Latest news with #codingbootcamp
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
As AI eliminates entry-level software engineering roles, coding boot camps are on decline
Jonathan Kim, a would-be US software engineer, began his job search over 50 weeks ago, tracking his efforts on a spreadsheet. He applied for more than 600 software engineering jobs. Six companies replied. Two gave him a technical screening. None have made him an offer. That was not the plan when Kim paid nearly US$20,000 in 2023 for an intensive part-time coding boot camp he thought would equip him to land a software engineering job. 'They sold a fake dream of a great job market,' said Kim, 29, who works at his uncle's ice cream shop in Los Angeles while continuing his job search. Without a college degree, he believes his chances are low, but boosts his résumé by contributing to open-source software projects. 'I see so much doom and gloom throughout everything,' he said. 'It's hard to stay positive.' Kim decided to attend the coding boot camp just as artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT were taking off. By the time he graduated in 2024, AI – which started off with simple party tricks like writing poems – was on its way to reshaping the economy, with perhaps its most significant impact in coding. It began eliminating the kind of entry-level developer roles that boot camps have traditionally filled, in what has been dubbed one of the fastest job shifts in any profession ever.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
From bootcamp to bust: How AI is upending the software development industry
Jonathan Kim, a would-be U.S. software engineer, began his job search over 50 weeks ago, tracking his efforts on a spreadsheet. He applied for more than 600 software engineering jobs. Six companies replied. Two gave him a technical screening. None have made him an offer. That was not the plan when Kim paid nearly $20,000 in 2023 for an intensive part-time coding bootcamp he thought would equip him to land a software engineering job. 'They sold a fake dream of a great job market,' said Kim, 29, who works at his uncle's ice cream shop in Los Angeles while continuing his job search. Without a college degree, he believes his chances are low, but boosts his resume by contributing to open-source software projects. 'I see so much doom and gloom throughout everything,' he said. 'It's hard to stay positive.' Kim decided to attend the coding bootcamp just as artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT were taking off. By the time he graduated in 2024, AI — which started off with simple party tricks like writing poems — was on its way to reshaping the economy, with perhaps its most significant impact in coding. It began eliminating the kind of entry-level developer roles that bootcamps have traditionally filled, in what has been dubbed one of the fastest job shifts in any profession, ever. Coding bootcamps have been a Silicon Valley mainstay for over a decade, offering an important pathway for non-traditional candidates to get six-figure engineering jobs. But coding bootcamp operators, students and investors tell Reuters that this path is rapidly disappearing, thanks in large part to AI. 'Coding bootcamps were already on their way out, but AI has been the nail in the coffin,' said Allison Baum Gates, a general partner at venture capital fund SemperVirens, who was an early employee at bootcamp pioneer General Assembly. Gates said bootcamps were already in decline due to market saturation, evolving employer demand and market forces like growth in international hiring. At the Codesmith bootcamp Kim attended, just 37% of students in the 2023 part-time program secured full-time technical jobs within six months of graduating, down from 83% in the second half of 2021, according to the Council on Integrity in Results Reporting, which aims to make education outcomes transparent. Codesmith acknowledged the industry-wide challenges graduates face. "Today's market is tough," it told Reuters in a statement, while noting that it continues to offer lifetime hiring support to its alumni. 'This is the story of one graduate out of over 4,000,' the company said, adding that 70.1% of those enrolled in its full-time program secured in-field employment within a year of graduation. It is unsurprising that coding is the prime example of generative AI's prowess. Unlike more subjective tasks like writing jokes, code either works or doesn't. This black-and-white distinction makes it the perfect subject matter for training AI models. In addition, a wealth of coding examples provides widely available training data. With AI now excelling at coding, entry-level coding jobs have shrunk. Signalfire, a venture capital firm that tracks tech hiring, said in a May 2025 report that new grad hiring has dropped 50% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019. AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years, Dario Amodei, CEO of AI developer Anthropic, recently told Axios. Nowhere is that collapse more evident than in the coding bootcamp industry. Bootcamps began to appear around 2011 in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Demand for software engineers was growing, and many workers were eager to retrain for high-paying technology jobs. Dev Bootcamp, launched in 2012, was among the first to offer courses on web development coding languages such as JavaScript and Ruby. In an intensive 19-week program, attendees would learn during the day and practice nights and weekends. Competitors soon emerged, and by 2018, in-person bootcamps in the U.S. and Canada had mushroomed to nearly 100. As companies started to embrace diversity hiring goals, they found partners such as the women's coding bootcamp Hackbright, said Michael Novati, co-founder of Formation Dev, which helps experienced engineers prepare for job interviews. Diversity hiring is no longer a priority for tech companies, he said. While the entry-level software engineering job market has collapsed, the opposite is true for experienced AI researchers who create generative AI models and now command staggering pay packages, with bonuses up to $100 million a year, thanks to an escalating talent war driven by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. AI company valuations are soaring as well, though their employee footprints remain small. Anysphere, the company behind coding tool Cursor, has a valuation of $10 billion and about 150 U.S.-based employees, according to its LinkedIn profile. OpenAI, with a few thousand employees, is valued at $300 billion. Novati said this trend represents a return to the traditional model of recruiting primarily from elite universities, a system bootcamps were created to disrupt. The top-tier Silicon Valley companies are doubling down on these classic ideas of using signal from universities to vet the smartest people in society,' he said. 'They're sending their recruiters to MIT and Stanford and wining and dining the top students.' Codesmith founder Will Sentence said he is changing the school's curriculum to meet the AI shift, including developing an AI technical leadership program to help mid-career software engineers learn to use AI. For bootcamp graduates like Kim, this offers little comfort. He expects to continue working at the ice cream shop for the foreseeable future, and has expanded his job search beyond software engineering. 'I had some friends that went through a bootcamp that were able to find jobs, but that was during the golden era of 2020,' he said. 'Had my timing been better, I think the outcome would have been different.'
Forbes
13-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
5 Ways College Must Adapt To Prepare Students For 2025 And Beyond
Colleges need to better prepare graduates for the future According to Federal Student Aid, the average student loan debt reached $38,375 by the end of 2024, with the total U.S. student debt now totaling $1.8 trillion. Meanwhile, coding bootcamp graduates earn an average starting salary of $70,698, often surpassing entry-level salaries for traditional college graduates. This data reveals a fundamental disconnect: students are paying more for education that may not deliver proportional career returns. Research by USC professor Dave Kang, who has tracked Fortune 500 CEO educational backgrounds for 20 years, found that only 11.8% of Fortune 100 CEOs attended Ivy League schools as undergraduates. Seven to eight Fortune 500 CEOs had no undergraduate degree at all—more than graduated from any single college. The message is clear: prestigious degrees don't guarantee career success, but practical skills and adaptability do. Traditional higher education emphasizes theoretical knowledge over practical application. This approach fails to prepare students for a workforce that prioritizes demonstrated capabilities over academic credentials. According to Course Report, 69% of employers believe boot camp graduates are qualified for tech roles, and 80% would hire another boot camp graduate. This employer confidence stems from bootcamps' emphasis on hands-on projects and real-world applications. What colleges can do: Integrate project-based learning across every major - Partner with local businesses and nonprofits for real assignments - Create for-credit internships with measurable outcomes Real-world example: At Northeastern University, students complete up to three six-month cooperative education programs during their degree. These aren't traditional internships—students take full-time roles with measurable responsibilities and outcomes. How to implement: Business students could manage actual marketing budgets for local nonprofits. Engineering majors could solve real infrastructure problems in their communities. Liberal arts students could develop content strategies for emerging companies. The key difference is making these experiences count toward graduation requirements rather than treating them as optional additions. Artificial intelligence affects every industry, yet most college curricula treat it as a computer science elective. This creates a dangerous skills gap for graduates entering an AI-integrated workforce. Students need practical AI fluency regardless of their major. This means understanding how to work with large language models, recognizing AI-generated content, and knowing when human judgment remains essential. What colleges can do: Introduce basic AI literacy modules in general education requirements - Train faculty to integrate AI tools into assignments across disciplines -Offer electives on prompt engineering, AI ethics, and human-AI collaboration Real-world example: Some institutions are beginning this integration. The MIT Media Lab has developed an AI and Ethics curriculum that teaches students to think critically about algorithmic bias and the societal impact of AI. Universities can adopt similar approaches for undergraduate programs across disciplines. How to implement: A journalism course could challenge students to use AI for background research and then fact-check and verify the findings. An art history class might explore how AI image generation affects concepts of authorship and creativity. The goal isn't to turn every student into a programmer—it's to ensure graduates can work confidently with AI tools while maintaining critical thinking skills. Grade point averages tell employers little about real-world capabilities. Today's hiring managers want to see what candidates have built, written, or accomplished outside traditional coursework. Data shows that Amazon increased its bootcamp graduate hires from 1,077 in 2021-22 to 2,468 in 2024—a 129% growth. Companies like Google, Apple, JPMorgan Chase, and Accenture are actively hiring bootcamp-trained talent across multiple industries. What colleges can do: Encourage students to document and share their projects online - Offer academic credit for building personal brands, portfolios, or digital products - Shift from GPA-centric evaluations to include "proof of work" assessments Real-world example: Progressive art schools are leading this shift toward portfolio-based assessment. Many design programs now require students to maintain digital portfolios throughout their studies, documenting projects and creative development over time. How to implement: Economics students could publish data analysis projects on GitHub. Education majors could document innovative teaching methods through video case studies. Pre-med students could showcase community health initiatives they've designed and implemented. Employers and graduate schools increasingly want to see what applicants can demonstrate, not what they've memorized. The average professional changes careers seven times during their working life. Yet most college programs operate as if students will pursue single careers for decades. What colleges can do: Offer flexible degrees that span multiple fields (tech + ethics, business + design) - Normalize major changes and allow "exploration semesters" with dedicated advising - Replace outdated prerequisites with modular, skill-based learning tracks Real-world example: At Arizona State University, students can combine multiple fields through flexible concentrations—pairing computer science with psychology or business with environmental science. These interdisciplinary approaches better reflect how modern careers actually develop. How to implement: A student who starts as a biology major but discovers a passion for product design should transition seamlessly into a hybrid path without extending graduation by two years or losing credits. Colleges can offer stackable certificates, microcredentials, and project-based validation of knowledge to support career pivots. Students no longer need to wait until graduation to start building careers. The most successful young professionals often launch projects, businesses, or creative ventures while still in college and high school. Established companies like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Amazon, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and American Express all hire from coding bootcamps. These companies recognize that practical experience often matters more than traditional credentials. What colleges can do: Provide seed funding for student-led ventures and social impact ideas - Replace traditional advising with access to entrepreneurial mentors and alumni networks - Host demo days, pitch competitions, and startup accelerators on campus Real-world example: At Babson College, students can access seed funding for viable business ideas. The University of Pennsylvania offers mentorship programs that connect students with successful alumni entrepreneurs. How to implement: Every college can empower students to build something tangible during their studies. Offer dedicated workspace for student ventures, access to legal and accounting guidance, connections to local business networks, and academic credit for entrepreneurial projects—students who launch something meaningful during college graduate with proof of their capabilities rather than just academic promise. Coding bootcamp graduates see average salary increases of 50.5% or $23,724 after completing their programs. Seventy-one percent of coding bootcamp graduates find jobs within six months of graduation. These outcomes reflect programs designed around the needs of employers and student career success rather than traditional academic structures. Higher education doesn't need to be dismantled, but it must be redesigned. Students entering college in 2025 need institutions that prepare them for a world shaped by constant change, technological advancement, and entrepreneurial opportunity. The colleges that adapt first will attract the most motivated students and produce the most successful graduates. Those who resist change risk becoming increasingly irrelevant in a world where practical skills and demonstrated capabilities outweigh institutional prestige.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Le Wagon Sets Foot in India with First Campus in Bangalore
BANGALORE, India, May 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Le Wagon, one of the world's leading coding bootcamp is making its debut in India with the launch of its first campus in Bangalore. With over 30,000 alumni across 40+ cities worldwide, Le Wagon delivers industry-focused bootcamps designed to equip career changers, entrepreneurs, graduates and aspiring tech professionals with the practical skills and real-world experience needed to excel in today's fast-paced tech landscape. To mark its arrival in India, Le Wagon hosted an exclusive launch event on 21st May at The Chancery Pavilion, Bangalore, featuring the keynote address by Boris Paillard, Executive Chairman & Co-founder, Le Wagon and a panel discussion on "Unleashing India's Talent for Global Innovation." The event was moderated by Ruth D'Souza Prabhu, and attended by leaders from the tech, education, and media sectors. Le Wagon's first cohort in India will begin on July 7, 2025, in Bangalore with a 9-week, full-time, in-person Software Development & AI Bootcamp. The program is tailored for beginners and focuses on hands-on coding, real-world project development, and AI-driven application building. Applications are now open. Le Wagon's globally recognized curriculum empowers learners to build functional applications, navigate AI tools with confidence, and transition into tech careers or entrepreneurial ventures. With a strong emphasis on foundational technology concepts, the program enables participants to deepen their domain expertise, harness AI platforms more effectively, and contribute meaningfully in tech-driven environments. Delivered through immersive workshops and hands-on, project-based learning, the curriculum equips learners with practical, industry-relevant skills aligned with international standards. "India represents a critical growth market for us due to its rich talent pool and vibrant tech ecosystem," said Boris Paillard, Executive Chairman & Co-founder, Le Wagon "Our mission is to empower the Indian talent with the expertise and mindset to build, launch, and scale innovative technology products that make a global impact." Susanna Jacob, India Partner, Le Wagon added, "Bangalore is the perfect launchpad to connect India's growing tech talent with global opportunities. Our programs are designed to fast-track industry readiness while fostering diversity and inclusion, ensuring that talent from all backgrounds can participate and thrive." Le Wagon India is committed to making tech education more inclusive and accessible. To support a diverse range of applicants, the program offers early-bird discounts, and exclusive introductory offers. These include a 10% launch discount for all early applicants and an additional 5% scholarship for women, aimed at encouraging greater female participation in tech. Bootcamp graduates gain entry to Le Wagon's extensive global hiring network of over 7,000 hiring partners, connecting them to impactful tech roles worldwide. To apply or learn more, visit: About Le Wagon Le Wagon is a global leader in immersive tech education, offering intensive coding bootcamps in Web Development, Data Science, and AI. Founded in Paris in 2013, Le Wagon has trained over 30,000 individuals across more than 40 cities worldwide. With a hands-on, project-driven curriculum designed in collaboration with industry experts, Le Wagon equips learners with the practical skills and confidence needed to launch careers in tech or build innovative startups. Le Wagon is recognized for its inclusive community and strong global hiring network, connecting graduates with over 7,000 hiring partners. Media Contact: Dhvani Zatakia PRwallahsdhvani@ Photo: View original content to download multimedia:
