Coding Bootcamp vs Self Taught vs Degree

I started out as self-taught, then once I realized how difficult it was to try and get a first job as self taught I went back to college. Internships are a big key, now have interviews with Amazon, Crowdstrike, and a few others. Wish me luck!!

Doing online college in US, definitely a lot of self-taught aspects, but still an accredited degree I will be able to keep with me for the years to come. Able to manage family/full time work and am not overwhelmed with 19 year olds who have been coding since middle school.

In a skilled driven world we're in right now. I think it doesn't matter the path you took as long as you can do the job!.

As someone who holds a CS degree, I agree that a degree makes it much easier for you to 'get your foot in the door', as far as landing your first job goes. After that though, future job prospects will generally pay more attention to your accumulated work experience more than whether you were a self-taught learner, bootcamper, or degree holder. Good luck, job hunters, and wishing you all the best in your career.

Summary: Self-taught (better suited for those who want to switch careers): Cons: Lack of a curriculum, need for self-discipline, lack of assistance/guidance, is harder to get job interviews with Pros: Cheapest option, self-paced, the more experience the less needed a degree is Bootcamp (better suited for those want to quickly get their foot in the door): Cons: Intense, expensive (though less expensive than a 4-year college degree, at least in the US), there are many of them that it's difficult to find the 'suitable' one and reviews may be unreliable, and may result in a lower salary as it is unlikely that one will automatically end up in a big company once they graduate Pros: Omits the theory and focuses rather on the practical skills (however, those skills and tools may be outdated in the next couple of years while the theory will remain the same), involves networking Degree (better suited for someone looking for a job in a relaxed manner): Cons: Requires one to learn things that aren't relevant to what they want to learn (some other aspects of CS and electives), time-consuming, expensive Pros: Professors are more qualified to teach than bootcamp instructors, higher employment rate, combines both theory and practice (and hence the material is somewhat 'timeless'), offers one the opportunity to speak to their professor in person, has more credibility, offers more internship opportunities

I'm two months into self-taught... I paid a small fortune in loans for an animation degree at IADT years ago. I had to do tons of online tutorials anyway to get ahead of the class. Bypass all the fluffy curriculum. They sold me and my peers false dreams and we're all in debt. Plus with overseas outsourcing, a lot of the money promised declined. Now I freelance, sell merch and run a small auto shop... and know a little JavaScript

I feel I was really lucky as I'm self-taught. Was working fulltime in a compliance role while doing Udemy courses outside of work and building websites with what I had learnt. I decided to apply for a job at a start-up as a front-end coder, wasn't really expecting to get the role as I didn't feel I was adequate enough, however I felt I couldn't miss the opportunity and managed to get an interview, during which I expressed my extreme willingness to learn what's required and spoke about what I did already know. I managed to get the job and in 2 and a half years, moved into the back-end development department. In my case I live on a small island near the UK so there's less competition for tech roles, however there's less of a chance of those jobs cropping up and the rate of pay is lower than typical developers from mainland UK.

Well I'm one of the Self-taught, and I'm finding it really hard but my dream is to invent something

I did all three (i.e. but the degree was not in computer science) - Self taught... for me. Like you said, it really depends on the person. I did a bootcamp for a discount (and now doing a more structured bootcamp - for free) because there are jobs that require it or a computer science degree, but honestly, I feel my time would be better spent doing projects (i.e. tutorials, my own, etc. and getting feedback on them) and practicing more coding problems :/

I’d take your bootcamp! 😋 I can totally attest to the dedication needed to be self-taught vs having imposed deadlines from a teacher.

I'm self taught. And Wouldn't trade it for a degree. I can honestly say that I learned more than any college or camp will teach you this way. If you go to a class they already have everything installed and ready to go. You will never understand how much work getting everything ready and installed is until you set it up yourself. Not to mention they will use the versions of software that they know to work for the class. In the real world, going with the latest versions you have to learn all the gotchas that exist trying to make multiple software pieces to work together. I make well over 6 figures and I have no debt which I can honestly say gives me an edge against others with loans. It's not an easy road but if you take it you normally know more than the average coder because you have to figure out what is actually happening underneath everything by troubleshooting when things go wrong.

College is cheap in my country surprisingly that is public schools The main challenge is accommodation

Whichever of these methods you choose, you still sometimes do self-study on the Internet to consolidate the material you have learned.

It is a very helpful guide on this, at least for someone as inexperienced as me

Thank you very much for the help and guidance, leaning more towards a 2 yr degree👍🏻

No matter what route you go you’re going to be self taught. If you go college then take Codecademy or Udemy on the side. Colleges tend to be behind the the latest trends because of the bureaucracy related to course changes. That’s good cause you’re first job is probably going to have old syntax in the code base. Also keep in mind colleges take longer but internships at big companies only go to degree pursuing candidates. So going college route doesn’t mean your not getting experience. If you go bootcamp please for the love of all that is good spend at least 6+ months prepping. When you go to a bootcamp you should already know how to code. You go to a bootcamp to solidify advanced concepts not learn basics from scratch. Code well, my friends!

My college Computer science classes are basically self taught… literally

Going for BS may often mean more internship opportunities and can meet the minimum BS requirements for certain roles. Yet, bootcamps may still give opportunities to focus on main industry SWE languages, etc.

I've been playing back and forth with going back to get my degree versus doing the bootcamp. I have a chemical engineering degree that I would hope majority of the classes would transfer to allow me to just focus on the programming courses. I am in my mid 30's trying to reinvent my career into software engineering versus the chemical engineering i've been doing for the past 12 years. I am actively researching the opportunities in degrees including a boot camp route that could take me into the masters program. BUT not 100 percent sure that is even possible.

I have a degree in Interaction Design. Let me tell you, there is so much that you learn from getting a degree. You're surrounded by like-minded people, you meet people from the industry and make useful connections, you are taught time management with all the work they give you, so much more. You develop your people skills, and during my time I did several presentations. There is a lot of personal development, that simply boot camps don't offer or sitting at home doing courses on udemy. On that note, Udemy is excellent, learned a lot from there. I used to freelance + manage my studies effectively. Straight out of university I landed an excellent job. I work fulltime as a Software Engineer & UI Designer.