"Telling people that a 6 week bootcamp is the same as a 4 year CS degree is absurd and offensive." Absolutely true, and I don't know any that do that. At the s

"Telling people that a 6 week bootcamp is the same as a 4 year CS degree is absurd and offensive." Absolutely true, and I don't know any that do that. At the same time, I've interviewed many people with CS degrees who were severely lacking in any practical web experience, and didn't even know how to use version control. They both are incredibly different and yield different results/skills. If you've got the 4 years and money, the CS degree is a great idea. Yet, for many people in their mid-20's and 30's, going back to undergrad isn't really an option. I don't think everyone should be stuck with the decisions they made when they were 17/18 as their only career choices. We do have the concept of "medic training". In the US Army, medics undergo 16 to 68 weeks of training (after basic). Are they doctors after that? Nope, but they've also saved thousands of lives. Same as a doctor? Nope, but still incredibly useful. Civilian EMT programs are ~6 months long if I'm not mistaken. Do I need someone with a CS degree to do the CSS on the company's homepage? Absolutely not. I don't have a CS degree. I work for a pretty great startup. I taught myself everything I know over about 2-3 years while transitioning from a business/marketing-centric position to developer at another startup. In many ways, I wish I'd had a bootcamp program (they didn't really exist at the time) to speed me through some of the things. Does it teach you everything? Nope, but it's a pretty damn good start, and would have easily shaved 18 months off that learning curve.