Launch School H2 2024 grad outcomes. Placement rate within 6 months is lower than 2023 grads (50% versus 75%). Note that the denominator is all people who start, so will do comparisons in the body.

Launch School H2 2024 grad outcomes. Placement rate within 6 months is lower than 2023 grads (50% versus 75%). Note that the denominator is all people who start, so will do comparisons in the body. Resharing the original post: [https://www.reddit.com/r/launchschool/comments/1n8s8mr/cohort\_2408\_salary\_outcomes\_6month/](https://www.reddit.com/r/launchschool/comments/1n8s8mr/cohort_2408_salary_outcomes_6month/) **As usual Launch School is very clear and transparent about their analysis so I really don't have to read between the lines, you should read their original post.** **INDUSTRY COMMENTARY:** In the bootcamps world, Launch School and Codesmith are the two remaining bootcamps with consistent six figure outcomes over a decade, so it's really the main comparison. Codesmith hasn't given any numbers for a while so we'll extrapolate there's based on the patterns. **Also note that Codesmith data includes about 40% of the placements in 2023 'verified via LinkedIn' and Launch School only considered explicit responses placements.** **2023 COMPARISON** Codesmith: 42% placement within six months of graduation from CIRR Launch School: 75% placement within six months of graduation using the CIRR-method **2024 EXTRAPOLATION** Codesmith: estimated 33% placement rate within six months of graduation (assuming market factors across the board) Launch School: 60% placement within six months of graduation using the CIRR-method (denominator is graduates and numerator includes internships) **In my person opinion**, Launch School is holding up in this market but just barely. There is still a > 50% chance of landing a job within 6 months of graduating... if you were to flip a coin. Codesmith has fallen off a cliff and is out of the race in my mind - a one bootcamp race. The problem though is that Launch School only takes < 100 people a year in it's Capstone and you have to complete Core first, so it's not a place you can sign up for, start Monday and pay $20K to get a job. People get jobs because of the months - year+ process of getting in. People have been turning to Codesmith because they reduced their admissions steps and let people in until the day before the course starts in some cases, but it's not an option - their outcomes don't justify joining anymore. Sad market we are in, but I'll keep telling it how it is. You should join a bootcamp with caution right now.

It's not when they told you the 2021 number of 80% in mid 2022 when you signed up for a 2023 cohort . Or they told you the 70% 2022 number at the end of 2023 when you signed up. When they knew very well that the first half of 2023 grads were trending to be half that at that point but said they couldn't comment because they have to 'wait for the full picture' - i.e. April 2025. It's a racket in my opinion. I heard of people asking for their money back and it wouldn't surprise me if that starts cascading soon.... things have gotten worse and worse in terms of placement numbers. Codesmith very well knows that H1 2024 grads had a FULL YEAR OF JOB HUNTING ALREADY and could easily tell us the placement rate for those people but they haven't. They could tell us the FULL 2024 PRELIM SIX MONTH PLACEMENT RATE NOW. But they keep quoting 70% 2023 12 month placement rate. Students aren't idiots, they are withdrawing, deferring, and not signing up and Codesmith would rather blame me for this than the market, which then further makes their staff want to leave because they don't trust the team anymore.

I mean it's not bootcamp VS CS degree, the only other comparison is other bootcamps. And yeah I work with a bunch of Codesmith grads too and it's crazy how they all come in with IDENTICAL RESUMES AND PITCHES and I work with them as individual humans and each one has their own trajectory. It's one of the reasons I know so much about Codesmith, like some of these people are like shocked... like you have no idea how DIFFERENT AND UNIQUE each person is and their path is entirely unique. Some don't work out too. It's not magic, it's just applying extensive experience, judgement, and taste to give advice to people and it works out more often than not. Codesmith treats all the people the same, there is one option, and every single of the dozens and dozens of resumes I've seen are almost the same. Maybe this worked back when it was exploiting a market inefficiency, but it's embarrassing now. When these people wake up and see reality, they often feel a lot more confident in themselves. It's ironic because Codesmith claims to help people conquer imposter syndrome by turning them into "mid level and senior engineers" but they are really teaching people how to fake being a mid level engineer so well you aren't caught as an imposter. I think it's better to build people's confidence through helping them identify what they are good at and not good at and finding a path that leverages the good, whatever level that may be.

Yeah that's also a good point and on my Codesmith comparison, they have been silent in 2025 and my estimates show worse numbers than 2024. So we'll see at the end of the year... If Launch School's updated project and internships model is working then that would be great to see concrete changes result in better placements. So bad we've heard a lot of hot air from bootcamps about their changes but haven't seen many changes improve placements.

Bootcamps aren't an alternative to college because most bootcamp grads have college degrees (just in different areas). Codesmith's data they shared in a public talk maybe 1.5 years ago or showed that the vast majority of people had college degrees and most went to pretty good colleges to, like the UC system in California, etc... Second, when I go to Codesmith's homepage I see a giant $110,000 as the first thing I see and a a banner of where people got hired 6+ months ago. When I go to Stanford's homepage I see a photo of Stanford, followed by it's mission and news. Different goals and vibes. One is luring you in with big numbers and then having terrible placement rates. The other is luring you in with brand and prestige and being a part of an elite community and delivering on that to every single student.

I mentioned Codesmith because I know them like the back of my hand. I don't know Launch School's demographic because their \~1 year "core" process is used to vet who is a good fit, and I don't know the demographics of people.

It's the only place I recommend but it's largely because the process to get into Capstone involves such an extensive vetting period that they have a track record of only admitting people it's likely to work for. If other bootcamps did that, then I would be more open to recommending. People used to talk about how hard Codesmith was to get into and now they have reduced the number of steps and people get in much more quickly... and I have seen hardly any placements in my analysis in the past few months.... amazing how quickly quality degrades when you lower the bar. So if Launch School lowered the bar significantly and outcomes dropped more then I would be equally concerned. Right now they are on the border of 50% so they are getting close.

It's wrong to look at it that way because your odds can be narrowed based on your background. Again Codesmith because I know so much about it... like a seasoned professional data analyst that has written scripts on the job but never done software engineering, will be able to get a Data Engineer role or SWE role at a data-related company. A line cook with no degree and no professional desk job experience will have a much harder time to impossible time, even if they have a natural aptitude - it will take years and a degree is better. The problem is that a lot of people reading this subreddit saw a TripleTen ad on YouTube or something and are more likely in the later bucket, not the former. The former bucket is like 75% chance right now and the latter like 10% chance. Codesmith's Future Code program for people with zero technical background who make under $55K a year in New York City graduated in April 2025 and 4-5 months later I've seen (and could be wrong) like a handful of placements out of 40ish people. And the goal of this program isn't even SWE jobs, just any technical job paying $65K+ and even that is hard.

Depends on how much experience. But Meta is strict on YOE requirements because of regulations and such (even though internally they don't care much about YOE). New grad jobs go to interns and aren't accessible anymore. Mid level jobs require 2+ years of YOE. They use to have this rotational engineer program ("pathways") for mid level adjacent jobs for people with nontraditional experience that wasn't quite FAANG-level. It still required 2+ years of experience but it could be any kind of SWE experience. I've seen some people from Codesmith straight lie about their experience to qualify for that program, someone saying he worked at Codesmith as a job, before he even started going to Codesmith as a student. You can potentially get a contractor job there, but those never result in full time employment after and put a hole on your resume. My advice (that I advise a number of people) get a FAANG job adjacant using your experinece: Data Engineer, Business Engineer, Entrerprise Engineer, IT Engineer, Solutions Engineer, Partner Engineer, and then over time try to transition to SWE.