Run the numbers before you run the career move.
Free calculators and honest reviews that tell you whether that bootcamp, certification, or degree is actually worth your money and time. No hype. Just math.
Real salary data from BLS, Levels.fyi, and Glassdoor. Updated quarterly. Zero sponsored reviews.
Here's what the math actually looks like.
A real worked example using median bootcamp data — every assumption shown.
$15,000 coding bootcamp
- Salary before
- $52,000
- Salary after
- $78,000
- Payback period
- 14 months
- 5-year ROI
- $73,000 net gain
- Break-even probability
- 64% (cohort data)
Cumulative earnings over 5 years
With-bootcamp dips below baseline during tuition + job search, then crosses over and compounds.
Career advice online has a math problem.
Every bootcamp promises a six-figure job. Every certification claims to transform your career. Every degree program shows you the graduates who made it.
What none of them show you is the actual return on your investment — the real cost, the real time, the real salary lift, and how long it actually takes to break even.
CareerROI does the math they don't want you to see.
Start with a calculator.
Plug in your real numbers. We'll show payback period, lifetime gain, and where the math falls apart.
Course & Bootcamp Payback Calculator
Find out how many months until your bootcamp pays for itself — and your 5-year ROI.
Run the numbersJob Offer Comparison
Compare two offers across salary, bonus, equity, benefits, and remote value.
Run the numbersCareer Switch Calculator
Model the multi-year cost of changing fields, including time out of work and salary trajectory.
Run the numbersHonest reviews of the certifications and courses everyone's asking about.
We don't get paid to like things. We do get affiliate commissions when you buy through our links — but the review comes first.
AWS Solutions Architect: ROI breakdown
$150 exam, ~80 hours of study, average $15K salary lift. Here's the realistic version with the math, the failure rate, and who it actually pays off for.
More reviews dropping weekly — get notified
Bootcamp deep-dives, certification ROI breakdowns, and degree program analysis. One email a month, only when something new is worth reading.
Subscribe to the ROI ReportHow we do the math.
Every calculator uses the same approach: real data sources, transparent assumptions, and honest treatment of what we can't predict.
Real data sources
- BLS Occupational Employment Statistics
- Levels.fyi for tech compensation
- Glassdoor self-reported data
- Program-reported outcomes (CIRR)
What we factor in
- Tuition and required fees
- Opportunity cost of lost income
- Time-to-employment after completion
- Salary lift vs. realistic baseline
- Taxes and geographic adjustment
What we don't hide
- Program failure and dropout rates
- Median vs. mean outcomes
- Break-even probability
- Variance across cohorts