[redbluff]

My first impulse is like a lot of people to be fairly skeptical. Then I cast my memories back to when I started, and this is how a lot of big companies got their developers.

You took the IBM Data Processing aptitude test and if you did OK, the company inducted you into a trainee programmer role and you were sent on a course and got your PL/I book. You then spent 6 months working with the senior programmer gaining experience and making small patches and then eventually moved into a journeyman status. Basically it was an apprenticeship for coders.

Some stayed at that level, some quit, others would then do a combined CS with Computer Systems Engineering degree and get honours :-). The point is that it gave people a look in at the ground floor - people who gained value for their company who never would have had the chance in a world where the only way to open the door is a degree.

So despite my initial skepticism, I think there can be a place for things like this. In the end it depends how it is used. If it is to get people to pay money for a worthless course, then that is not great. However, if people can get placements as part of the gig, and they are treated effectively as apprentices, then it opens doors to a little more diverse crew than we are getting at the moment, and that's a good thing.

[kotojo]

I actually just went through General Assembly's Web Development Immersive course and finished in July. I'm in a similar situation to that. I learned HTML/CSS/JS, then ruby on rails and MEAN stack.

After I finished I was at the point to know enough to know I don't really know much of anything, and got hired into an apprenticeship program a local company was running, even though the majority of the stack I learned at GA isn't even used. He hired me with the knowledge that I am teachable and willing to learn.

Everyone but one person from our cohort now also has a development job. General Assembly at least does a ton to make sure you are prepared to fight your way into the job market. The only thing I am worried about is what the market will look like for people coming from bootcamps 5 to 10 years down the line. Is this going to start to bring out the people opening ma and pops bootcamp to get a quick buck?

[almostApatriot1]

Funny, every GA grad says this on Reddit/HN, yet the ones I've talked to claim otherwise, and GA still has yet to release any sort of Employment Statistics. You'd think they'd use some of that 70 million to publish some official stats before starting up all these new expensive courses...

[kotojo]

I will say I have helped ta at General Assembly after I finished, and there is a reason you don't see those stats, they don't have them. My individual campus has them now, and the outcomes people kind of had their own list, but there is no one major list in GA for that info.

Also you will hear wildly different GA experiences because every campus tackles the curriculum differently. Mine went JS prework, first 3 weeks of HTML/CSS/JS, next 3 Ruby/Rails, next 3 full MEAN stack, next 3 either random lessons about things like web sockets, comp sci topics, or any other thing the instructors found important. I talked to a LA grad though, and it was completely different. They had Ruby prework, and then day one started learning about Angular.

It's really all about the campus. If you want to go to GA, find out about that campus, not GA in general.

[pcunite]

When everyone became a photographer it brought confusion to the market. However, this seems to have settled down and stabilized now. I guess something similar will take place when everyone becomes a programmer.