I’ve adjuncted in a university English Department for the last ten years, and it took learning to code to realize that adjuncting was a dead-end job. In January, I took an accelerated bootcamp prep online for a couple of weeks. After that bootcamp, my perspective on education, my future, and my own capabilities changed. So in the middle of a Moms Can: Code virtual co-working session, I emailed my department chair to tell him I wouldn’t be returning. It wasn’t just about the politics of academia, the lack of upward mobility, the no merit-based raises in the entire time I was there. Yes, that was part of it, but I needed to value myself and my time. My experience isn’t unique to academia.

Learning to code beats your dead-end job

• Access to education You don’t have to subscribe to expensive journals or enroll in a university to learn how to code. There are enough free resources out there for you to learn what you need. Yes, there are some amazing paid resources. If you have the money to do that, you’ll save yourself some time and frustration of trying to piecemeal an education, but research the course or bootcamp first. Or ask me, I have some good recommendations ;)

• Updated curriculum If I’ve learned anything from academia, it’s that things move slow. Because there are so many resources online and people are frequently updating them, you don’t have to worry about being a step behind. Simply google the latest and greatest methods, and see what browsers are fully supporting.

• Getting paid Whether you decide to freelance or pursue a full-time position, there’s money in tech for people without degrees as long as your portfolio is where it needs to be. If you’re job searching, you might want to check out glassdoor.com or do some networking to find out reasonable rates and salaries.

• Flexibility With such a demand for flexibility, there are an increasing number of positions that allow employees to work remotely at least some of the time. Freelancing allows both time and location flexibility.

• Availability of positions There isn’t an over-saturation of workers in the industry. In fact, the tech industry ranked fifth overall for available positions, and there are a variety of specialties sought after.

Working in the tech industry isn’t all peaches and roses, but there benefits that allow for financial independence, growth, and a learn everyday mentality. Bootcamp taught me that working with code won’t ever feel stagnate for very long. There are always updates, new technologies, and developments in UX that keep the industry moving and adjusting. It also taught me that I deserve to be in a field that asks me to challenge myself, develop, and grow.