Want a Job in Silicon Valley? Keep Away from Coding Schools

This is a weird article. It's more focused on one bad school then the industry as a whole. Everyone quoted in the article got a job as a software developer. It seems the biggest issue is that expectations are not set correctly by most schools. Some people find a job asap and some people take a lot longer.

This quote seems particularly shortsighted, “When people go to coder camp, they’re never going to be part of the in crowd,” Dinan, the recruiter, said. “There’s way more to success than just having the software education.”

As a former recruiter I cringe seeing this. Someone is NEVER going to be 'part of the in crowd' because of their education? 1 year in? 3 years in? 5 years in? 10 years in when they are in a management role they still will be an outsider because they went to a coding camp?

the company claimed to have some kind of special relationship with Google. but the course curriculum was apparently homegrown from nothing. very little actual input from Google.

and i remember wondering "what's the special understanding, the inside track, the competitive edge that their students will have?" it didn't seem to exist at all.

i mean, the company wasn't even making the curriculum up as it went along. it was hiring outside freelancers to make it up as they went along. that was their "program."

What they clearly lack in expertise (which can be learnt) they more than make up for in intangible qualities of character- self-driven, hungry to learn, motivated not only to do well, but to do better each time. Many come from backgrounds that are also useful, but not commonly found in degreed programs, such as former project managers, academic researchers, etc.

If you can afford the time and effort required to have a green developer on your team, they can be some of the best hires you'll ever get.

With regard to your specific call out of 3 months, the one I'm familiar with had something like 50-60 hour weeks. Most people were learning non-stop, focused primarily on easy-access web tech such as html, css, front-end and server-side JS, and mongodb. However, many of them also dabbled in a variety of other languages on their own time, such as python, c, java, as well as graph and SQL databases. They graduate coding bootcamps with more ready for web development than many learn at more degreed programs.

It's entirely possible that that level of expertise simply isn't enough where you work, and that's totally fine. But don't imagine that there isn't a place for these people within the industry.

(For reference, I've been in the industry myself for 7 years, and have never personally attended a bootcamp)

Too many of my former classmates graduated and expected that to be the end of the hard work, like they were now entitled to a good job and that they knew enough. It was enough for a junior role but not at a huge company.

Also because of the negative stigma of having gone to one of these I scrubbed it from my history as soon as I could. I don't bring it up in conversations either. It only seems to do more harm than good because people will hear it and look down on me. You only have to look at these discussions to see how much vitriol people have against those of us that attended one.

Full disclosure: I attended a bootcamp myself and I'm now working as a software engineer. My bootcamp made it clear to us that their program most qualifies us to be junior web developers. While some do get jobs at Google, Amazon, etc. straight out, they often had other quantitative background to make up for the lack of a formal CS education. The career services folks told us that the Big 4 become more reachable after we've had couple years of experience. Which is exactly what happened - I have friends who have ended up at those large companies after working in startups for a few years.

Also, my bootcamp made it clear that our education cannot end with our graduation. They established a clear timeline for us: for three months after graduation, focus entirely on applying for jobs, practicing technical interviews, building projects, and continuing to learn. And that's exactly what we did. The bootcamp was a 9am to midnight experience, and most of us did not slack after graduation: we continued to code and build things and learn every single day, all while sending out resumes and practicing interviews. And in the end, it paid off for most of us.

Still, there are many questionable bootcamps out there. For prospective students, I would encourage them to meet with grads and talk about their experience with the specific bootcamps that they attended. Look at the hiring data - many offer audited reports now (and be careful of those that don't). Do your due diligence before making an expensive commitment.

And for companies hiring, keep an open mind and talk to the bootcamp grads. Learn about the differences between the schools too. It's right to be skeptical, but bootcamp hires can also provide very good value to your company.