Indian Geek

I'd say do both. If you can get a job with just the developer boot camp then that is probably worth while. I haven't done a boot camp so I don't know what they cover but there is quite a lot to computer science. Yes you may be able to program and do some software jobs but you would probably be constraining yourself to a small set of jobs. Take a look at these for an idea of depth of software development: http://www.indiangeek.net/wp-content/uploads/Programmer%20competency%2… http://matt.might.net/articles/what-cs-majors-should-know/

"Programmer Competency Matrix" is also a great resource: http://www.indiangeek.net/wp-content/uploads/Programmer%20competency%2…

Reminds me of the classic Programmer Competency Matrix: http://www.indiangeek.net/wp-content/uploads/Programmer%20competency%2…

This[1] is by far the best "what you should know" list I've ever seen. [1] http://www.indiangeek.net/programmer-competency-matrix/

I haven't found anything much better than this: http://www.indiangeek.net/wp-content/uploads/Programmer%20competency%2… I expected to see something great coming from the Software Craftsmanship movement, but their idea of being a great programmer is basically using XP, and satisfying customer requirements, with no surprises. To me that is just being an average professional programmer.

For what it's worth it looks like Starling weren't the ones who wrote it: http://www.indiangeek.net/programmer-competency-matrix/ seems to be the original source as per other comments.

A few weeks back someone posted this on Hacker News: http://www.indiangeek.net/wp-content/uploads/Programmer%20competency%2… It might help you gain insight on how some employers might evaluate candidates, you can assess where you fit in the matrix, and work on improving in the areas of weakness (this is a long term thing). I recommend reviewing the technical stuff so you can come out sharp and talk intelligently about those topics. Brain teasers often come up. It's been a while since I interviewed with Microsoft, but I remember lots of questions about data structures, linked lists, traversal algorithms, etc. Employers are looking for people that are technically solid or show potential, have a good attitude, can work in teams, are good communicators, etc. Good luck.

The original is here: http://www.indiangeek.net/wp-content/uploads/Programmer%20competency%2…

Such a high turnover is a major red flag. Still, if you want to take a self-evaluation take a look at this programmer competency matrix: http://www.indiangeek.net/wp-content/uploads/Programmer%20competency%2… It is by no means authoritative but it could be a start for you to brush up on weak spots.

Original version: http://www.indiangeek.net/programmer-competency-matrix/

As an aside, I have a list of "holes" in my knowledge that I am systematically working to eliminate, partially derived from: http://www.indiangeek.net/wp-content/uploads/Programmer%20competency%2…

http://www.indiangeek.net/wp-content/uploads/Programmer%20competency%2… may help give you some idea, but (being a bit of a newbie coder myself) I don't know how actually helpful it is as a diagnostic. Your mileage may vary.

I also like this page for evaluating where you might stack up against other candidates. http://www.indiangeek.net/wp-content/uploads/Programmer%20competency%2…

This is all great advice that I, as a CS undergrad, am going to take to heart. Something along a similar vein that bubbled up on HN a long while ago is the Programmer Competency Matrix: http://www.indiangeek.net/wp-content/uploads/Programmer%20competency%2… For my own part, this was a golden find, as it describes components of five spheres of competency (Computer Science, Software Engineering, Programming, Experience and Knowledge) as well as - and this is the important part - the steps it takes to obtain mastery in the components of those spheres. While this may partially be an oversimplification, it does put things into terms my game-conditioned brain can easily understand, and I suspect that I'll likely discover anything it has missed in my pursuit of mastery. Your college curriculum may or may not involve going through the SICP, but it's something I recommend. It's available online... ...in HTML http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html ...in PDF http://web.mit.edu/alexmv/6.001/sicp.pdf ...with an accompaniment http://eli.thegreenplace.net/2007/06/19/introducing-the-sicp-reading-n… ...and there are several archived video lectures on the topic http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures…