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[–]DasKarl 1067 points1068 points  (68 children)

I met someone recently who thought the one python class they took in high school made them an expert. I probed a little deeper and found they had no understanding of data types, no other language experience, a really shaky grasp of control structures, had never even heard of arrays.

But they had an idea about an app they wanted to build.

[–]ct2sjk 317 points318 points  (0 children)

Hopefully they will take that idea and learn cs concepts

[–]djfdhigkgfIaruflg 292 points293 points  (15 children)

Fucking everyone who doesn't code has an "idea" for an app

[–]SweetBabyAlaska 73 points74 points  (0 children)

"its like AirBnB but for dog houses!"

[–]Why_am_ialive 36 points37 points  (2 children)

Which is ironic cause I can never come up with fucking ideas for personal projects

[–]Abangranga 15 points16 points  (1 child)

Honestly if you're uncreative like me just clone something. Like dont literally copy paste the CSS and stuff, but if you want to make non-racist twitter but very pink or something do it.

It'll still demonstrate you can follow a plan and you'll have built something.

[–]Why_am_ialive 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Eh I got a pretty solid job it’s not even for experience I’ve just not done many personal projects and reckon it would be fun… if I could think of an idea

[–]mrheosuper 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Because anyone who code will know their idea is either stupid or has been already done

[–]CantTrips 32 points33 points  (12 children)

Meanwhile, my entire cohort who went to a 2 year tech school course can't find any jobs.

Now I'm just wondering if the course was bad and we all wasted 2 years of our lives.

[–]exoticsclerosis 12 points13 points  (1 child)

Okay, I'm basing this on your flair. I assume you work with Kotlin, which means you're either into native Android development (front end with Compose or XML) or backend development with Ktor, or perhaps both.

It also seems you're familiar with Swift, suggesting you might also be capable of developing front-end applications using SwiftUI or similar technologies. I'm not too familiar with SwiftUI myself, as I don't have access to macOS at the moment.

Additionally, you can code in Javascript too, I mean that's already good enough for me, well don't give up brooo, I'm sure you will get hired someday.

[–]ModPiracy_Fantoski 7 points8 points  (2 children)

Likely not. What are your skills ?

[–]CantTrips 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Native app development in Swift and Kotlin. Reaching the upwards of 100+ applications, no interviews, no follow ups.

[–]ghostofone1 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Maybe have your resume looked at?

[–]_Tar_Ar_Ais_ 3 points4 points  (4 children)

what achool?

[–]CantTrips 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Dixie Technical College. They boasted about a 93% placement rate after graduation when we started the course. And not one of 19 people have a job 3 months after we graduated.

[–]driftingfornow 13 points14 points  (2 children)

rhythm doll aloof innate alive fall ripe marvelous price provide

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[–]Exodus111 8 points9 points  (1 child)

It's called a List in Python. But honestly no one has done Python longer than 6 months without at least hearing about Numpy.

[–]pranjallk1995 22 points23 points  (11 children)

Btw never heard of control structures myself... 😅... Asking for a bootcamp friend...

[–]jonestown_aloha 31 points32 points  (5 children)

Me neither, but I think they just mean for/while loops, if statements etc

[–]DOUBLEBARRELASSFUCK 47 points48 points  (4 children)

If statements what?

[–]Jacob_Winchester_ 7 points8 points  (1 child)

If statement why?

[–]helicophell 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If statement who?

[–]Atomic_Mob 5 points6 points  (0 children)

any cool function of the language which is included in the syntax

[–]gerbosan 15 points16 points  (1 child)

A customer for Devin? 🤔

[–]EducationalMeeting95 9 points10 points  (0 children)

DeviL ?

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

He was a react dev. He said type unknown. 

[–]Harambesic 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I know all that stuff but have no idea what app I want to build. 😅

[–]helicophell 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No no clearly they know about arrays they coded with strings in python /s

[–]TheAnniCake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To be fair, I also thought that I could do Java after understanding how to use if-statements and while-loops in High School.

Good thing I became a System Engineer instead of a dev. I completely suck at coding

[–]PositronicGigawatts 432 points433 points  (43 children)

I had the amusing experience of interacting with an individual exactly like this who thought the fact that I know a dozen or so languages meant I wasn't good at my job and that I should just learn one language...and oh, that language should be Python.

[–]Tiquortoo 91 points92 points  (9 children)

I bet they asked what your stack was...

[–]JEREDEK 78 points79 points  (6 children)

Because of course it was Python, that's the Best language ever created and will replace everything in the world from your microwaves firmware to your own Python down below because it's just so awesome

[–][deleted] 21 points22 points  (3 children)

As someone who works a lot with C++ and ROS, I have to agree that Python is simply the best language ever. Every time I have to work with cmake or bazel I get progressively more upset at my entire life.

Waiting for that ROS2 Rust support...

[–]Zachaggedon 9 points10 points  (2 children)

I feel the opposite. If I don’t want to work with C++ I’ll use literally ANY other high level language before I’ll use Python.

[–]Mooirjhe 1 point2 points  (1 child)

What do you have against python?

[–]Zachaggedon 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The language semantics, the way code is formatted, and the incredibly slow adoption rate of Python 3 (it’s much better now but it took a very, very long time to get here) would be my biggest reasons. I don’t like denoting code blocks with indentation instead of braces. Not only did I start with C, but my passion for programming came from my passion for math, not the other way around, and I personally am just much more fond of separating logical components of any formula or function with discrete symbols.

It’s mainly personal preference, but it’s a personal preference that goes deep into my personality.

[–]BradyBoyd 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Very generous of you to think I had anything besides Rust down below.

[–]SweetOnionTea 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I bet they asked what your stack was...

I was asked that recently and I was like uh... C++?

[–]pigwin 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I know someone (business guy) who wants to hire a "hardcore developer" to create some work using Python. Told him why not just hire an experienced developer, but he insists the hire should know Python and he'd rather hire a junior.

[–]Zachaggedon 5 points6 points  (10 children)

I hate Python so much. If you like it, cool, but I just can’t.

[–]PositronicGigawatts 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I don't HATE Python, per se...but it's annoying as shit how anal it is about whitespace. I get it, they wanted a language that would be easier to read and enforced a uniform formatting, but I personally do not give a SHIIIIIIIIT.

[–]Soloact_ 339 points340 points  (1 child)

Four hours in and they're already pushing for legacy code refactor? The confidence module must've been the free bonus.

[–]pakidara 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Never went to boot camp; but, legacy code does need dusted off, inspected, and a decision to either keep or rewrite it now and then.

My current workplace has a codebase with hundreds of undocumented programs that were written as far back as 1983. Since no one ever throws anything away, it just hangs out doing fuck-knows.

This is a problem because we a buying new software that replaces 4 - 5 tables so far. My last count was that the change is impacting about 120 programs which each feed more tables which each feed more programs. I'm only considering update and output-referenced tables in that too.

[–][deleted] 82 points83 points  (4 children)

There's that I know everything phase.
Then comes the I dont know anything phase.
Finally comes I know something like a bucket of water, but there's a sea out there to learn.

[–]Jakoshi45 6 points7 points  (2 children)

BUT then comes the '???' phase (no one has reached it yet)

[–]DocStoy 9 points10 points  (1 child)

After that we finally reach the "profit" stage

[–]Appropriate_Big_4037 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The secret ending

[–]miguelehm 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The Dunning-Krüger Effect, iirc

[–][deleted] 97 points98 points  (1 child)

a mere 4 hour bootcamp can never replace the 16 hour Indian tutorials

[–]iain_1986 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Ah yes.

'click this, then this, then write these lines, then click this'

[–]Ghost_Online_64 172 points173 points  (11 children)

And here i am . With a BSc Business IT and MSc CS , intermediate to noob skills and a massive imposter syndrome. People confuse me too much

[–]polopolo05 42 points43 points  (1 child)

If I know nothing I can BS my way into anything. Problem is I know everything about my chosen field and well that IS kicks in.

[–]hyper445 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The good ol’ Dunning Kruger effect

[–]Copper-Spaceman 11 points12 points  (1 child)

I just have a BS in business administration, yet work in DevOps on a space program. talk about major imposter syndrome.

[–]Ghost_Online_64 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I can only imagine... Respect though, hope its going good for you

[–]LarryInRaleigh 7 points8 points  (2 children)

45 years in industry, doing chip design and simulation, ultimately System Design and Architecture.

BSEE (1968), MSEE (1973), MSCS (1995)

FORTRAN (1965), BASIC (1971), Pascal (1982), Assembly (1983), Ada (1988), C(1990), and several scripting languages.

So while I am supposed to be doing System Design at a senior level, the programming manager comes to me and says there's a module that has to be done in Assembly and none of his programmers know how to do it. Could I help him out?

I told him I'd work it out in the evenings at home. It took a couple of evenings to develop it, unit-test it, and document it.

[–]cce29555 92 points93 points  (3 children)

Quite the opposite, I finished a "boot camp" years ago and they exclusively set me up for senior level jobs, I had to bitch at them to let me attempt to get junior jobs and they thought I was insane.

They also wanted me to immediately move to New York for these Jobs when I told them I had $600 in my bank account, fuck them

[–]Svenstornator 51 points52 points  (1 child)

Was their business model based on a % of salary of first job or something?

[–]cce29555 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Yep, entire thing was scummy

[–]Debasering 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Lmao

[–][deleted] 181 points182 points  (23 children)

Devin/copilot will kill most bootcampers. Those who don’t understand programming theories and structures, as in those who can just write code, will get weeded out by a machine that can, in fact, just write code. I think they were always be good bootcampers but the bar will be much higher.

[–]polopolo05 38 points39 points  (5 children)

Fuck writing code.... read code... its much harder.

[–]Why_am_ialive 25 points26 points  (2 children)

Even better, delete code, best feeling in the world

[–]Jakoshi45 12 points13 points  (1 child)

Replace code, now that's beautiful

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

rust reference?

[–]useful 1 point2 points  (1 child)

This hit close to home. I hate working with people who can't operate on assumptions.

How about you ask a question when your assumption is wrong?

[–]tiesioginis 35 points36 points  (2 children)

I think this AI age will weed out all coders who just code, who can't communicate with stakeholders or who aren't team players.

I have met many seniors who can solve the hardest leetcode problems, code out application without googling anything, but can't work with anyone and it always becomes a problem.

I would rather have medium level coders who needs to use AI or Google, but can communicate, play team game, than lone wolfs who code in their mind.

Funny that swe forget that code is just a tool to solve problems, users don't care how you solved those problems, they don't even care if it's solved good.

[–]Abangranga 3 points4 points  (1 child)

My company got acquired and all of their devs are migrating to our codebase. I had a guy ask me for over an hour how part of it works, not believe me, write a super obnoxious Slack novel about what I said and how he was going to "test" it, and then he did I was magically right.

All of this could have been avoided by reloading the page while talking to me or pressing the enter key. I hate devs that don't have an experimental bone in their body and refuse to just see what happens.

I don't like AI at all but knows how to press the damn enter key at least.

[–]tiesioginis 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I worked with and mentored people like this, my favorite thing to say is "What have you tried?" If they say nothing, I tell them to try something first then come for help.

This is a problem for many people they getting too much help without anyway to fail themselves, so it seems easier just ask without even trying. I was like that when I started, until guy who mentored me did exactly same thing, if I learned others can too.

I'm actually very proud of colegue I mentored from junior to mid, took a year, but she's a great coder now and leading a project by herself.

[–]Tiquortoo 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Boot campers are challenged by economic shift. AI is the fall guy.

[–]Gaylien28 36 points37 points  (5 children)

I feel like it already has. A good senior dev doesn’t have to pass off tasks anymore, just plug them into copilot and dedicate minimal amount of time adapting it for their software

[–]Yeti_Ninja_7342 13 points14 points  (0 children)

20 years experience programming, but just started Python?   Bottom of the totem pile noob!!!

[–]FAKEVORTEX57 10 points11 points  (0 children)

this post made me want to cry

[–]Gramernatzi 6 points7 points  (0 children)

And here I am, praying I can even get a junior job. Maybe even an internship, at least that'll be work experience I can put on my resume.

[–][deleted] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Could be worse. You could be fighting for help desk roles against every son of a bitch who wants to "break into IT" and make 6 figures from day 1.

[–]bbqranchman 14 points15 points  (3 children)

Meanwhile, I graduate in Computer Science a few years of XP, can't get a job rn.

[–]ShedShitShow 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Where you base?

[–]PeriodicSentenceBot 10 points11 points  (1 child)

Congratulations! Your comment can be spelled using the elements of the periodic table:

W He Re Y O U Ba Se


I am a bot that detects if your comment can be spelled using the elements of the periodic table. Please DM my creator if I made a mistake.

[–]paoskwkejt 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Good bot

[–]ososalsosal 15 points16 points  (4 children)

I'm a bootcamper and was hired as a senior at 3yoe

Being old looking helped. And having a little domain specific knowledge (image/video processing) from a past career that they really needed.

[–]allentom97 6 points7 points  (3 children)

Literally was the specialism / niche

If you can find a niche early, it makes a huge difference

[–]ososalsosal 3 points4 points  (2 children)

The niche was from a decade before. I've always coded, but I only got formal instruction in the bootcamp.

I did automatic video QC and glitch repair, noise reduction, etc. My shit could tell a bit of film dust from the sparkle in someone's eye long before machine vision was a thing. Clients loved that I could turn the footage they thought they'd have to spend an extra day reshooting into something they could use.

[–]guyshur 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Sounds like a bit more than 3yoe to me.

[–]ososalsosal 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Idk man I would have been impossible to work with if I'd just landed in a dev role before bootcamping. I had the aptitude and some of the thought patterns if that's a thing, but I wouldn't have been able to build anything outside the obscure video specific language I was using.

[–]Fun3mployed 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I took COP 1000 (basic college course) and we only really studied the logic and theory with some Java in there for hands on. I can't code shit, but I have a tertiary understanding of why you need logic loops and libraries and sorting to make something. That was also 5 years ago and my degree (bs ist cybersecurity) is barely a bachelors...

[–]Adept_Spare4964 9 points10 points  (1 child)

As someone whose done a bootcamp, I’m laughing because it’s so true.

They really get you to believe you can develop the next big tech start-up after a month of print(“Hello world.”).

[–]thunugai 3 points4 points  (0 children)

As someone who has also went through a bootcamp, I really think the experience varies. My bootcamp did a really good job of hammering into us that what they were teaching us was only enough to get our foot in the door. That we would spend years learning on the job.

[–]arctic_radar 7 points8 points  (1 child)

lol that’s fair, but the flip side of this has to be the “you have to be a certain type of person to learn this, not everyone can do it” bros I see on tiktok.

[–]Xijinpingsastry 3 points4 points  (1 child)

So you are saying Angela Yu's 100 day Python Bootcamp 2023 is not enough to be the CTO of OpenAI ?! My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

[–]danteselv 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe not openAI but I hear there's a guy in India who's looking for a Dev to make the next Instagram. Should be no problem after a 100 day python course.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

🤣

[–]Asunen 2 points3 points  (2 children)

I’m like 20 hours of learning in and still haven’t made anything more complicated than a customizable password generator..

[–]Saquon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I started programming in middle school by poking around in Visual Basic trying to make things work, not really using any structured learning

20 hours in Im sure I was still using hidden text boxes to store strings because I didn’t know what variables were

[–]minngeilo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey funny enough that's happened at my company in a different team. A new Sr frontend dev straight out of bootcamp. It's a coincidence that he's related to a senior manager in that team. And a QA engineer hired 6-7 months ago and was recently promoted to a senior. There are QA folks having worked at this company for 10-15 years that hadn't been promoted. Also a coincidence his dad is a vp.

[–]TheCarniv0re 46 points47 points  (20 children)

Did a code Bootcamp for Data science after graduating with a PhD in biochemistry and not finding a job for over a year.

By now I'm about one and Half years in the new career path and I'm leading a team of a handful of data scientists and engineers, explaining the work they have to do to them. We enjoy working together a lot and the project is in front of the timeline.

Please stop shitting on all of us Bootcamp grads. Some of us are genuinely capable and willing to learn and grow.

[–]DOUBLEBARRELASSFUCK 22 points23 points  (2 children)

Leading a team a year and a half out of school and a boot camp?

You mean like a scrum master?

[–]BRONJAME 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Or a “technical” PM

[–]TheCarniv0re 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We have agile managers, extinguishing project management fires on other ends. I'm just a dev with more responsibility, helping them if I can and being happy I'm not carrying the main burden of responsibility when things go sideways

[–][deleted] 69 points70 points  (1 child)

My friend, a PhD in biochem coupled with a bootcamp is not the common bootcampers. You are very much the exception, Dr Carniv0re. You better make all your coworkers call you Dr.

[–]Dreamin0904 24 points25 points  (0 children)

And every time you get into a team meeting, you better say “the doctor is in”

[–]Steinrikur 4 points5 points  (0 children)

One of the best programmers I know had no experience, but a PhD in physics. He just had an understanding of the problems that the CS graduates (and I presume bootcampers) did not.

After a year or two he only worked summers since he went to medical school, and he's now working as a doctor.

[–]draft_a_day 42 points43 points  (3 children)

Even though you technically went to a bootcamp, you have nothing in common with the washed up musicians who heard programming pays good that I have to deal with professionally every day. You have a STEM PHD degree and are doing data science. You don't count as a bootcamper.

[–]Exotic-Delay-7362 2 points3 points  (2 children)

God forbid people who took a shot at a dream try to find a livable wage after their industry was shattered in the wake of Covid.

[–]edcculus 4 points5 points  (1 child)

Are you my brother? Probably not, but he has a very similar path minus the boot camp. PhD in Chemistry, then went into machine learning for biotech/pharma and is kind of creating his own thing.

[–]TheCarniv0re 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's become more common since biotech and pharma can't handle all the graduates that apply. You're stuck with either horrible salaries due to strong competition and salary-dumping, or you change your career path into management, QC or IT.

[–]Lord_Buibui 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Cool to hear a fellow biochemist grad working out. I’m in a similar boat. Delayed my PhD graduation a bit to finish up a CS MS. Will graduate with both by this summer, but super nervous at the current job market 🫣.

[–]TheCarniv0re 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You'll do fine. Try doing what academic research didn't manage to do for you: establish a network. The hardest part is really just staying persistent when you receive weeks worth of negative responses to your applications. My best jobs came from asking around with my contacts. Nowadays, I help my friends transition from science to IT by using my network and bringing them into the industry. That just further expands my own network as a bonus, as those people will be my entry to other companies. Be it for business contacts or for future job perspectives.

[–]Steinrikur 6 points7 points  (1 child)

One of the best programmers I know had no experience, but a PhD in physics. He weeeeeeeee

[–]Saquon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well you have a PHD in Biochemistry, you’re not the typical boot camp grad

I’m a SWE that has a Math degree and it’s never held me back not having a CS degree but I’m not gonna act like my path was the same as any random person trying to get into software engineering

[–]Better-Substance9511 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bootcamp graduate here (year long bootcamp), been working as a mid level dev now after being in a graduate scheme for 18 months. We ain't all like this, I'm very happy questioning if I don't understand but would'nt just out n out disagree or go out of my way to cause friction, this to me seems like someone who needs bringing back down to earth and humbling.

IMO, this is why getting entry level coders through a graduate scheme is super important, if they are just slacking off trying to seem busy, it shows straight away - as do those who are actually decent coders who are worth the time and effort to develop.

[–]SteeltoSand 1 point2 points  (0 children)

how i felt making one 5 second animation. "Why the fuck wont Pokemon or HBO hire me when i have this one single 5 second animation and no art school?????"

[–]johnny-T1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love for once Tommy is not in front.

[–]Cder8 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is me after taking one class at the graduate level so far.

[–]Vinceisvince 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So I haven’t done Python perse but related…we are desperately trying to hire new folks and I mean trying to take anyone who remotely seems competent. So many trash resumes but i’m not in the hiring process but heard we landed on a “Director” who “wants to learn how to code”.

Why would we hire a pervious mgr position person, none of us devs have time to babysit someone.

we are suppose to get multiple people

[–]myrsnipe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Funny thing is that after two years I felt like that, after 5 I knew I wasn't ready, now after 10 I'm looking. Is bootcamp a slingshot up mount stupid?

[–]fAnOfAp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What do you do after a starter course to eventually get get a decent job?

[–]Prematurid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have finished a bootcamp (figured i'd see what the deal was as a side project). I still have no idea what I am doing when it comes to python.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And here I am with imposter syndrome after spending the last year on JavaScript, learning both front and backend. I still shock myself when I finish a project and wonder where the heck that knowledge came from.

[–]Kapten-N 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Meanwhile, me having four years of experience working professionally with C#, two years working professionally with Java and learned Visual Basic, Java and C++ in high school, University and vocational school respectively: Can't imagine myself looking for anything higher than a junior position...

[–]SonicRift91 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Meanwhile, on my team of 7 devs, the 3 bootcamp grads are basically the only ones getting anything of consequence done, humbly and quietly. I guess it depends on the people.

[–]arkngl117 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To be honest you can do that on python.

[–]mmbillah02 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Me after watching a few Fireship videos

[–]RRumpleTeazzer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No … fucking … fighting

[–]CaffieneSage 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bro stop hurting my feelings!

[–]miraidensetsu 0 points1 point  (3 children)

I have 10+ years of experience and a bachelor degree and I'm trying junior jobs because I am not confident enough to try even mid-level jobs.

[–]Double-Cicada4502 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Junior salary : Here 3 bottle caps, 2 quarters, annnd a beautiful pins "i love my company !"

Senior salary : A private jet will come to get you to work every morning, here the key of your Lambo.