macOS coding bootcamps?experiences, thoughts.

[enthawizeguy]

Hey guys,
So when i was younger I programmed and wanted to be a programmer and got into trouble and stopped and ended up getting into music and computer music and audio engineering instead. Along that path i took a wrong route i lost my way to an addiction. I am currently 2 years into recovery and my head is clearer than ever. I have just started to learn programming again. I live in Los Angeles and am looking into internships at tech companies and coding bootcamps. Has anyone attended one? What was your experience? I really would like to work in the tech field since computers are my life. I have spent so much time trying to figure out my purpose in life when i didnt realize it was right in front of me and it was my first love computers. Any info, experiences and help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Ian

P.S has anyone done one of these switching from one career completely over to tech?

 

[superscape]

Best of luck! As far as career switching goes, I've done that. Pull up a comfy chair, I'll tell you a story...

I used to be a graphic designer. I was fortunate enough to be in a position where some days were pretty quiet. I figured I'd learn to do something that'd make the busy days go easier so I taught myself AppleScript and started automating routine work e.g. creating PDFs, batch processing images. I then moved on to more 'grown up' stuff like Objective-C, MySQL, PHP etc.

After a couple of years, my employers realised that I was a bigger asset to the company writing custom software to improve their workflow than I was as a graphic designer. That was 10 years ago. I've done some sort of coding professionally ever since.

So I guess my advice would be to try to find a tech company where your audio knowledge is valuable. Maybe they'd employ you solely for that and help you learn coding along the way. If you're lucky, you may end up in a situation like I did where you eventually become a greater asset as a developer. Look for opportunities within that company that take you closer to where you want to be - new roles, training courses, making contacts.

Or alternatively, learn in your spare time and create a few simple apps to solve problems you encountered in your previous audio life. Its not too hard to get them onto the app store. If you have a handful of good apps under your belt then you can show them to potential employers and say, "Hey, here's what I can do. Am I any use to you?". And if you're really lucky and you develop a killer app, maybe you'll never need that full time job! ;-)

Hope that's of some help!

 

[North Bronson]

Congratulations on your recovery. That takes a lot of work.

How did you learn music? Self-taught? If you preferred to teach yourself chords and harmony, you might be able to take that same energy and teach yourself design patterns and Cocoa. Pick a well-respected text and really throw yourself into it. You could pick a good school and look at the books their CS classes list from their syllabus.

Do you prefer learning from a lecture? I have heard good things about the Big Nerd Ranch Cocoa camps. There is one in Monterey, if you feel like the drive.

Can you learn from podcasts? Check out some of the CS lecture on iTunes U. There should be lots of options from Stanford, including the lectures for iPhone and iPad programming.

I agree that self-publishing some apps can be a good way to put your name out there. You could also try to publish a few open source repos. Without a formal CS degree, you can still find good jobs with a solid portfolio of work.

Here is yours truly making the switch to software six years ago.

Good luck!

 

[1458279]

I've heard that many of them are very expensive compared to what you get. I went to a bootcamp years ago because the company I worked for paid for it. However, I had years of background in programming (other languages) as well as years in that specific industry.

What I found is that I could have got the same information myself. There were too many group questions that took everyone's time. 1 or 2 teachers to some 20 students.

If I were paying for it, I would have been upset at what I got for the money.

If I were starting over, I'd grab the Big Nerd Ranch books or Ray Winderlinch tutorials, and iTunesU Stanford (I've done all of these)
http://www.raywenderlich.com/

Congrats on the recovery!

After you start learning programming, I'd look at which direction you want to go from there: Game development, business software, systems programming, etc... Each area is a different path and it's best to pick 1 or 2 paths and be a specialist instead of a "yeah I can do some of that" generic programmer.

 

[rkho]

Hey guys,
So when i was younger I programmed and wanted to be a programmer and got into trouble and stopped and ended up getting into music and computer music and audio engineering instead. Along that path i took a wrong route i lost my way to an addiction. I am currently 2 years into recovery and my head is clearer than ever. I have just started to learn programming again. I live in Los Angeles and am looking into internships at tech companies and coding bootcamps. Has anyone attended one? What was your experience? I really would like to work in the tech field since computers are my life. I have spent so much time trying to figure out my purpose in life when i didnt realize it was right in front of me and it was my first love computers. Any info, experiences and help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Ian

P.S has anyone done one of these switching from one career completely over to tech?

Hi,

This post is a bit late but I wanted to share that I attended Hack Reactor and recently graduated from there last week (5/2). I'm taking a residency at the school for the next three months, but my friends that entered the job search right away are already getting offers (some faster than others).

I had an amazing time there and would do it all over again.

Hope this is at least somewhat helpful!