Tech Talent & Strategy

The Part-Time class runs 8 weeks and holds class on Monday and Wednesday from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. Office hours directly precede class and begin at 5:00pm. You spend most of your time on Ruby on Rails, HTML and CSS. The instructors walk you through programming... Read More from the ground up, starting with terminology and logic, then working your way up to more difficult problems. We learned a lot about model associations, Ruby Gems, domain modeling, bootstrap, and materialize. Lastly, we learned a bit of JavaScript, databases, and Github. We combined all of this into a project at the end of class that we can continue to work on and ask our instructors for help even though class has ended.

I really liked the way the instructors taught the class and made themselves very available outside of class. The material was difficult and daunting, especially when you are doing a part-time class and have less time to absorb the material. Going into it, I was a bit concerned about doing part-time and wished I had the time to do full-time. After finishing the course, though, I can confidently say I am in a good place with my understanding of all the above applications and methods. The Part-Time Code Immersion class gave me a great foundation to continue to build my knowledge. Another great thing about this class is that it isn't just a class; it's a community. Upon graduating, you have access to your classroom portal and all your slides. The instructos and Community Manager encourage you to continue posting questions and problems to Slack (our mode of communication) and they will help out. As someone new to programming, this kind of support is incredibly valuable and I am looking forward to staying in touch with everyone at Tech Talent South.

TTS has been a wonderful experience, through and through. Our class had a very diverse group of students– graphic designers, AT&T technicians, opera grant writers, dancers, stay-at-home parents, hardware folks and more, just for a general sample. We were... Read More all at different places in our life and different levels of stability. The common thread was that we all were looking for a change in our lives, and TTS was our springboard. Coding may have seemed daunting going in, but TTS really made it all doable and provided us with the resources and tools to grow our knowledge going forward.
The CURRICULUM covered a lot of ground for the eight weeks we had, but our instructors were extremely dedicated and the spirit of the class extremely civic-minded. Heaviest focus was Ruby on Rails, followed by HTML & CSS, with Javascript as an intense but graspable two-day topic. We also touched on SQL and Sass in one day each, covering both thoroughly enough that most of the class could use them fluidly going forward. Something really special about our class was our commitment to learning the material. The class gave us the tools we needed, for sure, but taking the homework seriously is what really solidified those skills. The homework was consistently fun and challenging, and always offered lots of opportunities to expand beyond the course material and build something really special (for students who wanted to do so).
We were really lucky with our INSTRUCTORS (Lee and Mariel). First off, they really set the bar high by investing in the course and in our individual success. Both of them met with students outside of class on multiple occasions, and they were available at the craziest hours through the Slack messaging system we used. In addition to their personal care, they really complemented each other as teachers. Their styles of teaching were really different (Lee’s being very minute and devil-in-the-details, Mariel’s offering a bigger picture view of things). Their particular skill sets were different (Lee excelled at back-end while Mariel was untouchable in terms of front-end code). They really balanced each other brilliantly and worked hard to make their vast base of knowledge available to their students. And that didn’t stop when class ended–they continue to support us going forward and that’s amazing.
Bringing me to the biggest magic of TTS: the COMMUNITY! It sounded cheesy and it still sounds cheesy, but TTS really is like family. It’s a really positive environment focused on forging mutual admiration within its own ranks, on connecting to and making a difference in the tech community at large, and uplifting anyone it can. It’s contagious and incredibly valuable. My classmates and I have continued to keep up with each other, and we push each other to go to meet ups and get ourselves out there. Andrew, our brilliant Community Organizer in Charlotte, continues to keep us in the loop about events in the community and jobs that we as individuals might be good fits for. The community is a major piece of the value that you get with TTS.
TL;DR: I LOVED the program and I’m pretty sure it turned my whole life around. The road is wide and full of hope, and after TTS I feel ready for it. If you’re on the fence, don’t be. Just sign up and brace for awesome.

TTS Raleigh was a positive experience! I had been interested in learning HTML / CSS for the past year or so, and it gave me the push I needed to get motivated and start building my own website.

Our instructor was very knowledgable on the course material,... Read More and he was friendly and eager to help us and answer our questions. When the class ended, we got digital copies of all the material and class exercises, which I know I will use to review again in the coming weeks. It's so much material to learn and master!

One consideration for future iterations might be to move from 3 hours / week for 8 weeks to 2 hours / week for 12 weeks. The part time class is designed for working students, which is awesome, but it's so much material and 3 hours is really long to add to a full work day.

Overall, I would recommend TTS to anyone who is interested, and motivated, to learn HTML / CSS.

Prior to joining the Full Time Code Immersion program offered by Tech Talent South, I had spent several months learning about WordPress, HTML and CSS and had been training myself using tools like Treehouse classes online, attending local Meetups and was... Read More just trying to self teach myself the things I needed to know to land an internship or entry level job.

I really enjoyed the course overall and thought it was really helpful towards the goals I had. I'm no master at Ruby or PHP to be sure, but it did help me to understand Object Oriented Languages better as a whole and gave me a lot of knowledge that it would have taken me months and months to learn on my own! It was also nice to do projects in class that I could then add to my portfolio. The nice thing about the program is that you're in a classroom setting so if you have questions you have the sounding board of the instructor and your classmates, and if the instructor in your class can't answer the question - you have the backing of the whole TTS staff - so someone will be able to get your question resolved pretty quickly. Personally, I found the classroom setting super helpful.

One of my favorite parts of attending Tech Talent South were the networking opportunities set up by our community coordinator. During one of the networking opportunities during my course, I met staff members/owners of a local web shop who are doing exactly what I want to do. At the time, they weren't taking on any new staff/interns, but after several months, they sent out feelers looking to hire someone new, and I was able to reconnect with them and land the job!

I took the course after only playing around slightly on codeacademy. I was looking for a career change, and chose to do the bootcamp to help me decide what paths to pursue next. I loved my experience; it was challenging, exciting, and fun.

Pros:
There's... Read More a lot of material in a short amount of time.
You walk away having a new community of great people to hang out with and bounce ideas off of.
They curate speakers and events applicable to student's interest and the local technology community.
The class is catered to the students. If you have something specific you want to build, the resources are there to make it happen.
They share suggested resources and tutorials to supplement material. DO THEM!
The instructor has office hours for questions and help.
They check-in and truly connect to make sure that you feel comfortable.

Cons
Ruby basic methodology is covered fast. I struggled because it was all brand new to me and at first I didn't set up my schedule to really spend time on the homework and study on my own.

Overall, I loved my experience at TTS and highly recommend it to anyone who wants an atmosphere of calm urgency. :) The people are truly great individuals who love to share!!

In eight weeks, I went from completely new to the mere idea of web development to a full-stack developer equipped with all the resources I need to succeed in a new field. As someone coming to tech from a completely different industry, I knew I wanted... Read More a change, but wasn't sure how successful I'd be. The great crew at the Atlanta campus takes you through everything you need to know step-by-step, from HTML & CSS to Ruby and Rails to practical skills like developing on a team and learning git workflow. Aside from the great curriculum, the TTS team goes out of their way to make you feel welcome and make any necessary connections or open any doors to set you on the right path. A coding bootcamp isn't the easiest path to take, sure, but effort and drive combined with Tech Talent South's great resources are a recipe for success.

Tech Talent South introduced me to a new way of thinking, problem solving and patience within myself in how Ruby on Rails is used. As someone who took the class to prepare for a career change, I feel the knowledge was provided and that I have been introduced... Read More to a new path of opportunities. TTS taught me the technical creative skills to add to my resume and to keep going! Personally, I wished the daily class length was a full 8 hours and 5 days a week, because I wanted to learn more.

I took the part-time course and walked out on the last day feeling like I didn’t know a thing. With exactly half the class time of the full-time class, there was quite a bit of independent learning, and for a subject this in-depth and my lack of exposure... Read More (not to mention my learning style) that just didn’t work for me. I went back for the full-time course and the experience was like night and day. That is not to say I am a proficient coder, but I definitely have a strong foundation to continue my education with. In 8 weeks, this program is not going to teach you everything you need to know. What it will do is give you the skills and knowledge to find out if you like this, where your strengths are, and the beginnings of a path that you will create based on what you’d like to do.

The instructors are not going to hand you easy answers. They’re going to challenge you to find them yourself, but will absolutely be there for you during office hours, for coffee, or extra help sessions if that’s what you need. For most people, you won't learn to code in a silo. Find a friend, join a group, meet an instructor - but get yourself a buddy. If you are diligent, take the initiative and reach out when you need help, and do all the work and reading you will get something out of this, even if what you learn is that coding is not for you, despite the interest you may have had in it. And if at the end of it all you feel like you need to do it again to make it all sink in see if there’s room for you to audit the next session. They don't toss you out the door and forget about you. The support network is there if you utilize it.

My background is in economics, finance, and investing--so excel and later VBA (to supercharge excel) piqued my interest in learning more--as excel has limitations in its ability to share the author's work and make it truly interactive for a larger audience.... Read More

TTS Full-Time Charlotte:
Pros: great, enthusiastic instructors; interactive instruction (no one can just hide); provides a foundation in ruby (+rails) primarily, but also lays the groundwork for html/css and javascript.
Cons: a bit more time in JavaScript would be nice, and a day or two on collecting and parsing data from the massive web would have been great.

I had tried Udemy and other online courses, but my retention was 0 after a few weeks (and as those are "paint by numbers," I didn't understand the why). TTS lays a foundation that can be built upon for many years...I now feel that I can continue to learn and expand my expertise.

People at TTS are incredible--very passionate, and TTS cares.

With just 3 hours a week for 8 weeks, I was able to learn enough to build my very own website from scratch using HTML, CSS, PHP, and Javascript. Ryan was always willing to spend time with students outside of class for troubleshooting. He was also really... Read More flexible in covering more in-depth materials based on what my classmates and I were interested in.

After taking the TTS Intro to Website Design & Creation class, I am now able to better support my team who handles higher-level technical SEO work.