u/sheriffderek wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
I’ve been hanging around here for many years. I’d say most of the discussion is about which bootcamps are bad. But as far as _genuine interest and real discussion_ about learning and professional development paths, it’s even. Some college, some bootcamp, some monthly programs,
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
I can speak for Formation. We are not an alternative to bootcamps at all and not even an option for CS grads who don't have SWE work experience yet. If you have SWE work experience and are considering a bootcamp, then we might possibly be an option, but even then, not a slam dunk and I might still recommend a bootcamp depending on your situation.
We have a very small team and we don't have a lot of online presence, so want don't want people to misunderstand what we do.
For example, a non trivial percent of people come BACK to Formation in the future and pay the full amount to do the same thing AGAIN. This is a good example showing how completely different it is than a bootcamp... it would be like doing the full Codesmith Immersive for $22,500 twice two years apart... makes no sense.
Second, we don't teach anything or have any classes. This is SUPER important because people should not come to use to learn new skills, like "I'm a backend engineer who wants to learn frontend" or "I'm a data engineer who wants to be full stack". We do NOT do that. We help you prepare for SWE interviews. If you are a data engineer and you want to learn React and Node and Go on your own, and then come to us to prepare for interviews, we might be able to help.
Our method is: benchmark -> feedback -> practice -> repeat. We have built a very complex, million line codebase and system with thousands of pieces of content to make it all happen and we still make hundreds of changes a week.
The only program we directly compete with is Interview Kickstart and we are still absurdly different haha.