Coding Bootcamps

[tim]

@russ

I bet you’ll get more out of your bootcamp experience if you exhaust all of those options first, and are still interested in a career as a dev, before you take your loans out. And that means that, yeah, it’s basically ITT. I’ve worked with some really bright people who did ITT. But they were bright going in.

I heartily agree with this. I’ve done a fair amount of interviews for new devs at my day job, my observations match what you’re saying.

We had a similar discussion a couple years ago on TG:

theFirehose, an online code (Rails) school + mentoring

I think it really comes down to the individual taking the classes. If someone is in it to learn, they’ll graduate from it, then continue building things they actually want to build, because they are fun and/or useful. That kind of person will have a portfolio of small various apps they’ve made for themselves, that they actually use. The majority of people I’ve met who graduate from these kind of things seem to want to just get into development because it pays well. They take the classes, don’t …

Since then, I have found two devs who went into the class with a passion to learn it, and sucked everything out of it that they could, and they are doing well now.

@maiki

I have a lot of knowledge to build on, but each time I gain a level in some skill it was because I had time. I don’t know how that translates in a coding bootcamp.

From what I hear it’s similar. It is pretty intensive X weeks of learning. But again, if a person is only interested in it for the money, I don’t think they’ll be successful. Someone who wants to learn it because they are interested will definitely get something out of a bootcamp. I am not sure if it is more than what you’d get spending the same amount of time self-learning (if the person enjoys that style of learning)