A few years after I left the military a very nice lady suggested I join a Bootcamp with her country ladies fitness group. My response?
“I don’t get paid to do that (stuff) any more”.
To this day I still kind of look a little sideways at people who run obstacle courses for fun and recreation. Let’s face it – those of us who have Graduated Boot rarely have any desire to go back and do it again.
Who knew that the IT and Tech Sector had their own breed of Bootcamp which frankly looks almost as stressful and painful as the real thing? If you Google “Bootcamp” and exclude “military” from the search most of the leads you are likely to see will be for coding.
In the Tech Sector Bootcamps are sold as a condensed version of more extensive and expensive University and Tertiary learning programs. Just like Boot, passing a coding Bootcamp takes a lot of time, a lot of work, an ironclad commitment and often in the tens of thousands in fees. Bootcamps are sold as condensed courses but can often take anywhere up to six months to complete. Some of them even have the equivalent of the much beloved Drillie (Drill Sergeant) coaching, cajoling and sometimes kicking recruits to the finish line. Some of them are graduation factories that are all about taking fees and issuing certificates.
It’s pretty easy to fail in a boot camp system like that where you are just a number and a credit card.
So when is a Bootcamp not a Bootcamp?
Answer: When it’s a WithYouWithMe Bootcamp.
Our Bootcamps are All Gain- No Pain. Don’t kid yourself – you'll still need to prepare, commit to the time and do the work.
So what can you expect from a WithYouWithMe Bootcamp?
We offer Bootcamps for all of our courses – not just coding. Our Bootcamps run for about an hour a day over a five day period during a working week – outside business hours wherever appropriate. Our instructors are industry experienced and focused on student success within a job ready, market current, skill based learning framework. Our curriculum is designed to make our students job ready and market current in their chosen field.
What ‘s special about a WithYouWithMe Bootcamp?
We’re not a certificate factory. When you join a WYWM Bootcamp you join a community of motivated, like minded veterans, spouses and neurodiverse learners supported by instructors and mentors who turn up every day to help people succeed. We help each other to learn and grow to resolve veteran underemployment. We help Veterans and their Spouses get Tech Jobs without having to invest years and money into training.
We break the learning down into simple, business relevant parts. We keep our classes small – usually less than 15 people. We love beginners. We love experts too.
We don’t slam the door behind you when you leave – students can come back to us any time for further learning, technical advice or general career mentoring. We love it when that happens- bring your mates.
Any of our students can enroll in any Bootcamp that takes their interest. For example a cyber security specialist might want to brush up on Data Analytics with PowerBI – no problem – just register for a Bootcamp. Want to learn a bit about Cloud Computing? - roll up to the next Bootcamp. A Bootcamp is a great way to put your toe in the water to see if you like the idea of learning a new technical skill.
Still free to veterans and spouses – always will be.