If you’re considering enrolling as a student at a coding bootcamp, Los Angeles is a vibrant and historic city with many bootcamp options for those wanting to learn to code in an immersive environment. While Hollywood continues to draw the arts to Southern California, LA’s startup scene is beginning to build a reputation of its own. Los Angeles has seen significant growth in tech jobs over the last decade.

If you’re thinking about moving out to the beach in pursuit of a coding bootcamp education and jobs, there are a few important factors before applying and enrolling in the best bootcamps in the City of Angels. First, you should decide which coding bootcamp will suit your needs and offer programming courses that are relevant to your interests (commonly offered courses are in front-end web development, back-end development, full-stack, experience design, and data science,). There are many different types of coding bootcamps, all with their educational style and focus on specific programming languages and technologies.

Second, it’s also important to think about your budget; The tuition for coding bootcamps can vary greatly by the type of program offered and any scholarships or income share agreements offered. For all coding bootcamps, make sure you’re practicing some introductory programming, or are enrolled in bootcamp prep classes before beginning the immersive course.

Benefits of a Coding Bootcamp in Los Angeles

Growth in the tech industry took off in Los Angeles over the past decade. More than 500 startups have set up shop between LAX and Santa Monica, adopting the moniker “Silicon Beach.” Considering the cost of living in LA, the high average salaries of these roles are a must for developers who relocate permanently to the city after they become a bootcamp grad.

The city’s glitz and reputation for attracting capable future coworkers is a draw for your software developer and UX professionals as well. There are many benefits of living and working in Los Angeles as well as a surplus of career opportunities that await those with tech skills after they finish a programming bootcamp. Companies in the greater Los Angeles area (big and small) are hiring tech talent at a scorching pace. Every industry the city is known for - production, fashion, film, retail, & agriculture - is making it a priority to recruit the type of talent that can combine digital expertise with their core product. Tech unicorns like Snap built a home in Santa Monica. Sony has a presence in Los Angeles as well as almost all of the major production houses and larger entertainment companies like Universal, Hulu, and Activision. There’s no shortage of opportunities when you're living and working in one of America's largest tech hubs.

Los Angeles tech jobs offer some key advantages over tech-related positions in other cities. Notably, employees of Los Angeles tech companies have a higher cost of living when compared to cities like Chicago, and they are well-compensated to make up for that difference. which have higher living expenses. Even better? Despite the lower cost of living, salaries are still competitive with coastal cities. Jobs in the tech industry include average salaries of nearly $140,000 for a software engineer, $110,000 for a Design/UX professional, and $113,000 for a Data Scientist in 2020. Los Angeles’s coding bootcamps feature training for each of those positions.

Some of the best coding schools made sure to set up in downtown Los Angeles, and some also offer an online coding bootcamp beyond the in-person programs. The physical campuses for notable bootcamps such as Coding Dojo, BeachCoders, UCLA Extension, and CodeSmith are located a stone’s throw from some of Los Angeles’s best beaches and nightlife. Los Angeles is an ideal city to both settle long-term or spend a year or two during your bootcamp experience and after you land your next job as a software engineer.

Benefits of a Coding Bootcamp in Los Angeles

Los Angeles gets 284 days of sun, a welcome feeling in the afternoon after a full day of coding indoors. As the third most innovative tech hub in the U.S., Los Angeles has a strong job market for developers and its education is kicking in full gear to meet the demand: Commercial Observer reports that the L.A. region is producing the 2nd highest number of tech degrees in America. Due to surging venture capital levels flowing into Los Angeles tech startups, the need for developers will continue to grow, with an estimated 15% more demand by 2026.

But even outside of work or a coding bootcamp experience, Los Angeles is one the hottest places to live in the world. While its economy continues to mint new business leaders and Hollywood stars, there are many popular activities for normal hardworking developers who live here. The music scene in Los Angeles is a mega draw, with domestic and international travelers flocking annually to nearby Coachella or seeing global megastars at the Hollywood bowl. World-famous restaurants on the Sunset Strip bring celebrities and locals together for an evening out. Pages of ink have been spilled about the past and present nightlife of Los Angeles, but for the developers that defy our stereotype and enjoy long walks and natural attractions, there are many beaches and parks nearby for hikes and exercise, notably the fifteen beaches in L.A. county.

This town doesn’t get by on its reputation but continues to remake itself every day. Its success as a city and what it means to the country’s overall economic health may be an understatement, but Los Angeles is an American powerhouse for so many industries. To put this into perspective, Los Angeles has one of the world’s largest and most diversified economies, with a GDP higher than the county of Saudi Arabia. Coding bootcamp graduates have many options should they want to stay in the area to begin their tech career. "La-La land" is a global economic powerhouse.

What to Know Before Attending a Coding Bootcamp in Los Angeles

Before attending a coding bootcamp in Los Angeles, start to think about the types of jobs you want and the commitment needed to secure a coding job. Depending on the course you choose, the commitment and time required for a coding bootcamp varies. On average, immersive courses take about 12 weeks to complete. There are different training paths offered depending on the chosen programming language, data science immersion, or design focus that require varying levels of knowledge about topics covered in their curriculums.

Most coding schools will require a certain level of proficiency and knowledge before beginning the coding bootcamp. Whether you have previous experience coding or preparing for the assessment, programs will require you to pass a technical assessment or some other type of test. This is a given to assure the students have a fruitful experience. Most bootcamps move very quickly and build upon a solid understanding of a given programming language from day 1.

Researching bootcamps before applying to them will help you narrow down which program best fits your needs and provide guidance on where your skill level should be before your technical interview. Beginning to engage with the course material and other prospective students gives some invaluable insight into whether you are enrolling in the right program for you.

How to Pay for Bootcamps in Los Angeles

Coding bootcamps are a great way to learn coding and become proficient at it quickly, but there’s certainly a cost involved. Most bootcamps charge around $12,000 for around 12 to 16 weeks of the learning experience. Here are a few options on how you can pay for tuition outside of funding all of it upfront:

• Income Share Agreements: Certain programs will offer an income share agreement (or ISA for short). These ISA agreements stipulate that the tuition cost for the bootcamp will be deferred until after you land a job. This generally means that there is no cost upfront, and a portion of each of your paychecks will go toward paying back your coding bootcamp experience. The tradeoff is that in return for deferred future payment, the tuition will be elevated to a higher cost.
• Third-Party Financing Options: Coding bootcamps accept a host of third-party financing options and loans. Companies like Meritize and Ascent are two popular options geared toward financing professional training for prospective students.
• Coding Bootcamp Scholarships: For almost every coding bootcamp program, there are tech scholarships awarded for each cohort of students. These scholarships are generally geared toward specific demographics such as underrepresented groups, the LGBTQ+ community, military veterans, and those who are looking to make a career transition. There are also scholarships offered based on the needs and life experiences of prospective students. Some of these scholarships require full written essays or short-form written responses.

How to Determine Which Los Angeles Coding Bootcamp Is Right for You

Searching for, narrowing down, and ultimately signing up for an on-ground or online coding bootcamp is easy if you have an idea of what you’re looking for. Best Coding Bootcamps allows you to filter through our detailed database of coding bootcamp locations, costs, program types, program lengths, and more. Let’s look at some of the most common searches our students perform before signing up and getting matched to an immersive bootcamp.

Programming language. If you know which programming language you’re most interested in learning, you can find which bootcamps teach them as part of the course curriculum. Full-stack developers will naturally have exposure to many front-end and back-end programming languages, but let’s say your dream job is working at Facebook. A software engineer at Facebook would want to be well-versed in Javascript, PHP, and MySQL. However, if you’re not sure where to start, most of the online coding bootcamps will teach you to highly popular programming languages to start.

Job placement. Many Los Angeles bootcamps offer job placement assistance after becoming a boot camp grad. The success of job placement programs is a mixed bag, largely because the statistics for the effectiveness of these programs are self-reported, but you can see which of the boot camps offer the service to anyone in the process of completing their online course.

Job guarantee. Some students look for bootcamps that guarantee a job as a software developer (or related field) following the completion of their coursework. We recommend taking these self-reported numbers with a grain of salt and interviewing recent graduates of coding bootcamps on their job placement experience after they completed the online course curriculum.

Full-time or part-time. Everyone’s schedule is different. You can search for a coding school that offers full-time immersion or a longer part-time course depending on what pace you want to go. Most online bootcamps are flexible.

Courses. The first step in your journey toward becoming a web developer, software developer, or data scientist is thinking about what field you want to focus on. You can search for boot camps that offer full-stack web development, front-end development, and back-end development. Perhaps you’d rather pursue data science and focus on machine learning algorithms in a data science bootcamp. Maybe you'd rather concentrate on combating the rising cybersecurity issues in the tech industry And for the design-minded and creatives who want to transition into UX/UI as a graphic designer with front-end coding expertise? A coding school education in sunny Los Angeles offers any of these options.

These considerations are some of the many factors prospective students weigh before deciding to ultimately choose to become a web developer.

Deciding to Attend a Coding Bootcamp in Los Angeles

Whether you’re a certified Los Angelean or planning a move, this city offers ample opportunities for learning and working that cover the spectrum of programming languages and future jobs in tech sector and beyond. Once you understand your intentions for what you want to do in the tech world, whether it be software development, web development, computer science, etc., you'll have a good start to make an informed decision on which program is right for you. A Los Angeles coding bootcamp can unlock the opportunity to work in a premiere U.S. city with a solid and diversified economy. With many outlets to take advantage of outside of learning and working hours, current students and bootcamp graduates alike will have plenty to keep themselves busy. If you are considering continuing, transitioning to, or starting a tech career or going into software engineering, Click here to find your future Los Angeles coding bootcamp.