Latest / The Career Change Podcast with Fexingo: Switching Fields, Bootcamps, and Reskilling / How Bootcamp Grads Can Land Their First Tech Internship
Transcript
- Lucas: So, let's talk about the elephant in the room for a lot of bootcamp grads: you finish the program, you've got a solid portfolio project, but every job posting wants two years of experience. What do you do? Luna: You target internships. Even if you're a career changer in your thirties, a tech internship can be that bridge. Lucas: Exactly. And I want to ground this in a real story. A listener named Priya wrote in — she was a retail store manager for eight years, did a full-stack bootcamp in late 2025, and landed a summer internship at a mid-size SaaS company in Austin. She's now on track for a full-time offer. Luna: I love that. What was her strategy? Because I think a lot of people assume internships are only for college students. Lucas: That's the first myth we need to bust. According to data from the internship platform RippleMatch, about 30 percent of tech internships at companies like HubSpot and Shopify now explicitly accept bootcamp graduates or non-degree applicants. That number has doubled since 2022. Luna: So the landscape is shifting. But Priya didn't just apply to every posting she saw, right? Lucas: Right. She did three specific things. First, she targeted companies that had a track record of hiring bootcamp grads. She used LinkedIn's alumni filter to see where graduates from her bootcamp had interned. That gave her a list of about forty companies. Luna: That's smart — she's not wasting time on places that auto-filter resumes by degree. Lucas: Exactly. Second, she built a portfolio project that mimicked real internship work. Not another to-do app. She created a small internal tool — a dashboard for tracking retail inventory — because she knew her industry background was an advantage. She could talk about the problem she solved, not just the code. Luna: See, that's the kind of storytelling that makes a bootcamp grad stand out. She's not just a coder; she's a coder who understands a domain. Lucas: And third, she used informational interviews to get referrals. She reached out to about twenty people on LinkedIn who were software engineers at her target companies. Just asked for fifteen minutes to learn about their work. Five of them replied. Two gave her referrals that led to interviews. Luna: That's a really high conversion rate. Most people send out a hundred cold applications and hear nothing. Priya focused on relationships. Lucas: And that's the core of our advice today. If you're a bootcamp grad looking for an internship, don't just spray and pray. Be surgical. Target companies that already accept bootcamp grads. Build a domain-relevant project. And use informational interviews to get your resume seen by a human. Luna: Before we dig deeper into each of these, I want to mention something. You know, we deliberately don't run ads on this show. It's a choice we made because we want every episode to be purely helpful, no interruptions. If you find value in that — if Priya's story helped you think about your own career move — you can support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a simple way to keep us ad-free. Lucas: Yeah, and it genuinely makes a difference. Even a few coffees a month covers our hosting and keeps the podcast sustainable. Okay, back to the strategy. Lucas: Let's talk about the portfolio project more. Priya's inventory dashboard wasn't flashy, but it showed she could build something that a company might actually use. That's the bar you want to hit. Luna: Right. So not another weather app. What are some other examples of domain-relevant projects? Lucas: If you're coming from hospitality, build a reservation system. From logistics, a route planner. From healthcare admin, a patient scheduling tool. The key is to show you understand the business logic, not just the syntax. Luna: That makes the interview conversation so much richer too. You're not just explaining code; you're explaining trade-offs. 'Why did you choose this database? Because in retail, inventory updates happen in real time and we need low latency.' Lucas: Exactly. And that leads to the informational interview piece. Priya didn't ask for a job in her first message. She just asked for advice. That lowered the barrier. People want to help people who are curious and prepared. Luna: What did she actually say in those messages? Can we give listeners a template? Lucas: Sure. She wrote something like: 'Hi, I'm a career changer from retail who just finished a coding bootcamp. I'm exploring internships in SaaS and saw your background at. Would you be open to a 15-minute chat about your experience? I'd love to learn what skills matter most on your team.' Luna: Short, respectful, and shows she's done her homework. I think a lot of people overthink these messages. Lucas: They do. The other thing: timing matters. Priya started reaching out in January for a summer internship. Most tech internship applications open between January and March. If you wait until April, the best slots are gone. Luna: So for anyone listening in June 2026, if you missed the summer window, what should you do? Lucas: Look for fall or spring co-ops. Many companies run multiple internship cycles. Also, smaller companies — startups with fewer than fifty employees — often hire interns on a rolling basis. They don't have rigid application windows. Luna: And they might be more open to bootcamp grads because they care more about what you can do than where you studied. Lucas: Exactly. One more stat: the average hourly wage for a tech intern in the US is about $35, according to Glassdoor data from early 2026. That's real money. And for a bootcamp grad, it's a foot in the door that can lead to a full-time role with a median starting salary around $85,000. Luna: So the ROI is there. But it requires a different mindset. You're not applying to jobs; you're applying to prove yourself. Lucas: Right. And Priya's story shows it works. She started her internship in May, and by week three she was contributing to a real feature. Her manager told her that the domain experience was what set her apart from the CS students who had never worked in a business before. Luna: That's a powerful reminder. Your previous career is not a weakness; it's a differentiator. Lucas: So here's the takeaway: if you're a bootcamp grad and you've been striking out on job applications, pivot to internships. Target the right companies, build a domain-relevant project, and use informational interviews to get referrals. Priya did it, and you can too. Luna: And as we look ahead, I wonder if more companies will formalize internship programs for non-traditional backgrounds. It seems like a win-win. Lucas: I think they will. The talent pool is too big to ignore. Thanks for listening, and if you want to support the show, you know where to find us.