In the last two weeks I have begun taking data science classes at a major bootcamp in Seattle Wa. There are a few major reasons I had chosen this specific avenue especially after already having a four year degree and job. I will begin by discussing my previous education and career path.
I had originally earned a degree in general archaeology from Western Washington University in 2012. When I had begun looking for a job, I searched forums like Shovelbums.com and USAjobs.org and in a period of about eight months I had only a few short jobs that had only lasted a few days to a weak. For this reason I began looking for other jobs in other career paths. I primarily found temporary jobs doing warehouse work, construction, janitorial, or retail work. Eventually, in 2017 I found a job moving furniture for a friend of the family in which I moved office furniture for a little over a year and then took a job doing the same work at another company for another nearly two years. While I was doing this work I realized that I was never going to be paid enough to have a sustaining career or earn a decent retirement. For both of those reasons, I began looking for a new career.
While doing my research I found out about computer science bootcamps and what they had to offer. Unlike four year degree programs, bootcamps tend to specialize rather than generalize. A four year degree will give the student a more rounded education in mathematics, algorithms, OS design and programming languages that will prepare them by essentially giving the student a knowledge that allows them to be more flexible and have a better understanding of code. This will often give the prospective employee a better ability to learn new coding programs faster. While this is a great advantage and will often lead to good career prospects, many CS degree programs have low acceptance rates and high costs(1).
A bootcamp however, is going to give a student the major groundwork necessary in programing languages and theory that is specific to their career path such as Python, Github, and APIs and do so in a short amount of time(2). These educational courses often will include making a portfolio and job counseling to help the student find a new profession. Indeed, many of the bootcamps state a very high placement rate. The drawback is a person from bootcamp is less likely to land a major placement such as a senior level role than a person with a four year degree unless hired from within the company especially if that job is highly specialized. In both cases students will often land jobs that will be comparable in prestige and pay as entry level careers(1).
The reasons I chose a boot camp over a four year degree are cost and time. I started college late and regretfully, never went back for my masters degree. For this reason I have changed careers at the age of 35 meaning I would be nearly forty years old by the time I get my degree provided I would be able to get accepted into a program and the cost to me would be exorbitant. An additional $40-50,000 dollars in school loans, more if I attended an out of state college. Meanwhile, a bootcamp will often be about a third the cost at about $14,000 on average and take less time at an average of about three months(1). Upon researching the possible career paths I happened upon Data Science.
This particular brand of programming has grown to become one of the fastest growing and widely used tools among many different companies and fields. Specifically, data scientists collect, process, and analyze data to present answers to questions for companies that need the useful information to make proper decisions for their future business strategies. Since the methods involved are so necessary to companies that need more and more accessible data many companies from Convoy which uses data science in the trucking industry in North America to Flatiron Health who uses data science the efforts for cancer research(3), are looking to hire data scientists. According to Glassdoor.com data scientist is the number three best job in the nation in 2020 and has a median base salary over $100k with a fairly decent job satisfaction score(4). Data science then seemed like a good job that was used in a broad spectrum of different fields that I may want to contribute to. At that point I simply needed to decide on a specific school.
I looked at a number of schools but most seemed to be overly short and I was worried I would not be adequately prepared for a job in my new career if I didn't enough time on the subject. In addition, the cost of the classes were a big sticking point for me. Some schools had a payment strategy for your education called pay-share that allowed a student to forgo paying the cost of their classes until they had been placed in a position. This allowed the student to give up part of each paycheck to pay off the cost of school without taking out a loan. A student could also use the traditional methods such as paying out of pocket or paying with school loans through an institution partnered with the school. Sometimes these partners will have short windows to pay back a loan. The lending institution at the school I am currently participating in had a loan at a reasonable APR for my credit score but the payback period was much shorter than if I had gone to a bank at about 36 months. I decided instead to get a personal loan through an independent institution. I think the thing that made me choose the school I went with, Flatiron School, was its money back guarantee. It stated if the student was not offered a job within three months of graduation the student would get their money returned to them. I appreciated the integrity of a school that stood behind its curriculum in such a way. I now have thirteen more weeks of school and hope to begin my new career soon.
Nguyen, M. (2017, September 13). Coding Bootcamps vs CS Degrees – 5 Main Differences [Web log post]. Retrieved September 07, 2020, from https://www.codingdojo.com/blog/coding-bootcamps-vs-cs-degrees#:~:text=Time, Money, & Opportunity,a bootcamp has multiple layers.&text=Bootcamp duration can range from,bootcamps can be very enticing.
Williams, A. (2020, April 16). Coding Bootcamp Vs. College [Web log post]. Retrieved September 07, 2020, from https://www.coursereport.com/blog/coding-bootcamp-vs-college
Bowne-Anderson, H. (2018, August 15). What Data Scientists Really Do, According to 35 Data Scientists. Retrieved September 07, 2020, from https://hbr.org/2018/08/what-data-scientists-really-do-according-to-35-data-scientists
Best Jobs in America. (n.d.). Retrieved September 08, 2020, from https://www.glassdoor.com/List/Best-Jobs-in-America-LST_KQ0,20.htm
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