Have you been thinking about making the transition to a tech career, but still need the skills to get you there? In the bootcamps, you can learn more than you ever have in a short period of time. You can build strong foundations for coding. A good bootcamp will not only educate you, it will support you. Students are supported by their classmates, teachers, mentors, and career services to ensure their success.
Key takeaways of bootcamps:
- Bootcamps provide practical training in a specific field or topic
- Coding bootcamps run for weeks, not years (they usually last 12 to 24 weeks)
- Bootcamps can be more expensive than a public university, but they help you adapt to the particular industry much faster than schools
- It’s helping students to get ready for constant shifts of trends in IT businesses
- Bootcamps offer a strong sense of community
- They launch your coding career and help you land the job after graduation
Based on information from Indeed.com, only 17% of employers think bootcamp graduates are not as prepared to be high performers as candidates with computer or science degree.
Don’t forget, bootcamp is a great option if you want to code. That experience might lead you to believe that with just a little extra instruction and information, in the form of a 3 to 6 months coding course, you can become a professional developer. But creating a program (applications, apps, building something new) is mostly about developing and thinking. It’s “what’s the problem, and how can we solve it?” Once you get to the answer, you’re ready.
How to apply for jobs after boot camper’s journey
- Get in touch with “real” people
Do not apply only to companies, their websites or job platforms. Search for the company and send your email/application directly to someone from their IT hiring team. Applying through the front door to the right people can improve the response rate itself.
- Plan your interviews wisely and don’t expect much
Set up easier interviews early on and higher-level interviews later on. This provides you with time as you’ll get more experience and confidence before you’ll face difficult data structures and algorithm questions.
- Placement numbers can be misleading
Bootcamps studies don’t say who went from “wannabe” to a developer. Not all bootcamp attendees are starting from scratch. Some students aren’t there to start from zero, but they are already professional developers who are just trying to acquire new skills.
Coding bootcamps in Europe
Take your time and choose the right one for you. Intensive coding bootcamps that equip participants with in-demand skills are well worth but be prepared to invest your time, energy, and financial resources. Here’s the list of 9 coding bootcamps based on good rankings and reviews.
Coding Bootcamp (Praha)
Build fullstack web applications in JavaScript, React and Laravel. In their industry-tested curriculum they carefully selected the most sought-after skills. Create a portfolio of projects and instantly apply your knowledge. Share your code on Github and become git-proficient. Every student that successfully submits all the progress tests and portfolio projects and attended at least 90% of the Bootcamp, is entitled to receive a Certification of Completion.
Green Fox Academy (Praha, Budapest)
Their success was crowned with the prestigious IT BEHAVIOR Award in the Human Management category for the Junior Programmer Course. The number of students rose quickly, as did the number of business partners. 2018 was a breakthrough year for the Green Fox Academy in many ways. GreenFox Academy introduced and launched the free programming course for women, called CodeGirlz. You can learn Front-end, Back-end or Full-Stack (Java, possibly switch to JavaScript or C#).
Skylab Coders Academy (Barcelona)
Skylab Coders Academy offers a part-time course and a full-time bootcamp in coding. The full-time bootcamp further develops skills, providing more advanced instruction in full-stack programming and development. Part-time students attend 13 weeks of evening and weekend classes for 130 hours of instruction. Students enrolled in the full-time bootcamp receive 440 instruction hours through 11 weeks of classes.
La Capsule (Paris)
During the course, students will learn the common core of web development and master basic foundations. Students will also learn advanced concepts for back end and front end programming. The course also includes a 2-week final project with help from teachers and mentors. After the conclusion of the course, there is a 4-week mentor program where bootcamp graduates can utilize career prep and job search help. JavaScript, React.js, Node.js, React Native, Learn the most wanted and used technologies!
Academia de Código (Lisbon, Porto)
Their regular programming bootcamps welcome students of all ages (over 18) and backgrounds, graduates or not, as long as they are willing to fully and passionately commit to becoming a professional – and happily employed junior full-stack software developers within a very short period of time. Students are guided throughout the course by a team of instructors who have themselves formerly been pupils at the bootcamp. Their teaching methods are unusual and their passion for clean code is only surpassed by their love for amazingly talented people.
Le Wagon (Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen)
Le Wagon runs immersive coding bootcamps in 39 campuses worldwide. The web development course is designed to teach students the necessary skills to land a job in software development or product management – or prepare them to create their own startup. Students following the data science course will learn in-demand skills, from Python to advanced Machine Learning, enabling them to join a Data Science team.
Spiced Academy (Berlin)
SPICED Academy is a tech education startup based in Berlin. They run 12-week intensive bootcamps in Data Science and Full Stack Web Development that teach the most up-to-date, in-demand skills. Focused on all aspects of your career change, helping students through their transition on a professional and personal level. We foster an open, creative mindset which transforms our student’s approaches to learning and working.
Founders and Coders (London)
During the first half of the course, you’ll spend eight weeks learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.JS and other basic building blocks of web development, as well as user-centred design and entrepreneurship, via workshops and team projects. During the second half of the course, you’ll tackle two extended team projects, one based on ideas pitched within the cohort and a final project for an external client. In addition to the Coding Bootcamp, they run Tech for Better, an app development program for non-profits and social entrepreneurs in London, Nazareth, & Gaza.
Wild Code School (Berlin, Brussels, Bucharest, London, Lisbon, Madrid)
Wild Code School is teaching in-demand digital skills through a blended learning approach in 19 campuses throughout France and Europe. Participants can choose from Vue.js, PHP/Symfony, JavaScript, AngularJS, React or Java and Android and during the period, they have to participate in workshops and complete three projects, including one with a real client.
Are programming bootcamps worth it?
You should ask yourself:
- Are you committed to learning?
You’ll learn enough conceptually that you can do, but you’ll still need to spend your own time learning new things that make it works. This is basically a requirement for the field if you want a lasting career.
- Are you committed to programming?
Make sure that’s something you’re actually wanting to do in the first place. For example, try to solve a real coding problem and you will see if this is the kind of thing you can actually see yourself doing long-term.
- Are you financially prepared for the costs?
Let’s face the facts. Bootcamps are a big financial investment. Finding a coding bootcamp that offers scholarships can be a big help.
- Does the specific coding program offer benefits beyond CV?
Books and information that your bootcamp offers are mostly not enough – but you can learn a lot for free on your own. You should place far more emphasis on how you’ll work with other students and potential colleagues, how to find job-placement resources, and short or long-term networking opportunities.
Not all bootcamps are worth it. They can be worlds apart when it comes to quality, job search success, starting salary and more. This is really a question that you have to ask yourself because there are too many options at play for us to really provide “one-size fits all” answer.
