Her new career was just downstream from a Nucamp Bootcamp

From Headhunter to Jr. Software Engineer, Northwestern Mutual

"My previous career was repetitive, didn’t require much critical thinking and didn’t have a clear career growth path. In regards to coding, there are a million directions to go. it's just so different than the previous fields I’ve been in. A huge catalyst for pursing coding was the idea that if I knew how to code my own ideas out, I wouldn’t have to rely on other people."

This is Marisa Raeder, a Nucamp Full Stack Bootcamp graduate and now a Jr. Software Engineer at Northwestern Mutual.

Marisa lives an active lifestyle enjoying many hobbies such as yoga, hiking, biking, running and kayaking.

When her career as a headhunter at a recruiting agency started leave her less than energized, she knew she needed a change.

As she looked into what she might want to do next, she was coming up with business ideas that would have benefited from her being able to create things herself by knowing how to code.

Her research revealed lots of free advice, free courses, and video content that was already out there.

The only problem was she didn’t know where to start.

She had the end destination in mind, but felt like she didn’t have the right gear to navigate the rapids between her and her goal.

Marisa first wanted to find a vetted curriculum to act as a guide in her journey.

Knowing what topics, in what order to take them, having accountability and an instructor to lean on was exactly what she needed.

When it came to deciding which coding bootcamp to take, the two biggest factors were price and flexibility.

Being able to test out the waters to see if coding were a good fit without spending $20k and not having to drop everything to attend a bootcamp was a wave of relief.

Marisa started her coding journey without having any background, she hadn’t seen her first line of code until her late twenties.

She described her bootcamp experience as challenging since it was new and different than anything she had done before, but she thrived by asking her instructor lots of questions.

Toward the end, she started to really get the hang of things and found herself very interested in the front end side of being a developer.

She likes being able to imagine ideas and see them come to life.

“Though this journey I discovered, most importantly, how resilient and capable I can be. I overcame early imposter syndrome. If I can pour my energy into something, I can make it successful. Knowing that I have a skill that is so valuable is encouraging.”

Describe your job search process.

Marisa did a lot of networking and made it the focus of her strategy.

By attending a ton of conferences and virtual events she was able to add key people to her LinkedIn network that she was able to reach out to for resume advice and ask about job opportunities.

She also leveraged her growing tech network by sharing information about her coding journey and generating interviews by going out of her way to track down hiring managers to message them personally.

Now in her current role she is building a platform that handles all communication touch points and is migrating and old system into a new one with AWS, async programming and building from scratch as well.

What advice do you have for people who are thinking about attending a bootcamp, but haven't yet registered?

“Self taught vs bootcamp: Are you extremely motivated? Do you have the resources and time to dedicate to it? Do you know what you should learn and in what order should you learn it? If you are hesitant on ANY of these questions, take a bootcamp instead of trying to teach yourself. Avoid scammy bootcamps with forced curves that will fail you out so they can pad their numbers.”

What advice do you have for people who have already started the bootcamp and they are just about to finish Bootstrap?

“It's going to get more challenging. Ensure you still have the time and the process in place. Start asking yourself, is this a career you want to pursue. Start networking now. Do the challenge projects, most people don't. It's something you can put on your resume. Do a project outside of the bootcamp. Get in touch with someone that needs something real and it's a networking opportunity. It's going to get more challenging. Ensure you still have the time and the process in place. Start asking yourself, is this a career you want to pursue. Start networking now. Do the challenge projects, most people don't. It's something you can put on your resume. Do a project outside of the bootcamp and get in touch with someone that needs something real. It's a networking opportunity and shows that you worked with someone and collaborated.”