u/customheart wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
You mention the first job salary data can be misleading about bootcamp grad success because it’s much lower than the actual long term job salary growth potential. Do you know of data collected from long-ago cohorts to look at the progress? I would be curious about total comp vs s
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
hey! so this gets way too complicated to comment on Reddit, you can pull things out of context but this is like the topic of a multi hour long seminary or something. Let me throw a couple of things in here:
1. Having a good fit in your job and being at a very strong company will have more impact on your career than getting paid more in your first job. If you are choosing between a 2nd tier and 3rd tier job and one pays more, that difference in company is less important than going to a top tier company.
2. So once people are in a job there's a lot more going on that can impact trajectory, more training, more programs, more friends, etc.... so you can get the data, but it doesn't mean much. I haven't seen career tracking data other than Codesmith published a report of "where are they now" that has salary data from like 60 or something people from 3 to 5 years ago. The methodology didn't follow CIRR and didn't explain how they value private stock and options - other than saying they include them. But they showed good career progression for most alumni. It was a much slower than the typically new grad at Facebook trajectory though. At Facebook you move from entry level to mid level in up to 2 years max or you get fired. And mid level FB was much higher than what that report showed people making in 3 to 5 years. Like let's say you went to multiple bootcamps and then five years later are making $200K. Who gets "credit" for that, both bootcamps? It's hard to say.
3. [Levels.fyi](https://Levels.fyi) is decent but it doesn't capture everything, I use it a lot for relative levels at different companies. But it doesn't show the ranges well for each level. At Facebook the top 1% performers are making 5 to 10X the averages with bonus stock and stuff.
4. I lot of the older bootcamps like Hack Reactor, App Academy, even Hackbright have a lot more people going to apprenticeships via partnerships and stuff, and on LinkedIn they have alumni that are all over the top tier companies several years later. Similar to 2. it's hard to say how important the school was versus that first top tier experience.
I'll add more if I have more thoughts, have to run to dinner!