Bootcamp advice

I can share my answer to this. Context, I did NOT do a bootcamp, I did traditional CS and have been working in the industry for 13 years since graduating (first 8 years at FB). However, I now work with a lot of people from a lot of different bootcamps a year or two into their careers to help them level up to top tier roles. So a few controversial points: 1. Outcomes are hard to judge and often skewed. The reports people produce are a good starting point to narrow down the handful of bootcamps with better results. But there's a lot of reading between the lines. A Codesmith executive in a Course Report video about two years ago that about 30% of people have a CS degree or prior experience 1. (not sure if this is still the case), and their median salary is one of the highest. But people tend to have more experience going in, so the results for people with no experience might be different and are not provided. HackReactor has lower median salaries, but anecdotally has had a decent number of people going 0 to good job. So the point here is to try to find outcomes for people who have a **similar background to yourself** and not look at the overall outcomes - other than narrowing down the "legit" bootcamps. 2. Barrier to entry. Some people have mentioned a high barrier to entry as a good thing. I think it is as well! But keep in mind the outcomes are also better because people who fail out who shouldn't have been there were effectively removed by that barrier to entry. So higher barrier to entry means you have to do more pre-bootcamp work to get in. There could be good bootcamps though that have poorer results on paper because their barrier to entry is too low, even though the bootcamp isn't that bad. 3. Instructors. Are the instructors current students or recent graduates? At a lot of bootcamps, if not most, do and there are and this has pros and cons. If a bootcamp tells you the recent grads are grading students work "top tier industry standards", but they have never worked in industry, that could be an issue. If they are not transparent about new graduates doing a lot of teaching for current students I would see that as a flag.

Hey, I'm going off of the "a third" comment by Philip Troutman here. A third of people with a CS degree, engineering thinking experience. https://youtu.be/r5Ffspvd4Ik?t=500 from 2020. Not just degrees but degress or experience. I wouldn't be surprised if the "engineering thinking" statement was meant very broadly.

Thanks for comment cheddar and correcting based on your experience!