Mid-Life Get-A-Life Filter
June 15, 2023 1:13 PM Subscribe
I'm almost 40. I have no college degree. I've been out of work for almost a year. My patchy resume does not make me an oustanding candidate for anything I'm applying for, locally (small town) or remotely. What bootcamp/training program should I look at to maximize my chances of having a sustainable career within a year?
Bonus complication: ADHD makes it difficult to succeed with free/self-directed learning resources.
My greatest fear is investing 4-8+ months and several-many thousands of dollars, and still getting zero traction on my job search.
I'm most intrinsically interested in UI/UX or data science, but I'm also curious about casting a wider net in case there's something worthwhile I'm overlooking.
Bonus complication: ADHD makes it difficult to succeed with free/self-directed learning resources.
My greatest fear is investing 4-8+ months and several-many thousands of dollars, and still getting zero traction on my job search.
I'm most intrinsically interested in UI/UX or data science, but I'm also curious about casting a wider net in case there's something worthwhile I'm overlooking.
For your wider net: SAS certification has historically been a bit of a golden ticket in the public health sector and other professions that rely on massive data analyses. There's a bit of wonder at the moment about how this will stand up to AI over the near term, but it's still a really competitive skill set. For instance, I will often hire a freelance biostatistician to organize, vet, re-analyze data before I publish anything.
Some certificaiton exams are under $200 and you can find a lot of free training materials online (and, of course, there are all sorts of online for-fee courses to provide more structure and oversight).
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 2:34 PM on June 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
Some certificaiton exams are under $200 and you can find a lot of free training materials online (and, of course, there are all sorts of online for-fee courses to provide more structure and oversight).
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 2:34 PM on June 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
The Certified Associate of Project Management (CAPM) requires a high school diploma, around 25 hours of coursework (available in an instructor led one-week boot camp through PMI), and passing an exam. This would help you qualify for all kinds of project and program coordination jobs across many sectors and may be a better fit for you as someone with ADHD. The qualities you’d need to complete self-directed coursework would be the same ones you’d need to be successful in any type of data-related job so that’s something to keep in mind.
posted by scantee at 3:02 PM on June 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by scantee at 3:02 PM on June 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
So, a word of encouragement and then I'll maybe bum you out a little. I am a hire-r of UX/UI designers and basically the only thing I will look at to evaluate a candidate is their portfolio. If the portfolio is good, I don't care about where they went to school (or if they graduated) or where they've worked in the past or how old they are. I'll usually do some research on the background of a candidate with a good portfolio to like, verify they're not plagiarizing anything, but a good portfolio will do more than get you in the door. You don't need to go to art or tech school to have a good portfolio, your portfolio doesn't even *need* to have actual professional work you've done for real clients/employers (though this helps), it just needs to be good.
All that being said - I don't want to fully discourage you from looking into UX/UI bootcamp programs, but I do want to call out that if you don't already have some kind of aptitude for this kind of work, a bootcamp is likely not going to get you all the way there. You may get just as much out of, or more of a foundation out of continuing ed/community college courses without having to spend nearly as much money.
High end art schools focus a lot on fundamentals like color theory, history and usage of typography, modernist layout techniques, learning desktop publishing software, etc. and a lot less on things like specifically UX/UI design - often candidates coming right out of art school are tough to hire for that reason. Bootcamps usually don't cover *any* of the fundamentals, and candidates coming out of a bootcamp are tough to hire for that reason.
That being said, larger companies or companies hiring in your region may be trying to fill seats and bootcamp candidates might be more attractive to them than they have been to me (see below).
Before you commit to a bootcamp, I suggest you do a preliminary job search right now for positions in this field that you could apply for (local, remote). You'd be looking for entry level web design, UX design, UI design, interactive design, etc (there's no longer one name for this type of position). When you find those positions, read through the qualifications. While you're doing that, take a look at the website for the company hiring for that position. Review their case studies and portfolio of work. See what they do and how they talk about what they do. Evaluate possible classes/bootcamps with those listed qualifications and customer case studies in mind.
For context: I'm an interactive art/design director at a small agency, and before this job I was a partner at a smaller agency involved in hiring designers. I've reviewed hundreds of portfolios in the last 10 years or so. Most of them have been from people coming out of a bootcamp - the market seems pretty saturated. Bootcamps seem focused on allowing participants to build a more-or-less credible portfolio in order to be hired without necessarily being able to demonstrate a deep understanding of key concepts or real-world design activities. In general, the candidates I've hired and tried to hire often didn't come out of these programs, or if they did, they had some kind of design background already and were able to demonstrate a good aesthetic sense and a meaningful understanding of what makes a good website good.
posted by lousywiththespirit at 3:53 PM on June 15, 2023 [12 favorites]
All that being said - I don't want to fully discourage you from looking into UX/UI bootcamp programs, but I do want to call out that if you don't already have some kind of aptitude for this kind of work, a bootcamp is likely not going to get you all the way there. You may get just as much out of, or more of a foundation out of continuing ed/community college courses without having to spend nearly as much money.
High end art schools focus a lot on fundamentals like color theory, history and usage of typography, modernist layout techniques, learning desktop publishing software, etc. and a lot less on things like specifically UX/UI design - often candidates coming right out of art school are tough to hire for that reason. Bootcamps usually don't cover *any* of the fundamentals, and candidates coming out of a bootcamp are tough to hire for that reason.
That being said, larger companies or companies hiring in your region may be trying to fill seats and bootcamp candidates might be more attractive to them than they have been to me (see below).
Before you commit to a bootcamp, I suggest you do a preliminary job search right now for positions in this field that you could apply for (local, remote). You'd be looking for entry level web design, UX design, UI design, interactive design, etc (there's no longer one name for this type of position). When you find those positions, read through the qualifications. While you're doing that, take a look at the website for the company hiring for that position. Review their case studies and portfolio of work. See what they do and how they talk about what they do. Evaluate possible classes/bootcamps with those listed qualifications and customer case studies in mind.
For context: I'm an interactive art/design director at a small agency, and before this job I was a partner at a smaller agency involved in hiring designers. I've reviewed hundreds of portfolios in the last 10 years or so. Most of them have been from people coming out of a bootcamp - the market seems pretty saturated. Bootcamps seem focused on allowing participants to build a more-or-less credible portfolio in order to be hired without necessarily being able to demonstrate a deep understanding of key concepts or real-world design activities. In general, the candidates I've hired and tried to hire often didn't come out of these programs, or if they did, they had some kind of design background already and were able to demonstrate a good aesthetic sense and a meaningful understanding of what makes a good website good.
posted by lousywiththespirit at 3:53 PM on June 15, 2023 [12 favorites]
Adult education classes run by your local library or city/state government could be a good starting point - at the very least they'll be affordable.
posted by fox problems at 4:06 PM on June 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by fox problems at 4:06 PM on June 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
A lot of us in the sciences with various neurodiversities find that the movement and variety of lab work suits our brains better than sitting at a computer all day. If you want to explore other options, lots of community and technical colleges are now offering biotech bootcamps that teach in a few months the lab skills needed to work in a bio or med tech lab. If you're not squeamish, phlebotomist is another high demand position that you can get trained into very quickly.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:55 AM on June 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by hydropsyche at 5:55 AM on June 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
I would suggest checking out (in person) options offered by your local community college. As an added bonus, it may* be possible to leverage student discounts with enrollment in a not for credit course at a community college.
*It was in my n = 1 situation, but I can't claim it's universal.
For your consideration, data science is being increasingly credentialed, and there are now over 2,000 U.S. colleges offering a bachelor's degree in data science. It might be difficult for those with no bachelor's degree + a bootcamp* to compete against those with a bachelor's degree in data science let alone compete against those were recently let go from big tech.
*keep in mind that any stats for a tech related boot camp would have been before the recent mass layoffs at big tech.
posted by oceano at 1:47 AM on June 17, 2023
*It was in my n = 1 situation, but I can't claim it's universal.
For your consideration, data science is being increasingly credentialed, and there are now over 2,000 U.S. colleges offering a bachelor's degree in data science. It might be difficult for those with no bachelor's degree + a bootcamp* to compete against those with a bachelor's degree in data science let alone compete against those were recently let go from big tech.
*keep in mind that any stats for a tech related boot camp would have been before the recent mass layoffs at big tech.
posted by oceano at 1:47 AM on June 17, 2023
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posted by nkknkk at 1:58 PM on June 15, 2023 [5 favorites]