It is incredibly hard to find ANYONE at any of these "coding bootcamps" or online education platforms that has any idea about what pedagogy is (or that it even exists) to the point that I seriously think anyone that makes it out of these programs and lands a job was mostly because they got the focus and time to learn by themselves (due to being in the program) than due to the program itself.
They just needed a kick in the butt. Anyone that actually needs to learn how to program for real, won't make it out.
I joined a bootcamp once, already knowing most of the material covered. I wasn't the only one in my cohort (of 4 people) who already knew how to program.
My hope was that the bootcamp might make it easier to find a job, which didn't happen. They put more effort into instruction than into placing applicants. Not sure why; I can easily cover any material that would be covered in a bootcamp myself.
Did a few stints at a couple boot camps as an instructor. Many other students thoughts that too because it’s half the boot camps’ marketing efforts.
But it was a big lie both times. They are friendly with a few startups who are looking for cheap labor at terrible conditions and they only have a handful of positions. « Career services » in the worst boot camp was an intern that changed every six months because you can’t have a longer internship and then they’d have to pay that person an actual salary. Swap for a new free intern and voila you can market your « dedicated career and placement service for graduates only »…
A despicable industry.
Those who actually make it are rare and had grit, luck, and sometimes previous knowledge. Most graduates stay unemployed a very long time, or underemployed if they’re lucky.
Don’t go to a boot camp. Use the tuition to sustain yourself while you’re learning using free resources. The ROI is much better.
If you insist on attending a boot camp, find graduates and ex instructors on LinkedIn first and talk to them to get a sense of what it’s like. Don’t just throw thousands at a shady organization without doing your own research.
Never wanted to do a bootcamp because of all the red flags around ISAs, and the often-remarked fact that there are almost no VCs or CTO's who understand pedagogy and the difference between that and growth hacking.
The thing that has been the most helpful to me to figure out what I should be learning and how my self-study time should be directed was a memo I got from a friend who worked at Google, explaining how their interview process works and what they expect SWEs to know before they can be hired (this was before that information was widely known outside the company; since then there have been some good write ups from former employees).
> Don’t go to a boot camp. Use the tuition to sustain yourself while you’re learning using free resources. The ROI is much better.
Well, there was no tuition. Much like other bootcamps, they offered an ISA. And since the only value I expected them to provide was job placement, that seemed to make sense. So I received nothing of value from them and paid nothing for it.
But this leaves the question open of why they thought this made sense. They had to spend money providing the bootcamp to me. What were they hoping to get out of that?
They just needed a kick in the butt. Anyone that actually needs to learn how to program for real, won't make it out.