I received a question from an aspiring software engineer on choosing a post-bacc computer science degree versus going to a coding bootcamp.
Here’s my response:
Without a doubt, I would choose a post-bacc program again.
Here’s why —
Access to exclusive programs. Because I’m an enrolled student, I have access to student-only programs like internship and new grad positions, interview prep programs, student hackathons, and more.
I would not get this with a coding bootcamp. Competition for software engineering (SWE) is intense, but these programs put the field within your reach.
Better education. Coding bootcamps focus on a very specific stack (in an incredibly short amount of time) which makes it hard to branch into fields outside of front-end development (the most popular niche for coding bootcamps).
A bachelor’s degree in computer science opens you to front-end, back-end, mobile, data engineering, cloud — you name it. And, once you start, you can move anytime you like because your skills are not limited to one stack.
Reputation. Coding bootcamps had a moment, but — in my opinion — that moment has passed. There are just too many bootcamps with no standards of quality. So if you’re looking for your first SWE position, it’s going to be much harder without a degree.
Network. My post-bacc community is phenomenal and their willingness to share information and help students succeed is why I’m successful today. We don’t just produce great engineers, we produce engineers that go on to work at top companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc.
I never thought I’d be working at a Fortune 50 company, but my classmates helped me get there.
Do you have questions about landing in the software engineering industry? Shoot me a message at @katexcellence on Bluesky or Mastodon.