Coding bootcamps can be an incredible way to establish new skills and transition your career into a new role in tech. While bootcamps are typically more affordable, and students can complete the necessary coursework in a fraction of the time required of a full-fledged degree program, there still is an element of risk for career switchers.
That’s why some offer a money-back guarantee policy, allowing students to recoup some—if not all—of the cost of the program if they aren’t able to land a job within a specified period of time after graduation.
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“The job guarantee tells students that when we admit them and train them in our program, we expect them to be job-ready by graduation,” says Jeff Katz, founder of Jigsaw Labs. “Many of the students are looking for a new position at the end of the bootcamp, so the job guarantee helps to ensure that the goals of the students and the program are aligned.”
Each program has its own rules around the offer, so check with your desired bootcamp to be sure the terms are as you understand them. But, for the most part, the idea is that these schools are so confident their curriculum and job search support deliver that they’ll bet your tuition on it. Here’s what you need to know.
1. Jigsaw Labs
This part-time bootcamp is designed to be taken around your life and already-established career. In the 2021-2022 school year, Jigsaw Labs reported a 90% graduation rate with 100% of graduates landing a job within nine months of completing the program. In fact, program directors are so confident that graduating students will come out of Jigsaw Labs with a job that they offer a money-back guarantee.
If a student achieves 95% attendance and doesn’t receive a job offer in a software- or data-related field within nine months of graduation, the student will receive a full refund.
2. Beginex
Students at Beginex can enter the program knowing their investment will likely land them a UX (user experience) job upon graduation, since they’re guaranteed a full refund if they don’t. The program includes five weeks of career coaching and feedback on job hunting and building a UX portfolio.
“We figured out the formula for what exactly is needed to make someone a highly marketable UX candidate that employers really want to hire,” says founder Michael Lapin. “I love the guarantee because it really shows to students that we are not just looking to sell them some courses and be done with it. What we are looking to do is to help ensure that they actually achieve their desired outcome: a UX role.”
3. Thinkful
While Thinkful reports that more than 80% of employed grads receive job offers within 180 days of graduation, the school has a tuition refund policy. It states that individuals who aren’t offered a “qualifying position” within 180 days are eligible to receive a full refund on tuition.
There are, of course, some detailed benchmarks students must hit to be eligible, including living within an hour of a tech-centered city, actively working with a Thinkful career coach, applying to at least 30 in-field appropriate jobs per week, leveraging Thinkful’s job tracker platform, and more.
4. Skillcrush
The job guarantee at Skillcrush offers a 100% money-back guarantee. Here’s how it works: If a student completes all of the coding bootcamp curriculum, religiously follows the school’s get hired track, commits to the Skillcrush job hunt plan and still doesn’t have a job within six months of graduation, then the school will refund tuition.
5. App Academy
At App Academy, some students are able to defer paying tuition until they’ve graduated and landed a job—and this is true for program options that offer a deferred or income share agreement (ISA).
“Students are in an eligible period with us after graduating, which varies, dependent on the program they are in,” says Wesley West, head of admissions at App Academy. “If they don’t receive or accept a job offer during that eligible period and they are not earning any income through any other jobs exceeding our earned income threshold, they would not pay tuition.”
West is clear, though, that not all tuition options offer this scenario, so it is important to clarify with the school as you move through the process yourself.
Check out all of Fortune’s rankings of degree programs, and learn more about specific career paths.
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