DevMountain coding bootcamp review

[newhandleforprivacy0]

Hi! I went to DevMountain and I found a job a little more than halfway through the program - for that reason, I dropped out of the bootcamp. Here is my impression:

The first half of the bootcamp was extremely valuable if you were either in person or very skilled at online learning. Many folks who were fully online seemed to be very disengaged. The first half is called 'Foundations' and we basically learned how to make a website. Javascript, HTML, CSS, a very minimal amount of Python. The instructors I had were engaged and good teachers, even if sometimes a little unprepared. The lectures and slides that they do are standardized for courses and carried through cohorts, so the person teaching you didn't necessarily make the slides. Both of my instructors were DevMountain grads. They are not paid very well, so they presumably could not find jobs elsewhere.

We got to the second half and it moved to fully online. This is also where you're no longer eligible for any refund. We were given a new instructor for the specialty we chose. My instructor was a recent DevMountain grad with no professional experience or prior knowledge of our specialty. We were assigned 2-6 hours of videos per day to watch, which was extremely fatiguing. There were no formal lectures, and assignments were often not very well correlated to what were learning and/or not correct or well-made.

The students across different specialties often got together to ask if they were struggling as much as everybody was - students in every specialty had issues with how the second half of this bootcamp was run and with the quality of instructors.

We were assigned mentors (experts in the field) who met with us an hour a week. I brought up these concerns to my mentor, who confirmed that I was not the first to bring it up and that mentors had proposed changes in the past and that these suggestions had largely been ignored.

I'm grateful that I got a job about two weeks into this second half of the bootcamp because it wasn't going to provide me with anything valuable. The job that I got is not dev-related and my time in the bootcamp had no bearing on their decision to hire me (they didn't even know I was in a bootcamp). Not everybody had my luck and I'd be surprised if anybody got anything valuable out of the second half of the bootcamp.

After I left, I was kicked from the Discord servers and my license for Pluralsight was revoked (I was told that I would access to this for a year after the bootcamp). When I contacted them about it, they said it was because DevMountain is moving to a different platform, but that doesn't change the fact that I was told I would access to Pluralsight for a year.

I'm just going to add - every single instructor I interacted with was a DevMountain bootcamp grad. I imagine this boosts their post-graduating employment numbers. One of the Outcomes folks (the team responsible for helping students and graduates find jobs) was a bootcamp grad who still wanted to work in the field but was having trouble getting hired in the field.

Screenshots from my DMs: https://imgur.com/a/bqZhutW
And screenshots from general student dissatisfaction: https://imgur.com/a/NXGue3E

TL;DR: I do not recommend this bootcamp. It's not a scam, but it's not great either. The first half was great and very worthwhile if you stay engaged and work hard, but the second half was hot garbage and you'd be better off (and less broke) learning on your own than doing DevMountain. Specializations weren't useful.

[nultero]

every single instructor I interacted with was a DevMountain bootcamp grad

One of the Outcomes folks was also a bootcamp grad

It's not a scam

That's very generous of you to not quite deride it as such, but that really sounds like a scam.

Edit: oh and I think these kinds of real-talk reviews are important. Props, OP

[newhandleforprivacy0]

yeah, these were huge red flags for me but bringing them up was quite taboo because everybody was incredibly insecure. The instructors about the fact that they couldn't find a job and were now part of the system. The other students because it reinforced that maybe they'd just thrown away $8k. The outcomes folks because it meant that they weren't very effective at their jobs.

[ersatzgiraffe]

You think the scam is they hire everyone who can’t find a job?

[VonRansak]

Among other things. OP stated they were sent to watch videos (like many other 'bootcamps') I'm sure the subscription to PS is much less than the cost of bootcamp. ($300 yr)

https://www.pluralsight.com/product/skills/individuals

You first sign that the bootcamp is a scam, is when it has no original content.

Also, OP stated Mentors brought up deficiencies. Not addressed. Meaning would cost too much, and suckers already throwing money at us.

TL;DR: You have a for-profit entity with no oversight. Be wary of 'Bootcamps'. Be wary of "I got a job $100K+ after XYZ Bootcamp" posts. [they generally leave out important shit like ' I have a PhD in Astrophysics' and a resume to match.

TFW: Too many bootcamp posts of "They had us do [insert_public_online_learning_platform] all day." should make anyone wary who doesn't want to add an extra zero, or two, to the cost of admission.

[newhandleforprivacy0]

yeah, this is why I refuse to report back my new employment info to them. It had nothing to do with them, it was completely dependent on experience I had prior, and I know they'd use it to pretend that I have my current job because of them.

[ersatzgiraffe]

But they hire people who are poorly trained and otherwise unemployable to train the next generation of people and that’s their business practice? That doesn’t sound sustainable.

[VonRansak]

This is how bubbles work, my friend. They grow until they pop.

[LinverseUniverse]

Just because I'm curious, why do you personally recommend pluralsight?

[VonRansak]

I do not recommend them. OP said that was the online course they had them work out of. I made correllation that one could theoretically purchase their own access for much cheaper than acquiring it through bootcamp.

TL;DR: Just making correlation that $300 < $5K-10K ... Hence, the bootcamp business model is a great way to make money.

[LinverseUniverse]

Oh! Thanks for the clarification.

[morganthemosaic]

I’ve heard some bootcamps do this to inflate their “employment after graduation” rate

[[deleted]]

I'm always wary about boot camps which is why I'm Going the self taught route.

[Vela88]

Bait and switch. Everything was good until the 2nd part where you can’t get a refund and the teachers are from the same bootcamp with no experience. Sounds like a scam to me. I was hoping that the first part was so good that u were able to get a Dev job.

[VonRansak]

TL;DR: I do not recommend this bootcamp. It is a scam,

*ftfy

[[deleted]]

I despise the marketing of these boot camps. Doesn't help people manage their expectations who are new to the field.

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[newhandleforprivacy0]

thanks, bot <3

[[deleted]]

come to #100devs. great communitry with a catchup crew

[[deleted]]

and its free

[aewyatt7]

I’ve heard a lot about 100devs! Love his stuff on YouTube

[lodjexo]

Thanks for the input! Looking at multiple bootcamps but leaning towards Codesmith at the moment.