Coding Bootcamps Can Offset the Great Resignation in Tech: Here’s How

Unless you’ve been sleeping under the proverbial rock, the Great Resignation is happening before our eyes.

The pandemic was likely a major catalyst for this shift in labor, but years of stagnant wages, less-than-favorable working conditions, and toxic workplace cultures have led employees to a pretty massive realization: We deserve better.

For many, the Great Resignation marks a leave from the workforce entirely. For others, it’s a matter of upskilling or reskilling into new industries — those that offer better earning potential, flexibility, and upward mobility.

One industry in particular boasts those perks (and more), but has experienced labor shortages for years due to lack of available talent. Luckily, it also poses one of the best solutions for filling seats.

According to CNBC, more than half of workers in the U.S. plan to look for a new job in 2022. Over half of those respondents noted flexible working hours and remote work are the biggest priorities.

The Great Resignation in the tech industry

The tech industry hasn’t been spared from the Great Resignation, though certain roles within it lend themselves to fresh, new talent and employees looking for greener pastures (like better benefits and pay).

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there were 461,100 jobs available to those in Computer and Information Sciences. This includes web developers, software engineers, programmers, and database administrators, among others. That number is continuing to grow at a much faster rate than other job titles as we become increasingly more reliable on mobile apps, websites, and other tech innovations that get us through our days.

Now, tech has always been at the forefront of providing their employees with shiny, often excessive benefits. Flexible, remote work often comes as a given, as does a generous salary.

With all those perks in mind, why are people leaving tech (or, rather, their current roles) in droves, deepening an already massive labor gap?

How coding bootcamps can offset further resignation

Rather than consider it a resignation, Wired puts it perfectly: tech is experiencing a Great Reconsideration.

Where companies are failing right now — and this isn’t exclusive to the tech industry, though it’s a shining example of it — is addressing employer burnout and overload. Programmers and software engineers in particular are feeling the effects of this ongoing labor shortage. They’re reconsidering where they’re working based on a list of demands from flexible work environments to having fully staffed teams so the brunt of work doesn’t fall on only a few shoulders.

Luckily, tech is one of very few industries that also has a solution to filling the labor gaps: coding bootcamps.

Coding bootcamps like App Academy have been around for at least a decade. Their outcome has always been to get folks into tech roles where they have better earning potential, upward mobility, and flexibility in their work environment. The stakes are just much greater now than they have ever been.

By increasing coding bootcamp enrollment, we’re getting folks into necessary roles faster and more efficiently. Engineering teams will have the staff they need to share responsibilities and workload so employees won’t feel the need to resign, migrate, or reconsider. Companies will eventually spend less on training and onboarding new employees by seasoning those they already have.

Coding bootcamps also help fill the entry-level labor gap. As the Great Resignation has shown us, people are understanding their worth as employees and are looking for specific types of careers, company cultures, and pay. Where tech has the benefits, they lack specialized talent. A lot of folks don’t think they can be good at software engineering or web development, or they simply don’t know that it’s a role they can learn and move into fairly quickly. Bootcamps create the most efficient track to getting new programmers into these open positions, where even entry-level salaries are some of the highest in any industry.

Finally, coding bootcamps offer an opportunity for employers to reskill and upskill their current workforce. In addition to working conditions and culture concerns, employees are citing a lack of continued education as one reason they’re looking for new opportunities. As EBN reports,

“Employees need to know their career path within an organization, and this goes hand-in-hand with upskilling training,” [CTO of Epignosis Periklis Venakis] says. “The tech industry is one of the most challenging industries in terms of training, mainly because technologies evolve so rapidly, rendering previously acquired technical skills obsolete.”

If coding bootcamps didn’t make concerted efforts to update their curriculum with what’s new and most relevant in the industry, they wouldn’t be around. Employers can offer paid bootcamp training or even free coding courses to employees who want to expand their skill set.

Coding bootcamps: the Great Opportunity

Organizations themselves still hold the biggest responsibility in keeping current employees happy and finding new ones they can keep onboard.

But for those individuals who are looking to reskill or migrate into a new industry, there is optimal opportunity in tech. The jobs are there, the money is there, and the benefits are there — now, they just need the talent.

If you’re considering a shift into a new industry, try App Academy Open for free right now to see if software engineering is something you might be interested in.