Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 152 posts

Re: Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?

#11

Post by fecak »

My answer would depend on several factors.

Has she ever tried coding, and if so does she see herself enjoying it as something she'd be doing several hours a day?

What is her reason for an interest in programming? Is it an interest in tech, solving big problems with tech, money, something else?

Would she be OK knowing that the job search for a bootcamp grad with no prior coding experience may be rather challenging (many grads go to work for the bootcamp itself, which is mutually beneficial as it boost placement stats while also giving the grad a job)?

How is her financial situation? Can she absorb a hit?

Is she incredibly bright and dedicated to the point of potentially being able to enter the field based on n months of self-directed education for free (MOOCs, online tutorials, videos, books, etc)?

The question is a bit more complex than it seems.

Re: Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?

#12

Post by yorwba »

hoodoof wrote: post #4

Why do you need alternative ideas? You could just let her go to what she wants to. We technology people seem to have this built in need to get people to try other things than what they want to do. It's a form of controlling behaviour.

Would you say the same if she wanted to go to an expensive acting workshop that promises she will land a job with Hollywood in just 12 weeks? (And that might not even be a lie, since someone needs to be the extra that gets shot in the first 5 seconds.)

Not saying all or even most coding boot camps are like that, but based on my reading of HN submissions, some definitely do overpromise and underdeliver.

Finding potentially more fitting ways of getting into the field could simply be helping out.

Re: Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?

#15

Post by mceoin »

(Foreword: I went through a bootcamp, had a positive experience).

The only reason not to go through a bootcamp, presuming it is reputable, is price sensitivity. They offer better value than a college degree (salary offer wise, both for technical and non-technical roles in tech industry), accelerate the pace of early-stage learning, and create healthy habits that are distinct to programming (e.g. tests, debugging, pseudo-code).

Long list of positive reasons here, as long as mindset going in isn't "I'm going to be a developer in 9 weeks" (true only on the loosest definition of the word).

Re: Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?

#16

Post by smilesnd »

Mattering your location and whats around I would advise meetups and/or hackerspaces. It would give your cousin a good feel for the local environment. As well she might meet some people that try the boot camp out. If she does do the boot camp I would advise her to do some self study before hand. These boot camps try to cram as much info they can into a short period of time. She would probably get more out of the boot camp if she tries to learn coding on her own first. There is a ton of free resources she can try before hand.

Re: Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?

#17

Post by contingencies »

Great idea. Communicating about systems and their properties is a key programming skill, which is more likely to be gained learning in a social environment such as a web dev boot camp than solo. Success will require long solo hours, but I don't think social learning is ever a bad idea... especially when changing careers.

Re: Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?

#20

Post by biznerd »

I did one.

I HIGHLY suggest vetting the placement "statistics". For me, I just read 95% get a job, went to the open house, listened to a couple "rah rah" testimonials and did it. It was a big mistake.

A friend of mine from the class estimated that only 30-40% of us got actual dev jobs. The rest are either in customer service at a tech company, sales or testing (keep in mind this is people who dropped $15k+ to do the bootcamp), back in our old industry or in the case of one, working at Trader Joes.

I was under the impression that 95% get good jobs. If I had known only 30-40% did I would have never done the boot camp.

How did they manipulate the numbers? I never dug deep but here are my thoughts:

* to qualify as "actively looking" you can't have a job to support yourself. That's right you're supposed to not have an income while job searching, kinda hard when it can take more than six months. If you get a job, you get dropped from career support and your statistic gets placed in the "not actively looking" category

* "industry related jobs". If you go to a dev boot camp, you want to be a dev. You're paying $15k to do it. A customer service job at a tech startup is better than nothing but you don't have to pay $15k to do it. Likewise for sales.

As a positive point, all the females in our cohort got dev jobs, including the only one who actually failed the class. Startups are pretty aware of the gender discrepancy and actively looking to hire those with double x chromosomes. Not complaining about affirmative action, just wanted to give you as full picture as possible

Post reply on HN