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I was a bootcamp grad in 2013. Myself and my classmates are now mostly filling Staff+ roles, many working in FAANG level companies. So, yes, many people have hi

I was a bootcamp grad in 2013. Myself and my classmates are now mostly filling Staff+ roles, many working in FAANG level companies. So, yes, many people have hired bootcampers and had a good experience.

pclmulqdq 4y ago
I have heard that early classes from bootcamps tend to have great people, while the later classes are both more "dillute" in terms of raw talent and more starved of instruction time (as the bootcamp pinches pennies to make a profit). I have worked with bootcamp grads who are amazing engineers and ones who are terrible, same with ivy league CS grads.
- jurassic 4y ago
  I do think there was a bit of a gold rush with fly-by-night programs popping up everywhere; as a result the quality bar for bootcamp grads has probably shifted down on average, but I expect there are still some very talented trying to jumpstart a new career this way. Early movers in the space like DevBootcamp and App Academy were able to be quite selective about who they took, often picking primarily non-CS grads from elite universities looking to redeploy high levels of baseline intelligence and communication skills into a more lucrative field than whatever they studied at university. That was definitely my motivation once I realized I might never afford a middle-class lifestyle (e.g. homeownership, children) if I kept going in the scientific field I trained for.
ed25519FUUU 4y ago
Filling out staff roles at FANG? Not at the FANG company I work at. I’ve never met a single boot camp person, and absolutely zero staff engineers are boot camp grads that I know of, unless they scrubbed it from their LinkedIn and never talk about it.
- jurassic 4y ago
  > I’ve never met a single boot camp person, and absolutely zero staff engineers are boot camp grads that I know of, unless they scrubbed it from their LinkedIn and never talk about it. This comment has the same energy as the person I once worked with who told me (a lesbian) with total confidence that they'd never met a gay person before. Just because you aren't aware doesn't mean it's not happening all around you. It's very common for graduates to not talk about it, precisely because of the attitudes you see in these comments. It's easily left off LinkedIn because the experience only lasts a few months. And after you've had some success at the first job, it's not relevant anyway. How many people do you know in the industry without CS degrees? A lot of those folks came in through bootcamps, whether they cop to it or not. I considered it a shameful secret for years, and it's only now as I approach my tenth anniversary in the industry that I've become more open about it -- I'm confident my work now speaks for itself.
  - wittycardio 4y ago
    Can also confirm worked at multiple faang never seen anyone with a bootcamp. Sorry to break it to you but It's pretty rare.
    - dghlsakjg 4y ago
      I personally know people from my one bootcamp that have worked at Google and Apple. That’s without having looked to see if there are others I don’t know. People tend to play down their bootcamp experiences because of stigma associated with it. It’s possible that there are bootcamp grads that don’t mention it because a lot of people think lesser of them.
      - Karrot_Kream 4y ago
        I think the point of contention is with "Staff+" roles. I'm at a Big Tech company and we've seen lots of success with bootcampers, but I've noticed many of them hit a wall around Senior or Staff. Though I worked with an engineer who was super intelligent and a blast to work with and she is now a Staff engineer and was from a bootcamp. (At the time we were smaller and didn't really have any Staff level roles.) We've also had several bootcamp engineers move onto other Big Tech/FAANG companies so I have no idea what they're up to there. I can see why folks might want to hide their bootcamp path if they already have past non-bootcamp experience they can point to. In all fairness, most engineers, whether top-10 CS school or bootcamper, tend to hit a wall around Senior or Staff. Without knowing the true denominator of bootcampers we've hired, I can't properly answer the question of whether bootcampers tend to do better, the same, or worse at these levels than average.

pclmulqdq 4y ago

I have heard that early classes from bootcamps tend to have great people, while the later classes are both more "dillute" in terms of raw talent and more starved of instruction time (as the bootcamp pinches pennies to make a profit). I have worked with bootcamp grads who are amazing engineers and ones who are terrible, same with ivy league CS grads.

jurassic 4y ago
I do think there was a bit of a gold rush with fly-by-night programs popping up everywhere; as a result the quality bar for bootcamp grads has probably shifted down on average, but I expect there are still some very talented trying to jumpstart a new career this way. Early movers in the space like DevBootcamp and App Academy were able to be quite selective about who they took, often picking primarily non-CS grads from elite universities looking to redeploy high levels of baseline intelligence and communication skills into a more lucrative field than whatever they studied at university. That was definitely my motivation once I realized I might never afford a middle-class lifestyle (e.g. homeownership, children) if I kept going in the scientific field I trained for.

ed25519FUUU 4y ago

Filling out staff roles at FANG? Not at the FANG company I work at. I’ve never met a single boot camp person, and absolutely zero staff engineers are boot camp grads that I know of, unless they scrubbed it from their LinkedIn and never talk about it.

jurassic 4y ago
> I’ve never met a single boot camp person, and absolutely zero staff engineers are boot camp grads that I know of, unless they scrubbed it from their LinkedIn and never talk about it. This comment has the same energy as the person I once worked with who told me (a lesbian) with total confidence that they'd never met a gay person before. Just because you aren't aware doesn't mean it's not happening all around you. It's very common for graduates to not talk about it, precisely because of the attitudes you see in these comments. It's easily left off LinkedIn because the experience only lasts a few months. And after you've had some success at the first job, it's not relevant anyway. How many people do you know in the industry without CS degrees? A lot of those folks came in through bootcamps, whether they cop to it or not. I considered it a shameful secret for years, and it's only now as I approach my tenth anniversary in the industry that I've become more open about it -- I'm confident my work now speaks for itself.
- wittycardio 4y ago
  Can also confirm worked at multiple faang never seen anyone with a bootcamp. Sorry to break it to you but It's pretty rare.
  - dghlsakjg 4y ago
    I personally know people from my one bootcamp that have worked at Google and Apple. That’s without having looked to see if there are others I don’t know. People tend to play down their bootcamp experiences because of stigma associated with it. It’s possible that there are bootcamp grads that don’t mention it because a lot of people think lesser of them.
    - Karrot_Kream 4y ago
      I think the point of contention is with "Staff+" roles. I'm at a Big Tech company and we've seen lots of success with bootcampers, but I've noticed many of them hit a wall around Senior or Staff. Though I worked with an engineer who was super intelligent and a blast to work with and she is now a Staff engineer and was from a bootcamp. (At the time we were smaller and didn't really have any Staff level roles.) We've also had several bootcamp engineers move onto other Big Tech/FAANG companies so I have no idea what they're up to there. I can see why folks might want to hide their bootcamp path if they already have past non-bootcamp experience they can point to. In all fairness, most engineers, whether top-10 CS school or bootcamper, tend to hit a wall around Senior or Staff. Without knowing the true denominator of bootcampers we've hired, I can't properly answer the question of whether bootcampers tend to do better, the same, or worse at these levels than average.