Maybe in past decades some employers were willing to give it a shot? I can't imagine anyone who just does this camp getting into "Big Tech" immediately. Maybe they actually were clever, had some relevant experience before, strong interest in technology already.
I know someone who did a bootcamp to move from sales to something they described sales engineer.
I’ve worked with 2 fresh bootcamp grads in the past and they were both fantastic. Our bar for hiring entry-level programmers was that they can write syntactically valid code while pairing with a more experienced engineer, ask lots of questions, and are quick learners.
Nobody expects a bootcamp grad to jump directly into engineering entire features from scratch. They do expect this from uni grads but I can tell from personal experience as a fresh-out-of-uni engineer that this is a terrible idea.
For about a decade, the tech sector had explosive growth, and some companies were taking “anything” they could get, which often included people who don’t know what an array is.
I’m biased about this as a boot camp grad -> staff engineer who has worked with a lot of interns that went on to be very successful engineers from the boot camp I attended, but yes it can definitely help.
One of my best hires in big tech was from a bootcamp.
He made Sr Eng in 3 years. Previous job was a musician and waiter. Currently a principal engineer at Twilio.
There’s a reason entry level tech recruiting pivoted from “new grad” programs to “early career” programs.
I will add, just like any school the quality of the instructors is very important. You are probably getting better boot camp experiences in the Bay Area.
