u/Foj6 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Hey Michael! 👋 I always read your posts, and enjoy how thorough they are. So thank you for that. My question to you is, which bootcamp do you think gives the best chance of getting a job, with the best project? I know that might be an obscure question but I figured I would ask.
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
So there are a three ingredients, Will Sentance has talked about this in public talks, and I have a hunch Launch School would agree re: their Capstone as well (but don't take my word for it!!)
1. Be a strong engineer to begin with/lots of potential. Good bootcamps test for this by having a challenging acceptance process. People prep for Codesmith for months and often fail their first interview. People have to complete Launch School Core for many months before applying to Capstone.
2. Build raw technical skills. A program has to train these and it's very very hard to do in 12 weeks. A project is one way to apply technical skills, and both of these programs focus on multi-week long group projects that are the highlight of your experience.
3. Be able to communicate and talk about your experience confidently to non-engineers. This includes your resume and recruiter outreach to be impressive enough to stand out. This is where both Codesmith and Launch School excel - but in different ways. At Launch School people build out in depth documentation and processes around their projects and do public, well polished presentations about them as well. At Codesmith, they've excelled how to train people to talk about their 3 week projects as if they are 'many months of senior engineering work' and to convince others of this.
Number 3 is the key to getting a job - and doesn't necessarily require projects, but it requires you to practice portraying yourself as a 'legit' engineer. And to get to number 3 you generally need 1 and 2.