The Strange and Sudden Disappearance of a Coding Bootcamp Founder • Hacker News Board

Re: The Strange and Sudden Disappearance of a Coding Bootcamp Founder

#31

Post by madenine » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 7:10 PM UTC

jdhawk wrote: post #2

Has anyone done a coding bootcamp? With the plethora of relatively cheap/free resources out there from Universities, to professional institutions, all the way to YouTube, what is the appeal? Do the certifications count for anything to hiring managers? Do you need someone to kick you in the ass on a daily basis to keep moving? Do you need the higher touch Q&A thats not available in Forums/StackOverflow type places?

I did a bootcamp program. In-person, 13 weeks, 9-5, 5 days a week, plus HW/Weekly projects/Capstone project.

If I had locked myself in my apartment could I have learned the same things in the same amount of time? Maybe.

Going through an organization took the legwork out and let me focus on the learning. I didn't have to seek out my own materials (I did anyways, but that was for added depth into things that interested me along the way), I didn't have to trust my ability to be self critical in order to evaluate my progress, I didn't have to prepare exercises and projects, etc.

Plus, I was going through it with 20 other students who were learning the same things at the same time as me - people to learn with, bounce ideas off of, ask different questions in class, etc.

Plus I got a ton of career support. They brought in panels of industry leaders to talk to us, took us to different types of companies to meet their teams and get a good sense of the different types of organizations we could work for. They helped us with our resumes, online presence, interview technique - and hosted 'career day' events where they brought in a staggering number of companies who were looking to hire someone just like us, and helped us with applications, networking etc.

Again, could I have taught myself the same amount of material in 13 weeks solo? Maybe. Would I have walked away with a new job as quickly as I did (less than 10 days after finishing the course), and with a decently sized professional network? Probably not.

On top of that, the physical learning environment was great (coffee, food, etc), plus going to school every day meant it was easy to stay in learning/work mode, instead of getting distracted or procrastinating at home.

Re: The Strange and Sudden Disappearance of a Coding Bootcamp Founder

#32

Post by keithpeter » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 7:10 PM UTC

"Every year, dozens of new schools open, promising to teach anyone who can type the skills necessary to make a career in software development."

OK, so people want an accessible route into the very basics. Where are the Community Colleges? In the UK, your local Further Education college will do you the very basics for not much money as an evening class.

Re: The Strange and Sudden Disappearance of a Coding Bootcamp Founder

#33

Post by reustle » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 7:18 PM UTC

keithpeter wrote: post #32

"Every year, dozens of new schools open, promising to teach anyone who can type the skills necessary to make a career in software development." OK, so people want an accessible route into the very basics. Where are the Community Colleges? In the UK, your local Further Education college will do you the very basics for not much money as an evening class.

They are there, but their curriculums are extremely outdated most of the time.

Re: The Strange and Sudden Disappearance of a Coding Bootcamp Founder

#34

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 7:27 PM UTC

jdhawk wrote: post #2

Has anyone done a coding bootcamp? With the plethora of relatively cheap/free resources out there from Universities, to professional institutions, all the way to YouTube, what is the appeal? Do the certifications count for anything to hiring managers? Do you need someone to kick you in the ass on a daily basis to keep moving? Do you need the higher touch Q&A thats not available in Forums/StackOverflow type places?

[deleted]

Re: The Strange and Sudden Disappearance of a Coding Bootcamp Founder

#35

Post by overcast » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 7:32 PM UTC

jdhawk wrote: post #2

Has anyone done a coding bootcamp? With the plethora of relatively cheap/free resources out there from Universities, to professional institutions, all the way to YouTube, what is the appeal? Do the certifications count for anything to hiring managers? Do you need someone to kick you in the ass on a daily basis to keep moving? Do you need the higher touch Q&A thats not available in Forums/StackOverflow type places?

I think it basically comes down to the type of person. Some require essentially supervision to learn. They need someone to tell them what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. These are the people who take advantage of traditional schooling, and sitting in classes.

I think I fall in the other end of the spectrum, where I'm bored in a classroom sitting, and I'd rather people be at home hacking away learning myself. Trial and error experience works far better than someone telling me to do something. My progression basically comes from projects. I work on a side project that develops a few certain skills, then I choose another project I've been interested in, that builds on the previous project, but introduces new topics to learn. So on and so forth.

In my opinion a lot of these bootcamps are just filled with people who thought programming would be a good career change to make more money. I saw this years ago in my freshmen CS classes. Bunch of people who thought they'd just take the classes because that was what making money, or OOOO computers! Inevitably failed out. While those who learn on their own are the ones who are actually interested in programming, and have been doing so way before bootcamps existed.

Re: The Strange and Sudden Disappearance of a Coding Bootcamp Founder

#36

Post by walshemj » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 7:36 PM UTC

reustle wrote: post #33

keithpeter wrote: post #32

"Every year, dozens of new schools open, promising to teach anyone who can type the skills necessary to make a career in software development." OK, so people want an accessible route into the very basics. Where are the Community Colleges? In the UK, your local Further Education college will do you the very basics for not much money as an evening class.

They are there, but their curriculums are extremely outdated most of the time.

The cisco academy approved evening class ones are good we had 20 switches and 20 routers to play with at Mender College in the UK but it was about £500/£600 per quarter (free if you are unemployed)

Re: The Strange and Sudden Disappearance of a Coding Bootcamp Founder

#37

Post by keithpeter » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 7:50 PM UTC

reustle wrote: post #33

keithpeter wrote: post #32

"Every year, dozens of new schools open, promising to teach anyone who can type the skills necessary to make a career in software development." OK, so people want an accessible route into the very basics. Where are the Community Colleges? In the UK, your local Further Education college will do you the very basics for not much money as an evening class.

They are there, but their curriculums are extremely outdated most of the time.

Well they need a flexible accreditation route then don't they?

UK: I could get short (18 hour) courses accredited by writing a submission including Bloom Cognitive Domain style outcomes and an assessment plan in a couple of months. We made liberal use of e.g. in the assessment criteria so that the criteria could remain valid for a year or five even though the platform, language and methods could change as needed.

Re: The Strange and Sudden Disappearance of a Coding Bootcamp Founder

#38

Post by keithpeter » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 7:51 PM UTC

walshemj wrote: post #36

reustle wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are there, but their curriculums are extremely outdated most of the time.

The cisco academy approved evening class ones are good we had 20 switches and 20 routers to play with at Mender College in the UK but it was about £500/£600 per quarter (free if you are unemployed)

CISCO was very much the gold standard, I'm thinking more like html -> client side -> server side (simple) -> server side (more complex).

PS: I'm glad it worked for you.

Re: The Strange and Sudden Disappearance of a Coding Bootcamp Founder

#39

Post by cheriot » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 7:56 PM UTC

madenine wrote: post #31

jdhawk wrote: post #2

Has anyone done a coding bootcamp? With the plethora of relatively cheap/free resources out there from Universities, to professional institutions, all the way to YouTube, what is the appeal? Do the certifications count for anything to hiring managers? Do you need someone to kick you in the ass on a daily basis to keep moving? Do you need the higher touch Q&A thats not available in Forums/StackOverflow type places?

I did a bootcamp program. In-person, 13 weeks, 9-5, 5 days a week, plus HW/Weekly projects/Capstone project. If I had locked myself in my apartment could I have learned the same things in the same amount of time? Maybe. Going through an organization took the legwork out and let me focus on the learning. I didn't have to seek out my own materials (I did anyways, but that was for added depth into things that interested…

It sounds like the investment paid off, but if you don't mind me asking, what did the bootcamp cost?

Re: The Strange and Sudden Disappearance of a Coding Bootcamp Founder

#40

Post by awareBrah » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 8:22 PM UTC

bdcravens wrote: post #26

throwsincenotpc wrote: post #3

I don't get it, people paid $100k to this guy to get courses through slack and online videos ? The article says 19 students, who paid $5k each for that ? are you kidding me ?

Crazy considering that Launch School (formerly Tealeaf) has an online program for $199 a month (working at it full time you should complete in about 4 months) (we have a junior dev using it)

They used to charge apprx 2.5k for the whole program.

Either way, a massive bargain, compared to what's out there