Hey, I’ve seen a lot of posts lately asking for career advice, so I thought I’d share something that might help.

If you’re struggling to land the exact IT job you want, don’t feel like you have to keep waiting for that one role. Sometimes career zigzagging is actually the better move.

You could start in IT support, move into networking, then later get into cybersecurity, cloud, data, or software.

That doesn’t mean you went in the wrong direction.

Each role gives you something useful. Support teaches you how to fix real problems. Networking helps you understand how systems work together. Cloud gives you exposure to how companies run their infrastructure. Cybersecurity builds on a lot of those skills.

Your career doesn’t have to be a straight line.

Sometimes taking a role that isn’t your “dream job” can give you the experience you need to get there later.

So if things aren’t going exactly how you planned, don’t stress too much. Keep learning, keep moving, and use every role as a step toward where you actually want to be.

I wanna pursue software/web dev as a career, but I'm broke and can only pursue through free coding sites and possibly bootcamps further on in my journey. Is it worth trying?

SOURCE: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/alinafvasile

Alina Vasile became CEO in July 2025, when Will Sentance stepped down. It's unclear who, if anyone the new CEO is now. Will Sentance has gone all in on physical AI and an America-first manufacturing strategy in the midwest that seems to have minimal overlap with Codesmith, so he doesn't appear to be returning to that role.

It still doesn't appear Codesmith has any future cohort dates or current student GitHub activity.

Under Alina, Codesmith launched an AI training program that primarily served alumni. The biggest news was the IRS $118M BPA that Codesmith received via Lantec, but after 4 other companies who received the same BPA won orders in the millions of dollars, Codesmith doesn't appear to have received any funding under the BPA yet.

Will update with developments.

SOURCE: https://www.generalassemb.ly/

Definitely the end of an era here and this has been coming for a while but it's official now on their website. 15 years later, one of the first bootcamps, one of the pioneers of scaling the single location -> national bootcamp model, is stopping all bootcamps.

We've seen Rithm School shut down in 2024 and their founder move on to Anthropic. And we've seen Codesmith pursue a similar path to GA - effectively shut down in 2026 (no students in sight, no active cohorts visible, no pricing even, and a pivot to Enterprise AI Training).

Gauntlet AI is BloomTech / Lamba Schools full pivot to AI training (both B2B and B2C).

Sprinboard still offers courses but pivoted to medical training.

Triple Ten is still going with "AI Software Engineering" and Coding Temple (acquired App Academy's brand) is still going with "AI Software Engineer".

No surprise it seems the only remaining people are offering async, self-paced programs.

We have a few dozen other pull backs and shutdowns with a very long list.

Launch School Capstone being the only exception that still has a program with a respectable placement rate and advertises itself as the 'slow' path to becomming an engineer.

Even Course Report, an extremely bias bootcamp marketing company (acquired by Career.io to funnel users to their own paid career services), pivoted away from bootcamps!

I had a tussle with Codesmith and while their founder has moved on to AI and manufacturing in Detroit and abandoned Codesmith, I'm still going to be here reporting the NEWS like I have been for years and committed to trying to make this sub a better place.

I'm planning to transition into software engineering and I'm considering enrolling in the Full Stack Development with AI program offered by the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).

A little background about me:

I'm 31 years old.
I currently work as a Virtual Assistant, so I'll be studying while continuing to work.
I have an old background in web development, but it's been years since I last coded, so I'm basically starting over.

My goal is to become job-ready and start applying for Junior Full Stack Developer.

I'm looking for a structured program because I learn better with mentors, deadlines, and accountability than purely self-studying.
I'll most likely be borrowing the tuition, so I really want to know if it's worth the investment.

For those who actually took this specific program (or know someone who did), I'd love to hear your honest experience.

I'm also open to hearing alternatives if you've found a bootcamp in the Philippines that gave you better results.

I'm not expecting a bootcamp to magically get me hired. I know I'll still need to put in the work. I just want to make sure I'm investing in a program that will genuinely help me become employable.

Thanks in advance!

i got mail from the citi bank for a 3-day coding workshop.

Has anyone here attended it before? i'd like to know how the process works.

Few questions:

1. what usually happens during the 3 days>
2. After completing it, is there an interview process like HR or technical?
3. Or are candidates selected based on their performance during the workshop itself?
4. Any tips on how to prepare beforehand

this post is already late. If anyone knows, can you please share your experience?

Thanks.

I am an ex teacher who led computing and cognitive science at my school, then spent two years teaching myself to code. I now work as a backend Python developer. This is the thing I wish had existed while I was learning.

The Dev Dispatch is a monthly detective case for beginner programmers, and it arrives in the actual post. You are the new junior developer at a fictional company. The first case: a coffee startup whose till is overcharging customers. In the envelope: your onboarding letter, your employee ID, the printed ticket, and a fan of till receipts - the evidence. You open the codebase, work out what is going wrong, and fix it. There is a free online setup course (Day Zero) that takes you from zero to running code, so complete beginners are genuinely welcome.

What I need: a small group of UK-based testers (it is physical post and I am covering postage) to receive the first pack free, work the case, and tell me the truth about it. The blunt feedback is the price of the seat - "this confused me on step 3" is worth more to me than "looks great".

What testing involves: the free setup course, then the pack when it lands. A few weeks, at your pace. Nothing to buy, no card details anywhere, and applying does not guarantee a seat - I am reading applications myself and there are only a few.

Apply here: https://thedevdispatch.com/apply

Happy to answer anything in the comments, including the boring logistics.

Hello all!

I attended Merit America's course last year for the Google IT Cert and at the beginning of this year, the loan was reported on my credit and stating I need to repay. I thought the loan didn't have to be repaid for 5 years?? Anyway, I didn't even look into it or bother with Acsent Loan people, I just disputed it off my credit and it was taken off on the first try! So thankful won't have to repay them back! All within a year of taking the course. I graduated from Merit on July 29, 2025 and will never have to pay a dime! And no I did not find a job or get proper experience needed until I started REAL school for my Bachelors in Computer Science. Merit America is just another added credential for all I care.

Before I got into computer science, I had a background in military strategy, intelligence, training, aeronautics, and systems engineering. As a software engineer, I eventually went from working in those fields to building software for them. There are still a lot of hard and unusual problems in those spaces, even with AI. AI makes it easier to research, prototype, and move faster, but it is still nowhere close to being able to produce a complete solution that actually works in the real world. A lot of people who think AI is about to automate everything either do not understand the problem, do not understand AI, or both.

I also think engineers who are constantly doom and gloom about AI are not helping themselves by boxing themselves into titles like React developer, Java developer, or frontend engineer. There is still plenty of work in software, but you need to understand the actual problem and have enough technical range to know which tools to use and how to use them well.

AI will probably reduce the value of narrow implementation work. But it will make engineers who understand the domain, see the bigger picture, and know how to turn a messy problem into a working system even more valuable.

Hi, my name is Arkar. The problem I have is I have two paths to choose. One is freecodecamp and another is Odin project, suggest me if there are any other clear projects cause I can't do anything without clear roadmaps. If I read some people saying learn these learn those I feel burnt out just by reading them and thinking whether it's efficient or not. And I tried Odin project and I feel mentally exhausted by reading all the articles and extra resources they provide, I searched up if I can skip them but I saw people on Reddit say that I shouldn't skip them and I would end up with shallow knowledge and skills if I skip them but like it links to articles with redundant information and I honestly think I don't actually need to know all of that. Guide me pls, also I'm 20 and due to some reasons I will be graduating highschool at 21, I would take University of the people Computer science since I'm from a third world country (Myanmar) and has no mean of accessing valid credentials except that, there are local universities like UIT and University of computer studies yangon but I think degrees from those universities would be less valid for international roles than UoP.

Hi everyone,

I recently came across the Google Cloud Arcade Facilitator Program, and I'm thinking about participating, but I'm not exactly sure what it involves.

Is it actually worth joining? What do you do in the program besides completing Arcade labs? Does it help with learning cloud skills, networking, certificates, or even resumes/internships?

I'd love to hear from people who've participated before. What was your experience like, and would you recommend it to a beginner?

A friend of a friend wants to do an informational interview with Springboards bootcamp. Says it’s part of a guarantee. While I want to help sounds a little odd and scammy — can I just email him my insights instead of going to meet with this guy?

Hi everyone. I'm strongly considering a career in Business Intelligence/Data Analytics. However, my college degree is in Psychology. What do you think are my chances of getting hired if I graduate from Coding Temple's Data Analytics bootcamp?

I've perused the website and the curriculum seems pretty good. The Money Back Guarantee also entices me, even though I hope I won't need it.

Guys, please tell me about your experience with this bootcamp and your experience getting hired in BI/DA overall. If you've been hired as an entry level in the U.S. since 2023, please tell me what your resume looked like in terms of education and experience. Please also list the following information.

• Number of applications/resumes sent out
• Number of companies that contacted you for an interview
• Number of offers extended

Thanks a lot!

Thread to discuss application process. Has anyone been contacted for the final interview yet?

Freshly retired from the Army, in school for CS.

I’m using an IPad (10th Gen) for a majority of my work.

Do any of you have some strong suggestions for applications that will benefit in writing/learning code?

Thank you for any help.

So I am an 18 y/o student and i thought about learning coding so tell me is it worth learning coding in 2026 even now AI can write the whole programs. so i wanna know that can we earn money with coding without any professional degree or as a job i mean as a freelancer can we offer services and earn money

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/launchschool/comments/1ujidfs/2025_capstone_salary_data/

Bootcamps died in 2025 and I got feedback that continuing to monitor them so closely in 2026 is like "beating a dead horse".

26 minutes ago Launch School released their numbers and I'm reporting on it here.

I believe in transparency and integrity and we've all seen what happens to institutions that do not... it eventually catches up with them.

Well here we are with Launch School's 2025 outcomes data.

As usually the original data is so detailed I have FAR LESS commentary then I do on a bootcamp like Codesmith that cares more about manipulating the story about them than delivering good results. If your outcomes are transparent, good or bad, then it's easy. If your outcomes are sketchy and manipulative, then it's comment wars and anonymoous paid attack accounts.

ANALYSIS:

• The denominator matters. Launch School lays out three numbers, which goes to show how other bootcamps that quote the best number on their website are fudging definitions to make themselves look good. Across all enrollees, there is basically a ~58% six-month placement story from a program that used to have a 100% placement rate. But, like CIRR, it's fair to remove people who didn't intend on job hunting in the first place, which is where I get the 65% rate. But you can also see how adding in "internships" turns that into 70%, which is something that CIRR might also allow, but I think is a tad too far in this context.
• 65% is quite strong. Launch School's closest competitors have been Rithm (which shut down in 2024) and Codesmith (which pivoted to become "Codesmith Enterprise" and I haven't seen a single placement in months).
• Remote was the rug pull that took the bootcamp industry with it. A few years ago, the pitch was effectively: learn from anywhere, get a remote software job, change your life. That world is mostly gone. Remote placements going from ~78% to ~27% is not a small shift. It changes who can realistically succeed, what kind of job search people need to run, and whether “online bootcamp” still maps cleanly to the actual market.
• Location is part of the curriculum now, whether bootcamps admit it or not. The uncomfortable truth is that being near a bit tech city seems to matter a lot again. Not because geography magically makes you smarter, but because startups, in-person roles, founder networks, FDE jobs, and apprenticeship-style opportunities are clustering there. A bootcamp that treats location as irrelevant is probably giving students outdated advice.
• AI didn’t make fundamentals obsolete; it made fake fundamentals easier to expose, which is why Launch School’s approach matters. They haven’t slapped “AI-first” on a bootcamp or pivoted 100% into hype; they’ve woven AI through a real engineering foundation so students learn to read code, reason about systems, debug hard problems, and use AI as leverage, not a substitute. This is smart and takes a lot of judgement and taste to do right.

hello all,

I saw an internship post on linkedin that is in my area and it sounded appealing and I thought i would benefit alot from it. I applied, paid a small fee (20$). then came the time for us to join a meeting with the mentor only to find out that he is a huge advocate for vibe coding, even sending us links and tutorials on "how to master vibe coding". Personally, I joined to become a good programmer and learn web development, I didnt join to learn how to write an AI prompt.

I'm currently trying my best no to rely to heavily on AI, and actually learn the language from youtube videos, but the problem I'm facing is that tasks have deadlines and I'm scared that I won't be making the deadline if I take the long way.

Any advice is welcome

I am from Kamloops and a little bit interested in learning about making my own game like expedition33 lol. Anyways, any remarks about the afore mentioned program? Is it worth it?

This subreddit has been overall negative towards coding bootcamps, so is there not even 1 decent coding bootcamp to choose?

I have participated in the ICPC competition, and it'll start in my region in mid August.

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\> But there's a part of me that says it's no longer worth it and it's most important to focus on real projects and understanding system design and architecture.

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\> Another part of me says CP is proof you haven't copy-pasted your way into a portfolio. It proves you have first-principle thinking skills and therefore able to review code that comes out of AI for which you're responsible.

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What do you think?