Coding boot camps once looked like the golden ticket to an economically secure future. But as that promise fades, what should you do? Keep learning, until further notice.
When Florencio Rendon was laid off from his third construction job in three years, he said, “it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
He was 36, a father of two, and felt time was running out to find a career that would offer higher pay and more stability. “I’ve always been doing jobs that require physical labor,” he remembers thinking. “What if I start using my brain for once?”
An Army veteran, Mr. Rendon explored training programs he could fund using his military benefits. He landed on a coding boot camp.
At first, the intensive courses seemed intimidating. Mr. Rendon had gotten his high school equivalency diploma before joining the Army, and he had taken some college courses, but he didn’t consider himself book smart.
Still, he thought about his children, who are now 4 and 2, and reasoned, “If I can make this work, then I should at least give it a try.”