Turing School of Software and Design

What sets Turing apart from other bootcamps is the amazing community. Most coding bootcamps can teach essentially the same coding skills but you can't get the quality of community that you get at Turing at other bootcamps. The support I received from... Read More the staff, alumni, and other students contributed to my success throughout the program and ultimately helped me get a job before graduation.

Staff: Even before my first day of class, I could tell the staff cared deeply about students' success. Throughout the rigorous curriculum, they were supportive and always available to help. They all go above and beyond to make students feel confident and make sure students know what they need to know to be successful engineers (not just get through the program - they want you to be successful as an engineer in the real world). Additionally, staff is very open to feedback and is constantly adjusting to better serve students and they are available and eager to help with job support throughout Turing and after. Bonus: they're all amazing humans and enjoyable to be around (which makes a difference when you're in class with them 40 hours a week).

Alumni: Multiple alumni are available and eager to help current students as mentors. As a current student, it was valuable to have the insight and support from other students who had been through the program, job search, and had spent a few years as a software developer.

Student body: The Turing staff and community does a great job of creating an inclusive, welcoming environment that breeds an inclusive, diverse student body full of amazing people. I made life-long friends during my 7 months at Turing and felt supported by my fellow classmates from day 1.

I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated my experience at Turing. I've had a lot of formal education over the years (clinical doctorate in physical therapy and a combined BS/MS in biomedical engineering), and I also worked a few years as a middle school teacher.... Read More From being involved in many areas of education as both a student and teacher, I was very impressed with how Turing's curriculum (technical and professional development) is designed. You can see they make a strong effort to use best teaching practices and to emphasize key skills in software development throughout the program. It's also quite impressive how quickly the curriculum adapts. Every module, students give feedback to the instructors and often the next module changes are already in place. Turing definitely teaches and follows the agile workflow!

I completed the backend program and the technical curriculum focuses on Ruby & Ruby on Rails for 3/4 of the program and JavaScript with a little React for the last 1/4 (this may have changed slightly since I graduated). It's very heavily focused on Object Oriented Design with relational databases (PostgreSQL). The backend program also strongly emphasizes Test-Driven Development (super valuable way of developing software that is maintainable and readable). Some concepts from a more traditional Data Structures and Algorithms course were not emphasized as much during my time at Turing; however, you will be exposed to these concepts (and it is certainly encouraged that you explore this more). There just isn't enough time to cram all this information into a short 7 months!

If you are looking at other bootcamps, I would really recommend Turing (its non-profit status was a huge plus to me). I would be very hesitant to do any part-time bootcamp of similar duration (unless you absolutey need to) as I do not think one's level of understanding would be sufficient to be a junior developer. As for other full-time bootcamps, I would say Turing likely has the highest standards. I would say it is common for ~10-15% of a module to have to "repeat" (especially in modules 1 and 2). Although this may feel like a negative, I think this demonstrates that quality of a Turing graduate over other bootcamps. The faculty will work with you if you are struggling (they often set up study hours just for students that need more time), and there are different difficulty levels for various projects.

The curriculum is quite rigorous and you will need to get comfortable with diving into a project feeling like you don't know anything (but by the end you will have learned a lot more with this approach). You can certainly become a self-taught developer, but if you can I would really recommend doing Turing as you are paying for the collaboration and learning environment (in addition to very quality instruction). Also you are forced to work in a very fast-paced environment, so you could probably learn much quicker than if you did so by yourself.

In terms of job placement, I was very fortunate as I had a job offer before graduating. This isn't as common, but about a quarter of my cohort had job offers upon graduating. Also Turing does support you throughout your 4 modules on campus and even after (during "module 5"). I have friends that kept going to Turing after graduation to get office hours help with their job search.

Overall, Turing is such a supportive, dynamic, and collaborative environment. It opened the doors to an awesome new career for me, and I hope it does the same for you :) I wish you the best in your decisions!

-Lee

Turing gave me what I needed to start a new career. Before I attended Turing, I was trying to teaching myself web development online when I came home from my teaching job. Eventually I reached a point where I knew I needed to take a leap and commit to... Read More a rigorous program in order to gain the skills necessary to get a software engineering job.

I learned more during my seven months at Turing than I ever thought possible. I also really appreciated the community of Turing -- my cohort was amazing and cohesive, and the staff are all invested in helping students succeed.

Turing was definitely stressful, but for me it was 100% worth it. I started my first dev job three weeks after graduation, and am so happy to be working in this industry.

TL;DR - This isn’t a place to get good grades and earn a certificate; this is a place to get job ready. Along the way, you’ll be part of an awesome community and meet some amazing people.

Before going on, I’ll preface my more detailed review with a reminder... Read More that this comes from own experiences which, of course, can/will be different from others’.

Regarding the technical curriculum, I think it was generally well structured in that there’s an initial focus on the basics of programming before they dive into more practical and applicable skills. Throughout the program, there’s a common theme that I think worked very well - that is, they often position students to explore a topic on their own before formally teaching it. As difficult as this was, this did two things for me. The first is that it allowed me to have context for any particular lesson/topic being taught. The second is that it allowed me to be confident in exploring unknowns and being self-sufficient as a developer. I think the second is a necessary skill for developers to practice.

The instructors and staff are an amazing group of people who really care about the growth of their students. They range from Turing alumni to individuals with years of experience in the field. As an aside, for those like me, I initially had some concern about being taught by alumni with no experience in the field. But not only was this a non-issue (they were all very knowledgable), looking back, I’d now view this as a positive. It was great to learn topics from someone who could easily “meet me where I was”, which I think the alumni-turned-instructors were all very good at doing. Lastly and maybe most importantly, all of the staff (including Jeff) are not afraid to make changes to the their teaching styles or curriculum based on student feedback or relevant changes in the field.

Finally, I’ll speak very briefly about the overall community. I really felt like this is a place designed to push individuals to grow personally as well as technically. There are plenty of non-technical sessions that explicitly did this, and I think those were extremely useful. But aside from those, I think the personalities of the staff and students collectively add up to a community of people that want to make a positive impact on the tech and larger community.

(Like a lot of things in life) Turing is what you make it, but the school's done a great job of providing the environment for you to grow in a lot of ways. Overall, I really appreciate my experience at Turing.

I am who I am today, in large part, because of my experiences at Turing. Coming into the program, I had a very slight "edge", in that I had taught myself some code over the period of about 6 months. By the end of the program, though, that edge was non-existent.... Read More We were all equals.

I have never so consistently felt that I was surrounded by individuals (staff and students alike) that wanted nothing more than to better themselves and those around them. It's absolutely infectious and I can guarantee that, if nothing else, Turing will inspire you to transcend your former self and you will try to become something more. As many of the other reviews have stated, you can expect 70-80 hour work weeks here. There will be incredibly intense struggles, moments where you feel like you can't.

But then you will.

And out of that process of living somewhere between the edge of success and failure for 7 months, you'll become a well rounded software developer who is more than ready and capable to join the work force. More importantlty than that, though, you'll become a well rounded human being. The relationships I developed while at Turing are some of the most dear I've had over the course of my entire existence. It's a family. I walked away with numerous mentors, people I know will be in my wedding party someday, endless professional contacts, and a sense of pride I had never previously experienced. My perspectives were challenged, my paradigms shifted, and I became a little bit more of the type of person I'd truly like to be.

That said, you can absolutely expect to make intense sacrifices. Friends from outside the program, family, and other relationships will become strained. At the time of writing this, I am the 10th or 11th known (thanks for loosely keeping track of this stat, Jeff) engaged person to leave the program no longer engaged to their former fiance. While this may sound like a tragedy, it's the best thing that ever happened to either one of us. We both grew due to my experience at Turing, into individuals that no longer fit in a pair. And out of that, came the opportunity to pursue who we truly are.

I use that example to (hopefully) paint a picture of just how intense this program is. You will leave different than you came.

But, it'll be the best thing you've ever done.

Attending Turing was hands-down the most challenging and rewarding educational experience of my life (previously I completed an undergraduate degree and master's degree from a large state university). I chose this program for its strong curriculum, educational... Read More integrity, and non-profit mission, and I am so happy I learned to code at Turing. With any immersive/intensive experience, you must go into it expecting to do nothing else while in the program; you cannot work outside of the program, you must line up help with childcare and household duties, you should not plan any trips or weekend getaways over the seven-month period, and you must put your entire focus on your learning (and in many cases relearning how to learn in a context like Turing). I basically told my friends and family, "see you in seven months." If you cannot manage your time in that way while also getting eight hours of sleep each night and other self-care you may need, you may struggle in this program.

You must limit distractions and become incredibly self-reliant when it comes to asking for help (from other students, mentors, etc.) and seeking solutions outside of class. If you are the type who always did well in school, this program will humble you (which I find appropriate given how humbling the career of software development can be). You will learn how to communicate well and collaborate with a team through group projects. You will be expected to manage your own job hunt (there is no "placement service" although Turing is well-known/respected among hiring managers and employers often come to Turing to find candidates), but the Turing curriculum includes great professional-development sessions and resources to prepare you to do so successfully. Turing provides excellent instruction and a lot of wonderful resources, but in the end, you are in charge of your success in the program and job hunt. If you get behind or need more instruction, you have the option to repeat a module (there are four modules in the seven-month program) for an additional charge.

Turing is hard, stressful and relentless in ways I'd never experienced before, but it's also fun, inclusive and definitely worth it. If I had to do things over again, I would have done considerably more pre-work and online learning before starting the program—possibly like six months' worth of part-time solo studying since I didn't come from a technical background. I also highly recommend attending one of the "Try Coding" workshops Turing runs on weekends before deciding to enroll. Once you're in: Keep repeating to yourself, "This is really hard, but I can do this" because it's true, and just keep going.

I absolutely loved my time at Turing and think my decision to enroll was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I came from an organization that was very mission-driven around social justice and really appreciated and still value the schools focus... Read More on it's mission to encourage and develop more diversity and inclusion in the tech space. The fact that Turing is a non-profit was also very important to me and I think the school and faculty culture they've built clearly demonstrates the value it brings to the school - all of the money they make goes to making the school a better place to learn and their staff happy and fulfilled with the work they do.

I came out of Turing's FE program with a very strong understanding of JavaScript, React, and Node. I also felt like I got the support I needed from the staff in my job search - especially Ian Douglas, one of the all-star instructors, who met with me weekly to run through mock interviews and always gave me the feedback I needed to continue to improve while also making sure to keep me motivated and feeling good about my readiness for interviews.

I ended up getting to choice from a bunch of different offers after finishing school and felt very prepared for my first dev gig. If you are able to spend 7 months working you ass off to become a software developer, I can't imagine a better place with a more diverse and inclusive alumni community.

I attended Turing after doing research on options of learning to code. I narrowed my choices down to 2 online schools and 2 in-person schools based in Denver. I originally had the opinion that I wouldn't be able to quit my full-time job in order to learn... Read More to code. And hindsight is the best because I don't know how I couldn't have quit my job to attend Turing. I won't say I loved every minute of it and Turing is a constantly shifting blob of curriculum and community, but it's for the best experience. When you sign up, you're immediately part of the experiment that changes with results. It may sound bad, but Turing can stop and pivot (you'll get this pun if you attend the BE program, maybe) when something isn't working or double down on it if it is.

The Turing community is hands down the reason you should attend. The gaggle of mentors (that's the term for group of mentors, right?) is amazing and always willing to help students and the community at large. Turing invests in helping their students succeed, not just in the classroom, but as a human being with a focus on soft skills and overall impact of the tech industry. I wrote a blog post on Medium after I graduated that I still stand behind basically saying that coding is the second most important thing that Turing taught me. Two years post graduation, I look back at the things I wrote and still stand behind them.

I can't say Turing is for everyone, there are some people where different options are the right choice, but you'll be a better person on the other side if it fits your personality.

Turing changed the trajectory of my life and I can't thank them enough for the hard work they put into me.