Options are good
July 7, 2015 10:27 PM Subscribe
Coding bootcamp, or other options for the smart but school-averse
My daughter was a straight-A student in K-12, and went to the highest-rated magnet program in our city for high school. She tested well on the SAT and ACT, wrote a couple of kickass essays, and got into some very competitive universities... but then, in spring of her senior year, she decided it was all bullshit and dropped out of school. She tried community college, but wants nothing to do with community college -- and consequently, formal education at all at this point. She is a very good waitress, and supports herself on that, but she says she doesn't want to do that forever. She's 21 now, and wondering what to do with her life.
So what can she do? She's very smart and very competitive, likes kids, likes to read, swing-dance, and brew beer. Needs a fair amount of alone time.
Things she thought of:
The military -- she has a DUI on her record, they might not take her, and she'd never be alone.
Stay-at-home mom -- she'd be great at that, but it isn't something she can exactly just go do on her own.
Things I thought of:
Graphic designer -- she's meh about this.
Coding bootcamp -- she's interested in this.
Is coding bootcamp a good idea for someone like my daughter?
Do they really take people from zero knowledge to job-ready?
Did you do it? I found a lot of info online, but your personal experience would be very welcome.
Do you have other ideas?
Thanks for any help you can provide!
My daughter was a straight-A student in K-12, and went to the highest-rated magnet program in our city for high school. She tested well on the SAT and ACT, wrote a couple of kickass essays, and got into some very competitive universities... but then, in spring of her senior year, she decided it was all bullshit and dropped out of school. She tried community college, but wants nothing to do with community college -- and consequently, formal education at all at this point. She is a very good waitress, and supports herself on that, but she says she doesn't want to do that forever. She's 21 now, and wondering what to do with her life.
So what can she do? She's very smart and very competitive, likes kids, likes to read, swing-dance, and brew beer. Needs a fair amount of alone time.
Things she thought of:
The military -- she has a DUI on her record, they might not take her, and she'd never be alone.
Stay-at-home mom -- she'd be great at that, but it isn't something she can exactly just go do on her own.
Things I thought of:
Graphic designer -- she's meh about this.
Coding bootcamp -- she's interested in this.
Is coding bootcamp a good idea for someone like my daughter?
Do they really take people from zero knowledge to job-ready?
Did you do it? I found a lot of info online, but your personal experience would be very welcome.
Do you have other ideas?
Thanks for any help you can provide!
If she's on the fence about coding bootcamps, she could consider trying a MOOC or some sort of mentored online class first. Thinkful comes to mind, solely because they advertised jobs for mentors a lot on JavaScript Weekly for a while, but some old reviews look OK. I see Coursera has some Python classes starting in a couple of days. Those seem like ways to test the waters a bit more before committing to a bootcamp.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 10:56 PM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Monsieur Caution at 10:56 PM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Has she considered doing that Thiel Fellowship? seems made for people like her.
posted by yueliang at 11:15 PM on July 7, 2015
posted by yueliang at 11:15 PM on July 7, 2015
A DUI is not necessarily a disqualification for the military. Waivers are available, and anecdotally recruiters will try harder to get one for applicants that are smart and serious about joining (though it's not guaranteed). There's tons and tons of info online about joining and being in the US military, so if she's worried about anything in particular it's almost certainly been discussed. But I think the place to start is by looking up the jobs in the different branches, what they do, where they work, what the medical and ASVAB requirements are, what people are saying online about having that job, and if it has benefits in the civilian world. A specific set of appealing jobs is easier to make choices about.
posted by clorox at 1:16 AM on July 8, 2015
posted by clorox at 1:16 AM on July 8, 2015
Im afraid the Thiel Fellowship is for kids who are already huge successes, and not really for kids who are figuring out what they should do. (Most of them have done something like invent a new kind of drone or found a million dollar company).
posted by the agents of KAOS at 3:15 AM on July 8, 2015
posted by the agents of KAOS at 3:15 AM on July 8, 2015
I am a recent coding bootcamp graduate, and we had someone in my cohort who was in a similar situation as your daughter, 20 years old, smart, but dropped out of college because she wasn't into the formal education thing.
Here are my (slightly disjointed) thoughts:
- Definitely encourage your daughter to check out a MOOC or other online learning course about programming, not so much for what she'll actually learn (though anything she does learn will give her a big leg up), but to establish that programming is actually something that she's good at and enjoys. No point in plunking down a big chunk of change so that she can have a frustrating and unsuccessful experience. Personally, I used Codecademy for the basics and for something a little more structured and rigorous I worked through the EdX Harvard CS50 and MIT Intro to Programming through Python. It might also be worth getting out in the programming community a bit, going to meetups. If your city has a RailsBridge or Women Who Code group, that would be perfect.
- Bootcamps are a little bit of a wild west at the moment, without any sort of licensing, or clear sense of which ones are good and bad. Most of them are pretty comparable in price to a semester of higher ed, and some of them are absolutely worth that price, and others aren't. Encourage your daughter to do her research. In general: Longevity is good (i.e. successfully having graduated 5 or 6 cohorts) . Local connections and involvement in the local tech community is essential (don't expect to fly to New York for a bootcamp and then find a job in Austin). The national chains have quality control issues (hard to staff up 20 new bootcamps with teachers who are both effective and knowledgeable in a year).
- My colleague struggled a little in the job market. For bootcampers in their mid 20's or early 30's, their secret weapon is their non-programming experience. They've had other jobs, they know how to network and present themselves, they have a compelling story about why they want to be programmers. They may have less programming experience than a recent grad from a CS program, but they compensate in other ways. Your daughter doesn't necessarily have all that. All that said, my colleague did find a (paid) internship after a couple months, and I'm confident that once she has her foot in the door she will have a great career ahead of her.
Feel free to ask here or memail me with any other questions you might have.
posted by firechicago at 4:42 AM on July 8, 2015 [8 favorites]
Here are my (slightly disjointed) thoughts:
- Definitely encourage your daughter to check out a MOOC or other online learning course about programming, not so much for what she'll actually learn (though anything she does learn will give her a big leg up), but to establish that programming is actually something that she's good at and enjoys. No point in plunking down a big chunk of change so that she can have a frustrating and unsuccessful experience. Personally, I used Codecademy for the basics and for something a little more structured and rigorous I worked through the EdX Harvard CS50 and MIT Intro to Programming through Python. It might also be worth getting out in the programming community a bit, going to meetups. If your city has a RailsBridge or Women Who Code group, that would be perfect.
- Bootcamps are a little bit of a wild west at the moment, without any sort of licensing, or clear sense of which ones are good and bad. Most of them are pretty comparable in price to a semester of higher ed, and some of them are absolutely worth that price, and others aren't. Encourage your daughter to do her research. In general: Longevity is good (i.e. successfully having graduated 5 or 6 cohorts) . Local connections and involvement in the local tech community is essential (don't expect to fly to New York for a bootcamp and then find a job in Austin). The national chains have quality control issues (hard to staff up 20 new bootcamps with teachers who are both effective and knowledgeable in a year).
- My colleague struggled a little in the job market. For bootcampers in their mid 20's or early 30's, their secret weapon is their non-programming experience. They've had other jobs, they know how to network and present themselves, they have a compelling story about why they want to be programmers. They may have less programming experience than a recent grad from a CS program, but they compensate in other ways. Your daughter doesn't necessarily have all that. All that said, my colleague did find a (paid) internship after a couple months, and I'm confident that once she has her foot in the door she will have a great career ahead of her.
Feel free to ask here or memail me with any other questions you might have.
posted by firechicago at 4:42 AM on July 8, 2015 [8 favorites]
A DUI probably wouldn't exclude anyone otherwise qualified for the military, unless they lied about it and it was later found out.
A good friend went to a coding bootcamp. It's not NOT like school, and if you tank that in the last week you've wasted quite a bit of money. The impression is zero knowledge -> career ready, but I think many people going into them have programming experience, but less practical or up to date skills. I would also suppose many of the more successful applicants (my friend is in this category) are math savants, which is a big part of programming.
Beyond that, coding is really a state of mind that sometimes even really smart people can't get into. An Intro to Programming course at a CC, or at least the willingness to accept a school-like environment, would go a long way in predicting success for your daughter.
posted by tremspeed at 7:27 AM on July 8, 2015
A good friend went to a coding bootcamp. It's not NOT like school, and if you tank that in the last week you've wasted quite a bit of money. The impression is zero knowledge -> career ready, but I think many people going into them have programming experience, but less practical or up to date skills. I would also suppose many of the more successful applicants (my friend is in this category) are math savants, which is a big part of programming.
Beyond that, coding is really a state of mind that sometimes even really smart people can't get into. An Intro to Programming course at a CC, or at least the willingness to accept a school-like environment, would go a long way in predicting success for your daughter.
posted by tremspeed at 7:27 AM on July 8, 2015
when i was in your daughter's position, i ran through the exercises in a workbook called Discover What You're Best At, and it gave me a bunch of options for careers/jobs i never would have thought of. might be worth a shot.
posted by smokyjoe at 10:40 AM on July 8, 2015
posted by smokyjoe at 10:40 AM on July 8, 2015
The U.S. Department of Labor has an Apprenticeship program that is not well known but offers great opportunities. Your daughter could look to see what options are available in your area, and take it from there.
posted by smorgasbord at 3:57 PM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by smorgasbord at 3:57 PM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
-Working holiday somewhere, such as Australia or New Zealand
posted by aniola at 8:53 PM on July 8, 2015
posted by aniola at 8:53 PM on July 8, 2015
I was in the Air Force for twenty years and retired. I would recommend at least one four year tour. Great pay and benefits- the gi bill they have now is excellent- and to be honest - when I was in I had a lot of opportunities to have fun. Especially when I was single. I retired several years ago but there are many career fields available. Talk to recruiters and ask questions. If they tell you or promise a particular job or technical school- all that information has to be in writing. It doesn't hurt to look- Volunteer for overseas and see lots of cool things. BTW the DUI thing just be straight up about it, probably no big deal.
posted by Upon Further Review at 9:42 PM on July 8, 2015
posted by Upon Further Review at 9:42 PM on July 8, 2015
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What does she like? Most people either love or hate programming.
posted by deathpanels at 10:55 PM on July 7, 2015