Claim Academy

(01NOV20) Overall I wish I could give a higher review, as the staff that I did interact with (remotely due to Covid-19) were all very professional, polite, and responsive. I certainly did learn quite a bit from my 3 Months in the Full Stack Java Developer... Read More Training so that is definitely a positive. I was expecting/hoping for more in regards to the "Job Support." I have only just graduated from the course, and plan to update this review as time progresses, and hopefully I land a new career position.

Curriculum - The bottom line is I learned how to create a Web Application with Java. However, I feel that I did not learn the "why" or "how to use" a lot of these aspects. Only 3 hours per evening with an instructor does not leave a lot of time to break down and explain some of these concepts we are trying to learn. I brought up repeatedly than learning to "Copy and Paste" doesn't teach me very much, and is concerning for answering technical questions during interviews. Instead of addressing the concern, the most common answer I got was "A lot of coding is Copy & Paste." Leaving the actual learning of content (outside of a poorly constructed, not very informational, copy and pasted Powerpoint during the 3-hour instruction block) to google and search engines. I did not use 6-months of my GI Benefits to learn how to code via Google and youtube.

Job Search - As I said earlier, I have only recently graduated and have not seen very much job support to this point. We have had a virtual demo day prior to graduation, and hopefully over the coming days there will be some kind of response to that. We had a few organizations/student alums come throughout my course to present about their company, but wasn't really beneficial or impactful (they took time out of the short instruction block most often, so more detrimental most often).

Pro's-
Staff is great * Good number of connections for setting up presentations * Coding mentor for me was phenomenal (Alex graduated claim a short time ago, came back to help as a mentor and is great at debugging/ explaining what we are doing, HE SHOULD BE AN INSTRUCTOR) * I went from No coding to developing a WEB APP from the ground up in 3 months.

Needs Work -
Communication, things just sort of happen with no real instruction of what each time block means, what to do next, etc. * Orientation paperwork has some concerning wording and could use refinement * More teaching of the concepts * teach more than just creating a web app

Overall, knowing what I know now, I would say that the Claim Academy is worth the time. I have registered for one more cohort here, because I know that I will definitely learn how to do something, and gives me the foundation to learn the concepts again on my own instead of starting from nowhere with nothing.

I took the Cybersecurity course with a previous background in AV and basic IT. This course made me more confident with my IT skills. The Sec+ test prep was extremely helpful and the labs provided me a solid understand of the basic tools used in the cyber... Read More industry. I learned a lot in 3 months and am every grateful the the supportive staff.

I completed the Full Stack JavaScript Developer program and loved it. I came in with some coding knowledge and Manav, my instructor, did a great job balancing bringing the others from no or little knowledge up and challenging me with more topics to explore.... Read More

It’s definitely a program that requires self-motivation and discipline to get the most out of it but the staff is there to assist you in that journey.

With the virus they had to do online only and even with that they did an amazing job of teaching! Praneeth the instructor did a very good job at explaining everything. If I had misunderstood anything they did a great job explaining things and showing... Read More me what to do!

Coding can be a tough. It takes a lot of practice and determination to figure out solutions to technical problems and learn how to use them creatively. Claim Academy gave me the tools and confidence to create wonderful looking and functional web applications.... Read More

Everyone at Claim looks out for your success. From the instructors to the faculty looking for employers to hire you. If you are ready to deep dive into the program for 12 weeks they will give you the tools you need to become a a great software developer.... Read More

While attending Claim Academy, I was challenged daily to use my critical thinking skills and created solutions to many problems I never thought I would be able to tackle. Each day was a bit long, but for the skills we are learning, it could hardly be... Read More considered anything bad, and that was the only "con" of the program. Once I got over the initial reading and had a few days of instruction under my belt, I started to become more comfortable sitting down and opening up my laptop each morning. By the middle of the cohort, I noticed I was doing things I once considered extremely difficult with relative ease. Pair programming was a great way to learn to cooperate with fellow students and fledgling developers like myself. The real joy I found was bringing my dreams to life inside my capstone project, where I developed an application that I continue to work on and be proud of. The instructors were all very knowledgeable and patient, and no stone was left unturned when it came to the hundreds, if not thousands of questions I sent to the staff at Claim. Post graduation they have continued to send daily opportunities and networking events, and I could not be happier with my choice to change careers and head down the path of software development. Highly recommend to anyone who wants to follow their dreams and learn an incredibly valuable skill such as coding.

Awesome! Claim Academy teaches students many new skills along with the basic programming. By the time you are finished, you will have gained so much knowledge, you will not believe it. At the end, you will be able to create a full stack a web application... Read More that has “real world” applications. Depending on which course you choose, you will probably also learn, Java, JavaScript, HTML5/CSS, Spring Framework, Bootstrap, Node.js, MySQL, Testing, Maven, GitHub, Visual Studio Code, React, Hibernate, Junit, MVC framework, XML, JSP, JSTL, Servlets, Eclipse, Soap and Restful Techniques, Debugging, Agile Methodology, presentation skills, and interview prep. Phew! I know, but you will be able to do it, from all the knowledge you will have learned here. Plus, the interaction with classmates and mentors, along with the support and career assistance of the staff is terrific!

I started with the first cyber security program through Claim Academy. I was supposed to be in a part time class however they didn’t have enough people enrolled so the compressed it to a full time class. There was no type of guides or access to comptias... Read More website(we had to keep cycling emails to use the free trials). There were supposed to be mentors, and lab hours(understandable there were not initially due to covid). Once they lifted the restrictions none of the stuff was added back into the program. There were also supposed to be career counselor sessions to help with rewriting resumes to fit the mold for cyber security. After being confronted about this they finally got a mentor for our class, however it was with only 5 weeks left and from 1-4 Monday through Friday when all of us are at work and can use the services(as I was supposed to be part time). They also tried to act like the fact that they are paying for our certification voucher was a favor to us, when every other program pays for them out of the large amount of money that this program cost. After being called out for the lack of everything listed above that was promised and written into the program and asked if we would see some sort of adjustment in pricing the the answer was a NO. If I had it all to do again I would have gone to Washington university program and got two certifications(security plus and CEH) and the backing of a well respected college.

It's a very fact paced curriculum and is split up into different blocks. The first part of the day is going over exercises and reviewing the previous day's lecture. The day is capped off with the lecture. Throughout the course employers and alumni come... Read More by to give presentations, to help network. Near the middle of the course they teach soft skills and resume building, along with mock interviews. Best of all they take the GI Bill, so as a veteran it didn't cost me anything to attend.