Confessions of a bootcamp graduate

If you were in a place other than SFBA where people 1) wanted to live but 2) wouldn't easily go to other jobs locally, this could work really well.

but many people who go into these bootcamps, a bit naive about what it takes to gain deep technical expertise, either learn to gulp down the kool-aid (cultish) or bitterly reject it (jaded).

the third way (indifference towards the marketing) will probably lead to a stronger view of the industry itself, and will yield better programs + better mental model for those attending these programs.

hack reactor does an incredible job all things considered -- it takes BEGINNERS (which is different from entirely clueless "ive never coded before" types) and puts them on a path where, if they realize the depth of their ignorance, now have the tools to whittle away at it. they do this job much better than i think almost every bootcamp out there (based on extensive personal research)

bootcamps make these people employable, and considering many of these people are career switchers, that's pretty awesome for a 12-wk program. but we can't mistake "employable" with "good". the companies hiring bootcamp grads need to have the resources available to guide/mentor them. there are certain things bootcamp grads are great at, and others they are absolutely miserable at (see TripleByte's post: http://blog.triplebyte.com/bootcamps-vs-college)

my prediction is that the bootcamp industry is going to end up looking a lot like coursera writ large. you'll have "bootcamp prep" courses which, with another name, is just Intro to Web Programming. The next step up is the "web development bootcamp", which is Web Development 101. The next step up above that would maybe be different sets of intensives like "Python and Machine Learning" or a guided SICP/NandTetris course or Blockchain 101 or Functional Data Structures or something.

The idea being that in the grand scheme, if you are interested in programming and need structure, you can start with Codecademy, then attend a $1k bootcamp prep course, then attend a $5-20k online web dev course (depending on your goals), then a $5-20k deeper dive course (again, depending on your goals).

this path possibly lowers risk for people interested in programming -- at any stage of the path, you can drop out, and your time + $$ expenditure is lowered. the alternative is to pursue a CS degree and then realize halfway through you don't want it (at which point your stuck). or maybe it inspires you to go get a CS degree. or maybe inspires you to be ballsier and more self-directed and learn all this stuff yourself (which is tough but doable)

I spent a couple of months learning and working on projects in my free time. A consistent theme was getting stuck on a concept or bug and having no feedback to get past it. (Either, "give up, move on, come back to this later" or "oh, fix this one thing and its done".)

I guess, I could have made the transition without an immersive program, but I'm sure my outcome would have taken more time, had a lower starting salary, and eventually more cost money.

Retrospectively, there was $30k post-tax in opportunity cost of not working at a Mechanical Engineering job (bay area) for 6 months and the $22k tuition.

“Hack Reactor was created in late 2012 by DevBootcamp grads.” This makes them sound like recent bootcamp grads. Shawn Drost studied CS at USC and was a technical team lead at OKCupid. Marcus Philips was an engineer at Twitter.

It describes (unfairly) the skeleton of the average day as if that’s all there is. There are frequently other lectures and guest speakers, and daily presentations and other discussions. There are also resources, assignments, and support before you even start the program, and support after.

“The students assigned to help during the sprints have graduated just before you started… Unfortunately they are not experts.” Their role is not to “give” anybody answers, but to get you unstuck. If you’re truly hopelessly stuck on something, then there are experts who step in.

“The third month you’ll work on your thesis project with a team chosen for you.” You have a lot of input over who you work with, and they accommodate switches when possible.

“The second half is cruise control.” That’s like saying a thesis semester is cruise control. You meet daily with an expert who functions as a PM. It was very comparable to real world programming.

The criticisms of the condensed nature of the program miss the point. They’re designed to make you autonomous and accustomed to agile practices, and not be someone who becomes easily lost with unfamiliar problems.

“Another observation, most people who get in, are already qualified people, with top university degrees.” This was certainly not true of the cohorts I saw or the people I interviewed when I did admissions for them. Roughly half had CS backgrounds, and the rest were changing careers.

A few candidates I interviewed attended previous bootcamps, and I saw no improvement over regular candidates. Most did not get in. With one exception, the alumni I know of (graduating 3-9 months ago) ended up in good jobs in line with their outcomes statistics. I don’t know if Hack Reactor is still worth it in today’s market, but painting the program as some kind of scam or bait-and-switch is not the sentiment of anyone I know, and this article makes a lot of dishonest points to get there.