Do coding hack schools work?

Beverly Level X³

June 13, 2016, 8:17 am

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Do coding hack schools work?

Coding hack schools promise to educate you on a marketable coding skill in just 8 to 12 weeks, after which time you will be ready to get an actual job in coding. I can see how this could be attractive to someone looking for an in-road into coding, but wouldn't it take longer than that to master a language? The schools provide hands on training and guidance by trained teachers, so that is a plus. Though tuition fees are typically $12000 US and up, but some people swear by them. Is this a viable option for a young person wanting to break into coding or another 'get rich quick scheme' that won't pan out?

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MasterA

MasterA

The problem with fast track courses like this is that you don’t have enough time to practise what you have learn. With coding, it is all about practise. As someone who has no experience in coding before, if you want to get good at coding, it requires a lot of practise and experience. You can memorise all the functions and syntax but without practise and experience, you will have a hard time writing programs.

Going back to the question, this also depends on how much work you put outside lessons. If you do all the work given and do extra projects outside lessons, then you might get good enough for a junior coding role. If you don’t do any work outside lessons, then there is no chance of getting good enough for a decent junior role. In that case, you will probably need to find a small company and start at minimum wage and work your way up.

Get rich quick schemes don’t exist; otherwise everyone will be rich. Working for programming related firms might have a good pay but it is nowhere near get rich schemes. It will probably take you at least 10 years to into management roles but of course some people get there quicker and this is where the big money is.

Overall, I think you stand a chance if and only if you have no free time during the 8 to 12 weeks and just work on learning coding (assuming you have no coding experience). With coding experience as long as you put some work in, then this is definitely enough.

9 years ago

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Beverly

Beverly

And, this is what I'm worried about. In that article I linked you to before, one guy was fresh out of a web developer job. So he had actual experience but that 8 week course was promising to make him instantly employable for another type of job he wasn't previously skilled at. I worry about the accreditation aspect of these programs, or lack there of. If an eight week course was sponsored by MIT, then I could see paying so much money for what amounts to a 'crash course' on whatever subject they were teaching. But these 'boot camps' that seems like a no-go to me. As you say, without that prior experience or on the job training, which comes from years of being in the industry and coding in those languages, what use is it?

9 years ago

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MasterA

MasterA

I totally agree with you. Top employers are not only looking for people who are good at coding but also transferable skills. For example, they look for people who have good communication and team work skills. They will need to communicate technical content to clients in everyday language. This can be demonstrated through past work experience and therefore, people who use these fast track courses with no relevant work experience will be at a disadvantages. Also, most employers look for qualifications from top universities. A boot camp like this would be good but it is nowhere as good as university degrees. In the past I have done fast track courses but when I apply for jobs, I always put it quite low on my CV because it isn’t something that employers will look too much into. I personally think these fast track courses are good for learning new programming languages but it won’t be very good in landing you a job in a totally new area. Also, the price is insane for what it is being offered. In the UK, it costs slightly over $22,000 for 1 year of university, yet you only get 8 to 12 weeks of training in this boot camp.

9 years ago

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EliteWriter

EliteWriter

Personally I do not think that they are a great option. They are sort of a quick way to learn something, and nothing, especially not coding, can be mastered in such a short period of time. As others pointed out practice is of the essence in coding. And with such a course how much practice can one manage to do in such a short period of time? I would definitely prefer to invest a bit more in a longer and more thorough course that can also offer a more accredited and recognized certification, while offering me more skills and knowledge.

9 years ago

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overcast

overcast

I think we all have different style for learning things. We have to work harder. You have to understand how the hacker school works. Make sure to attend demo classes. And see if the learning fits your flow. if it does then sure it can be good. If not then it'd be fair to say that such type of learning may not be for you.

8 years ago

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nickbor45

nickbor45

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4 years ago

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