To the extent that they could be a somewhat reliable pipeline into a programming job, they made sense for people with reasonable programming skills (or perhaps capacity, if we're generous) and a lack of credentials.

Can do the work, but can't get hired? Find a reasonable boot camp (hard), do the time and get access to their placement assistance. From there, now you've got work experience and will have an easier time getting through hiring pipelines.

I think they were definitely oversold as the solution to everyone's lack of a good job, and some of them were outright scams.

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willio58 7 months ago | parent | next [-]

I've hired a couple of quality developers from bootcamps. Especially if you're looking to hire Junior devs, I highly recommend keeping an open mind about these bootcamps if you're a hiring manager.

I went to a 4-yr university for a CS degree. I mean I did learn a lot and I don't regret it, but tbh I didn't learn any web dev languages or most things I use at my job today through my program. I learned C, C++, etc. which was super interesting at the time but it just doesn't translate into JS/React-world super well. I think there's a place for legit bootcamps that focus on what you'll be using in your day-to-day and connecting you with some potential hiring companies. They just need to be careful to not guarantee anything and I think they could benefit from almost an internal hiring round after the program to see if you have the skills to even be recommended for a job. That way hiring managers could build more trust with the bootcamps.

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bluefirebrand 7 months ago | parent | next [-]

> I learned C, C++, etc. which was super interesting at the time but it just doesn't translate into JS/React-world super well.

The technology you learn is not really the point though, it's all of the fundamental underlying principles

Have you ever worked with someone who has no concept of Big O? I have. They wrote almost woefully inefficient code, and actually had no concept that code efficiency was even something you could reason about

This is not a terribly difficult thing to teach to a Junior, but it's just one example of things you learn in a degree program that bootcamps generally gloss over

	▲	aurareturn 7 months ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I've met some excellent bootcamp devs and I've met some absolutely horrendous 4 year college CS grads. It also highly depends on which bootcamp you hire from as some do do push on CS fundamentals using Javascript as the language to teach. The top bootcamps filters out a lot of unserious, low quality candidates for you already. In addition, it's not a 3 month learning experience. It's 3-6 months of prep work, 3 months of actual bootcamp, and then likely months of practicing leetcode for interviews. It can take a year.
	▲	7 months ago \| parent \| prev [-]
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kid64 7 months ago | parent | prev [-]

Holy fuck, hope I never come to depend on your company's products.

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schwartzworld 7 months ago | parent | prev [-]

To back up your point, I taught myself sans boot camp. I got my first job 4 years later. Although I was ready much sooner, it was tough, and I lost motivation a few times.

When I finally got hired, somebody applied who had started coding the same time i did, only she had gone to a bootcamp. All the time I had been looking for work, she had been working. Not saying I’d do anything differently, but no question bootcamp would have shortened the journey.