I was sure coding bootcamps were a scam, but my cousin's experience changed my mind

He joined a 14-week program in Denver last year and was really struggling at first. They made him build a simple weather app using Python in the first month, which seemed impossible to him. By the end, he landed a junior developer job making $65k. What finally convinced you that a learning path was legit or not? Looking at online courses now.

3 comments

3 Comments

tessa1773mo ago

Remember when everyone said you needed a college degree for tech? My friend's brother got a job with just free online tutorials and a solid portfolio. It really depends on the person and how much work they put in outside the program. The structure can help some people push through.

angelaellis3mo ago

Honestly, your cousin got lucky. For every story like that, there are tons of people who finish a bootcamp and can't find a job at all. That 65k junior dev role is getting harder to get because the market is full of bootcamp grads with the same basic projects. A 14-week program just can't teach you enough to be truly job ready. Tbh, a lot of those places are just taking your money and leaving you with debt and a useless certificate. I'd be really careful before spending a dime on one.

kai_west18d ago

Someone posted a study the other day that said something like 40% of bootcamp grads never actually land a dev job after finishing... that's a pretty rough statistic when you think about it. And the ones who do get hired often take way longer than 6 months to find something. The whole "job guarantee" thing most bootcamps push is basically just marketing fluff. A friend of mine went through one and spent almost a year sending out applications before getting an offer for like 45k, not the 65k they promised. It's really a gamble more than a safe bet.