It’s almost here: the life-changing experience of attending a tech bootcamp, preparing you to enter the workforce and land your very first tech job. It seemed like an easy decision when you were enrolling: learn enough to change careers and land a new job within just a few months? Sounds incredible.
But as the start date slowly comes closer, you’re beginning to wonder: is it really that easy? What if everyone else in the class has way more experience in tech? And what if you fall behind? These are completely legitimate concerns: after all, making a career change at any point is daunting and will raise some anxieties.
Why is preparing for your bootcamp important?
You may be tempted to simply show up on day one and get started; while this has led to success for some, we recommend following our guidelines to ensure that your bootcamp experience is as beneficial as possible. Preparing for your bootcamp is essential because:
A bootcamp is a financial commitment: you’ve paid a lot (or found financing options to assist) for your bootcamp and to make this investment worth it, you need to prioritize it and your new career from the very first moment; the work you do before the course begins will help you reach success.
A bootcamp may be quite different from your typical routine: for those who are used to heading to the office daily or have been working in a different sector, going back to school may be even harder than the bootcamp itself! Getting back into the routine of studying and preparing assignments before the bootcamp starts will help you.
And that’s why we’ve created this guide to help you prepare for your tech bootcamp, collecting everything you need to know about helpful resources and pre-work to help the transition be as smooth as possible. So sit back and relax: we’ve got you covered.
Preparing for Your Tech Bootcamp
Your tech bootcamp is around the corner and the nerves are starting to set in. Don’t worry: this is completely normal and to be expected; a great way to settle your nerves is tackling your prework.
Your Ironhack prework
As part of our commitment to preparing you for success in your future tech career, all of our bootcamps have an important element: prework. The prework will be available to you as soon as you enroll, allowing you to study valuable topics before the course even begins. And if you’re concerned about having more on your plate than you signed up for, take a look at why prework is such a crucial part of the bootcamp experience:
The prework provides you with essential foundational knowledge: our Ironhackers come from practically every background and industry and have varying levels of experience with tech and the bootcamp topic. Thanks to our prework, however, all students enter the bootcamp on the same page and instructors can get right to the good stuff once class starts.
The prework helps you get familiar with bootcamp topics: whether you have experience in tech or not, the prework serves as a valuable way to familiarize yourself with the topics covered in the bootcamp, letting you ease into the material on your own time.
The prework mimics what the bootcamp will really be like: if you’ve been away from school for a while, it can be hard to imagine returning to the life of studying and projects; your prework, although it requires less of a time commitment than the bootcamp itself, can help you get back into the school mindset.
We know having more work to do isn’t what everyone wants, but trust us: completing your prework and taking the time to properly prepare for your bootcamp will benefit you in the long run.
Bootcamp resources
Completing your prework is an incredible resource and one you should prioritize as you’re preparing for the bootcamp, but it’s not the only thing you can do to make your bootcamp experience as positive as possible. Take a look at our other suggestions below and incorporate them into your bootcamp planning.
Plan carefully
Both our full and part time bootcamps are incredibly intensive and require hard work and dedication both inside and outside the classroom; don’t forget that you’ll probably have to study and work on assignments after class, including on the weekends and at night, and plan your schedule accordingly.
You should plan on focusing the majority of your free time on the bootcamp; when choosing when to take the bootcamp, take into consideration your other commitments and responsibilities to properly evaluate when you’ll be able to take the course. And if you decide that now’s a good time to take the bootcamp, make sure you don’t overcommit to other things.
Review basic concepts
Your prework will help you get familiar with the necessary foundational elements you’ll need for success, but doing additional preparation on your own can help strengthen your tech foundation even further, setting you up for success.
There are tons of tech resources available: from books to free online courses or videos, you can learn so much on your own and then advance even further during your bootcamp.
Set yourself up for success
You’ll be faced with long nights studying, tough projects, and a lot of things to learn: before the course starts, take the time to set yourself up for success by planning well. If you know you need a coffee in the morning to get your day started right, try making it at night so that it’s ready to go in the morning and you’re on time for class.
Or if you love home-cooked meals, try to prepare meals on Sunday afternoons for the entire week so you can enjoy those tasty dinners without losing valuable study time during the week.
As you can tell, there are lots of ways to prepare yourself to reach success in our bootcamps. The most important thing is this: figure out what you need to succeed and take the steps to ensure you make your dreams a reality. At Ironhack, all of our bootcamps offer prework for this exact reason: ensuring our students reach their full potential.
If you’re ready to get started on your tech journey and prepare yourself for success, check out our bootcamps today and don’t wait a second longer: your tech future is calling.
