DBC Phase 0, Week 1: Too Many Cooks

Shereef's advice to resist commodifying the Dev Bootcamp experience certainly resonated with me. Despite its emerging prevalence in the tech community and high employment rate post-graduation, the program is still relatively new and experimental, amounting to a large undertaking where the transactional value is not a simple equivalency where $12,000 gets you an $80,000-a-year job. While there certainly is a financial appeal, which I wouldn't begrudge, Dev Bootcamp is an intensive program, for which attendees have often given up their jobs, homes, and, at least temporarily, financial security. Given the sacrifice and uncertainty for many students, embracing the challenge and experience may be what gets us through day-to-day, while making the most of our time in the progam.

That said, I want to make a conscious effort to avoid the restaurant-menu mentality Shereef described in the video and perfunctory educational experience. Admittedly, there are specific skill sets I'm anticipating learning at Dev Bootcamp, but I want to be open to the unexpected and the rigor. I'm certain everyone has unique motivations that conspired to bring them to this point, and I don't want to undermine financial drives (nor do I think Shereef is in the video), but the point is that the program itself can be transformative, not just its aftermath.