[c0achmcguirk]

I've worked with two bootstrap grads, the ones that come from the 8-week program. One of them I hired directly onto my team.

It's been a great experience! The developer I hired is moving on because he found a better paying position (as a coder). I view this as a success and I'm happy for him. It took him 8 months to get to this point and I'm sad to see him go.

Things I learned:

- They come in excited but they have so much self-doubt that needs to be tamped down.

- Pair programming with everyone on the team is a must. Even the neckbeard in the corner that hates chit-chat needs to help out. Why? The BG needs to learn it's okay to talk to anyone about problems.

- I had to be on the prowl for condescending talk when the BG asked questions. It needs to feel like a safe environment to ask questions without being ridiculed.

- I noticed a huge jump in productivity when I had the BG design an onboarding presentation for new employees. Basically a "this is how our applications work here" Powerpoint. He loved working on it and it forced him to learn more about all the moving parts.

TL;DR In my experience BGs are great. They need plenty of room to fail and grow, but it's equally important that the whole team plays a role in their growth.

[MollyR]

I just want to say you also need to consider business fit. If your business can't afford to train a bootstrap grad properly(whether is time deadlines or money), don't hire them. I've seen two great guys just completely burnout because not only was our app complex, they just weren't familiar enough with some of fundamentals you get in a cs undergrad for our timelines. They tried their hardest though.