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I hire junior engineers. When I am looking at a resume, I am looking for something that indicates success possibilities. Many times I see the only programming

I hire junior engineers. When I am looking at a resume, I am looking for something that indicates success possibilities. Many times I see the only programming experience as the bootcamp. A 4 year CS degree means that the candidate had to stick with the CS for 4 years: 12x longer than the bootcamp. (I am assuming summer internships as well) This time allows concepts to sink in, be reenforced by later classes, implications of choices to all be seen. Human beings require a certain amount of time. Its not just the 10000 hours (or whatever) of training. I feel that it is the duration of time that the learning takes place that is also important. Bootcamps are too short for the deep, deep learning needed. I haven't yet interviewed a bootcamper (only) candidate that can answer questions beyond the basic phone screen. My only guess is that they have had all this knowledge thrown at them, and their brain hasn't yet sort things out. Why take a candidate like this if I can get a BSCS candidate? And if I can't get a CS grad? I rather trim the work. I am not in the business of giving a 4year CS education.

austenallred 9y ago
You're comparing apples to oranges - of course 4 yrs is better than 3 months. Consider the same person at some point in the future, and it would be bootcamp grad + 3 years experience vs CS grad. You could make a case for both at that point, but I'd guess many would be inclined to opt for a bootcamp grad + experience, all things being equal.
- EpicEng 9y ago
  But you're suggesting that the employer should be paying for the remaining 3.75 years of experience. I'm certainly not going to hire someone who's going to require that sort of investment in comparison to a fresh college grad. You may as well just grab seemingly clever people off of the street.
  - austenallred 9y ago
    Yup, that's one of the flaws of bootcamps. But that said, there's lots a bootcamp grad can do with relatively little training, and some of that are things that CS grads may struggle to do day one. A college grad, of course, will require some training too. Just a different level of it.
  - kartickv 9y ago
    While a bootcamp graduate would require more investment than a college grad, it wouldn't be anywhere as high as 3.75 years, because college teaches you a lot of skills that aren't directly useful (Turing machines) or not in your domain (compilers or image processing) or not for several years. Training customised for your needs will be much more time-efficient.

austenallred 9y ago

You're comparing apples to oranges - of course 4 yrs is better than 3 months. Consider the same person at some point in the future, and it would be bootcamp grad + 3 years experience vs CS grad. You could make a case for both at that point, but I'd guess many would be inclined to opt for a bootcamp grad + experience, all things being equal.

EpicEng 9y ago
But you're suggesting that the employer should be paying for the remaining 3.75 years of experience. I'm certainly not going to hire someone who's going to require that sort of investment in comparison to a fresh college grad. You may as well just grab seemingly clever people off of the street.
- austenallred 9y ago
  Yup, that's one of the flaws of bootcamps. But that said, there's lots a bootcamp grad can do with relatively little training, and some of that are things that CS grads may struggle to do day one. A college grad, of course, will require some training too. Just a different level of it.
- kartickv 9y ago
  While a bootcamp graduate would require more investment than a college grad, it wouldn't be anywhere as high as 3.75 years, because college teaches you a lot of skills that aren't directly useful (Turing machines) or not in your domain (compilers or image processing) or not for several years. Training customised for your needs will be much more time-efficient.