Coding Boot-Camp Grads Finding Success

Just under 50% of graduates with a traditional four-year college degree in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) land jobs in their field, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. The data also noted that 74% of people with a STEM degree aren’t actually working in the field.

However, a 2017 survey found that 73% of coding boot-camp grads secured STEM jobs and 80% said their jobs directly related to or used skills acquired in the boot camp. The survey was conducted by Course Report, a coding boot-camp directory.

Coding boot-camp grads also reported an average salary increase of about 51% and that their average starting salary was more than $70,000 a year. Most boot-camp grads have six years of work experience and a bachelor’s degree, but have never worked as a programmer before, according to the report.

“The number of computer science jobs continues to grow, and there’s a skills gap between the number of skilled workers and the number of available jobs,” said Jay Patel, chief operating and financial officer of Coding Dojo. “We need to tackle that need together. It’s not just companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon that need this skill—it’s also companies that didn’t start in technology, but that are now leveraging websites and technology to improve their products.”

While the survey painted a rosy picture for coding boot-camp grads, it also showed that patience is required in landing that STEM job. A third of coding boot-camp grads found jobs within 30 days, but it took others up to six months. There are also complaints about boot-camp scams and continued unemployment.

“You are constantly grinding and putting in hours,” said Brian Kang, a graduate of the Coding Dojo boot camp. “That alone trains your mind and habits to the kind of work ethic it takes to succeed in learning new, difficult skills. That’s a large part of what employers seek out: your drive and work ethic.”

Study Takes a Closer Look at Alternative Ed

Educational programs providing students with ways to acquire practical job skills are often praised as a shorter and cheaper alternative to traditional college. However, new research has shown that it’s not quite that simple.

The report The Complex Universe of Alternative Postsecondary Credentials and Pathways, a study conducted by Ithaka S+R for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, found the earning power of the different programs varies widely and depends on the subject studied. For instance, a person who has a computer-science certificate can expect to earn twice as someone holding much as a health-care or cosmetology certificate.

The study also found that certificate programs, work-based training, and competency-based programs tend to attract older, lower-income students who have not completed a college degree. At the same time, 80% of IT bootcamp participants and 75% of those enrolled in massive open online courses already have a bachelor’s degree.

Researchers found little evidence to determine how effective the many programs are, along with wide variation in their quality. They recommend more data be collected and studied on educational and employment outcomes so better quality-assurance standards can be developed.

“We quickly learned that while there’s some piecemeal information, there really hasn’t been this kind of landscape review before,” said Martin Kurzweil, director of the educational transformation program at Ithaka S+R, the firm that conducted the study. “That’s surprising, because there’s millions of Americans engaged in this kind of postsecondary education.”

Colleges Win by Pairing with Boot Camps

Short-term, narrowly focused, and job-oriented, coding boot camps were initially seen as a potential disruptor of traditional higher education. However, some of the companies offering those programs are now finding they need the imprimatur of established universities in order to have credibility with employers, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The relationships can take various forms. In some, boot camps and colleges share tuition revenues, while in others there are no direct financial ties. In many cases, schools provide space for the courses.

Both groups are finding these arrangements to be win-wins. The boot camps gain greater legitimacy, benefiting from the schools’ more trusted brands, while colleges and universities use the boot camps to expand their capacity to train students in desirable IT-related skills and increase their diversity, since the shorter, lower-cost programs attract more women and minorities.

For-Profit Coding Camps Hurt by 'Bad Actors'

Coding and science boot camps teach in-demand technical skills that are being used by industries desperate for trained employees. A surveyof 2014-16 boot camp graduates found that 80% were satisfied with the training and 63% reported receiving a salary increase of more than $22,000 within six months of completing the course.

While boot camps continue to be popular, last September the founder of online coding camp Devschool disappeared with $100,000 in student tuition. Students who lost money don’t expect to ever see it again, even though they complained to state and federal authorities, forcing the site to shut down.

“For boot camp founders, there is almost no barrier to entry when starting up,” Salvador Rodriguez wrote in an article detailing the fraud for Inc. magazine. “To lure in customers, all that is needed is someone who can teach how to code and is bold enough to promise students a job.”

There are things students can look for to protect themselves when choosing to participate in an accelerated learning program, according to Jim Deters, CEO and co-founder of Galvanize, which has nine campuses around the country offering programming, coding, and data-science courses. The most important is to check with state agencies to see if the boot camp opens its process to review. It should raise a red flag if the provider isn’t working with the state officials.

“Boot camps have a lot of success stories already, but it’s still such early days,” Darrell Silver, co-founder and CEO of online coding camp Thinkful, said in the Inc. article. “For-profit education has left a lot of scars, and it’ll take years for boot camps to remedy that reputation. Bad actors slow us down, so it’s in all of our interests to call them out quickly and fix the situation for students.”