Tech Elevator

When I was getting ready to register I was reading reviews here and thinking: "This sounds too good to be true". Boy was I wrong! Tech Elevator deserves this great reputation. Everyone that works at this bootcamp is thoughtful, passionate, knowledgeable... Read More and driven to help you succeed. Every. Single. Person!!

First: The Pathway program was helping me improve my resume, online footprint, practice interviewing as well as the Pathway directors helping find us opportunities and bringing in wonderful companies that wanted to hire us! Vinny, Ben and Katie are the kind of people you need in your corner! They're constantly looking for new opportunities for us, even after the bootcamp is over. They're always there to help or offer advice. Sometimes even after hours! and They will be looking out for you from day 1! Pathway is underrated.

Second: My instructor Steve Carmichael, is probably the best instructor I could ask for!! his teaching style was thoughtful, fun, engaging and We all found ourselves looking forward to lecture every day! Steve would always make time for me when I had more questions. He also brings a wealth of experience in the field that he so generously shared with us. I came out of this bootcamp knowing how to code. But more importantly, due to his wisdom and experience, We all left the class knowing how to continue to grow in our careers and how to continue to excel even in our first, second and third roles. This type of mentorship and wisdom is an unexpected bonus that is priceless for anyone who wants to excel! Steve is a treasure!

Third: Other instructors like Matt, Brian, John, Margaret, Rachelle and Matty were always willing to help! Even if you're not in their class, they were there for you to help you get unstuck, practice technical interviews and make sure you feel confident and prepared!

It is obvious that Tech Elevator focuses on hiring great people. I'm happy to report that Tech Elevator also focuses on admitting great people into the program! I left the bootcamp with a huge network of talented, passionate, inspiring and dedicated peers. We worked long nights together, helped each other understand difficult concepts and became friends along the way!

If you're reading this, please understand that you will have to work hard. However, if you are willing to do the work, this team will help you succeed. Keep in mind this all happened during COVID-19 and the odds were stacked against us. This program was worth every penny.

I had worked in IT for nearly 20 years as a Network Engineer before deciding I needed a career change. It was certainly a difficult course, but I gained experience to jump start me into my new career. I learned a lot from Katie Dwyer, my teacher. I impressed... Read More myself with how much I picked up from the program. Jessica was also very encouraging when I was looking for a career - she always had something nice to say whenever I was stressed.

I, like many others, tried to do the "teach yourself coding" path. I took numerous online classes and read books on the hottest technologies, and even with a college degree and 10 years of engineering work experience, I got ZERO traction when it came... Read More to actually getting interviews. THIS is the part that makes Tech Elevator perhaps the best value in education (perhaps ANY kind of investment) around. You can check the stats on this website or elsewhere - at Tech Elevator Pittsburgh, over 90% of people who complete the curriculum leave with a job, and the average salary is ~$60k (apologies if those numbers are off a bit). The return on the investment in yourself, in such a short time, is unmatched. On top of the nearly guaranteed job, you will also get a TOP-NOTCH education from friendly and knowledgeable instructors that will prepare you for the modern tech economy.

YOU WILL NOT REGRET GOING TO TECH ELEVATOR PITTSBURGH!

When I decided I was ready to make a career move the list of boot camps for coding was a long one. Tech Elevator quickly rose to the top of that list based on their proven track record. Coming from a blue collar job working as a welder I was apprehensive... Read More about whether I would be able to thrive in this environment or be accepted by my peers. Those worries were promptly squashed as I began to interact with the staff and eventually my fellow students. Everyone was so welcoming and ready to help. The staff made the transition into learning as smooth as they could for me.

Regarding the coursework, it was nothing short of phenomenal. Tech Elevator's team of instructors, tutors and mentors are all top notch. They throw a lot at you, and it comes fast, but they also provide the support to help you succeed. The coding portion of their curriculum is rigorous and challenging. It is also highly effective. I went from almost no coding experience to being able to write my first basic program in a matter of weeks. By the end of the cohort I was participating in full stack development of web applications comfortably.

The career prep portion of the cohort was hardly an aside. It was one of the main attractions for me to Tech Elevator. I learned how to effectively sell myself to potential employers. How to build a professional network of peers and mentors. In depth training and practice for both behavioral and technical interviews. These are just a few highlights from that part of the program that did so much to prepare me to actually land a job upon graduation.

Tldr: - Came in with no experience in software development
- Had an exceptional learning and professional development experience led by a team of wonderful people
- Within a month of graduating I have landed my first job as a Software Developer with a reputable company
- 100% recommend Tech Elevator to anyone looking to break into tech

You can't put a price on bettering yourself... but if you have to: It's whatever amount Tech Elevator is charging for tuition. Taking control of my future through TE was well worth the time and money. It was the best decision I could have made.

I specifically... Read More attended the Cleveland campus in the midst of the pandemic, when we were forced to transition to full remote learning, and even in the midst of that madness the TE experience was smooth and controlled. The instructors and staff are phenomenal and will bend over backwards to help you succeed. I can't give enough thanks to these people, they've changed the course of my professional life forever.

Tech Elevator is worth every penny. I came to this with a very unusual background (I was a university lecturer and a freelance writer) and was worried that I wouldn't be cut out for it because I'd been away from math for so long. I couldn't have been... Read More more wrong. The level of instruction is incredible, and the support I got from the instructors helped me overcome some of my early fears about whether or not I could handle the work. The professional development is equally important, perhaps moreso, and it did not disappoint. I had more instruction and support in a summer at Tech Elevator than I had in all of college and graduate school combined. Yes, it's a fair amount of work: you will be run pretty ragged for fourteen weeks. Yes, it's scary to transition from what you know to what you don't, especially when you're always taking in a lot of new information. Yes, it's not a small amount of money, and that's an important consideration. But I also grew a lot as a person by tackling the unknown, and when it was all over, I got a job in a new career I'm happy with. If you're unhappy with your current career track and this work sounds interesting to you, it's worth taking the plunge. Can't recommend this outfit strongly enough.

Throughout this course, I learned everything I would need to know for a role in software development. The program gave me the technical skills to be able to confidently take on a role with an employer, as well as the networking skills to branch out and... Read More find opportunities I would have never found before. I would recommend that anyone looking to get into tech researches Tech Elevator and signs up. The curriculum is fantastic, and the staff are great people who do whatever they can to help you look for a job upon graduating.

I came to tech elevator to immerse myself in coding, over the 14 week program I honestly can say that I feel confident in what I've learned from my Instructors and the success that the Pathway Directors have set me up for in my job placement. I would... Read More absolutely recommend Tech Elevator to anyone in the Greater Cincinnati area or on their remote courses as well.

Tech Elevator is an awesome program! They fit a whole lot in to 14 weeks but are there with you every step of the way to make sure you succeed. The teachers are great and I feel like they have done quite a good job transitioning to online-only learning... Read More throughout the pandemic. 100% recommended!

Career Differences
Yes, going to Tech Elevator is absolutely one of the best things you can do for your career. A year ago I moved to Philly and I was applying for writing jobs with salaries around $30-45k. Most were closer to $30k, similar to the $28k... Read More I was making before moving here. Exactly one week after graduation, I accepted an offer at a global company tripling what I was making before from a company I met at matchmaking. Aside from finally being able to afford paying off college debt, I actually do something for a living that I love. I'm nine weeks into my job as a software engineer and the relaxed environment still baffles me, especially compared to previous positions where I spent all day on the phone. I mean, I'm able to listen to music or an audiobook while I work; I always have help when I need it; I'm encouraged to spend time at work learning new things outside of my day-to-day responsibilities (like using Pluralsight); there are so many opportunities to attend random events that I'm interested in throughout the week (PRIDE meetups, AI meetups, etc); and I could go on and on. I started virtually, of course, but when asking others about the office culture, I was told my team takes ping-pong breaks, works on puzzles together, brings in food for each other (all pre-covid). Comparing it to a traditional office job... it's still hard to wrap my head around. I enjoy working and coding for hours because my employer wants employees to be happy at work - who knew enjoying going to work was a thing?

The People
Some of my best friends were made at Tech Elevator, starting from week one. Throughout the program, there are many pair programming assignments, and you always work with someone new, so it's easy to get to know everyone. With assignments that can take hours and capstone projects that take days, you really become close friends with people. I know things are virtual right now, but the in-person campus was my favorite thing. There were so many nights where I went on a mini-lockdown with friends, staying up very late trying to finish assignments, playing games, enjoying food the staff would bring in for us, etc. My cohort did things like going out to lunch, grabbing drinks, going to karaoke, going to a museum, playing games together, etc etc etc. As for the staff - they were absolutely wonderful. The instructors were extremely accessible, especially when we went virtual halfway through the program. They both had a lot of experience in the field and were such great teachers overall. I gathered other students for a group project (highly recommend doing a group project if you want to stand out to employers!) and they spent hours and hours helping us with it, even though it was completely outside of the curriculum.

The Career / Pathway Program
One of the reasons I chose TE over other bootcamps was how impressive the career services were in the reviews and statistics I read. Other bootcamps in Philly mentioned career prep help, but I can't imagine it was anything even close to what TE offers, especially after reading reviews on Reddit about Philly bootcamps. Imagine having someone push you for 2-3 days out of every week to get yourself together and prepare for a job, starting from day one. I remember thinking, "Why are we starting so early? We have nothing to prepare with??" Yeah, it was necessary to start that early. The coursework picks up so quickly and 14 weeks seems like a lot of time to prepare for a job, but you need that long if you want to prepare the right way. I remember giving my first elevator pitch for an employer visit or talk and my social anxiety was the worst. I almost forgot my name. The idea of matchmaking later on in the program--meeting a handful of employers in only two days--was terrifying, but when it came time for that, I felt really prepared and confident in my abilities and hey, it worked! Those rounds of mock behavioral and tech interviews, the resume reviews, the elevator pitch practice sessions, the employer advice events--I mean, we had everything we needed to succeed. Even with those, Caitie, the pathway director, was absolutely one of the biggest reasons I was able to land a job within a week of graduation. She makes sure you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, and that you're doing it right. She's obviously an expert in what she does, and I knew when I met her for my Tech Elevator interview that she is truly in this position because it makes her happy. I still keep in touch with her occasionally :) Despite the economy completely crashing and most employers closing their hiring doors, at Tech Elevator... it almost seemed to not make a difference. Some employers backed out of matchmaking, yet most (all? I haven't checked in with other students lately...) found jobs fairly quickly, most through the companies we met through the program.

Coursework
I'm still wondering how I was able to learn so much, so quickly, AND be qualified for a software engineer position with only 14 weeks' worth of experience. A lot of my computer science friends from college who graduated around the same time as the bootcamp ended are still searching for jobs, and they have years of experience over me. In talking to my coworkers, it seems like the ability to learn so quickly is more attractive in a candidate than how much you know. Of course, you still have to put in the work to show them how much you can learn in a short time. The first few weeks were spent learning basic programming principles and intro to java stuff--the need-to-know material. Seriously though, make sure you're reviewing these basic concepts every week because you there's a 100% chance they will come up in an interview. We moved on to some database stuff, which was pretty interesting and necessary to learn if you move to a full-stack position. After that, we moved onto servers and web stuff. Ah, the good stuff. My one critique, now that I'm out and about in the real world, is that what we learned at the time was fairly outdated compared to working applications. It was a weird transition going from Spring MVC to regular Spring Boot. The course also teaches Vue.js, which I also learned isn't as popular. I don't think I saw it in more than one job posting. Despite learning tools that weren't directly applicable to a lot of jobs, I still learned the fundamentals of how databases and web frameworks work. Plus, interviewers were genuinely interested in hearing about technologies they've never used, which contributed to a nice conversation. Regardless, as I mentioned, what's more important is that you're able to learn the given material and apply it, because that's what's going to happen on the job anyway.

Going Remote for Covid-19
Honestly, going remote was a very smooth transition. The first few days were kind of weird to adjust to, but that was mostly because it was so sudden. I think it was a Sunday afternoon when I got an email that said we're going remote the following day? IIRC the staff found out pretty last minute too, but even with that, I really enjoyed virtual classrooms. It was much easier to pair program when you're screen sharing, and it's easier to work together from home/remotely when you don't have to worry about catching a trolley or train on time etc. The difference in learning environments was mainly that our instructor had to screen share instead of writing on a whiteboard, but the quality of teaching/learning didn’t change.

Compared to Other Philly Bootcamps
I didn't look too heavily into other bootcamps--maybe three or four--but I noticed many of them aggressively try to sell you into their program. They seemed to care more about making money off of their students, rather than educating them. With Tech Elevator, they only accept students who they think will do well in the program. They want to make sure you have what it takes. After comparing curriculums between a few local bootcamps with the help of my friends who are software engineers, Tech Elevator definitely outranks the others in that realm. I will note that Tech Elevator did not once reach out to me by phone or email with promotional material, unlike the daily phone calls and emails I received from other bootcamps. Anyway, it's clear Tech Elevator doesn't have to have a sales department to push people to apply and spend thousands of dollars. Students don't need to be pushed to apply to Tech Elevator; it's the clear choice.

Conclusion
If you like coding, and want to do what you love for a living, then do this. The curriculum gives you the knowledge you need to impress employers on your skills, but the Pathway Program is designed to help you tackle your individual professional weaknesses and highlight your strengths. If you put in the work, you will succeed.