Why throw your money away on expensive bootcamps when you can just teach yourself everything?!

My first programming gig was before college, and I was completely self-taught (this was before CS was offered in 99% of high schools).

Learning how to program was easy. I was probably a better web developer in middle school than I am now (although JQuery happened at the tail end of my web programming days, so there was a lot less complexity. Or at least a different type of complexity).

I needed the formal structure of a degree program to learn CS. Past Linear Algebra or so, the math became too difficult to learn on my own.

I expect I'm pretty typical in that respect.

If someone tells me they taught themselves how to program, I usually don't think twice about it. Just a "me too, aint it grand!" If someone tells me they taught themselves CS, I'm much more impressed (and therefore, in the case of hiring, incredulous).