Many, many HR grads followed a similar path and many read HN. I personally knew just about everyone in the first 7 cohorts. During that time I saw success after success from the other students with some getting promoted and leading teams with just a year or two. Several have now founded startups.
I'll also add that my account is 3275 days older than yours and isn't a throwaway.
To the above poster that was flagged, it sort of sounds like you're accusing me of lying, but I'll give you the benefit of best intent and answer your questions.
Yes, I created this account just to make this comment. I was introduced to HN by someone in my bootcamp cohort. Never felt the need to comment on something until a post that was directed right at me. Never made an account either because no reason to. So, hope that clears it up.
I think you are assuming my tech progression started at Hack Reactor 3ish years ago. It in fact has been most of my life. I was building computers from spare hardware in grade school, learned some code in middle, took 2 yrs of college classes while in high school to prepare for the CCNA exam (cisco certified network associate). I entered college as a computer engineer.
Then I switched to a totally different career path from which I learned how to be an effective leader and teacher. When I hit the end of that path, I came back around and did Hack Reactor to work my way into an engineering role.
I became a senior in a relatively short amount of time because of my background but also because I learned a lot at my first startup gig after my mentor quit, leaving me as the only engineer responsible for the codebase. Thrown into the deep end for sure, as the business had to keep moving forward.
I have taken on volunteer work at my current job outside my normal responsibilities, give meaningful review to my peers, and work on large, impactful projects. I make it a point to get to know other engineers and get my name known in the org. I placed myself in the senior role and was rewarded with the title after.
Another point, many of the people in my class already had a technical background as well. More then half. I think among all bootcamps this is probably more rare today.
I had been "semi-technical" and messing with a WP blog and doing simple tutorials for years myself! When I attended HR, their marketing materials made it clear it was for taking you from "20 to 100" instead of "0 to 60".
