I think we have different understanding on:
What a bootcamp is (length, scope, model)
What traits a junior developer should have (lot of non-tech stuff)
What a person can reasonable learn outside of a job (there is a limit)
What I think is reasonable to teach in a one year full-time coding program is the ability to learn programming. There are some “secret components” also to make the learning experience smoother/faster, but these are “just” constant optimizations.
> What I think is reasonable to teach in a one year full-time coding program is the ability to learn programming
"Learn programming" means different things to different people. To me and probably to many hopeful bootcamp students it means a much broader scope: the ability to successfully complete any coding work thrown their way to a professional degree. Much like knowing a natural language like a native. That can't be taught in a year. That misalignment of expectations is the concern I'm voicing.
> What a person can reasonable learn outside of a job
Not sure what's meant by "job". You can learn anything outside a job. It's just a matter of how much time you have. What's for sure is nobody wants to hire someone they need to hold by the hand. The places that do are the worst places to work because they want someone naive they can pay low wages (usually bad startups). A good candidate should ideally have some experience via internship, contract work, open source contributor, etc. The lines between volunteer, paid hobby work, and part time job can be blurry when starting out and that's the best place to learn when starting a career because the stakes are low. This too definitely takes more than a year.
I’m happy if a junior programmer knows when they should ask questions. In my experience a “senior” with ego problems can dig a year deep rabbit hole for the whole team in a matter of months.
What I think is reasonable to teach in a one year full-time coding program is the ability to learn programming. There are some “secret components” also to make the learning experience smoother/faster, but these are “just” constant optimizations.