How to Increase Your Income After Graduating from a Bootcamp

We all want a job we enjoy going to every day, that’s not a question. But let’s be real: We also want to make a good living. Because even if we love what we do, it’s stressful and unfair to try to manage our personal lives on a low wage — not to mention, demoralizing to not be paid what our skill set and work ethic is truly worth.

If you’re a career changer, you’re probably even more attuned to maximizing your income or getting a better-paying job after making the switch. And if that switch involves a bootcamp, you’re also likely very interested in getting the money you spent back in the form of a salary upgrade.

We get it — that’s why we’ve compiled our best tips to increase your income as much as possible post-bootcamp.

First, graduate from a bootcamp

In order to improve your income, no matter what role you seek, you have to complete the program you signed up for. Wondering how to get a better paying job? First, you need to upgrade your know-how. After all, you can’t prove your worth or advocate for a salary increment in a performance review if you don’t have the expertise and experience to back you up — and that comes from fully embracing your training.

Our research backs this up: TripleTen’s graduates, most of whom come from backgrounds completely unrelated to tech or coding, entered our bootcamps with a median salary of $46,000 in 2024. Upon completion, that average pay raise for these students was as high as $42,300 — with the majority of our graduates seeing a $27,000-a-year increase in earnings.

Companies, too, are willing to pay a hefty price for bootcamp students, with 79% of respondents to our latest survey saying they hire candidates with nontraditional backgrounds. 

Now, maximize your income

Ready to boost your income potential and make more money at work? You can start with these quick and easy steps for raising your salary.

Lean on your network

The best bootcamps give you access to a large pool of experts and helpful connections — instructors, alumni, coaches, tutors, company partners, other students. You should have built strong relationships with all of these people from the beginning by collaborating on class projects, grabbing coffee, becoming friends on LinkedIn or other social platforms, or other means. If you haven’t, don’t fret! It’s never too late to reach out to folks in your network or your colleagues’ networks to connect virtually or in person.

Either way, your connections can contribute to your pay increase in a number of ways: They can refer you for high-demand jobs with impressive salary ranges. They can, if they work at your dream organization, advocate for you internally to get hired at a competitive rate. They can (when there’s a foundation of trust in place) share how much they make for you to use as leverage in your offer discussions or offer their best tips for negotiating salary. And they can point you in the direction of other business opportunities where you can move up, consult, find freelance clients, or take on a side gig to increase income potential.

Don’t sleep on other benefits

Extra money in your pocket or paycheck is great, certainly. But a lot of people don’t realize they can earn even more long-term when they move into roles that offer other benefits beyond a high base salary.

For example, a tech job that provides more stock options or bonuses than salary might not seem tempting at first, but if you, your team, or the organization as a whole performs well, you’re in for a significant check at the end of the quarter or year. It’s risky, for sure, but the payoff might be worth it for many bootcamp grads who have the flexibility and financial stability to take a chance on a startup or growing company.

Another thing people don’t factor in when considering a job offer is perks such as health insurance or lifestyle stipends, which can save you a lot in personal costs and further pad your savings. Consider, too, a company that values — and advertises — consistent and substantial merit increases based on your length of service and accomplishments.

Negotiate like a boss to get better-paying job offers

You can — and always should — negotiate a job offer. And not just the employee salary, either, but benefits, moving and signing bonuses, and stock options, as well as aspects such as parental leave, remote work, vacation days, and flexible hours. These latter items are often easier to snag when a company won’t budge on salary.

Pick up a side hustle or other income stream

Reaching a salary milestone like six figures can take time, patience, and experience — things you can’t buy or weasel your way into.

The only “cheat code” to this is to take on a side hustle, or a job outside your full-time job that draws in some extra cash or passive income — money you generate without having to actively do something on a regular basis, such as real estate investments or ad revenue from a blog.

There are pros and cons to this. The downsides are that you often have to work more than 40 hours a week to maintain two or more jobs at a time, which can cut into other life commitments like family, friends, or travel, and a side business also takes time to make a reasonable and sustainable living. The upside, on the other hand, is that once you’re up and running, depending on the side gig, you may become more efficient and able to cut back your hours. Long term, a side hustle can also become a full-time role that pays more than your other jobs, allows you more flexibility and ownership, and feels more rewarding day to day.

How much can you earn in tech?

Of all the fields available to job seekers, tech is, and continues to be, one of the most lucrative. Because of high demand and low supply of talent, software engineers at tech companies big and small tend to earn at least six figures within the first few years of working — with salaries at Stripe, Apple, Meta, and other brand names paying as much as $270,000 a year on average. 

Even tech workers in midsize or small cities still command high-paying positions, with the average salary of a data analyst in Austin reaching over $110,000 a year, for example, and over $105,000 a year in San Diego.

In fact, the basic software engineering growth path suggested by our data and Glassdoor builds out this graph:

Is a bootcamp right for you?

Landing a tech job and an increase in salary doesn’t have to be hard — you can get started today and finish your search in no time by signing up for a coding bootcamp. Beyond covering all the basics of popular tech roles, TripleTen also equips job seekers with the tools and confidence to find a job they’re stoked about post-graduation by providing access to career experts, resume and LinkedIn reviews, and interview coaching. 

Before you take the leap, we suggest completing our five-minute quiz to find out where your passion and strengths can soar in the tech world.