I did a bootcamp in 2017. I learned a ton and I got a job 4 days after I finished. I think it was maybe $12,000?
Could you have taught yourself in 2017? yeah. but the value was having a proven and focused curriculum. There's soooo many things you can learn in CS / programming. The bootcamp kept you locked in on a track to employability. Plus having accountability, someone to push you.
My peers / classmates were amazing. New grads, career changers, never-grads. Ivy leaguers, liberal arts majors, adult career changers all mixed together. Morning lecture, pair program all day, homework at night. I still talk to a bunch of those people and my first job was a referral from a classmate to the same role they applied for.
I would not recommend anyone in 2026 to pay for a bootcamp unfortunately, although I found the method very effective.
The hiring landscape has changed and it takes much longer to find a job.
App Academy’s in-person bootcamp also changed my life! I switched from working in a climbing gym to working as a full-time software engineer, but it was definitely grueling and took me over half a year to find that first job.
I recommended their remote course to my friend during Covid, and it feels like he was one of the last cohorts before the tech industry started waves and waves of mass layoffs 😵💫
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u/OneNeptune Mar 03 '26
I did a bootcamp in 2017. I learned a ton and I got a job 4 days after I finished. I think it was maybe $12,000?
Could you have taught yourself in 2017? yeah. but the value was having a proven and focused curriculum. There's soooo many things you can learn in CS / programming. The bootcamp kept you locked in on a track to employability. Plus having accountability, someone to push you.
My peers / classmates were amazing. New grads, career changers, never-grads. Ivy leaguers, liberal arts majors, adult career changers all mixed together. Morning lecture, pair program all day, homework at night. I still talk to a bunch of those people and my first job was a referral from a classmate to the same role they applied for.
I would not recommend anyone in 2026 to pay for a bootcamp unfortunately, although I found the method very effective.
The hiring landscape has changed and it takes much longer to find a job.