Bootcamps vs. College

I work for a popular bootcamp and can offer further insight.

Interviews: Criteria include technical ability. Our site points towards a lot of free resources for learning JS, and I can personally attribute that there is enough material to get a liberal arts student from 0 to a basic understanding of core JS functions. If they can't use those free resources to self-teach, or haven't grocked the material after attending a bootcamp prep course, they probably won't be able to keep up with a 3 month intense training program. ~80% of applicants will be asked to interview again, and of that percent, maybe 50% will eventually be accepted.

Criteria also include hireability. If a potential student has never held a job in their life, they probably will be rejected. We want to bring people in that will be employable, and motivated to seek employment. On that note, yes, personal hygiene and social skills come into play. If someone comes in for an interview that we would loathe working with, they will be turned away, regardless of their technical ability.

Outcomes: We are financially motivated to ensure students get jobs, but probably not in the way many think. We don't receive placement fees (that I'm aware of), but we all face the rampant "bootcamp grads aren't as good as comp sci grads" mindset in the industry. For every candidate we place, that's one more person proving that bootcamp grads can operate on the level of a comp sci grad. That's good for brand. More people will hear about the program, be more likely to attend, etc. Furthermore, more PMs and Engineering Managers will see the good work of our graduates, and perhaps come to understand that these candidates are competitive with a comp sci grad, and be more likely to hire grads in the future.

On reporting failures: The hardest work in avoiding "failures" is in the admissions process. It's rigorous. If someone would be a "failure" i.e. unable to finish the course or unable to build the portfolio necessary/perform in technical interviews well enough to get a job, they won't get into the program (mostly). I don't work in outcomes, so I can't comment on how transparent the numbers are, but there's no concerted effort to conceal anything at this bootcamp and I feel the numbers are accurate. Without a doubt, it's worth investigating a bootcamp thoroughly for outcomes results before attending.

Alumni Network: Shockingly powerful. For example, one of our graduates interviews at, say, google. They meet with the outcomes staff after and discuss the interview. We now have a general idea of what to expect in a google interview. This data is stored and updated for every single graduate, forever. So if a candidate who graduated 2 years ago is job switching and interviewing at google, they can come in and discuss what to expect in a google interview based on other alumni interviews, practice whiteboarding problems with staff, etc. We are careful about NDAs, etc. Everything I've seen is above the board, but I can't speak for any but one bootcamp.

Maybe I'm biased -- my focuses in undergrad were on Theory and Modeling & Simulation -- pretty much I took a bunch of math and algorithms.

Perhaps we should think of graduating as simply 'finishing' the curriculum.

If you paid course fees and did the work, you should be able to walk out and say 'I am a C student at RoR' with a certificate.

A company which hires through boot camps can ask for grades and choose to hire or not.

A C level student with other skills may still be valuable because of other skills they have and employable for junior or non dev roles.

Setting such a high bar pretty much just seems to be a way to manipulate data for marketing purposes.

And decoupling them from the environment I was in, the work that I was doing, and the people that I was around is absurd.

I think a portfolio is a good thing and suggest it myself, even to people with the educational background. I try not to suggest it as a silver bullet and say it's easy for everyone.

The problem with suggesting this to people who are learning on their own is that building a portfolio takes time. Sure, if you're young and single, you could wait tables and learn to code. But it's more difficult to find the time as you take on more obligations with age.

The other problem is picking the right projects and languages that hold some appeal to the rare employers who will give you a chance. People are also less likely to cut someone some slack for sloppy code, due to lack of experience and knowledge, and other early coder problems.

The last problem is not being able to network successfully to find those less common employers who will give you a chance. And avoiding the bad employers who promise experience, but ultimately have them working as an on-call contractor who just reboots the printers.

Having any college degree helps a lot, but without it many doors remain closed even with a portfolio.