The Ultimate Guide to Coding Bootcamp Job Guarantee Programs

Coding bootcamps do more than just help professionals who want to shift careers. They’re also beneficial for anyone looking for a shortcut to gain necessary credentials, rather than enrolling in a four-year degree program. If you’re debating whether or not you should pursue a tech career through a bootcamp program, this could be the sign you’ve been looking for. 

In this article, we’ll be discussing what a coding bootcamp job guarantee is, as well as the details of these guarantees. You’ll learn about the different financing options, providers who offer job guarantees, and whether enrolling in a bootcamp with a job guarantee is ideal for you.

What Is a Coding Bootcamp?

A coding bootcamp is an educational program that’s typically focused on technical subjects through real-world projects. It allows professionals with or without a tech background to quickly gain education, certification, or certificates in certain topics. Bootcamp programs are short-term, usually lasting a couple of weeks to several months. 

There is a wide variety of bootcamp programs, including certificate programs, accredited programs, and others. Many immersive bootcamps partner with big companies like Amazon, Google, LinkedIn, and Meta, as well as world-renowned universities. 

Most bootcamps are offered on-site or online and specialize in data analytics, data science, UX/UI, web design, technology sales, and digital marketing. They’re also well known for their wide range of tuition payment options, such as scholarships, grants, deferred tuition, payment plans, income share agreements, discount, and financial aid. 

Should I Join a Coding Bootcamp?

There are many benefits of enrolling in a coding bootcamp, one of which includes the high job placement rate often associated with it. Bootcamps often include career coaching that helps students find a job after graduation. There are several common ways they do this, including through job guarantees, partnerships with companies, and extensive employment preparation.  

In addition, bootcamps are short-term, which allows a broader range of students to enjoy the benefits that are offered. This feature allows working professionals to quickly switch careers. Similarly, it allows students to quickly prepare for and enter their dream jobs, without having to commit to a four-year degree program. 

They also offer flexible learning options, which allows working professionals, stay-at-home parents, and anyone else with prior obligations to study, while maintaining the demands of everyday life. For this reason, online bootcamps have increased in popularity.

Top reasons to join a coding bootcamp:

• High job placement rate
• Increased salary 
• Current curricula 
• Short-term
• Career Services

Are You Guaranteed a Job After Coding Bootcamp?

No, not all bootcamps offer a job guarantee. However, there are many that do. Typically, coding bootcamps that offer job guarantees state that students will be recruited within a certain number of days after completing their programs. If students have not found employment within the given time frame, the tuition fees are fully reimbursed.  

Bootcamps without a job guarantee still offer the incentive of connecting students with numerous employers through on-the-job training and networking events. Additionally, many of their partnered companies are ready and willing to hire select bootcamp graduates. Additionally, there are a variety of career services often provided by bootcamps that ensure graduates find employment quickly.  

What Is a Coding Bootcamp Job Guarantee?

A coding bootcamp job guarantee is offered in a few different ways. One of the primary ways is through income share agreements (ISAs). Through the ISA, students can defer their tuition fee payments until they graduate, get a job, and begin earning a determined minimum salary. 

Another common form of a job guarantee is tuition reimbursement. This involves a guarantee made to students by the bootcamp provider, which claims they’ll find employment within a certain time frame after graduation. If they don’t find employment within the guaranteed time frame, they receive a full tuition refund.  

Tuition Refund

A tuition refund refers to the policy of bootcamps returning paid tuition to students who do not find work within the time frame guaranteed. There are usually certain job search requirements that must be met, such as having to submit a certain number of applications throughout the agreed period. 

For example, Codeup’s refund policy requires bootcamp graduates to pursue all leads provided by its placement office, participate in monthly meetings, apply for five jobs per week, and adhere to the placement standards, along with a couple of other guidelines in order to receive a full refund under the job guarantee.  

Income Share Agreement 

Income share agreements are offered by coding bootcamps as a form of a job guarantee. It allows students to enroll in and complete the bootcamp program without paying the tuition upfront. Instead, the bootcamp provider provides funding for tuition and only expects repayment once students have secured a job. 

Although the income share percentage and duration of agreement varies depending on the school, the bootcamp only receives between 10 to 15 percent of the student’s monthly income. The agreement typically lasts for 12 to 24 months. Most bootcamp providers have certain requirements that students must fulfill to prove their effort in finding a job. 

Deferred Tuition

Deferred tuition fees and revenue share agreements are similar in that the student at a bootcamp can defer payment of the tuition fee until after graduation. The main distinction is that a deferred tuition fee does not necessarily mean the student isn’t obligated to pay until they find employment. Rather, students who defer payment are expected to pay by completion of the program.  

However, if you enroll in a bootcamp that offers both deferred tuition and a job guarantee, the agreement will largely resemble that of an ISA. You’ll be guaranteed to find employment within a certain time frame and will be required to follow certain guidelines. If you aren’t hired within the guaranteed period, you won’t be obligated to pay the tuition. Alternatively, if you are hired within that time frame, you’ll be expected to begin paying the tuition.

Coding Bootcamps with Job Guarantees

Bootcamp	Format	Programs	Tuition	Job Guarantee
Bloc	Online	Web Development, Web Design	$7,500	Full Refund
Bloom Institute of Technology	Online	Full Stack Development, Data Science, Backend Development, Web Development	$21,950	ISA
BrainStation	Online, In-Person	Data Science, UX/UI Design, Web Development, Digital Marketing	$15,000	ISA
Byte Academy	Online	Python, Intro to Python, Data Science, Intro to Data Science, Software Development	$1,500	ISA
CareerFoundry	Online	UX Design, UI Design, Web Development, Data Analytics	$7,505	Full refund
Codeup	In-Person	IT/Systems Engineering, Cyber Cloud, Web Development, Data Science	$22,500	Full tuition refund
Flatiron School	Online, In-Person	Software Engineering, Data Science, Cybersecurity Engineering, Product Design	$16,900	ISA
Hack Reactor	Online, In-Person	Software Engineering	$18,000	ISA
Springboard	Online	Data Science, Data Engineering, UX Design, UI/UX Design, Machine Learning Engineering, Data Analytics, Software Engineering, Cybersecurity	$7,900 to $11,900	Full tuition refund
Thinkful	Online	Data Science, Data Analytics, UX/UI Design, Digital Marketing, Technical Project Management	$7,000 to $21,000	ISA

Best Coding Bootcamps with Job Guarantees: A Deep Dive

Bloc

Job Guarantee Details: The bootcamp offers a full tuition refund if the applicant can’t get a job within 180 days of graduating. 

Prospective students of this bootcamp should know that the reason the bootcamp is confident in offering the full tuition fee policy is because it has faith in its students and programs. It knows that when enrollees immerse in its programs, they will be well equipped with all the skills necessary to be competitive in the workplace. 

Before you can be entitled to the full refund of tuition payments, students are required to get accepted into the program and enroll in refund-covered courses, such as web development and web design. The bootcamp has a career advisor who offers career support services, such as mentorship. This improves the student’s chances of landing a high-paying full-time job.

Bloom Institute of Technology 

Job Guarantee Details: The bootcamp supports an ISA agreement that requires the student to pay 14 percent of their monthly income if they get hired and earn at least $50,000 annually. 

Unlike other bootcamps where students don’t have to pay anything, Bloom Institute of Technology, formerly known as Lambda School, requires students to pay a small fraction of the total tuition fee upfront. This is a fundamental requirement for enrollment. 

After graduating and making at least $50,000 annually, the company will require you to pay at least 14 percent of it every month. You will only stop paying if you hit the stipulated ISA cap, completed a total of 48 payments, or maxed your ISA cap. If you don’t get hired, you won’t have to pay anything. 

BrainStation

Job Guarantee Details: The bootcamp supports an ISA agreement requiring students to pay 10 percent of their monthly income if they get hired and reach the minimum income threshold for their region. 

BrainStation’s ISA is not for everyone. It’s only available for students enrolling in the twelve-week diploma course in either data science, UX/UI design, or web development. The bootcamp gives students a maximum of 96 months to pay the tuition fees. 

The good thing about BrainStation is that they cap the repayment to only 150 percent of the total tuition fees. If the student stops earning the amount set as the minimum threshold, the deductions will also stop until they’re back on their feet.

Byte Academy 

Job Guarantee Details: The bootcamp offers an ISA agreement where they get a certain percentage of the student’s salary once they get hired after completing the bootcamp.

This popular coding bootcamp offers an ISA agreement that authorizes them to get up to 15 percent of the graduate’s salary once they get employed. The bootcamp has an existing partnership with Leif, so once you qualify, the latter will be managing your ISA. 

Although this agreement allows you to study now and pay later, the bootcamp warns that this is the most expensive of all financing options. If you qualify for Byte Academy’s ISA, you will only pay your tuition fee if you find tech jobs that could pay you at least $40,000 per year. Furthermore, the said ISA is set at a maximum of $30,000.

CareerFoundry

Job Guarantee Details: The bootcamp offers a full tuition refund for students who cannot land an in-field job within five months of graduating. 

Based on their track record, 97% of the students who finished their bootcamps all got hired within 180 days of graduating. Because of this impressive record, the bootcamp is eager and confident enough to offer a full-tuition refund to anyone who enrolled in their refund-covered programs but didn’t get hired.

Codeup

Job Guarantee Details: The school will refund 10 percent of the tuition paid if the student cannot land a course-related job within six months of graduation. 

Before the applicant is eligible for the guaranteed refund, they must meet the bootcamp’s requirements. These requirements include being of legal age, having legal employment status in the country, not having a criminal record, and being in the “in-field category” in the United States. 

These in-field roles include front end developer, quality assurance engineer, computer programmer, software developer, web application developer, web developer, and web programmer. As far as data science roles are concerned, anyone who applied to become business analysts, machine lead engineers, data architects, and so on is entitled to a refund. 

Flatiron School 

Job Guarantee Details: The bootcamp supports an ISA agreement requiring students to pay 10 percent of their monthly income if they get hired. 

This type of job guarantee states that six months after graduating from the bootcamp and getting hired, the bootcamp will require you to pay at least 10 percent of your gross monthly pay. However, you will only be made to pay this amount if you earn at least $3,333.34 every month or at least $40,000 a year. 

You will be given a grace period of six months after leaving the program before you will be required to pay back your tuition fees. After that, you will be paying the same amount for 48 months. If there are months that you won’t earn the minimum income threshold, you will be given an extension of up to 96 months to repay everything. 

Hack Reactor

Job Guarantee Details: Students only repay the tuition once they earn at least $60,000 per year. 

Students are required to pay a $100 non-refundable deposit, before deferring the remaining balance. If you land a job right after that pays at least $60,000 per year, you are still given at least two to three months before you’re required to repay your tuition. Once you begin repaying your tuition, you’re only required to pay 10 percent.

Students who aren’t making at least $60,000 annually are not required to begin repayment. The ISA freezes, which also means it isn’t accumulating interest. To qualify for the ISA, students must be US citizens or permanent residents or possess a valid Employment Authorization Document (EAD).

Springboard

Job Guarantee Details: The bootcamp offers a full tuition refund for students who couldn’t land an in-field job within six months of graduating from the bootcamp. 

For the student to be entitled to a full refund of the tuition fee they paid or borrowed from the bootcamp’s financing partners, they must be of a certain age at the time of enrollment and refund. You also need to have a college degree from an accredited academic institution. 

The bootcamp requires students to be proficient in written and spoken English. Their admissions team will check this during your interview. They require you to be legally allowed to work in Canada or the United States for the next two years after you graduate. Once you fulfill these requirements, you can join their immersive programs. 

Thinkful 

Job Guarantee Details: The bootcamp supports an ISA agreement requiring students to pay 10 percent of their monthly income if they get hired. 

The bootcamp offers an ISA for students who cannot afford to pay for their tuition fees. The students will only be required to repay their bootcamp fees when they get hired. However, getting hired doesn’t mean automatic deduction as the bootcamp sets the deductible income amount to $40,000. 

Students are required to pay 15 percent of their gross monthly income as tuition fee repayment. They are also given a minimum of two to three months after graduation to start repaying their loans. 

Do Companies Hire Coding Bootcamp Graduates?

Yes, companies hire coding bootcamp grads. In fact, according to Flatiron School, in a 2019 report, 93 percent of the 660 students who graduated from its programs and completed the job search cycle got hired within a year of graduating. 

Additionally, Springboard reports that its program graduates have found employment in a variety of industries and companies, including Samsung, Visa, IMB, Google, and Salesforce. Bootcamp graduates are well equipped for the workplace and are often hired by companies that are partnered with the bootcamp provider.

Is a Coding Bootcamp Worth It?

Yes, enrolling in a coding bootcamp is worth it. First and foremost, the demand for the skills that are developed in bootcamp programs is high. Most bootcamp educators are industry professionals who ensure students graduate with all of the knowledge and hands-on experience they need to thrive in their careers.  

In addition, bootcamps are pretty lenient when it comes to tuition repayment. It’s reasonable that they set certain income thresholds before requiring students to pay back their loans. If you’re interested in switching careers or pursuing a new field, enrolling in a bootcamp program will allow you to quickly, flexibly, and effectively reach your professional goal.