Dev App Academy
Coding bootcamps have exploded in popularity with the promise of helping students launch a new career in tech.
Some programs have different payment options to get students in the door like income share agreements, payment plans, and scholarships. Others have a money-back guarantee if you don’t find a full-time paying job.
Those promises are great, but the validity of a coding bootcamp boils down to how they actually help students get jobs in tech, especially when they’ll be competing against computer science degree recipients and other applicants as candidates for the same role.
Here’s what makes the coding bootcamp technique so unique to other methods of education. Depending on what you want to do, one track is better than the other.
How coding bootcamps get you jobs:
They teach the applicable skills you need (and none of the fluff).
A bachelor’s degree — in computer science, for example — takes at least four years to cover the programming fundamentals, boil down the different areas of computer science, then teach applicable coding skills and programming languages.
In a year or less, a coding bootcamp takes those aspects and boils them down into a fast-paced curriculum for folks who want to specialize in certain areas of the industry. For example, at App Academy, our focus is software engineering. Our curriculum is entirely built around the skills necessary for becoming a software engineer, minus the early computer science history and fundamentals you’d learn in a college course.
For some career tracks, this information is pertinent. For others, you can get away with learning only the most necessary skills. This is the foundation for most coding bootcamp curricula.
They help you curate your portfolio and resume.
To a prospective employer, your skills are only as good as the projects you can create with them. This display of skills is exactly what they need to see to vet your capabilities.
Beyond teaching you the applicable skills and languages, a good coding bootcamp will also help you set up an online portfolio that showcases the projects you’ve worked on during your course. You’ll be learning how to apply these coding principles and languages through creating tangible working projects.
In addition to a portfolio, it’s important to create a resume. Not just any resume, though — a resume that both reflects your previous work experience and relates it to your new career endeavors. Software engineering involves far more than just creating apps and writing code. Soft skills matter, too, and those can be reflected from prior jobs.
A coding bootcamp can and should help you put both a portfolio and a resume together into a neat package you can send to hiring managers.
They pair you up with world-class career coaches whose job is to coach you through the job search process.
At App Academy, every student who completes our curriculum and enters the job search phase is paired up with a dedicated career coach to help guide them through.
Some of our career coaches are software engineers themselves, so they’re acutely aware of what it’s like to apply for roles and how to set up your portfolio and resume. Other career coaches on our team have years of experience in life coaching, psychology, and other areas of expertise that are especially helpful during something as stressful as looking for a job.
This program is immensely helpful for our students as they navigate finding employment. In fact, many of our alumni cite it as one of the best parts of their experience.
They open you up to a massive network of alumni that are already working in tech.
Like traditional colleges and universities, coding bootcamps boast big alumni networks. They likely are not as big as those schools’, but that’s what makes them all the more powerful.
Completing a coding bootcamp is difficult. That shared experience amongst alumni working in the industry is really impactful, because they know what it takes to get hired as a software engineer, a web developer, a data scientist, or any other role they’ve studied for. The ability to join and access that network, particularly if the school does a good job of putting people in touch with one another via an online forum or group, is a huge reason why people consider coding bootcamps.
They allow you to enter the job market faster.
If you had the option to enter the workforce in five years or in less than one, you’d likely take the latter. The job market is quickly changing, so it’s important to learn the skills you need to secure your spot in an organization. Plus, time is money, which is why coding bootcamps are both faster and often more affordable than traditional education.
Particularly if you’re in the process of changing careers, a coding bootcamp gets you a job faster and more succinctly than other methods.
In today’s economy, coding bootcamps don’t just get you the job — they help you thrive
With a recession on the horizon and inflation at an all-time high, there’s never been a better time to consider job security by switching to a high-growth, high-demand, high-paying role in tech.
It’s all worth considering the most efficient and oftentimes, the most cost-effective matter of training for that role: coding bootcamps.
To learn more about App Academy’s bootcamp programs and the solutions we offer our students, download our Student Experience packet here.
