Really thinking about a career change, is a coding bootcamp worth it ?

It's an acronym that stands for Facebook (or Meta) - Apple - Amazon - Netflix - Google. Some people use it to mean those five companies (knows for strong engineering cultures, high compensation, and impactful technology), others use it to mean top tier companies in general, such as Microsoft, and others. Generally companies that have the top engineers working at them, have engineering and product driven cultures, have the highest compensation, and have jobs with the largest impact. Not everyone wants to work at companies like this, or they don't want to work there for their first job. Others do. Others want to work there first, and then want to move on to other companies. But in the current market, most people see having these companies on your resume at a minimum as a golden ticket to open doors and extremely high compensation that can be life changing. I use a Hollywood analogy sometimes. It like breaking into the movie industry by writing/directing/producing/starring in a huge blockbuster movie, and then having a strong network and experience to open new doors. Other people might work their way through the industry over a long time, others might hit it big and then spend the rest of their career on passion projects, others might stay in blockbusters for their whole career, others might spend their whole life on passion projects and have a solid career without any big blockbusters. In this analogy bootcamps help you move to Los Angeles and get your first job in the industry and Formation helps you get a job on a blockbuster movie.