Ask HN: If you worked with a grad from a code bootcamp, how effective were they?

A close friend of mine is deciding which code bootcamp to attend. Talking to graduates has been useful. But if the goal is to be a good developer that people want to work with, the most objective source of information for applicants (and hirers) is probably previous graduates' coworkers.

If you've worked with a bootcamp grad, please take this http://fluidsurveys.com/s/coding-bootcamp-grad-peer-assessment/

Disclosure: I have a secondary motive in that I'm a cofounder of Statwing, and I think the results of this will be a really interesting dataset to let people play around with (like the Stack Overflow survey: https://www.statwing.com/demos/dev-survey). I do in fact have a close friend making this decision right now, though.

Yup, they'll be posted for download by anyone.

Hey, your site seems to have trouble rendering graphs on smaller screensizes.

http://screencast.com/t/jMZuQTz6xto http://screencast.com/t/qSkFeFpM

I'd much prefer a fixed size table that I can pan vs an autosizing one.

I'm the grad, rather than a guy working with a grad. But, just a bit of my experience:

When I first came out of Epicodus into working at my current firm Ahalogy, I obviously knew I had a lot to learn. However, the way I've hit the grindstone and just continued to expand my skillset and learn (which is a skill that Epicodus helped me develop) the developers I work with notice constant improvement and I've gone from 'definitely a junior dev' to having projects that I own and work on exclusively as well as other large ones. We also hired another bootcamp grad who is in about the same boat (he came from Dev Bootcamp). Hopefully you get some encouraging results :) I love my job and where I work more than words can describe and Epicodus opened these doors for me after I grew sick of my Physics curriculum in college.

edit for context: I was in Epicodus's last fall class. So, 6ish months of time since I finished up and began working a bit later. Took some time off to find the perfect fit for my first real programming job that wasn't freelance.

One thing that I've noticed in interviewing people is that those with a previous STEM background seem to get a lot more out of the programs. I assume it's because they already have an understanding of problem solving & analytical thinking (whether it comes naturally or they were taught it) and so coding bootcamp is just learning a new syntax for their problem solving. One of our best engineers is a Carnegie Mellon EE grad who did a coding bootcamp, he's an awesome coder.

On the flip side those who come to me with a liberal arts degree + bootcamp just don't seem to have the same problem solving skills.

This is all a generalization of course but it's what I've seen doing lots of interviews.