8 ms·

Note some selection bias may exist in the answers. If you did a tech bootcamp three years ago and it went fantastically, you're probably reading HN today and w

• crispyambulance 9y ago
  I think its pretty obvious that there will be selection bias in any answers here. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean the answers are uninteresting or of no value. It is still very interesting to see what what some people who have gone through a bootcamp do with their careers.
• ishtanbul 9y ago
  I'm not a developer and I read HN multiple times per day. I think there a lot of finance people here, trying to stay on the cutting edge.
  • imranq 9y ago
    HN seems to be getting more popular as software "eats" up other industries. Topics on the site have definitely migrated away from pure programming and startups - not that that's a bad thing of course.
  • lawrenceyan 9y ago
    If I might ask, what is it exactly that you do in finance that requires you to stay informed on emerging tech/software? Is it more so just out of interest?
    • DKnoll 9y ago
      Y Combinator is in the finance industry itself.
    • jxub 9y ago
      Maybe a TMT group in an investment bank, or working as a trader/investor in tech. Don't forget that access to "good" bankers benefits tech companies.
    • ishtanbul 9y ago
      Renewable energy development and investment banking. I would say I'm a tech enthusiast. I rarely read the meaty programming articles, but there are a lot of other interesting things posted here. I actually considered doing a boot camp to change careers and reading this article was a follow up as to whether that might have been worth it.
  • DKnoll 9y ago
    I do IT operations... sysadmin type stuff. I'm read HN all the time as well. The developers sometimes forget they're not alone here. ;)
    • nannal 9y ago
      Security team member checking in; we're here too.
  • lithos 9y ago
    Electrical engineer. Though a lot of our gear is used by data centers.
• abeyer 9y ago
  You can't work at Starbucks and read HN? Seriously, though, after some early career burnout I did a stint at a restaurant job to pay the bills while I decided what I wanted to do with my life...and that was by far my most productive period of time as far as keeping up on general tech news, personal projects, academic research/reading/conferences, etc... A non-code day job can be a great way to have the mental energy to spend on non-job code. :)
  • smallnamespace 9y ago
    You can, but presumably your situation is rare? GP is specifically making an argument about selection bias, where frequency matters.
    • abeyer 9y ago
      I'm sure my specific case isn't that common, but I'm fairly confident that there are a non-trivial number of people out there who can code but choose not to as a career path. I'm not questioning the argument about frequency, I'm questioning the underlying assumption that "success" in a bootcamp is only measured by employment as a developer.
      • futhey 9y ago
        No bootcamp myself, but I think more people learn to code than are employed as developers, although it may not be widespread. I switch between Product Design, development, and Program Management, based on market opportunity. Development is my least favorite, and I know many PMs and designers who take a short course with no intention to strictly switch gears (becoming a higher paid technical PM is a good example).
      • Johnny555 9y ago
        Why would someone that doesn't want to code as a career path go to a coding boot camp? I'm sure there are a few managers that want to understand the technology they are managing, but by and large, I can't believe that non-coders make up a significant fraction of attendees. If you don't measure the success of a coding boot camp by "employment as a developer", what would you measure it by?
• jsonne 9y ago
  I'm a marketer and I read HN daily. I don't think this is as insular a community as it once was.
  • eps 9y ago
    You are missing the point. If you are now working in Starbucks, you aren't likely to read HN _because you are fed up with this stuff_. Not because you can't.
    • def8cefe 9y ago
      If they're only interested in tech to make money that's probably what set this hypothetical Starbucks employee up for failure.
      • lawless123 9y ago
        Quite a lot of people are only into tech to make money.. and it's working well for them.
        • def8cefe 9y ago
          Perhaps, but it's much more difficult to learn what you're not interested in. If your only motive is money... do sales.
          • PakG1 9y ago
            Unless you're good at technical thinking but not good at sales.
      • creepydata 9y ago
        This was posted here the other day https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14497237 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14497237 Most people outside of the startup scene, including myself, especially those over 35, are only in this for the money. That doesn't mean we can't find both personal and professional success.
• nemonemo 9y ago
  I think this comment is actually a good warning to typical readers, although the last line is distracting from the main point. My guess is there would be more failure cases than success cases, but I don't see many negative stories here and suspect much selection bias here.
  • mabbo 9y ago
    > the last line is distracting from the main point. You're not wrong, I could have worded it better. Mostly I wanted to give a little more context on what I meant by selection bias.
• seesomesense 9y ago
  I am a physician and read HN regularly. Lambda the Ultimate is better but requires effort to read, while this is fairly mindless entertainment.
  • k__ 9y ago
    made my day, thanks.
  • jxub 9y ago
    Lambda the Ultimate? Some FP forum where it's all about Haskell and OCaml? :)
    • vinceguidry 9y ago
      It appears to be a joke about doctors made by a programmer.
• andy_ppp 9y ago
  Yes, it's aways good to think about the cognitive biases we all have before assuming "GREAT NEWS" from a sample of dubious randomness ;-) I'm much more attuned to these things from the following podcasts and blog: https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/ https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/ http://theknowledgeproject.libsyn.com/ http://theknowledgeproject.libsyn.com/ https://youarenotsosmart.com/ https://youarenotsosmart.com/ A few of my favourite episodes and articles: - http://theknowledgeproject.libsyn.com/rory-sutherland-on-the-psychology-of-advertising-complex-evolved-systems-reading-decision-making http://theknowledgeproject.libsyn.com/rory-sutherland-on-the... - https://youarenotsosmart.com/2017/01/13/yanss-092-avoiding-the-many-varieties-of-bullshit/ https://youarenotsosmart.com/2017/01/13/yanss-092-avoiding-t... - https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2017/06/habits-vs-goals/ https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2017/06/habits-vs-goals/ Most relevant I guess: - https://youarenotsosmart.com/2015/08/04/yanss-055-psychologys-long-obsession-with-the-weirdest-people-in-the-world/ https://youarenotsosmart.com/2015/08/04/yanss-055-psychology...
• Nightshaxx 9y ago
  As always, relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1827/ https://xkcd.com/1827/
• xmj 9y ago
  If three years after a bootcamp you're spending that much time on HN it probably did not go fantastically.
• likelynew 9y ago
  Apart from selection bias of readers, there is completely different kind of selection bias, by which the person posting here has some very positive or negative views for bootcamps. It is well known in surveys and reviews. If the person reading this post has gone to bootcamp 3 years ago, they are much more likely to write their experience if he/she have failed 100 interviews, or if they became CEO of the startup, rather than say work as an average programmer which is the most common outcome.
• planxty 9y ago
  I had a great experience, which I shared in another comment here. I agree, however, that there are plenty of folks I studied with who either washed out because they weren't prepared, or haven't accomplished that much because they frankly aren't that smart or hard-working. Those people probably aren't posting here. Boot camps are no silver bullet. Like any kind of education, more is better, and the quality of the student is a factor. I will admit that while I got a great job, but there are fundamental CS concepts I'm still playing catchup with. Not sure if I would really be all the more effective as a developer if I did have a traditional degree, and maybe I would, but I can provide for my family and have no regrets. All said, I think you might be right about some selection bias.
  • wpietri 9y ago
    I'm glad you had a good experience, but I'm uncomfortable with your analysis here. If plenty of folks enter a boot camp and wash out because they aren't prepared, I don't think that's much about the students. I think that's a huge failure on the part of the boot camp program. The theory of boot camps is that you turn anybody who qualifies into somebody basically competent. E.g., US military boot camp drop out rates are around 10%. If ill-specified student quality is used to justify higher failure rates, then we end up with something almost tautological: only the quality students succeed, and the way you measure quality is by whether or not they succeeded.
    • mowenz 9y ago
      >I don't think that's much about the students. I think that's a huge failure on the part of the boot camp program. If you want a silver bullet for success, go to an ivy league or similarly-pedigreed school. There are plenty of people graduating from the top schools that burn out on their programs, but still get into successful gigs based on the reputation of their degree, and the connections they made. Didn't study hard in high school, or Mommy And Daddy didn't send you to private school? Too bad. Life is competitive, and it needs to be that way if we want to make progress as a species. No one is saying failure should come with punishments like unemployment or homelessness, but not every program out there needs to be as easy to coast through with C's as Harvard is. Not everyone needs to be a developer, doctor, pilot, etc., either. But the military needs almost everyone to get through boot camp.
• _e 9y ago
  If it went fantastic then you probably have a real interest in computers and technology in general versus the pay potential.
• okreallywtf 9y ago
  This was my immediate thought when looking at this.
• dmalvarado 9y ago
  >>"What are you doing now? Do you feel that the bootcamp prepared you for the jobs you got? Do you think most of your cohort are still working as developers?" I don't think selection bias is a problem for the questions the OP asked.
  • lgas 9y ago
    If (let's say) only 10% of boot camp developers went on to get a development job, and that's roughly the 10% that still reads HN, then they're all going to answer "Yes, I feel that the bootcamp prepared me for the job I got." the other 90% of bootcamp students will answer no, but if they aren't here on HN they won't answer at all. That's selection bias and it's a huge problem for the exact questions the OP asked.
• MaxwellM 9y ago
  Perhaps, if you did a bootcamp and are gainfully employed, you are busy and have less time to read HN.
• draw_down 9y ago
  For heaven's sake, it's a question on a message board, not a statistics thesis.