Erik Aylward went from coding bootcamp to job at Penn Medicine in less than a year

Looks like PromptWorks has its own version of our Exit Interview series.
The Center City-based software shop sat down for a chat with one of its exiting fellowship grads: Philly-based developer Erik Aylward, who left his career in consulting to become a software engineer. He credited the company’s PromptWorks/Flatiron Fellowship program as a gateway to the local scene (and gave us lil’ shoutout, too).
“I learned a ton about Philly’s tight-knit tech community — people, companies, meetups, and resources like Technical.ly Philly and Philly Dev Slack that helped me out in my job search,” he said.
That job hunt wasn’t that long: the following month, Aylward joined Penn Medicine as an associate web developer, where he’ll be part of the team that powers Penn Medicine Academic Computing Services (PMACS).
Aylward, who holds a Penn State degree in finance, joined the fellowship in order to make a career switch over from accounting.
It’s the first time PromptWorks has hosted a fellow from the Flatiron program, though it has hired from the New York City dev bootcamp before and has also helped place two Flatiron grads at jobs, said Promptworks cofounder Mike Nicholaides.
So, any advice for young devs out there trying to make it happen? Aylward offered this quick, machine-gun like blast of guidance:
“Network. Go to meetups. Ask for business cards. Find local bootcamp grads on LinkedIn. Search for local devs from your alma mater. Send cold emails, but try to find common ground. Ask to meet for coffee, lunch, drinks. Get on Philly Dev Slack. Give a tech talk. Keep coding. Keep learning.”