Below, read a Q&A with Amanda, who graduated from our Beginner Coding Bootcamp and now works as a Software Development Engineer I at Generac Grid Services in Colorado.

What drew you to software engineering?

I worked in the educational technology industry for a while as a project manager and found myself growing more curious over time about software development. Working alongside software engineers made me want to learn more about how exactly they built new product features and solved technical challenges.

What led you to enroll in the Beginner Coding Bootcamp? And how was your bootcamp experience?

A colleague of mine completed the intermediate program and had great things to say about her experience with Hack Reactor. When I enrolled, I was exploring coding on my own a little bit and really enjoyed learning about Python. The strong focus on Python in the beginner program was one of the determining factors for me. The program not only instilled a great foundation of coding basics, but also helped me feel more confident about my own ability to learn and grow as a software developer.

What kinds of things are you working on at Generac Grid Services?

As a Software Development Engineer I at Generac Grid Services, I have mainly been working on building new backend features for our distributed energy resource management system, Concerto.

What do you like about your role? What challenges have you faced so far?

I love that I’m working in the clean energy space, and I’m part of a company that is focused on solving complex problems for the future. I also really appreciate the strong culture of learning my team has fostered. Pairing with other developers often is encouraged and I’m lucky to have a fantastic mentor. For challenges, I’ve been learning functional programming with Elixir, which is much different from my background in object-oriented programming! This has been a fun and interesting challenge.

What’s your work environment like? Do you work on-site, remotely, etc.?

I’ve been both going into the office and working remotely some days. Going through the Hack Reactor program remotely helped me get more comfortable with working in that kind of setting. It is also nice to see colleagues in person, which is more of how I’m used to working in the past.

You’ve had some prior experience studying art history and working in project management, as you mentioned. Are there aspects of those fields that you’ve been able to carry over into your new career?

Definitely! With art history, my studies in that area helped me with researching and presenting on topics in front of an audience. Those skills have carried over in my professional career. My project management experience helped me better understand the software development life cycle at a high level, which has been helpful for getting up to speed in my role with regard to my team’s workflow.

How was the post-program job search process for you?

The post-program job search was difficult at times. Not hearing back from companies, or hearing back with rejections, can be defeating and make you sort of question if you’re good enough. But I appreciated having Briana from Career Services to check in with regularly. She helped me keep on track with my application goals and offered great guidance and support. To anyone feeling stuck in the process, I would say mix up your routine with different things like reading technical books/blogs, working on a new project or adding features to an existing one, and just keep sending out those applications!

Do you have any advice for incoming students who are about to start the first day of the beginner bootcamp?

To incoming bootcampers, first I would say congratulations to you on making the first step of this journey! A career change like this is not easy, but it can be incredibly rewarding if you put in the hard work and believe in yourself. To get the most out of your time in bootcamp, stay curious, be patient with yourself, recognize and celebrate your progress (however small it may seem), and ask lots and lots of questions.

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Want to read another alumni story? Read about Jessica Dyer, another Beginner Coding Bootcamp graduate. 

The post Amanda Kiehm’s Beginner Coding Bootcamp experience & new role in clean energy appeared first on Hack Reactor.

In this Q&A, learn how Jessica’s initial experimentation with the programming language R led her to pursue software engineering. And find out how her time in our Beginner Full-Time Coding Bootcamp helped her land her current role as a Software Engineer at LevelTen Energy, a renewable energy company based in Seattle.

What drew you to software engineering initially?

Like many bootcamp grads, I didn’t come from a tech background. I was a public health professional working in global health. Prior to transitioning into software engineering, I was working in research and doing a lot of data analysis. At the time, everyone I worked with used a programming language called Stata, which is statistical analysis software. I quickly noticed there were a lot of limitations to it. I wasn’t able to do basic things, like easily export the results of a table. I couldn’t really do anything in it very easily. That led me to want to learn R, which is a programming language primarily used for statistical data analysis. I took a 10-course series in data science on Coursera and I taught myself how to program.

It opened so many doors and it made my last job so much easier. I had no idea that I loved programming until doing that course. No one had ever introduced me to it. I thought it was this thing that I wouldn’t understand and couldn’t learn until I had this real-world scenario, where I was learning how to program. My boyfriend is a software engineer and he did a lot of helping along the way with concepts and things that I didn’t understand. It was really nice to have someone to get me unstuck when things felt impossible. I just kept thinking to myself, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing. I can’t believe I didn’t know any of this before!’

How did you go from there to enrolling in a coding bootcamp?

At that last job, I developed a system for managing electronic medical record data that we were using for analysis and I automated everything. Building that system helped me realize that I really love software engineering. The data analysis can be really fun, but it’s less concrete than building a product.

I really love building things. So, in June of 2021, I was trying to decide, ‘Do I go the data science route or do I go the engineering route?’ And ultimately, I decided on engineering. That’s when I started looking into bootcamps in earnest.

And how did you decide on this beginner program specifically?

This program actually didn’t exist when I was looking things up initially. I did a ton of research and I applied to a few different bootcamps. And originally, because the beginner program didn’t exist, I was on track to do the Hack Reactor intermediate program. I went through the prep for that. I got through the technical assessment, and did all the precourse work – and just when I was finishing that, the beginner program popped up and I had to make a decision last minute. I was scheduled to start the intermediate program in January, and I was making this decision in December.

The thing that really cinched the decision for me was the pace of the beginner program, because I have a lot of other hobbies. I’m a climber and mountaineer outside of programming, so I didn’t want to have to sacrifice every weekend, even though it’s only a short amount of time. And I was in a privileged situation where I had saved a bunch of money, and I have a partner who was able to support me for a longer amount of time. So I started the beginner program in February 2022.

What did you get out of your time in this beginner program?

I’ve actually thought about this a lot because you technically can learn all of this on your own. And I had done a lot of learning on my own, prior. But the thing that this bootcamp really gave me was the bigger picture and the ability to put it all together. The bootcamp has the curriculum to guide you through putting it all together into a web app. I had built a few small apps on my own, but none were as robust as the projects I built in the bootcamp.

The bootcamp was being guided toward: ‘This is how you build a modern web app. These are the steps.’ It was about building toward being more independent. I think that’s really the main thing: the curriculum was great and guided you to a bigger picture of software engineering and building web apps.

What’s your role at LevelTen Energy, and what kinds of projects are you working on?

We’re doing a lot of fun things. I’m on the Data Services team. We have a web app team that works on our web platform, but I think, mainly because of my background in research and data analysis, I ended up on the data services team, which is a perfect fit for me because I really love making data neat and tidy! Our team is in charge of our company’s analytics.

We have several analytics pipelines that we run on data that’s pulled from the web platform. Right now, we’re porting the old system into a more scalable tech stack using the Google Cloud platform and Apache Beam to parallelize everything. What that looks like in practice is looking at old code and reorganizing and rewriting it. The whole team is working on it. We’re a team of about six engineers.

It’s really fun. I’m loving it. I’m writing in Python, so it was really helpful to have some familiarity with Python already.

What do you like most about your role? And have you run into any challenges so far?

As a female in tech, I was really worried about finding a good team that I would feel supported within. Honestly, I was worried about being in a toxic environment. But I’ve ended up on a really supportive team, and I really like the collaborative spirit of my team.

Most people are from other engineering disciplines, so they come from electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or aerospace engineering. Everyone has a different outlook on things, so I’ve been able to learn a ton from everyone. In general, it’s not as stressful or scary as I thought it would be. It’s been really good.

I think the biggest challenge for me is code reviews, because in my old job as a research scientist, I was the only one on my team who knew how to program, and no one was reviewing my code. I was reviewing my own code, and no one cared what my code looked like. Having other people review my code was really intimidating at first, but it’s gotten better and I can now anticipate responses and know what changes need to happen right away versus later on.

Are there any aspects of your background as a research scientist that you’re able to use as a software engineer?

Yes, for sure. I think overall, though, just having a career prior has helped me a lot, because I’m not coming in as junior as somebody that’s just out of college. I have a decade of work experience. I know how to work with other people. I know how to work on a team. I know how to facilitate meetings and pick up on the subtleties of a team.

I worked in global health, so I was doing a lot of cross-cultural work for many years, working with people from cultures very different from my own. I think that’s helped me a lot in terms of being able to read the team and focus on things like communication and relationship building.

I would say this is such a big part of being a career changer. It’s all of the experience you have coming in that makes you a strong candidate. All of that experience is so beneficial.

How did your job search go after the bootcamp?

My job search was not very typical. As part of the bootcamp, we were required to do a few informational interviews, and I knew I really wanted to work in renewable energy. I have a friend who works at LevelTen on the finance side. I asked him to connect me with one of the engineers for one of those informational interviews. I just wanted to hear from a software engineer about what it’s like working in the renewable space.

So he connected me with somebody who was on the team I’m currently on, and I talked to him. I told him, ‘This is an informational interview. I just want to know the kinds of things you work on,’ and so forth. We talked for 20 minutes and at the end, he said, ‘Well, you seem like you’d be a really good fit for this team, so I’m going to pass you on to the hiring manager.’

It just so happened that they were undergoing a lot of hiring at that time, so I ended up talking to the hiring manager a few times, and what he ended up doing – since I had no actual engineering experience at that time – was to create an internship for me after the bootcamp. It was basically a trial run to see how things would go. He set that up and then I had a technical interview with a panel of four engineers. I passed all that and then came to work here as an intern at the end of July. After a month, they hired me full-time. Overall, it ended up being a relatively low-stress way to get my first job.

Do you have any advice for someone entering the bootcamp on day one?

It’s what you make it. The amount of effort you put in will be a direct reflection of what you get out of the program. You could do very little and you could get by and you could pass, but it won’t set you up for success.

I think one of the biggest things that I really fell back on was having a growth mindset and going into things with the mentality of being okay with being bad at them. That skill – being ok with being bad at things – takes a lot of practice, because people get really stressed and embarrassed when they don’t know something, and that leads to not asking questions and not digging in.

But, as an engineer, the whole job is to approach a problem that you know nothing about, break it down into smaller chunks, and solve each smaller chunk as it comes. So having a growth mindset is imperative to being successful in both a bootcamp and an engineering role. So I’d say, just be as curious as you can be and don’t let not knowing things get in the way.

And last, I’ll just say that I want so many more people to consider this as a career path. For somebody like me, I was always good at math, but I was in high school in the late nineties, and no one was pushing me towards a career in tech. Maybe if I had known in college, in the early aughts, I could have pursued software engineering, but I didn’t even know this was a thing.

I just want so many more people, especially women, and people who were never encouraged to pursue a STEM field role, to consider software engineering. Because it’s so much fun. You get to solve puzzles every day, and they pay you good money!

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Want to read another student’s story? Learn about Yuki Yamamoto’s move from the art world to becoming a Software Engineer at Tesla after the Intermediate Coding Bootcamp.

The post Jessica Dyer’s journey from research scientist to software engineer appeared first on Hack Reactor.

After taking the leap and enrolling in our Beginner Coding Bootcamp, she’s now a Support Engineer at Smartrr, where’s she’s the initial point of contact for technical support for the engineering team. We recently caught up with Esther to ask about her new role, her bootcamp experience, and the advice she has for others who are thinking about changing careers.

How did you become interested in software engineering?

My path into software engineering was quite non-traditional. Initially, I ventured into the tech industry as a technical recruiter. At the beginning of the pandemic, my team and I were laid off so I took that opportunity to build my own e-commerce business on Shopify. That experience sparked my interest in coding and website development, leading me to dive headfirst into software engineering with Hack Reactor.

What drew you to the Hack Reactor program? What did you get out of your time in the program?

Hack Reactor caught my attention due to the numerous success stories I heard from peers. The program excelled in demystifying both fundamental and complex concepts, providing a solid foundation for further growth. Engaging in collaborative projects with fellow engineers provided hands-on experience in essential software engineering practices, fostering a real-world tech environment.

I also met a lot of wonderful classmates – some of whom I still keep in touch with today! Ultimately, you get out what you put in, so I would encourage those who are interested in joining to be ready for the workload and have a growth mindset!

Congrats on your new role at Smartrr! What is your role like?

I’m currently a Support Engineer at Smartrr, the leading brand for subscriptions within the Shopify ecosystem. In this multifaceted position, I serve as the initial point of contact for technical support within our engineering team, addressing any issues our customers and clients encounter.

The diversity of my daily tasks keeps the work engaging and varied so every day is different and exciting! My day-to-day involves helping implement and write custom code to display our subscription widget within merchant stores, migrating customers into our application, and delving into bugs. Each day offers a new opportunity to solve problems and enhance our platform’s user experience.

What do you like about being a Support Engineer? What challenges have you faced so far?

I thoroughly enjoy the diversity of my role, allowing me to engage with the Shopify ecosystem, work on an exceptional product, and collaborate with a fantastic team. I’ve learned a lot in the short amount of time I’ve been here so far, and I really enjoy the blend of work I have, which involves coding, troubleshooting, and talking to merchants! I’m particularly grateful for the opportunity to participate in my company’s software engineering mentorship program, where I collaborate on engineering tasks and delve deeper into our codebase with an awesome mentor!

The steep learning curve was a challenge initially, especially grasping the intricacies of our database and app functionality. However, the continuous learning and supportive team environment have been incredibly rewarding.

What’s your work environment like (hybrid/in-person/remote)?

I am currently fully remote in southern California. My company is based in New York City so we have a mix of hybrid and remote teammates! Although I enjoy working with my teammates in person, I also really enjoy working remotely because I’m able to be more efficient at my work by having my setup ready to work any time!

You took an internship after the bootcamp and before landing your role at Smatrr. How was that experience?

The internship was a good experience to collaborate with others in building out portions of the application. I was part of the front-end team, so I learned a lot about best practices and different frameworks to add to my engineering toolkit! I’d recommend others looking for jobs post-bootcamp to take any opportunity that presents itself as we can always learn something from every experience.

How was the job search process for you?

Post-bootcamp, I maintained a structured daily agenda, prioritizing coding to keep my skills sharp. I divided my time into applying for jobs, studying and practicing data structures and algorithms for interviews, and working on smaller side projects to help retain and grow from what I learned during bootcamp. Career Services helped by sharing useful resources like Huntr, a job tracking app to help me manage all of my applications neatly in one place.

Do you have any advice for incoming students who are about to start the bootcamp?

My advice is to fully commit to the process. Treat the bootcamp as a significant investment in yourself and your future, requiring both time and effort. Engage deeply with the coursework and practice explaining concepts simply to solidify your understanding. While it’s an intensive journey, embracing it and enjoying the learning process is key to building a strong foundation. A growth mindset with a positive attitude goes a long way!

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Ready to launch your software engineering career?

Follow Esther’s footsteps toward the Beginner Coding Bootcamp. Kickstart the admissions process by taking a 15-minute Aptitude Test.

The post How Esther Kim went from Technical Recruiter to Support Engineer appeared first on Hack Reactor.

In this Q&A, read about Joyce’s journey through the bootcamp and how it helped her gain confidence and realize how much she loves the feeling of solving problems alongside others. She carries that into her role as a Software Engineer at Twilio, a company specializing in programmable communication tools using its web service APIs.

What initially drew you to software engineering?

Initially, it wasn’t something I was looking into. I was looking into veterinary schools and preparing to study to get in. I had hopes of becoming a doctor, or– dogtor. It was the path I always thought I would get into.

I have a degree in biology with a concentration in physiology, and I worked at a (human) hospital for a bit, moving into disease ecology research. Then, after some actual experience in the veterinary space, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and I began to express some anguish after working in the industry. One of my closest friends, who is a software engineer, asked me the golden question: “Why don’t you learn to code?” I was always a bit envious of how relaxed his work seemed. But it always felt like something that wasn’t achievable because, well, I’m not my friend, I’m just me (hello imposter syndrome!).

So it was with a lot of initial reluctance that I first started learning how to code. But I quickly learned to love the challenges that came my way, relishing in the little victories in figuring something out, and meeting awesome people along the way. I live for the challenge and the meaningful conversations that come from solving challenges with another person or party.

What led you to enroll in the Hack Reactor program specifically? 

That same friend I mentioned recommended I look into Hack Reactor. He shared some of his coworkers’ success stories, too, because he knew some of them were also from non-traditional backgrounds. So I did! I enrolled in 2019 based out of San Francisco and did the program in person.

What did you get out of your time in the bootcamp? 

This is a question I love answering! Personally, when I first approached Hack Reactor, I just thought I’d get in and get out (hopefully, if I didn’t fail), then get a job. But to my surprise, I got so much more than I bargained for. I got a wonderful instructional team, cohort mates, and also learned how to code and problem-solve like an engineer. I did not expect to fall in love with the culture at Hack Reactor. I felt like everyone I met and worked with contributed to my personal growth. I came in not believing in myself, but everyone there believed in me. The only person that was holding me back was myself, really. I learned how to lean on my classmates and staff and to surround myself with positive energy.

What is your role at Twilio? What kinds of projects or tasks are you working on regularly?

My role at Twilio is Software Engineer! I’m currently working on the frontend (yay JavaScript), and the best way to describe my kind of work is the little door between two rooms. It’s a frontend role, but I don’t work on a user interface (UI) often. I think of it sort of like a gray space in between the frontend to the backend. I work with a technology known as WebRTC, which applications such as Slack, Discord, Google Hangouts utilize in order for folks to video chat with one another. I work on a product called the Video SDK. On a daily basis, I’m frequently debugging, learning more about WebRTC, working with various browser technologies (or lack thereof), maintaining our applications, or working on developing features!

What do you like about your role? 

I love how quickly our team moves in terms of iterating on our product. We do our best to put on the customer’s shoes to understand what they need and want in order to quickly develop features for them, on top of balancing maintenance work with a strict testing regimen. I feel like I’m working within a strong engineering culture here at Twilio, where all of those things we learned in the bootcamp have come to life, and matter. Nothing is a part of tech debt, quality and consistency are at the forefront of our minds, and maintenance is ingrained as part of our daily work to ensure things don’t break.

And what challenges have you faced so far?

I think some of the biggest technical challenges I’ve come to face are trying to get all of the browsers to agree with each other. Because we want to allow folks using various browsers to run their apps, this can sometimes mean that various browsers simply don’t agree with each other. For example, a browser could have a feature we’d like to use, but another browser may not have implemented that feature yet.

Another more internal and mental challenge is that, for a very long time, I was under the impression that “frontend” developer solely meant that you were working on the app or a UI. I struggled with finding the words to describe my work, and to this day, it’s something I don’t know if I can convey to others.

But I feel that my work is so wildly different in terms of frontend work. I find challenges in that space because we aren’t infrastructure, but we aren’t working on an attached UI, either. It’s all very confusing, so coming to terms and grappling with that idea and mentality – and approaching problems differently than I normally would – was one of the biggest mental blocks I’ve had to face.

What’s your work environment like? Do you work on-site? Remotely? 

I’m so fortunate to say that I was part of the last cohort to have had the pleasure of working in the office. But since COVID has thwarted all of that, I now work remotely with the option to be able to go into the office. Initially, the change of moving to remote work long-term was very difficult. I constantly found myself unable to stop working because the ritual of “closing-the-laptop-and-commuting-home” stopped happening. This meant I was working well into the late-night hours, especially when I was deep into a problem and I wasn’t able to solve it earlier that day. So earlier on during that transition, I was struggling with burnout because I worked long hours.

But since then, I’ve been able to apply an “off” switch to my days, where I just turn off work at a certain time. Setting mental boundaries was probably one of the best things I’ve done for myself!

Aside from that, my team was already partially remote and so the transition to working remotely was very smooth. Our meetings were always online anyway, and so the only thing on-site folks were missing out on was the snacks! We all know how important those are.

Lastly, do you have any advice for someone who’s about to start their first day of the bootcamp? How can they get the most out of their experience? 

Absolutely. First of all, you’re doing fantastic. It is not an easy feat to learn how to code in the first place, especially if you’ve never done anything like it previously, and you made it this far already! Therefore, don’t be so hard on yourself.

Secondly, silent suffering, more often than not, tends to be a silent killer. Going at things alone is never the way, especially because once you’re in this industry, you’re often expected to perform with and on a team. Not asking questions, and not being upfront when you don’t know or understand something usually lends itself to learning slower, and I’ve seen that it holds folks back.

If you’re doing the program I did, the 12-week bootcamp, you have three months, which seems like a long time and it might feel like a long time, but it really isn’t. So do your best to absorb all that you can in the program. Ask all your questions. Rely on those around you, which includes the wonderful staff and your classmates. Everyone is there for you and don’t let it go to waste. We’re all cheering you on! Then, when you finish the program, all of the previous graduates will be there cheering you on during the job search, as well. Rely on us and your network! We’re all in this together!! (Cue the High School Musical soundtrack here.)

The post Joyce Ma discusses the joy of problem-solving on the job appeared first on Hack Reactor.

Ben Cunningham led an infantry team in the U.S. Army for years before working as a roughneck on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico for another half-decade. Seeking a career change afterward, he enrolled in computer science classes at a local community college, where he realized his interest in software engineering.

Below, read about Ben’s transition into this field, his experience in the Intermediate Coding Bootcamp, and what he’s up to now as a Software Engineer at CACI International, a company that develops technology to optimize U.S. government operations.

What drew you to software engineering? And what keeps you interested?

Prior to software engineering, I spent about 5 years working as a roughneck for an offshore drilling company in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2018, I decided to make a career change, so I used the G.I. Bill to enroll in a local community college studying Computer Science. I graduated in 2020 and transferred to a university in Colorado to continue my education for an additional year before enrolling in the Intermediate Coding Bootcamp.

I’ve always enjoyed creating things and software engineering satisfies that creative urge. I enjoy the process of identifying a need, creating an application to solve that need, watching the project slowly come to life, and refining it. The software engineering field is so broad and the technologies are constantly changing, so there is always something new to learn which keeps things interesting!

What led you to enroll in the Intermediate Coding Bootcamp?

The G.I. Bill benefits that I had been using to attend school were beginning to dwindle and I realized that I would be unable to finish my degree. I knew that I wanted to be a software engineer though, so I began looking at coding bootcamps as a way to combine the more theoretical CS knowledge from college with actual hands-on software engineering experience from a bootcamp. Hack Reactor consistently ranked among the best coding bootcamps available and combined with the awesome alumni network, it made Hack Reactor an easy first choice.

What are some things you got out of your time in the bootcamp? 

I think I gained a lot from my time at Hack Reactor. The hands-on experience with actual tools and technologies that are currently being used in the industry was absolutely invaluable. From resolving merge conflicts to building intuitive UIs for the front end, to building and scaling the backend to handle thousands of concurrent requests, Hack Reactor prepares its students to immediately succeed on the job.

The second big thing I took away from Hack Reactor was the friendships made during the immersive and access to the professional alumni network after graduation. The 12-week program is very intense, but I found that our cohort really came together during that time to help and support each other. Whether it was problem-solving during a sprint or offering encouragement during the job hunt after graduation, the friends made along the way are another really wonderful part of the experience.

My last big takeaway from Hack Reactor was that it really taught me how to learn quickly and autonomously. The immersive provides a really good balance of pushing you to find your own solutions to a problem while also offering help and guiding you toward a solution when you get stuck. The hours spent during the immersive learning how to debug code, read and understand documentation, and find a solution to a problem are skills that I still use on a daily basis.

Congrats on your role at CACI International! What do you do there? What projects are you working on?

Thank you! CACI provides expertise and technology to enterprise and mission customers in support of national security missions and government transformations for defense, intelligence, and civilian customers. I am a software engineer working on a small team within the company. At the moment, most of my day-to-day work is spent working on the back end of our application.

What do you like about your role? And what challenges have you faced so far?

One of the things I really enjoy about the role and working on a smaller team is the ability to directly feel the impact of my contributions to the team and the project. Having the ability to take ownership of a feature or portion of the application, building upon it and refining it to work faster or more efficiently, and being able to directly contribute to my team’s success has been very personally satisfying.

There have been a variety of challenges that I’ve faced since starting. From becoming familiar with an entirely new programming language to learning the ins and outs of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and its many resources or learning industry best practices, there is always something new to learn. Fortunately, learning quickly is something that I feel Hack Reactor prepares its graduates exceptionally well for.

What’s your work environment like? On-site, remote?

The work environment at CACI has been awesome. Everyone has been welcoming, helpful, and supportive and the senior engineers have always made time to answer any questions I’ve had along the way. Most days I work remotely, which has been great, but I will usually go into the office once per week just to meet up with others, socialize, and discuss the application with teammates in person.

Is there anything from your time in the Army that you’ve been able to carry over into your career as a software engineer? Has anything been transferrable? 

I haven’t found much of a direct overlap between the infantry skill set and software engineering but I think that the leadership and interpersonal skills gained during that time have absolutely been useful. The same discipline and drive to accomplish a mission that was necessary in the military has helped me push through some of the long hours and difficult sprints as a software engineer.

How can new coding bootcamp students get the most out of their experience? 

Know that the course will be difficult, but it is absolutely doable. The first week can be a little overwhelming with all of the new things going on, but hang in there. Throughout the immersive, there will be moments when you get stuck, can’t figure out a solution, and start to doubt yourself or whether you can really make it. You can. Don’t be afraid to reach out to others for help when you do hit a wall. I’ve been there. Everyone I know has been there. It’s all a part of the journey.

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Learn more about our Intermediate Coding Bootcamp, which is designed for those with intermediate coding skills. We also offer a Beginner Coding Bootcamp for anyone with zero coding experience.

The post How Ben Cunningham went from U.S. army, to oil rig, to software engineering appeared first on Hack Reactor.

What drew you to software engineering? What keeps you interested?

I learned how to code in high school, and since then, I developed an interest in it. But it was not until I enrolled in college and started to deal with it in a deeper sense that I got hooked into it.

While the college degree I was pursuing at the time was Mechatronics, I started to realize more and more that my true passion was on the software side. Also, the web in general always perplexed me, I wanted to understand and learn more about how it worked. I became determined to learn about it on my own with some online courses. By the time I completed them, I realized that I had just discovered a whole new world and that I really liked it.

What led you to enroll in the Hack Reactor Coding Bootcamp?

I met some former Hack Reactor students in México City (where I am from). We hung around a couple times during their visit to the city, and at some point, we started talking about my interest to pursue a software career and they introduced me to Hack Reactor. They spoke so well about their own experiences in Hack Reactor and how well prepared they were after the program that it literally became my main goal to get accepted in the program, go to San Francisco, and land a job. It took me 3 tries but finally, I was accepted and I took the course in person in San Francisco in 2015.

What did you get out of your time in the program? 

I got a lot out of my time in the bootcamp. For starters, I got to experience San Francisco, which was in itself a great experience. Also, I met amazingly talented people from all over the world, people from the staff and faculty, some of whom I am still in contact with.

I experienced the most intense and productive three months of my life. Every single day during the course I felt like I was thrown yet again into another rabbit hole. And while it was a lot of work, it really prepared me for a lot of the challenges that I faced early on in my career and beyond.

You’ve been with Dott for a while now. What is your role there? What do you do on a daily basis?

I am a Senior Software Engineer and a member of the Platform team at Dott, which is responsible for the development and maintenance of Dott’s core tooling, systems, and infrastructure.

On a daily basis, I review a lot of code for different projects, write different RFCs for either new services, infrastructure, or tooling depending on the goals of the team, and I implement what was agreed on approved RFCs.

Currently, I am working on what we call MaaS (Mobility as a service), which as the name might suggest, enables consumers to bridge with our Platform and use our fleet directly from a 3rd party app. For this, we used gRPC and Envoy as a transcoder layer for consumers that can only deal with JSON APIs.

I see your company is based in Amsterdam. Do you live there or work remotely for the company? And if you do live there now, how do you like it? 

The company is based in Amsterdam, however I live in Rotterdam. I came here for my previous job around 5 years ago, and I liked it so much that I decided to stay.

It is a great place to live (if you don’t mind the weather). There are a lot of social securities here, for instance, have you ever heard of permanent contracts? They are a thing here that anyone gets after the 3rd contract extension.

People are nice and open. If you don’t cause any trouble, no one gets in your way for anything. And while the language is difficult to master, everyone seems to speak perfect English and there are a lot of expats, too.

On your LinkedIn page, you wrote: “I see my job as a great way to contribute to the effort of making the lives of others easier using technology.” Can you talk a bit about this in relation to your current role?

Dott’s mission is to free cities with clean rides for everyone. I truly believe that this is something that is already having a real impact since we are making cities less congested, less polluted, and more efficient.

My role as an engineer on the Platform team has a direct effect on this mission because our work translates into high quality and high performance, which ultimately makes the user experience better and therefore more attractive to use.

That’s awesome. Beyond that, what do you like about your role? And/or, what challenges have you run into?

I like that in my role I get to deal with lots of different technologies and concepts. I learned a lot about different Cloud Service providers and how their products fit in a broad architecture. I also managed to dive into things like terraform, gRPC, monitoring & alerting, CI/CD, and low-level protocols like TCP and UDP.

Some of the challenges I have faced have been around aligning varied stakeholders both internal and external. We face a lot of different requirements coming from the municipalities we operate in, and we need to comply or we lose our right to operate there. But we have managed so far to get to a very solid position in all of our markets, so that makes me very happy and proud.

Lastly, do you have any advice for someone who’s about to step into their first day of the bootcamp? How can they get the most out of their experience? 

The biggest advice I could give someone is to be patient. It is ok to struggle with new concepts and even get frustrated with them, but if you keep working and listen to the feedback that you receive, it will go great.

This applies also after the bootcamp. Some people will get jobs very quickly, and some will take longer. But that is not indicative of anything. If you keep on trying and improving, you will land in an awesome company!

The post How Andrés Viesca’s work is helping improve lives in European cities appeared first on Hack Reactor.

He graduated from our Intermediate Coding Bootcamp and accepted an offer to be a Software Engineer at Health Note six weeks later. Below, read about Anthony’s coding bootcamp experience, what aspects of his former bartending career he uses to his advantage as a software engineer, and what he’s working on now as part of the Health Note team.

How did you find your way to software engineering? And what keeps you interested?

I suppose I’ve always been interested, to some degree. But I didn’t really know anybody in my personal life who has a job as a software engineer. I’ve always known about it on some level, even when I was younger, but I really fell in love with it when I was in university. I took a computer science course, and I was just like, ‘Oh, this is a lot of fun. This is something that I could probably do, maybe in another life.’

I was going to school for math at the time, and I wasn’t able to pursue my education any further. I had to fall into the service industry here in Las Vegas, just to make the ends meet. Then when COVID hit, and all the casinos out here shut down, including the one where I worked, I was like, ‘This is the time to actually start to pursue a career in this.’

I had bought some books over the years. I had a book in C++, so I was doing a little bit of self-study, but nothing too serious. So that’s when I began to take it a little bit more seriously and pursue avenues to get into it.

Does anything stand out about your time in the coding bootcamp?

I think the biggest thing that Hack Reactor prepares you for – and it’s something that I’m really realizing now on the job – is that when you start a project or any coding challenge, you have to be okay with that ambiguity of, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but I can figure it out.’

It’s about being comfortable with ambiguity and being okay with feeling a little overwhelmed and not sure what to do at times. And then having a process of getting out of that.

You’re now at Health Note. What do you do there? What kinds of projects are you working on so far?

Health Note is a relatively new startup and its mission is to automate patient intake through the use of intelligent questioning software and to dynamically generate physician notes from that data. They have a chatbot app that asks patients questions tailored specifically to them, in a questionnaire-like format that is accessible to non-tech savvy patients. Health Note is all about eliminating the majority of the manual work for physicians so more time is focused on the patients.

I’m currently developing a tool that is complementary to the core app. The goal of this tool is to significantly reduce the onboarding time for clients and eliminate redundant work for the company as a whole.

I know you’ve only been with Health Note for a short time, but thus far, what aspects of the job do you like? And have you run into any challenges yet?

Yeah, absolutely. The tool that I am working on uses frameworks and libraries I hadn’t used before, so getting started was tough, to say the least!

As far as things I like, I think what has really struck me here so far is how good the mentorship program is. My direct supervisor is always willing to lend a helpful ear. He’s always available to answer my questions, and that’s generally the culture all around. Everybody is really approachable for questions and happy to provide help.

What’s your work environment like? Do you work remotely? 

I’m completely remote. They sent me everything that I need, including a work laptop, a keyboard and mouse, a monitor, and cool company gear. So I’m in my little bunker here at my home.

Remote work was something that I specifically wanted to get into. I think after working seven years at an in-person job, it’s a complete 180. And that was intentional. I wanted to really change things up and try something new. So far, it’s exciting and challenging, and I’m happy to be doing meaningful work at the end of the day.

Is there anything from your years in hospitality that you’ve been able to carry over into your new career in software engineering? 

Not on a technical level, obviously, because I worked as a bartender. But one thing that did really help me out when interviewing was the fact that bartending got me out of my shell. I was a pretty introverted kid, but when I started tending bar and helping guests, I was directly talking to people, because you don’t get tips by just standing there and making drinks. And it’s cool bartending in Vegas, in particular, because you meet people from all over the world, and you get to hear their experiences and perspectives.

So when it came to interviewing, and now when I’m talking to other people at the company, I realized I developed some really strong social skills. This is the type of soft skill that comes with a lot of practice, which makes me grateful for my bartending career.

There were a lot of takeaways from working on the Vegas Strip and interacting with coworkers of different personalities and maneuvering around all of that. It definitely helps. And I knew it would help me, but I didn’t realize how much, as it allowed me to perform really well during behavioral interviews.

Do you have any advice for someone who’s about to start their first day of the coding bootcamp? 

It’s a difficult program, and you are going to feel stressed going through it, but that’s okay. I went into the program with hardly any foundational knowledge. If you put the hard work in and make a point to see the program through to the end, you will be rewarded immensely.

I came from a completely different industry and didn’t finish my degree. A lot of the people that were in my cohort had a degree of some kind, even if it wasn’t tech-related. I thought that was going to be a barrier for me, but after a lot of hard work, I was able to get an amazing job at a great company. If you don’t give up, despite the fact that it gets really stressful at times, you’ll have a lot to take away from your experience at Hack Reactor.

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Interested in learning how to code and changing your career? Anthony graduated from our Intermediate Coding Bootcamp. In this blog post, read about our coding bootcamp options, including our Beginner Coding Bootcamp for those with no coding experience.

The post Anthony Psyk on making the leap from bartender to software engineer appeared first on Hack Reactor.

Below this new Q&A section, read Jason’s original story to learn about his first post-bootcamp job at Code for America.

Congrats on your latest job at 2U! What’s your role there, and what kinds of projects are you working on?

The post Jason Wesson on his new career in tech and why he values mentorship appeared first on Hack Reactor.

In this Q&A, find out how she made the switch, why she chose our Intermediate Coding Bootcamp, and what she’s up to now as an engineer on the Platform Engineering team at Tesla.

How’d you get started with software engineering?

At the very end of 2020, I moved back to San Francisco from Japan to get married and start a new chapter. In Japan, I was working at an art auction house, because I have a degree in Art History. Before that, I worked at a contemporary art gallery. I went to college in the Bay Area, so I always felt the energy of the tech industry, but I’d never imagined myself working outside of the art world. Yet because of the lockdown and the situation with my visa, I could not work for a while once I came to the U.S., and I was so bored that I started watching videos about coding, just out of curiosity. I’ve always liked solving puzzles and IQ tests and coding felt very similar. I got into it very quickly! It started as a hobby, but I became interested in what opportunities might be out there if I pursued this passion.

What led you to choose a bootcamp? And why Hack Reactor?

I am not the type of person who can self-study for a long time, and I wished to have some guidance, so I first started searching for bootcamps on the internet. I narrowed it down to a couple of bootcamps. What stood out to me the most was that Hack Reactor seemed to have a prestigious reputation and a huge alumni network, which I knew would be very important in breaking into the industry. (And I can attest to that!) I signed up for the Prep course and I enjoyed the culture and how the course was structured, which made me want to continue into the actual immersive. Besides, the (12-week) schedule seemed more intense than any other place, and I thought, if I’m going to dedicate myself for the next few months trying to become a software engineer, I might as well give my 100%!

What did you get out of your time in the coding bootcamp? 

I remember on my first day of the coding bootcamp, I was very nervous and not sure if I could keep up with such an intense schedule. The class was fully remote and I had never talked to someone new on Zoom, let alone spent all day with them in front of the computer! On top of that, my English was a little rusty after working in Japan for a while. In a lot of ways, this experience really pushed me out of my comfort zone. c I also had a great time with my cohort crew and classmates, and to my surprise, pair programming became my favorite!

Congratulations on your role at Tesla! What’s your job like day-to-day?

Thank you! I work as part of the Platform Engineering team. We’re building a platform that provides infrastructure services that are accessed by many other software developers at Tesla. I am mostly working on the UI side at the moment. My daily tasks consist of adding new features, fixing bugs, updating documents, helping customers who have issues using our product, attending stand-ups and retrospectives, etc.

What do you like about your role? And what challenges have you faced so far?

My favorite part is that even though it’s a large company, it has a very fast-paced environment where I can see the impact of the work I do. I get to work with many experienced engineers and various technologies on a high level, which often can be intimidating and overwhelming because there is just so much that I don’t know. But at the same time, I am very lucky that my manager and colleagues are providing me with the mentorship I wanted and that I feel my growth as an engineer. Also half of my teammates are women engineers.

What’s your work environment like? Do you work on-site? Remotely?

My work is currently fully remote but once COVID becomes more manageable, I might go back to the office a few times a week and it’s likely to become a hybrid. The remote onboarding was a bit challenging, but I’ve been embracing the perks of working at home, too. Actually, during my first week, my manager took me on a tour of the factory, which was really fun!

Are there any skills from your art experience that help you as a software engineer? 

Yes, definitely! In my previous job, I persistently had to meet my client’s demands in a timely fashion, which taught me to be proactive, to always think two steps ahead, and to anticipate what others might ask for. This skill is being used at my current job because communicating with teammates about expectations and getting buy-in on code direction early is a big part of the daily job. I initially thought a software engineer job is only coding, but I was so wrong! It’s my belief that all experiences count for something and that everyone has something to bring to the table.

Just out of curiosity, do you have any favorite artists?

That’s actually the hardest question because I have so many! For old masters, I love Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights and surrealist artists like René Magritte. One of my favorite contemporary artists is Wayne Thiebaud, who is known for his colorful works depicting desserts and landscapes. I often go to museums and galleries on weekends and look at paintings just to rest my eyes after looking at a computer screen at work all day every day.

Last question: do you have any advice for someone who’s about to start their first day of the bootcamp? How can they get the most out of their experience? 

Transitions are hard and nerve-wracking, but you’ll be amazed to know how much you can change and learn in a short window of time. Looking back, doing the bootcamp was one of the smartest choices I’ve made for myself because it opened up many doors for me. But most importantly, I had a lot of fun. I have many good memories with my cohort mates and I’m sure you will too!

One thing I highly recommend is to keep a coding journal, tracking what you have accomplished, what kind of questions you had, or what you got stuck on. Things you had a difficult time understanding a few weeks back seem so simple and trivial, and it will serve as a visual reminder of how far you have come. Personally, this helped me feel less imposter syndrome. Prioritization was also enormously helpful during the immersive and I constantly evaluated what needed to be done first and tried to be okay with not completing everything.

And lastly, reach out for help. During the bootcamp, our tech leads and staff went to great lengths to offer the technical and mental support that I needed. After graduation, I enrolled in the Telegraph Track program through Hack Reactor and met a great mentor who helped me get ready for interviews. I talked to several alumni and everyone was very willing to give me a piece of wisdom, and I also had a career coach who was there for me when I was crying because the job search was hard. There is such a supportive community where people genuinely want to help others achieve their goals and you should allow yourself to lean on them!

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Interested in becoming a software engineer? Yuki graduated from our Intermediate Coding Bootcamp. In this blog post, read about all of our coding bootcamp options, including our Beginner Coding Bootcamp. 

The post Yuki Yamamoto’s journey from art history to software engineering at Tesla appeared first on Hack Reactor.

In this Q&A, read about her Intermediate Coding Bootcamp experience, what she’s doing in her current role, and what advice she has for others who are thinking about taking the bootcamp.

What initially drew you to software engineering? And what keeps you interested?

I originally studied Linguistics and loved its abstract puzzle-solving. I heard about NLP and thought it was really cool, but I was also very intimidated by the tech field. Machine learning eventually lured me in (check out this OpenAI video), but the ability to command a virtual realm to impact the physical world keeps me invested.

You started a master’s degree in computer science but then decided to enroll in the coding bootcamp instead. Why was that?

I basically finished the undergrad prerequisites and quit to do Hack Reactor! I felt like I wasn’t actually learning enough in the program (granted, I was also working a full-time job to pay for it). I felt stuck and slow and still didn’t have an idea of what being a software engineer really looked or felt like. The bootcamp allowed me to build applicable skills quickly and gain confidence backed by a powerful network!

What led you to enroll in the Hack Reactor program specifically, and what did you get out of your time in the bootcamp? 

I heard about Hack Reactor years ago from a friend, and my fiancé, who is a Silicon Valley tech founder, heard about Hack Reactor from his top engineers. I chose Hack Reactor because I saw how strong its reputation was. I gained confidence, new friends (some who are now also coworkers), and I got accustomed to what it’s like to be a software engineer day in and day out.

You’ve been at Deliverr for 4 months now. What is your role there? What do you work on on a daily basis?

I’m a support engineer on the warehouse and inventory engineering team (backend). I investigate and fix operationally detrimental issues in our services and improve processes. I also now have development work each sprint, where I actually impact how other teams use our service!

What do you like about your role? What challenges have you faced so far?

The pay is AMAZING, my team is supportive, and I’ve never been this challenged in a role before (which I like!). My biggest challenge has been calibrating when to get help – how deep in the problem do I need to go until I ask for help?  Taking too much time on one investigation isn’t actually always helpful.

What’s your work environment like? Do you work on-site? Remotely?

I work fully remote with the option to go into the office, which I love! The office is very startup-like and in San Francisco (there are other offices in Chicago and Toronto, too). I have team members all over the place, but we still schedule social time and hold meetings at reasonable times for all. People at Deliverr who aren’t on my team regularly connect with me virtually and even in person.

Do you have any advice for someone who’s about to start their first day of the bootcamp? How can they get the most out of their experience? 

I would tell them to buckle up! This opportunity is truly special, but like everything, it’s also what you make of it. Be open, receptive, and importantly, kind to yourself! If you can learn to maintain / find balance during Hack Reactor, you’ll be well prepared for the job hunt and your new career!

The post Bryanna Valdivia on her new role as a support engineer appeared first on Hack Reactor.