5 Misconceptions About Hiring a Coding Bootcamp Graduate

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The most daunting challenge for companies today – acquiring and retaining skilled talent. We are in the middle of a digital transformation with companies from all industries investing more in technology.

According to a report by PWC titled The Talent Challenge, “HR has much to prove” with 66% of CEOs surveyed stating that they felt their HR team is not well-prepared to capitalize on current transformational trends.  

Add in immigration challenges, the small amount of computer science degrees graduating each year in comparison to the number of technology-related job openings and you can see why executives and HR alike across the US are worried about how they will meet these business challenges.Student wearing a beanie works on their laptop

With the demand for technology hires accelerating, coding bootcamps are increasingly the solution for talent acquisitions teams across the country. In fact, over 250 tech companies have hired a Grand Circus bootcamp graduate in the Great Lakes area, including Rocket Mortgage, Meridian, Spectrum Health, GE Digital, Herman Miller, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, GM, Ford, Fathead, Ally Financial, Autobooks, United Shore and many more.

We don’t follow the traditions of institutional education because we know that the tech industry is anything but traditional. We know that there are some misconceptions about coding bootcamps floating out there, let’s see if we can clear some of them up for you.

5 Misconceptions About Hiring a Coding Bootcamp Graduate

Misconception #1 – “To be a developer you need a computer science degree”

There are numerous examples of some of the best developers in the industry that are college dropouts. Coding bootcamps take an application-based approach to training. Each day is structured to train students not just on technical proficiency but also the soft skills needed to be a successful team member in the real world.

If you took a four-year course on learning how to play basketball but never actually stepped onto a court, how well do you think you could play the game?

What about if you learned how to play basketball and paralleled that with daily practice – how much would that accelerate your progress?

Two students working together on laptopCoding bootcamps create amazing junior developers because we focus on building things rather than relying on testing for the amount of information someone is capable of retaining. Being a great developer is more about solving problems than typing on a keyboard.

Talk to one of the over 1,100 graduates from Grand Circus and you will find the growth-oriented talent you so desperately need.

Misconception #2 – “Junior developers can’t make an impact right away”

To date, Grand Circus has graduated over 1,100 developers and works with 250+ employers who have hired at least one of our graduates. There is plenty of evidence throughout Michigan that hiring junior developers is a key business strategy for growth.

Our graduates are taught to lean in and find ways to make an impact at whichever company they land.

However, we have learned over the years that some companies are better than others at integrating junior tech talent. If your company has not invested in programs, mentorship and training for these new employees then you will continue to lose money by having open positions on the market.

There are a few bright spots in our ecosystem where companies have created training programs that allow junior developers to make a greater impact much earlier. These companies are successfully hiring dozens of bootcamp graduates each year to keep up with their growth.

Learn how companies such as Accenture, Chameleon Power, Pillar and Spantree have found success with bootcamp developers.

Misconception #3 – “Bootcamp graduates may not know industry standards, up-to-date languages, tools or topics”

Bootcamp curriculum is often more relevant than a CS program because bootcamps have the flexibility to change tactics much quicker than traditional education.

Our sessions and curriculum follow an iterative process: at each Grand Circus bootcamp, we get feedback from both students, alumni and employers.

Grand Circus creates a bootcamp schedule based on the current needs of our employer network. If there is a great enough need, we will fill that gap to continue to serve the tech talent needs in the markets we serve. Our bootcamps train students in a main area of concentration but will learn also learn broader areas of software development. Currently, we offer bootcamps in three main languages, Front-End (Javascript), C# .NET and Java – because that is what the market currently needs!

In addition to that, our alumni come back to continue to upskill with our various workshops held on nights and weekends. Some examples of additional workshops include SQL, React, WordPress, Project Management, AR/VR (Unity), Salesforce, Data Science and much more.

If your company needs help upskilling current team members, check out our upcoming workshop schedule. Don’t see anything you need? Let us know and we can schedule it!

Misconception #4 – “You can’t go deep enough in just a few months to train a junior developer”

Companies all over the world, including innovative leaders such as Google, Facebook, and Apple, are turning to coding bootcamps to solve their talent issues.

Grand Circus is obsessed with learning from our employer network to identify skills that are necessary for our students. We have literally proven over 1,000 times that it’s not just possible, it’s the best source of development talent available for companies across all industries.

We hear it from employers all the time, “We can teach them additional technical skills. What we struggle to do is to find talent that is hungry, wants to learn and can solve real-world problems.”

When it comes to hiring a Grand Circus graduate, you will find developers that are starving to learn and ready to make an impact.

If you are interested in learning more about our curriculum, check out our syllabi, like this one for our C# .Net program. Have thoughts or feedback on what else we should be doing? Let us know. #FeedbackIsAGiftFour students posing on demo day

Misconception #5 – “Coding bootcamp graduates haven’t actually built anything”

If you have been to Demo Day, which marks the end of a bootcamp, you have witnessed the real world applications that each student built during their final project.  

The final project takes up the last two weeks of bootcamp and students are divided into small groups of 3-4 people. These projects are built from scratch and groups have rigorous milestones including MVP, technical endorsements and daily in an agile environment that requires them to manage their own time and projects with real-world deadlines.

Interested in checking out what students build? Join us for our next demo day.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.”

How long is it taking you to make a technical hire? How much is it costing your company when you can’t fill those positions?