We Can Code IT

After working in people-heavy roles in the nonprofit sector for a decade, I was ready to make a switch to a career that allowed me to be an introverted thinker. I was drawn to We Can Code IT's commitment to diversifying the tech sector. Leaving a career,... Read More and steady paycheck, for 4 months was terrifying, but making the leap was one of the best things I have ever done. WCCI has fabulous instructors and support staff. The career coach kicked my butt and got me ready to take on the job search in a way that ensured that I was focused on landing a job that not only provided me with a paycheck, but also uplifted me by meeting my non-compensation needs (culture, mission, benefits). The instructors gave me a foundation of tech skills, got me excited by the possibilities of all the things I can build and explore, made me laugh, and provided me with a safe space in which to ask questions and feel vulnerable. I learned Git and we worked in an agile environment during bootcamp; both of these learnings have served me well in my new tech job. If you are thinking about a tech bootcamp, I highly recommend you take an honest assessment of how much time and energy you are willing to put into this amazing experience. You will absolutely get out of this program what you put in. I wouldn't change my experience for anything.

I attended We Can Code Flexcode program in 2019. I had been trying to get into an IT program for a while but with a family to support, I could not afford to quit employment. This program allowed me to remain employed and take care of my family while going... Read More to school. This made it even more intense and I basically had no life outside or school and work for 16 weeks. I have to say however that this was the best decision i could have ever made for the sake of my career growth and while the coursework was intense, I was very fortunate to have been a part of an amazing cohort with brilliant and hardworking team members, dedicated instructors and career coach. I love that even after graduation, I remain a member of WCCI and they are always willing to provide extra coaching and mentorship. I got a great job right after graduation and have nothing but great recommendations for this program.

I had an amazing experience at We Can Code It. I did the in-person, 14 week, full-stack web development course. It was a challenging but very rewarding experience where I was able to collaborate on a wide variety of projects with other students learning... Read More to code. I met some really great people through We Can Code It and I would highly recommend it to anybody that is looking to get into the tech industry.

I attended We Can Code IT's FlexCode program after trying to teach myself to code (and then being unsatisfied with my progress). The FlexCode program let me learn at my own pace with modules done on my own time online, and meet with classmates and the... Read More instructor every other weekend. It really was the best of both worlds! Working on a team for our final project taught me teamwork and reinforced good source control practices, too. I studied and worked on projects while taking care of my kids, without any big changes to their routines, which was a big plus for me.

The instructor was patient and available for questions and problems pretty much all the time. He clearly loves teaching and helping students. The career services counselor had great advice and was so supportive, even after I graduated. The program helped me with my resume, interviewing, portfolio, and even set up some visits from local employers. This personal attention and mentorship really helped me succeed.

I landed a great job about a month after I graduated, as a direct result of networking organized by the school. We Can Code IT helped me move from stay-at-home-mom to developer! I highly recommend it.

As a former journalist and editor, I've always wondered how company names are created.

When I first heard of this school, I was confused by the title: We Can Code IT, and I kept wondering why IT was all-caps. Did they forget a copyeditor? Did their caps... Read More lock get stuck in the down position? But then I realized it was a reference to the Information Techology industry.

And it's an industry that I'm now proud to be a part of, thanks to the learning tools and skills I gained in my 14-week cohort at the school. I left journalism and editing because I wasn't being challenged enough, so my accountant told me about coding schools in February 2018. One of his clients went to WCCI and successfully transitioned from a botany major to tech developer.
That spring, I looked at rival bootcamps and while they were just as qualified as WCCI I felt like I was just a number. So I ultimately signed on with WCCI and went through the admissions process in August. I started the Fall Full-Time Cohort on Sept. 4. The school has locations in CLE and Columbus and I chose the Columbus campus, nestled in a lovely brick upstairs office in Old North Columbus.

Note: There are two options--the full-time cohort, which meets M-F from 930-330--or FlexCode, which meets on weekends twice a month, as well as in-person sessions with instructors during one weekday. Columbus classes use the Java language, while Cleveland classes use the .NET language.

The classwork was very challenging. The first few weeks were spent in a console app, Eclipse, and then we transitioned into building projects through Springboot MVC and the Gitbash command line system. Eight weeks were spent on core Java, and the remainder of the class was spent on React/Javascript, some HTML/CSS5 and a day on SQL. We focused on test-driven development and pair programming throughout as well.

The last three weeks of the class were spent on the final project. Our 14-person class was split into three teams and we worked on building practical, functional apps with cross-functionality. The app my team built was a cooking timer application, and we presented it to employers at Demonstration Day on 12/14.

Throughout the class, we also met with Lacey N., who was our Career Services manager. She was extremely helpful in our weekly sessions regarding job interview preparation, and I credit her with helping me land a job three days after graduation, making about 16% more in salary than my previous job. She taught us job skills that progressively built on each other--not unlike how we learned coding skills--such as basic interviewing, behavioral responses and body language, resume creation and cover letters. That culminated in mock interviews, and then actual interviews with real employers.

I can tell you that the cohort got along well, the instructors were excellent and took time to help us, and the program itself was cohesive (both tech and career services).
As a former journalist NOW TURNED tech developer and coder, it doesn't matter how the name was created. The only thing that matters now is getting the word out about how good WCCI is, and how it can change your life as well! YOU can code IT!

I completed the boot camp in the Fall of 2018 and started a Web Developer job January of 2019. You can definitely find success through this boot camp! You learn A TON of information. You get what you put into the program. All the resources are there,... Read More but it's up to you to use them to learn and understand the material.

My advice is for anyone considering a software coding bootcamp:
1. SHOW UP. Don't be late to class and pay attention! Try writing down notes in class.
2. Ask questions! Teachers and classmates are willing to help you. (also Google!)
3. Do extra practice/research at home/out of class hours.. Take advantage of any tutoring, even if you feel you understand the material!
4. Lastly.. NETWORK! Do what the career coach tells you to do and you won't regret it.

My experience with We Can Code IT had some speed bumps with teacher changes, but at the end it taught me how to deal with unexpected changes which I'm sure I will face in ' the real world '. It's a fast pace course and you'll have to make adjustments. The teaching staff was always willing to help out and answer your questions or clarify any of your confusions. They really want you to succeed but it's up to you and your desire for your own success!

Went to We Can Code IT's full-time spring bootcamp from mid-January to late April 2018. Enjoyed it far more than any previous academic experience, including both undergrad and grad school. All three instructors were knowledgeable, relatable, and fun,... Read More and my entire cohort got along really well. We all came together as a team to help everyone do their best and handle the huge amount of learning that needed to be done in only 14 weeks. I was able to ask all the questions and get all the feedback necessary to suit my learning style, and given how many questions I ask, that says a lot.

The coursework consisted entirely of real-world practical skills and knowledge, and I got the large amount of hands-on coding practice necessary to feel reasonably confident when trying to get a job in the field. Repeatedly coding increasingly-complex projects from scratch every weekend was a valuable exercise that got me used to both writing code and managing my code with GitHub. Ditto for the final team project, only doubly so. It's turned out to be equally valuable that I got to learn both HTML/CSS/Javascript for front-end development and Java for back-end development, because I've actually needed all of that on the job so far. I was originally a computer science major for my first two years of undergrad about 15 years ago before burning out on it, and I learned more in the first three weeks of this program than I did in two whole years of traditional computer science courses back then. Those college courses consisted way too much of largely inapplicable theory; nearly everything I have learned at WCCI, I have already put to good use.

It was also helpful to have job search support every week, so that I had a well-polished resume and was prepared to do interviews. Having some idea of where to look for jobs, what employers were hiring, what they were looking for in applicants, and how to highlight my strengths were all very important. WCCI inviting different companies to come in and talk to us directly on several occasions was likewise valuable, and being able to demo our team projects to an entire room of prospective employers was great. Nothing makes a good impression like showing off something cool that you've just finished creating with your teammates. Getting started building a network is difficult, especially if you're like me and you're not normally inclined toward that sort of thing. WCCI's connections to local businesses made a lot of difference in that regard.

Specifically for me, though, the employer visit that mattered the most was when Nationwide sent a recruiter to come in halfway through the program, and I was very impressed by what I heard. He encouraged us to apply for lots of positions there, which I did (I think about 8 of them), and offered to forward our applications to the appropriate hiring managers. That worked out better than I could have hoped for, because I graduated from bootcamp on Friday, April 20th, went in for an interview at Nationwide the following Monday, they offered me a job on Tuesday, and I started work about two weeks after that, on May 7th. Interestingly enough, the position I got was unrelated to the recruiter who talked to us, and none of the three members of my team who interviewed me had heard of WCCI. I still got a job offer, anyway. I didn't even have to rely upon the fact that Nationwide had hired half a dozen former WCCI grads before me. That says the quality of what I learned was high enough that I could stand entirely on my own. I know that not everyone who goes through the program will get hired quite that fast, but I can at least serve as evidence that it's possible.

Long story short, We Can Code IT did exactly what they advertised - they taught me how to be a good enough coder in only three and a half months that I was able go out and get a job right away. I've now been at Nationwide for almost half a year, and I've enjoyed my new career very much. It's a good job at a good company with coworkers I like and very solid pay and benefits. This is the career I wanted to get into right out of high school, and I finally made it. That's a five-star rating, right there. Can't argue with results.

14 week, full-time boot camp, 930am-330pm, with weekly projects that require most evening and weekend time for studying and actively coding. In addition, there is weekly career services time to work on resumes and interview prep. Everyone who works at... Read More WCCI is smart, kind, and helpful. I made a career change in my 40’s and would recommend this boot camp to anyone with no coding experience and who enjoys a challenge.

Pros:
Pete and Daniel were very knowledgeable instructors who were able to not only constantly build on prior lessons but were able to adapt to the diversity within the group. Melissa kept us on task as she guided us towards our new career.

Cons:
Visual... Read More Studio program on the laptops were a different version from the lesson plans giving the instructors issues during lessons.

Pros:
Pete and Daniel were very knowledgeable instructors who were able to not only constantly build on prior lessons but were able to adapt to the diversity within the group. Melissa kept us on task as she guided us towards our new career.

Cons:
Visual... Read More Studio program on the laptops were a different version from the lesson plans giving the instructors issues during lessons.