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> "I learned more real-world skills in 12 weeks than my Stanford degree taught me." I'd hope the author of that quote was paying very little attention, because I find this hard to swallow. My problem with these programming bootcamps is that they seem almost more focused on a shallow but fun dive than teaching people thoroughly. That's not problematic in it of itself if it gets people interested, but I'd hunch a guess…
> "I learned more real-world skills in 12 weeks than my Stanford degree taught me." I'd hope the author of that quote was paying very little attention, because I find this hard to swallow. My problem with these programming bootcamps is that they seem almost more focused on a shallow but fun dive than teaching people thoroughly. That's not problematic in it of itself if it gets people interested, but I'd hunch a guess…
Knowing a few people from bootcamps, it is clear to me that it is not "fun", it is work.
Your impression that bootcamps are for people who do not want to read anymore is plain wrong.
And self-teaching and bootcamps are not excludent. Actually, I was told that this is exactly what make a difference between bootcampers. The ones who think that all you need from bootcamp is the certificate, usually fail to have a career in software development. The ones that understand that the bootcamp is only the beginning, an accelerator and guidance for your learning, and you have to self-teach you a lot of things, those succeed.
> "I learned more real-world skills in 12 weeks than my Stanford degree taught me." I'd hope the author of that quote was paying very little attention, because I find this hard to swallow. My problem with these programming bootcamps is that they seem almost more focused on a shallow but fun dive than teaching people thoroughly. That's not problematic in it of itself if it gets people interested, but I'd hunch a guess…
As a self-taught web dev, I don't think I could find any "mentorship" in reddit, discord or Slack. This is like saying HN substitute for YC office hours with experienced mentors. Knowing a few people from bootcamps, it is clear to me that it is not "fun" , it is work. Your impression that bootcamps are for people who do not want to read anymore is plain wrong. And self-teaching and bootcamps are not excludent. Actual…
Paying for mentorship itself in programming is over-rated:
Question about career advice? Programming Discussions Discord server, /r/cscareerquestions, Discord servers with #career-advice channels.
Stuck on a topic you're trying to learn and need help? /r/learnprogramming, one of the numerous Discord or Slack servers available.
Code not working? StackOverflow, Reddit, Discord, Slack.
Advice on improving code, best practices for software development? Code review StackExchange, software engineering StackExchange, Discord severs, et cetera.
Practice problems? Leetcode, HackerRank, other challenge sites.
A web development bootcamp is not going to teach you anything there is not a better resource already available for.
When many people (I'm speaking very generally here, not talking about you) talk about mentors in programming, they want someone to hold their hand and spoonfeed them information. If one wants to be pointed into the right direction, there are ample places for that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a self-taught web dev, I don't think I could find any "mentorship" in reddit, discord or Slack. This is like saying HN substitute for YC office hours with experienced mentors. Knowing a few people from bootcamps, it is clear to me that it is not "fun" , it is work. Your impression that bootcamps are for people who do not want to read anymore is plain wrong. And self-teaching and bootcamps are not excludent. Actual…
If you want to learn frontend web development for instance, bootcamp curriculum is inferior to simply reading Mozilla Developer Network. Paying for mentorship itself in programming is over-rated: Question about career advice? Programming Discussions Discord server, /r/cscareerquestions, Discord servers with #career-advice channels. Stuck on a topic you're trying to learn and need help? /r/learnprogramming, one of the…
Wages are not rising, what is the use of flooding the market?
> "I learned more real-world skills in 12 weeks than my Stanford degree taught me." I'd hope the author of that quote was paying very little attention, because I find this hard to swallow. My problem with these programming bootcamps is that they seem almost more focused on a shallow but fun dive than teaching people thoroughly. That's not problematic in it of itself if it gets people interested, but I'd hunch a guess…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does the paid service offer that this free one doesn't? I'm assuming career guidance/placement. If that's the case, will completing this free offering still grant me access to a better career?
We have 2 paid options. The mentorship option is a $29.99/month subscription to a Slack channel (i.e. chat room) with one or more App Academy instructional staff 60 hours a week (M-F 6AM-6PM). If it sounds like an insanely good deal, that's because it is :) The placement based plan is the same experience as our full-time, in-person course, but online. You get instructional support, live q&a, pair programming, career…
> "I learned more real-world skills in 12 weeks than my Stanford degree taught me." I'd hope the author of that quote was paying very little attention, because I find this hard to swallow. My problem with these programming bootcamps is that they seem almost more focused on a shallow but fun dive than teaching people thoroughly. That's not problematic in it of itself if it gets people interested, but I'd hunch a guess…
I attended a bootcamp, and maybe other bootcamp grads can back up my claim here but...
Instructors don't spoon-feed material.
Curriculums are set up to be project or goal-based, kind of like being given specs or requirements in the working world.
What instructors do is teach you HOW to effectively learn. They also explain some of the more complicated nuances of a language...spots where a learners mental model typically struggle, that aren't well explained in Stack Overflow or MDN. And that's probably where learning gets expedited.
I don't refute self-learning as an effective means of finding an engineering job, but if you're starting with zero programming background, your only feedback loop is the compiler or interpreter giving you a result you didn't expect.
Sure, there's definitely some curated content. But it's not the job of an instructor to diffuse every API or system design needed to stand up an app into a students brain.
There's a difference between being told what to do, versus being coached how to do something effectively. And I think the two are conflated because of the perception or marketing bootcamps offer.
Any other bootcamp grads with the same experience? Or am I alone here?
Hey all! We launched App Academy on HN 6 years ago ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4505752 ), and since then a lot’s happened. We’ve graduated and placed thousands of folks as engineers and actually placed more people as software engineers at Google (30 vs 22) than UC Berkeley has since 2016! Today, we are fulfilling a dream that I’ve had for some time: to put the whole curriculum online, for free. We’ve built…