There we go, it was curiosity then. I was a late bloomer and didn't program till I was 12 and that was modding Command and Conquer.

If you don't have intellectual curiosity, then I think your career prospects in software engineering will be limited.

Perhaps I should have articulated it better above.

What I meant is that many of these bootcampers don't have that curiosity or drive to have touched code before their course. Even after getting a job, I've asked them about coding outside of work etc. they're not interested.

> If you don't have intellectual curiosity, then I think your career prospects in software engineering will be limited.

This part I fully agree with.

Do not equate "boot camp" and "would rather sit at a computer than mine coal" for a lack of intellectual curiousity though. I have personally met grads _from the boot camp in question in this article_ who clearly do have it - while spending their work days writing Ruby for web apps, they were spending evenings learning C, assembler and the operating system fundamentals that their particular route into the industry meant they missed out on.

You think there aren't tons of people who do CS degrees that lack curiosity? I've helped students with their CS homework who, when I asked why they were majoring in CS when they obviously did not like it, literally said their parents picked their major. So, I'm sorry, when people on here say that getting a bachelors in CS is some indicator of "natural curiosity" aka "geekiness" I would say it is the complete opposite.

I should add I don't have a CS degree, yet I'm doing the homework for the "dedicated" "curious" "high aptitude" etc. CS grads you'll be hiring later. Ha.