Cs degree or boot camp? Best advice pleAse.

Obviously can't learn as much in a few weeks /months camp as you can in a solid 3-5 year education.

Buut if you're talking value-per-hour in the short term I might argue that in some tech stacks, someone who has done a boot camp in that tech stack could be ahead of someone with a more broad CS degree.

For example - specific Microsoft-products like Sharepoint, MS Dynamics etc.

Where a lot of the tasks might not involve just general programming logic, but super-specific knowledge about how to config stuff in the admin UI.

However, I feel like people who get a job straight out of a boot camp are often slower to grow and adapt as they lack a lot of fundamentals - compared to people who got a broader education.

I do however think that getting a CS masters degree isn't necessary. A bachelors is fine. Would rather hire someone with 3 years education + 3 years work xp than 5 years education + 1 year work xp

A Cs degree will open far more doors, especially if you ever want to work in a different country, but obviously involves a much greater commitment of your time.

However, if you are looking for something quick to get you in your first dev role, maybe Boot Camp can be useful.

@nibor The idea of degrees to work in other countries can vary a lot from country to country.

Here in sweden, most people don't care about degrees if you've got many years of work experience. (except for certain fields like hardware)

Lots of people got a job before getting their degree, had just a few classes left but never finished their degree.

Might come back to bite them in the ass if they wanna work abroad in some countries where a degree might be a must - even if you've got 10 years of proven senior dev experience at a reputable company.

@jiraTicket try to get a work visa outside the EU without a degree.

I would not be able to work in Australia, Dubai or Singapore without my degree. I probably wouldn't be able to work in the EU after Dec 31st without it.

A degree is pretty much essential for immigration regulations in most countries for software development work

A CS degree will teach you WAY more and will also expose you to areas that you may never have found interesting or fun.
It will also help you more in forming a professional network as well as opening more doors.

I did a bootcamp much later in life.

I'm happy with the results for me.

But if I had the money / time I'd go CS for sure.

I dropped out of college after 2 years into a cs degree for various reasons. I ended up doing a 6 month bootcamp at a local university figuring it would be faster to catch up than commit to a few years of school. It paid off as I got a job a month before bootcamp graduation, and have been working as a software dev since(at another company though). In my experience it paid off and was worth it, but if I had the time/money I would have just finished my degree. There’s a lot of job postings in the US that either want a degree or 5 years experience, which I had neither so putting up a solid portfolio, interview prep, and pursuing recruiters is what helped me as well.

Well money and time is really the kicker right? Single father of two beautiful daughters so working and learning is my crossroads. I would much rather do a cs degree. As It really is much more robust. (I have quite a bit of basic knowledge with Js css html5 python and swift. Just because I got into this self learning and as a hobby) and when I notice boot camps basically just teach the basics of those that I can pretty much figure out on my own it kinda drives me away from them.

@wackOverflow that’s also what I recognize as a problem. Most any job I look for regardless of the type of degree specifically asks for a bachelors in something.

Do the CS Degree and then the Bootcamp after graduation as a refresher on how to build stuff in praxis. And you get a finished bootcamp project to show for job hunting. This will give you an advantage over other graduates.

@cloudsxvx well it still might be helpful. I knew basic html/css/js going into it, but I didn’t know node, react, or sql prior which I was able learn through doing projects in the bootcamp. I’m not sure if the cert they give really means anything though, mine had the universities name on it so maybe that held a little weight? Idk, now if I apply for something I just reference my working experience and projects which counts more than a degree or cert.

A CS degree forces you to learn the boring shit you won’t teach yourself, but will need in some way at some point.

You get a fundamental understanding about how things work. A boot camp will get you started coding with high level knowledge. The degree will give you a more solid foundation. When you have to tackle a difficult problem, you might have a better chance of having a clue with the degree.

Or if the high level abstractions you’re using are misbehaving, you might have a better idea of what’s going on, if you have some knowledge about how it works behind the scene.

@devs totally. I ran into a few clueless moments in the beginning. I ended up getting a few books on data structures and algorithms which helped a lot, but still would have been nice taking some classes on that stuff.

JUST WORK

Bootcamps are a scam.

@nitnip several of them certainly seem so

@cloudsxvx They are. Just like 'online programming courses'. College is a big scam too, in a different way though.

@nitnip hitting the nail on the head with that as well. I agree the current state of colleges around the country is terrible. With tuition sky rocketing with very little change to show the cost increase. However I do feel as if a degree is certainly valuable. I’ve hit a point in my self learning that I just have no real direction of what I should do or a better way to do it.

@cloudsxvx College standards are low. Anyone can get a degree IF they are willing to funnel enough money into it.

As others have pointed out, REPUTATION (work experience as senior ranks like senior dev, project manager, etc) is better than a degree in most cases.

Someone who takes self-learning seriously has no need for a bootcamp. But both of them will have a hard time finding work without a degree at first.

If I were to give an advice (to someone in my country at least) is to go to college only when/if you're really willing to study. Once your mind is made up, like you at this moment for example. And go for a degree in your field that takes as little time as possible. If you're interested in a course, just sneak into the classes.

Get a degree if you can. Bootcamps can be useful, but that varies based on where you live among other things.

Where I'm from, I saw a statistic that something like 95% of all people graduating from a bootcamp or courses can't find a job. In 2015, out of 31k graduates, only 2k were hired.

Better look for free or cheap stuff while you're in university. IT companies offer their courses and some can even land you a job.