Another study from DevSkiller found that 72% of companies look for JavaScript developers. Employers want to know that new hires can work with the widely-used language.

If you want to become a professional software engineer, it’s a good idea to learn JavaScript. But how should you go about it?

Different people like to learn in different ways, so we’re providing a list of five great ways to learn JavaScript, including coding bootcamps, online tutorials, traditional college degrees, and more. Check them out to see what works best for you.

5. Books & Ebooks

Books and ebooks provide access to a ton of information about JavaScript, from the history of the language to the way it impacts the world, to how to get started. Readers of all skill levels – including total beginners – can gain an understanding of the language through books.

It can be difficult, though, to become a JavaScript expert on books alone. Included images and graphics might fill some of the gaps, but books can’t dynamically demonstrate how JavaScript works with the same vigor as other, more interactive learning sources. With that said, books and ebooks can provide a strong introduction to JavaScript and make for great supplemental material as you continue learning.

4. Video Tutorials

Videos allow viewers to learn JavaScript in a visual way. While there isn’t live instruction or interaction, many online videos can help viewers feel like they’re learning in an online classroom setting, with someone guiding them through exercises and lessons.

To get the most out of video tutorials, especially if you want to become proficient in JavaScript, you’ll need to be self-driven, disciplined, and focused. If you stay on top of the available resources, you can develop and enhance your skills.

For many though, it’s difficult to stay on pace or know exactly what to learn in what order. With that in mind, JavaScript-focused videos are often a great place to start learning JavaScript, though it can be difficult to become proficient via this path alone.

3. Professional Certifications

Professional certifications provide two benefits: quick, focused education, and a credential that can be added to your resume, making you more attractive to employers.

These certifications are offered by industry associations and companies that create software and technology. (Adobe, for example, has certifications for graphic designers.)

JavaScript certifications can help you demonstrate your understanding of the language. These certifications are often attained by people already working in tech (or other) fields who are trying to learn new, useful skills and tools to boost their value over time.

2. College Degrees

People with software-related degrees are important contributors to the tech industry. These individuals not only have the tech skills to create, enhance, and fix programs, but they’re also trained to identify problems, set goals, work in teams, and develop new strategies.

Traditional college degrees remain a great way to develop tech skills, including an understanding of JavaScript – but they can take a lot of time and often a lot of money, too. For some, these are insurmountable barriers.

1. Coding Bootcamps

In coding bootcamps, students learn the technical skills required for a software engineering career using JavaScript and other popular coding languages. The Hack Reactor curriculum, for example, is focused on developing skills that shape students into professionals who can immediately contribute to companies and other organizations. This begins with coding fundamentals, including a strong focus on JavaScript.

Students in coding bootcamps also have access to career services and an alumni community that helps them land their first software engineering job.

By providing fast, focused education at a fraction of the cost of a four-year degree – while also delivering a guided, hands-on education from industry experts – coding bootcamps are a great way to learn JavaScript.

_____

Ready to start learning JavaScript in a coding bootcamp?

Our Intermediate and Beginner Coding Bootcamps teach JavaScript as a foundational coding language for professional software engineering. Learn more and start the application process!

The post How to Learn JavaScript: 5 Great Options appeared first on Hack Reactor.

Below, we’ll share 5 advantages, plus we’ll share some thoughts on the current job market from a coding bootcamp perspective. (The following is based on a conversation with Crew Spence, our Director of Career Services and Partnerships.)

5 ways a coding bootcamp boosts your career prospects

1. Team-Based Learning Experience

   Learning on your own fails to mimic the collaborative environment of a real-world engineering team. In our coding bootcamps, we emphasize group projects and pair programming, simulating the team dynamics you’ll encounter in the industry. This approach not only helps you develop technical skills but also enhances your communication, problem-solving, and teamwork abilities, which are crucial for a successful engineering career.

2. Structured and Relevant Curriculum

   While self-teaching allows for flexibility, it often leaves learners wondering what to focus on and when they are ready to enter the job market. Our coding bootcamps eliminate this uncertainty with a carefully designed curriculum that covers the essential skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the industry, including a focus on using AI tools to enhance your coding productivity. Our courses are developed and taught by seasoned professionals who ensure you’re well-prepared and confident by the time you graduate.

3. Accountability and Professional Development

   Self-study can be challenging when it comes to maintaining discipline and accountability. Our bootcamps provide the structure and support you need to stay on track and reach your goals. Our rigorous program is designed to push you to be your best, offering the scaffolding necessary for your professional growth.

4. Community and Networking

   One of the key benefits of attending Hack Reactor is becoming part of a cohort of like-minded individuals who are on the same journey as you. This community aspect fosters collaboration, mutual support, and lifelong networking opportunities. The connections you make here can be invaluable as you progress in your career

5. Career Services Support

   Our dedicated career services team is committed to helping you transition from education to employment. We offer personalized career coaching, resume and portfolio reviews, and mock interviews.

Choosing Hack Reactor means choosing a path that is structured, supportive, and aligned with industry demands, ultimately setting you up for a successful and fulfilling career in software engineering.

From a coding bootcamp perspective: Thoughts on the 2024 job market

Navigating the job market can be daunting, especially in today’s competitive landscape, but it’s crucial to understand that job searching is inherently challenging. It’s not a reflection of your background, whether you’re a bootcamp graduate or new to the industry. No matter, finding the right opportunity takes time and persistence.

We’ve been helping graduates find rewarding positions since 2012. We understand the nuances of the job market and are here to support you every step of the way.

While the current market might present additional challenges, the fundamentals of job searching remain unchanged. We will equip you with best practices, from crafting resumes that stand out to acing interviews and negotiating your first job offer.

Remember, perseverance is key. The process may be tough, but every application, interview, and networking opportunity is a step closer to your goal. As a bootcamp graduate, you can lean on the community you’ve built during your time at Hack Reactor, including your peers, instructors, and alumni network. Their support and insights can be invaluable as you navigate this journey.

It’s important to stay confident in the skills you’ve acquired and the growth you’ve achieved. The dedication and hard work you’ve put into completing the bootcamp have prepared you well. You can trust in your abilities and the comprehensive preparation you’ve received. Your persistence – coupled with our experienced career services team – will pave the way to your success.

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Interested in a coding bootcamp?

Learn more about our two coding bootcamps: Intermediate and Beginner. And if you’re ready, get your application started today!

The post Coding bootcamp or self-taught coding? Which is best for you? appeared first on Hack Reactor.

It’s an excellent question, because there may not be another experience out there quite like it. The closest analog is our immersive onsite program–much more so than self-guided online courses, like Codecademy, or scheduled online courses like those offered by Coursera. Both Hack Reactor and Hack Reactor Remote require students to be present and learning 11 hours a day, six days a week, and their curricula are identical. That said, there are many nuances to doing an intensive course from home.

Do Remote classmates get to know each other?

Yes, to a surprising degree. Students quickly move past the barriers of distance and develop relationships that often outlast the program.

“I made lots of strong friendships really quickly. It’s so great to come out of this, not just with skills, but with lasting connections,” says one student, shortly after graduating.

While students may be physically located on different continents, they spend 66 hours a week, learning and coding together.

“You get close to [your classmates] really quickly because you’ve done a lot of intense work together,” says Hack Reactor Remote graduate Kate Jefferson.

The class Slack channel provides instant access to everyone in the course. Students get to know each other on an individual level through pair programming and project work, while Slack maintains group cohesion across the entire cohort.

“If you send out a message [on Slack] like, ‘who has 2 minutes to help me?’ you get a ton of responses,” says Remote graduate Nissa Wollum.

The Remote staff also makes time for students to get to know each other on a personal level.

“We had a really fun show and tell night,” Jefferson recalls. “We got to see people’s living space, their pets, and more. We had the first Remote talent night. People were reciting Shakespeare and someone rapped about our cohort. I sang. Hack Reactor really has the hang of making people who were in Korea, Colombia and Newfoundland feel like one group.”

Often these online friendships result in physical get-togethers. One group of students recently convened in New Orleans, and another group took a road trip from San Diego to the Bay Area. They met up with a student who flew from his home in Switzerland and all went skydiving!

Hack Reactor Remote students took a skydiving trip together. This is the highest known elevation of the Hack Reactor logo.

Do Remote students work on projects together?

Yes, as with our onsite program, collaboration is a crucial component. This is facilitated by apps that allow for pair programming and video chats. The projects students build are impressive in scope and size.

“When I first started programming, [building a framework] was one of those larger goals that seemed monolithic,” says Hack Reactor Remote graduate Gunnari Auvinen. “It’s amazing what you can accomplish with a group of people with like-minded drive in just three or four weeks. I got everything I could have gotten out of Hack Reactor Remote and more. Having achieved that feels pretty good.” Auvinen and his team built a React and Flux framework that made it to the front page of the popular tech news aggregator Hacker News.

What are the outcomes for the Hack Reactor Remote program?

The program outcomes show that this is an elite coding bootcamp. 95% of job-seeking students receive an offer within three months at an average starting salary of $94,000. Given that many Hack Reactor Remote graduates are geographically anchored outside the Bay Area and other tech industry centers, these numbers show the program has effectively equal value to our industry-leading onsite coding bootcamp. Just as they do during the program, our online students have the full support of our staff and classmates throughout the job search process.

What are some advantages to the online digital classroom over a traditional onsite set up?

Decoupling a top-level coding education from a specific location is a huge boon to some students.

“Many students are reporting that Remote is uniquely a fit for their needs,” says Remote Class Lead Liz Penny. “They’re in Europe or Asia. They have family responsibilities and need or want to stay at home. Or they just love their region or town but also want to learn coding.”

Many Remote students conclude that they would not trade their education for any other option, including an onsite program. Without the constraints of physical space, students have a refined, streamlined learning experience.

“I’ve learned a ton and all the people are smart and motivated,” noted recent graduate Eric King. “The staff is super supportive–they push you to do more. I feel really connected to the group through Slack and Google Hangouts, but the flip side is that I’m at home where I have more downtime. I feel like I’ve had a better experience doing Remote than I would have had doing an onsite program.”

Ready to take the plunge? Apply to Hack Reactor Remote bootcamp. Need to spend more time preparing? There’s no more effective way than Remote Prep (for beginners) or Fulcrum (for intermediate coders).

Read more:

Which Hack Reactor Course is Right for You? Here’s How to Find Out

Remote Student Highlighted by President Obama

Remote Student’s 6 Month Journey From Student to Teacher

The post Hack Reactor Remote: The Student Experience appeared first on Hack Reactor.

That said, many people are intimidated by the Admissions Challenge, and want to make sure they have their bases covered before they dive in. Here are some steps you can take to prepare for the initial coding challenge, which will also lay the groundwork to prepare for the technical interview (the other main step in our admissions process).

Familiarize yourself with core JavaScript concepts

You’ll want to know what an object, function, and array are, and you should be able to create a basic version of each one. Codecademy and many other sites provide sandboxes to write code and see what it does.

If you struggle with any of these concepts, check out Codecademy’s JavaScript track or Eloquent JavaScript, especially chapters 1-5. We also offer a free, online Prep course–the best and most thorough training for anyone working toward an immersive coding bootcamp.

Our admissions process starts with a simple coding challenge.

Go for it

If you can create an object, write a basic function and reference a specific item in an array, you are ready for the first part of the admissions challenge.

What if I fail the Admissions Challenge?

You can’t! You will not have the option to move on until your code passes the challenge. We only begin evaluating your specific candidacy at the technical interview stage. The admissions challenge serves as a gateway to the next stage, but there are no additional negative consequences to not completing this stage of the process. (Please note that this is not the case for the technical interview. We will discuss this next stage of the process in an upcoming blog post.)

Okay, but what if I cannot complete the Admissions Challenge?

Keep at it. Review the materials mentioned above, follow us on Meetup and join our events, as we sometimes host or sponsor short beginner-friendly courses. Try our Prep course, designed with our admissions process in mind. Solicit help from a friend familiar with JavaScript to solidify your comfort with objects, functions and arrays. Lastly, resist the temptation to get help on the specific tasks of the Admissions Challenge. The concepts tested are a necessary base for you to move forward in our process, and you will be best served by using the challenge to ensure your facility with them.

Once you’ve conquered the Admissions Challenge, read about how to handle Part II: The Technical Interview.

Read on for more details. Ready to take the admissions challenge? Apply today!

Read more:

Student’s Advice to Anyone on the Fence About Applying to Hack Reactor: Just Go For It

Industry Rankings Place Hack Reactor as a Top School in the World

Interested in starting on the same path? It all began at Hack Reactor. Learn more about Hack Reactor’s full-time and part-time programs. We’re online in SF, Austin, NYC, and LA.

The post Hack Reactor Application Part I: The Coding Challenge appeared first on Hack Reactor.

What’s the best way for a software engineer to make money without necessarily taking a 9-to-5 job as a company employee? What’s the secret to finding a continuous flow of incoming freelance work? How can you build a reputation that empowers you to command higher rates and earn more money?

To find out, we asked established freelance and contract coders for the secrets to their success.

Here’s what they said:

1. Instead of competing on job boards, make meaningful connections.

For many aspiring freelancers, the first place to look for work is often a job board. But although opportunities may seem plentiful on boards, intense competition often turns it into a race to the lowest price.

“I’ve tried job boards. For me, I think that work gets too commoditized. It just becomes about the lowest bidder, and doesn’t really guarantee good software, to be honest,” says Troy Hojel, who has been doing freelance developer work for about 15 years. “I stay away from that kind of price war.”

Doug Green, a contract developer who usually works for large companies on long-term contracts, agrees.

 “I don’t go out to job boards. For the last 10 years or so, my jobs have all been from relationships with people that have known me because of my work,” Green says.

Instead of competing against other freelancers on job boards, focus on meeting people, making connections, and building lucrative business relationships.

Attending and speaking at conferences can help you make connections that lead to jobs.

 “In doing those things early on, going to conferences and talking, I built a nice reputation where people know who I am. It’s a cool place to be,” Green says.

Social media can work, too.

“I found the gig that I have right now because my previous gig was running out, and I sent out a tweet. Several people that knew me from the Drupal community retweeted it. And somebody that I had built a relationship with over the last 10 or 15 years saw my tweet and said, hey, would you come work for us?” Green says. “I had a new gig in a day or two.”

2. Build a reputation for quality, and clients will seek you out.

The real money in freelancing comes from providing high-quality work to clients who are willing to pay for it. But in order to find a steady supply of work, you need to start by proving that you can deliver quality work.

Green compares it to getting an advanced degree of some kind.

“In a Ph.D. program you produce a thesis and this shows why you are now qualified for this type of job. I did something like that with Drupal. I wrote some code that people found useful and I built a reputation in the community,” Green says. “Since then I’ve graduated on from doing free community work because now that I have that reputation, people want to hire me.”

“You build your reputation in order to get the work. Put the time in. Do it right so that you don’t have a ton of bugs,” says Hojel. “It’s just like any other business. You slowly build a reputation for yourself.”

Once you do that, you will no longer have to compete based on price alone. You can charge higher rates, because you have proven that you’re worth it.

“There are so many people willing to write code for so cheap these days. But there are pitfalls that come with that, and clients get what they pay for,” says Hojel. “I try to always deliver value far beyond what they’re paying for so that I get the call next time. And I get more work.”

3. Find someone to teach you the ropes.

One of the most invaluable things you can do to further your career is by learning from someone who has been where you want to be and has done what you want to do.

That might mean learning from experienced software engineering instructors in an online coding bootcamp. Sometimes, it might mean connecting with fellow bootcamp cohort students.

“Finding a mentor really helped me. I found someone who was sitting next to me in one of my classes, and we became friends. He was much more experienced. Once or twice a month, we’d go have a beer and I would just ask him a thousand questions. He really helped me,” says Hojel.

Whether you find a mentor among those already in your network, or you make a connection when you take a coding bootcamp online, it’s important to learn the skills you need from someone with real-world experience.

4. Focus on the long term.

By nature, coding bootcamps are short-term and intensive. But your career is a long-term commitment. There are plenty of efficiencies and best practices along the way, but no shortcuts. To build a career that lasts, you need a vision for the long haul.

Make meaningful connections with people in your bootcamp cohort and in your industry, so that you can move beyond the job boards. Build a reputation for producing quality work, so that clients seek you out, and new jobs continually flow to you.

Above all, find someone who has been there and can teach you the things you need to know. That’s the best way to set yourself up for success and make money as a freelance or contract coder.

Find out more about taking a coding bootcamp online.

The post How to Make Money As a Freelance or Contract Coder appeared first on Hack Reactor.

A decade ago, anyone looking to become a software engineer and land a job had to get a four-year computer science college degree. But in recent years, immersive coding bootcamps have exploded in popularity by promising to teach students the necessary skills in just a few months, or even weeks.

The question is, do coding bootcamp graduates emerge truly prepared to compete for challenging tech jobs? Or do you still need a traditional four-year degree to land a high-paying job as a software engineer?

Money is a crucial deciding factor. While the cost of a bootcamp can range from free to five figures, there is typically a substantial pay bump for those who graduate from a coding bootcamp. Average salaries for bootcamp students increase 51% after graduation, from $46,974 to $70,698, according to Course Report. That income jump is a huge incentive for students like Ian Salmon, who was a professional violinist and teacher before taking a Hack Reactor immersive bootcamp.

“I have a Master’s degree in music and violin, but I started doing web dev just as a hobby with my brother. He pursued computer science in college,” Salmon says. “I didn’t, but I kind of continued to teach myself programming as I was playing violin professionally.”

His first side projects involved building and running websites for his music school, and then for friends and professionals in the music field. When he started making money doing it on his own, he changed career directions and hunted for a full-time position as a software engineer. But he couldn’t seem to land a job, no matter how hard he tried.

“While I did have some success in getting interviews, that was as far as I could go. Going to meetups and job fairs wasn’t really helping. I was really unable to get a job,” Salmon says. That was when he decided to join an immersive bootcamp.

“My class was full of people from all different walks of life. We had computer science graduates who were having trouble finding a job. We had someone who owns a yoga studio. They all had their own different levels of experience coming into it,” Salmon says.

College enrollment across the U.S. has been on the decline for eight consecutive years, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. At the same time, more and more bootcamps have emerged. Some of them, like Hack Reactor, are becoming leaders in the field. One reason for their rise in popularity is that they fill a need that traditional colleges aren’t meeting.

One benefit of a bootcamp like Hack Reactor includes job placement support, and they put their money where their mouth is. Galvanize, which administers and hosts Hack Reactor bootcamps, allows students to delay paying tuition until after they complete their bootcamp program and land a job making at least $50k/year.

“Since the beginning, we’ve been successful only when our students have been,” said Harsh Patel, Galvanize CEO. “While we’ve already offered several ISAs in the past, we can now offer ISAs for both of our immersive bootcamps.”

“A coding bootcamp and a computer science degree have very different purposes. A bootcamp focuses on what will get you hired. If you’ve gone through one of these, it demonstrates to employers that you have a measurable amount of perseverance. I was there Monday through Saturday, six days a week, for 10 to 12 hours per day,” Salmon says.

According to an Indeed survey, 72% of employers consider bootcamp graduates to be “just as prepared” as college graduates, and just as likely as those with a computer science degree to become high-performing workers.

For Salmon, his bootcamp experience provided a direct route to the full-time job he wanted. He started interviewing before he had even finished his classes. “Without a doubt, it accelerated the process. I graduated at the end of May and began my new job at the beginning of July. Now I’m a solutions engineer at a really engineering-heavy company. We’re all engineers here and we kind of geek out all day long. It’s fun. I love it.”

The post How to become a software engineer: Bootcamp or CS degree? appeared first on Hack Reactor.

If you’re new to the tech industry, or perhaps if you’re not, you might have some preconceived ideas about what a coding professional might look like. Hack Reactor Program Lead & Technical Mentor Magee (pronounced Muh-gee) Mooney wants you to forget about all those stereotypes because tech isn’t about who you are.

Tech is about what you know, and Mooney wants you to know that Hack Reactor’s coding bootcamp is designed to give everyone access to highly skilled and lucrative positions.

My conversation with Mooney went a little longer than I expected because it was like talking to an old friend. We discussed her history, diversity in tech, and her Ducati motorcycle.

What is your background?

Later, I bought Microsoft’s brand-new technology, Access, dove deep into it solving all kinds of personal information management challenges, and ultimately capitalized on that expertise to become a professional database administrator and programmer. That landed me at UC Berkeley for 10 years, supporting a team of exceptional scientists at a world-leading childhood leukemia study by maintaining and improving their research database applications.

Ultimately, I got into software engineering because I found that I could automate repetitive tasks throughout my tech career by writing “batch files” or “macros” and as time passed, learned that business process automation was far more interesting to me than other aspects of my job. As I learned more, I eventually transitioned from working with computers to teaching folks who to use them and then supporting/administering/fixing the technology itself. I attribute my long career in technology to my love for problem-solving and puzzles, my deep curiosity about tech, and my personal practice of reinventing myself every 5-10 years, taking on more skills, diving more deeply into existing ones, or walking away from one tech discipline and following a different path has led to a long and deeply rewarding career.

What drew you to Hack Reactor?

I wanted to update my skills after leaving a role as a programmer/analyst at UC Berkeley maintaining and managing proprietary research database applications and childhood leukemia research data. I spent many years working with Microsoft technologies before designing and implementing replacement web applications to modernize their tools. It whetted my appetite to return to web applications development, so I sought out Hack Reactor once I left. I chose Hack Reactor because it was the most rigorous bootcamp at the time and the only one using Javascript as the instructional language (at the time, the rest were all teaching Ruby on Rails).

What is your favorite part of being a Hack Reactor instructor?

I really believe that due to the success of our programs and how many amazing humans choose to join our community, we have the opportunity to introduce more diversity, life experience, and kindness into our profession. The icing on the cake is that, as a part-time program, we are able to attract people who otherwise would not be able to do our program and help them make this leap into software engineering.

Mortgages, families, and other life commitments often prevent people from being able to take advantage of our full-time program. Making it available on a part-time basis means we can reach more established adults with deep personal and professional experience and help.

In 1999, you were somewhat of a pioneer. How did you initially learn to build websites?

I was using the internet already before this new “World Wide Web” thing started to evolve. It was an exciting time to watch this technology grow and to be able to create websites with little required tooling and education. The only things that were required were our imaginations and time and an interest in learning. Save for the folks inventing the technologies, we were all self-taught tinkerers back then. There was no such thing as a bootcamp and it would be years before web development showed up in university computer science departments because the full picture of what the Internet could be and do beyond primarily serving text-based information was only just beginning to be recognized.

I must confess I was definitely one of those developers who made “web pages” with dancing baby gifs and scrolling marquees. By 1999, I had been programming and experimenting with web development for some time when a contractor to the law firm where I worked ghosted about nine months into a critical year-long contract to provide a lobbying information system to a foreign government wanting to improve trade opportunities with the United States.

One of the firm partners called me into his office and asked me to rescue project data locked on a hard drive. The conversation drifted to the abandoned project. He explained that the press in the client country had started to become critical of the initiative and they needed to turn it around quickly. Eleven weeks later, I was delivering to him a web-based secure application with SSL, populated with the rescued data, capable of being used in Asia, and updated by paralegals in Washington, DC. Sometimes, you can do huge things when you don’t know how hard they are supposed to be.

Your background is somewhat unique among the instructors I’ve talked to. You didn’t quite finish your BA, and you’re a Hack Reactor grad. Do you feel this makes you more relatable to students?

Actually, I don’t. My personal story about my career in tech is more similar to the stereotypical tech person in Silicon Valley. I learned early on that I had a gift for tech. Folks recognized it and I got lots of opportunities and accolades for being able to learn and apply tech quickly to solve business or organizational problems. I was once offered a job by a founder of a major US satellite telecom company because I talked him through reconfiguring his computer configuration by memory over the phone. I got him unblocked quickly, and the next thing I knew I was upgrading his hardware infrastructure by installing the very first hard drives in his new consultancy’s computers as an independent contractor.

I do think that having had deep professional experience in tech does help students feel that they’re in good hands and that adds value for many of them. I share my story as a fellow grad so they know I understand what the experience of struggling through the program feels like. But when I learned how to code and create web apps, the technology was much simpler. I grew up expanding my knowledge as the technologies evolved. So from that respect, I think they actually have a much harder road to mastery than I did when I was in their same position.

However, I went back to school in the early 2000s and now have substantial academic experience, digging into Assembly Language, C++, and Java programming, designing Logic Circuits and building them, spending years doing formal academic work rich in logic and proofs as a Math major/CS minor. I was enrolled in my final two classes when my mother’s terminal illness caused me to drop out and stay away long enough that other hurdles focused me on my career instead of school. I also came into the program with a good 15+ years of coding experience before I entered as a student. So from a student perspective, at first blush, my experience and credentials make me look more like those experienced CS people who they often find intimidating.

Do you feel that a concentrated bootcamp setting is perhaps even better than a university degree?

It depends upon what a learner wants. For most well-paying jobs in web development, I believe a reputable, high-quality bootcamp can’t be beaten. The ROI on the tuition for students who prepare well and work hard to graduate can be remarkable. Very few technology skills I learned at university are part of my current toolset for creating web applications. But it’s also true that the years of formal training in logic, problem-solving, and debugging to produce working code gave me a strong conceptual grounding that allows me to learn new technologies quickly and understand better how and why they work. That’s invaluable.

Hack Reactor grads are introduced to those building blocks and they’re reinforced throughout the program so they can gain the same experience, but it can take time well into the beginnings of their career to integrate them fully into their toolkits. I think people who want to get deep into back-end and network architecture will still be well served by adding university coursework to their education. In short, the largest pool of jobs in the marketplace are well served by graduates of strong bootcamp programs. But certainly, there’s still a place for university coursework for folks who want to specialize or dig in more deeply.

What do you feel are the biggest challenges facing the tech industry?

There are a number of ways I can answer this question but I suppose I want to share challenges I perceive from my lived experience.

I think our industry has been slow to figure out how to incorporate more diversity into the ranks of its engineers. BiPOC, Women, People over 40 (50?!), LGBTQ+, Neurodivergent, and other differently-abled people all are represented among some of the most gifted engineers I know but still show up in numbers far too few in our industry. We need to crack the problem of how to bring our recruitment efforts to communities where not-actually-hidden talent exists. We have to learn how to see what is there, improve recruitment and interviewing modalities. We need to allow children and under-employed people to see folks who look like them in engineering jobs. You can’t aspire to a career you’ve never seen. And you may not want to aspire to a career where you don’t see people who look like you.

Short Story: When I was applying to bootcamps back in 2013, I went to the websites of all of the existing bootcamps in San Francisco and I counted the number of women I found in pictures on each site. I didn’t even bother counting people like me who were over 35. I chose Hack Reactor in spite of the fact that there were no women on their site but the exercise remained one that featured prominently in how I considered what community I wanted to join. I had to weigh the pros of HR against the poor representation of diversity on their site at the time to justify my choice to myself.

Ultimately, the pros far outweighed that con so it was an easy decision. And as an alum (and later a staff member), I watched how hard HR worked at figuring out how to reach out to and recruit enough talented women students and am proud of what we have achieved… but it still remains hard work for all of our industry.

You hit on one area of discrimination we don’t hear a lot of talk about, and that’s ageism. Ageism is one of the last remaining accepted forms of discrimination. How do you think tech can fix the diversity problem?

One way is through activism and creating intentional change. Another form that I think is as powerful and effective as any other is infiltrating, getting people like me, People of Color, older people, people with disabilities, and having us become “normal.”

I compare it to when (San Francisco Mayor at the time) Gavin Newsom legalized same-sex marriage and it spread. It got to the point where people who were initially resistant or uncertain eventually realized that the sky didn’t fall. The same thing will happen with tech when we get a lot of people into the industry who look different.

We have a team that is majority women, including our tech mentors. Some people on our teams are neuro-diverse as well. I think that when you bring men into the industry who are guided by women who they regard as experts, you fundamentally shift the perception in the industry regarding the role of women. For me, being a model of a competent, skilled engineer that people would like to work with is one of those things that could affect change ultimately. You won’t have to have slogans or convince people; it just happens.

I especially believe in Hack Reactor as an organization at large and our part-time program because it enables women and older workers who have mortgages and kids and can’t check out for three months the way younger people can.

I will let you in on a secret on how I’ve overcome some of the biases against women and people over 25. I ride a Ducati sport bike. I learned to ride when I went through Hack Reactor. When people I interview with learn that I ride their dream bike (or one of their dream bikes), they start looking at me slightly differently. It gives me a context to connect to young men. I didn’t do it for this purpose, but I found that the connection made the young men see me as a human with a shared interest. Then we’d geek out on bikes and then move on to the other things. When I was looking for work, I would bring my helmet and motorcycle jacket into the interview as an ice breaker.

What are some of the best and worst things coders have done?

Coders can help change the world. They can empower people to improve equity and access. They can help people in environmental disasters reconnect with lost loved ones or help municipalities reduce congestion and environmental pollutants by improving the ability of inhabitants to find and quickly park their cars. Graduates of the Hack Reactor program were instrumental in fixing the disastrous Healthcare.org site when the ACA was rolled out, for example. Federal Government contractors had built it very badly and someone with a vision called in engineers with training from Silicon Valley to come in and rescue it.

Among the worst things? I suppose I’d just like to limit sharing my many strong opinions on this front to this one – this can be a very insular community full of people, many of whom have learned from very young ages that they could do what many folks believe is “magic”. When you move from that directly into a high-paying career which reinforces that narrative, we often lose something that comes when you work with a more diverse community of people who have had to struggle in their early careers. I wonder sometimes if leaders of some large tech companies had to struggle more in the real world with real-world issues before they launched their tech careers if we’d see more empathy and more sensitivity to how mismanagement or misuse of their platforms can harm the public narrative and faith in each other.

What is your proudest professional accomplishment?

For all of my technology career, I have made it my mission to support and mentor other women to become technology professionals. Building the Remote Part Time program is the one accomplishment that I am most proud of because it allows me to effect change for women on a big scale and to expand that impact to other under-represented people in tech.

One of my favorite things about building RPP and stewarding it to where it is now is that we are infusing this profession with people from all walks of life with a wide variety of professional and personal backgrounds. We make the life-changing bootcamp experience available to people who can’t quit their jobs because of families or financial obligations. I believe that supports increasing diversity in our Hack Reactor community. I believe that what we do impacts not only our students but can also lead to generational change.

Daughters are watching their mothers retool and become programmers. Children can imagine themselves as engineers and their parents, with often lucrative careers after they graduate, can carve out new futures for their families by allowing them to pay for college educations, trade schools, or other life experiences. We know that childcare responsibilities often fall on mothers. Losing time in the workplace often has lifelong costs to career advancement and totall earnings. We have moms and dads with newborns regularly going through our program and arguably advancing their careers rather than falling behind.

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Learn more about our coding bootcamp options, including ones for beginners and another option for those with intermediate coding skills.

The post Motorcycles, mentorship & macros: Magee Mooney is amazing appeared first on Hack Reactor.

As part of the partnership, we sponsored Black Tech Professionals memberships for the general public. Then, through an org-focused campaign, we also sponsored a select number of memberships for Hack Reactor and Galvanize alumni who self-identify as Black, African-American, or African Heritage.

The Black Tech Professionals membership includes access to the A* (A Star) mentorship program, networking and job opportunities, exclusive access and invitations to events, and more. New members will join the /dev/color community, which currently boasts 600 members and counting.

We’re proud to partner with organizations like /dev/color, led by CEO Rhonda Allen, as they work to create accessible pathways toward meaningful community and lasting support in an industry too often without.

“At /dev/color, partnership is about changing tech for good, together. We’re excited to work with Galvanize to support Black technologists, as our first priority, while we also create the conditions and opportunities to spark and sustain accountability and real commitment in the industry,” said Allen.

And this type of commitment needs to come from all angles, according to Dr. Sam Kline, Galvanize Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

“While it’s important to establish mentorship, sponsorship, and community within workplaces, industry organizations like /dev/color are vital to increasing representation and growing the careers of Black people in tech,” she said. “I have been familiar with /dev/color’s work for quite some time, and I’m excited about their growth, commitments, and future. I recognize the value of networking, mentorship, professional development, and multiple spaces of community for sustaining and progressing the careers of Black individuals in tech.”

The more support and access to community, the better. And this is exactly what /dev/color offers its members, according to Allen.

“/dev/color members are committed to helping each other grow, thrive, and advance, both personally and professionally,” she said. “We’re family, and new members can jump right into the mix on Slack, in 1:1 conversations, and upcoming events. For members wanting a more robust coaching experience, our A* squads are the perfect mix of accountability, friendship, and support to set, pursue, and achieve both personal and professional goals.”

Galvanize Director of Alumni Experience Toni Warren encourages alumni to explore the opportunities and possibilities offered by /dev/color.

“We’re thrilled to offer a valuable collaboration with /dev/color and our alumni community. This opportunity reflects our shared commitment to accelerate collective advancement of Black technologists,” she said.

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If you have questions, please contact us at belonging@galvanize.com. 

The post New partnership with /dev/color, global career accelerator for Black software engineers appeared first on Hack Reactor.

Employers know that graduates of Hack Reactor’s coding bootcamps bring a lot to the table. They know that graduates’ skillsets rival those of applicants with university-level computer science degrees. Despite the fact that Hack Reactor helps open doors for alumni, it is tough to seal the deal unless graduates can show what they’re capable of, and for that, applicants need a portfolio.

Fortunately, Hack Reactor offers its students more than just a path to a six-figure salary. Hack Reactor helps teach graduates how to actually land those lucrative jobs, which includes helping them build job-catching portfolios.

To learn what employers look for in coding portfolios, I sat down with the expert, Sophie Leroi, Hack Reactor’s Associate Director of Career Services. Leroi has more than 20 years of experience as a trainer, career coach, and executive coach. She has held various roles at Hack Reactor for the last five years. First, she was a cohort lead, then a Career Services Manager, and now she oversees operations for the Career Services department.

Let’s get right to it. What projects look best on a portfolio?

That question has evolved over the years as we have adjusted our curriculum. We’ve discontinued certain projects that our students were working on a few years ago, we’ve introduced new ones, and the goal is to make sure the projects we offer reflect the needs of the industry. What do we need to teach our students so they’re prepared for the work and they can sell themselves in the job search, especially as they’re making that career pivot, specifically in Hack Reactor? The projects that we need to see on the resume are going to have to be functional, practical, technical, and collaborative.

But if I had to give you an overarching framework for the best projects, it would have to tell the hiring manager that you are a functional engineer, you know how to use relevant technologies, and different types of technologies. You also have experience working in different types of developing environments, from solo to group work. You know how to collaborate with other engineers, you know how to review other people’s code, you know how to really work together, get stuck together, help each other get unstuck.

Is the stereotype of the asocial type of coder still applicable today, or do you see coders having better social skills?

They definitely have better social skills. And if they’ve been through Hack Reactor they certainly do. In terms of training software engineers, that’s what really differentiated us from other bootcamps: that focus on the social aspect. I think to some extent it is still an existing trait of the software engineer personality, but not as much as it was five, six, or seven years ago.

What do hiring managers look for in a candidate?

Depending on the position, it could be that we’re talking about the hiring manager who’s really interested in a bootcamp grad because they want talent that is functional and social, but they also want someone who is early enough in their career that (the company is) going to be able to coach them and train them to the ways of doing within their company’s technologies.

There’s a lot of interest in working with relatively recent engineers to have that mentoring and coaching opportunity, but really they want an engineer who knows how to work with the full stack, from front-end to back-end. They’ve been exposed to a number of different technologies, and they’re relatively autonomous. They can pick up new technologies fairly easily. They don’t have to be told how to do things, so they have autonomy, interest, and soft skills.

Should a student avoid passion projects unless they are related to the desired field?

They should never avoid a passion project. They should pursue the passion project if it fits the requirements of the project that they’re given during the immersive. They also have lots of opportunities to pursue their passion projects during the job search, and that’s actually what we recommend for our grads, especially right after graduation. We don’t want them to lose their momentum, we want them to continue using those technologies, we want them to continue building, and practicing.

So we ask them right after graduation, what’s your passion? What is the thing you wanted to build during the immersive but you couldn’t, and that you want to build now? It could be that you build it yourself or you reach out to other engineers or open-source contributions. Show me what you want to do now. Show me how resourceful you can be. That’s another thing hiring managers are really interested in. Beyond the bootcamp, what else is this person doing? How engaged are they with the community of engineers, including people they did not know before? Those projects are going to be great for the applicant to talk about during interviews because they are passionate about (them). The conversation will go well. They will be able to tell them why they chose this project, what’s important to them, and what steps they’ve taken to complete their project on their own.

Can we dive a bit deeper into the types of projects that should be included in portfolios?

I touched very briefly on things like front-end and back-end. If it’s okay with you, I would like to give you a bit more information around the types of projects with the lens of outcomes and in the job search, what happens in those interviews when they talk about the projects? What do they need to highlight?

The value of the portfolio for our grads is really having a variety of experiences so there’s the individual project…the thing you can do on your own. You can self-manage, you follow deadlines, you produce work that is basically your work so you will have to be very self-reliant.

Our front-end capstone and system design, our back-end capstone, are very different. The front-end project results in a very polished and functional front-end application. It’s a great thing to show off. It’s a great demo if you want to show what you’re capable of producing on the screen, great, but maybe that’s where it ends in terms of the conversation with your interviewer. It’s not going to give you a lot of great conversation talking points.

The back-end project, however, the system design, is still a very individual project. They learn a ton of new technologies and higher web development concepts, so they really get into the engineering process. They will have a lot of talking points. That’s a fantastic project to discuss with a hiring manager. That’s usually when the hack reactor grad is bringing added value. The unique value of the proposition is, “okay, they’ve worked a lot on the back-end. They know how to work with a database.”

The first project gives you the visual and the second project gives you whatever happens in the background and the engineering experience.

There’s a third project called Blue Ocean, and that’s not individual. That’s a group of engineers who really have to work together to produce an application that’s functional. It looks great, but it also has a great back-end. It’s interacting and the engineers learn teamwork. They learn everything that has to do with development processes, agile owning decisions, and collaborating and negotiating with other engineers.

We want them to have different kinds of experiences to be able to, in their interviews, talk about different aspects of what it’s like to be an engineer.

How important is graphic design?

Not really. I’ll tell you a thing that we tell them on the first day of the program. What do we value the most, function or form? Function.

They can work on graphic design. We work with the front-end. They can produce something that’s great to demo, but it’s not going to be impressive. It’s not going to be great graphic design. That is not what we do. That is not what we teach. But they learn the technologies to be able to work on that and improve after the program.

So they need to be able to collaborate at least with a graphic designer.

Cross-functional collaboration is also important. We are not going to spend a ton of time talking about the various roles that they will be interacting with at the company, but they know that it’s going to be crucial. They also know that we’ve managed expectations. We tell them “when you first become a software engineer, they’re not going to ask you to produce a large project on your own.” Very likely in the first few months you’re going to be working on tiny features that no one will see. The customer won’t see that. You will not be interacting with the customer. You’re going to be working on the back-end of things or on functionalities that will contribute to the end result. You’re not going to be responsible for the full design and the full production.

Do you keep in touch with graduates?

We absolutely do. Our Alumni Community is an integral part of Hack Reactor. We keep in touch with them after a year, two years, five years, or since they graduated. They always sound satisfied with their roles, their managers, their companies, and their environments, and their career path in general. Some of our graduates now work as staff at Galvanize. Other alumni come back to meet with our students and the alumni community to share their experiences and expertise.

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Ready to create your own coding project portfolio?

Start your coding bootcamp application today!

The post Coding projects software engineers need in their portfolios appeared first on Hack Reactor.

“On the cutting edge of technology, formal education means very little, says Nicholas Thompson, Founder of Grit. “New technology changes so fast that institutions of higher learning, even the best ones, just can’t keep up. By the time they develop a course, a newer technology has taken its place. What matters is the ability to retrain yourself frequently based on the needs of the current project.”

This is especially true for software engineering, where today’s hot framework can be an afterthought in under a year. That’s why, while our course focuses on today’s most important tools, the most important part of the Hack Reactor education is “learning how to learn.”

There is a trend away from degrees as a prerequisite for many technical jobs. This has happened as more people from alternate backgrounds prove they’re up to the task.

“Early in my career, I was very strong on developers having a CS degree,” notes ALICE‘s CTO Dmitry Koltunov. “I have since met a number of great engineers that did not do a formal degree.”

Marcin Kleczynski, CEO at Malwarebytes, has also seen first-hand that education is not always correlated with real-world success:

“One of my co-founders was working on his Ph.D. in physics while another never went to college. Both were equally important to the founding of the company. Many of my technical hires without a formal education ended up being the rockstars of the organization.”

None of these perspectives are especially surprising to us. Our students come from a variety of educational backgrounds from dropouts to PhD’s, and we have found that all of them can be successful with the right training and lots of hard work. Or, as Chalmers Brown, Cofounder and CTO of Due puts it:

“The only thing that matters to me is if you can get the job done or not. I could not care less how you got to where you are today, as long as you are great at what you do and can provide value to a team and push the company forward.”

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Get a modern education focused on the latest developer tools and the ability to deliver on a project: apply to Hack Reactor.

The post Skills vs. Degrees: Forbes Technology Council Discusses Value of Each appeared first on Hack Reactor.