Codesmith

What i really like about CodeSmith
- good community
- up to date curriculum
- slack community is awesome
- everyone is trying to get better

Something to keep in mind for anyone looking to get into coding/switch careers. Codesmith is definitely a shortcut... Read More in that process. They give you a path to follow and it works. But also you have to put in the work as a student. your effort will be what determines your success in the job finding stage, Codesmith will help you out in terms of what to put on your resume how to navigate the interview process etc.... but applying and looking for jobs is also on you.

I came from a background of electronic music production, some experience with JavaScript, SQL, and aside from that, a largely non-technical background. After working hard and doing pretty much nothing but coding in my spare time preparing to get into... Read More Codesmith throughout 2018, I joined in the October 2018 cohort.

I graduated from Codesmith in Jan. 2019 at the Los Angeles campus. In my experience, during the time leading up to joining Codesmith
➡ actually being in Codesmith ➡ post-grad career support, Codesmith was an all-around top notch program, and has continued to be a solid community to be a part of. Three months after graduating, I was able to land a mid-level engineer role at $125k base, $160k TC. Since then, I've worked for a few companies in tech / healthcare, and have been able to rise from mid-level engineer ➡ sr. engineer ➡ engineering manager ➡ sr. engineering manager.

I did some extensive research before deciding on Codesmith. They accept engineers roughly around Jr. Engineer level, and prep them to go on to become mid - sr level engineers. imo, some of the best parts of Codesmith are not just in learning specific technologies/patterns (Data Structures & Algos, JS, React, Node, SQL, noSQL, etc.), but more so in "learning how to learn", by giving you a high-level overview lesson, then throwing you into the deep end and challenging you to learn to swim, lesson after lesson, just as you'll have to do again and again after you graduate, throughout your career as a software engineer.

Their hiring prep / career support has been another key part of the program for me. Codesmith's hiring program guided me in knowing how to approach a comp negotiation, and what I could / should be asking for in the first place, when it comes to negotiating a software engineer role. I had no idea about any of this before attending CS, and this knowledge has proven to be instrumental in helping me to negotiate new offers / promotions over the past few years. I've continued to work with Eric, the lead career advisor at Codesmith a number of times since I graduated, to help me negotiate promotions / navigate new offers. Eric is one of the most effective tech/business communicators I've ever known - he's also helped me in navigating venture financing / equity when it comes to joining a startup as an early engineer. Having Eric as a career advisor/mentor has been invaluable throughout my career trajectory as an engineer.

I'd recommend Codesmith as a top notch coding bootcamp for anyone looking for a more advanced program that will deliver if you rise to the challenge. It does take a good amount more self-study before you can be admitted, as you have to be around jr. engineer level to get in, but in my experience, I can say it was well-worth it.

Before attending codesmith, I was teaching music and landscaping part-time. I had previously done a bit of self-learning around programming, with free materials available online. After attending the 9-month PTRI program, I took on a paid 3-month mentorship... Read More position with codesmith. During that time I landed a full-time contracting role with IBM, which kickstarted my software engineering career and increased my income six fold.

Codesmith is not a silver bullet. You get out of it what you put into it. But it provides powerful support and a community of people going through the same hell as you and who motivate and grow alongside you, and the value of that is incalculable.

It's a non-stop deluge of information and you're exhausted every step of the way. I put in tons of extra hours studying and working on projects, trying to make the best product I can, and that effort paid off in the knowledge I took away from it.

Codesmith took me from a owning a cut-flower farm to working as a Software Engineer inside of 6 months. It is an intense, rigorous program that prepares you technically and academically to work in the field. The focus is empathetic and engaged learning... Read More and pushing you to research and work independently. You come out of Codesmith with some great technical training, but much more, you come out with the tools you need to keep learning. You will spend your whole career adding to your training, but Codesmith can help you get your foot in the door.

Could not recommend Codesmith highly enough. There is no way I would have been able to be as successful in interviews and at my current job so quickly without going through the program. In addition to a vast amount of technical knowledge, you learn how... Read More to collaborate with engineers of all backgrounds and experience levels, which is crucial, especially working in lead and management-level positions. You get out of the program what you put into it, so it's not a "sit back and relax" type of situation, but those in the cohort who went all-in saw major results post-graduation. One con is that they pitch you being able to waltz into senior-level roles making 140k+ with no prior experience. This may have been true pre-covid, but is very rare in today's market. The average salary of our graduating class is significantly lower than it was a few years ago. That being said, everyone in my cohort who is working seems to be very happy and comfortable with their positions, their leveling, and what they're making.

My experience with Codesmith, having graduated from both their immersive program and the CS Prep course, has been absolutely remarkable. The immersive program delved deep into full-stack JavaScript and essential computer science principles, providing... Read More me with a solid foundation for a career in software engineering. The hands-on projects, rigorous curriculum, and supportive community not only enhanced my technical skills but also instilled in me the confidence to tackle real-world challenges. Additionally, the CS Prep course was instrumental in laying down the groundwork for my journey into the immersive program, offering a structured introduction to JavaScript and core coding fundamentals. Thanks to Codesmith's exceptional education and career support, I successfully secured a fulfilling role in software engineering and continue to benefit from their lifelong career guidance. Codesmith's commitment to excellence in software engineering education truly sets them apart, and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of their thriving community.

When it comes to changing careers and finding a job in the current market, it’s going to be difficult no matter which bootcamp you attend. Finding a job is always a difficult hurdle when changing careers into such a competitive field. All of that said,... Read More I can’t imagine a better value for your money when it comes to coding bootcamps. The course lectures are pretty good, but that is not what really stands out about this company. What really stands out is the forced collaboration with other like-minded engineers, and learning how to pair-program and work through challenges with other people. In my opinion, this is where the true value of this program lies. To be forced to work through cleverly-designed challenge units and projects with another aspiring engineer is an experience that is more valuable than any lecture could be. This forces you through the inevitable struggles of understanding how to set up proper dev environments, how to debug pesky Git flows and merge conflicts, how to teach a topic you feel strong in, how to learn a topic you feel weaker in, how to empathetically communicate and provide valuable feedback, how to gracefully receive constructive feedback… these are all extremely valuable ‘soft skills’ that Codesmith offers, on top of the official curriculum that they advertise. I became close friends with many brilliant people, and attending Codesmith was an experience like nothing I’ve ever done before. I definitely recommend this program to others looking for a positive, productive, and supportive environment to develop your engineering skills and learn most of the things you need to become a successful mid-level developer.

The curriculum at Codesmith is extremely well-rounded, and introduces you to all of the parts needed to develop and deploy a full stack application from scratch. While there is a broad range of technologies covered, Codesmith encourages students to specialize... Read More in one area, becoming a T-shaped engineer (good at all, great at one). This lends itself to the best part of the curriculum: the focus on working in teams to build projects. Much of the program is devoted to building full stack applications; students are grouped together and work in an agile development process much like you would see in the real world, with certain team members tackling their specialized parts of the project. This gives you a great idea of what to expect in your future jobs.

The only thing I will say is that 2023 and onward are not a reflection of the CIRR outcomes that Codesmith posts, which (last I checked) only go through mid-2022 and don't reflect the current state of the tech market. It took me 11 months to land a job after graduation, and I am being paid much less than the "average Codesmith grad", and only about half of my cohort have landed jobs. I don't blame Codesmith for this, since the job market is now saturated with experienced FAANG engineers that have been laid off, but it is important to note that the CIRR reports are no longer reliable with the current state of the job market. While it is possible to get a job after Codesmith, and the career support resources from Codesmith are incredible, it is an extremely challenging and mentally/emotionally draining process that does not end when you graduate Codesmith.

I’ve been looking at making a career change into software engineering for a few years now. As an older worker (51), the prospect of moving into something completely new has been pretty intimidating. I’d looked at bootcamps and didn’t see anything that... Read More taught things I couldn’t learn on my own (I’ve taken a ton of Udemy and Coursera online courses) and the job-placement offerings didn’t seem very effective, so they just didn’t seem worth the investment.
In January, I was looking at how to get an entry-level role when I stumbled onto Codesmith. I was impressed with the reviews and stunned by their outcomes. Enough so that I went ahead and
What Codesmith is not:
A bootcamp — Though Codesmith has the shape of a bootcamp, it is nothing like what is typically described by that term. It is immersive and is three months long. And since you are learning some technical skills, it seems like a bootcamp. Typically, bootcamps take people with little or no experience and give them the basic skills for getting an entry-level job with which you start a new career. That is not Codesmith. Codesmith graduates consistently get mid- to senior-level engineering roles for they first jobs. There really isn’t an appropriate industry term for it, though “tech accelerator” is the closest I’ve heard.
A technical school/program — Yes, you will learn the technical skills for building a full stack app. But that is the smallest part of what Codesmith achieves with its students, where that is primarily what “bootcamps” teach. Codesmith will train you to solve the hard engineering problems typically reserved for senior developers. You will learn how to quickly onboard new technologies that are unfamiliar and work with teams on a professional level. What gets covered in most programs, we got through in less than a month. The last half of the program, we are building products for other engineers (out in the real world) to use in their professional day-to-day. No social media clones or todo list projects here!
Easy, at all — If you are still at all unsure about making a career change into engineering, don’t waste your time. You will get frustrated and likely feel more uncertain. If you are positive you want to change directions and become a mid- to senior-level engineer, the next step is to recognize that Codesmith is not a short cut. The years of experience that go into entry level to mid are compressed into 3 months. This is more a direct route, but it is extremely difficult, frequently frustrating, occasionally empowering and always exhausting. Everyone in this program faces faltering confidence and profound imposter syndrome. And it was one of the best experiences of my life!
A certificate factory — It is hard to get admitted to Codesmith. You have to demonstrate an entry-level skillset before you are admitted (don’t worry, their free online CSX coursework and their workshops are amazing and will get you ready). It is rare for people to pass their admissions process the first time. And when you graduate, they are not done with you. They give you outstanding training around the hiring process and resume writing that continues long after you’ve completed the program. In addition to the instruction and support the dedicated hiring team gives graduates, Codesmith has done an amazing job of building a large alumni support network. CS grads look out for other CS grads!
A magic bullet — but it is not *not* a magic bullet. It is the shortest path to an exciting, high paying job, but it is also going to be one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. It is difficult to explain Codesmith to people stuck in the typical bootcamp paradigm, but when they see you write code or debug a broken app, your engineering chops will be undeniable. Two months after graduating, my cohort mates and I are getting scooped up by employers and most of us are getting starting salaries well above the median shown on this website (including me!).

If you are serious becoming an engineer, I cannot possibly recommend Codesmith enough. It is incredibly tough to get into and even harder to survive. But if you are going to make such an important move, why waste time with partial measures. That way, when you get your first engineering job and are bring home a six-figure income, you will have confidence that you earned it!

I attended Codesmith July-September 2019 after attending their free Tuesday and Thursday night workshops for about six months (which I highly recommend, they offer them virtually now) and taking their 2 week Codesmith Prep course. I had no other tech... Read More experience aside from self-teaching with FreeCodeCamp.

The application process was pretty thorough, and included a phone screen, a culture fit interview, and a technical screen. I was not accepted on my first attempt, which I was actually really happy to hear - they won't just sign you up and take your money, you have to have the basics of JavaScript down before they'll allow you to join a cohort.

- The Experience Itself
I attended pre-Covid, in-person, in Los Angeles. Our schedule was Monday through Saturday, 9am until late in the evening. I think officially we were done around 8pm but there were a few nights were I stayed past midnight to work on projects.

The curriculum was really thorough, and really quick. Other students referred to it as trying to drink from a firehose. For the first 6 weeks, new subjects were taught in two-day blocks. There was an introduction to a new technology and practice project utilizing it on Day 1, and a sort of quiz project on Day 2 with a debrief. Students weren't "graded" on the quiz project, but if they were unable to complete it satisfactorily, a Fellow (teaching assistant) would schedule one-on-one time with you to go over the subject matter again.

Other projects included a Chrome Extension Hackathon and an Iteration Project, where students would build a project and then everyone would trade to get used to working in an existing codebase.

The first 6 weeks ended with a big test day, broken up into two parts: an algorithm section, and a fullstack application coding challenge. Students were required to pass the test to go on to the next 6 weeks, and you could only take it twice.

The last 6 weeks of program were dedicated to a Senior Production Project. You had to pitch an idea for a new developer tool or a refactor of an existing tool to the teaching staff and got the next 6 weeks to work on it. This was ostensibly to give you something cool to show off in interviews that wasn't a simple to-do list app. In fact, some of these projects have gone on to be awarded thousands of stars on GitHub and are still used today.

After my residency was done, I was asked to stay on as a teaching fellow for another two cohorts, and finished my fellowship in January 2020.

- After the Program
I think were Codesmith shines is it's alumni support programs. Codesmith offers continuing support for graduates of any cohort, and this could be anything from resume review to mock interviews and networking. I utilized the mock interviews to prepare myself for the real thing many times.

I think my job hunt was about 2 months. I left Codesmith January 4th and accepted an offer in late February. For full disclosure, I accepted a compensation offer that was below that of my peers who had already been working, but I was more eager to jump into my first job and start gaining equity and experience.

I am still working at that company, and have since been promoted once and my compensation has increased by 50% of my starting comp.

- Final Thoughts
If you're looking into a boot camp to get you started in Tech, Codesmith is my recommendation, if only for their alumni support alone.
I have friends who have done other boot camps that don't offer any support after the program, and they seem to be struggling more to find their first paid role.
I definitely recommend trying out their free workshops on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which offer easy and more difficult JavaScript lessons. It's also a great opportunity to ask a teaching fellow about their Codesmith experience and the program itself.
I also made some really close friends in the program. We still have a group chat going to this day, four years later. One of them even attended my wedding.