| I feel like this should be true, but in my experience it hasn't been. We've hired interns who become full-time at some point, both CS grads and bootcampers. As a note, the bootcampers we've hired have been people with a little bit of programming experience (not a ton, generally they did it as part of a previous job) that wanted to switch careers. The ones we've hired have been around 24/25, with about a year of experience in a different field like chemistry or geology. The CS interns were college kids, so it could just be a function of maturity. I think of the ones we've brought in for internships, 2 were hirable (we've brought in maybe a dozen or so over the last couple of years). One of the 2 hirables is someone who I think will have a great career over the long run. The bootcampers we've hired (thus far two) have been a measure above the CS kids. The CS kids have had a level of entitlement that I think is hindering them. It feels like because they've gotten a job they're set and they don't really need to learn more, when they have a long road to go down. This has been a pretty typical pattern and it didn't feel like they had the will to push themselves despite the fact that many seemed like they were very intelligent. The bootcampers were older so they seemed to have that will and curiosity, none of them took the job for granted. One of them seemed to be falling behind, he was told that, and spent a lot of time outside of work learning the things he didn't know and has been great. I understand anecdotes can only be taken so far, but just a couple of observations I felt like sharing. |
I'd wager that almost every difference you've noticed is down to maturity.
The average 25 year old who's been working for several years is a light years ahead of the average 20 year old college kid when it comes to attitude.
If you were hiring 25 year old CS grads, they'd likely have the same work ethic, and an understanding of the formal methods underpinning their experience.