From Secretary to Software Developer: The Hard Way
TL;DR there are a lot of incompetent developers out there.<p>This isn't a comment about the author, as much as it's about something she said.<p>"Today you can take a lot of programming and Computer Sciences courses online. Everyone can be developer! There are also a lot of developer bootcamps: within 8–12 weeks you can become a developer."<p>This is a very dangerous line of thinking. Some people have convinced themselves that they are competent developers <i>because</i> they went to a bootcamp. And they might have just enough domain knowledge to convince a company with poor hiring practices that they're worth hiring.<p>I inherited a situation like that (this dev was hired a few weeks before me). After a few weeks it was painfully obvious that this guy was a detriment to the company because of his lack of coding ability. For reasons above my paygrade, we couldn't fire him immediately, and eventually we took all responsibilities away from him. We paid someone to come in and not do work for us.<p>I've interviewed dozens of developers since then. The one's coming from a bootcamp (or similar situation) have no computer science skills. They also have no problem solving skills; they're unable to break through the box that they were taught in. Most companies can't afford to hire a developer who knows one thing, and one thing only.<p>Now, we've had 4 year university graduates with experience in the field come in from top schools with degrees in CS. A (scarily) large percentage of them are incompetent as well, though not to the degree of the bootcampers. They're typically serviceable though.