full image - Repost: teacher looking to transition to coding (from Reddit.com, teacher looking to transition to coding)
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Hello everyone, so I'd like to ask if you think going to a coding bootcamp could be a worthwhile choice for me and I'll list some key facts about myself so that you can have some context and understand who I am, what I've done in my previous jobs, and what led to me thinking about this.TL;DR: I'm a teacher and I don't like teaching anymore. Too much burn out. I am in a lot of debt because that's life. Bad things happen to people and sometimes pure grit isn't enough to keep up with inflation and other things. I want to make a career transition and change to my salary. I've recently been considering coding but I also have to work a full time job and pay the bills and all that stuff. Moving back home isn't an option because my dad died in a house fire when I was a teenager and that same house ended up being foreclosed in 2018 because my mom couldn't keep up with mortgage and I had to move out. I want to help retire my mom and I want to live a better life than I am right now. Could coding bootcamps open up doors and opportunities for me? Or am I better off learning for free? Is it even worth making a full switch to tech because the people I'll be competing against will be super young and have 4 year computer science degrees? (My degree is in psychology)Thanks!Long version:-I'm currently a 31 year old technology teacher and technology coordinator. I have been teaching tech for 4 years since 2020 and have stepped up to add tech coordinator responsibilities for the past 2 years. Part of my job includes teaching tech curriculum to grades K-8 and also to help manage everything related to technology for my school site. I teach very basic (I suppose to tech savvy people anyways) concepts related to technology and computer science. I know enough to make me smarter than a middle schooler but not enough to be employable in an actual tech coding position. For tech coordinator, this includes but not limited to: IT support, device repairs, replacing projector lamps, troubleshooting peripherals, managing Google Admin Console, etc. I'm just barely scratching the surface here but just to give you an idea.-I landed in my current position because in 2020 I was let go from my teaching job due to COVID. I was job searching and fortunately an edtech company took a chance on me and hired me. -Before I was a classroom teacher, I worked in education as a paraprofessional, after school teacher, and summertime aide. Most of my professional working life as an adult is from the education field outside of small time cashier and cooking jobs.-Although I would love staying as a teacher, fact is I'm burnt out. Teaching is hard work and anyone who has ever worked with youth K-12 can probably attest to the grind. Teaching doesn't pay me enough to want to continue staying.-The main reason why I want to switch into coding is because of money reasons. I guess its a controversial opinion to have because many people will say things like "do what you love, forget about the money" or "don't do it for the money or you'll be even more unhappy" but in my opinion and from my own lived experiences, the fact is having money changes your life a lot. It doesn't mean it should be the source of happiness but it sure can make life a lot easier and grants you more opportunities in life. I basically got screwed over in life several times and as a result I've accumulated a lot of debt over the years due to different things outside of my control. Not to make a sob story but just to illustrate a few examples: Losing my home and my father in a house fire when I was 13 years old was hard. We were already poor, now I'm just more poor and my dad is dead. My mom was always busy working so I'm basically just raising myself as a teenager until now. We lost that same home again in 2018 permanately to a foreclosure because my mom as a single parent couldn't afford to keep up with the mortgage over the years, so I had to start borrowing loans to live out on my own because relying on family wasn't an option. Mind you, I wasn't just living at home doing nothing and being a bumass. I tried to contribute as much as I could, I worked long hours to help pay the bills as soon as I graduated college. I wanted to go to go on to graduate school and study but I never got the opportunity because of all the extra jobs I needed to take to help my mom with bills. When COVID happened, I didn't have a full time job for a while and lived off credit cards. My mom to this day does not have a place to live and she lives with my grandparents. Meanwhile I'm just kinda fucked by rent and loan payments and poor paying education jobs. I'll admit I contributed to some of my debt due to trying out gambling but quickly learned my lesson and stopped. -The last reason I want to switch to coding is because after my edtech company hired me and exposed me to the world of tech, I quickly found out this could be a viable out for me because I found myself eagerly looking to learn and grow and get better at all things tech related and coding as well. I don't have a limited mindset anymore as I did in undergrad and I have a growth mindset now. Although granted, that one time I took an undergrad comp sci class in college, I didn't do so horribly. I think I made it out with a B+ or B- at least. But I used to be scared of coding and now I'm not. I'm sure there will be frustrations and challenges that come with learning it but I mean I'd be disgracing myself as an educator if I told myself now I can't do something after years of telling my students they can do and become what they want to if they work hard at it. -The conundrum now is I have to keep working full time as a teacher to keep myself a float and pay off all these loans and to pay rent. I just don't know how I can kickstart myself into a boot camp anyways. I know there are free options out there but I'm someone who needs structures and goals set for me. I like to know I can access people to talk to and they'll be ready for me and to be able to network after graduating a boot camp too. In the meantime all I've been doing is self-studying as much as I can.But anyways with that said, does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions in good faith? Thank you for your input. I don't think I should treat a single forum on reddit as gospel and I'll certainly plan to talk to more people about this but I figured it'd be good to reach out to some kind of tech community out there and start seeing what people have to say. The goal for me is to figure out a decision regarding if a coding bootcamp could be worthwhile, and if not (in your opinion) what then is the next best option for my situation?Thanks in advance.
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