You’re sick of your job. You need a change, but you need to know that putting in the work will be worth it. So what do you do — go for a degree? Study on your own? Or what about enrolling in a tech bootcamp?
The answer’s clear: if you want a guarantee that there’ll be something waiting for you within a year of your graduation, go for a coding bootcamp with job placement.
Here’s why.
The three most common ways of learning tech
But we’re a little ahead of ourselves already. So let’s talk about the three main approaches that people tend to consider when they’re thinking about learning programming.
Self-study
This is by far the most flexible approach to gaining coding skills. By studying on your own, you’re in total control, meaning you can take quick dives into tech during the few spare hours you can find in your busy schedule. No deadlines, no expectations — just pre-made content you can consume in between everything else you’re doing.
In addition, you can find self-paced tutorials that cover everything from full-stack web development to AI engineering. Truly, whatever you want to learn, you can find a course that will teach it.
But will those skills be the ones you’ll actually need in the job market? What are decision makers really looking for? And if you do teach yourself coding without input from a tutor, can you be sure you’ll follow the best practices that hiring managers will expect to see in a coding test task? So it’s not just about a job guarantee here; even the skills that you gain on your own might not be what companies are looking for.
This is the exact uncertainty that learning from industry experts addresses. People with experience coding for top companies can show tech beginners the precise pieces of tech to master to launch a tech career, after which these new entrants in the field can specialize in the niche interests that excite them.
Getting a degree
If you’re looking for the on-campus experience, nothing can beat, well, being on campus. When you go for a computer science degree, you more or less have to commit to studying full-time, but this means you’ll also get access to professors who have in-depth theoretical knowledge. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of the history of the code, why it’s built the way it is, and its philosophical underpinnings.
Honestly, it’s all fascinating, and if you’re interested in pure knowledge, then it’s likely worth your while to get a degree, especially considering the other unexpected intellectual discoveries you’ll encounter during your studies.
As of this writing, the average student loan debt is $38,290. If you already have a degree (and its resultant student debt), this added burden might feel onerous.
In addition, your money might not be well spent; as we mentioned, on-campus computer science education tends to emphasize the theoretical aspects of coding. The practical get-hired skills that decision makers are looking for will be taught as an element, but they won’t be the focus. The on-the-ground skills and experience that make you stand out to hiring managers aren’t a sure thing.
Bootcamps
Coding bootcamps with a job guarantee solve these problems. They are part-time, so they are flexible like self-study courses, but they also have deadlines to make sure you’re held accountable for your own advancement. In addition, while theory is taught to make sure students aren’t lost, the focus is instead put on gaining the know-how that will enable grads to thrive in real-world tech jobs. This is thanks to the industry experts such as Julian Hernandez who add their expertise to bootcamp programs. They work in tech every day, so they know what skills are in demand.
But coding bootcamps offer so much more than just training students in coding languages. Partway through a good course, students will start learning how to ace the application process via a whole suite of career services. This can include mock interviews with career coaches, resume refinement, and portfolio prep.
And, as part of this portfolio prep, students can apply to join externships, job placement opportunities in which they do real work on real tech projects. For example, they can find themselves creating a widget for an edtech companyExternship with TripleTen: EdTonomy. That means they leave the bootcamp with proof that they already have the skills employers are looking for. This baked-in job placement opportunity makes it much more likely that grads find a job. In fact, after studying at TripleTen, grads get job offers at a great rate: 87% land jobs within six months.
But we’re nothing if not self-aware. Our IT bootcamp is part time, and it is designed so that learners don’t have to quit their jobs to pursue a career upgrade. Still, combining a full-time job with a part-time coding bootcamp can be difficult for some. And, because we know people can struggle with this, we have strategies on how to balance responsibilitiesSix Ways to Achieve Ultimate Work-Bootcamp-Life Balance.
In addition, even though the material is honed to teach you only the in-demand skills, learning still happens at an accelerated pace. For some, that’s what they’re looking for — they want a new job ASAP — but for others, digesting so much new information can be overwhelming. That’s why we offer a whole suite of support systems — communities of fellow learners to chat to, former students who’ve been where you are, tutors, and even AI toolsYes, You Can Master Software Engineering. Our AI Will Help.. We want you to get that great tech job after graduating. We’re going to have your back.
Bootcamps: focused on getting you the job
What it really comes down to is this: how important is it for you to get a tech job?
In fact, because bootcamps are so intent on your employment on the other side, you can get your tuition refunded if you don’t land a job within six months of graduating. Take it as a measure of our confidence in the in-demand skills and know-how we give our grads.
If you want knowledge for knowledge’s sake, go for a degree. If you’re learning tech as a hobby or refining skills you already have, self-study might be the route for you. But if you want a tech job, look for a coding bootcamp with job placement. Places like this focus on one thing: making you a safe hire.
And our grads’ stories back this up.
The proof is in our grads
We’ll step back for a second and let our grads speak for themselves. Here are the aspects of a bootcamp with a job guarantee that helped them land new careers in tech.
Find out if a bootcamp is right for you
If you want to find out if a bootcamp with a job guarantee is right for you, we can help: take our quick self-assessment quiz to discover your prime path to tech.