Three Truths About Coding Bootcamp Job Placement Rates

If you’re interested in placement rates, you’re likely considering in-person coding bootcamps and are willing to commit the time required to be successful. That mindset is a great signal — and it’s essential to succeeding in the crafts of software development and design.

Many coding bootcamps advertise incredibly high job placement rates. For example:

• Hack Reactor says 99% of their graduates “receive at least one full-time job offer within 3 months of graduating.”
• General Assembly claims a “99% placement rate in [your] field of study.”
• App Academy maintains “98% of our graduates have offers or are working in tech jobs. In 2014, SF graduates received an average salary of $105,000; in 2014, NY graduates received an average salary of $89,000.”

This type of placement rate is sometimes marketing masquerading as a statistic. Here are three things you should know about placement rates:

1. There’s No Industry Standard

Unlike many other similar-sounding statistics, like the national employment rate, college job placement rates, and mean annual wages by position, the phrase “job placement rate” when applied to a coding bootcamp doesn’t mean anything specific. The data represented may be meaningful, but since there’s no standard, it doesn’t make sense to compare rates from different bootcamps to each other.

Here are a few unanswered questions:

• What time periods are being compared?
• If a student finds employment a year or more after their graduation date, is it considered a placement?
• Should we count jobs unrelated to the studied field?
• Are freelancers employed?
• Should we count part-time roles?
• How do we account for entrepreneurs and others who don’t intend to find a new job?
• In which cities are graduates getting jobs? How do “average” salaries skew by location?

Unlike many other marketing claims, no government agency regulates coding bootcamp placement rates.

Bloc doesn’t believe in stating a strong opinion about something that is poorly defined, so we don’t publish a placement rate. Instead we remove the risk by offering a Tuition Reimbursement Guarantee on our Track programs, and we prove our effectiveness with hundreds of alumni success stories.

2. It’s Easy to Game

Placement rates don’t indicate a sample size or define who’s included in the sample. This lack of clarity makes this metric easy to game. Any bootcamp that wants to spin data can “achieve” >90% placement.

Here are just a few ways bootcamps could make their placement rates look higher:

• Don’t include students who dropped out or were kicked out
• Include students who got a non-technical job at a technical company
• Include students who only got an internship or part-time job
• Include students who started their own company

Most bootcamps don’t show how they calculated their placement figure, so it’s impossible to determine what these numbers mean. As this InfoWorld article on the topic says, “many coding academies boast of near 100 percent placement rates, but behind the sales pitches lie cautionary qualifiers.”

One notable exception: The Flatiron School hired an independent accounting firm to audit their 7-page jobs report, which goes into extensive detail about these questions.

3. A High “Placement Rate” Means Stringent Admissions

Bloc doesn’t have an application process because we think anyone can learn to develop or design software if they are willing to make the commitment. Some in-person bootcamps — especially those that that advertise a placement rate — will not accept students unless they demonstrate they are placeable. These bootcamps have time-intensive self-study prerequisites, and reserve the right to kick you out if they believe you will negatively affect their placement rate. If they do not maintain these stringent policies, then you won’t find a placement rate quoted on their website.

Just like these other bootcamps, Bloc requires that you do the work if you want to develop the skills. While not all students mind a stringent admissions process, many see it as an unnecessary obstacle on an already difficult path.

It’s Not About the Placement Rate

Many bootcamp shoppers look to placement rates as an indication of which bootcamp will bring them the most success. But the truth is, the major bootcamps are excellent. We all have genuine, knowledgeable, caring staff who are eager to teach students more about development and design than they could possibly learn in a short time. We are all passionate about teaching new skills, helping people find better careers, and shaping the next generation of junior programmers and designers.

More than anything else, the best indicator of a student’s success is the amount of time spent studying, practicing, and writing code. If you’re interested in a remote, part-time bootcamp that gets you real results, check out Bloc’s Part-Time Web Developer Track, Software Developer Track, and Designer Track.