What I Learned from Researching Coding Bootcamps
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Re: What I Learned from Researching Coding Bootcamps
#2Good article (yet to read the paper). I believe learning of software development is a glance at the future of education. Diverse paths for diverse people. A myriad of options: college, bootcamps, internet; free, cheap, expensive; lectures videos, tutorials, documentation, blog posts, coding in the browser; teachers, tutors, colleagues, coworkers; templates, boilerplates, open source.
I think all of it is wonderful. Knowledge about software development is much more accessible than, eg, architecture. And much more aknowledged without a degree.
But, with the myriad of paths, come more risks of one choosing the wrong path, both from honest mistakes or being mislead by dishonest people. And these mistakes can be very costly.
I have a hunch that sometime in the future almost all knowledge will be able to be learned like this. It is a good thing to study the advantages and disadvantages of this environment.
Re: What I Learned from Researching Coding Bootcamps
#3[deleted]
Re: What I Learned from Researching Coding Bootcamps
#4I worked with a large group of a local graduates from a well-known coding camp. The results were horrible.
They would submit a lot of pull requests, but upon review it became very apparent that documentation was not being consulted resulting in unnecessarily hacky solutions. The reason: programming by trial and error.
In the face of that, the only thing I could do is: give them the benefit of the doubt by asking them to walk me through their problem solving approach. This insulted them, because there was no problem and solving approach, just bruteforcing code with live reload until the feature worked.
Unfortunately, sometimes the feature did not actually work, or would not handle edge or error conditions which caused the program to be unstable. Sometimes to the point of causing a live incident.
Since coding camp graduates graduate very frequently and because of referral bonuses, they were a majority in our team. They used their majority to deny code reviews (not allowing people to mark their tasks as finished), and took turns to pull off microagressions in a round robin manner so nobody is accountable enough to be retaliated against.
In the end, these people know they will not prevail through technical excellence but rather by pumping as much code as possible and by playing dirty: refer a lot of friends, become a majority, avoid situations where a relative rank can be established and bully any opposition until they quit.
Re: What I Learned from Researching Coding Bootcamps
#5I worked with a large group of a local graduates from a well-known coding camp. The results were horrible. They would submit a lot of pull requests, but upon review it became very apparent that documentation was not being consulted resulting in unnecessarily hacky solutions. The reason: programming by trial and error. In the face of that, the only thing I could do is: give them the benefit of the doubt by asking them…
I would say that although your situation is probably not unique, not all people from coding boot camps are like that. There are people who believe that an 8 week course will teach them all they need to learn, but this is true of all education, and I have seen similar results from people with 4 year C.S. degrees as well. Do they need to learn more, absolutely, but there are a number of students who understand that this is just the start of their journey.
Like anything, there is no absolute, and I like to evaluate each one on a case by case basis. Just because someone can't spend the time and money to go back and get another degree doesn't mean that person won't turn out to be a great developer with a little bit of practice and help.
Re: What I Learned from Researching Coding Bootcamps
#6I worked with a large group of a local graduates from a well-known coding camp. The results were horrible. They would submit a lot of pull requests, but upon review it became very apparent that documentation was not being consulted resulting in unnecessarily hacky solutions. The reason: programming by trial and error. In the face of that, the only thing I could do is: give them the benefit of the doubt by asking them…
That's horrible. Sorry for your experience.
Re: What I Learned from Researching Coding Bootcamps
#7I worked with a large group of a local graduates from a well-known coding camp. The results were horrible. They would submit a lot of pull requests, but upon review it became very apparent that documentation was not being consulted resulting in unnecessarily hacky solutions. The reason: programming by trial and error. In the face of that, the only thing I could do is: give them the benefit of the doubt by asking them…
A broken recruiting process might be also at play here. An applicant should not get an offer if they're producing trial & error based hacks, irrespective of background.
Re: What I Learned from Researching Coding Bootcamps
#8I worked with a large group of a local graduates from a well-known coding camp. The results were horrible. They would submit a lot of pull requests, but upon review it became very apparent that documentation was not being consulted resulting in unnecessarily hacky solutions. The reason: programming by trial and error. In the face of that, the only thing I could do is: give them the benefit of the doubt by asking them…
I would say that although your situation is probably not unique, not all people from coding boot camps are like that. There are people who believe that an 8 week course will teach them all they need to learn, but this is true of all education, and I have seen similar results from people with 4 year C.S. degrees as well. Do they need to learn more, absolutely, but there are a number of students who understand that thi…
If you are in an entry level software engineering job after having spent little time and resources, you have very little to lose by behaving in this way.
It's either that or the alternative: working harder than everyone else, learning on your own time, try to push your career forward while completing low risk tasks.
Re: What I Learned from Researching Coding Bootcamps
#9Good article (yet to read the paper). I believe learning of software development is a glance at the future of education. Diverse paths for diverse people. A myriad of options: college, bootcamps, internet; free, cheap, expensive; lectures videos, tutorials, documentation, blog posts, coding in the browser; teachers, tutors, colleagues, coworkers; templates, boilerplates, open source. I think all of it is wonderful. K…
The problem with self-guided learning are knowledge gaps.
When you are learning on your own you will be biased towards things that interest you more. But the boring stuff is as important in the real world.
You can interview a candidate that can impress you with fairly advanced concepts described in depth.
But you may feel disappointed if probing for gaps... Sometimes having gaps in certain concepts come with risks.
A simple example: If someone does not know how floating point numbers work (e.g: default number type in JS) for instance, they may want to use them for finance with disastrous results.
Re: What I Learned from Researching Coding Bootcamps
#10I worked with a large group of a local graduates from a well-known coding camp. The results were horrible. They would submit a lot of pull requests, but upon review it became very apparent that documentation was not being consulted resulting in unnecessarily hacky solutions. The reason: programming by trial and error. In the face of that, the only thing I could do is: give them the benefit of the doubt by asking them…
A broken recruiting process might be also at play here. An applicant should not get an offer if they're producing trial & error based hacks, irrespective of background.
Recruiting is lossy and the standard of interviewing in the tech industry makes it fairly easy to game.