Latest / The Career Change Podcast with Fexingo: Switching Fields, Bootcamps, and Reskilling / How Bootcamp Grads Can Build a Side Hustle While Learning
Transcript
- Lucas: You know, one of the biggest sources of anxiety for bootcamp students — especially career changers — is the gap between starting to learn and actually earning a tech salary. That gap can be six months, a year, sometimes longer. Luna: Yeah, and it's not just the money. It's the uncertainty. You're investing time and tuition, and you don't have a clear signal that you're on the right track until you land that first job. Lucas: Right. But there's a strategy that some students use to bridge that gap — literally. I'm talking about building a side hustle while you're still in bootcamp. Not as a distraction, but as an accelerator. Luna: I love this angle. It's like you're getting paid to practice. And it solves two problems at once: income and portfolio building. Lucas: Exactly. So today I want to talk about someone who did this really well. Her name is Maria Chen. Before bootcamp, she was a retail store manager in Phoenix. She enrolled in a full-stack web development bootcamp — three months, fully remote, live lectures. Luna: And she started freelancing on the side while still in the program? Lucas: She did. About three weeks into the bootcamp, she built a simple one-page website for a friend's yoga studio. Just HTML, CSS, a little JavaScript. The friend paid her five hundred dollars. And Maria realized she could do this for other local businesses. Luna: Five hundred dollars for a weekend project. That's not nothing when you're living on savings. Lucas: Not at all. So she kept going. By the end of the bootcamp, she had built websites for seven small businesses — a bakery, a plumber, a dog grooming place, a few others. She charged between three hundred and eight hundred dollars per site. Total side income: about two thousand dollars a month. Luna: That's serious. And she did this while keeping up with the bootcamp curriculum? Lucas: That's the thing — she was careful about boundaries. She limited client work to about ten hours a week, mostly on weekends. And she used the projects to reinforce what she was learning in class. Building a navigation menu for a client's site is the same skill as building one for a bootcamp project. Luna: So it's not extra work — it's applied work. That's the key distinction. Lucas: Exactly. And there's another benefit that I think is even more important than the money. When Maria graduated and started applying for junior developer roles, she didn't just have bootcamp projects in her portfolio. She had real client sites. She had references from business owners who could say, 'She built my website and it works.' Luna: That's a huge differentiator. A lot of bootcamp grads have the same todo app or weather dashboard in their portfolio. But Maria had a live site for a bakery that's actually taking orders. Lucas: Exactly. And when interviewers asked about teamwork or client communication, she had real stories. 'I had to explain to a plumber why he needed a mobile-friendly layout.' That's a skill bootcamps can't teach in a classroom. Luna: So what was her niche? She wasn't building complex web apps for startups. She was building simple sites for local businesses. Lucas: That's exactly right. She focused on WordPress and basic static sites. Nothing fancy. Local businesses often don't have any web presence at all, or their site is from 2010. They're not looking for the latest JavaScript framework. They want something that looks professional and works on a phone. Luna: And they're willing to pay a few hundred bucks for that. It's a sweet spot. Lucas: It is. And the barrier to entry is low. You can learn enough WordPress in a weekend to build a basic site. If you're in a bootcamp learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you already have more than enough technical skill. Luna: But I imagine the challenge is finding clients. How did Maria find seven businesses in three months? Lucas: She started with her own network. The yoga studio friend, then that friend's cousin who owned a bakery. Then she went old-school — walked into local shops, asked if they had a website, offered to build one at a discount. She had a simple pitch: 'I'm a student, I'm building my portfolio, I'll give you a professional site for half of what a web agency would charge.' Luna: That's smart. And the discount is a fair trade — they get a cheap site, she gets a real client. Lucas: And once she had a couple of sites live, she could point to them. It got easier. She also used Google Maps — searched for businesses in her area that didn't have a website listed. That's a direct lead list. Luna: I love that. It's so practical. And I think a lot of bootcamp students don't realize how doable this is. They think they need to be expert developers first. Lucas: Right. And that's a trap. You learn faster by doing real projects. Plus, the side hustle can actually reduce the pressure to take the first job offer that comes along. If you're making two thousand a month on the side, you can be more selective. Luna: That's a huge advantage. Some career changers have to accept a lower salary just to get started. But with a side income cushion, you can hold out for a role that fits your goals. Lucas: Exactly. Maria eventually landed a junior developer role at a SaaS company in Phoenix. Her starting salary was seventy-five thousand. That's solid for a first tech job in that market. And she kept a couple of her freelance clients on retainer for maintenance — an extra five hundred a month. Luna: So her side hustle didn't end when she got the job. It became a supplement. Lucas: She scaled it down, but yeah. And here's a point that matters: when her employer saw she had client experience, she was trusted with more responsibility early on. She wasn't treated as a pure junior. Luna: That's the kind of signal a resume can't fake. It's one thing to say you have 'client communication skills.' It's another to have a plumber's testimonial on your LinkedIn. Lucas: Exactly. So let's talk about the practical side. If you're in a bootcamp right now and you want to try this, where do you start? Luna: First, pick a niche. Don't try to build web apps. Start with something simple like WordPress sites for local businesses. Or even just landing pages for solopreneurs. Lucas: Second, set a time budget. Maria did ten hours a week. That's about one evening and a weekend afternoon. If you're in a full-time bootcamp, you cannot do twenty hours of freelance. You'll burn out and your learning will suffer. Luna: And third, price your work. Three hundred to eight hundred dollars for a basic site is reasonable. Don't undervalue yourself to zero, but also don't charge agency rates when you're learning. Think of it as a learning investment for the client too. Lucas: One more thing: use your bootcamp assignments as prototypes. If you build a portfolio site for class, see if you can adapt it for a real client. That's efficient. Luna: And don't be afraid to say 'I'm learning' to clients. Most small business owners appreciate the honesty, and they're getting a deal. Lucas: Before we go further, I want to mention something about how we think about this show. We keep it ad-free because we believe this kind of practical career advice should be accessible without interruptions. If you've found value in episodes like this one, and you want to support that choice, there's a simple way. You can go to buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just an option for those who want to keep this resource free for everyone. Luna: Yeah, it's a small gesture that adds up. And it helps us keep doing deep dives like this without chasing sponsors. Lucas: Exactly. So back to side hustles. There are some common mistakes to avoid. The biggest one is overcommitting. Maria turned down projects that would have required more than ten hours a week. That discipline is crucial. Luna: Another mistake is underpricing. If you charge fifty dollars for a site, clients won't take you seriously and you'll resent the work. Better to charge a fair price and deliver real value. Lucas: And scope creep. A client says 'Can you just add a contact form?' Then 'Can you make it look like this other site?' Before you know it, you're rebuilding the whole thing for free. Set clear deliverables in writing. Luna: What about tools? What did Maria use? Lucas: She used WordPress with a page builder called Elementor. That's a common combo for simple sites. For hosting, she used a shared hosting plan — like ten dollars a month — and billed clients for it. She also used Canva for basic graphics. Luna: So the tech stack is approachable. You don't need to be a React expert. Lucas: Not at all. And that's the point. The side hustle should be a confidence builder, not a stress source. If you're spending more time debugging than building, you're picking the wrong kind of project. Luna: So what does this mean for the broader career change picture? If you're considering a bootcamp, should you plan to start a side hustle from day one? Lucas: I think it's worth planning for. Even if you don't land a paying client right away, you can build a mock site for a real business — a friend's startup, a local nonprofit — and offer it for free. That still gives you a real-world reference. Luna: And it's a conversation starter in interviews. 'I built a site for my neighbor's landscaping business. Here's how I handled their request for a booking form.' Lucas: Exactly. One last thing: Maria's story isn't unique. I've talked to bootcamp grads who did similar things. One guy built Shopify stores for local artisans. Another did email templates for a real estate agent. The common thread is they started small, they set boundaries, and they used the work to learn faster. Luna: So the takeaway is: don't wait until you graduate to start building. You can earn, learn, and build a portfolio all at once. Lucas: If you're in a bootcamp now, and you're wondering if you have time for a side project, start with one small site. See how it feels. You might be surprised at how much it accelerates your progress. Luna: And if you've done this yourself — built a side hustle during a career change — we'd love to hear your story. It might inspire someone else. Lucas: Good note to end on. Next time, we'll look at how bootcamp grads can use open source contributions to stand out in job applications. Thanks for listening.