5 Thing I HATE about Coding Bootcamps

Coding Bootcamps have changed the game forever. With the promise of jobs after only a couple weeks of "School," people are flocking to these over the more traditional college routes. However these schools are NOT all great, today I'm going to share with you my top 5 things I HATE about Coding Bootcamps 

1) Stop lying about instructors on your website:

A lot of Bootcamp websites will show off very experienced instructors that will supposedly be your "teachers." These "teachers" will be previous employees from some big companies like Google, Facebook, or Snapchat. What they don't mention is that you won't be learning from them directly, as they only manage the other instructors. You'll be learning from someone who was in the class before you. The people who are teaching you are typically students from previous classes who couldn't find another job. Instead, they hire these poor souls for $12 an hour to teach highly stressed students. Usually, you'll see your actual instructor once or twice a week for a short 1-hour lecture. Need help? Well, make sure NOT to ask the instructor. If you do, they'll pawn you off to a "Team Lead" or "Mentor" who is more confused than you are. This is far from what they make it sound like on their website.

2) Make sure students are doing their work:

At my Bootcamp, there was lots of "required" precourse work to be done before school started. On the first day of class, two people had completed this precourse work. This meant that the rest of the class was utterly unprepared. Throughout the lessons, there was always at least one student who would have their headphones in during a lecture, watching Netflix, or playing video games. Why is this allowed? If people aren't going to take this seriously or show any effort to learn, why allow them to continue the program? They are a distraction to everyone else who is trying to learn. Not to mention the dumpster fire they'll cause during group projects. This leads to the next thing I hate about Bootcamps...

3) Be more selective during the admissions process:

Sure, anyone can learn to code. People need the opportunity to change their lives. However, a lot of people that apply are people who have never used a computer outside of social media platforms. These students think programming will be a super easy job and that they will make lots of money without putting any effort into it. Programming is not easy; there is a steep learning curve, especially at the beginning! People need to be informed about this and be screened out of the program if they aren't willing to put in the work. This would substantially reduce the number of people that drop out, or worse, continue through the entire program while learning nothing. This is a waste of time and money for both parties.

4) Code Reviews! 

For the people that are putting in work, they need feedback. They might be able to complete the assignments, but feedback about what they could have done better would be much appreciated. Feedback such as styling tips, "Best Practices," and coding consistency should be taught and enforced right from the beginning. At my Bootcamp, code reviews took place once a week, sometimes, but I think it would have been helpful to have them daily.

5) Check up on your students:

Make sure the students are keeping up with the curriculum and understanding the material. If they are struggling, help them catch up by doing extra code reviews, re-explaining concepts, or offer them to repeat the week. Even lending some encouraging words could help them out a ton. Bootcamps are a stressful time for the students, checking up on them and making sure it's going as smoothly as possible should be a top priority! 

Bootcamps can be a wonderful thing, but they need to be more honest with what students are truly getting out of their program! Most Bootcamps are full of empty promises while trying to gain as many students as possible, with the least amount of effort. Students should be your number one priority, can you imagine if a ton of them went on to do incredible things? They would tell their friends, and word would spread like wildfire. If your programs that great, then you shouldn't have to be focusing primarily on anything but the students and your curriculum.