding just yet they offer other projects as
well okay last question I know I wouldn't want to work in a big city and
seems like that is where most of the demand is what do you love about being a
software engineer does it ever feel repetitive yes big cities definitely
have more demand but remote work but remote work is getting more and more
popular so I wouldn't worry too much about that what I love about being a
software engineer I'm actually planning to make a video soon about why I love
being a software engineer so I will keep this short and sweet what I love most
right now about being a software engineer is probably the flexibility and
stability I love the fact that I can work from
anywhere as long as I have a computer and Internet and I feel like developers
are usually the last to go at a company well tech company and I feel like that
can be beneficial in some situations coding usually never feels repetitive
for me unless I'm literally doing the same thing over and over again which I
kind of had to do when I was at my last job when I was trying to make the product
ada compliant but besides that I'm always working on different projects so
I never really have to write the same lines of code again and again and if it
does feel repetitive then that's usually a bad sign and that means you need to
dry up your code okay those are all the questions I have for you guys I hope
this video was helpful and you guys learned a little something if you guys
have any other questions feel free to leave in the comments below and maybe
I'll make a part 3 video to this thank you guys so much for watching and I will
see you guys next time bye