[nathan_long]

I think it's still a good market. Self-learning is hard, though, because there are a million branching paths of knowledge and it's easy to get overwhelmed or sidetracked. Especially when you have no existing skill base from which to ask "would this help me improve what I'm already doing?"

Personally, I had a good friend mentor me and point me at things to learn early on, which helped a lot. A structured program would have the same benefit.

I have no connection with it, but https://lambdaschool.com/ looks very interesting in that they bet on your ability to get a job: you pay nothing unless you do (other than the opportunity cost of spending the time to learn, which could be large).