Can You Get a Job After a Web Development Bootcamp?

The short answer is yes, you can get a job after completing a web development bootcamp. Generally, bootcamps are designed to help their graduates find employment. The curriculums are designed to cover in-demand skills, tackle real-world web development challenges, and get students job-ready through career support services like internships, job boards, mentorship, and resume development. Improving chances of getting hired quickly is part of the draw to bootcamps for many people. The marketability of web development bootcamps is predicated on graduates being able to land jobs and benefit from the investment they’ve made in themselves and their future by opting for a bootcamp education. You can get a job after a web development bootcamp. Keep in mind that you’ll need to be patient and use every interview as a learning experience to grow from so that you can become the ideal candidate and have multiple job offers to choose from. 

What Job Prospects and Career Paths are Available for Web Development Bootcamp Graduates?

Once you’ve graduated from a web development bootcamp there are several career paths available to you. Software engineering, computer programming, graphic design, information systems management, and UX design are just some of the career paths you may find interesting. Each of these paths has the potential to be quite lucrative once you’ve settled in and gotten established. In some instances, you may want to opt for a few additional specialized courses to put the finishing touches on your web development education to better prepare for the career of your dreams. Each of these career paths involves programming languages and technical tools like Git, Bootstrap, Figma, WordPress, and Adobe Creative Cloud. Although this is a very technical field, it is also useful to almost any type of business or organization you can think of. You’ll have job prospects beyond the three main types of web development from employers in a wide range of industries from healthcare to education to logistics to finance. 

Are Web Development Bootcamps Good for Beginners?

Many web development bootcamps are designed to be beginner-friendly. You’ll find that some courses have prerequisites, but many do not. Some will offer pre-work that enrollees should complete before the start of the bootcamp instead of prerequisites. In general, having no prior experience with web development is not going to exclude you from bootcamp enrollment. Part of the purpose of most bootcamps is to turn beginners into job-ready developers through in-demand skills training, hands-on experience, and portfolio development. Bootcamps make themselves marketable by having their graduates find employment in the field of study, so it’s not uncommon to find training programs and facilities that offer different types of career support to students. 

Bootcamps are just as useful to those who have some experience with web development, coding, or web design. Your ability to find employment after graduating from a bootcamp will depend largely on how much effort you put into it. You’ll need a clear and realistic goal for your job search and prepare yourself for the interviews that will come your way. Just because you completed your training program, doesn’t mean that you’re done practicing. Web development is an evolving field that will require you to add to your skill set often. Practicing new techniques and getting familiar with new tools and updates to existing tools is part of the work. While you scout for job prospects and interview with potential employers, you’ll want to practice, sharpen your skills, and fortify any areas you feel you are weak. Prepare questions for potential employers and remember that an interview is a two-way street in which both you and the hiring entity are trying to figure out if a partnership between the two of you is a good fit.

What Career Services Do Web Development Bootcamps Offer?

Bootcamps like those offered at Noble Desktop, regularly post job opportunities and offer 1-on-1 mentoring sessions. These sessions are helpful in getting advice on your job search, polishing your resume, reviewing and refining your portfolio work, and getting experience with conducting interviews. Mentoring sessions are a great way to boost your confidence and help you navigate your job search and succeed in your career goals. You can also use your mentoring sessions to explore potential career paths. This kind of personalized guidance is invaluable, because it’s specific to you, your goals, and your web development reality.

Some bootcamps have a full suite of career services. They will help you create a career search plan, set you up with job opportunities, workshops, and learning tools, and pair you with potential employers. They give their graduates career coaches who help bootcamp graduates stay on task and make recommendations based on individual career goals. The main advantages of bootcamps that offer a complete career services package are building self-confidence and feeling prepared for what the job search will throw your way. You’ll learn how to pitch yourself using social media sites like LinkedIn and a portfolio website of your own. You may be presented with challenges that help to build better job search skills, have access to human resources professionals, and learn what employers are looking for in their new hires.

What Jobs Will a Web Development Bootcamp Qualify Me For?

Once you’ve completed your bootcamp training, you’ll be eligible for many entry-level web development positions including Full Stack Developer, Front End Developer, Back End Developer, Web Developer, and Mobile Developer. These are the most common jobs available to recent bootcamp graduates. There are also other fulfilling careers available in web development to explore.

JavaScript Developers generally focus on writing JavaScript code that defines the behavior of the visual elements of a web application or web page and connects it with back end services. Each workplace will assign JavaScript Developers a slightly different workload but typically expect them to use the skills that they learned in a JavaScript Development Certificate bootcamp to work on coding a webpage or application in JavaScript, test the code they wrote, field helpdesk tickets, design webpages or applications, learn new frameworks, or attend team meetings. Computer Programmers write, test, and update code that runs web applications, websites, and software while also handling general troubleshooting and debugging. As a Web Designer, you’ll be able to intersect what you learned in a Front End Web Development Certificate bootcamp with your understanding of both visual design and technical design principles to create functional web layouts and websites.

Can I Freelance After Completing a Web Development Bootcamp?

Whether you want your career to be freelance, allowing you to create a work-life balance and the ability to work with a wide variety of people and projects, or you want to use freelance work to support you until you get an in with your dream employer, freelancing is a perfectly acceptable option after completing web development bootcamp. Becoming a freelance Web Developer won’t be easy. You’ll have to put a lot of effort into finding and securing clients, and you’ll have to learn how to run your freelance business at the same time you’re learning how to work as a web development professional. If you plan to become a freelance web developer you’ll need to find your niche, build your personal brand, create a portfolio website to market yourself, and learn how to organize your clients and projects sensibly. 

If you’re serious about freelancing, you need to do your due diligence and set yourself up for success. This may include establishing a business bank account, getting a tax ID or VAT number, and any other paperwork that will make clients more confident in your web development skills and your ability to properly complete and manage the professional relationship. In addition to getting all of the legal things in order, you’ll also need to choose freelancing/invoice tools to manage your workflow and back office tasks like QuickBooks, Asana, and Bonsai. Once you’re set up it’s time to start pitching clients. You’ve got to have a strategy and be committed to the process to succeed. Networking is another essential part of being a freelancer, so it’s in your best interest to leverage the power of conferences, meetups, LinkedIn, and freelance communities. 

Are Web Development Bootcamps Good for Upskilling?

Web development bootcamps are very helpful when upskilling. Whether you’re an entrepreneur who wants to get your organization’s website off the ground without hiring someone, or you’re already established in a related career, a bootcamp can teach you the fundamentals of web development in a matter of weeks. Not only will you be building the skills to use web development to your advantage, but you’ll also gain certification to add to your resume and gain access to a network of tech experts who can support you along your web development journey. 

The advantages of learning web development in a bootcamp are numerous. Once you’ve graduated, you’ll have the skills you need to leverage web development in your organization. If you’re an entrepreneur, you will have the necessary skills to keep web development in-house until you’ve grown to a point where you feel comfortable hiring someone else to take over those duties. This helps you keep your business expenses down and reduces the time it takes to recognize the need for a website change and address it. While adding to your professional skill set is advantageous to your career, there are also some drawbacks to be aware of. Bootcamps, although they are usually time efficient, can be expensive. You’ll need to weigh the benefits against the cost. Some web development bootcamps go on an extremely deep dive, and may not be what you need to solve your existing challenges. 

What Does a Web Development Bootcamp Offer Over Other Means of Finding a Job?

When comparing a Full-Stack Web Development Certificate bootcamp to other means of starting a career in web development, bootcamps offer time and cost efficiency that many of the other learning options do not. Of course, there are other methods of learning web development and landing a job, including college degree programs and apprenticeships. All three of these paths to a career in web development have merit. Many employers are more comfortable hiring someone with a college degree, but web development is a very results-driven career. If you know your stuff and you can produce high-quality work, then you will get noticed and people will want to employ your expertise.

Although the vast majority of Web Developers begin their careers in college as a computer science major at a four-year college, they spend a lot of time and money to earn their degrees. They had to take a broad range of classes related to and not related to web development that are designed to encourage critical thinking and problem-solving. Classes include coding, techniques, computer science history, and many other technical skills that can be used in web development and many other technical careers related to IT. These degree programs allow students to get years of practice with hands-on experiences and dedicated support with immersive and in-depth instruction. Depending on the path a student chooses to take, a degree program could take more than four years to complete. College degrees also have restrictive scheduling that can delay your degree. Those who are looking to make a career change don’t typically find enrolling in college a feasible option. Another drawback to college is that you have to apply (usually for a fee) and be accepted. Application processes can be very competitive, which means applying does not guarantee your acceptance.

In a bootcamp, there’s usually a more flexible schedule that packs a lot of information specific to web development into one course that is more cost-efficient than college and less of a commitment. While bootcamps can be expensive, they are but a small fraction of the cost of a college education. Bootcamps don’t spend a lot of time on theory and history, opting instead for a lot of hands-on learning experiences and practice with coding, web development tools, and techniques like frameworks, libraries, GitHub, and Bootstrap. While the brevity of a bootcamp is appreciated, it may not leave students feeling comfortable with skills like JavaScript coding when only a few days are spent covering the concept. Although hands-on training is a core part of any bootcamp, the accelerated pace means that many students will need a significant amount of practice beyond the course to get to a professional level of web development and become confident in their ability. Even with this disadvantage, bootcamps are still one of the best choices for those who are unable to set out for a college degree.

When comparing apprenticeships to bootcamps, the main difference that is unavoidable is that there is a high threshold for entry. Apprenticeships are not typically beginner-friendly. You will need to already have experience with web development because apprenticeships are more like on-the-job training. However, you’ll get a lot of hands-on experience and mentorship.