[Peretus]

I tell them to apply to a developer bootcamp. Schools like this are popping up everywhere because there really are people who are willing (and eager) to hire the students once they graduate. I'm currently attending (and about to graduate from) a developer bootcamp in Austin TX, and I can absolutely recommend this route. Yes, it's impossible to learn everything in such a short amount of time, and attending a bootcamp may not be for everyone, but if one is serious about learning to code, it's a pretty efficient way to learn a new skill.

[wturner]

Many of those bootcamps cost an arm and a leg and are selective in that they target well-off kids that get good grades and basically fit in. They do this intentionally so they can sell their prospects to potential employees and keep their numbers and reputation up which is just common sense on their part. I think the better route for someone that is a little rough around the edges is to do it on their own for a few years and then try to apply to a bootcamp. I did it on my own and then did a 3 month program called thinkful.com. Thinkful served as a refinement mechanism that introduced me to better practices and a bunch of nuances I didn't know about etc.

[Peretus]

It's true that they cost a great deal. I've had pretty long conversations with the founders about the fact that there is very little likelyhood that someone without significant means could and come up with the tuition. That being said, I was making $35K at my job before I left, and that was the best job I had ever had because I wasn't working outside or serving food. I was accepted on a Thursday, and I quit my job with DeVry University (I was a teacher's assistant) the next day. I financed the tuition on a credit card and essentially moved all my chips to the middle of the table. Yes, it's risky, but if my risk tolerance goes down over time, the riskiest time of my life should be now.

Now that I've attended this school, I can pick up books about code and not feel completely overwhelmed. For this reason, I believe that if it's an option, a bootcamp is the way to go.

I also believe that the only requirement for 'fitting in' to one of these schools is to be easy to get along with, and be able to take the stress without becoming a jerk. This is more difficult than it would seem, as the course is pretty intense.

[wturner]

To each their own. I just have a contrarian nature and always feel obligated to express it.

[jared314]

I've been interested in the idea of developer bootcamps recently, because it might make a good trade school for developers looking to retool into a new language/stack. But, I have yet to meet anyone, in my circle of friends, who has acquired their coding skills from them. What is the business model around them like?

[Peretus]

The schools usually charge somewhere between $6,000-$20,000, with most falling somewhere around $8K-$12K. The Maker Square has cohorts of around 40 students, split between two buildings, with multiple instructors in each room who help students as needed. We start at 9:00am and leave the space around 5-7pm every evening. We don't have class on the weekends, so those usually end up being study days.

[jared314]

Is it a school lesson like structure, similar to what you would get with a CS degree track, or a more a focused project-oriented structure, with increasing difficulty?

[Peretus]

The structure is highly focused and project-oriented. There isn't really an occasion where one would be likely to ask "Ok, so how am I going to use this in the real world?"

In the beginning, the day is usually split into two parts: frontend and backend. Each day there is a 'microproject' that covers what you learned that day, and each Friday there is a project that covers what you have learned up to that point. There is very little theory, though the instructors are constantly recommending books and other reading material for things they gloss over. Towards the end of the course, the frontend and backend lessons are integrated into projects that students complete while pair-programming.

[rf1331]

I'm interested in this as I have never heard of developer bootcamps. What was your experience like? How does it differ from a CS curriculum?

[Peretus]

I cannot speak to how it differs from a CS curriculum, as I do not have a CS degree, but I vouch for the fact that a bootcamp can teach you way more than you would imagine you could learn in such a short amount of time (usually 10-12 weeks). I am currently enrolled at TheMakerSquare in Austin TX, and knew virtually no programming when I applied. I didn't even know HTML or CSS and now, just a month and a half later, I'm spending my evenings generating rails apps and fiddling with code. It's a pretty impressive change that I most likely wouldn't have been able to do alone, or even with a good mentor.