DigitalCrafts

Last summer, I was in a small beach town in Spain where I was trying to find myself after a devastating breakup. In the midst of all the Eat, Pray, Love -- I found DigitalCrafts.

I applied to a few coding bootcamps, but this one stuck out to me. I could... Read More tell Jake (co-founder) really genuinely cares about his little baby coders succeeding. That meant a lot. So I went for it. And what a wild ride it was.

This cohort was like season one of The Real World. There were laughs, there were tears, there were beers, and there were a lot of moments of frustration. There were definitely times where I felt like I couldn't do it and/or I didn't want to do it, but fortunately I had Damian to lean on and my amazing classmates who were also going through the struggle to look to for strength. Which brings me to my next point -- Damian is the Lebron James of teaching people how to code while simultaneously being a great friend and mentor. I absolutely would not be where I am as both a programmer and person without him. And for me, that's where the value in this program was. If I continued trying to do it on my own with online tutorials and such, I never would've gotten the mentorship of someone as brilliant as Damian. I was really fortunate to have been able to have him as my instructor.

Being part of the very first, guinea pig, test-dummy cohort in Houston definitely had a few kinks and quirks and oddities, but being the first to do anything comes with those things. I mistakenly thought that the job assistance would be an active part of the program throughout, but it's something that mostly begins towards the end of the program, and it's mostly resume and portfolio assistance. It wasn't a dealbreaker for me though. Basically, if you apply for jobs and put yourself out there and they'll do the best they can to hype you up and make you look good.

As for my career now, I've been approached about and hired for several freelance remote design and front-end gigs. I decided that while it's great knowing how to work the back-end, it's not something I'm interested in pursuing as a career right now. That's another cool thing about DigitalCrafts -- they're totally supportive of whatever direction you decide you want to go.

(Sidebar: Digital Crafts teaches full-stack web development, and doesn't do design, UI/UX stuff. They spent probably 2 or 3 days on CSS and Sass, but it was enough to light a fire in my heart that sent me running towards it.) Obviously, your mileage will vary, but if you find something that speaks to you while you're in the course (for me that was front-end stuff) run with it and work on it in your spare time, you'll probably be able to find someone who wants to pay you to do it.

Anyway, I think Jake and Max are on to something here, and I'm excited to see what Digital Crafts HTX becomes in the future. If you're considering doing this, I'd say go for it. I know pretty much everyone else has said the same thing, but man, it's true -- this changed my life.

I just completed the program and it exceeded my expectations in every way possible. The instruction is extraordinary, the class size is perfect, the curriculum is rigorous and challenging (but doable as long as a student is committed), the career support... Read More is extremely helpful, and the administration truly cares about the ongoing progress and success of every student. I'd recommend digital crafts to any prospective student as long as they are ready for a challenge and are willing to put the work and time in necessary to be successful in such a immersive program.

I recently graduated from Digital Crafts and it has been one of the best educational experiences I have ever had. I definitely wouldn't have been able to gain the confidence and knowledge to become a web developer in such a short amount of time without... Read More Digital Crafts. The instructors and staff are genuinely willing to help you, and I've only had good experiences with them.

The instructors are highly qualified, and took the time to work with students if they were falling behind or ahead of the class. The curriculum is designed to teach you the most marketable technology skill set. The course is very fast paced, and I did have to put in lots of time outside of the classroom to learn and finish projects.

We were provided with very good documentation to help you succeed in finding a job. They even have a person on staff who will provide you with thorough feedback on your resume, portfolio, github, and LinkedIn profile.

The first time I had ever attempted to code was for the entrance quiz to DigitalCrafts. In the 8 months since then, I have developed the skills, confidence and eagerness to pursue a career in web development. This could not have been done without the... Read More amazing support of the instructors and campus counselors at DigitalCrafts.

One person in particular, my course instructor Toby, was extremely patient with me during the many moments that I doubted myself throughout the 16-week process. He is committed to helping his students at any stage in their learning process, both in and out of the classroom. From what I understand, DigitalCrafts hires instructors who are not only extremely knowledgeable of the topics covered in the curriculum, but also very patient and driven to help students learn in what might be the most challenging endeavor of their lives.

In addition, my campus counselors played an integral part in keeping me sane and assured during this process. They were very helpful to each student in the area of job assistance. I never had to wait long to hear feedback on items such as my resume, portfolio, and job-hunting inquiries. They reached out to potential employers and developed relationships with companies that have gone on to hire many graduates from DigitalCrafts. The professionalism of Max, Jake, Natalie, and Katy, just to name a few, is second to none.

I would highly recommend other beginners take the plunge and enroll in DigitalCrafts. I promise you won't find a better support network than the great people at this bootcamp.

You can't go wrong with DigitalCrafts. I had a good bit of experience programming before enrolling at DigitalCrafts but the class was still a lot of work. You will get out what you put into the class. 16 weeks seems like a long time but it takes that... Read More much time to cover the material sufficiently. Great instructors and support staff. I've wanted to be a software developer for a long time and with the help from DC I now am.

I left a good job to come to digital crafts and I do not regret it at all! I learned more in 16 week than I did 3 years in college and have a portfolio that I would not have dreamed of while in college.

3 students had job offers before the end of the course... Read More and I have been contacted by about 20 (!) recruiters over the past 3 weeks. If you really put in the effort and treat it like a bootcamp, you will get a lot out of it.

Wow... The team at DigitalCrafts does the impossible every day. Rob, the lead instructor, at our graduation admitted,

"The whole bootcamp model is stupid! We take people who don't know how to code at all and in 16 weeks, transform them into Full-Stack... Read More developers who can dominate the job market. That shouldn't be possible!".

And yet, I feel like everyday was a whole new experience with new challenges and multiple successes! We learned so much, that I can pretty much say that most if not all of us will have a fantastic leg up in the software development market.

This really was the ultimate transformation I needed in my life. Coming from somewhat of a technical background, I knew a little about websites, and html/css, but I was nowhere near confident. Starting with the pre-work and all the way through the course, I learned so much that my brain hurt! The pace, while hectic, was manageable with lots of self study and leaning on my fellow classmates, the Developer in Residence, and Rob, my instructor.

By the end, I was looking forward to pushing my skills to the limit and attempt some amazing projects. I will continue to learn and grow throughout my career. I definitely am hooked!

Throughout the course, there have been multiple times where we have been able to participate in hackathons, networking events, meet recruiters and get personal introductions to top tech companies. Jake and Max, along with our fantastic campus director, Natalie, have been instrumental in preparing us for the market every step of the way!

If you haven't figured out yet, I heartily endorse the whole DigitalCrafts team for the work they put in every day!

If you are willing to put in the time, money, and effort, this is the most fantastic way to find a lifelong passion and a career that you will enjoy for many years to come.

Final thoughts: in the immortal words of Shia LaBeouf, "JUST DO IT!!" Make your development dreams come true at DC!

My experience with DigitalCrafts was fantastic and the best experience I have ever had in an educational environment. I started researching coding bootcamps because I wanted a career change. I was unhappy with my current job and wanted to get back into... Read More tech (I have a Computer Information Systems degree from several years prior), but I wanted to get into web development. I emailed and met with several of the schools around Atlanta, but from the very first correspondence, I knew DigitalCrafts was different from the others. I scheduled an in-person interview, spoke with Jake and Max, and they exceeded my expectations. I met Natalie later on and she was just as amazing. I chose DigitalCrafts because of the curriculum they offered, length of the program, location of the school, electives that were offered, and the staff. DigitalCrafts felt more personalized to me and it was evident that the instructors and the staff were very involved with each student and the success of their students.

I attended the September 2016 cohort and from day one, we hit the ground running. Other than the code challenge and pre-work, I had never seen a single line of code before attending DigitalCrafts. Every day we learned something new. The days and nights were long and exhausting, but very well worth it. I lived further away than most of my classmates and my drive was anywhere from one hour twenty minutes to two hours one way, so I stayed late to work on assignments, as well as did other students. We sometimes took advantage of this time and had a small study group session or just helped each other with projects. It was a lot of hard work and very overwhelming at times, but it was worth every single minute. Also, be sure to do the pre-work and if time allows, do more! You can not be too prepared for this immersive course! You will need to have at least a basic understanding of programming concepts and fundamentals. You must be willing to devote a majority (if not all) of your time during this 16-week program to learn everything you can.

Unlike the other coding bootcamps, DigitalCrafts stays on top of the market and adjusts their curriculum as needed to ensure that their students are learning what the industry is demanding. You will receive help and guidance with your portfolio site, resume, LinkedIn Profile, mock interview experience, as well as hear from speakers in the industry talk about their experience and tips to landing your first developer job. The staff and the instructors were always very accessible and attentive to each student. You had several ways that you could contact anyone you needed to get in touch with and the response was always very timely. Also, DigitalCrafts is located inside the Atlanta Tech Village. The people and the atmosphere at ATV are incredibly motivating! You will meet and get to network with an amazing group of people. The energy at ATV is unlike anywhere else! It is intoxicating to be around so may enthusiastic, driven, passionate and genuinely nice people that are involved in tech in one way or another.

If you are looking to attend a coding bootcamp, I would highly encourage you to apply to DigitalCrafts. You will not find a school that is more highly invested in your success. When you are making this type of investment into your future, you will want the best and DigitalCrafts is it!

Around a year ago, I too was pouring over CourseReport, Quora, and whatever else I could find in my initial search of coding schools that I might consider for making a career pivot into the world of software development. The options were overwhelming... Read More to some degree, and I defintiely found reviews of those who'd gone before to be extremely helpful, and I'm somewhat regretful for having taken so long to post up my own experience.

A year ago, my experience with coding equated to:

1. Taking Treehouse tutorials for a few weeks at a time, then doing nothing with coding for months. Then I'd come back, take a few more weeks, and then take a break again. Basically I was excited about all of the information that was out there, but was failing to make the commitment needed to actually build up any base level experience with much of anything. I knew a little HTML,CSS, and very very basic Javascript at this point.

2. I'd taken a CS-101 course through a bootcamp out in Seattle around 4 years ago (I've been dabbling in this for some time), which was actually a really solid month long course that was basically geared as prep/feeder into their bootcamp program. Unfortunately I had a 2 month old son at the time, as well as a full time job, and I basically only absorbed what I was able to understand from the lectures. In failing to do the labs and the projects, I again, failed to really build any lasting knowledge or understanding.

In 2016, I committed myself to making the transition into a developer a reality. At that point, I think I felt certain that I could accomplish it all in a matter of months. Just sign up for a bootcamp, and BAM, I'd be all set and ready to go. I can't speak to how often that actually happens for others, but I can share with you how my year went.

After doing what you're doing right now (investigating options), it became overwhelmingly clear that the top bootcamp/codding school option out there was Hack Reactor. From what I'd read and seen, it looked really like nothing else even came close.

I signed up for the Fulcrum prep program (I'm not sure if they're still offering this by the same name) with the intention to take 6 weeks to devote myself full time to this prep work, applying to bootcamps once I'd convinced myself that I was willing to commit to the change, and that I was capable of making it.

A few weeks into Fulcrum, I'd still failed to pass my first check in (which is basic JS--Codecademy level stuff), and was seriously feeling as though I was going to wash out of all of this after all. Luckily for me, a mentor there took special interest in me, gave me additional work, and encouraged me to keep pressing. After another week to 10 days of hard work, I passed that initial check in. Then I passed the next one (which was working through higher order functions), then I passed the recursion check in. The momentum was building, and I'd managed to tackle the first of what I think most people will run into throughout this process: the "Can I actually do this"' moment.

All of this to say, I think it's important to experience that moment before you even think about applying to a coding school. I think you run the risk of wasting a lot of time and money if you haven't faced being utterly lost, having to demonstrate to another human being (not just passing some entry level coding challenge) some basic grasp of the fundamentals of programing, and in that process coming to a point where you grapple with that fear or rejection, and figure out how you're going to move past it.

If a coding school that you're applying to doesn't seem to appreciate that, or have teachers/mentors that approach pushing you in that direction, then again, I think you're doing yourself a disservice by signing up for that.

I will be forever grateful to Hack Reactor and that mentor as I truly don't believe I'd be where I am today without it.

Now, since this is a review of DigitalCrafts, let me get back to the story. After a couple of months with the Fulcrum online prep course through Hack Reactor, I'd pretty much 100% decided that I personally wanted an in person bootcamp expereince. Some people can likely pull off the online only thing, but that just wasn't working for me. I wanted to be around other people who were pursuing this dream, in an environment set up to make sure I had the best chance for success.

Prior to this point, I had honestly not been very interested in Atlanta area schools. Beyond the poor reviews for GA and Iron Yard, I didn't really like their program structure, or have much interest in learning Ruby. This is not to say that people aren't doing well with these schools--I just had no interest in them. Hack reactor at that point was MEAN stack in its curriculum, and I wanted to find something that mirrored that. **This is before I came to realize that these JS stacks are flavors of the day.

DigitalCrafts was brand new at this point, which gave me pause initially, but their curiculum was what I wanted, it was 4 months, instead of 3, and it was located in the Atlanta Tech Village, so I decided to reach out to them. After coming down for the interview, I was completely sold. Class sizes were capped at 16 people. The professors stayed at school all day (ie not just TA's around for afternoon labs, but the actual professor). I could tell that Jake and Max were completely focused on creating that premiere bootcamp experience seen in other cities that Atlanta seemed to be lacking.

I paid my deposit, got on the waitlist, continued doing prep on my own, and started in the September 2016 cohort.

Days are long in these programs, and working on your own after school is something that I (and most of my classmates) did routinely. Our coursework started with Python, learning foundations of programming, along with HTML and CSS, before moving into SQL databases/queries/schema's. After that we learned our first framework, and built a webapp for our first group project.

I'll say this as a plug for in person coding schools as well: the group project component is extremely valuable: not only is it where you're sythesizing much of the topics that you're covering, but nothing mimicks the reality of an actual software dev workday like those weeks spent in the group projects. Again, I think you're doing yourself a disservice if you miss out on that experience.

From there, we moved into all things JavaScript: JQuery, Ajax, Angular, Node, Express, Mongo. It should be noted that DC is now teaching ES6 and React, but again, JS frameworks are going to come and go. Understanding that, along with a strong grasp of the fundamentals is going to set you up well to be able to transition on the day that Angular and React are no longer around.

The cohort itself was fantastic. Most of us became very close, and still get together whenever we can. I honestly miss my school experience immensely, as there's really nothing quite like it. You're learning something new every single day, adding it to an ever growing skill set, watching yourself beome what you've been dreaming about being for years. Once you reach the end, and you realize that you've become that person, it's extremely satisfying and terrifying all at once.

Toby, my professor, is still someone I consider a close friend and mentor. He routinely checks in with me to see how things are going at my job. I couldn't have asked for a better instructor. I have no doubt he goes to sleep every night and wakes up every morning thinking about the well being of his students. His expertise in the field isn't to shabby either.

As with any experience of this sort, you're only going to get out of it what you're able to put into it. I can't stress enough the fact that if you're embarking on this journey, and you're serious about it, you need to get comfortable with the fact that your journey is going to be a series of "What am I doing? I'm not sure I'm cut out for this. There's no way I'm going to be able to figure all of this out" experiences. Day 1 of my new job was nothing but that feeling. All of this to say, again, if you haven't experienced this yet--figure out a way to do so before applying to or spending money on a bootcamp.

I and one other classmate found jobs by the end of our program. A few others founds jobs within the weeks that followed. Others (even those I would consider extremely sharp students) are still job searching 2.5 months out of the program. A codiing school will not guarantee a job for you. I do believe a coding school can serve as a means of cultivating the experience needed in order to land yourself a job, along with providing a network to help make that process much more efficient. There was plenty of job prep that was a part of the DC experience that I know was pivotal in my landing my job.

In the end, I have nothing but great things to say about DigitalCrafts, and wouldn't trade my experience there for anything. I would seriously re-live those 4 months again tomorrow if it were possible. I've got a great job as a Software Engineer as a result, and they were a massive part of the reason that's a reality. I still have to pinch myself most mornings.

Best of luck to those of you looking to make this transition. Invest in yourself---commit to the process and challenge yourself prior to applying to schools. This is supposed to be hard--that's a good thing. Get used to that feeling as fast as you can. Go to local meetups, or school sponsored ones where you can talk to actual students: that will be your best way to gauge whether it's a good fit for you.

I entered the program at DigitalCrafts after relocating and leaving a job in a mostly steady industry, so I was looking for a pretty serious experience that would be a good investment for my risk. When researching coding bootcamps in Atlanta, for me the... Read More deciding factors were the personalized attention and communication I got from the staff and the price. I was applying from out of Georgia at the time and I was able to chat with Jake and Max (founders) right from the website. I sent numerous emails with questions and got complete replies right away every time. This was not the case with other programs I talked with. To me this showed that DC was invested in their students and distinguishing themselves from other programs by taking a local approach. I heard this echoed by most of my fellow students later.

I was impressed by the syllabus and planned curriculum. I went into the bootcamp having a solid foundation in Python, but really no other coding experience. I was impressed by the rigor of the course and how often the curriculumn is updated and really really honed. Toby was my instructor, and I was super impressed by his passion for teaching and mentoring junior developers. It was clear from day 1 that his main goal was to instill independent learning skills in each of us. He was always ready with an extra assignment or challenge if you finished early and they always focused on building your critical thinking skills. Having spent a lot of time in the formal education world, he definitely ranks in the top 5 of educators that I've seen in terms of his devotion to his students and their learning outcomes. He learned from our experiences every day and constantly made adjustments to his approach, which was great to experience as a student.

The one area where I feel like the DC program has room to improve is their formal job search prep activities. In my opinion when I signed up, this was a significant portion of was I was investing in. I feel like there was a lot of effort made on the part of the staff to connect students with Atlanta companies and sell employers but I did feel that it lagged behind the intensity of the technical program. I found myself slightly off sync in terms of when I needed career advice and mock interviews vs when they were held.

I spent weeks 12-16 of the program on the job market. I went after full-time work with benefits and full salary due to my personal situation, and was extremely happy to recieve such an offer the day of graduation. I had approximately 6 interviews, at different levels of formality throughout the job hunt. Most of the employers I talked to seemed to be suprised/impressed by the longer and full-stack curriculum and I felt that the projects I was encouraged to undertake in the program went a long way in furthering my application.

In the end, I was very happy with my DC experience and my resulting employment. One of the best things about the experience was the comraderie among my cohort and how that was fostered by Toby and the DC staff. I felt personally supported by the program and was happy and suprised to see the staff celebrating sincerely with us as each of us are finding employment. Definitely felt like it was worth the investment.