devCodeCamp

I attended devCodeCamp in the spring of 2017. My background included work in transportation research, and teaching. I had previously obtained two majors and a masters degree from traditional colleges, but didn't have success finding gainful employment... Read More in Southern Wisconsin. So I decided to retool my skill set. I had always enjoyed the introductory programming courses I took in college and had some experience with WordPress website development on the side, but wanted to expand my programming knowledge and hopefully get into the software engineering career-field.

devCodeCamp is as fun as it is intense. It's a lot different than traditional 4-year college or technical schools. They really believe in learning by doing. Your results are largely reflected by the effort, dedication, and willingness to continually challenge yourself. You will have a class made up of people with diverse backgrounds, experiences, ages, and skill levels, but the instructors do a great job of identifying each students strengths and weaknesses. They work hard to tailor your DevCodeCamp experience for the individual students.

By the end of the 3 months I had gained a marketable skill that is in high demand. I landed a job about a month after graduation and had multiple companies interview me. I never expected to get such immediate results.

For anyone willing to work hard, sacrifice long days, and not afraid to learn at a fast pace, I highly recommend devCodeCamp. It is suitable for a career change, or jump starting your programming skills for new grads, or people that have no higher education experience at all. Results are guaranteed if you are willing to work hard and challenge yourself.

My initial reaction was that the tuition was beyond my budget, and if I invested money and time into this, I NEEDED to get something out of it. dCC (devCodeCamp) was honest with me from the beginning, that employment is not guaranteed and the course would... Read More entail long hours and dedication for the next 3 months. I was very confident in my ability to succeed in the course, but I was unsure and new to the software development field. I didn’t know whether completion of the course would set me up for a rewarding job. Having only heard of success stories from previous dCC graduate reviews, I made the decision to enroll, unsure of my future.

As with any institution, dCC is not perfect. There are things that need improvement which I won’t go into detail, because what’s important is that dCC delivers on its goals. And it does, at least for me. dCC is not your traditional 4 year school where you sit in long lectures and study from textbooks. Classes are a few hours of lectures at the beginning of the week and then you are by yourself coding away majority of the time. A little over a month after completion of the course, I am proud to say that I was able to land a job through dCC’s hiring partners. I want to make it clear that there are students who struggle, and then there are those that do really well in the course (keep in mind, I did poorly in college and had no coding knowledge prior to dCC). It should not be a surprise that only some students actually land jobs after graduating, and that comes from many factors. But it should not affect your decision to enroll with dCC, because honestly, there will never be job placement promises in anything; even 4 year institutions don't promise you that. For me, I only needed to know that it was POSSIBLE, and the rest was simple logistics that I had to figure out. Ultimately, and it sounds cliche, but it really depends on how committed you are and what you are willing sacrifice and do to succeed. Would I recommend dCC? Yes and No.

Yes, if you want it bad enough.
No, if you don’t.

Good luck to all students/grads of devCodeCamp!

As a freelance photographer and graphic designer, I had been thinking about what I my skillset was missing. After doing some research, I found that learning to code would be the most advantageous. The trio of photography, design, and coding (full stack)... Read More could work so well together. The problem was I didn't know where to start or what everything meant in the coding realm.

A friend recommended devCodeCamp. After the initial tour, I scheduled a follow up, where I asked 30+ questions about the program, what skills were taught, and what the expectations were.

This program is a bootcamp. You need to be dedicated, you need to work hard, and you need to basically put life on hold until you’ve finished. It makes the world of difference and the reward is worth it.

All to say dCC gave me the foundation I was looking for.

**First, I would like to clarify that my review of devCodeCamp is on my own free will. While reviewing any program that someone has just attended is always encouraged, there is no incentive or reward for me to write this, which is what some other reviews... Read More have indicated and is simply not true.**

devCodeCamp is not for everyone, period. It is not anyone who is unmotivated or ambitionless. It is a program for those who are driven to learn a valuable skill and establish a foundation which can be built upon in one of the fastest growing industries right now.

My relationship with devCodeCamp started about a year before I decided to enroll. I met with Mike and Paul, an Instructor and The Director of Operations respectively, and they didn’t pull any punches telling me what to expect at all. They explained how tough it can be at times, how life may have to put on hold during the course and how the program is designed to produce problem solvers as well as developers. After mulling over the idea of attending for about 10 months, I decided to go all-in, quit my job, change my career, and my life… for the better. I had as much coding experience as a nun has experience fighting fires…NONE. I started the program in November 2016 and was lucky enough to have a very supportive wife and I connected very well with some of my classmates who have become great friends of mine. The instructors were fantastic, I was told before I agreed to enroll that they would not be handing out answers and solving our problems for us and that’s exactly how it went. I enrolled in the program to learn how to code and get a job as a developer; a company is not going to want someone who is not willing to put in the work and that is what were driven to do. (This is important if you are reading this considering joining the program, some students in my class had different expectations which was an issue for them.) I always appreciated how the instructors spoke and taught us like we were individuals and on our same level, as opposed to talking down to us, while still maintaining a sense of authority and control throughout the program. By the end of the program our conversations felt more like talking to friends than instructors, in my opinion. Because of this relationship with them, it removed a lot of the stress that comes with learning new things at a very fast pace.
The content of the program we were taught was done very rapidly. We started with HTML/CSS and learning to use GitHub in the first week, then C#, SQL, JavaScript, then finished off with ASP.NET which tied everything that we had learned together. We would typically have one weekly graded project with a few smaller ungraded ones mixed in as well. The environment we would learn in could not be better. The school is in an old cream brick building which was fantastic. We are all adults and were treated as so, which meant managing our time was on us, we were free to take breaks anytime we weren’t in a lecture as long as we made our project deadlines. Since it is a lot of knowledge very fast with not much previous understanding, there were times when you felt a little lost. When that happened I personally would speak up and try to get further direction which was successful but if you do not speak up it would be hard for the instructors to know if you are struggling, so that part is all on the student to be proactive. The whole course leads you to gain the knowledge of the tools that you will use not only for your final Capstone project but also professionally. The two weeks spent on the Capstone were easily the most difficult, yet the most satisfying. A lot of us would stay late to work, work weekends, and some days, work through lunch. In order to be sure the final Capstone project was our own, the Instructors were very hands-off, only giving subtle guidance if we were very stuck on something.

Upon completion of the course there was the deployment phase. In this phase we were taught how to write a great resume and how to interview well. After our resumes were complete they were sent to the hiring partners of devCodeCamp. Myself along with a few other graduates were asked to work on a two-week project for a local start-up which involved learning AngularJs to further pad our resumes and continue the learning process. While this is not a guarantee for all students and is not part of the tuition it is great to get semi-real world experience through devCodeCamp’s partnerships. During this period, I would still attend devCodeCamp and use their facilities to work on the project, and had great communication back and forth with Paul and the instructors about potential jobs. I also had the opportunity during this period to interview with 3 potential employers who came to devCodeCamp personally to meet myself and other graduates. For one of the employers I did not expect to interview with but since I was in the building and someone wasn’t able to meet with them, I was allowed the opportunity and they eventually ended up hiring me!

In under 150 days I went from a retail manager to a Business Intelligence Developer at a very respected company, excellent pay, and fantastic benefits all because of devCodeCamp. At a traditional school this would be impossible and much more expensive. If you are motivated and ready for a serious challenge that will change your life than this course is for you. Like I said at the start, devCodeCamp is not for everyone…but it was the best decision for me. Thanks for reading.

They teach you everything you need to know to be a jr developer. More importantly they teach you how to teach yourself which is a crucial skill to have as a developer considering there are new technologies all the time.

I recently acquired a job and while... Read More it took me a long time I can say that dCC was there for me the entire time. They hooked me up with presentations and interviews until I finally received a job. As long you come in to the camp here and there, dCC will keep helping you.

All and all I highly recommend devCodeCamp to anyone looking to be a jr developer.

i attended devcodecamp with no prior experience like they advertise and completed the course in 14 weeks at the time I could say it was the smartest thing I have done. As soon as I started looking for jobs the communication stopped completely. I was ignored... Read More by the staff and instructors I once called mentors it was surprising how as soon as I graduated the instructors like flipped. It took me over a week to hear back after messaging each instructor. I filled out applications with them as references and little do I find out later that they have been ignoring my references calling them. Not only have they not assisted me what's so ever in finding a job but then they removed me from the slack channel so I can no longer go to them for help. I'm not saying this school did not teach me but when it came down to assisting me afterwards all they were is rude and disrespectful. If I were you I'd find a camp where they honor their word and don't toss you to the side as soon as you graduate. I never leave reviews but I just thought somebody should know before they get into the same situation as me.

First off, let me say that I would recommend devCodeCamp to everyone that I know who is serious about coding and tired of the plain old curriculum or cost of traditional schooling. I went into this without any actual programming experience until I started... Read More the pre-course work. Throughout this program, you gain valuable experience programming in several different languages as well as working in a team based environment. More than that though, devCodeCamp provides you with a conductive environment where there are people in all steps of the program so that you have the ability to learn from others as well as teach the people in the earlier classes. All this taken into account, the greatest things that I have taken away from devCodeCamp was the incredible community, the work ethic you gain, and the ability to be independent. The instructors will slowly almost push you away forcing you to be able to think differently about the problems you encounter and learn on your own. I am incredibly glad to have done this, and would only want to go back to improve on my projects that we did in the beginning of the course. Everyone was amazing and I hope they continue to do their good work.

I was interested and took a tour. I decided to enroll because devCodeCamp promised to provide what I would need to learn to be able to get a job as a software developer in 14 weeks. My expectations matched up with what I experienced during the course.... Read More We typically spent some time getting an introduction to a topic and the rest of our time doing exercises or building projects. It was very hands on and much different from taking a regular class or tutorial to learn how to code.

Everyone you talk to will be very clear that you will get out of it what you put into it. I had to work long hours every day learning very difficult material at a very fast pace. Much of the course is spent on learning how to do things on your own under a deadline, which should prepare you for a work environment. It is a huge time commitment if you really dedicate yourself to learning everything and completing all the assignments. I also felt overwhelmed and frustrated at times. Part of the course is learning how to fail, deal with setbacks, and still complete an assignment. This program is not for the faint of heart. You should have also some aptitude for this kind of work before you jump into it.

A few months after I graduated, I found a job at a company I met through devCodeCamp. In the meantime I was able to continue to work on projects and network at devCodeCamp.

The instructors will be honest that do every class a little differently. As a result you may end up be doing a project that has never been taught before to a previous class. Some of these brand new projects might not be as tried and true as others. Also, because you move at such a fast pace, there is not a lot of time to review past assignments and improve the code you wrote or even revise it in anyway.

My final impression would be that if you want to complete the course and succeed it is really up to you. The instructors will be there to help but you won't turn into a software developer unless you put in the work.

I have always had an interest in coding but never pursued it during college. After I graduated I went into retail and stayed there for a little over a year and found myself not satisfied with what I was doing.

This is where I found reviews of devCodeCamp... Read More on Facebook and decided to give it a tour. Going into the program, I had little to no experience in coding and now, through this course, I have received more from this course than I had first anticipated. Now I have a job at a great company and pursuing something I love.

I would recommend this course for anyone that loves to problem solve and loves a challenge. This course challenges you throughout and you definitely get what you put into this course. I am proud to have graduated from dCC.

I had always been fascinated with computers and coding. Before attending devcodecamp I had read several books and tried some work on code academy. All that did was leave me frustrated. When I came across devcodecamp I decided to give this boot camp a... Read More try after visiting their cool classrooms, meeting with an instructor and talking to current students. My biggest fear was could I really do this and be successful. Initially it's hard to believe that a 12 week program is long enough to take you from ground zero to actually knowing how to make apps. But, their method of immersing you every single day actually works. The instructors are there to always help and are great in helping you understand the concepts but giving you the methods to learn how to solve and develop on your own. I now miss the friends I made and my daily routine of going to devcodecamp. This was a great experience and changed my life direction and not to mention my earnings. If you like making things and think technology can enable that for you I'd highly recommend that you consider this course.