Fwiw I never went to a boot camp (nor have an engineering degree of any kind). I was lucky enough to have a few opportunities where I was paid to learn. Got my

Fwiw I never went to a boot camp (nor have an engineering degree of any kind). I was lucky enough to have a few opportunities where I was paid to learn. Got my first big boy developer job at a startup in Santa Monica in oct 2014 after working as a scuba instructor. Now I work very part time from a boat sailing around the sea of Cortez. I can only do this because my resume is solid enough that picking up short term freelance work is not impossible. If you want to learn something (or do something for that matter) I think passion is the first and most important ingredient. If you want it bad enough the opportunities will manifest themselves.