u/g8rojas wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
if your bootcamp is not providing: "interview prep, mock interviews, online course, mentorship circles" you simply picked the wrong bootcamp. as a student, you should not consider that to be "extra". I write that again, b/c the perspective may help you decide if this is somet
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
Got long, TLDR: agree a bootcamp should do what it needs to to help you get your first job, including career services, but ultimately you are paying a bootcamp to teach out and not paying for a job and that has the following consequences.
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I have had super intense arguments with Codesmith people about this who adamently INSIST their lifetime mock interviews are amazing and any other service (like [Interviewing.io](http://Interviewing.io) or my company) are a waste of money.
There is a massive difference in a mock interview run like a real interview with a former Google engineer who has interviewed people on the job recently, than an alumni or teacher doing a mock interview and giving you feedback.
Notice I said "DIFFERENCE" and not that one is better or worse, both are good. The bootcamp should do what it does because it's super helpful to have multiple points of view and types of practice, but we saw a number of people coming to us who wanted different practice.
I don't want to come across like promoting my company, so this is bias, but I personally believe to get actual senior mock interviewers you have to either pay them well, or if they are doing it out of their personal desire to mentor - they need an exceptionally flexible schedule and a team of people (or product entirely built around this) handling their demands (cancellations, reschedulings, etc...) because these people are busy.
For example, [Interviewing.io](http://Interviewing.io) has fairly complex booking and reboking, and surge payouts and stock grants, and all kinds of complex concepts that I have not seen in a bootcamp's mock interviews.
Spending an hour working on a bug at Meta can have a ton of impact for a senior engineer versus running a mock interview, so creating a place for these people to do those is something very hard that I have not seen a bootcamp offer because a bootcamp is focused on teaching people, not mock interviews.
This is why these services that offer it are so expensive and still have layoffs and slowdowns themselves!