Coding Bootcamp Praha

After reading reviews and shopping around town I realized that Coding Bootcamp Praha is the best choice for me - great curriculum, experienced instructors, proven track record, and a lot of job searching support. I checked where their graduates work and... Read More found out it’s the hottest companies that do web development. I got a tour of the campus and the team was happy to answer all my questions. Also, I was glad to see that they help our with sorting out accommodation- something that hardly any other bootcamp out there does, even those that cost six times more than this one! So I spent three months co-living with people who were in the same situation as me - all trying hard to switch our paths and land a programming job at the end.

On the first day the bootcamp founders told us that we will all become one big family because we will spend so much time together and be excited about the same topics. I am always happy to show up at the Alumni drinks that get organised from time to time because I moved to Prague for the bootcamp without knowing anyone here, so Im happy that i got a family not only for 12 weeks but even after :)

Every day I could not wait to get to the class and every evening I didn’t want to leave - this was a feeling I never had before in any of the jobs I did (administration, marketing, logistics). I got a job as a web developer at one the company partners of the bootcamp and I felt really ready. Doesn’t mean I don’t continue learning each day but now I also get paid for it :) My suggestion to everyone who is thinking about Coding Bootcamp Praha? Show up every day with an open mind, work really hard, and push past minor setbacks along the way, you will come out the other end employable as a software engineer.

Dear future bootcampers, here is a summary of my experience at the Coding Bootcamp Praha.

A bit about me:
I have applied for the bootcamp after working in a corporate environment in marketing for a number of years and increasingly feeling stuck in that... Read More role. I always felt that I would like to automate many tasks / set up integrations for the work I have been doing/ simply make things more efficient. The thing was that every time I volunteered for such innovation to take place, I was congratulated but then the task got moved to the IT department, got chewed and then a version of it appeared. I found this frustrating that I cannot really create it myself or at least clearly explain what the feature should do and be able to discuss with the programming team. So I started learning on my own here and there and finally I decided to go for a fast-track education, a coding bootcamp.

About the bootcamp:
Simply impressive. Everything from before the bootcamp, throughout the bootcamp and also after the bootcamp was perfectly organised and efficient. I have never learnt so much in such a short period of time! I loved how the things started falling into places in my brain, how I could start developing on my own, how I understood how projects are developed… I enjoyed the hackathons, the team work and getting mentored by experienced and friendly mentors. The tech stack that they teach is the hot on the market, I received several job offers and got contacted by many HR recruiters since my graduation. I moved to the US after the bootcamp and started working in web development 35 days after my bootcamp graduation.

I never thought that it is possible to change a life and go for a completely different career path when you have already worked for a number of years. I am very happy that I was wrong about that :-) If you are thinking of going for a coding bootcamp, I recommend Coding Bootcamp Praha.

Before the Coding Bootcamp Praha I have worked in IT support for few years, answering questions on how to fix computers, networks, printer etc. I became curious about databases and researched options how to learn online. I did few introductory courses... Read More on SQL on Codeacademy and Udemy and I have become really excited. I spent many weekends and evenings for the next few months studying on my own until I realised that I enjoy it much more than my daily job. In the end I decided to take the risk and go for it 100% - I applied for a coding bootcamp, got accepted and quit my job. Many of my friends thought I am nuts but I believed it was the right step for me!

The first six weeks of the Coding Bootcamp Praha I have consolidated and deepened the various topics that I have tried to self-study. There were also many new topics for me such as Git and we had a lot of fun merging, pulling, pushing and committing in our team projects :) I understood how a complex web project is developed. The second half of the bootcamp we focused on advancing our knowledge of JavaScript and PHP with learning React and Laravel and implemented it right away into our final project. This was a massive learning experience for me and I felt so proud when i sent the live project to my family and friends :) i got a job as a software engineer at one of the partner companies of the bootcamp and started working right after my graduation. So my only regret might be that I didn’t take some holidays in between :)

I fully recommend the bootcamp to anyone who wants to switch careers. I never believed I could learn so much in such a short time & have a great time with the other students and our instructors.

Attending Coding Bootcamp Praha was one of the best choices I have ever made. Each day I felt like my knowledge has doubled and I had an amazing time since day1 to day60.
I appreciated how the programme was structured - each two weeks led to a one day... Read More hackathon where we created a functioning project. Also, in the first six weeks we kept developing one big project and finally the last six weeks we developed our final project. I also liked the challenges and - weirdly enough - also the exams :-) It all helped me revise and practice and know right away if I need to study some concepts more. I enjoyed studying with the others students, we have become one close & very international family for 12 weeks :)

The final project is where i learnt the most while cooperating with great team members - we developed a React app with a Laravel backend. This was a great experience for me - seeing a project developed from an idea, through creating a wireframe, drawing our database (and re-drawing again and again :-) ) until programming the full project.
After the bootcamp I got employed as a software engineer but I have a project in mind that I would like to do in the future, so Im looking forward to utilising all the materials from the bootcamp - btw you keep access to all materials also after the programme, which I find pretty awesome.
Many thanks to all the instructors who were there always for me. I was pretty shy in the beginning and Im very grateful for all the encouragement and support I got. Keep up the good work, guys!!!

I wanted to learn programming for several years before enrolling to the Coding Bootcamp Praha. I began learning using many online platforms - udemy, codeacademy, treehouse, freecodecamp. However, I had big issue staying motivated - after being excited... Read More for few days I found it too difficult to continue studying on my own. Then I bumped into a previous student of a Coding Bootcamp Praha at an event and from talking to him I realised that what I am missing is an immersive environment where I can work with others and get help from experienced guys whenever I needed.

The goal of the bootcamp is that everyone is able to build their own app, starts to think like a software engineer, knows how to keep on learning and gets a job. I recommend this bootcamp for tis effective teaching method and constant support during your studies there. I now work as a developer - mostly working with JavaScript and React. I wanted a fresh start and this was the best choice for me.

Hi everyone, I have graduated from the Coding Bootcamp Praha in 2017. My background is in law & finance and I was searching for a bootcamp because I wanted develop a startup idea I had in my mind for quite a while. I came across the coding bootcamp concept... Read More when I was at a startup conference in the US and got really excited. I have researched a number of bootcamps but unfortunately most of them were not affordable for me as a beginning entrepreneur. I got really happy when I finally came across a coding bootcamp (in my own country :-D ), which provided me with an excellent education at a reasonable price. So that’s a little background to how I got accepted to the Coding Bootcamp Praha and now about my experience there!

The staff at the bootcamp is friendly and dedicated to helping students before, during and also after the programme. The instructors emphasize that their goal is not teaching syntax but making you think like a software engineer. I did not understand this at first but really appreciate this now - once you get the programming way of thinking under you skin, only then you can really start developing. I am now working on my own website app and keep going back to the bootcamp materials almost every day. The staff at the bootcamp is a mix of experienced programmers who teach you during the bootcamp hours and the managers who help you with getting a job and teaching you how to present yourself. There were many career workshops during my batch and I had the opportunity to meet a number of interesting companies. Many of my former colleagues are now working at one of these, however, myself I wanted to give it a shot and develop my product right after my graduation. I keep in touch with the founders who have provided me with a lot of startup advice, so I got an unexpected extra bonus out of the programme :-D

What would I recommend to anyone who thinks of applying? Stay focused, buy a lot of coffee and enjoy the best 12 weeks ever!

Hi everyone, I am Alice and I graduated from the Coding Bootcamp Praha. I came to the bootcamp with a lot of passion but hardly any real knowledge because I always got excited about some problem but never knew how to then further develop my knowledge.... Read More The 12 weeks were a life-changing experience for me and I would like to say big thanks to the entire team! I started a new job as a frontend developer three weeks after the Demo Day and I am so much happier than in my past jobs (I mostly worked as a business analyst in the past). My advice? Go for the bootcamp with an open mind, trust the process and stay confident - don’t let yourself fail just because you believe you cannot win ;-) oh, and hope you have as much fun as our batch did!!

I came to this bootcamp without even knowing what the difference between front-end and back-end was, and ended up being able to develop a complete and functional web page. The pace is really quick, and it's sometimes hard to keep up, but even though it's... Read More difficult, it's possible. It also has the perfect balance between theory and practice, since every two weeks they held a hackathon that helped us practice the topics we had seen so far.

The instructors and everyone at Data4You are extremely nice and helpful. They gave us a lot of job support by checking our CVs and Linkedins, holding HR workshops and 'individual progress meetings' (which, as the name implies, were individual sessions that helped each student tackle their individual problems regarding coding and job finding).

Coding Bootcamp Praha is a 12-week fullstack web development programme, based in Prague, Czech Republic. I'm going to review my experience there in several sections, to describe my experience there for anyone interested in attending the bootcamp. I got... Read More contacted by many prospective students on LinkedIn that asked about my experience, so I decided to summarise it all here:

Why did I choose to study at a bootcamp?

I have worked as a business analyst for a number of years, which helped me build a solid foundation for understanding business development and the industry trends. I have always enjoyed continuing my studies in various areas using platforms such as Udemy. What I had realized in my job and through my studies is that rather sooner than later my skillset would become obsolete. The analytical tasks that I had been doing would become automated in a near future and because I have a finance background only, I started worrying about my employability. This was the trigger for me to start looking for ways of how to broaden my tech skills.

Secondly, I realized that what I missed most in my job was the ability to see a real result behind my work - to see any real improvement that I contributed to.

I took several online courses and started learning HTML, CSS and a bit of JavaScript and I truly enjoyed the feeling that I created something through solving problems step by step. After several months of self-study I felt that my progress is not so steep anymore and that I have not learnt enough to be actually able to build a web app on my own because I missed too many linkages. This was the time when I started looking for a coding bootcamp and found the Coding Bootcamp Praha.

Why did I go for the Coding Bootcamp Praha specifically?​

- The syllabus teaches fullstack, their learning is designed around project work and hackathons, which I felt would suit my way of learning.

- The class size of 16 people is smaller in comparison with most bootcamps, so I hoped for a lot of personal attention

- The bootcamp is run by a NGO, which enables the price to be kept at a very friendly level. As I financed the bootcamp myself, this was an important factor for me.

- I got in touch with a number of alumni on LinkedIn and they all got a job right after the programme and felt very happy with the bootcamp experience.

- I had a professional experience whenever I contacted the bootcamp and I liked the fact that I am in touch directly with the management team who could answer any technical questions - regarding the syllabus - that I had. I contacted several other bootcamps in the past and this was never the case.

What was my experience with the team?​

The bootcamp syllabus has been designed by a number of senior programmers and I have learnt so much from their experience. They are great at what they do and very friendly at the same time. I got help whenever I needed and I have become so much better at thinking about programming as a mindset rather than a skill only.

The syllabus is divided into three phases - Coder (the basics setup, frontend etc), Programmer (backend, frameworks, libraries) and Developer (developing a fullstack web app as a team project) and it was great to see how much has my knowledge grown day by day. At the beginning of the bootcamp I could never imagine that I would have developed a final project of such complexity that we have done in our team. The backend of our project was in Laravel and we combined it with React, so right after graduation I could showcase two of the top technologies to the employers and be reasonably competent in these.

I also had a lot of fun developing the smaller projects during the one day hackathons that are part of the programme as it just pushes you to create something real within one day only.

What was the career support?

I used to be a guy who believed that LinkedIn is not really necessary and in CV it is enough to include few titles in any order :) Ok, I might be exaggerating a little but I owe a big thanks to both Jana and Honza for all the help and advice. The founders organise a number of extra workshops to help you market yourself - career workshops, CV/LinkedIn checks, job application case studies, meetings with recruiters etc. The team was always there for me, even at a short notice. You could see that they really know how to advise people who are switching careers or those who wanted to set up startup projects. I do have a startup idea in mind that I would like to develop longterm (hopefully!) and I enjoyed discussing it with the founders who have worked in the startup environment for a long time.

What did I know before applying?

As for my coding experience, I did online courses - codeacademy, coursera, udemy and freecodecamp but always only the frontend. I learned a bit of JavaScript through that and that helped me a lot. I did some of this before applying and then after I got accepted I got the structured suggestions from the bootcamp regarding what I should study before joining the bootcamp. I spent about 80 hours on the pre-bootcamp preparation.

Can you get a job immediately after graduation?

Yes, I am the example of that. I work mostly using JavaScript and React and I am very happy so far. I have kept in touch with most of my class and all have found jobs quickly, many of them stayed in Prague. I find it pretty cool that the bootcamp offers career assistance also after you graduate, so you do not need to stress yourself with job application and just focus on your studies.

Should you go for it?

I do not think that anyone can answer this question for you. Think about why you are applying. Is it because you really want to learn web dev and are ready to give it your 100%? Then, definitely go for it!

The teaching method is great, you spend about 20% time absorbing new concepts and 80% programming. Whatever new materials you learn, you are expected to put these into practice right away - through in-class daily exercises, weekly challenges, project... Read More work or hackathons. There were five hackathons in my batch, a full day coding events where we created a small project from scratch into a working product. It put together approximately the previous two weeks of new materials and it was great fun working on a project within constrained time limit in a team. In general, I appreciated all the team work because it helped learn how Git works and I am so grateful for that in my current job (JavaScript programmer).

The atmosphere in the bootcamp has been very motivating and that’s what I believe got me through the “valley of despair” (just google it if you haven’t heard this before ;) ). The bootcamp is small, it only accepted 16 students to each batch, which results in an almost family feeling. We studied together with the other students, we hanged out together, we helped each other out when we could. The founders of the bootcamp are present every day and take care of the HR side of the bootcamp intensely. You will go through a number of HR workshops and one-to-one sessions to smooth your career transition and land a job. I appreciated that the help does not end with the bootcamp but you can ask them anytime after the bootcamp too. That was great for me because I preferred to focus on my studies during the bootcamp and only searched for a job after I graduated.

I really enjoyed being taught by the bootcamp instructors. They are all senior programmers who dedicate part of their week to teach. I think it is important that they do not lose track of the current development and they can bring fresh examples and insights from their real world projects. All of them very helpful, they were happy to stay after the teaching hours when I needed extra help and I always felt that I can ask any question anytime.

The bootcamp has been running for 1.5 years now and the local market seems to be very hungry for new employees, which results in a great placement rate of the bootcamp graduates. None of the people who worked hard during the bootcamp had issues finding a relevant job afterwards. Here might be the caveat for some - do not think that programming is easy, do not come to the bootcamp thinking that you will study during the bootcamp hours only, do not underestimate the workload. But if you keep a positive attitude and work hard, you will make it and it will be a very rewarding feeling.

Before signing up I read the reviews and asked a number of questions to the admission team. I also contacted few alumni on LinkedIn. I got a really positive impression from all of these. Once I arrived in Prague I was surprised to see how many alumni still keep in close touch with the bootcamp - they show up for the Welcome Party, for drinks during the bootcamp, some mentored us as an extra practice in their free time... There was an Alumni Party and I found it very helpful to see the paths that the alumni took after their graduations. I guess this was one of the most important moments - that Im not just kidding myself but that I can actually become a programmer upon completing the bootcamp!