Choosing the right software engineer bootcamp for you

Key quotes:

• "So in this post I’d like to share my tips for how you should go ahead when applying for coding bootcamps, as I think it’ll increase your chances of finding the perfect one."
• "Here are ones I think are most important: The answers to these questions will affect the pool of bootcamps you should apply to, even though you might not have clear answers to all of them yet."
• "Often times the coding bootcamps that seem promising will turn out to be a bad fit for you, and vice versa."
• "The next step is to start filter down based on your criteria, as applying for all 20–30 bootcamps is too much."
• "The first thing you wanna do is remove the ones that don’t fit your preferences from step 1 — programming languages, budget, location, timing."
• "It’s also important because you’ll get an impression of the people who work for the bootcamp, which are a reflection of the school itself."

Transcript: Boot camps are like this new fast track to becoming a developer and they pull some pretty impressive numbers according to course report the average salary for a boot camp graduate is 64,000 and this was done in 2015 with an average cost of 12,000 they also have a 90 percent job placement in four months so considering all these numbers boot camps are looking pretty good right now but with 333 coding boot camps to choose from how do you choose the right one that's what we're gonna talk about in this video all right so the first and most important thing to talk about is surgery choose an elite boot camp that's around twenty three thousand dollars including housing or should you choose a more affordable boot camp that's around eleven thousand dollars now I chose to go to dev Mountain here in Provo which costs ten thousand five hundred dollars and includes housing and I think a more affordable boot camp is gonna be the right choice for most people let me explain why elite boot camps boast a much higher salary but when you look at the cities that they're in it's typically New York or... See more →

Key quotes:

• "I wanted to take a second crack at the “ How to Select a Developer Bootcamp “ post that I wrote back in 2013, now that many new players have entered the market and that the landscape has taken-on a very different look."
• "For the most part, they are made in universities and if universities were doing an exemplary job at producing well-trained developers, there would be no coding bootcamp industry for us to discuss."
• "If you argue that there are not enough jobs, then where are all the bootcamp graduates getting hired? It’s what should drive the high-cost of a great training program but many coding bootcamp CFOs would disagree with me."
• "Bootcamps are hiring for instructors with only 1–3 years of professional experience, if any."
• "I found one bootcamp hiring for staff whose responsibility was to ensure instructors arrived on time."

Key quotes:

• "Colleges are expected to be honest and upfront about their job stats and so should coding bootcamps."
• "Student reviews Student reviews are one of the best indicators of what your experience with that coding bootcamp will be like."
• "You can get some of the most honest reviews by reaching out to former bootcamp students."
• "Get to know the people who work or teach there If you are about to commit your time and money to a coding bootcamp, you deserve to talk 1-on-1 with a student, teacher, or employee."
• "You want to learn the most in-demand skills in your area, to improve your chances of finding a job."
• "This could start with a simple Indeed job search (check out my post on what programming language you should learn according to your state) or organizing an informational interview with an engineer in your town."

Key quotes:

• "bootcamp grads — and found that bootcamp grads “match or beat college grads on practical skills, and lose on deep knowledge.” Nevertheless, to meet the job-market demand, universities are launching new programs — notably for the technical-business integration roles (e.g., Stanford’s joint CS MS/MBA Degree, Duke University’s joint between Economics and CS)."
• "Even if you decide to do a coding bootcamp, as Nikhil Taneja aptly noted, some self-study is useful to see if you like the material."
• "A coding bootcamp is a technical training program that focuses on teaching skills that the market needs."
• "I needed in-person class time and structure to build my base — so I decided that coding bootcamp was the right move for me."
• "Ask friends for their recommendations because the quality of these bootcamps can change over time — and there are likely going to be new entrants."
• "Although Dev Bootcamp is predominately a Ruby/Rails program, many of my classmates now work in Javascript or in other languages that they were able to learn because they understand the basics."

Transcript: You should not go to a cutting those campuses five reasons to not do I honestly think the camps are awesome and everything that I did because we camp is just why am i doing this this is not for me i absolutely love i went to coding boot camp in the fall of 2018 the program i chose was a full stack web developer boot camp at this fancy school called Northwestern University that I could definitely never afford to go to for college so I figured maybe they'd have a clue I also chose the six-month part time program rather than the three-month full-time option because high some of us have to work the fact that they even offered a part-time version of the program was one reason I chose it but here's the crazier part I interviewed at several other programs and when I asked about financing options the recruiter literally just sat across from me and said oh yeah just go ahead and take out a personal loan yeah cool let me just take out this huge personal loan for 10 to 20 K that looks bad for my credit has an outrageous interest rate and... See more →

Key quotes:

• "Bell says if you just want to be a product manager, you don’t necessarily need to learn to code to manage developers."
• "Learning to code gives you deeper empathy, says Bell, but if your only goal is manage development, he says taking a bootcamp isn’t the most effective way to build skills you need."
• "Bell recommends going to Code Academy or Flatirons Schools Bootcamp Prep Program where you can go through labs for free."
• "“If you get frustrated when tech doesn’t work like it should, you won’t enjoy the task no matter how much you like developer salaries and opportunities,” says Bell."
• "The first decision you’ll need to make is whether you are going to do an in-person bootcamp or an online course."
• "“You complete the course in less time and build good friendships and connections that help you get through program and succeed over time in your career,” says Bell."