Have you gone through Hack Reactor or Dev Bootcamp? Was it worth it? What kind of job did you get after? Where? Were there jobs for you in Chicago? Are you able to advance in that job or are you stuck in an entry level position? What are you/have you built?

I attended the McCarthy TeamworX BootCamp, a one-week workshop about "How to deliver great software on time every time." It fundamentally changed my understanding of what I do as a Software Engineer in many ways.  It opened the door for me to become something that I probably would never have stumbled upon. Three of the top revelations were: 1) Making Software is an art, and it goes through the same ups and downs of creation that painting or writing go through...every time. 2) Building Software is solving problems for People in Time. 3) That when a development team learns to communicate at a high level, the capabilities of that team can expand geometrically. As far as what that got me, everything on my rhttp://vikoren.com/resume/ after 1996, I will credit to that Boot-camp and I will always be grateful to Jim McCarthy for opening my eyes. In answer to the advancement question, the main way to advance from an entry level position is by changing companies.  It always amazes me when I see a company allowing people that they trained to move on to higher paying positions elsewhere without doing promotions from within, but it is still quite common. Probably the coolest thing that I have built is my current project: 'Raider Camp', a drop-in solution for Enemy AI in Unity.  It's about four months away from completion.

A very effective way to answer this question is to look on LinkedIn and search for "Dev Bootcamp". Then... How many of these say "Software Developer at [Place I'd like to work]" as their current job? Do these people seem like folks you'd want to spend a few months working and learning with? Contact them, randomly, and ask about the experience. Do they think it makes sense for your situation and goals? Ask for referrals to other graduates to talk to. You can take a similar approach on Twitter, or Google for "Dev Bootcamp blog" and read student/graduate blogs. I think this random sampling is a lot more reliable than Yelp or other review aggregators (our Yelp is here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/dev-bootcamp-san-francisco ). But to answer your question directly: Chicago is full of people trying to hire Dev Bootcamp graduates. Most telling for me is the number of shops that have hired a DBC grad, and then come back for more (ThoughtWorks, 8th Light, BrightTag, Instructure...). Talk to our graduates.