Comment by traviswingo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by traviswingo | Hacker News Reader

I've never done a coding bootcamp, so feel free to ignore my comment if you feel it is irrelevant.

My overall observation with coding bootcamps is you shouldn't do them. At my current company we have turned away a very, very, large number of applicants who have come from coding bootcamps.

The reason being they have a very narrow skill set and no actual real-life skills. They all build the same projects (this isn't always the case), and seem to always share their bootcamp projects as their own projects.

The best applicants we come across are simply passionate about building quality software. They build things just to build things, and learn because they're interested. They gain a very solid understanding of mathematics and algorithms through MIT OCW, Stanford Online, Coursera, etc...see a pattern? If you're looking to learn to code just to get a job, you'll have a really tough time.

The top 1% of software devs choose where they want to work, they don't ask for jobs and cross their fingers - they're actually very passionate about their work and it truly stands out.

The point is, anyone who is looking to do a coding bootcamp should really ensure this is not the only thing they have when they come out of it. Love coding and solving problems, that's priority #1. The skills will come to those who enjoy it simply because you're always asking questions and learning something new.

> The top 1% of software devs choose where they want to work, they don't ask for jobs and cross their fingers

I don't think folks go to these bootcamps to become a top 1% dev. They want to get a job building web apps. To do this you don't need to know the algo for quicksort or whatever.

I think I'm good at what I do, CS degree with over 10 years experience, but I don't consider myself a top 1% dev or top 10%.

Right. The top 1% of devs go to the top 1% of companies. The other 99% go to the other 99%. No one coming out of a bootcamp is a 1% dev, and they're not going to 1% companies. They're 99% devs going to 99% companies, companies who just need someone who knows Rails and can get an e-commerce site stood up.

I've never been to a bootcamp, but I've worked indirectly with people who have. They're mostly good people and want to do a good job.

I don't disagree with this, but in the long haul, life is richer and more complex.

I have a bachelors degree in "The History and Philosophy of Science" and w.r.t. CS am completely self taught. My first job (20 years before bootcamps!) I got mostly on the grounds of knowing a modicum of C and marginally better than high-school math. That wasn't the hottest software company out there, but it was a great apprenticeship for me. After 3-4 years I moved on, to a startup with marginally higher standards which was then acquired by Microsoft.

I'm currently a Principal Engineer at Amazon, I regularly use and apply the deeper CS canon that many people that I have interviewed over the years seem to have forgotten since they studied CS. One of Amazon's leadership principles is "Learn and Be Curious" -- which is not a bad maxim for doing well regardless of your educational background.

Agree with most but I think they can be a great launching pad for a lot of people. I've had success hiring people from bootcamps because it's usually a decent filter to find people that are doing career changes and are hungry. Recent college grads want way too much money and they don't know much either.

The main con of the camps is that they inflate the applicant's expectations about compensation. That's part of how they sell their product which is disingenuous IMO. You have to then filter out those that are only in it because someone told them of the financial opportunities. I always ask candidates how they stay up on the latest and greatest and they better have a good answer. If they're not investing in themselves when I'm not paying them, I don't want to keep investing in them either.

I agree with what you say. I also KNOW that coding bootcamp works for the people running the bootcamp and no one else. If you go, you literally piss your money into the pocket of someone else, and leave with nothing of value. Amazing, depending on what side of the fence you reside.

I think it depends. My sister went to Hack Reactor in SF and got a position doing front-end development paying $115K per year. She also had a degree in oceanography from UC Berkeley, so that probably helped. I doubt she would have been able to get a programming job with just the degree.

Hack Reactor apparently has a decent reputation in San Francisco so that probably helped.

Regarding the parent post, it seems to me that most people feel comfortable hiring those who are similar to them. So if you are a comp sci person, you will probably want to hire comp sci people. If you are a self-taught developer, you will probably feel more comfortable hiring self-taught people. You can't base the efficacy of a program based on whether or not any given tech company loves or hates hiring people who do coding bootcamps. When you are starting out, you just have to apply for jobs until you interview with someone who feels comfortable giving you a shot.

That's simply not true. Plenty of students have had success after bootcamps.

I don't know if Fifer is in SV, but there's a big problem on this site of SV folks thinking that SV represents the rest of the world. But if you went to a coding bootcamp in Chicago, you'd be flooded with entry-level job offers in Milwaukee or Madison.

I don't know what elite company you work at but my closest friends at my bootcamp work at Pinterest, Credit Karma, and Pivotal Labs.

Those are solid companies. 2 years in I am finding that 75% of the companies I apply to respond within a week asking to screen me.

Your comment is irrelevant whether or not somebody feels it is. The post title is "Ask HN: People who did coding boot camps, what did you think?" How is this hard?

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