Epicodus

A few years ago I wanted a career change, and I started looking into learning to program. I had a few friends in Portland's tech scene and heard about code bootcamps through them. A lot of them seemed expensive for what you got. Then I discovered Epicodus.... Read More The price seemed reasonable for the curriculum offered, and they also had the best-sounding process for entering students into the job market after classes. I applied right away and was accepted several weeks later. The first week of class was a whirlwind. I began learning immediately. It was difficult, but the teachers and even the other students were extremely supportive. I cannot recommend pair programming strongly enough as a great way to learn how to code. You'll want to have the support, feedback, and knowledge provided by others who are all at various different skill levels. They also set you up with an internship at the end of the program. This is an excellent way to enter the job market - you gain real experience at a company, something you can put on your resume right away. If you're considering a career change, or just want to pick up a new skill, I highly recommend starting your journey at Epicodus!

I had a great time at Epicodus. I was always interested in programming and web development and decided I'd give learning it a shot. My instructor was great - very knowledgeable and supportive, and an all around pleasant guy. I really liked my classmates... Read More as well. I spent a lot of time studying, and made sure my time in class was productive and focused. I received a job offer upon completing the program, as well as an offer to be an intern for a company with the idea of becoming permanent after 3 months. As some of the other reviews say, I think if you are ready to put in a good amount of work and study (and be sure to pair with people, even if you don't really want to every day!), you'll get a well-balanced and valuable background in entry-level web development from Epicodus. The tone at the top seems to be supportive and encouraging, and that shines through with all of the staff that I've interacted with.

Overall I give Epicodus 5 stars. I got what I needed out of the experience, and am now employed in the tech industry.

The most valuable part of the program is being in a room with a large group of people that are at the same level of experience as you.... Read More This is invaluable. The networking, collaboration and pair programming experience really accelerated my skills. Working with a team on final projects and solving problems together added a new level in learning that was lacking in online resources I used previously.

The curriculum is largely very good. The inclusion of text resources to back up videos was awesome. The only frustration I had with it was when it was being updated while I was in a course. Sometimes I would read up for the next week, and by the time I got to working on a project or using a tool the applicable video was missing, or the text had changed. The changes were for the better, but It might be a good idea to only apply changes to the course material for the next class to maintain consistency. That being said, sometimes tools and dependencies change outside Epicodus control and I understand why some updates must be made immediately.

The instructors are hired from graduating classes. This is great because they are familiar with each project and the material being used. The instructors seem to be hit and miss, as with any learning institution. Luckily, mine were mostly hit.

The job assistance was not my favorite part of the program. The person that I was in contact with was really great, but as far as my understanding goes they were only one person supporting probably three different graduating classing at various stages in the job search. There is just no way that one person can provide support to a hundred or so students with different skills and career goals. This is a difficult point, because attending a vocational school and getting a job are not hand-holding situations. The burden of finding a job is on the graduate. I would have liked a more personalized approach however. Look at teachers notes for the student, and maybe send them a job posting or two that is specific to their goals. The support I recieved was mostly just a general check in and reminder to continue applying for jobs and coding.

Epicodus provides a very affordable option as a coding school, and it delivers a ton of value. My only complaints are based on a lack of enough personnel, and people cost money, driving up costs for the student.

My suggestions:

Hire another job search support person and deliver a more personal and less canned interaction. Two or three people in this role would be worth a modest tuition increase and deliver value to the graduate. This would also most likely increase placement rates and reduce the time till students were hired.

Teachers are spread thin, and students need jobs. Hire teaching assistants out of graduating classes. Pay them 12 bucks and hour, a couple days a week. You give instructors more time to address complex questions and work on curriculum. You give graduates valuable resume experience, and some pocket change to last them through the job search. This is how it works at a university. You can also use this as a screening for hiring new instructors. Just hire the best TA's. This is worth a modest tuition increase.

Any time you increase costs, you lose a couple people out of enrollment. I believe the improved outcomes from these two changes would easially offset that.

In Summary:

Great program, great people, no regrets. Got a job.

Increase tuition 5-10%, hire a couple people, improve outcomes.

I went into epicodus because I was curious. They introduced me to programming and I was instantly hooked. You start with the basics of learning a markup language (HTML) and applying basic styles with CSS. You will gloss over a lot of fundamentals of programming... Read More like how to make a for loop, or basic debugging techniques. You will get to know a little bit about everything.

The rest is up to you. You need to study on your own time. You need to make programming your whole life while you are at Epicodus and the only person holding you accountable is yourself. Because Epicodus covers a little bit of everything, you need to take the time a learn a lot about one thing. As an example, they'll teach you basics on JavaScript, but to really harness the full power of JavaScript you're going to need to study a lot.

Don't expect to work while attending epicodus as this is a 40 hour a week program. If you have the talent, you can do contract work while attending Epicodus to help pay for classes.

The coding challenges they have every friday are too easy. I left many of them feeling like they were not pushing me hard enough to learn more and just passing me because they could. I would have liked a more strict coding challenges that would have pushed us to the limits.

The course material was great, however, there was frequently errors in the material. This is ok though, as it will help you identify bugs.

Through epicodus, I was able to land a job at a creative agency and I am finally doing fulfilling work. I do not regret Epicodus at all as they provided an environment for me to learn something new, work with others, and help me achieve my goals. If you are dedicated and are willing to spend many hours outside of this program studying, you will succeed. The work you put in will reflect how soon you obtain a job after the program.

I took courses at Epicodus a while back, and am now working full-time as a developer. The classes offered a personal and effective education and provided a good network and valuable work experience. I got portfolio pieces, an understanding of the industry,... Read More and the tools to find a job all for a much more affordable price than other leading competitors. The staff are beyond friendly and helpful, and they make being successful possible and enjoyable.

You can read all the reviews of the numerous schools, but the Department of Education recently reviewed many coding bootcamps to partner up with traditional educational institutions. Taking from their press release, this was their selection criteria:... Read More

["Innovating to Improve Outcomes: The extent to which the proposed activities will produce innovative, high-quality programs likely to lead to positive student learning and employment outcomes;

Equity and Access: The extent to which the programs will provide equitable access to high-quality postsecondary education programs, particularly for students from low-income backgrounds;

Quality Assurance: The extent to which the proposed quality assurance processes have the potential to address key questions about how best to evaluate and ensure the quality of these programs and nontraditional providers;

Affordability: The extent to which the programs are affordable;

Student and Taxpayer Protections: Particularly for programs in which students will have access to federal student loans, the strength of proposed student and taxpayer protections."]

You can read the whole press release here, https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/fact-sheet-ed-launches-initiative-low-income-students-access-new-generation-higher-education-providers.

I know this is somewhat of an odd review, but I am sure you will read many true stories of those who were dipping into second or third careers and now are making bank as a developer because of their school they went to. I am one of the many living that tale thanks to Epicodus(Portland). But seriously 8 schools out of so many to be chosen. Why not check those out first?

I attended Epicodus earlier this year and ended up finishing the program with a bad taste in my mouth. It wasn't all bad but there are some major concerns for Epicodus ( and programming bootcamps in general ) going forward.

Curriculum:

The curriculum is... Read More okay. They focus alot on the how and very little of the why of things. I commend them for making all curriculum available online but there are a lot of issues as it stands now. You will learn a lot about basic web development and how to use version control, and how to plug and play various frameworks to drive your applications.

What you won't learn is how to actually program. The standards are very lenient when it comes to code review ( the daily peer review didn't really occur in my experience ) and essentially everyone "passes". Code standards are lax, best practices are lax, and I got the impression that they were more interested in keeping students happy and pumping out "developers" than they were quality curriculum.

Staff:

The staff is a mixed bag, and with them rapidly expanding to new locations I have a suspicion that the quality is only going to go down. Most of the teachers are former students, which frankly is terrible. Some of them were shaky on the very curriculum that they were teaching and students often rely upon other more advanced students for help because the teachers won't have a good answer. I understand that the concept behind Epicodus was a peer learning environment, and that may have been the case when they were a smaller institution, but there are far too many students and far too few teachers for it to be an effective learning experience.

Job Assistance:

Basically non-existent. One resume review. One mock interview. and they set you up with an internship ( kind of ). There are too many students, too few internships, and a lot of the companies that they are partnered with offer very low quality internship experiences. I heard directly from a company that I interviewed with that they would never hire an Epicodus graduate from prior experience.

Do not expect to hear from them at all after your internship, once again they will over promise and you will get burned. Be prepared to take on the job search on your own, which is not always a bad thing but anyone who expects to come to Epicodus and be guarunteed a job when they are done is going to have a bad time.

Conclusion:

Overall my experience at Epicodus was lukewarm. I met a lot of good people, and did land a job quickly afterword. But I credit my success to studying long hours after class on topics that were actually relevant and the fundamentals of what actually makes a good programmer. You will not learn these things at Epicodus unless you actively seek them out.

This school, with it's rapid expansion to multiple cities while already being on a shaky foundation, is beginning to look more like a developer farm pumping out under qualified and incompetent programmers with dreams of a completely noncompetitive job market which simply does not exist.

I caution you to do your research before attending any programming bootcamp and to realize that most likely you are getting what you paid for.

After staying at home with my children for 7 years, I was ready to get back into the job market with them in school full-time. With 7 years out of any income-earning work, my resume was not exactly going to pull the crowds. I decided I wanted to pursue... Read More software development and was delighted to find Treehouse and Code Academy and Code School. After working through a number of modules, I realized that I needed humans. I could ace every challenge and exercise but I had no one to ask questions, no one to feed off of, no one to explore ideas and possibilities. Though I am perfectly capable of working independently of others, I realized I needed to be more plugged in to the coding universe. I wanted to find a network of people to be a part of on the adventure (and the pursuit of turning this into a career!).

This led me to a community organization designed to encourage beginning coders. At an event, Michael Kaiser-Nyman (head of Epicodus) came and shared the details of Epicodus and what he was trying to achieve through the school. I hadn't explored code schools. I talked to him and took a look at what was available (at Epicodus and elsewhere). Could I really do this?

Epicodus was the best decision I made. I decided that it was going to be a challenge but nothing would rocket me to job-ready like a few months of daily dedicated work on my chosen field. The knowledge I gained and the Epicodus network of staff, students and alumni have made all the difference to who I am and where I am at now. So challenging and so rewarding. The Epicodus model is unique in practice. At the core of every day is the focus on the human: self-drive, self-discovery, teamwork, pairing, user experience, behavior-driven development. A student becomes empowered and confident that not only can they learn but that they can ask the questions, drive the conversation and find the solutions in class and after. The job fair, demo days, internship and career placement is also hands down incredible.

Another unique element in the Epicodus model is the constant focus on inclusion. In every aspect of the school from orientation to literature to daily practice, Epicodus demands students recognize the landscape of the tech industry and actively participate in its evolution to include less represented people. Epicodus walks its talk and as a woman, I was so thankful to feel deeply welcome in what more traditionally may have been a setting less open to my presence.

It was a tough, but very educational experience. The staff are fantastic and work hard for you to succeed (as long as you put forth your own effort. I wish I could have slowed things down to go into more depth on certain things and refine my portfolio,... Read More but I did okay and the consensus among my peers was that it was a great educational experience. I took a full-stack path of PHP, Drupal, JS, and other tech, and feel like I went from zero to Jr Dev. Doesn't rhyme with hero, but good enough! :)