Developer Bootcamp for Mid-level Developers

[seansean11]

I don’t want to beat this topic with a stick because I constantly hear people talk about Developer Bootcamps on ShopTalk Show and I know there are some discussions on here about it, but I ‘m asking with a different spin.

I have a solid job as an Interactive Developer and work in the same building as a reputable Developer Bootcamp for Ruby developers. I get to witness these students go from 0 to 100 in 6-months and then get jobs paying higher salaries than I earn when they get out (I’m a little jealous). I’ve been in the industry for 2 years and have an undergraduate degree in Finance, so I have never received any formal education in the field. I’ve really worked my a** off the past 2 years and my level as a developer is around the same of colleagues that have been working in the field for quite a bit more time.

Given my situation, I know it’s time to make another jump in my career and I’d love to give a bootcamp a shot. The only issue is that the bootcamps are mostly aimed at people with no programming/web development experience. So my question is if people know of any programs that are aimed at students coming in at a higher level. I’d be interested in going into a program and coming out at an engineer level and not a entry level for a job. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think I could learn in a semester of bootcamp, what I might learn in a year or 2 on my own, working on client projects. In fact, this is the only way I would consider dropping over 10 or 15k on a course. I would go into details about what technologies I prefer, but I’d like to first find out if this kind of bootcamp exists. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

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I get to witness these students go from 0 to 100 in 6-months and then get jobs paying higher salaries than I earn when they get out… The only issue is that the bootcamps are mostly aimed at people with no programming/web development experience.

Honestly, I don’t see how that could possibly be an issue. If it’s good for people who want to go from 0 to 100, how could it be bad for people who want to go from 50 to 100?

I’m not suggesting that results would be guaranteed, or that it’s a “sure thing.* But having a solid foundation going in could hardly be considered a disadvantage. At best, you’ll learn something that makes you worth a higher pay rate. At worst, these employers don’t care about actual skills and just want to see the bootcamp certificate: hey, you’ve got the certificate!

* In fact, generally speaking, I don’t think “crash courses” have much intrinsic value. You might learn something, but odds are you won’t learn it very well. And you’ll probably forget half of it later. But, I understand that this is not your question.

What does your employer think of this program? If they’re impressed by it too, you might be able to get them to spring for it. Might even be able to negotiate a higher salary for after you complete it.

[seansean11]

Thanks for the response. I’d love to get my current employer to pay for it and you mentioning this gives me some gumption to go ahead and ask. They are a pure UX Design firm, where I work as one of two developers (amongst many senior-level designers), so it will be hard to convince them to drop 15k or so on a course that may teach me to be a full-stack developer (when they don’t really need the back-end knowledge). In addition, these bootcamps are many times up to 60 hours a week of studies, so I won’t be able to work while I’m studying. If I can find a course that is concentrated on Interactive Development, Prototyping, etc it may be a little easier to convince them. If I get an answer of “no” from them, then I am talking about 15k of my own money on a course. That’s when the 50-100 starts to concern me. I’d prefer to go from 50-150 if I’m going to drop the money. Maybe a course like this doesn’t exist :(.

I would really hope that the bootcamp, although fast-paced will set a good base for whatever work I do in the future, and save me quite a bit of self-learning time. That’s a good point about the intrinsic value. Because of the brevity of the course, it may be difficult to put my learning into long-term memory.

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