Hi Fellow Mustachian,
I am 24 years old and live in NYC. I have been working as a Staff Accountant at a Non-profit for 2 years. I have a master degree in Accounting and have recently obtain my CPA license. I am consider changing my career to become a Web developer.
A little bit of my story:For the past 3 years of my life, I kept a single tracked mind toward becoming an Accountant. Why? For one reason or another: “the right thing to do”, “Jobs Security”, “thats what all of my friends are doing”, etc…
The realization happened over the last few months. I found myself dreading about my career future. I can’t envision myself enjoy working as an Auditor, Corporate Accountant, Tax Accountant… I feel trapped. I don’t think I will like my job.
Looking for a way out, I evaluate myself and my interest. I would like to be working in a technical position. I enjoy tinkering with spreadsheet at work and do some simple coding in excel to make things more efficient. I remember back in College, I tried to learn programming but failed due to overwhelming amount of information and lack of direction. I remember the thought of majoring in computer science but gave up because of my less than stellar Math grades.
After many weeks of procrastination, I came upon something call Coding bootcamp. They boost taking students from nothing to Jr developer level in a short span of 13 weeks. My heart races of the possibility of becoming a Developer. Creating things and solving business problem through technology. It sounds incredible and lots of fun!
So here I am...
Developer/Programmer RouteAs someone with very little programming experience (I only took a short class in HTML/CSS back in college), I am planning to attend an immersive web developer training program.
I have done some research and there are few program in NYC that offers intensive training for developer. Some of the boot camp I am considering:
· APP Academy (18% of your first year salary)
http://www.appacademy.io/ - currently my #1 choice since zero cost upfront.
· Flatiron School ($15k)
http://flatironschool.com/ · Dev Bootcamp ($13k)
http://devbootcamp.com/· General Assembly ($11k)
https://generalassemb.ly/ I understand 3 – 4 months won’t prepare me to be a full fledge programmer/developer, but at least it’s a start. I am a little bit worried about job prospect but a lot of this bootcamp offer career support and boast high hiring rate upon first few months of graduation (90%!?). I will find a Jr developer job and take it from there.
Accountant RouteI am not sure. The more I think about it, I less that I pictured myself as an Accountant in the future. The ideal place for Accountants to start-off their career is Big 4 (the top 4 accounting firm). It is very competitive and my chance of landing a position now without any connection is slim. I think my best bet is to join a mid-size firm and work my way up or start my own firm after couple years of experience.
3rd Route – Mix of Accountant and Programmer?Not even sure if this exist. I would like to leverage my accounting background and applied it in IT/Application development. Business Application developer probably need good understanding of the accounting system, right? Data Analyst need good understanding of business and coding background, but they also need math background, which I lack.
My Financial SituationBank (Cash) : $5,000
Roth IRA: $11,705.11 Principal: $11,000
Trad 401k: $18,288.46
I have Zero Debt so far.
Monthly Expenses: Around $1,600 per month ($850 rent, food, travel, all included), I could probably lower that number by another $200 to $300.
I need help with... I am looking for general feedback on my career plan. I know there are many Programmer/Developer/Accountant/knowledgeable Mustashian community. If you can share some of your insight or your thoughts to my plan, I would greatly appreciate it!
- Do you think my switch make sense?
- Anyone heard of the coding bootcamp I listed? What are their quality?
- Any insight on the 3rd route? are there Position/jobs that would fit in nicely with 3rd route? A role where Accountant background would complement an Programmer/IT role or vice versa.