Article
Web Developer Salaries After Coding Bootcamps
Written By Imogen Crispe
Last updated on March 10, 2021
Written By Imogen Crispe
Course Report strives to create the most trust-worthy content about coding bootcamps. Read more about Course Report’s Editorial Policy and How We Make Money.
Course Report strives to create the most trust-worthy content about coding bootcamps. Read more about Course Report’s Editorial Policy and How We Make Money.
What will your salary be after coding bootcamp? Coding bootcamps are judged almost entirely by their ability to find students high-paying jobs as web developers. Some schools release data about alumni jobs, others offer money-back job guarantees or deferred tuition, but how much are students earning when they graduate and how does their earning potential change as they gain experience? Every year, Course Report surveys real coding bootcamp graduates to better understand who is graduating from coding bootcamps and how successful they are in the workforce. Let’s explore the web developer salaries that alumni see after a bootcamp.
In Course Report’s most recent study of 3,043 graduates, we find that coding bootcamp graduates earn an average $69,079, with a median salary of $65,000 in their first jobs.
Not only is that salary impressive, but it also marks a 56% salary increase in comparison to an alumni’s pre-bootcamp salary. For some, like former administration worker Devon Lindsey, the raise is even more transformative: “I quadrupled my salary and have this whole new exciting career coming my way,” she says. Linguistics and anthropology major Ileana Ordonez also saw her salary quadruple after graduating from General Assembly’s Web Development Immersive: “I knew exactly how much I was worth when I negotiated [my salary]... I actually got more than what I was looking for, which blew my mind and I’m really happy about it.”
We found that about 66% of coding bootcamp grads found their jobs within 90 days or less.
As bootcamp grads progress in their careers, salaries rise as well. In this latest survey, we found that in their second jobs, bootcamp graduates earn $80,943 per year, and by their third jobs, alumni report earning, on average, $99,229 per year! This data confirms that as new grads become more experienced web developers, they’re also increasingly valuable to their teams and companies (and can command higher salaries).
For example, Julia worked for nonprofits before attending Sabio, and now four years after graduating, her salary rings in over $100,000.
David, a former high school teacher, graduated from Codesmith in 2016 and landed a job at small online health startup MedCircle. After 10 months there, learning and growing as an engineer, David accepted a job as a Web Solutions Engineer at Google, where the average salary is $120,081.
Post-graduation salaries certainly depend on factors like background and education. However, while the lack of a college degree can limit your career, programming is a field that values ability over degrees. Coding bootcamp graduates without bachelor’s degrees still see an average salary of $61,836 – which is an average increase of 77% compared to their pre-bootcamp salaries.
For example, Temple Naylor attended The Tech Academy at age 19, without going to college, and landed a Lead Developer role after graduating.
Coding bootcamp grads who have a bachelor's degree see a salary increase of 57% to $71,267.
There is a significant difference in salary between complete beginners, and people who have done some self teaching.
Graduates who were complete beginners before bootcamp saw an average salary of $66,748 in their first jobs.
Graduates who taught themselves some code before bootcamp make an average of $69,854 in their first jobs.
Graduates who were experienced programmers before bootcamp make an average of $76,735 in their first jobs.
For example, Emma, a graduate of The Software Guild, learned some R and Python before starting the bootcamp, and is now working as developer at Best Buy. She reflects on her career change: “I was a volunteer before this job, so by moving into this career, my salary multiplied by six.”
Programming languages definitely impact a bootcamp grad’s hireability and salary! Bootcamp grads who learned Swift reported the highest average salary of $90,500. Those who learned Ruby on Rails reported an average salary of $81,111, and students who learned Python saw average salaries of $78,604. Bootcamp grads who learned C# also reported high employment at 92% and make on average $59,752.
In addition to pre-bootcamp experience, salaries seem to be influenced by location. Graduates working in San Francisco make the highest salaries; the average is $97,666. Next up is Seattle where grads make an average of $88,586. Graduates working in New York City had the third highest average salary of $87,205.
However, living costs are likely to be higher in those tech hubs in Seattle, San Francisco, and New York City, so make sure to take that into consideration when looking for a job.
Based on data from our 2020 Coding Bootcamp Graduate Outcomes Survey, these are the most popular job titles that bootcamp grads reported:
Software Engineer
Front-End Developer
Junior/Associate Developer
QA Engineer
Mobile Developer
For a deep dive into what these jobs entail, the languages you need to learn, and which bootcamps teach them, check out our guide to Web Developer Jobs!
While our Outcomes study reports on data in aggregate, many schools release their own outcomes reports.
Hack Reactor graduates have a median starting salary of $70,000 in Los Angeles, $95,000 in New York City, $115,000 in San Francisco
Flatiron School graduates earn an average of $76,000 in New York City
Fullstack Academy graduates have a median starting salary of $72,000 in Chicago, $90,000 in New York City
Tech Elevator graduates have a median starting salary of $55,000 in Cincinnati, of $55,000 in Cleveland, $61,000 in Columbus, $62,000 in Pittsburgh
The Software Guild graduates have median starting salary of $65,000 in Minneapolis, $44,340 in Louisville
Thinkful online bootcamp graduates have a median starting salary of $62,000 in the full-time program, $60,000 in the part-time program
Turing bootcamp graduates in Denver have a median starting salary of $79,500 in the back-end program, $73,000 in the front-end program
Note: All of the above numbers are self-reported about graduates who successfully completed each course, and some of them have been evaluated by a third-party auditor. Also note that some of these results are reported via averages, and some via medians, so the amounts may not always be comparable. You can find more coding bootcamp outcomes data at the Council on Integrity Results Reporting.
Number one: do some self-teaching! As we saw above, graduates who had done some self-teaching earned almost $8,000 more than those who were complete beginners.
Having a college degree certainly helps, but it’s still possible to land a respectable salary without one. Finding a job in a city with higher salaries can help too, but the living costs may be higher in those areas.
No matter what, the most successful bootcampers commit to a goal and work hard before, during and after bootcamp to land a well-paying job. One of those successful alumni, Tom Goldenberg, approached bootcamp with a lot of intensity: “My advice is you do really have to go above and beyond,” he says. “You have to network and build really non-trivial projects to showcase for employers to get that full-time position.”
Then once you graduate, it’s all about networking, meeting people, and showcasing your skills.
FURTHER READING
Imogen is a writer and content producer who loves exploring technology and education in her work. Her strong background in journalism, writing for newspapers and news websites, makes her a contributor with professionalism and integrity.
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