Lately there has been a great deal of talk among tech industry observers about the possibility that we are currently experiencing a tech bubble. The reason has to do with the astronomical amounts of money that are being poured into companies that aren't particularly profitable or useful. Twitter recently held an initial public offering (IPO) and the company is currently valued at $22 billion, despite the fact that it has yet to break even. Recently, the industry was embarrassed by the news that Yo, an app whose sole function is allowing users to send messages saying "Yo" to each other, was able to raise $1 million in angel seed funding.
While it's true that there are many dumb ideas out there that are somehow able to attract investments, this isn't the sign of a bubble, just bad business tactics. It would be one thing if many of the biggest tech successes of the last decade, such as Apple's resurgence and Google's dominance in search, were built on a flimsy foundation of useless products. But these companies are creating terrific hardware and software that actually solves problems for customers. Ditto for Uber, Facebook, Amazon and many other major technology firms.
If you've been thinking about enrolling in a web dev bootcamp to start your coding career, but you're discouraged by the fact that so many industry prognosticators have been predicting a tech bubble, don't be alarmed. Companies like Yo may be creating ridiculous apps that won't have much staying power, but there are thousands of other companies that are generating real profits by creating products and services that people want to buy. Furthermore, those trained in software developing need not necessarily go work for a company in the technology industry, as there are plenty of opportunities with companies whose main business isn't tech-related, though they still need IT professionals to help maintain their databases, hardware and software.