Entry-level jobs have become scarce. Someone fresh out of bootcamp, or fresh from self-studying with or without LLMs, will try to get one of those entry-level j

Entry-level jobs have become scarce. Someone fresh out of bootcamp, or fresh from self-studying with or without LLMs, will try to get one of those entry-level jobs. You will compete with hundreds of thousands of people who have experience but got laid off, and people with CS or related degrees (more credible than bootcamps and self-study to most employers). Bootcamps mainly focus on teaching a small set of specific skills - Ruby/Rails, JS/React, etc. A developer has to know at least one language and set of tools, but that's not sufficient to get a job, or work on real software projects. I think bootcamps gave the best value to experienced programmers looking to expand their toolbox, and to give newbies a chance to see if they can learn the skills at all. As a path to actual employment bootcamps never did all that well, and with the current job market you might just be throwing money away. Depends a lot on the person and the bootcamp, of course. Anecdotally (I have 40+ years of professional programming experience, so a lot of anecdotal evidence) almost all serious programmers I've known mainly taught themselves, with lots of practice, and mentoring if they got lucky. Few employers offer real training, mentoring, or career development so you're mostly on your own. And even if you get good with several years of practice, persuading a potential employer that you can add value and work with a team will require good soft skills on your part, and a leap of faith on theirs.