Ask HN: Have you done a programming boot camp? How'd it turn out?

[pbj]

I've been reading a lot about dev boot camps like http://devbootcamp.com/ and http://www.appacademy.io/ that are designed to rapidly turn you into an entry level developer. There are lots of similar ones that I've found but they all claim that it's possible to teach you enough to interview with after 3 months of intense work.

Has anyone done one of these programs and have any thoughts one way or the other? I'm considering one but it's a serious financial investment for me and I'm skeptical about the risk/reward.

[OafTobark]

I didn't but I know of someone who went through one of those programs and did land a job (but its because its structured that way i.e. to help these new devs find entry level work). The pay obviously reflected entry level and in the specific case of the dev I know, he still struggles a lot on the job but they hired him fully understanding that he needs guidance and thus proceeds accordingly. He gets stuck a lot at work and obviously isn't a self proficient programmer at this point but can ultimately understand and get stuff done (with help).

Every program will be different but I suspect a lot of the results will be the same given how fast the time frame is for them to go from non-programmer to programmer.

[orangethirty]

Disclaimer: I'm the founder of Protocademy (http://protocademy.com).

I researched this for a long time (more than a year). What I gathered from it was that a lot of the programs out there are focused on teaching people how to code. They have students go through exercises in a sort of robotic manner, and don't take into account that different people learn differently. From interviewing past students, the general feeling about all of the programs is that they simply don't teach much about how real world programming really is. Few teach source control, none taught best practices (and how to avoid getting fired for a git mistake). They also didn't cover design much. People are simply being taught a lot of Rails magic. But worse is that people were not being taught how to break problems into steps. Which is the basic skill you need to program.Very few people managed to get jobs as programmers, because they would struggle with the most basic tasks.

With that in mind I created Protocademy. It is a program focused on building things, and leaning how and why things are built. Its designed to take a beginner to a point where they can tackle building an API or a CMS (which are the most common jobs these days). The program does not focus on one language or one framework. It uses various. But most importantly, it teaches how real programming is done. The challenges we face every day, and how we overcome them. It is a program that runs for 6 months. Yes, twice as most other programs. Due to how much learning there is. You really do need 6 months to teach someone how to do these things. It costs $99 a month, but its going to increase soon due to some improvements being made (like students getting their own VPS to hack with).

I apologize for writing all of this, because it may seem like I'm trying to pitch you the program. No. I simply mentioned it to share my findings, and what I'm doing to fix them. If you have any questions, my email is in my profile. Good luck.

[argonaut]

I know that App Academy won't charge you if you aren't able to get a developer job (it may have changed, though, so you'll need to ask them yourself).

It also depends a lot on your prior experience. Have a solid math background? Then you'll probably have a slight edge overall.

There are a lot of programs out there in all parts of the country; investigate your options.

[piratebroadcast]

I'm in one right now- www.LaunchAcademy.com in Boston. It is a lot of hard work but totally worth it so far. I cannot believe how much I have learned in a few short weeks. I'm exhausted and going to bed but maybe I can answer some questions in the morning.