DigitalCrafts

My experience at DigitalCrafts was wonderful. It's definitely not easy, and going in you should know that you will need to spend time outside of class coding to really get the most out of your time. My instructor and the developers in residence (teaching... Read More assistants) were very helpful, and never made you feel like you were asking a dumb question. DC also offers great career services. I looked at a lot of different coding bootcamps before deciding on DigitalCrafts, and I'm very glad I did.

Overall, I had a positive experience with DigitalCrafts. The main thing I try remember when reflecting on my experience is how I literally knew nothing getting started compared to now where I feel confident in my skills to build something and figure out... Read More how to work through challenges. Sometimes I wish the curriculum was more focused, but i was part of the early cohort during Covid that went online. So, I think there was a bit of a transition there for how the instructors normally taught.

The might be a little misleading, cause I have very positive praise for DigitalCrafts and the Boot Camp style of learning. So let's dive in.
Let's start with me. I am a career medical professional with 16 years of practice. I had tinkered around with coding,... Read More mostly just HTML and CSS, but decided it was time to expand this knowledge and take on the challenge of doing Full-Stack Development. After all, it couldn't be as difficult as my medical training, right? WRONG! Learning this stuff was more difficult. Mostly because YOU CAN'T JUST MEMORIZE IT! There is just too much. And it changes all the time. In fact, right in the middle of us learning React, Facebook issued an update that forced our instructor to jump to teaching us React Hooks 3 days early!
However, I did change how I would study and learn and was able to grasp the concepts needed. And remember, it is a Boot Camp, so be fully prepared to learn at warp speed!

Now for DigitalCrafts. I researched the other programs available and I choose DC 1) because they had a campus in Houston, where I am, and 2) because their curriculum seemed to be broader and covered more languages and frameworks that I had heard were more relevant in the workforce.
I am glad I choose DC and when I choose to do it. Our Cohort was totally online due to COVID-19. And yes, we were on Zoom for 6+ hours every day and had to have our camera's on. While this might not sound too appealing, I have to say that I wouldn't want it any other way. I feel that this made us better problem solvers because if anyone was having an issue, they could share their screen and we all could debug as a class.
Our instructor was very skilled at full-stack development. He was very funny and kept the fast-paced learning light, which made it easier to grasp. The admin staff, career services, and DiR's were also top-notch. They were all very helpful and really cared about our education and our success.

Yes, this was drinking water from a fire hose. But I feel that DigitalCrafts was the best choice for me. I gained new skills and also many new friends. I feel I was prepared for the workforce and can integrate into any area of development, including, Frontend, Backend, or Full-stack. And if I can do it coming from a medical background, anyone can do it!

Negative feedback is used against you. One student was actually bullied for leaving bad feedback and was asked to quit (though to their credit, they didn't). Calls for help are roundly ignored. Students who need the least help receive the most, and vice... Read More versa. Favoritism is rampant. The online experience was poorly organized and impersonal. I don't feel ready to enter a new career and regret the experience.

DigitalCrafts has excellent instructors and covers all the necessary languages and tools to set you up for a job in software development. Multiple projects through the cohort allow you to work with others and build out your portfolio to use when applying... Read More for jobs. Career assistance happens for a few days and helps to polish your resume, portfolio, and LinkedIn profile. Great staff overall make being a part of the program an awesome experience.

DigitalCrafts has a great fullstack training program. I was in the July 2020 immersive course which was also remote. I enjoyed being able to safely learn and have access to all the resources that I needed. DigitalCrafts has excellent career services support... Read More and a curriculum that supports modern fullstack web development.

DigitalCrafts does everything the can to make sure that you succeed. From a really solid curriculum to career and interview prep, you learn the skills needed to advance in the world of web development. I was able to not only learn the technologies and... Read More languages that were taught during my time but learned how to learn code so I can expand my knowledge with other aspects of software development. Would recommend that anyone who is trying to learn on their own and gets distracted easy by a shiny new technology really consider taking this bootcamp. The structure and coding fundamentals really help you progress a whole lot faster than trying to learn on your own.

Digital Crafts was recommended to me by an acquaintance who happens to be an executive at an IT staffing company. I had been looking to make a career change and get into the web development/IT for several years but didn't really know how to start the... Read More learning process. I come from a technical theater as well as a learning & development background and knew that having a classroom environment would be critical to my success. After looking at a few other options, I applied to DC. Their admissions process includes an "interview" (I don't know if anyone actually ever fails the interview since it felt more like an information session) with one of their staff. I met with Jake Hadden, one of the co-founders, so that was kind of cool. The second piece of the admissions process is a coding challenge. Now I'm going to be completely honest and say that this felt more like a challenge to find the best place to copy/paste the answers to the problems, but once in the class, I discovered that learning how to Google and find answers to your challenges is a big part of becoming a Developer. So I guess they are helping you down that road early, but it still felt weird. Once accepted, you select your cohort date from the available classes and are given prework to complete. Let me just sat, complete as much of the prework as you possibly can! Now, they do go over everything that the prework covers, but because the class moves so quickly, having a base knowledge prior to class really helps to keep you from getting too overwhelmed too quickly. But don't worry, you'll feel overwhelmed anyway!

I choose to start in March which ended up being when COVID-19 forced everyone to stay at home so my desired classroom would now be a virtual environment. As it turns out, my class ended up being the first to go completely virtual. Let me just say that although I was initially hesitant, the staff did an amazing job of pivoting to using video classes! Of course, we were the guinea pigs, but they, particularly our instructors and DIRs (more on that in a moment) did a fabulous job of providing a great experience in an everchanging environment. Utilizing Zoom with breakout rooms used for personal assistance outside of the main "classroom,"  there would be a lecture and demonstration that students would be able to personally follow along to. Then deeper exercises would be given for us to work on individually. If you hit a wall, the instructor or a DIR (Developer in Residence, basically teaching assistants who are previous students) will work with you individually to help you solve your issue.  Our instructor was Lachlan and he was/is amazingly skilled at his craft and if he doesn't know an answer, can find it pretty quickly and shows you his process for that as a learning experience. That's as it turns out what the whole class is about; it's not so much about learning a particular language, it's about learning to "think like a Developer" and teach yourself how to solve your problem. As the class went on, they were very receptive to feedback regarding how the class was going and things that would help. They even implemented some of our suggestions with the cohort that started while ours was getting toward its end.

The curriculum is intense and extremely fast-paced. Just know that you will feel like you are running away from a tsunami the entire class. You aren't alone. Give yourself some time after class to work on projects and utilize the resources of the DIRs and your instructor as much as possible. They want you to succeed and know you feel like you are barely treading water! Part of the curriculum is personal career prep with resume' writing and portfolio site creation help. In fact, you can't graduate until they see you have a workable set of resources to begin your job hunt. 

They are holding all of their classes online now, and the experience is great. If you want a great school with a wonderful support staff, Digital Crafts is a great place to start your journey.

My experience at DigitalCrafts was everything I expected and more. I met go-getter collaborators in my cohort and obtained some great skills for a career change. I knew that I wanted to get into software development before starting the bootcamp and this... Read More program provided everyhting I needed to get the ball rolling. I am still currently looking for a job post-program. I would recommend the course to anyone who wants to learn to code and give it their all. PROS: Awesome Instructors! Good classroom support and great alumni culture. Cons Expensive but worth it.

DigitialCrafts provided a well-planned curriculum that allows us to develop confidence in building applications with JavaScript. The instructor was awesome and my fellow students were incredibly supportive. I do wish that we spent more time writing real... Read More SQL queries in our exercises and that there was a way to learn some Java.