Two years out of CS work. Should I do a bootcamp, lateral out of webdev, or just give up? /u/OurEngiFriend CSCQ protests reddit

I’ll try to keep this brief:

• graduated in 2019, worked at $bigbank for 3 years, went to a startup, got laid off in Nov ’22, been out of CS since then.

• In ’23 I tried to interview but got turned down at the final stages, either cause I fucked up the system design interview (or in one case, I only studied system design and forgot to do algos and fucked that up). Burned pretty much all my referrals in the process.

• I’m moderately okay at programming but I have mixed feelings about it. Building webapps all day … doesn’t inject adrenaline into my veins.

• However! Chasing down weird and obscure bugs and solving problems is fun for me. I also liked writing python scripts and simple automation scripts, back when I was still learning. It feels like those two points would suggest a sysops or technical analyst role, but I’m uncertain if that’s the case.

• I’m considering bootcamps, not because I need to relearn programming (although a refresher on spring boot/whatever might be nice), I’m moreso considering them because they work closely with companies so it might be easier to get a job that way…?

Skimmed the FAQ but didn’t see anything about long resume gaps (if I missed it, I’m sorry, please forgive me). Thank you for reading.

I’ll try to keep this brief:

• graduated in 2019, worked at $bigbank for 3 years, went to a startup, got laid off in Nov ’22, been out of CS since then.

• In ’23 I tried to interview but got turned down at the final stages, either cause I fucked up the system design interview (or in one case, I only studied system design and forgot to do algos and fucked that up). Burned pretty much all my referrals in the process.

• I’m moderately okay at programming but I have mixed feelings about it. Building webapps all day … doesn’t inject adrenaline into my veins.

• However! Chasing down weird and obscure bugs and solving problems is fun for me. I also liked writing python scripts and simple automation scripts, back when I was still learning. It feels like those two points would suggest a sysops or technical analyst role, but I’m uncertain if that’s the case.

• I’m considering bootcamps, not because I need to relearn programming (although a refresher on spring boot/whatever might be nice), I’m moreso considering them because they work closely with companies so it might be easier to get a job that way…?

Skimmed the FAQ but didn’t see anything about long resume gaps (if I missed it, I’m sorry, please forgive me). Thank you for reading.