Are coding bootcamps a scam?

I'm a largely self taught dev -- been doing this for the better part of 20 years. I went and got a 2 year associates degree in computer science right after high school just to have some college on the resume, then hit the ground running applying everywhere.

While doing the college classes, I also picked up some freelance work at one of the popular freelance sites at the time. I found one repeat client who I did a lot of work for. I wanted to have the full experience of gathering requirements and maintaining a codebase. It was a fun experience, and I made some money.

Anyway, I wasn't finding anything applying for full time jobs. Until one of my classmates from college pinged me and mentioned an open position at his place of work. I handed him my resume, and a few weeks later I'm starting an internship at a place that eventually led to my first full time dev position a few months later.

I recall asking my manager at the time: why did you guys give me a chance?

He said it was almost entirely because of the freelance work I did. I gave them the contact details of my client and they spent some time on the phone with him before they extended me the internship. Client raved about my work, and the rest is history. I owe that guy a lot, lol. Actually he probably owes me, I definitely gave him a discount rate :)

Like coding bootcamps: my community college tried to "guarantee" X% of their candidates get employment after completing the program. But really, I got the job because of a connection I made during my time there, and because I jumped head first into the freelance work in an effort to prove myself and learn the app development process. I had a really great client that described working with me. Networking is still the best way to get your foot in the door, imo.

I had spent the better part of the past 7 years on the opposite end of the table as the one doing the hiring at a prominent silicon valley company. I looked for 3 things for a junior dev or intern, which is what you'd be fresh out of boot camp:

Passion. Have a passion project on GitHub. Collab on an open source project. Or do freelance work, and be able to prove it. Show that you didn't just do the boot camp for a job.. you did it because you're passionate about dev. I have this same requirement for folks with a BS or MS in CS, fyi. I don't care about your grades. I want to hear about a project. Especially if you worked on it with other people. I want you to be able to explain how it works to me and I want to see your eyes light up talking about it.

Competence. We usually do a whiteboard problem. I'm not looking for them to knock it out of the park. More so, I'm looking for them to voice their thought process as they work thru the problem so I can understand how they think through a problem. I don't care if you get it wrong, or about syntax. I wanna know how you think.

Communication. Show me that you're easy to work with and agreeable. When doing the whiteboarding and I happen to point out something, I'm looking for someone who wants to learn, and will leave the ego at the door. I'd say in the past few years this one quickly became the most important.. there are so many engineers out there that are awful communicators. You can EASILY differentiate yourself by being very personable in this profession.

The thing I don't like about boot camps is that: there seems to be a lot of folks that don't understand that the tech landscape changes at warp speed, and it absolutely requires a healthy passion to stay in the game. A lot of these boot camps seem to attract people who just want a simple 9 to 5, and call it a day. That's not what this career is. It requires passion.

Hope this helps!

Whilst you are job hunting, think of spending 1hr+ per day for 3 months volunteering through www.skilledup.life to gain real Experience and Skills and build your portfolio.

Please note you cannot earn from us. But the Experience will help you to improve your chances of landing a job.

All the best @lookingforamillion - whether you use us or not.

Personally I had a great experience with my coding bootcamp. I did it in the summer of 2020, and while it took me ~5 months to find my first job, I think it prepared me really well for actual work.

The short time frame compared to a full university degree was the real benefit for me. I just recently started my 2nd job in the field at an almost FAANG level company, and if I had chosen not to do a bootcamp I would still only be in year 2/4 of university right now.

Does education system is scam?

Unless they promised a job in the end, I don't think they are scam. They probably don't teach something that someone can learn by themselves but that price is for the curriculum going from a to z, one on one q&a sessions, networking, compressed time span for accountability, code reviews, peer coding etc. Those are the things which are hard to find for free.

Yes it's possible to learn coding online even offline. It's about how much can someone afford for their time. If I don't have $20K then I have no other choice to teach myself. If I have it then why not.

I've been trying to figure out 3D graphics, there are great series on youtube I've watched twice already. I've learned a lot but couldn't get pass a point where I stuck, read a few books, examined tons of lines of code. Still no answer to my question. So I've been at the same point for a week, learned a lot along the way but quite irrelevant and my focus is already faded and I gave up on it. There goes my past month into trash.

I encouraged a few friends to do coding bootcamps and they had good results... right up to the point the pandemic started.

The value of boot camps is provide accreditation that you know at least X and demo day to expose you to potential employers. The pandemic really devastated the latter because employers get much better signal about a candidate's potential/passion from an in-person interaction.

In addition, going to a boot camp without learning to code beforehand will give you mixed results from employers because they are looking for people who genuinely like the craft. It's better to be used as a shortcut from a "hobbyist" to "professional" without needing to go to university.

Lastly, the quality of different bootcamps vary wildly.

In the past 6 years I've hired a few people after boot camps on junior positions (at different companies) - all of them are at really good places right now.
I'd say it all depends on the person - if you're highly motivated and feel passionate to learn all these technologies, with a bit of luck you can achieve a lot!

No. Bootcamps have literally changed many of my friends' lives for the better.

However , they're not monolithic. Just like colleges, some people end up bankrupt with no job and tuition loans they can't pay back while others are propelled into dream careers.

For most, the truth is somewhere in between and it depends a lot on their preparation, their work and which school they attend.

Hard to say. I've seen people have mixed results. I think each person that attends a bootcamp is on a different journey. No two students are the same, and even have different ambitions.

If you want a gig - keep going and networking. Something will work out. If not, then you've learned valuable skills you can use to continue building your business.

Was it worth 20K? Only you can make that decision. One thing I will agree with you is that it is a different industry today than it was before. The entry-level space is saturated.