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Behind the scenes

Why mentorship doesn’t end at graduation

The first 90 days in a new tech role decide whether someone stays in the industry.

BM
Brendon Maungwe
Director of Alumni Success · Feb 26, 2026 · 5 min read
Why mentorship doesn’t end at graduation

The single biggest predictor of whether one of our graduates stays in tech five years after their bootcamp isn’t their grades or their portfolio. It’s whether they had someone to call in their first 90 days on the job.

The first 90 days are brutal

“I thought I was the only one drowning. Turned out half my cohort was drowning in their own offices and we just weren’t talking about it.”

— Cohort 12 alumna, now Senior Engineer at Discovery

What we built

Three things, all free for life to alumni: a mentor pod, an alumni-only Slack with 800+ active members, and quarterly in-person meetups.

Did it work?

Our 2024 cohort’s 12-month attrition rate is 7%. Same hiring market, same starting salaries, dramatically different retention.

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