3 ms·

Mind naming names about the bootcamp? I ask for two reasons: (1) Other people who are getting ready to shell out $10k for a bootcamp deserve to hear from dissa

Mind naming names about the bootcamp? I ask for two reasons: (1) Other people who are getting ready to shell out $10k for a bootcamp deserve to hear from dissatisfied alumni (2) There's a lot of negative press around bootcamps and the good ones shouldn't be lumped in with the bad ones. I had a great experience at Hack Reactor that set me up for interview success with data structures and algorithms, despite lacking a formal CS degree.

vonklaus 12y ago
General Assembly, Los Angeles. I feel like a relatively competent developer, but I had to work my ass off. I wanted to do a bootcamp to get polished. To learn the right way of doing things. I found it much less immersive and instructional and they have flooded the market with subpar developers. I don't want to say much more publicly, but if you are interested we can talk more privately about it, and my experience.
- eastbayjake 12y ago
  I'm really sorry you had that experience. It sounds similar to the industry sentiment: General Assembly is geared towards founders who want to quickly acquire a discrete set of business skills in a short period of time, and they're at a competitive disadvantage against coding bootcamps that specialize in programming skills. It seems like the only area where they can compete is price point. I'm not sure why GA is pursuing this strategy because it seems to be poisoning their reputation. They really shine with things like weekend courses on marketing analytics or a two-hour course where a non-technical founder can get some concepts and vocabulary to grok what the engineering team is doing, but their nine-week courses are lightweight and don't serve their graduates very well. In fact, when I hear engineers complaining about "bootcamp graduates" it's never about Hack Reactor and rarely about DevBootcamp or App Academy -- it's usually General Assembly.
  - vonklaus 12y ago
    Yeah. I strongly considered those ones, however I was in LA, and they are the only game in town. Thanks.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

vonklaus 12y ago

General Assembly, Los Angeles. I feel like a relatively competent developer, but I had to work my ass off. I wanted to do a bootcamp to get polished. To learn the right way of doing things. I found it much less immersive and instructional and they have flooded the market with subpar developers. I don't want to say much more publicly, but if you are interested we can talk more privately about it, and my experience.

eastbayjake 12y ago
I'm really sorry you had that experience. It sounds similar to the industry sentiment: General Assembly is geared towards founders who want to quickly acquire a discrete set of business skills in a short period of time, and they're at a competitive disadvantage against coding bootcamps that specialize in programming skills. It seems like the only area where they can compete is price point. I'm not sure why GA is pursuing this strategy because it seems to be poisoning their reputation. They really shine with things like weekend courses on marketing analytics or a two-hour course where a non-technical founder can get some concepts and vocabulary to grok what the engineering team is doing, but their nine-week courses are lightweight and don't serve their graduates very well. In fact, when I hear engineers complaining about "bootcamp graduates" it's never about Hack Reactor and rarely about DevBootcamp or App Academy -- it's usually General Assembly.
- vonklaus 12y ago
  Yeah. I strongly considered those ones, however I was in LA, and they are the only game in town. Thanks.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]