Live Q&A: Making a Career Change with a Part-Time Bootcamp

Table of Contents

• Meet the Panelists:
• Deciding to Make a Career Change
• What Learning Is Like in a Part-Time Bootcamp
• The Tech Jobs Part-Time Bootampers Can Land
• Your Next Steps

Rather than quitting a job to make a career change into tech, many are taking advantage of the flexibility of a part-time bootcamp. In this exclusive alumni panel, we spoke with bootcamp graduates from Tech Elevator, Springboard, General Assembly, and Careerist to find out how a part-time bootcamp helped them successfully transition into tech. From what they learned in a part-time bootcamp to landing their first tech role, our panelists share on-the-ground insights into what it takes to make a career change in software engineering, cybersecurity, and QA testing! 

Meet the Panelists:

• Ariel Bradley has a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Industry, and enrolled in Springboard’s Cybersecurity Career Track bootcamp in 2022. Ariel is now an Information Security Analyst at Pearson. 

• Faris Alkassim has a background in sales, but pivoted to QA engineering through Careerist in 2023. He is now Software QA Engineer at Planet Technology. 

• Allegra Rapoport was working as a data analyst before enrolling at the coding bootcamp at Tech Elevator. She graduated from the bootcamp in 2024 and is now a Junior Software Engineer for the Detroit Tigers. 

• Jess Sepulveda had a background in teaching and marketing before completing the Software Engineering bootcamp at General Assembly in 2023. She is now an Associate Software Engineer at Fidelity Investments.

Deciding to Make a Career Change

Why did each of you ultimately choose the bootcamp you attended?

Ariel: I ultimately chose Springboard because of the affordability, the job guarantee program, and because I was able to have a more personable conversation to ask all the questions I had and get an educated answer, compared to other local universities.  

Faris: I was weighing options between local university-provided bootcamps and some other online options. What it came down to was that when I was talking to their recruiter this was the one program that didn't try to sell me something. Coming from a background in sales, that seemed very genuine to me. They answered my questions honestly, plus it was at a comfortable price point. I also really liked the time frame that they offered. 

Jess: I had been hired by General Assembly as a career coach and while I was going through my employment, I realized how incredible their instructional program was! I had been a teacher for five years and knew that education was one of my interests. I also loved the career coach opportunities that the immersive program had. I spoke to my manager and enrolled in the part-time course knowing very well that it would be challenging while working, but that's how I landed on this path!

Allegra: My main priorities were part-time and online. Tech Elevator offers both, so it gave me flexibility to work when I needed to. The price point was pretty comparable with other bootcamps so that didn't deter or encourage me to go there. The main thing was Tech Elevator’s curriculum. Learning a full stack software engineering background was really important to me. I didn't want to learn just front end, back end, or database management, so their curriculum was a strong point! They also include extensive career counseling while you're in the bootcamp so you're working towards that goal while you're learning your various languages to become a software engineer. The thing that really tipped the scale for Tech Elevator was that one of my good friends who works as a software engineer had firsthand experience. He reviewed the curriculum and confirmed that for a professional role in software engineering this provided a great background! Everything made sense to go to Tech Elevator.

Ariel, did you end up using the job guarantee when you were at Springboard?

Ariel: The job guarantee model is: if you don’t land a job in six months you can get your tuition refunded. It took me eight months to get a job instead of six, so I’m working with them to get that sorted out. Others have received it though. 

Faris, how did you decide on QA Testing as a career path? 

Faris: I worked briefly in tech many years ago when I graduated college and then life steered me toward sales. I knew I wanted to get back in tech. I read an article about the most appealing jobs in tech and the number one tech job with the lowest stress level and easiest foothold was Quality Assurance (QA). I really like the idea of getting paid to break software, which is essentially what a QA tester does!

Jess, why did you choose a part-time software engineering bootcamp over a full-time program?

Jess: Schedule-wise it would have been the only thing that I could do because the full-time immersive was more like a full-time job. That said, even the part-time bootcamp felt pretty extreme with weekends and night classes!

Allegra, you moved from data to software engineering – what inspired that career shift?

Allegra: I started as a public health major in college so data analytics did make sense for what I was studying. I was already working with large data sets and using some programming languages here and there (mostly R, which thankfully I don't use anymore in my job). I realized that what I enjoyed most about my data roles was building technologies or automations to make the data analytics parts easier or quicker to do. I got to work with code a little bit more in some of my roles because we had situations where we lost our web developer for a second and needed someone to fill in and that immediately told me that software engineering is a better path than data analytics!

What Learning Is Like in a Part-Time Bootcamp

Time management is important if you’re doing a part-time bootcamp. Does anyone have advice for balancing the bootcamp with work and other life commitments? How many hours per week did you end up having to dedicate to the bootcamp?

Ariel: I had to learn time management while doing this program and it is a major reason why it took me longer to find a job and to finish up the program. In total it should ideally take under a year to finish the curriculum and find a job. In 2022, I moved alone to the States, which is already a lot to manage. I was also working more than full-time in physical security operations on top of doing this intensive bootcamp. I learned how to calendar block using a Google Calendar. I color-coded all the main things that I had to do, so that the work segment was one color and studying was another. It helped keep my responsibilities prioritized. I was able to get more done in a focused chunk of time. I also had a designated place for work and life balance because I tried to do a lot of my study and curriculum work at home in my room and we know that never works. I got familiar with going to libraries and coffee shops. Also, don’t forget to have a social life and time for yourself because that will help prevent burnout! 

Did your mentor help you develop these time management skills?

Ariel: Both of my career coaches told me to prioritize the job application process. At Springboard, we had to apply to four jobs and get seven informational interviews per week. Since I was working a lot, I would push it to Sunday evening when it was due but I knew I had to prioritize it sooner in the week. From there, I set time aside every week to ensure I was submitting quality applications and making quality connections with my network. 

Faris, how did you balance Careerist with the rest of your life?

Faris: I also utilized calendar blocking to set time aside to go over the material and do my prep work. Classes at Careerist are structured three times a week as a built-in schedule and then I filled in the gap around it. I also made time to decompress from what I was taking in, to give my brain a rest and be able to come back with a fresh approach. We spent six hours in class and then I'd put in another six to 10 hours to make sure I absorbed the material. 

Jess, how did you manage your time at General Assembly?

Jess: During the week we had class and then on Saturdays we had a longer class. I managed my time by utilizing a group of people from my cohort that lived nearby so we could study together. I was definitely feeling information overload — there's a lot to learn in tech and software development! My group would meet once a week at a cafe to run through everything, which helped me consolidate my learning for the following week. 

Allegra, how did you balance work with Tech Elevator?

Allegra: I was working full-time from 9am-5pm and we had classes twice a week. We would have one lecture and then one pair programming class each week. Typically after the lecture, I would see if I could get a start on the assignments that were due Thursday. On Wednesdays, we would work on similar code to the assignment. I was formerly a chronic procrastinator, which obviously wasn't going to work in a bootcamp! I made a huge point to get as far ahead as possible in the assignments. I would jump on the reading as soon as it was available, try and tackle some assignments as soon as possible, and break it up into smaller chunks instead of leaving one giant assignment for midweek. Sometimes I would go to work a little bit earlier so I could maybe wrap up sooner and not be working right up until the start of my bootcamp class time. I also recommend finding a hobby to do that is relaxing and de-stressing because it's a great way to keep your brain thinking and would actually help with your assignments!

What did the curriculum cover and what was the one most useful skill or tool you learned in the bootcamp that you now use at your job? 

Jess: The most useful skill was collaborating! There are a lot of group projects at General Assembly which is how I work every day. I work with my team constantly, learning how to review someone's work (we call them “poll requests”). We also have to be knowledgeable on how to work with the terminal, which is something that we had to do on a daily basis at General Assembly. 

Faris: I'm learning how to use industry technology like Jira and Test Rail. The most critical thing that I took away from Careerist was the knowledge of how to properly prepare test plans, dissect complex documentation to uncover the core functionality, and how to formulate edge case testing and everything else to make sure you're covering what needs to be done end-to-end on a project. 

Allegra: Version control! When you're a software engineer you're working with a larger group and handling pull requests so you're looking at other people's codes and working with Git to push changes and make sure they play nicely with other branches that have been pushed to main. The depth we took into data management and API handling is something I use a lot on a daily basis in my current role. 

Ariel: We were exposed to all the different domains of cyber security. We didn't get into the nitty-gritty parts of each job role, but I was exposed to many different paths. The Springboard tuition covered myCompTIA Security+ certification exam, which helped me stand out as a job transitioner.

What advice do you have for other bootcamp students who want to get the most out of their experience at a part-time bootcamp? 

Allegra: Take your time with the material, make sure you absorb it, Google anything you don't know even if it's one word at a time, and ask your professors all your questions! At the end of the day, this is an investment for yourself so you want to make sure you get the most out of it. I would reread certain pieces of code that I didn't understand, and ask classmates and professors about it. Now you can ask ChatGPT to see if they can provide a good explanation of what this chunk of code does and why it's better than a different chunk of code. Take the time to absorb it and don't rush it.

What was the biggest difficulty you faced while shifting your career?

Jess: The biggest challenge for me was finding transferable skills from my previous career in teaching to tech. I came from a non-traditional, non-tech background and I knew how to use an application but never got into the nitty-gritty of code. It was difficult trying to understand all that a developer has to do that is not just coding and seeing how it aligned with my previous career as a teacher took some work. Being on the other side of it now, I see so many similarities between the two careers. There are a lot of things that I learned from teaching that help me in tech today. A big part of my day-to-day is documentation. There's a lot that goes into not just producing code but documenting it. It's very important for the team and the organization that we document things and I learned how to do that with teaching. 

The Tech Jobs Part-Time Bootampers Can Land

Let’s talk about the job placement process – what was this like at your bootcamp? Did you have a career coach? 

Faris: Careerist has a career coaching system where they pair you with a career coach to get you prepared for the question and answer sessions through mock interviews. They have an entire strategy of how to approach the QA job search, and they've developed a plugin for Chrome that will help speed up that process by creating a spreadsheet to help you track it. I found this system to be effective and I landed a job in QA in two months and two weeks after graduating. I actually had three offers to choose from! 

My soft skills have always been pretty good from the sales background, so I was able to get along pretty well through the initial interviews but the technical interviews were challenging and interesting. They were a great opportunity to meet the rest of the team that you could be working with and show that you can fit in with them. For entry-level jobs, most recruiters are not looking for someone who knows everything. They're looking for someone who can fit in, who has a willingness to learn if and the strength and bravery to admit when you don’t know something and show you can find the answers. In a tough job market, it’s important to remember persistence and not to take rejections personally. I sent out 503 resumés to land the three contracts and get to choose between them.

Ariel: When I was assigned a career coach, I wanted a drill sergeant because I know I can procrastinate so I need someone who's not afraid to hold me accountable. At Springboard, we had a quota of doing four job applications a week and we had to fill in the names and the companies where we applied and then we had to do seven informational interviews and that were due every Sunday night. Since the bootcamp was asynchronous it was up to me to stay on track. I created a spreadsheet tracker to help me with the process. I had a general resume and then for each job that I applied to, I tailored the resume to the keywords and requirements of the job, which helped me stay organized. Between my two experiences with my career coaches, the second time around I was more strategic. I applied to more jobs and I took more time to cater my resume to each one by researching companies and going to networking events. 

Jess: I had only been a career coach for less than a year at General Assembly, but I did the things that I would teach the students. We start with networking. I made a list of everyone I knew and told them that I was looking for a job as a full stack developer. By the end of the week, I had friends who had a connection or friends of friends, and I had a list of all the companies and the roles. I cast a wide net at the beginning because I wanted to get used to interviewing, but towards the end, I made sure that I was only going for the full stack developer job because that's what I really wanted to do. I treated the job search like a full-time job. By the time, I started looking for jobs actively I had gotten laid off from General Assembly so the only thing I was doing was looking for a job. It took me about two months to land the job that I have now.

Allegra: Three weeks into the bootcamp, we started working on career development and tailoring our resumes, LinkedIn, and any professional networking to indicate that I am a software engineer. I was chipping at it bit by bit each week concurrently with my studies. Towards the end of the bootcamp, we were encouraged to start applying to jobs because even though we haven't finished the curriculum yet, we were in a good position to start interviewing and get that process ramped up. I had a dedicated career counselor while in the program. 

After graduation, I got a personalized career counselor that was specific to my location and desired roles. I was expected to apply to jobs each week. We were provided with a program to build out a resume and a spreadsheet to keep track of jobs I applied to. Ultimately, I landed my job at the Detroit Tigers by networking. 

I was encouraged to cold LinkedIn message other Tech Elevator alumni. I chatted with many alumni from Tech Elevator and they all had really helpful advice for getting through interviews. One was: if you're feeling confident about behavioral interviews and technical interviews are a little bit more stressful, make sure you're talking through everything, chatting with the interviewers, letting them see who you are as a person, and admitting when you don't know something but still trying to figure out the problem at hand. Networking is the best possible thing you can do, even though it can be exhausting. 

You all graduated from a bootcamp in the past 3 years — Allegra and Ariel, how hard was it to land your first tech job?

Allegra: I applied to quite a few jobs before getting my Detroit Tigers role. I'm still getting rejection emails from jobs I applied to in May! To get the job with the Tigers, I did a lot of LinkedIn sleuthing for tech jobs in sports because it’s always been a dream industry for me. I saw the Detroit Tigers position and searched through Linkedin to find someone who worked at the Detroit Tigers, and even went as far as to see who had reposted the job and was actively searching for people to fill the role. Just like that I got an interview with my now manager. The interview process took a bit of time. I started it not too long after graduating from my bootcamp. I was very fortunate that some of my LinkedIn messages worked pretty quickly. It definitely takes a lot of rejections and ghosting before you do get that person that says yes. 

Ariel: I think I sent in about 100 applications. I know I did not have the bandwidth or capacity to do more than that, which is why I switched up my strategy. It's a journey nonetheless that teaches you a lot about yourself and how to reach your potential. It can also teach you about what limits you can overcome! 

How did you talk to employers about your experience (or even lack of experience) in interviews? How did you get that first experience?

Faris: One of the points that made me select Careerist was that they align you with real world companies to provide an actual internship, so you have real job skills while you're looking for your first full-time job. It gives you some real world experience to speak from. They prepare you extremely well with their coaching on how to answer questions in an informed way without a lot of experience. It’s the combination of their system and the internships that they provide that offer a good foundation for breaking into QA. 

Ariel, did you feel like you needed certifications to get that first cybersecurity role?

Ariel: In cyber security there's a hierarchy of certifications and the CompTIA Security+ is the one to get your foot in the door. It’s general but still pretty difficult. They say that it requires two years of experience before you can take the Security+ exam, but it's something that you can study for in a couple months and get. Springboard gave us virtual labs to do in tools such as Splunk, a log monitoring tool. We had experience weaving through issues within this so I put that as my project experience in my resume so I can speak on it with the interviewer. I also used Codecademy on the side to get a couple projects under my belt. 

For the things that I couldn't speak to since we didn't have an an internship experience, I was still working in an industry that could translate to cyber security so the concept of dealing with incidents and monitoring alerts was easy to translate, I just had to use the technical terms that you would find in cyber security operations and replace that in physical security operations setting. In interviews, I would relate my past experience to the job I was applying to, to show transferable skills. 

At this point in your tech career, was enrolling at a part-time bootcamp worth it for you? Jess, do you love being a software engineer at Fidelity?

Jess: It was definitely a worthwhile investment and I wouldn't have had it any other way! I am really thankful for the resources that I got from General Assembly both as a student and career coach and getting access to all of those resources. I did what we taught and it helped me get the job! 

Allegra, it sounds like you love what you’re working on as a Software Engineer for the Detroit Tigers. Do you think you could have done this without Tech Elevator?

Allegra: Before I enrolled in Tech Elevator, I actually tried to do it on my own but the structure and assignments that Tech Elevator provided were really what helped me accomplish all the things I've accomplished today, so it was worth it! If you are motivated and want to learn it you can totally do it yourself, but a coding bootcamp provides a fantastic education as well as career services and alumni connections and resources. Tech Elevator offers mini coding projects with code bases so that you can build your own projects in your spare time. The resources I have access to now are unparalleled. It was worth it and I absolutely love working for the Detroit Tigers. I feel very grateful to be where I am today, to be able to nerd out on software all day and get paid for it!

Faris, how about you? You went from Sales to being a QA Engineer – was Careerist worth the investment? 

Faris: This was the wisest career move I've ever made for myself and I've never been happier! Everything that they talked about in the first couple weeks of what life would be like in the bootcamp came true for me. I'm happy, I have really low stress, and I love what I do! It’s really interesting to get to play around with software and break it. I still can't believe that's what they pay me to do! It was a wise investment. 

Ariel, you spent about a year at Springboard and you're now in information security at Pearson —  was Springboard worth it? 

Ariel: It's absolutely worth this wise decision. The structure has helped me stay accountable. Plus, I am making twice the amount that I did a year ago working in a completely different field! It was well worth it all.

Your Next Steps

• Springboard - Save $1,500 on your Springboard bootcamp tuition with the promo code: CR1500SB

• Careerist - Take $700 off your Careerist tuition with this exclusive scholarship!

• General Assembly - Ask the GA Admissions team about their 12-month, deferred 0% interest plan!

• Tech Elevator - Check out Tech Elevator’s part-time and full-time bootcamps — both with the same end result: you becoming a job-ready software developer!