Coding Bootcamps and Computer Science degrees are popular routes for students to launch careers in software development. Coding bootcamps average 12 weeks in length, and teach practical skills like building web applications from scratch. They prepare students for a job as an entry-level web developer, intern, or freelancer. Computer science programs average 4 years in length, and teach a wide range of concepts in programming, algorithms, advanced math, statistics, and general electives which may not correlate with computer science.

Coding bootcamps and computer science programs are the two most prevalent ways to start a career as a software professional. But coding bootcamps lack computer science fundamentals, and computer science programs often lack practical experience, and are extreme commitments in time and expense. The gap between what you learn in a coding bootcamp and computer science degree is why we created the Software Engineering Track. Bloc’s Software Engineering Track teaches practical skills and combines them with advanced computer science topics and open-source software development. It teaches you everything you need to be a professional software engineer, and leaves out everything you don’t. We know this because we built the program after consulting with companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. After consulting with top engineering teams, we developed this chart to represent the programming learning curve: We believe that 2,000 hours of focused study and practice are essential for becoming a software engineer. This chart shows where you’ll be after graduating from a coding bootcamp — which is between 500 and 1,000 hours — but it doesn’t explicitly illustrate why our Software Engineering Track is more effective than a computer science degree. Let’s explore four reasons why Bloc’s Software Engineering Track prepares you for a career in software engineering more effectively than a computer science degree.

For more information on why coding bootcamps often fall short, [read this blog we wrote about the topic](NEED URL). Time is a Feature, When It’s Focused

A computer science program is four years worth of full-time study. This roughly totals to 6,000 learning and study hours. Thousands of those hours are unlikely to directly help you once you get a job though. A computer science program forces you to take electives, and advanced classes on artificial intelligence, history of computing, and theory that are not easily translatable to working as a professional software engineer. It’s not that these are bad things to learn – they may provide some useful life lessons – but they are not essential for becoming a software engineer. Bloc’s program includes 2,000 hours of learning and study hours, and every single hour is meaningful in becoming a software engineer.

Spending one year learning everything you need is a better use of time than spending four years learning many things you don’t. There’s plenty of time to learn new things in life, but when you’re paying to learn, the topics should be directly related to the outcome.

Avoid Life-Altering Debt

Computer science programs range in cost based on factors like residency, school, and financial status. A four year degree can easily reach into the six figures. For this reason, many students are forced to take out loans with interest rates between 4% and 6%. This is life-altering debt that will likely take years to pay off.

Bloc’s Software Engineering Track is not cheap — $24,000 is significant amount of money — but with reasonable payment options this amount should not be life-altering. In fact, financing as low as $750/month is available, which allows you to pay for the course after getting a job. Also, Bloc offers a tuition reimbursement guarantee that if you are not able to find a job as a software engineer with a starting salary of at least $60,000, you’ll be refunded in full. No computer science program offers such a promise.

At $24,000, Bloc’s program is a fraction of the cost of many computer science programs, and offers a tuition reimbursement guarantee on top of that. Your investment in Bloc is much smaller than it would be in a computer science program, and also much safer due to the reimbursement policy.

Return on Investment

ROI is a financial acronym that stands for “return on investment”. It explains what you’ll earn as a result of an investment. Not only is Bloc’s program a fraction of the cost of a computer science degree, but it also employs you faster. After one year, you’ll start earning a full-time salary as a software engineer. The return on your investment of $24,000 will be greater proportionally to that of an investment in a computer science degree, and it will also come quicker. The ROI you realize from a smaller investment and earning at a faster pace can have exponentially positive results over decades. But most importantly, you’ll also start a career doing meaningful work. Software is eating the world because it solves real problems. As a software engineer, you’ll be able to positively impact other people’s lives through software, and the value and satisfaction you realize will be incalculable. Path to Mastery

No matter how great a computer science program, coding bootcamp, or our Software Engineering Track is, it will always pale in comparison to the experience you have working as a professional. The lessons you learn in a classroom setting will never match what you learn when you’re on the job. The apprenticeship model – which we employ in the Software Engineering Track – is an improvement over the classroom, as it provides training and lessons in a practical setting, but even it doesn’t match the effectiveness of learning on the job.

To become a master at something, you have to practice a lot, and you have to practice in realistic settings. There is nothing more realistic than practicing your skills when you are being paid to do so. In this respect, you want to be careful not to spend too much time in a classroom.

The final phase in the Software Engineering Track is an Open-Source Apprenticeship, where you work on open-source software with other professional engineers. In addition to learning through practical work, you’ll build a remarkable resume of open-source contributions. After the Open-Source Apprenticeship, you’ll get a job solving real problems for a real company four times faster than you would with a computer science degree.

For more of our thoughts on learning and mastery, [read about mastering software engineering](NEED URL).

Time, Money, ROI, and Learning

We aren’t so extreme in our views that we think computer science degrees should be abolished. They do serve a purpose for aspiring robotics and machine learning engineers, and they do many things well in general. But we feel strongly that they can be improved, and the Software Engineering Track is what we built to prove that. In a shorter period of time, with less of an investment, a safer investment, a faster return on your investment, and more effective learning, you will have a better outcome with the Software Engineering Track, and you’ll start the path to mastery sooner than you would by enrolling in a computer science program.

If you want to learn more about Bloc’s Software Engineering program and how it prepares you to land a job developing software, join us at an online info session. We’ll dive into the curriculum, what it’s like to be a Bloc student, and details about our 100% tuition refund guarantee.

More advice on changing careers

4 Computer Science Essentials to Land the Job

When starting a new career, you want to give yourself every advantage. If that career is in software development, then learning computer science fundamentals is that extra bit of oomph you bring to each interview. Most bootcamps eschew these fundamentals for more pragmatic skills. But as these bootcamp grads expand the talent pool, recruiters start to see a lot of the same credentials.

To help our students stand out, we’ve included Software Engineering Principles in our new CS-degree replacing program: the Software Engineering Track. We included the following topics after consulting with some of the best engineering companies in the world, including Twitter and Google. Read on to learn why these four skill-sets are critical to every software engineer.

Data Structures

The Data Structures section challenges students to build and apply hash maps, linked lists, stacks, queues, trees, and graphs. Interviewers test for knowledge of data structures because these constructs are the most commonly employed tools in software development. We dissect these structures to reveal how they work, and thus provide students the insight necessary to optimize their use. Some data structures perform better than others, and each applies to specific scenarios. Using the wrong data structure can hinder performance, and relying on an unsuitable data structure can lead to illegible code and wasted effort. In one example, students build two versions of a favorite film organizer, each powered by a different data structure. This project demonstrates how choosing the right structure improves performance and utility.

Algorithms & Complexity Analysis

Algorithms act upon data to sort, calculate, or otherwise manipulate information into a desired form. For example, given a set of 10,000 numbers, return the five smallest. We can devise infinite ways to perform this work, and each way represents a unique algorithm. Students study known algorithms as well as their complexity to understand the performance cost of each. Complexity analysis goes further to assess the value of any piece of code: both the number of operations required as well as memory consumed. This is a critical skill to have, chiefly for those students hired by firms that work with large data sets. The cost of a small oversight is minimal when operating on 12 pieces of data, but enormous with 12 million.

Databases provide the storage backbone for nearly all applications. Frameworks such as Rails help abstract the database from the developer with Object-Relational Mapping (ORM). While beneficial to the seasoned coder, these abstractions can hinder a beginner’s understanding of how modern software reads and writes persistent data.

During the Databases section of the Software Engineering phase, we instruct in the Structured Query Language, more commonly known as SQL. We use SQL to build an ORM by creating tables, inserting data, accessing rows, and performing other common framework operations. Students will also learn how to support object associations and protect their databases from malicious injections.

For companies like Facebook, their database structure is critical. Facebook users across the globe access millions of data elements every second; a poor query or mal-designed schema can translate to countless dollars lost every day.

Framework Architecture & Design Patterns

With a working understanding of Rails, data structures, algorithms, complexity, and databases, students will build a new framework. The Software Engineering phase requires this because it removes the last metaphoric road block that separates an amateur from a professional.

After completing this project, students are no longer mere users of a framework, they are its marshals. They understand how frameworks operate and need not assume how Rails brings their applications to life. This section empowers the idea that nothing is beyond a student’s understanding.

Comprehending framework design is critical, especially for employees at GitHub. GitHub once ran on a forked version of Rails which they modified to suit their product’s needs. Without the requisite knowledge, creating and maintaining a custom framework is extremely difficult.

At their core, Bloc’s Software Engineering Principles address the gaps of knowledge between a web developer and a software engineer. By dismissing the “magic” of software, students acknowledge that beneath every shortcut and library, more code exists. Students armed with this knowledge are more valuable to future employers, coworkers, and projects.

7 Traits of Effective Software Engineers

If you’re considering a career as a software engineer, then you may have heard how difficult it is to learn. But the right mindset can give you a significant advantage when learning and working in the industry. Software engineers who embody these seven character traits are valuable employees and productive contributors.

It’s what killed the cat, apparently, but that cat was a rock-solid engineer. Great engineers take responsibility for learning and exploration. They do not depend on their superiors to give them explicit direction for a new challenge – their curiosity guides them to reach their own conclusions.

At my first job as an engineer, I worked on an Android game. In the middle of working on a new feature, I noticed that some background tasks consumed an inordinate amount of time. After some investigation, I discovered that we relied on an Android API that took 50% longer on average to complete when compared to a simpler Java counterpart. I reported my findings and as a result, we swapped one for the other in all cases.

An engineer who seeks out new information and investigates the product may discover something new in the process. More importantly, the more versatile an engineer, the more valuable they become. Learn to serve your curiosities and feed them with research and experimentation.

All engineers require mental stamina. As a new engineer, you won’t solve the most challenging problems during your first attempts. In fact, you may have to spend days, weeks, or longer looking for a solution before finding one that meets both business and product requirements.

If you give up readily, you may not find yourself working on anything interesting, or anything at all. Engineers love solving problems and most refuse to give up until they work them out. Grit is what keeps engineers from throwing in the towel.

In 2014, the popular blogging platform, Medium, encountered a problem rendering underlines in Chrome. The author, Marcin Wichary, states that what was thought to be a one-night project turned into a month-long effort. After brainstorming seven approaches, the team settled on one and Marcin implemented it. Fixing something as seemingly trivial as a proper underline required incredible tenacity and the product is better for it.

This one is a no-brainer, but if you want to be a part of a functional team, you must communicate. If you’re shy or quiet, that’s fine. You can make up for shyness by communicating effectively in writing.

At Bloc, we rely on asynchronous communication – one out of every six employees works remotely. We use email, Slack, and GitHub to facilitate feedback and discussion. In these messages, we try to use as few words as possible and get to the point fast. This keeps our co-workers focused and eager to read and respond.

Your team needs to know what you’re working on and if they frequently ask for clarification, they may stop asking altogether. By communicating frequently and in brief but descriptive messages, your team will look forward to speaking with, and hearing from you.

Despite being another predictable member of this collection, attention to detail is vital for engineers and thus worthy of mention. If an employee at McDonalds applies two ounces of special sauce to your Big Mac instead of two and a half, will you notice?

As a software engineer, if you mistype even one line of code, it can crash an entire application. Details comprise software, and companies hire engineers to craft those details well. If you are someone that looks solely at the big picture, you have to learn to zoom in.

At Bloc, our students rely on our custom curriculum to learn the software trade. If we mistype a line of code or introduce a grammatical error, the student’s ability to learn the subject is significantly affected. We use grammar tools like spell check, linters, and Grammarly to draw attention to pain points.

Divergent Thinking

Some call this, “thinking outside of the box,” but saying that would be yet another cliché and this post has reached its limit of those. When solving challenging engineering problems, the best solutions often come from adopting a new perspective.

If everyone took a crack at a problem from the same angle, they would ultimately arrive at a similar solution. But a diverse team whose approach varies among its members will generate more ideas and non-conventional solutions. You and your team will benefit if you broaden your ability to see things that others overlook.

To allow team members to share new ideas and solutions, we occasionally hold hack day events at Bloc. These hack days, like hackathons at Facebook, permit anyone in the company to work on anything. Thus, people who rarely interact with an aspect of the Bloc product can build new features or solutions that the dedicated team had not yet thought of. For example, our hack days helped us design a new payment flow, student portfolios, a student glossary for recruiters, and so much more.

Engineers collaborate, even when managers assign a task to just one engineer on the team. Team members review each other’s code before deploying it to production, and during these reviews, they may criticize or recommend significant changes to code written by their colleagues.

Engineers open to receiving critiques and feedback receive more support from their teammates, and the engineers that receive more support make bigger contributions to the product. More importantly, the product suffers if an engineer deploys code without revising it to meet the expectations of their peers. A good engineer is modest and willing to consider a different approach suggested by their team.

At Bloc, we have a thorough review process both on the engineering and curriculum side. Before we published this blog post, it received editing passes from two individuals that looked for quality content and prose. I was responsible for accepting modifications and including content suggested by my peers; the post is better for it.

Wolf Pack Membership

It’s common for some engineers to isolate themselves and work without consulting their teammates. The industry refers to this proclivity as Lone Wolf Syndrome. Lone Wolves, much like the animals after which we’ve named them, do not survive for long. Wolves hunt in packs, and engineers must collaborate.

To be a productive engineer: seek help when needed, express yourself when overwhelmed, offer to help when you see peers struggle, and in general, engage with the group. No one on your team is excited when one person goes off and returns with unwanted or otherwise broken code. Acting as part of the team builds better relationships and trust among your co-workers.

If you believe that your personality is set in stone or that you’ve grown fixed in your ways, we recommend you read this article from Psychology Today. Those who study the mind believe that personality is flexible and with concerted effort, anyone can alter their disposition.
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