4 ms·

I have a similar view and am skeptical of bootcamp claims that they can get anybody a job with X weeks of training. I'm reminded of the ending of Ratatouille wh

I have a similar view and am skeptical of bootcamp claims that they can get anybody a job with X weeks of training. I'm reminded of the ending of Ratatouille when the critic figures out that the motto "Anyone can cook" means "Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist can come from anywhere". I'm personally biased, but I feel like one bootcamp program that got this right (for a while) was Insight Data Science. For a few years at the start of the 'data boom' there was a market inefficiency where tech needed more people that understood stats and ML and there were a ton of STEM postdocs that wanted to leave academia. The program worked because it wasn't really about teaching any new skills, it was mostly about being able to market the skills you have in a different sector. But after a few years, the market corrected itself and there was no shortage of data/stats people in tech anymore and there were enough resources for those academics to manage the transition on their own. I don't know if the program still exists, but if they do I'm not sure what they could do now to make themselves relevant.

btown 2y ago
Apparently when the pandemic hit Insight pivoted into a remote model with ISAs, then stopped accepting new cohorts. https://www.teamblind.com/post/Insight-data-science-scam-during-Covid-19-KDBtGD4O https://www.teamblind.com/post/Insight-data-science-scam-dur... https://www.reddit.com/r/datascience/s/sdKVWBP2GJ https://www.reddit.com/r/datascience/s/sdKVWBP2GJ
- parpfish 2y ago
  Not surprised that they didn’t make it, but it’s too bad that had to do that bit of a heel turn right at the end
ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
I feel like Big Nerd Ranch[0] did well. They had more of a seminar model, although they called their classes "bootcamps." Unfortunately, they couldn't make enough at it, and have had to pivot away from it. There was a post, hereabouts, recently, that spoke to that. [0] https://bignerdranch.com https://bignerdranch.com
dieselgate 2y ago
Interesting to hear more about Insight and the market conditions that impacted them. I’ve a friend who did the program and it worked out well for them - but they were fresh out of an Ivy League PhD so presumably had strong backing however they chose to direct their non-academic career. Always thought it was a good model to focus on academics since the candidate Pool would likely be better by default. Your post mirrors my experience, though, as someone with a non-cs engineering background doing a coding intensive course. The bar is relatively low and only about half my cohort found “success” in software engineering directly. It’s fickle

btown 2y ago

Apparently when the pandemic hit Insight pivoted into a remote model with ISAs, then stopped accepting new cohorts. https://www.teamblind.com/post/Insight-data-science-scam-during-Covid-19-KDBtGD4O https://www.teamblind.com/post/Insight-data-science-scam-dur... https://www.reddit.com/r/datascience/s/sdKVWBP2GJ https://www.reddit.com/r/datascience/s/sdKVWBP2GJ

parpfish 2y ago
Not surprised that they didn’t make it, but it’s too bad that had to do that bit of a heel turn right at the end

ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago

I feel like Big Nerd Ranch[0] did well. They had more of a seminar model, although they called their classes "bootcamps." Unfortunately, they couldn't make enough at it, and have had to pivot away from it. There was a post, hereabouts, recently, that spoke to that. [0] https://bignerdranch.com https://bignerdranch.com

dieselgate 2y ago

Interesting to hear more about Insight and the market conditions that impacted them. I’ve a friend who did the program and it worked out well for them - but they were fresh out of an Ivy League PhD so presumably had strong backing however they chose to direct their non-academic career. Always thought it was a good model to focus on academics since the candidate Pool would likely be better by default. Your post mirrors my experience, though, as someone with a non-cs engineering background doing a coding intensive course. The bar is relatively low and only about half my cohort found “success” in software engineering directly. It’s fickle