Honest Review After Completing a 6-Month Government-Funded Bootcamp
Last year, I did a 6-month backend bootcamp funded by the government. Most reviews sound the same, so I'll try to take a slightly different angle. I'll focus more on what was disappointing than what was good.
To get to the point, the "certificate of completion" means nothing—only "what you have to show for it" remains. I came out having built two projects, but one was essentially made by following a tutorial, and the interviewer saw through that right away.
What was disappointing:
- The pace was geared toward people who were already ahead. Quite a few people who came in knowing nothing quietly dropped out along the way.
- The curriculum was broad and shallow. It skimmed Java, Spring, DB, and AWS, but without depth, so in the end I had to dig into things on my own.
- It was advertised as job placement, but in reality it was just job posting alerts.
Still, what was good was meeting peers who pulled all-nighters together. That was the real asset. We reviewed each other's code, asked each other about interview prep, and we're still keeping a study group going.
If I did it again, I think I'd do this:
1. In the first month, pick one technology and go deep on it, regardless of everyone else's pace.
2. Try doing a project on my own from the planning stage (no tutorials).
3. Make sure to try deploying it.
Six months is shorter than you think. Rather than a mindset of entrusting yourself to the academy, it's far more important to use the academy as material.
4 answers
The point that certificates are meaningless really hits hardㅇㅇ I also got asked in an interview why my portfolio was so shallow, and it wrecked me for a while
I'd like to look at the pace issue a bit differently. It's true that the pace is geared toward fast learners, but when people can't keep up, it's often ultimately a matter of how much they studied on their own. I also came out of a government-funded bootcamp, and the people who just attended class and called it done later all said, "The lectures weren't good." Of course, I really agree that the curriculum is broad and shallow. To make up for that, I pretty much dropped the lectures for three of the six months and dove into personal projects. I know it was a nuisance to the instructor, but that was the choice that benefited me the most.