If you have decided to switch careers and break into tech, you are most likely looking at software bootcamps. Choosing a bootcamp can be challenging when considering factors like cost, duration, and tech stack. However, another important decision is what kind of bootcamp is right for you – virtual or in-person?
Let’s take a deeper look into both of these options.
Are In-Person Bootcamps Available to You?
You may not have any decision to make depending on your geographic location. In-person bootcamps are usually hosted in heavily populated cities. The focus on offering in-person instruction in cities is based on ensuring classes are filled and available jobs that can be filled after completing a bootcamp.
If you’re in one of a few specific cities, you can enroll in an in-person bootcamp. However, if you are not in a tech hub city, in-person instruction might not be an option.
Many in-person bootcamps are in cities like San Francisco, Austin, New York, and Denver. These cities are great for bootcamps and students as they have a high density of prospective software engineering students. Additionally, many companies can hire early-career developers. It doesn’t make sense to have an in-person bootcamp when you are missing either of these advantages within a city.
How Do You Learn and Study?
If you’re able to choose between in-person or online learning, your next decision is which type of bootcamp fits better with how you study and learn. Both online and in-person options have benefits for students.
Though you may want to hear that one learning option is better, it’s not that simple. Brian Galvin, Chief Academic Officer at Varsity Tutors, said it’s like asking if “a hammer is as effective as a screwdriver?”
The decision might come down to what you value in learning and how best you can quickly understand specific information.
How Do In-Person Bootcamps Offer Structure and Accountability?
Only some have the willpower to sit down and absorb hours of online technical content day after day. They need structure and accountability to succeed in learning. This is where in-person bootcamps shine.
In-person bootcamps usually have Monday through Friday schedules with 9 to 5 or long days of instruction. This set structure is great for getting students to move through lots of technical content at an accelerated pace. Students don’t have to overthink what they will learn or how much they will take on each day because the in-person camps determine both.
With in-person learning, staying caught up on the scheduled content is easy. It is not hard to fall behind in comprehension. Because in-person follows the traditional one-instructor learning model, students must keep up with a single pace. Technical topics may take multiple approaches to understand, causing some students to hear about the topic but need more time during class to fully understand it.
Online bootcamps help with this issue in two ways:
First, the lectures and content are usually recorded videos.
This medium enables students to pause and replay parts of lectures they may not fully understand. Being able to pause and replay allows students to grasp the concept entirely.
Second, they offer supplementary instruction on topics.
Single technical explanations can be difficult to understand. Sometimes two people can’t communicate an idea together because there is a difference in how they know the topic.
Online bootcamps can solve this issue by offering supplementary instruction on topics. If you don’t understand what a lecturer explains, you can always approach the topic from linked articles or videos.
Learning a topic in multiple mediums and from various instructors is a guaranteed way to gain an understanding of a topic.
How to Get Help In-Person and Online?
The final consideration for learning styles is how much you value face-to-face instruction. In-person bootcamps offer the more traditional classroom structure with a single lecturer and multiple teaching assistants. It can be nice to skip email chains and Discord messages when you have a question on a topic or assignment. Talking to instructors in person makes communication easier and creates a faster resolution path.
This is different from online bootcamps, where you are in a self-paced, part-time bootcamp and learning on your own time.
There are bootcamps like Thinkful that pair students with dedicated mentors to answer any questions they have while learning. While you can’t replace face-to-face instruction, this is an excellent approach to improving online learning and a nice benefit to online learning.
How Will Bootcamps Prepare Me for Changing Work?
Online bootcamps with scheduled live instruction and group learning have the added benefit of creating realistic virtual work environments. Getting used to working online with others is an essential skill that is only increasing. Remote work is becoming more commonplace in today’s job market.
How Do I Maintain My Current Life?
The structure of an in-person bootcamp is also one of its downsides. You have class in a specific location, at particular times, and a specific pace. This can be difficult for many potential students to match and may push them to find an online bootcamp.
Online bootcamps can have a strict structure for instruction, but often they consist of more flexible recorded lectures and readings. This format allows students to consume materials at their own pace and schedule. With this, students can maintain a part-time or full-time job to pay for the bootcamp and living expenses or focus on family. You don’t have to choose either education or life commitments with an online bootcamp.
Also, you are not confined to a single location. Remote learning allows you to work from anywhere. Beyond living in a non-tech hub city, online bootcamps will enable you to live in less populated urban or rural areas. This makes education accessible to more people. If you want the freedom to maintain your current life and commitments, an online bootcamp is a great option.
How Do I Form a Professional Network?
In-person bootcamps have a non-replaceable element of shared experiences between instructors and students. You can’t replicate sketching a UI diagram on a napkin or having impromptu discussions for a technical interview question with other students.
In-person bootcamps are the clear winner if you value networking with other students in your cohort. With the structure of working on the same items together, you will build shared experiences and learn how to work with others. You will build soft skills and learn to communicate more effectively, and each interaction could be an informal interview for a potential job.
It’s who you know that matters in a lot of life, and having a robust professional network increases who you know. Research using data from public job sites found that 70% of jobs are not posted, and up to 80% of jobs are filled through networking. This shows that a lot of your potential job referrals may come from former colleagues, and fellow bootcamp students form a large base of these colleagues.
Growing your network is vital to getting good jobs, and in-person instruction is the best way to gain meaningful professional relationships.
How Thinkful Fits Into Your Decision
If you decide that an online bootcamp fits your learning style, location, and lifestyle, look into Thinkful’s online bootcamp. Thinkful prides itself on offering excellent instruction and support through personal mentors, Academic Success Managers, and on-demand chat. We offer both full-time and part-time software engineering bootcamps to ensure you can develop software while still taking care of what’s important to you.