u/Lucky_Relationship68 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
You seem to really know your bootcamps! If you were a beginner looking into starting a bootcamp which one would You do?
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
Unfortunately, I can't give one recommendation for everyone because everyone has a different background, life circumstances, personality, goals, and learning style.
I usually recommend you start narrowing down your list objectively: which programs have good outcomes, which ones have good reviews, etc...
Then try to do free programs at each of them, many have some kind of free community or free activities. Keep in mind that these are marketing events in disguise, but at least try to get a sense for what the day to day would be like!
And then focus super hard on which one is right for you by asking questions:
1. What is the day to day schedule and workload like?
2. What is the teaching style (e.g. lectures, self teaching, projects, etc...)
3. How much instructor access do you have?
4. Do you want in person or remote?
5. What cities are people getting jobs in?
6. What kind of backgrounds do other people have going in and do they match yours (e.g. CS degrees, experience, no experience, etc...)
7. How selective are they with admissions? Do they let anyone in or do they have a high bar?
For a spectrum of options, I often recommend looking at:
1. Codesmith: intense and ambitious (11 hour days + saturdays), hustlers/hard workers, fairly lightweight curriculum that focuses on hard learning and doing
2. Rithm: small classes, focus on learning
3. Launch School: self paced CORE, highly selective for Capstone, similar crowd to Codesmith but self paced CORE has to work for you to get through the base work
4. Hack Reactor / App Academy: long standing solid programs, weakness is higher drop out rates which can mask the unsuccessful students