When you discover coding has been in your life's rhythm all along

From High School Band Director to Software Engineer, Principal Financial Group

"Do a Nucamp bootcamp. You can still live your life and pay your bills. Don't disrupt your life by going back to college or a full time bootcamp."

This is Nic Addelia, a Nucamp Bootcamp graduate and now a Softare Engineer at Principal Financial Group.

Nic loves music and is often the go-to drummer for local gigs in Des Moines Iowa.

However, his day job as a high school band director didn't offer specific problems to solve, which felt offbeat to Nic's personality.

Between that and the grueling tempo of high school schedules, he wanted to make a career change.

He found the right pace and satisfaction in coding and often found himself mocking up websites and solving challenging math problems in his spare time.

For Nic, the feedback loop of being presented with a problem, writing code to solve it, then testing it was a good measure.

Initially Nic started with tutorials and self-learning he could find on the web, but they never provided enough structure.

It was at this point several of his friends suggested looking into bootcamps, but most required a lot of money, a full-time commitment, and none were available in Des Moines.

The bridge between the stanzas of his life came when Nic discovered that Nucamp let him build his own schedule, keep his job, and remain where he lived.

What it was like taking a Nucamp Bootcamp

Nic really enjoyed the self-paced learning combined with the weekly structure of the Full Stack Bootcamp.

The crescendo of Nic's experience was the quality and responsiveness of the instructors of the Full Stack Bootcamp.

Many are active on Slack and are willing to answer questions, sometimes at odd hours.

"The Slack channels were extemely helpful and it was evident that programmers and software engineers really value helping each other out. Usually an instructor would respond within an hour."

Describe your job search process.

Nic spent a lot of time networking, which paid off during the bootcamp when someone reached out to him about a contractor position.

It was the fact that he was able to say he finished the Full Stack bootcamp and was able to write in React that led to landing the position.

After 3 months as a contractor, he was offered a full time role as a Software Engineer.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out?

"Leverage your life skills and don't be afraid to admonish those when you are looking for a new role. Don't shy away from the life you had before you became a developer."

A conversation with Course Report

Nic also had the opportunity to sit down with our friends over at Course Report and share in detail what his experience was like making this transition.

One particular rhythm of Nucamp bootcamps that Nic mentions is how we encourage students to leverage help quickly using the 20-minute rule.

"If you can't figure something out in 20 minute, go to the Slack channel for help. When you’re in a workshop, if you can’t figure out something in 10 minutes, go to your instructor for help. Nucamp stressed the importance of leveraging your instructors for help. It was a nice reminder every week."

In that interview, Nic discussed a range of topics including what a typical week looked like, in detail, how his learning style harmonized with the program, how Nucamp enabled him to qualify for specific roles, and more.

As someone who appreciates the assistance, support, and perspectives of others to build on my own knowledge, Nucamp was absolutely worth it for me. Going into this bootcamp inexperienced in the content, I gained so much.