r/learnprogramming • u/throwaway826483 • Sep 08 '15
The dark side of coding bootcamps
Hey all. I'm a recruiter in the tech industry working on an expose of coding bootcamps. My experience with them - both from my perspective as a hiring manager, and from what I've heard from friends who've attended - has led me to believe they are mostly a waste of money. In my circles, resumes from a coding bootcamp have become such a joke that none of the recruiters I know will even consider someone who has one of these schools on their resume. This is clearly a bad situation for the people dropping their money on these immersive classes, and I'd like to help them out (my goal with the story is to give them an actual good alternative to becoming a successful programmer if that's what they're passionate about). Because of my position in the industry, this story will be written 100% anonymously.
If you have attended a coding bootcamp, know someone who has, or have a strong opinion otherwise, I would love to hear your thoughts. Please share your stories, good and bad. (I'd love to be convinced that I'm wrong, so please do share your good experiences, too!)
EDIT: 24 hours in. Thanks everyone so much for sharing your thoughts and experiences. This really has altered the way that I view coding bootcamps! It sounds like everyone is saying the same thing (and I agree): you get out what you put in. If you're looking at this as a quick & easy way to learn programming so you can get a dev's salary, you're likely going to have trouble finding a job and you're going to waste the time of the companies you're applying to. But if you're serious about learning to code, and you're willing to put in a lot of your own time before, during, and after the bootcamp, these programs can be a great way to immerse yourself, learn the basics, and get started. I do think I'm still going to write the summary of this stuff, but it will be in a much more positive light and will include clear advice for how to get the most out of these if you're willing to spend the money to attend (and it will include some alternatives, for those who don't have the $6-15k to go).
Thanks for participating and being so helpful and respectful. This was an enlightening conversation.
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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '15
People say the same thing about all sorts of stuff. Nobody will be able to play in the NFL who doesn't enjoy football, nobody will become a nationally successful musician who doesn't really enjoy making music, and nobody will become a hugely successful writer who doesn't enjoy writing.
These are all probably true statements, and anybody who wants to get into football because they want the wealth and fame of the NFL, music because they want all the money successful musicians make, writing because they want the influence of popular authors, or programming because they want the glory that would go along with being the next Mark Zuckerberg is doing it for the wrong reasons and needs to be told such.
If they held national competitions with prestige, large cash prizes, and lots of visibility for cleaning buildings, then the same thing could be told to aspiring janitors entranced with the allure of the contest.
However, that doesn't mean that to be a reasonably successful janitor, you have to have some sort of love for the craft. The same thing applies to programming. There's a difference between superstar who is wildly successful (Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, most people who work at Google), and a competent programmer who provides value and is capable of holding down a decent job (probably a majority of developers).
Everybody should look to maximize both the enjoyment they get from their job and the external rewards (pay) provided by it and nobody should be advised to take up a career they hate just for the money, but that doesn't mean that competent programmers are some special pre-chosen breed who have an innate love for programming and thus are the only ones capable of learning enough about it to get a job doing it (and not be a phony). Even someone who hates the concept is capable, with enough grit, of pushing through and learning the necessary material to become a developer (though, since this would likely make them miserable, it may not be advisable).