edit: Thank you all for the good comments.
I've spent the past 5 years aimlessly freelancing, and my family is thrilled that I've finally done a big thing by entering into a coding bootcamp in search of full-time employment, however I might have to further disappoint them by dropping out.
It's so expensive and it's such terrible education. The instructors are shockingly amateurish and unprofessional. The bootcamp is supposed to help land jobs, but all of the instructors are just a year or two out of this very bootcamp, which reveals the ineffectiveness of their job placement claims.
I also thought the bootcamp would be able to accommodate more advanced students like myself, but instead I've just sat here for a week (worth over $1.5k) hustling on my own project without any guidance at all because the teachers are training complete beginners.
Instead of shelling out a ridiculous amount of money, I could drop out and go back to the self-learning that I've become disenchanted with over the past 2 years. I'm scared that I'll return to the aimlessness that defined my life before. That is definitely what my family will expect me to do. But I feel determined to save money on a fruitless endeavor and make a much more effective decision, for example, by torrenting Udemy courses and building my skills and portfolio that way.
I know, I don't know what I was thinking. I just wanted to kickstart myself so bad. By the end we'll know the MERN stack, Postgres, and Python, all of which I can easily do by myself.
Have you tried applying to jobs that you aren't qualified for? If you can demonstrate proficiency and projects they might overlook your lack of university education. You may even be better off reading Cracking the Coding Interview and doing leetcode problems if you think you might be asked to.
I would suggest staying away from international companies and remote-first companies as the former only really pick university grads and the latter want people who don't need training.
Thanks for the advice. The purpose of the bootcamp for me was to sharpen my skills and to create a robust portfolio under guidance but that just wasn't happening. And I feel like I can do all that on my own.
The way I see it, there are 3 types of employers with regard to your situation:
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Require degree, dgaf about boot camps.
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Will consider your application if you do a boot camp.
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Will consider your application despite zero credentials, and let you do some aptitude test, and interview you for an entry level job if you do well on the test.
All types will probably test you after the interview on practical problems.
You can only get a job from type 3, and you can get to type 2 by finishing the course. Just better chances. If you have aptitude already, then you will be more hirable than your peers when you get done.
I mean if it sucks, I would try to find out if your bootcamp is known by employers as being shit. If not, then it's a credential.
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I'm a senior engineer who's been in this work for a decade and also started off without any formal education.
Drop out. But it's a good thing, so don't beat yourself up over it.
If you can lead your own learning then you don't need them, and here's the truth to dev work and being successful: you're going to have to lead your own learning for ALL OF IT. Forever. When you get more entrenched you'll probably have some good mentors to give you pointers but you're still putting in all the work learning yourself. Learning is the most valuable skill a developer can have.
Drop out and build your own project. My strong suggestion: laracasts.com. They cover basics and all the way to advanced Laravel development. I used this exact course to take myself from garbage PHP spaghetti code, to building my first big Laravel project, to making a portfolio website, and getting my first developer job.
Send me your email in a PM and I'd be happy to call or chat or email with you. If you have questions going through laracasts I'm happy to help.
Getting your first dev job with a decent project or two under your built isn't that hard. It's not going to pay great and the work will sort of suck, but it's all relative. I loved my first dev job because it was such an improvement over the first shit jobs I had, but in retrospect I hated it and would never do it again.
Also: I am actively searching to get out of development work. It's not for everyone, and something I've had to learn in my life is that if I'm not drawn to it then don't force it. Dev work sounds nice on paper and paycheck but it's not for everyone, and you're going to wind up hating it if you're forcing yourself to do it like I did. If you've been spinning your wheels on it for years then it's probably an indicator you should be looking into something else.
Thank you. I appreciate the offer to send you a PM. Lots to think over, I'll get back to you.
If the bootcamp has a reputation that might help you get your foot in the door for an interview, then finishing it (whether you learn anything or not) might be worthwhile. If it doesn't have a rep that might help you and you're truly just there to learn, not get something on your CV that might catch someone's attention, then maybe it might be a waste of money.
Are you able to get any info about the placement rates of the graduates?
If people who do get out of the boot camp tend to get jobs, even if you're not learning shit and it feels awful, it could still be a good move.
You're can be in it just for the stupid little line on the resume, not an education.
A lot of bootcamps seem to be shit-shoots from what everyone says.
I also thought the bootcamp would be able to accommodate more advanced students like myself,
Being fair: A lot of bootcamps are meant for the absolute novices/not knowing a lick of programming. So it's not surprising that you're probably not being engaged if you've done some of it on your own time.
I’m scared that I’ll return to the aimlessness that defined my life before.
Then don't drop out if you need the threat of the money waste over your head to motivate you. If you don't: By all means, drop out and learn on your own time.
