Should You Go to College or Coding Bootcamp to Be a Software Engineer?

I graduated with a major in Computer Science from a small private university (Go Zags!), but I felt I was ill-prepared for a software engineering job when I graduated. I thought of joining a coding bootcamp after graduation to better prepare myself. This article condenses my insights, research and findings during that time.

We will dive into 3 things today:

• What are the different approaches to being a software engineer today
• Pros and cons of each approach
• My recommendation

Tl;dr:

If you are not in a hurry to specialize or ready to commit to a lifelong pursuit of a software engineer, then college makes a lot of sense. If, on the other hand, you have an existing non-tech job and you’re trying to make the switch into software engineering, then coding bootcamp would be my recommendation.

Approach 1: Go to college and get your degree in Computer Science

Advantages

Going to college is the “safe” choice for many people — it’s what people are expected to do after they graduate high school. College is a low-risk investment of your time as it allows you to explore areas you might…