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Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

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Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#221

Post by PenguinCoder »

gothrowaway wrote: post #107

I got paid to learn to program. 45k a yr to start off with. Then 70k a few months later. You don't need to pay a school to learn to code. The sad truth is, there are recruiters who will throw out your resume if you associate with bootcamps. Why? Because the quality of the programmers they generate is low. Code camps run like mills. From stories I've heard, they pay instructors as contractors below market rate (20-50k…

Can you share what bootcamp paid you to learn programming. Or was it a situation like current/previous employer paid for you to attend?

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#222

Post by yeahbaby »

lint_roller wrote: post #123
yeahbaby wrote: post #13

I went to a code bootcamp 3 years ago. Now I make over 6 figures doing java in a LCOL state. The code place I went to did a really good job preparing me for the actual work. I am a senior level contractor and actually get to work on interesting stuff. I know over 10 people off the top of my head who also went to code bootcamps and are all making over 70k in LCOL locations. They are thriving and not hack's in the leas…

What's the trick to getting six figure work in LCOL areas?

Work through a recruiter, find a java gig at a fortune 100 company, then demand over 6 figures as your rate. If you have a decent work history and are actually competent and well put together - they will pay.

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#223

Post by thisisforyou »

tnolet wrote: post #186

A sincere question: Do people ever NOT graduate from these types of bootcamps? I'm asking as IT Manager / Engineering Manager person. When it's on someone's CV, I never know how t value it.

The graduation rate is irrelevant, as a very selective bootcamp that works hard to make sure everyone learns and has a 100% grad rate will put out higher quality folks than a dev-mill that doesn't care what folks do and has a 75% grad rate. The base fact is bootcamps vary in quality. As a hiring manager it would be in your best interest to take a day to visit the bootcamps you see on resumes and get a sense for what goes on there, you will get a very quick sense of which ones are legit and which ones are not. (I say this only as a graduate of a bootcamp)

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#224

Post by soneca »

JohnDotAwesome wrote: post #217

Is anyone surprised by the amount bootcamp folks in this thread who are now in "Senior" roles after only a few years? I'm not trying to diminish their accomplishment; Their accomplishment is astounding. But are bootcamps really that effective? I remember interviewing a ton of bootcamp grads from a couple of schools in Austin, TX and being largely unimpressed. You know that feeling after you interview someone where yo…

Or maybe you have prejudice + confirmation bias.

My "maybe" here is literal, not a snarky euphemism. It is a possibility you might want to check. Maybe you are right and that "not sure yet" feeling may be that lack of passion to learn that almost all of successful cases here mention about other not successful bootcamp colleagues.

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#225

Post by ens »

I graduated from General Assembly's bootcamp in the fall of 2013 (1.5 years out of college). Found an internship 3 weeks after I hired via the developer Meet & Greet GA hosted, and was hired full time at a startup a month into the internship. I'm still with the same company almost 3.5 years later in an engineering team lead role. Like some other commenters said, at GA I learned how to learn. I graduated the program still knowing very little about programming to be honest and I was lucky I got hired at an early stage company that asked a lot of me and forced me to learn quickly. I never would have gotten the job I got without GA because at the time I learned better with the accountability and structure of a classroom setting. In terms of skills, I haven't touched Ruby since GA and I knew basic JS, but GA was critical in teaching me how to be comfortable working through problems I have no idea how to solve.

Of my cohort of 15, I think over half are developers, a few are in other product roles at startups, and 1 or 2 went back to their previous jobs.

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#226

Post by crispyambulance »

JohnDotAwesome wrote: post #217

Is anyone surprised by the amount bootcamp folks in this thread who are now in "Senior" roles after only a few years? I'm not trying to diminish their accomplishment; Their accomplishment is astounding. But are bootcamps really that effective? I remember interviewing a ton of bootcamp grads from a couple of schools in Austin, TX and being largely unimpressed. You know that feeling after you interview someone where yo…

I expect that many people who enroll in bootcamps are coming from domains other than sw development. As such, they may have years of experience and skill-sets which complement the new skills they picked up at bootcamp.

Its not the bootcamp alone which is responsible for any person's success or advance, its a combination of factors, just like it would be if you replace "bootcamp" with "university degree".

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#227

Post by evilduck »

throwzy1234 wrote: post #215
kevindqc wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone can pick up painting or playing guitar. Doesn't mean it's any good.

According to employers, it's as good or better than anything I do since they get paid more than I do. University education and professional experience are literally worthless.

I don't mean to be insulting, but maybe you need to take an honest look at yourself. Good education and worthwhile experience are indeed completely worthless if you don't interview well and can't convey your abilities. You're not entitled to a solid career just because you got a degree, you have to convince others that you have value still.

Likewise, for all we know your professors passed you to get you out of their classes and you learned nothing in school and are undeserving of a degree but have one anyways and your experience is shit and every coworker you've had thinks you're a terrible programmer and create negative value. Maybe you're being paid completely what you're worth? Maybe too much? Those sorts of people also exist.

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#228

Post by mmartinson »

I did a bootcamp fall 2014 in Vancouver. I got a couple decent job offers the week I finished, took one of them with a startup, and have been working there since. I had no professional experience before, but took 8 months off before the bootcamp to prepare and was probably the most prepared student in the cohort.

Looking at where my peers are now, I would say that about 50% have turned it into a good career, and the others either changed course or quit.

The curriculum gave me a pretty solid start, though it leaned heavily on libraries and getting things done. Starting my job I felt productive in a very narrow sense, and needed pretty direct supervision for about 6 months before I was at a place to work mostly autonomously.

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#229

Post by cableshaft »

JohnDotAwesome wrote: post #217

Is anyone surprised by the amount bootcamp folks in this thread who are now in "Senior" roles after only a few years? I'm not trying to diminish their accomplishment; Their accomplishment is astounding. But are bootcamps really that effective? I remember interviewing a ton of bootcamp grads from a couple of schools in Austin, TX and being largely unimpressed. You know that feeling after you interview someone where yo…

It's also possible they're working for startups with few employees where they might be one of the only developers there (or the most senior after some turnover).

I've worked for startups early in my career where I was the "Lead" guy primarily because I was the only guy in the company with that job, and was thus forced to do run things.

Thankfully I'd already made and released well over a dozen apps and games I made on my own time for various platforms before then, so it wasn't like I had no idea what I was doing.

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#230

Post by throwzy1234 »

evilduck wrote: post #227
throwzy1234 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to employers, it's as good or better than anything I do since they get paid more than I do. University education and professional experience are literally worthless.

I don't mean to be insulting, but maybe you need to take an honest look at yourself. Good education and worthwhile experience are indeed completely worthless if you don't interview well and can't convey your abilities. You're not entitled to a solid career just because you got a degree, you have to convince others that you have value still. Likewise, for all we know your professors passed you to get you out of their…

Probably all true, but it's probably also true all of that applies to most other "professional" software developers too. I'm rather average for a Bay Area developer (by which I mean people tell me I'm above average, but I self-evaluate lower than that).

I know it must be rough for you to hear that you're easily replaceable by anyone with a few weeks of spare time, but attacking me and imagining I'm full of special flaws won't change your reality.

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