Thinking of quitting my job as a SWE after completing a bootcamp to upskill.

I have seen a number of people in this position who have gone both ways. Note: I'm the co-founder of Formation, which you mentioned, that works with people with 1+ YOE as a SWE, you are the target demographic but I'm not commenting to talk about that and I'm purely trying to give you advice based on your post and wanted to preface with that before I get accused of ulterior motives. Genuinely trying to help here and I hope I have some useful insights. Overall advice: don't quit your job, but what you are experiencing likely isn't just you and is indeed a long term consequence of crammed/12 week bootcamps that focus on getting a job over fundamental skills (this is a bias statement but my opinion). \- having at least exactly 1 YOE or more at a single company is a good sign for recruiters that you weren't fired within that time so it's a sign you are a decent performer, so that's one good thing to note \- if you want to level up though, 2 YOE is the magic number, so if you can find a way to keep the job and "meet expectations" just enough, then you can try to upskill on the side instead, and expect to make a big jump at the 2 year mark \- Upskilling while working is indeed a lot and very heavy. Quite frankly, that's why Formation has a useful product and good business model - to manage that on your schedule and adjust as you go, but it is indeed a lot of work no matter what you do. **- If your gaps are more practical skills, I 100% think you should NOT quit your job and instead find ways to expand your skills on the job, be it in the same role/team with more mentorship, or on a new team.** \- If your gaps are fundamentals that are holding you back from passing interviews, then look into a disciplined interview prep program, leet code practice regimine, one off mock interviews, Structy, Exponent, there's full range of options I can go into. \- I don't think any product/program/etc... is going to help you be a better debugger directly (which was something you mentioned), but I think that comes from both experience, and from having systematic thinking. So the best thing to do is just do as much as you can on the job, fail over and over and learn each time. The thinking part can come from stronger fundamentals, so that might be an area you can upskill in.

\+1 to therapy not as a joke but as a tool to strengthen your emotional state. At the same time though, just like you can have a therapist for your emotional state, a personal trainer for your physical state, a nutritionist for your dietary state, you might also benefit from a personal trainer for your SWE fundamentals. Again (see my comment), I need to disclose that I'm the co-founder of Formation which was mentioned and I'm bias, but just like some people benefit from help in these areas and others don't, some people benefit from help with their CS fundamenals, be it Formation or Interviewing.io or Exponent or LeetCode Premium, or Structy, or reading a 200 page PDF someone shared on LinkedIn, and others don't, but it's something to consider)

Again, see my other comments, I'm very bias and this is my personal opinion, people can upskill their day to day practical skills a lot on the job and this why I believe it's important for people to get the RIGHT job out of their bootcamps (if they have the luxury) and not the highest paying job OR the most prestigious company to brag about. If more bootcamp grads were able to take the top-tier apprenticeship route (e.g. Airbnb, Dropbox, Asana, Intuit, etc...) they would get the support and ramp up they need to catch up to the CS grads with 3 internships and enter top tier impactful roles as amazing entry level SWEs. Unfortunately these tend to be 1. paid at like $90K to $100K so top bootcamps like Codesmith steer you away from these and rarely talk about them. 2. they tend to be focused on increasing diversity in tech and promoted in channels focused on those areas and not necessarily as easy to find. 3. they tend to be seasonal. 4. they are absurdly competitive. Dropbox's has like hard LC problems just to pass the initial screen phase. In terms of non-practical skills, people can upskill their fundamentals and do interview prep with a variety of options ranging from free to very expensive, but they certainly exist and happy to go into more.