Tech Talent & Strategy

I feel like I learned more on my own than from the boot camp. I learned the same material from a video course which I bought from Udemy, and I get to keep the video forever. After completing the boot camp, I applied to jobs but most jobs that use Rails... Read More require you to do testing which is not taught in the boot camp. You have to take an additional course to learn testing. If you learn face-to-face better, well, the course is too fast paced to grasp most of the material in a short amount of time. Most of the students had broken applications to turn in as their final projects. Better off buying a book or taking a video course.
There's job support but not much for Rails which they teach. I don't get why they focus on Rails.

Pros- You learn a lot, the instructor was excellent and very knowledgeable. I think that anyone who finishes this course will be able to get a job in the field so long as they complete their homework and all assignments.

Con(not really)- I don't think... Read More it is a con necessarily, but because the course is fast paced, it will be hard to maintain a full time job while in this class. For those who can afford to do part time or not work at all, I would strongly encourage you to take the course. You can do the course while being a full time worker, you just need to have supreme time management.

Overall, I think this course has helped me a lot. Not only did I learn ruby on rails, JS, Css and Html, I learned that it is ok to mess up. "Break things" is a saying that's always being used and you will understand once you decide to take the course. My advice is to stay curious and fall in love with it and everything will fall into place.

I was doing production engineering at a chemical company by day and going through some JavaScript materials online at night, which spawned me to research whether there were any in-person courses in the New Orleans area. Tech Talent South's JavaScript... Read More Application Development course was the answer, and I feel so lucky to live in a city offering an in-person course. The program was well-structured with in class examples. Like most things, you get out of it what you put into it. The course was a couple nights a week, and ample homeworks and supplemental learning resources are provided throughout the course. Tech Talent South's New Orleans community organizer also did a stellar job of setting up tours of tech companies in the NOLA area in addition to having guest speakers such a IT recruiters present and Q&A before classes. The connections made through the course are invaluable. Again, it's up to you to do the homework in order to really gain the most value during the ~3.5 month course. You will be exposed to everything you need to know to build web applications using JavaScript and React. Then, practice, practice, and practice some more. Personally, I was able to parlay the course experience towards a software developer job with my company, which I start in a couple weeks!

I work as field technician out of New Orleans and, coming from a core science background and currently completing my graduate studies in IT Management, I wanted to continue to build my carrier and technical skills in IT and software development in order... Read More to get better opportunities and be able to create solutions.
Although I have been working in the IT field, it has been a decade plus since I did any actual coding. I was not in touch with modern web development. Thus, decided to join a coding boot camp at TTS called Code Immersion. TTS granted me partial scholarship and I was able to enroll into the part-time program that allowed me to continue my work and studies and to be part of great likeminded colleagues. I felt very welcomed and in addition to the classes I was able to benefit great deal from the various guest speakers, social events and networking. Furthermore, I got the opportunity to volunteer in the program organized by TTS to teach kids to code at a public library. Great program and very helpful professionals, I value the time and connections I have made.

It took a lot of contemplation before I decided to attend any bootcamp. I chose TTS because of the reviews, and the personal stories that I had heard from people in my network. If you're on the fence, do it. It's worth it. They will put you in contact... Read More with alumni... reach out and get their opinions. Be prepared to work though. The Code Immersion course is no joke. I had ZERO experience coming into it, put in the hours, and learned a ton. DO THE PREWORK!

The networking is there if you want it. They set up tours and speakers, but it is on you to go and ask the questions. Ask every question you can, and want. The community organizers absolutely love helping you network... leverage them (Simone is the bomb).

Don't be afraid to ask for help. They have tutoring, take advantage of it. Their support staff is amazing and they truly care about your success.

I chose to attend TTS after a very bad (and expensive) .NET boot camp. I had applied at Tech Elevator (and told there was a waiting list - that won't get me employed) and WeCanCodeIt, having one of the worst experiences taking their entrance exams. In... Read More addition to Ruby on Rails, I also choose to take Machine Learning so this will cover both instances in the review.

I found it TTS enjoyable, learnable and the environment outside of the lessons very worth my time. Honestly, after having such a bad experience, it was great to come to TTS and have a great experience.

You get to keep the lesson access, so all the sides are there for your review & practice after the class has ended. The environment at The Foundry adds to that, introducing you to other industry professionals in the Columbus "Start Up space" where you can shake hands, talk about projects and then focus on producing something that isn't in your lesson plan - IF YOU WORK IT. Evelyn coordinates the recruiters who come in, in a more dressed down / less intensive open meeting with your class to get you to think of different avenues within coding. This is much better and helps you focus on the slides & hands-on practical content, instead of getting stressed out typing up resumes & dressing up in a suit & tie.

The focus is the content & making contacts so you are focused to learn. The other boot camps in Columbus can and should learned from this model.

For those of you that are like myself, previously working in the MS Windows world, this is a great intro point to work with MacOS & command line interface (you can also have a Win10 based laptop & the Ubuntu VM install w/ Ruby on Rails install - I just chose the MacOS because I wanted to add that capability to my resume). Honestly, I found working with Rails much easier than trying to learn DOS/Win CMD for the first time. Much more intuitive, much closer to plain English. You still work to understand the content (as all learning) but it isn't as much of a jump as some may panic about. This is very do-able! Additionally, I also have some other medical challenges that were a distraction but the content is such that you can take a day's break and you pick right up where you left off at. The other boot camps companies can't show that, can't say that, can't prove it.

Machine Learning is still in it's infancy as an industry job. TTS presented by Dr. Micheal Perkins, gives you the Azure Machine Learning interface and it's a very high level experience with training models, sampling & gives you real life examples (Facebook, for instance) where data is cleaned, presented and probable outcomes can be derived from the data. This is a great intro to Machine Learning for recruiters or hobbyists (like myself - I plan to use this knowledge for my Mycroft Voice Assistant). It was well worth my time & I thank Dr. Perkins for it!

TTS does not have personality tests (dumbest idea ever to screen individuals in the other boot camps) or online tests. TTS has the laser point focus on giving you what you need: CONTENT. PRACTICE. REPEAT. Seriously, this is about the enjoyable contacts in the professional world (meeting HR & management reps from Root Insurance, Taivara and a few others) and it's kept informal so you learn what you have to do to move forward after you finish the course.

Being at TTS is the shot in the arm for anyone who is unemployed to give themselves an opportunity to pick their head up and start producing code that you can upload to present to employers.

Thanks, Taylor! Thanks Evelyn! Thanks Dr. Perkins!

After deciding to leave my recruiting job and pursue a career in development, I researched around and decided to take the 8 week code immersion course. The bootcamp was a great introduction to general programming and really sets you up to learn different... Read More programming languages and frameworks. I met a lot of great people during my time at TTS. Bart was my instructor and he did awesome at explaining the lessons and you could tell he really cared about teaching the class. We also got to go on a lot of company tours where I was able to grow my network. I am also taking the JavaScript course to further my knowledge. The only thing I would have liked to see more of in the 8 week bootcamp is covering more relevant technologies that would be useful as an entry level developer trying to get their first dev job like myself. Also, some job interview prep or assistance in getting my foot in the door would be nice too. It is definitely not an easy course so be prepared to give it your all or else you might not get as much out of it as others who do. Overall, I would definitely recommend taking some TTS classes to anyone who is trying to get into the field or just trying to learn something new.

I joined TTS in March 2018 in the Fulltime Code Immersion course as well as the Machine Learning course.
My instructor was exceedingly patient with students when needed.
He was also quick to point out more detailed aspects to students who wanted an in-depth... Read More look.
The course-work is a great overview of what to expect when learning Ruby on Rails and a very complete introduction to programming in general.

I did the precourse work and had familiarized myself with Ruby, RoR, git, and bash.
If you come to this class with those skills built, you will have a great time and lots of job prospects.
If you come with an eagerness to learn, but not much work done already you will learn a great deal, but it won't be very fun.
Either way, it is worth every penny.

First off let me start by saying I choose Tech Talent South over General Assembly which I got accepted to. I found great value in the Full-Time Code Immersion course at TTS over General Assembly.My Code Immersion course was literally $6-7,000 cheaper... Read More than the course at General Assembly. I didn't have to pay for parking like I would've for General Assembly at Ponce City Market. The hours worked much better with my schedule at TTS and there was plenty of parking in the back. Plus I really enjoy the facilities at Strongbox West. I had a fantastic teacher for my Code Immersion course and she was very thorough and took pride in her teaching. Shout out to Mrs. Heather Creighton for being one of the best teachers I've ever had.I was amazed how much I learned in the short amount of time in this course. As much value as I found value in the TTS course over General Assembly I appreciate the fact that General Assembly at least had a cancellation policy. Now I did get offered a great deal plus a scholarship to have my Code Immersion and 3 other courses bundled. However once you accept the contract you are locked into those classes and they can't be cancelled but possibly switched with other courses. I found my Intro to Coding and UI/UX design class to be quite lacking. My courses were bundled by a administrator with my goals as a iOS developer so I don't place blame for the courses I took. But the more tours I went on with my boot camp and the more people I began to spoke to in the industry it changed which direction I wanted to go with my coding. When I mentioned the content in the courses were lacking to my administrator they told me they would see what they could do and apologized for my discontent. Basically I was told I couldn't cancel any of my classes even though I had given advance notice. I was then reminded how bright of a student I was and offered a discount if I took more courses from TTS. This wasn't the solution I had hoped for because I basically taught my Intro to Coding course to other students. And my UI/UX course was not long enough and didn't provide enough content to even start a portfolio if this was a field you wanted to enter. It was more of a intro to UI/UX and I was taught the methodology of what a UI/UX designer does there wasn't any projects to put into a portfolio that would allow you to justify experience. In conclusion when I finished my Code Immersion course I never knew how small the market was for a Ruby on Rails Developer in Atlanta. Most boot camps use this language to teach students that have never coded to code because its fundamentally easier to learn. But makes it harder to find a job after finishing a boot camp course and no one mentions that. You should be able to learn another language after you've mastered your first one that being said. Honestly I just wish TTS had offered a test before I had taken Intro to Coding before I spent $1,000-$1,500 on this course after I had mentioned to the administrator I had been coding for 6 months in HTML,CSS and Javascript and wasted my money. Also if they could extend the UI/UX design course and provide more content to build or at least start a portfolio as a UI/UX designer for how much that course cost I didn't find it relevant at all to any of my other courses or being a iOS developer. But that is just my personal opinion but I did ask other students in my class if they felt the same about the course and they agreed I won't mention their names. So other than my discontent with my other courses if your planning on taking the Full-Time Code Immersion course I would highly recommend it. As for the other courses TTS offers I would speak to some alumni or read the reviews to try and feel out the courses to see if they are worth your money. I had a iOS class but switched to a Javascript course next month. I hope I find this course more useful and with better content the staff and teachers have been fantastic otherwise. Also they very fair with the pricing other than the fact you can't cancel your classes.

The one liner on Tech Talent South Code_Immersion is ; Do it!
Here is the rest of it
1) Kevin the instructor is awesome
2) Cassandra, the administrator, is awesome
3) Believe it or not the students that were in class with me were awesome
Very important info... Read More here - Kevin the instructor has the patience of a Zen__Master_For _Real. Coding can jump
from "Ok I get that" to "WTF?!?!!? how did he get that" in a flash. Kevin was never phased by #crazyQuestions
#slowLearners (like me), he knows what is wrong because clearly he has been coding for 20 years and he is in his
20's!!! I honestly feel I can learn any language because Kevin taught us how to approach/learn code, that was the
BEST takeAway.
Cassandra was able to put guest speakers in front of us who were completely awesome! EVERY SINGLE speaker
gave way more than expected and basically assured us that a career in code will be waiting for you and some were
hiring(now). The field trips were CRAZY! I had no idea that some of these places were here and the work_spaces
were inspiring. SiliconeBayou is the future and Cassandra is 'linkedin' for_real!! Teaching the kids camp was the
coolest ever.
I really enjoyed the experience, learned HTML, CSS, SQL, ACTIVE RECORD, JAVASCRIPT, RUBY, RUBY ON
RAILS(AWESOME) and so much more. Remember this, we learned how to learn. You will need that skill more
than anything else. Tech Talent South has a great culture and the tech community obviously welcomes them and
their students in with open arms. Time/effort/money well spent. My future learning will be with Tech Talent South