Hacker News Reader

Comment by enraged_camel | Hacker News Reader

I think this is just one giant strawman that gets thrown around in any discussion on this topic.

No, a few months of coding classes do not make someone a developer. However, it does separate them from other people by demonstrating that they are hard-working, curious and have an interest in the field. In my mind those types of people are the ideal candidates for junior-level positions. Much more so than some CS graduate who went through the motions to earn a degree on theoretical computer science and thinks he's now a software engineer. (I mean, last time I checked, the vast majority of computer science degrees were not terribly relevant to professional software development.)

View on HN

Your last sentence. So true. ESPECIALLY in Europe. We deal with this all the time, students who did CS degrees and then realize they can't work in the coolest part of the tech industry because they don't actually know how to code. A lot of these guys are brilliant of course and just teach themselves, but a lot of others are brilliant and looking for some accelerated guidance. Bootcamps (in my mind) is perfect for these individuals.

Agree? Disagree?

No, a few months of coding classes does not make someone a developer.

But according to their sales pitch it not only makes you a developer; it makes you a super boffo, immediately hirable developer:

"Learn to Code, Get Hired."

>>But according to their sales pitch

Well, yes. It is a sales pitch! What did you expect exactly? "Learn to code and you might have a better shot at being hired as a junior-level developer, assuming you continue to develop your skills after the bootcamp ends"?

Your profile name is awesome. The end.

Its an article headline, so absolutely intended to be click-happy and instigate two things: 1 - interest from as many people as possible 2 - discussions and disagreements like this!

To be fair, this isn't a sales pitch but a guest post on our blog! ;-)

We present a number of companies and bootcamp angles in the article, to each their own how they "sell" the mission, or as some would call it "the dream". In our case we paint a picture of the ideal but crack down pretty hard when on boarding potential students about their goals and expectations.

I could of course be "just saying that", but we're an education company. Drop outs and sucky results aren't really our thing!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com