The Best Fort Lauderdale Coding Bootcamps Of 2022

 The Product Management course at BrainStation was great.  The instructors were senior level Product Managers who had a mastery of Product Management topics.  They kept the course engaging with group sessions and videos throughout.  I have a much better understanding of the role a Product Manager plays, and how varied it can be for each organization.  I definitely recommend this course to others interested in pivoting to Product Management roles. 

Yes, you read it right. When I started the Bootcamp I was not a designer! And really, you don’t need to. Get ready, because the story is long! Just kidding, but I hope that what I have to share will help you somehow ;)

The beginning
I come from a business background focused on startups and creative industries. I had been working for 3+ years in the management of digital projects, and I wanted to start working creating experiences. I already knew many of the tools/frameworks we used in the bootcamp, but I used to apply them in a business context.

The bootcamp
Ironhack was a great experience that helped me a lot to better understand how I could use my background and apply it into the design field. The bootcamp was awesome, with great teachers and interesting projects and classmates! But it is the career guidelines that really helped me build my new profile. These focus first on you as a person and then on your career, which I think is very important because behind every job title there’s a human. I was a little afraid that I might not be able to merge both paths, but it is incredible how it all fell into place after the bootcamp ended.

The outcome
It definitely takes time and effort to understand oneself and build what’s needed for the job research, and after very intense 9 weeks you might feel like your motivation disappeared, but if you have the courage to keep things moving, things start appearing. After a couple of months of job seeking I found the job I wanted. It will definitely do not just appear in front of you, so I would just recommend you to be prepared, because when you see the opportunity appear, you ‘ll know you’ll be ready to take it.

The conclusion
It is a challenge, yes, but a very enjoyable one! Plus, you get to meet new people from very different backgrounds and make yourself some new friends :) 

Me encantó haber hecho parte de 4Geeks academy, ha sido una experiencia muy positiva desde los compañeros con los que compartí hasta los profesores con quienes trabajamos durante los 4 meses, los profesores son altamente calificados y siempre dispuestos a ayudar incluso fuera de los horarios de clase. 
La academia también cuenta con tutorías ilimitadas, lo que es bastante útil sobretodo en momentos en los que me sentía bloqueada o estancada.
La academia también cuenta con asesoría personalizada en cómo buscar trabajo y cómo presentar una entrevista una vez terminas el curso, lo que es genial especialmente para aquellos que no tienen experiencia profesional. 
En general lo recomiendo 100% :) 

I attended online courses through VET TEC. A lot of information comes at you in a short amount of time so it is imperative that you make sure to set back plenty of time to study and you will leave this course with a lot of knowledge and the ability to jump into a forever growing industry. They have fantastic instructors, my instructors were Andrew Cichewics and Carlos, but worked with Luis through work shops a few times . Andrew is an extremely knowledgeable instructor that is able to bring a ton of real world experience into the instruction that is extremely helpfully in breaking down some of the material. He has a great upbeat personality that keeps you focused on what is being taught. He truly cares about his students success and will do everything he can to help you grow if you put in the effort. Everything can be said the same for Carlos. Although he is a newer instructor to be, he was always able to jump right in showing is vast knowledge with in the field and gave a lot of insight into his experiences. I also want to give a shout out to Kara Arguello, student services, who was always there to assist and kept me informed of any work shops that were taking place. Kara's constant communication through email kept me up to date with everything available and was appreciated even though I was not able to take advantage of as many work shops as I would have liked to. Overall, fantastic experience and would take it again just to retain even more knowledge. Finally, I would like to take this time to just give a huge thanks to the entire team I have had the pleasure of interacting with throughout this course. THANK YOU!!!

I participated in the remote online Product Management course that spanned the course of 10 weeks. During which I had the opportunity to learn about the product lifecycle, how to conduct user interviews, and how to effectively present my discovery findings. There was also ample time during class to practice what we were learning with other classmates, learning from each others ideas as well as networking with one another. I thought the instructor was knowledgeable, patient, and engaging to learn from. I would recommend GA to anyone who is looking to take the next step in their personal and professional growth.

I was referred to DigitalCrafts by an alumni who has successfully become a developer after graduating from this program.  I attended the 16-week immersive full-time online web development course. I loved my instructor (she is extremely knowledgeable and intelligent!) and loved learning Python and React. I selected to attend DigitalCrafts because they were a top bootcamp that included Python in their curriculum. DigitalCrafts also provides small scholarships to women and minorities, which I qualified for and was helpful with the tuition. Overall, I had a great experience, and after graduation was hired on as a TA, which I really enjoy!  The only feedback I have is that it seems most people that apply are accepted into the program. I think there should be a higher standard for admissions, but, I also think this happens with bootcamps in general. 5-Stars!

The program gives a strong foundation to become a full-stack developer starting with no experience in the subject.  If you put the time & effort, study the lessons and the additional materials, attend to the live office hours, engage with your classmates & facilitators, and practice what you've learned, you really acquire the skills and knowledge to create great websites/apps 

My experience at Techtorial has was great! I started in May of last year and ended somewhere in October. I got my job offer about 4 or 5 days after I finished the course thanks to Techtorial. The instructors and mentors are patient and explain the curriculum very well. I definitely recommend everyone to join one of their courses.  

I am very glad that I made a decision to join DevX, it was probably one of the best things, where I could invest my time and the money! What I loved about the school the most is that everything was very organized, the instructors were very professional, and most important - they were patient, never regretted the time to stay an extra 30-40 minutes after class to explain additional questions, etc., and the material that was given to us was up to date. Also, there is a family atmosphere, which definitely helps to ease the stress!

I've got to say it took me a few weeks to make my decision to enroll to this course -not only because the admission fee seems a bit high, but because my job leaves little time for anything else during weekdays.

However, after having finished the course, I don't regret my decision. I've taken other Digital Marketing courses (both online and on-site) and this is easily the best in my experience. The course encompasses all major digital marketing subjects, from social, email, influencer, SEO/SEM to more complex topics such as AI applied to digital marketing. The Office Hours videos provide a chance to interact with actual practicioners from various industries. The course is also an excellent excuse for networking, which is important if you want to transition to the digital marketing world. The capstone project forces you to re-study and apply everything you see throughout the course and unlike other courses, the capstone is graded by the same star faculty that delivers the lessons.

Beware: the course is packed with information and additional mini-certifications that require time and brainpower. It isn't a walk in the park, prepare yourself for many, many weekends doing assignments and studying (at least 13 hours a week.) 

The course is worth every penny, though. I liked it so much that I'm currently taking the other Professional Certificate course available (Product Management.) I'm applying many of the things I learned to my current job, something I cannot say of other courses I've taken.

All in all, if you can afford it, go for it. Be ready to work hard, but also for a gratifying journey.

First off, I will say I graduated and was placed into a job by LaunchCode. I am very grateful for the opportunity, and it's worked out very well for me in the 2 years since I was hired. 

The good:
If a classroom environment is right for you, then you will likely do well here. I learn better in a classroom, surrounded by like minded individuals. I have too many distractions at home to really focus and teach myself, though I had gotten fairly far with some Python a year or two before applying, and have been using HTML and CSS for over 20 years now. 

It's completely and totally free. My only expenses were a new laptop (only because I spilled water on my perfectly working one about halfway through the course) and transportation/commuting costs. They achieve this by partnering with the companies in the area they're located, and promising them developers who have gone through their program for temporary apprenticeships. This reduces the risk for their local partnered companies, as these are $15 an hour positions for 3 months. If a few people come in and prove themselves, then they're likely to take more LaunchCode graduates. Compared to comparable programs, which can cost $10k or more, this is probably the most important positive of LaunchCode. 

Several of the teachers were really great teachers, senior level software engineers with experience in the language that they were teaching. My teacher for Java could easily have been a Computer Science professor at a large university, and often would point out and correct some inaccuracies or suggest better practices than the examples in the course material. 

The bad:
The course materials are confusing, lacking, or at times incorrect. I'll preface this by saying the material is constantly changing and evolving from "semester" to "semester". However, where it usually is pretty good at telling you how something works, there was almost no coverage of WHEN to use something. Real world examples would be super beneficial, but are usually absent. You can really only get so far with a basic understanding of each of the puzzle pieces and how they work by themselves, but no real knowledge of how to fit them together to build an application that is efficient, maintainable, and scalable. Again, my course was 2 years ago, and was only the second (I believe) time it had been run in my city, so this could have changed by now. However, I have a friend who is in the current class and has shared the current material with me. While the material has been updated, some of it is still worded in a fairly confusing manner.

You will be teaching yourself a fair amount. The course only meets in person twice a week for at most 3 hours. Often, less than half of it is actual lecture time, with the remaining time used for "studio" aka the lab portion. I'd say over 75% the time, I was out the door in 2 to 2.25 hours. There is only so much lecture that can really be absorbed in a single day for most people, so I understood this, but when you're only really being "taught" for 2 to 3 hours a week, they can't cover everything that is important. But, I do feel like that is partly by design. Again, this is a completely free program. They're looking for not only the best and the brightest, but the hardest workers and the ones willing to teach themselves, as this absolutely IS a skill you need to succeed in any development position. There will always be new libraries, new languages, new tools, etc that you will be expected to teach yourself. We started with 250 people, but dropped down to about 110 after unit 1 of 3 finished. More trickled out over the next two units, so I'd say only 60-80 people actually finished the LaunchCode 101 portion. However, the people who do finish have shown that likely fit into a few categories that are marketable to companies looking for developers:

All three of these "types" of people are valuable to a dev team, especially if you think differently to other people that stereotypically fit into a developer role. Someone who isn't naturally inclined to programming will bring insights that those who are naturally gifted won't think about. 

However, that leads me to my final, most frustrating negative. LaunchCode's apprenticeship program/job placement unit, called LiftOff, is not technically part of the base LaunchCode course. It was a 4th, optional unit, for people who wanted an apprenticeship. And apprenticeship is a pretty good word for it. It's really just continuing on the job training for at least 3 months. Many times this turns into an offer for a full position at more than $15 an hour, but other times it doesn't, and you go back into the program until another company picks you up. I'm honestly okay with all of this, as I feel it is fair and gives the people who work well on teams a shot to impress the company they are at for 3 months, guaranteed, for livable compensation. 

The main issue is that their list of apprenticeships is not fair, is not revolving, and if you don't land a job in the first 6 months afterwards, you likely won't through LaunchCode.  Search for LaunchCode on any job listing website, and you'll find dozens of postings advertising not LaunchCode, but their apprenticeship program. If you have all the skills necessary, you can apply and get accepted, while doing no ACTUAL work in any of the units. So, they're filling the list with people who have Computer Science degrees but haven't gotten into the industry yet, and as someone who took a free boot camp, it's very hard to compete. Additionally, I learned that a local company has a deal where they are guaranteed the top 15 from each semester for first interviews, and they hire 5 of those each year. If you're in the group of 10 that interview but aren't hired, you're nearly guaranteed to be placed within the first few months of finishing LiftOff. These are the "best and brightest" to them. I put enough work in to interview, but not be hired, and was placed at a job less than 2 months later. It seems that most of the rest of the positions are filled by the non-LaunchCode apprentices. My TA for the third unit had taken LaunchCode the year before me, but still hadn't been placed anywhere, and hadn't had any interviews set up by LaunchCode in 9 or 10 months, all the while job postings are going up on every imaginable site advertising the apprenticeship program. 

I just feel that it's a bit dishonest to pass yourself off as training these great graduates who go on to do great things when in reality, it seems like a small percentage of those they actually teach are showing what LaunchCode can do. They need to work on standing on their own merit, and maybe that's the slow play, get integrated with partner companies, and show the types of people that can come in (even if a bit dishonestly), they give themselves more staying power in that city, but it just doesn't seem right to me. 

However, I do know of many people who did not get placed by LaunchCode that did end up in development positions or in positions with a fast track to a development position, so if you're in the final graduate list, you do have what it takes to come in at a junior or associate level. Just be expected to prove yourself and strive to be in the top 15. 

Overall, I have to say it worked for me. My pay has increased by well over 50% in the 2 years since I completed the course, and I am much happier than i ever was in any other job. I finally feel like I have a career, and part of that is thanks to LaunchCode. 

If you can look past the negatives, and realize that getting what they offer for absolutely zero risk to you except your time, you will see that this is easily one of the most accessible programs out there. If you are a self-starter, good at learning on your own, and determined to change your life, you'll do fine.