Little background: I'm 28 with an accounting degree from a state school. I did not go into Big 4 accounting out of school (shit grades). Although I make a good salary ($70k), I'm terribly bored with my job and I'm not learning any particularly valuable job skills. There is little opportunity for advancement in my current position. I'm really considering a career change... I figure at my age it's probably now or never.
I would like to get into software development. Over the next few weeks I'll be working my way through one of the extensive Ruby on Rails tutorials and solving some problems on GitHub. So far I seem to be picking it up pretty well, though obviously I'm a total beginner.
My question is this: If I complete the tutorial over the next couple weeks and think I have the desire and aptitude to make a career change, what is the fastest way to break into software development?
I have seen advertisements for these intensive 9-12 week coding camps and I'm wondering if they have any real value. The top tier ones seem incredibly selective... I'm not sure if I could realistically even get into one. The best ones (App Academy, Dev Bootcamp, Hack Reactor) typically have seemingly decent connections to the job market.
Obviously the other option is to bite the bullet and go back to school and get a CS degree. It would probably take 2-3 years and would be a huge investment of time and money, not to mention opportunity cost. At the end I would be a 30+ year old recent graduate with little experience outside of maybe an internship or whatever open source work I could do. In that regard the Bootcamps seem more attractive... They're faster and cheaper.
So, let's here it: do the camps hold any real value in the professional world?
I would like to get into software development. Over the next few weeks I'll be working my way through one of the extensive Ruby on Rails tutorials and solving some problems on GitHub. So far I seem to be picking it up pretty well, though obviously I'm a total beginner.
My question is this: If I complete the tutorial over the next couple weeks and think I have the desire and aptitude to make a career change, what is the fastest way to break into software development?
I have seen advertisements for these intensive 9-12 week coding camps and I'm wondering if they have any real value. The top tier ones seem incredibly selective... I'm not sure if I could realistically even get into one. The best ones (App Academy, Dev Bootcamp, Hack Reactor) typically have seemingly decent connections to the job market.
Obviously the other option is to bite the bullet and go back to school and get a CS degree. It would probably take 2-3 years and would be a huge investment of time and money, not to mention opportunity cost. At the end I would be a 30+ year old recent graduate with little experience outside of maybe an internship or whatever open source work I could do. In that regard the Bootcamps seem more attractive... They're faster and cheaper.
So, let's here it: do the camps hold any real value in the professional world?