Prime Digital Academy

I graduated from Prime in January 2016. My experience at Prime was absolutely exceptional. Cohorts are 20-22 people with 2 instructors and a floating TA for the whole school. As I was somewhat early on in the program (fifth cohort) they were still working... Read More the kinks out of the curriculum, but I thought it was fantastic. Like all other programs, like life really, you get out of it what you put into it, but I felt like the atmosphere was set up so well that it was nearly impossible not to throw a lot of energy into the program.

I found the instructors totally capable and enthusiastic, though sometimes reticent to answer questions that strayed too far outside of the curriculum. Most of them are young and come from a variety of backgrounds (UX, Angular, Game Design, et c.) with (from what I could tell) 8-15 years of experience each. From what I could tell most of the staff there did not have traditional CS backgrounds, for what it is worth. At least a few had outside projects that they were getting off the ground at the same time as teaching.

The curriculum is 18 weeks total: 6 weeks of guided (and required) pre-work, they essentially give you a log-in to Code School and give you weekly assignments. The pre-work period is pretty laid-back and meant for students to complete while still working or preparing for the in-class portion. It is pricey (12k) but there are a few scholarships and a pretty sweet scholarship program. Full disclosure: I paid full tuition out of pocket.

The in-class portion (currently located in Bloomington, MN just south of Minneapolis) is twelve weeks. There is a heavy emphasis on soft skills: public speaking, working in teams, simulating working in large groups and with clients that change their minds. It seems that the curriculum is changing with every cohort but my cohort spend two weeks rehashing HTML/CSS and vanilla Javascript. The third week we went through the full stack, building out a basic app from front to back with Angular, Node.js/Express and Mongo. They have also started teaching Post-GreSQL. The next three weeks are solidifying the basics of full stack programming. There is generally a decent sized assignment (6-12hrs) over the weekend which incorporates whatever was learned over the week. One or two nights a week there are small assignments, but there were very few nights where I felt rushed for time. One of my few complaints with the program was that there was very little feedback on assignments or progress, though all the instructors and staff seem very open to suggestion and responsive to any big concerns.

After the in-class learning portion there was a two week personal project. This time was fairly hands off for the instructors, though they are always around to help. They 'Okay' a scope of work then send you on your way. I found this to be a great way to learn, but this might not work for everyone.

The last 3-4 weeks are spent on a group project doing pro-bono work building a full stack app for a non-profit client. This is a real project with a real deadline and expectations and while it is demanding there is a lot of support provided. They put a lot of work picking high quality clients and you can see that these folks tend to be very responsive and helpful (we calculated the value and the project would cost something like $70,000+ if done by an agency).

The last week is spent wrapping up any loose ends of projects, doing interviews with hiring partners and working though common interview questions.

Prime is closely linked to the Nerdery and there is some cross talk between students and Nerdery folks. The Nerdery has only hired a handful of grads though and this is more a friendly connection than a direct pipeline.

I like to think that I could have learned all the tech stuff on my own, but it would have taken a year rather than four months. The emphasis at Prime on people is massive, though. They make sure the cohorts are diverse (in gender, race as well as backgrounds) and it is a great way to network and make friends.

I found a range of reactions to Prime in the Twin Cities tech community, many positive and exciting reactions and some who had not heard of Prime. I have yet to hear any substantive negative feedback or poor opinions yet, though they may be out there.

Placement rates as reported to us are very good, but also vary by cohort. They make this clear, though not till the end of the program. It seems like 75% of grads get jobs by three or four months post graduation, and 95% have jobs by six months out though these numbers will probably get even better as Prime's name gets more recognition. It has been about a week since i have graduated and I have three in-person interviews and have been receiving contacts from recruiters at the rate of about one every other day. Reported salaries out of Prime are 42k-68k/yr and while they don't say anything specific they recommend asking for 50-60k, more if you have relevant experience. They do make it pretty clear (again, at the end of the program) that it is much easier to get a position within the Twin Cities than outside. So don't expect to come to Prime then go off and get a 120k job in the Bay.

Overall the experience was great. There were some pretty tough parts, and I definitely have a few criticisms of the program and staff, but overall I'm super grateful I got to go through it.