What bootcamps to recommend?

"Terrible" is the wrong word. I don't think the people running them seem themselves that way. I think it's a "terrible" choice to do a bootcamp right now because bootcamps never really 'taught' anything substantial. They were a tool for very ambitious people to exploit a market inefficiency when is too much demand and not enough supply of junior engineers. And the market right now has been bad for juniors and will be bad for juniors at least through this year and maybe forever. The compounding problem is that most bootcamps I've seen aren't discussing this transparently and they are making very poor arguments for why the bootcamp will help you. In their demise they are focusing on marketing what they have instead of improving what they have. If you don't expect a job and just want to learn instead, then alternatives: \- masters degree \- online individual courses from Stanford / MIT

The odds are against you then but you might be the one who makes it through. Look at Launch School and don't expect anything fast.

What is the truth exactly. You looking at different outcomes data than I am?

there isn't any universally recommended boot camp and there never was for me personally at least. I used to recommend three rithm, codesmith and launch school. Rithm closed. but it's the program I recommended most broadly because it was pretty well-rounded for most people. Launch School still doing okay, A cohort cut back but generally they have the resources to keep making improvements. They have a different philosophy, their website talks about being this low way to career change and if you're the right person then it remains the best place for that fit. Codesmith is like falling apart with like hardly any staff left complaints of disorganization. they just advertised for one of their projects on their LinkedIn page and the sign up is completely broken and I can't even try it out and when I point that out they delete my comment instead of actually fixing the problem. it's like falling into the garbage territory and I can't remotely recommend it anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of the current students get refunds and leave and it shuts down based on what I'm hearing from people about the state right now. Breaks my heart because I sent a good number of people to Codesmith and I was hoping that they would take some of my feedback to improve and get better and have a positive reinforcement cycle and instead it's just imploded.

Core? There are hundreds of thousands of hours of free instruction materials out there. You are paying for structure and accountability. If it's worth what they are is fair debate and up to you, but that's why people pay for stuff in this industry.