9
MrCush
5y

How are Coding Bootcamps and what are they like?

A little background:

I’ve been going to a University (have a year left for a CS degree) and I am so EXTREMELY frustrated. I thought I would get an education but it’s so underwhelming. 95% of it doesn’t involve programming and the classes that do are so elementary that I know more than the professors. By the end of my web design course we had been taught to center text, insert images, insert links, and how to use tables with a single day on CSS using colors.
The OOP courses are all the same, learn variables, types, conditionals, loops, classes, functions, and so forth. Python, C++, and Java. I taught all this to myself when I was 15, I’m 29 now.

I’ve recently gotten extremely interested into full stack web development. .NET Core, React, Typescript. I’m also working with Electron. I’m basically 100% self taught and spend almost every waking moment trying to learn more and apply it.

There’s only one person at my school who has the same passion as me and he’s the president at the coding club but is going into machine learning and big data (I’m the Secretary) and I just wish I could interact with more people who have the same passion. I would love to be challenged. I feel as if I spend more time trying to learn and diagnose problems then applying my knowledge because web development is so complicated when it comes to connecting everything together and I’m still relatively new to it (started like 4 months ago). I’m an extremely fast learner and extremely dedicated so I’m not worried about that being an issue.

I just really want to be a part of a community where I have people who can answer my questions and I don’t have to spend hours or days on google finding a solution to integrating Webpack or using typescript with react, and more. I want to feel challenged.

Can I get this from a boot camp? I recently listened to a podcast from Syntax and it really excited me but I don’t want to be let down again. Either way I’m finishing my degree to get that bullshit $60000 piece of paper but I wouldn’t mind taking a couple months off for something like this if it’s worth it.

I live in CO so if you have any Bootcamps in CO that you recommend, I’d love to hear it and take a trip to check it out in person.

Thanks a bunch!

Comments
  • 5
    They are mostly paid and you’re better off get a programmer job since you’re getting paid to learn
  • 7
    Like @devTea said, get a job. You already know way more than you'd learn at a bootcamp. Try getting a job in a startup or a software house.
  • 2
    You want to be challenged, but don't want to spend hours Googling 🤔

    You'll only spend hours like that when you are a newbie or you ran into a problem very few did. Or in the worst case, your Google fu skills haven't sharpened yet, in which case you have room for improvement

    And bootcamps are not that great. What you are doing already, which is self learning, is the best. Keep going. This journey never ends
  • 1
    I mean, you're getting education, just not the one you want, school is not there to teach you the deep stuff, but the basics lol
    It teaches you the basics in programming, and many more, uhh, kinda useful things, you know, like how the production chain works and how the boring part of a (software) company works, I mean, that's the kind of stuff my university teaches us, and I like it, because I can grasp how and why things are the way they are (like, in a company)
    Not everything in life is coding, but to each their own, I guess
  • 1
    @asgs I have plenty of years experience googling. I’ve been teaching myself since I was 13 years old. Pretty proficient at googling and I don’t really consider googling tactics a challenge compared to actual programming problems, projects, working with a team, etc.

    The podcast I listened to talked about how self learning is a lot slower than being taught by an instructor (who knows his stuff) with a group of peers around you who can all help each other and ask questions to the instructor or each other. I would wholeheartedly agree on that.

    I definitely disagree on you having to be a newb to spend hours googling. I’ve been looking for a good Redux tutorial for quite awhile as there are 100s of videos with different teaching styles that also vary in quality. Compared to having a class on redux and being able to ask an instructor questions on parts that didn’t quite make sense rather than jumping back on google and trying to find another video/read that might explain that particular subject more clearly.

    I’m all for thoughts on why you think self learning is better than a boot camp though. Have you been to one? Do you have any experience talking to people who have? Simply put, “self learning is better” just really doesn’t do much for me in the convincing argument area.
  • 2
    @emilews I’m happy you got that but my education has been more a lot more general and has never gotten into any specifics in the software industry.

    And school shouldn’t be about that. I’m sorry but if I’m paying $60000 for an education in a particular area, I should be getting more knowledge than “the basics”. Huge issue with education (at least in the US). Doesn’t prepare you for the real world at all and it wouldn’t take much to improve and focus more on making real world applications, using frameworks, etc. Something outside of an extremely basic console application that adds numbers together. I spent the first 12 years of education learning history, how to write, etc. The 4 years of college seem to be just a money grab by requiring you to take the same courses from grade school over again mixed with some humanities with a small touch of your career focus.

    Sorry, I just have some really strong feelings toward the current education system and why it’s so terrible. I could go on for hours and it took a lot for me to cut my explanation short here and click the submit button xD
  • 1
    @MrCush they are all like that in all of the world, they can only teach you basics as they canmt dive into the industry
  • 1
    @devTea And why can’t they dive into the industry? Is there some rule against it?

    When I went to community college I took Calc 1, 2, and 3. Also took Physics based Calc 1 and 2.

    Would you call those basic courses or advanced?

    It seems like this thread has completely gone off topic as everyone has been focused on what they think a proper education is from the background I provided rather than answer the main question I asked with hopefully some personal experience behind it =\. Maybe I shouldn’t have provided my frustrations with my education as well.
  • 1
    @MrCush because they have to do research and write paper, how many times you used calculus outside of school? Those things are getting popular outside of school when someone is working on ML/DL
  • 1
    @MrCush the point is you don't always easily get a peer group who agrees with team learning as is evident from your current job/role. It entirely depends on your work environment and the employees there

    While self learning is slower, it is the only tool that you can carry around as your experience increases. You may find peer groups when you have < 5 years of experience or so. But the more senior you become, the lonelier you will get. At which point, self learning is the only option left

    Also, the bootcamps I've attended are mostly intros to a subject matter. It was a never a deep dive thing. I don't know if it differs by region or subject, but bootcamps are IMO to get somebody started with something
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