u/michaelnovati replied ·
Thanks for charing your views, but want to elaborate with looking at some of these things from both sides as it's very one-sided and over-generalizing.
* I agree you can't cram knowledge into people's heads and this is one of the biggest flaws of bootcamps. The best bootcamps with the best outcomes select for smart and self-learning people at the entrance interviews, who still complain that they can't keep up, but because of there pre-existing abilities, making it through and succeed more than others. It one of the "dirty secrets" of hyper-compressed fixed programs. The teaching-styles do matter as well, but the make it or break it factor is the bar to entry and not the training.
* Never rely on referrals for a job. There's no magic, cigar smoking, backroom meetings where people are shuffled around to companies under the table. Referrals are just ways to get your resume in front of people at a company who have some level of ability to get you interviews. There's a huge difference from a referral from an intern, and a referral from a director. There's a huge difference between a cold-referral email to a recruiter from a past alumni, and a "I will quit if this person isn't hired"-type email to the same recruiter from a trusted engineer. Sometimes companies just aren't hiring people!! There's so much nuance in "referrals" that there can exist programs with FANTASTIC networks and connections but it can still be demoralizing in the job hunt.
* Bootcamps are often a "kiss of death" on a cold application resume yeah. There are too many grads with the same sounding "open source projects" on GitHub and no one has time to dive deep into that for an entry level role. I agree with you on the frustrating though. Some of the successful bootcamp alumni really hustle and stretch the truth of their "projects" and make them look like work experience to stand out. And that's super controversial if you are playing by the rules and getting stuck, like it sounds you may be :(. But the market is what it is, and some bootcamps will teach you how to play the game, and others will cash your check and push you out the door.