Everyone starts learning to code as a beginner – but if you're new to tech, will a coding bootcamp work for you? While a few bootcamps tout low admissions rates and are meant for students with programming experience, the vast majority of bootcamps actually cater to beginners! Small class sizes, project-based learning, networking, and dedicated career coaching are all standard at coding bootcamps, making bootcamps a perfect option for beginners.
The goal for most bootcamps is to take a student from zero to sixty. 39% of bootcamp alumni started as complete beginners. And another 56% did some self-teaching before a bootcamp. This type of student may go from twenty to one hundred.
According to Course Report research, only ~5% of coding bootcamp alumni started as experienced programmers. The rest were complete beginners or had done some self-teaching in their free time. That means that if you're a beginner, then you're in good company! Thousands of students have started as complete beginners and gone on to have rich careers in tech.
And post-bootcamp salaries are strong for beginners. As you can see in the table below, complete beginners still earn salaries of ~$67,000 in their first job after graduating from a bootcamp.
Programming Experience | Reported % | Post-Bootcamp Salary |
Complete Beginner | 39% | $66,748 |
Some Self-Teaching | 56% | $69,854 |
Experienced Programmer | 5% | $76,735 |
Take this advice from a Hack Reactor alum, Victoria Ziegler:
Tackle that impostor syndrome right away! You are meant to be here. It's really hard, but anybody can learn how to code. Start with the mindset that you are an engineer, you are a coder, you are a programmer!
Liz is the cofounder of Course Report, the most complete resource for students researching coding bootcamps. Her research has been cited in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and more. She loves breakfast tacos and spending time getting to know bootcamp alumni and founders all over the world. Check out Liz & Course Report on Twitter, Quora, and YouTube!
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