Graduated with a STEM (only partial comp-sci though) degree from a state school in NY. The uni prepared me zero for how to interview, as a result I bombed most of my coding ones (I remember being asked in one "Tell me about yourself", and having never heard of an elevator pitch before saying something like "Uhh, I think Buddhism is pretty cool..." and remember seeing the light go out of my interviewer's eyes.) Took some tech-adjacent contract jobs, and eventually ended up doing helpdesk for seven years.
Hated it, knew I wanted to program, eventually left my job to attempt solo Android development but had no idea how to manage my own time. Finally heard about coding bootcamps from the friend of a friend, did some research, and joined one (was lucky to have enough money saved for tuition, something like 15k.)
Was one of the only people in the cohort with any prior CS experience, but almost everybody was dedicated and did quite well. Was a great experience, though stressful (actually developed shingles midway through, which for someone in their early thirties generally indicates serious stress.) Graduated, and landed my first programming job in about three months.
It was hard, and my entire team was remote which wasn't great, as I didn't really feel empowered to ask as many questions as I should have (which is extremely important.) Was a great experience though, and everyone there was fantastic. Was downsized out after about 13 months, landed another job six months after, and stayed there for almost three years before we were acquired.
The tl;dr is that bootcamps worked amazingly well for me, and I've never been happier in my current job – it's night and day from what I was doing before, and pays a whole hell of a lot better. I keep hearing that the bootcamp ecosystem is different now, which is a damn shame because it worked a miracle for me. I was lucky too: our cohort lead instructor was a phenomenal teacher, which obviously isn't always the case. But it's a trade-type school which, in a perfect world, is available for people who want to attempt this transition.
Oh, my school also provided something invaluable (as is mentioned in the article): they hustled to connect me with companies looking to hire new devs. Both of my positions originated through connections my bootcamp made for me (I did a lot of work to land interviews myself, but both times ended up taking positions the bootcamp facilitated.) A really good business development department (or whatever they call it) is incredibly important in a bootcamp, imo.