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Discussion on: Are Coding Bootcamps A Rip Off?

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sheriffderek profile image
sheriffderek

I've been tutoring and keeping tabs on people in almost all of the mainstream boot camps - and it's pretty clear what they're teaching and how. It's probably is a necessary jump-start for some people: but they are missing a LOT of the foundations. That's hard to correct. I started school because it's too hard to teach people at any scale if they are all at totally different levels and have wildly different mental models for things. So, I can't really help people once they get too far along. I created a 'boot-camp-rehab' discord to at least help them fill in the gap: you know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

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tonycimaglia profile image
Tony Cimaglia

Having a better grasp on the foundational stuff beforehand would have been really helpful to me. We spent maybe 2 days on HTML and CSS (in a web development boot camp!). Certain companies eagerness to throw people into their courses with little screening really irks me. They'd have higher graduation rates if they required people to really take the time to build up some of those foundations first.

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sheriffderek profile image
sheriffderek • Edited

And for me - I mean (I've been writing HTML and CSS every day for 10 years... and I learn new stuff every day!) - I think it's just about the order things are introduced and getting the right exercises to help them set in.

Most people (even senior devs) don't know the difference between display properties like inline and block, or how to position things - or basically - the main things you absolutely need to know. That's inexcusable and it's not just boot camps. It's youtube and everywhere.

I think that "knowing how to code something" and being able to "teach" it - are very different. I've answered thousands of "It isn't working" type questions. Oh, it's working. It's doing exactly what you told it to do. That's how computers work. The schools aren't teaching people the actual concepts - just what to type. And they aren't teaching them to ask good questions.

They aren't spending money to figure out the best way to teach - they're spending like 20k on a technical writer and the rest on advertising and scaling.