Disclaimer: Opinions are based on my own personal experience talking to code camp grads. I have been a panelist on a Q&A once at General Assembly and for some reason am listed as an instructor on their website.
One of the most common questions people ask when starting their development career is whether to spend money on a 12 week code boot camp. Most of these camps cost a chunk of money but are usually cheaper and shorter than a Computer Science university degree making them quite attractive. However, in my personal experience, students should have clear expectations what they’re getting.
Claim #1: Code camps help you with job placement.
Most camps have some sort of stat like 90% placement. That sounds great, but it’s important to consider the methodology of calculation. A lot of places will count an admin position in a tech company or exclude students for various reasons to make the numbers look good.
In my experience, some camps do have connections with industry. While I was working at Zendesk we had an intern program that interviewed and hired a sizeable number of General Assembly grads. But the intern program is open to everyone so being in GA didn’t really get you further in the door but it probably told you where to queue up. I do not know of any companies who have hiring policies that favor code camp grads over other applicants.
For applicants with no prior experience applying to tech, some camps provide practice interviews and resume building workshops. I think these can be useful for getting a foot in the door if you have zero experience in job hunting.
Claim #2: Code camps prepare you for a job in tech.
I think it’s hard to design a 3 months program to make someone job ready in software engineer. There’s a lot to learn and I think graduates who expect to be easily placed after graduation (especially after looking at the placement numbers) might be disappointed.
I find the syllabus of camps can give a useful idea of the topics covered. Camps aim to teach the minimum level of proficiency to be considered for intern/graduate level software development jobs. As you can imagine this standard varies across companies and camps.
Most companies value passion, communication, attitude and willingness to learn rather than raw skill when hiring interns. It is not necessary to go to a camp to be hired. People who don’t know where to start or are not good at self-directed learning will benefit the most from a camp.
One thing that I find most camps do not teach is networking. Networking is a powerful tool to getting your foot in the door. One of the most successful candidates I know reached out to a number of engineers via LinkedIn and was able to leverage their mentorship into a pretty good career. I admire but don’t recommend the cold messaging approach. Instead try something like ADPlist that provides a free mentoring service.
Other Options
There’s a number of free online courses that also do a pretty good job of preparing candidates for a career in software. FreeCodeCamp and Odin Project are two popular free options to paying for a code camp. Some cities used to have meetup groups to discuss the coursework but I think due to Covid a lot of these have moved online.
Additionally, some states offer TAFE courses which may provide a similar experience at a subsidized cost.
I think for people who like are used to solving issues online via forums/stackoverflow the free options can be viable. Otherwise the main advantage of a code camp is access to instructors and having a predefined syllabus.
Bottom Line: Code camps don’t guarantee a job but some do an ok job of preparing candidates. Take steps to evaluate the program beyond the advertising material.
Try to find out if you can talk to any actual graduates from the code camp to get a first hand account of how things work. If the program can’t provide any contacts or if you can’t find any, that’s probably not a good sign.
Take a look at the syllabus and compare to offerings from other programs.
Don’t just look at the cost as a deciding factor. Beware of sales tactics such as early bird discounts to pressure you into a decision.