I am a graduate from the first class of an early bootcamp that started in early 2013, close to the time when they were popping up all over the place. This bootcamp is still operating today. I remain in contact with some of my past classmates, and the bootcamp staff. From my personal experience, and from what the staff has told me, there seems to be two criteria shared between successful students who go on to get hired quickly and become good developers:
- They go into the bootcamp from a technical background (either doing IT/programming/web design in their free time for fun or from past work experience)
- They have a penchant for knowledge and self-learning (in anything they are interested in)
In my case, I messed around a lot with computers growing up and coded some simple websites by teaching myself HTML, CSS, and some Javascript/PHP. Prior to the bootcamp, I had worked as an IT Helpdesk Technician, and had dropped out of college after my first year. I did not have any CS or programming paradigm (OOP, FP, MVC, Algorithms, etc) knowledge.
In the past 2 1/2 years, my knowledge of CS and programming in general has grown exponentially. I have a firm grasp of many different concepts and can learn the basics of new ideas, languages, and libraries relatively quickly. I have worked at two different companies during this time, and have been told at both that I was almost passed up due to the bad flak that bootcamp graduates get. At both stints, I over-delivered on their expectations they had of me, and quickly became an asset and valued part of the team that helped deliver a lot of business value.
My success can be attributed to what I have learned in the bootcamp, my past technical experience, and the time and effort I put in during my free time to teach myself new skills. Going to the bootcamp gave me an accelerated head start into the world of programming, and laid down a solid foundation for me to build future knowledge upon. This is what a good bootcamp should do. They should train their students to become great beginners, who can pick up a junior developer job and quickly start contributing to their team.
Other successful students from my bootcamp all seem to share the two criteria listed above. Even if we all come from different economic, educational, or technical backgrounds. This isn't to say that ALL successful students share those two traits, some can have one but not the other.
The people that don't succeed usually end up being the ones who only see the "get a six-figure job in 12 weeks" headline. Usually, they do not have a technical background nor know of the programming landscape that rapidly changes and evolves, and the effort needed to keep one's knowledge current because of it. They might not even have any interest in programming at all. Sometimes they even have a CS degree.
So, how can you find and weed out these good developers then?
- Ask about what they did before the bootcamp
- Ask if they had any technical experience before joining the bootcamp, either personal or professional
- If so, ask for examples. Really look at their portfolio and code (if they have any). Look at their github profile and see if they had commits from before they went to the bootcamp, if available
- Ask how they learn new skills, what resources do they like to use, what kind of a learner they are
Some signs that the bootcamp graduate probably won't work out are:
- No git history after the bootcamp
- No portfolio, no website
- You don't get a feeling that they enjoy learning new things
- No technical experience from before the bootcamp
- No interest in programming or technology at all
It isn't impossible to find a bootcamp graduate who can quickly integrate into your team and become an asset. You just have to give the right ones a chance.