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Graduated from Hack Reactor in 2014. I'm a Senior Software Engineer at a large company now. I was prepared enough to not totally screw things up at my first j

Graduated from Hack Reactor in 2014. I'm a Senior Software Engineer at a large company now. I was prepared enough to not totally screw things up at my first job. I was an expert in Javascript and reasonably knowledgeable at data structures and how to implement basic web stuff. I'm now more focused on back end things...AWS, infrastructure, services, etc. As far as I know, most of my cohort is still working at good jobs.

swyx 9y ago
bootcamps are pretty light on backend/devops type knowledge which turns out pretty critical for "real" jobs. Do you think this can generally be picked up later or should people in bootcamps do something like an AWS certification (just to pick an arbitrary skill proof point) to be sufficiently well-rounded?
- proudfoot 9y ago
  So are new grads though, this is typically learnt on the job.
- bacontacos 9y ago
  I've never done an AWS class or have any certs, so I can't say for sure if its worth doing. In my case, I've mainly learned on the job and have had some really fantastic mentors to work with who have trusted me to make decisions and let me run with them. I also read a ton of books on design patterns, architecture, deployment, ops, etc.
  - swyx 9y ago
    thank you. if you have any architecture/deployment/ops books to recommend I would love to hear it.
    - tannhauser23 9y ago
      Deployment / DevOps changes so fast though - Docker and AWS didn't even exist a few years ago! If you're totally new to deployment, I'd do something like this: * Get comfortable with the basic Unix/Linux commands (basically, to the point where you can navigate the file system and mv/cp/rm files with ease, change chmod permissions, etc.) * Create a simple webapp in the stack of your choice. Literally a webserver for a site that says 'hello world'. * Deploy it on Heroku. With their CLI it's like a single command. * Congrats! You deployed a site! Go on Heroku's management dashboard and take a look at the logs. They won't make much sense, but get a feel for what's going on. * Go on digitalocean and make a droplet, which is a VM that's running on their servers. Pick the Ubuntu 16.04 droplet. (Note, you can pick 'One Click Apps' which are VMs that come preloaded with the stack of your choice, but don't do that now). Read about how SSH works. Now SSH into your droplet. Cool, now you're connected to your server! * Learn how to install the dependencies for your webapp. I don't think the droplets even come with git, so you gotta install everything from scratch. Then get your app running! * From here, keep playing with your webapp. Figure out how to make your server run your updated code. How to add a database. Do it until you're really comfortable with running your site. * By now you've run into a ton of issues with the site breaking. It's hard to keep your dev env and the live server synced! Start learning about Docker. Dockerize your app and deploy your app to Digital Ocean as a Docker image. * When you're comfortable with THAT, start learning AWS. Learn what a EC2 instance is, what RDS is, what you can do with S3, etc. * Finally, deploy to AWS! You can use the free account tier at Digital Ocean / AWS to accomplish all these tasks. Good luck and have fun!
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- busterarm 9y ago
  Bootcamps don't teach you AWS because that would cost them money and eat into their profits if they showed anything useful. Plus they probably don't want to be on the hook for some student goofing up and running up a huge AWS bill. I get alumni surveys all the time asking what things they should teach and the one thing that is consistently never on the list is ops/cloud-related training.
  - swyx 9y ago
    or maybe its something that doesnt matter for getting the job
- tannhauser23 9y ago
  You pick that up at work or on your free time. I'm less than a year out of a bootcamp. Just this month I made a small webapp for a project that my team's working on. I wanted to learn how to deploy something from scratch (using Docker -> AWS), so I read about that for a bit, peppered our DevOps people with a few questions, and then went and did it. I learned a ton! Just seek out opportunities at work to learn new skills.
gothrowaway 9y ago
(For anyone looking at this in the future, this user just signed up to make this post) Care to tell who you are and what the company is? How did you find the article? How did you go to a senior role in 3 years?
- xiaoma 9y ago
  Many, many HR grads followed a similar path and many read HN. I personally knew just about everyone in the first 7 cohorts. During that time I saw success after success from the other students with some getting promoted and leading teams with just a year or two. Several have now founded startups. I'll also add that my account is 3275 days older than yours and isn't a throwaway.
  - bacontacos 9y ago
    Just missed you! I was in 9. To the above poster that was flagged, it sort of sounds like you're accusing me of lying, but I'll give you the benefit of best intent and answer your questions. Yes, I created this account just to make this comment. I was introduced to HN by someone in my bootcamp cohort. Never felt the need to comment on something until a post that was directed right at me. Never made an account either because no reason to. So, hope that clears it up. I think you are assuming my tech progression started at Hack Reactor 3ish years ago. It in fact has been most of my life. I was building computers from spare hardware in grade school, learned some code in middle, took 2 yrs of college classes while in high school to prepare for the CCNA exam (cisco certified network associate). I entered college as a computer engineer. Then I switched to a totally different career path from which I learned how to be an effective leader and teacher. When I hit the end of that path, I came back around and did Hack Reactor to work my way into an engineering role. I became a senior in a relatively short amount of time because of my background but also because I learned a lot at my first startup gig after my mentor quit, leaving me as the only engineer responsible for the codebase. Thrown into the deep end for sure, as the business had to keep moving forward. I have taken on volunteer work at my current job outside my normal responsibilities, give meaningful review to my peers, and work on large, impactful projects. I make it a point to get to know other engineers and get my name known in the org. I placed myself in the senior role and was rewarded with the title after. Another point, many of the people in my class already had a technical background as well. More then half. I think among all bootcamps this is probably more rare today.

swyx 9y ago

bootcamps are pretty light on backend/devops type knowledge which turns out pretty critical for "real" jobs. Do you think this can generally be picked up later or should people in bootcamps do something like an AWS certification (just to pick an arbitrary skill proof point) to be sufficiently well-rounded?

proudfoot 9y ago
So are new grads though, this is typically learnt on the job.
bacontacos 9y ago
I've never done an AWS class or have any certs, so I can't say for sure if its worth doing. In my case, I've mainly learned on the job and have had some really fantastic mentors to work with who have trusted me to make decisions and let me run with them. I also read a ton of books on design patterns, architecture, deployment, ops, etc.
- swyx 9y ago
  thank you. if you have any architecture/deployment/ops books to recommend I would love to hear it.
  - tannhauser23 9y ago
    Deployment / DevOps changes so fast though - Docker and AWS didn't even exist a few years ago! If you're totally new to deployment, I'd do something like this: * Get comfortable with the basic Unix/Linux commands (basically, to the point where you can navigate the file system and mv/cp/rm files with ease, change chmod permissions, etc.) * Create a simple webapp in the stack of your choice. Literally a webserver for a site that says 'hello world'. * Deploy it on Heroku. With their CLI it's like a single command. * Congrats! You deployed a site! Go on Heroku's management dashboard and take a look at the logs. They won't make much sense, but get a feel for what's going on. * Go on digitalocean and make a droplet, which is a VM that's running on their servers. Pick the Ubuntu 16.04 droplet. (Note, you can pick 'One Click Apps' which are VMs that come preloaded with the stack of your choice, but don't do that now). Read about how SSH works. Now SSH into your droplet. Cool, now you're connected to your server! * Learn how to install the dependencies for your webapp. I don't think the droplets even come with git, so you gotta install everything from scratch. Then get your app running! * From here, keep playing with your webapp. Figure out how to make your server run your updated code. How to add a database. Do it until you're really comfortable with running your site. * By now you've run into a ton of issues with the site breaking. It's hard to keep your dev env and the live server synced! Start learning about Docker. Dockerize your app and deploy your app to Digital Ocean as a Docker image. * When you're comfortable with THAT, start learning AWS. Learn what a EC2 instance is, what RDS is, what you can do with S3, etc. * Finally, deploy to AWS! You can use the free account tier at Digital Ocean / AWS to accomplish all these tasks. Good luck and have fun!
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
busterarm 9y ago
Bootcamps don't teach you AWS because that would cost them money and eat into their profits if they showed anything useful. Plus they probably don't want to be on the hook for some student goofing up and running up a huge AWS bill. I get alumni surveys all the time asking what things they should teach and the one thing that is consistently never on the list is ops/cloud-related training.
- swyx 9y ago
  or maybe its something that doesnt matter for getting the job
tannhauser23 9y ago
You pick that up at work or on your free time. I'm less than a year out of a bootcamp. Just this month I made a small webapp for a project that my team's working on. I wanted to learn how to deploy something from scratch (using Docker -> AWS), so I read about that for a bit, peppered our DevOps people with a few questions, and then went and did it. I learned a ton! Just seek out opportunities at work to learn new skills.

gothrowaway 9y ago

(For anyone looking at this in the future, this user just signed up to make this post) Care to tell who you are and what the company is? How did you find the article? How did you go to a senior role in 3 years?

xiaoma 9y ago
Many, many HR grads followed a similar path and many read HN. I personally knew just about everyone in the first 7 cohorts. During that time I saw success after success from the other students with some getting promoted and leading teams with just a year or two. Several have now founded startups. I'll also add that my account is 3275 days older than yours and isn't a throwaway.
- bacontacos 9y ago
  Just missed you! I was in 9. To the above poster that was flagged, it sort of sounds like you're accusing me of lying, but I'll give you the benefit of best intent and answer your questions. Yes, I created this account just to make this comment. I was introduced to HN by someone in my bootcamp cohort. Never felt the need to comment on something until a post that was directed right at me. Never made an account either because no reason to. So, hope that clears it up. I think you are assuming my tech progression started at Hack Reactor 3ish years ago. It in fact has been most of my life. I was building computers from spare hardware in grade school, learned some code in middle, took 2 yrs of college classes while in high school to prepare for the CCNA exam (cisco certified network associate). I entered college as a computer engineer. Then I switched to a totally different career path from which I learned how to be an effective leader and teacher. When I hit the end of that path, I came back around and did Hack Reactor to work my way into an engineering role. I became a senior in a relatively short amount of time because of my background but also because I learned a lot at my first startup gig after my mentor quit, leaving me as the only engineer responsible for the codebase. Thrown into the deep end for sure, as the business had to keep moving forward. I have taken on volunteer work at my current job outside my normal responsibilities, give meaningful review to my peers, and work on large, impactful projects. I make it a point to get to know other engineers and get my name known in the org. I placed myself in the senior role and was rewarded with the title after. Another point, many of the people in my class already had a technical background as well. More then half. I think among all bootcamps this is probably more rare today.