Actualize

What was your background before coming to Actualize? (Include college/past career)

  Went to college at SIU and graduated with a degree in Mass Communications/Media Arts, specializing in Music Business and Audio Engineering. I have an informal background of internet marketing and SEO, working for a family business about 5 years before coming to Actualize.     What hesitations would have prevented you from joining Actualize?   Mainly cost and location.     What impact did Actualize have on your life?   It has paved the way for the career change I had been looking for. My work/programming life was much more confined and personal than it is today. The biggest impact is that I now have a network of like-minded individuals that I socialize with, work with and go out of my way for as an extension of my business/career objectives.     What specific feature did you like most about Actualize?   The emphasis on creating your own, personal capstone projects. I also really liked the class structure (amount of students per teacher plus some TAs).     What made you choose Actualize over other bootcamps?   It was part-time and taught creating back-end applications and APIs. A lot of the other bootcamps were too front-end design oriented.     Would you recommend Actualize, and if so, why?   Yes, I would recommend it to anyone seriously considering programming as a career. It is much more effective at training individuals in coding for real life situations compared to something like a CS degree. I would recommend it over the other bootcamps because of the staff. Everyone that works there is nice and want each other to succeed.

PROs: The instructors and part-time schedule was key. It was important for me that the teachers were not only experts in their field, but that they had the best teaching skills around (Shout out to the Chicago staff!). I also needed to work during the day to be able to pay off my loans. The Apprenticeship and Job Placement program directly after bootcamp were also very important to me. Attending a bootcamp was the most rewarding challenge I ever took, and while I'm still learning about the many languages a programmer can study, Actualize gave me the supportive community and healthy learning environment I needed. I made friends with my peers, and together I learned so much more than I could ever accomplish alone. I didn't feel alone, and had lots of opportunities to pair-program. I had been trying to self-study for years and visited several bootcamps before choosing Actualize. 

CONs: Financially, enrolling put a huge dent in my savings and the time commitment affected my social/family life. Also, there were only two females including myself in my class, but I eventually met plenty of inspiring female coders that graduated from other cohorts.

I loved learning about programming, the showcase, and the apprenticeship! This bootcamp opened so many doors for me!

Attending Actualize was a truly life changing experience... in all the right ways! After a good amount of research, I realized that Actualize was the right bootcamp for me, moved cross-country to attend, and haven't looked back since.  Before joining the coding world, I imagined programmers to be quiet, introverted, and the types of people who only worked alone.. oh, how wrong I was!  Right from the first day of class collaboration was not only allowed, but encouraged.  I enjoyed the classroom setting, where "lectures" truly felt more like a conversation between students and instructor.  The in-class exercises were a stellar reinforcement of the material taught, and the weekly blogs, capstone project, as well as apprenticeship helped me stand out to employers (interviews are much easier when you have experience to share!).  Being new to Chicago, I met most of my closest friends here as a result of Actualize.  I also am part of an ever-growing network of awesome alumni, and I love my new career!  Absolutely recommend!

1. I have a degree in acting and my only experience in coding was SQL for a job. 2. The cost for sure and the time.  3. I felt like a learned a lot and met and worked with great people. 4. I really enjoyed working on my own project for the capstone. 5. It was part time with an apprenticeship. 6. Yes absolutely. I would say that if you want to get into this field it is a great tool to help you. 7. !Strange is the best cohort. 

What was your background before coming to Actualize? (Include college/past career)
I had worked in Web Traffic Management right out of High School for a few years. I then went to Art School for Video Game Design, but I realized I wasn't actually interested in making video games, just playing them, so I never actually completed my degree. I then moved to working in Email Marketing and Design which pushed me into Basic Website Maintenance (HTML and a little CSS).


What hesitations would have prevented you from joining Actualize?
My only hesitation was would I be able to comprehend and keep up with so much information coming at me all at once.


What impact did Actualize have on your life?
It made me realize that I can listen and retain a lot of information at once. I didn't always remember everything I learned from the previous day, or even week, but I remembered the basics which helped me narrow down the problems to find the correct solutions.
I use this on a daily basis in my current job as a Web Developer.


What specific feature did you like most about Actualize?
The fact that it was part time. I had a number of friends who went to Dev Boot Camp, but I couldn't commit to 9 hours a day, 6 days a week. Actualize allowed me to learn and build my skills while still being able to work without ever feeling overwhelmed.


Would you recommend Actualize, and if so, why?
I would. The way that the program is run is very good. Explain the language with examples, and then complete excercises. It just makes sense. You can also go back and review the video of the class on your own time which helped out immensely.


Is there anything else you would like to add?
I really enjoyed my time in class, but the Apprenticeship afterwards is invaluable. You work on real projects in a real team with a Mentor. This will prepare you for what you can expect during your first Developer job.

The course is tough, the pace is grueling, and the material...well if you are a newbie like I was, its all gibberish. The team at ACLTC realize this, and they do their best to make everything digestible. Mark Richardson and most of the other staff are teachers first, developers second, which sounds backwards but is very important. 

These folks describe difficult concepts in ways that make sense, and their skills are only getting more honed with each class. I loved the TA's, Jay is the coolest CEO ever, and Mark, can't say enough about him. I would give the instructors a 6 if possible. The people made this course, and I would not have wanted to go anywhere else for my coding experience. I got a job 2 weeks after the course ended, so it works! Its all about what you put into it, and this program is great for the flexibility and the money. 

What a great experience. The curriculum is broad enough to get a birds-eye view of building web applications. From the basics, through typical application constructs from scratch (like to-do lists, shopping carts, contact apps), data modeling and database building, building and consuming APIs, and exposure to the front end like working with front end frameworks and building dynamically loading pages using Angular JS. Being challenged through the final process of building an app of our own choosing was a great way to cap off and reconnect our lessons throughout the course. The instructors are exceptionally prepared, passionate, and encouraging. The TAs were great, too. Beyond the classroom, the ACLTC team did many value-adds like coaching on interviewing and helping put our resume together. Not to mention the great group of classmates I got to meet through this experience. Highly recommended!

Best decision I ever made! Well worth the money and the effort. I was able to land a job within a month of graduating.

ACLTC is a program that helped me make a career change immensely. Before wanting to become a developer, I was working in finance and decided that I wanted a change in my career so I applied to ACLTC and it was the best deicision I ever made. The curriculum was challenging, but also doable. The lead instructor, Mark was extremely helpful, and thorough with his explanations and never hesitated to pause his lectures to clarify anything students needed help with. The TA's were super helpful as well, they were able to sit down with me and fix any bug I had whether it was with my code, or with my computer, any problem I ever had was solved with the help of the TA's. This program teaches you the fundamentals or Ruby on Rails, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Angular.js, as well as databases such as Mysql, and Sqllite. We also learned the concepts of OOP, REST, and API's. Although this program was intense, it is definitely managable. This program is part time, Sundays from 9-5, and M-Th from 6pm-930pm. I will admit, this may seem like a lot, especially if you're working full time (as this program is geared towards you folks), the teaching style of the instructor as well as the TA's will definitely help you understand the material, as well as help you push through. 

 

My advice in order to succeed in this program is to do work and study even outside of class. It really shows who put in the work even in the off hours. 

 

With the amazing instruction from Mark, the helpful TA's, the fast paced curriculum, and the support from the job placement manager, I was able to land a new career as a System Administrator for a large data company working on their automation engineering team. I can't thank ACLTC enough, in just a few months time I went from working at a job I wasn't enjoying anymore, to more than doubling my salary and working in an exciting field. If you are pondering whether or not to apply, I say you should have applied already! 

This was one of the the best decisions of my life. I was very nervous about it going in, but once I met our instructor (Peter) I felt a lot better about it. Some people came in to the bootcamp with more experience than others, and he really made an effort to leave no man behind, as well as provide some extra challenges for people who were more advanced. 

ACLTC advertised that you don't need to do anything outside of class, which I think is not exactly true. Some people had full time jobs while others didn't, but it quickly became obvious who was putting in work outside of class.  I personally needed to study a fair amout on my own to keep up, and I think most of my classmates did as well. It moves rather quickly, and a LOT is covered. 

They also have excelent support for helping you with your job search, as well as helping with your resume and interview prep. After graduating I applied myself 100% to job hunting, and was able to land a job as a software developer after 2 months. I start my job next week, and I couldn't be more happy with the entire experience!

With the technical skills, job placement assistance and infectious passion for programming from ACLTC I was able to successfully shift careers from accounting to a dream job in web development. The program was challenging, but surmountable. The lead-instructor and TAs are incredibly knowledgeable and supportive. The subject-matter is relevant to the job-market, and the capstone project was an excellent challenge and example project for potential employers.

The class schedule and classroom environment were important distinctions for me personally, from other bootcamps (which are often all-day, all-week and more self or other student taught).

Looking back on the experience, the people (instructor, TAs, job-placement helpers, etc.) and learning the mind-set to become a programmer were the most valuable aspects of the experience. It was difficult, but also so much fun. Subsequent to the bootcamp, I continued to learn more in-depth knowledge for certain languages which I’m now utilizing in my employment, which was not unexpected, and I could not have done so without the mindset garnered at ACLTC. I would highly recommend ACLTC.

I signed up for ACLTC to completely change careers and hopefully become a web developer.  ACLTC has a challenging but fun curriculum that taught me HTML, CSS, JS, Ruby, Rails and so much more.  Jay the lead instructor was extremely knowledgeable about the material and so were all of the TA’s.  Aside from the instruction, ACLTC also provides great job search support from helping with your resume to putting you in contact with potential employers.  Because of the great instruction and support I was able to land a web developer position and couldn’t be happier with it.  ACLTC ended up being a perfect fit for me and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to start a career in web development.  

Attending Anyone Can Learn to Code has been one of the best decisions I've ever made. The staff has developed an excellent curriculum that makes learning to develop using an MVC framework a fun and rewarding experience. The coursework is intensive and challenging but never overwhelming. When making a decision on which bootcamp to choose, ACLTC has a lot going for it: 
- An excellent staff that really and truly cares about your development and growth 
- The ability to keep your full time job while you learn 
- Job search support and guidance. They even have a full time employee dedicated to helping students get jobs after graduation 
- A fun and challenging curriculum that will teach you how to build a functioning, responsive web application

As a result of ACLTC, I have now begun a new and exciting career in web development. If you are looking to make a career change into the world of development, you can do no better than Anyone Can Learn to Code. Highly recommended.

Attending this boot camp has been one of the best decisions I've made in my entire life. Here are the main reasons why this boot camp was perfect for me:
-I didn't have to quit my day job while attending this boot camp, so financially it made the most sense compared to other boot camps
-The classes taught the concepts very clearly so I was able to learn and code very quickly (I had about two months of experience coding prior to this boot camp and I learned so much so fast)
-The classes are taught at a good pace and class time is split up nicely. First, you learn a new concept. Then, you apply it and practice. Also, there are knowledgeable TA's that can help you in and out of class. With smaller class sizes, this was extremely valuable. I was able to meet with my teacher and the TA's a lot and it helped so much!
-The classes are also taught with a pragmatic approach, and you learn that everything has trade-offs. I really appreciated this.
-You get seminars on interviews, landing jobs, writing resume's and cover letters, and other useful things that helped me land a job
-I got to work on a capstone project that I was passionate about, which added to my portfolio to display to potential employers
-The boot camp continues to grow its connections with companies in the area. This means during the showcase at the end of the class where you present your capstone, more and more employers will be there to see what you've built, giving you a good chance at landing an interview and a job. This is how I landed my first interview and got a job offer within two weeks of ending the course!
To summarize the pro's, the boot camp was great because it made the most financial sense, the class sizes/support/curriculum was great, I was given an incredible opportunity to show my project to many employers, and ultimately it helped me land a job!

The cons:
-Evening classes can be tough. Working a full day to learn entirely new subject matter can be difficult.
-There is greater competition to get in, so it will probably get harder to get accepted
-The reputation of boot camps are mixed. To some degree, boot camp graduates may have a chip on their shoulder compared to their CS degree counterparts. This can be overcome by showing solid code and KEEP LEARNING!
-The curriculum leans more towards the back-end than the front-end. Back-end developers are highly sought after, however as someone who enjoys the front end more, I wish the class spent more time on the front end. Still, I was able to land a job with a focus on front-end development.

I attended ACLTC in hopes to make a career pivot and become a Junior Developer. The course was well structured, covered a TON of different stuff with just enough depth to be dangerous, and the teaching staff is clearly passionate about the success of their students. 

By the end of the course you have tons of new skills and tools under your belt, and you spend the last few weeks of class building a capstone project to show off your new knowledge. There's a showcase for the final projects to show them off to potential employers, which was an extremely effective way to get introduced to local companies for potential jobs and internships. The team at ACLTC works diligently to get everyone in the program into a postiiton they're happy with. I actually moved away from Chicago after attending the bootcamp and landed a Junior Developer position on my own based on my capstone project and a test exercise that I was well prepared for solely because of the quality of instruction I receieved at ACLTC.

After attending the course, you are competent for entry level developer positions, but expect to continue to learn for your entire career as a developer - it's the nature of the business! 

Deciding to attend ACLTC was the best career decision I have made. 

ACLTC is fun and you learn the basics of Ruby, Rails, and JS but it does not prepare you for an entry-level software engineering position. The major appeal of the program is that it's part-time and allows you to keep your day job, but the downside is that they can only squeeze in 22 hours of instruction per week—not enough for coding novices to develop job-ready skills that will land an entry-level full-stack engineering job.A part-time program like this only has the time to teach the basics—programming loops, CRUD operations, how to use gems, etc.—but all of the entry-level jobs I have interviewed for included technical tests that were much, much more difficult than the ACLTC's curriculum. These tests expect candidates to have a much deeper understanding of JavaScript and even SQL, two topics that are not really covered in-depth at ACLTC because there just isn't enough time.

It's important to consider that although there are many software engineering positions that need to be filled in the U.S, the vast majority of these jobs are for Mid to Senior level engineers. Entry-level positions are truly rare by comparison and as an ACLTC graduate you are competing for these precious positions against full-time coding bootcamp graduates who have spent 60-80 hours per week studying and job-seekers with computer science degrees.

The ACLTC is run by good people and talented teachers/developers but in the end the program only provides a basic foundation for becoming a full-stack engineer. Students who did not have any background in programming prior to the course will need months of additional study after the program concludes before they are ready to pass most technical screenings.

Another disappointment was the lack of job support. Only the last day of class is dedicated to finding a job and after graduation they send you a few links to job boards and leads but that's it. ACLTC is a small organization and their efforts outside of class are directed more towards expanding into new cities (growing the business) than with helping students find jobs.

Would I attend the course today, knowing what I know now? Hard to say because I did enjoy it, but I lean towards "no" because I was expecting to be able to land a full-time entry-level position and I don't think the program prepares you for that because of its brevity. If getting a job isn't that important to you, you just like to learn new skills, and you have a few grand to spare then I think you'll probably be happy with the program.

Attending ACLTC has been one of the best decisions of my career. The instruction from Jay and the TA's have made learning web development much easier. The most applicable skills were focused on our capstone with web technologies such as HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Ruby on Rails, javascript, AngularJS, ruby gems, and much more. The sweet bonus for me was with the great networking during ACLTC showcase where I landed my first web dev job the next following day. I highly recommend this bootcamp for anyone who has the will and desire to be a web dev, even on a part time basis.

The ACLTC boot camp is a very valuable and worthwhile opportunity to gain the confidence needed to become a full stack web developer. The instructor and assistants are patient, thorough and supportive during the entire process. I've also made a network of friends that I hope to stay in contact with for many years. This boot camp is just what one needs to boost their confidence and really go for it!

I graduated from ACLTC's 3rd cohort. An AMAZING experience.  Firstly, they teach in a way that is really easy to understand, and they cover a lot of material. They teach you ruby, ruby on rails, sql, html, css, javascript, and AngularJS. They also teach it very thoroughly providing multiple FUN (I know,  hard to believe) exercises and hands-on learning. They always make sure you understand it, and you'll never be to embarrassed to say if you didn't understand something. It's almost as if they are more concerned that you understand the material than you are.
They provide quality perspectives about web development including TDD (which, again, we had hands-on exercise for), open-source, API's (tying many different apps to one back-end), and agile, often having guest speakers come in to talk about them.
I came from a background that had absolutely NOTHING to do with computers. I didn't even know what a command terminal was. Much less how to use it. Very quickly, I began to learn more and more about these concepts, and, very shortly, it became an experience that I woke up in the morning looking forward to. They break everything down into very small steps so it's a very easy transition from what you knew yesterday to what they teach you today. They also guide you on your journey. It's not like they throw a whole bunch of work at you and be like, "Think about this stuff. Do it. Then come back next week and we'll throw some more stuff at you. Bye." They show you what to do and what not to do, and why not to do what not to do. Everything is smooth sailing (not that it's not a lot of work - it is. but, all the hard work is really clear. You know what you gotta do. It's just a matter of doing it) right till the very end.
All in all, if you're looking to have a solid understanding and mastery of web development, and you're nowhere near that point right now,, go to ACLTC. I think that's such good advice so I'm going to say it again. Go to ACLTC. You won't be disappointed. It's the ultimate web-development boot camp.