Alchemy

I graduated from Alchemy Code Lab in March of 2017. I can say with great confidence that going through the program at Alchemy was one of the best life decisions I have ever made. Marty and Megan strive every day to make it the top bootcamp in Portland with continuous encouragement and support. They always stay on top of the trending frameworks/texhnologies and it is seen through out the whole entire curriculum. If you are considering a code school in the Portland Metro-Area and are on the fence about which one to choose, I highly suggest you check out Alchemy Code Lab. 

I graduated when I was only 20 years old with no experience in the software industry and I am now a web developer full time at an awesome company. And I would not be here without Alchemy.

I went through the entire Full-Stack JavaScript certificate program at Alchemy Code Lab (formerly Code Fellows PDX)—meaning bootcamp prep, bootcamp parts 1 and 2, and the advanced career track (these had different names when I went through, but the curriculum is the same. I’m using the new names for clarity going forward).   Students in my cohort came into this program from all walks of life. Some already had CS degrees or had worked in the past as software engineers but then had a resume gap and wanted to get up to speed on newer technologies. Others had absolutely no exposure to technology development or didn’t have any school after High School and were committed to a career change. I was always interested in math and loved science, but for some reason computer science always seemed mysterious and off-limits to me. I only took a couple of courses in programming basics when I got my bachelors degree, but I didn’t really consider learning to program until I had to for my last job. Then I fell in love with it and started considering changing my career.   I checked out all of the bootcamps and coding programs in Portland and settled on Alchemy Code Lab for several reasons:

• There was a higher ratio of women and other minority groups in tech representation. It meant a lot to me to be learning in a more diverse environment. I believe this is due to the diversity scholarship program and other initiatives they pursue toward bringing in those less represented in tech.
• I was looking for a full-time, intense experience that I could complete in 5-6 months.
• Related to the above: I wanted to go deep on one language so that I could understand the ins and outs of it before moving on to another language. Because of that, I went with the full-stack JavaScript certificate program.
• The environment was welcoming and professional. In class and during labs, I felt that my background, interests, and contributions were respected and appreciated. The owners of the school work hard to create an environment that works for the students as they go through the bootcamp process.
• Students complete four large group projects if they do the whole program. This was important to me since I had spoken with several industry professionals who told me that when they consider less experienced hires they pay attention to evidence that they can work well in teams. This program let me have ample experience coding individually, pair programming, and working in teams of 3-4 to build working apps from start to finish.
• Size of the classes. My cohort generally had 12 students (it varied somewhat between the courses), and it didn’t take long for us to become very close. In addition to the instructor, we had a TA that had been through the program.

  That said, a coding bootcamp is an all-consuming experience. I met with several students, TAs, and alumni before I chose this program, and everyone told me that I would be working from 9am through 6pm every weekday, then doing more homework each night, and also working one or two days of most weekends. Somehow I still didn’t really believe them, but they were right. You will get out of this program whatever you put in. It is not cheap, even with scholarships, but it is worth that money if you go in committed to putting forth the effort.    Other thoughts:

• I took the full-time version of the bootcamps, but I know plenty of students who took the night classes and loved having that option. They are also quite grueling, since the course length doubles and you give up one full weekend day for class/study for the length of those courses. It is an important option for those who can’t afford to quit their day job right away and dive into a career change. The advanced career track is always full-time, as far as I know.
• The instructors collect feedback from students every week, with an anonymous section of the survey for comments you don’t want associated with you. Most of the time I didn’t have too much to say, but the couple of times I did, it was addressed right away. They are quite responsive to the feedback they get—the direction of the week can change on a dime (within reason) to include a general course interest or address a lack based on those comments.
• They have a floating advisor/experienced pair-programmer who is there at certain times to help you on labs and projects. This was immeasurably useful, not just for the advice from a senior engineer, but also so that I could learn different ways of doing things from what the instructor might show.
• The career services involved set times to work on resumes and cover letters, have presentations from industry leaders and recruiters on breaking into the Portland Tech job market, networking, and all things job hunt-related. There is no internship associated with this program, but on the other hand, most of the graduates I spoke with (who went all the way through the advanced career track) landed a job that was above internship or junior-developer level. Interviewing, white boarding, and algorithms practice is also part of the advanced career track curriculum, which I felt was pretty important practice. There is also a new consultancy practice that they are starting with some of the alumni, which is kind of like an in-house internship on lower price tag projects, as far as I know.
• Since I had some experience with HTML and CSS (and C#, but I didn’t think that would apply) beforehand, I considered skipping the first bootcamp level and testing into the second bootcamp. I didn’t end up doing that and instead took the full set of courses from start to finish. There were a couple students in my cohort who did that at either the second bootcamp or the career track level. Though there were some things we had learned by then that those students weren’t really familiar with, they caught on fairly quickly. In any case, I was glad I had gone through the whole program.
• The school is really involved in the Portland tech scene—they host regular events like DonutJS and the Women Who Code Algorithms study night, and then other sporadic events. It makes it easy to stay a little later at the school and then attend an event and practice networking.
• When I went through the program, Full-Stack JavaScript was the only advanced career track, but I know they are adding two more in 2018—Devsigner and Python. There are also professional development courses, which I think are two or three week night classes.

  There was definitely stress. Don’t go into a program like this thinking that it will be a cakewalk, because you are setting yourself up for disaster. Even coming in with some prior knowledge of HTML, CSS, and C#, there were times I was struggling to get through and topics that were harder for me to understand. It seemed that everyone in my cohort struggled at different times throughout the courses, so it was really important that we could rely on each other for help in understanding.   So where am I after all of this? I didn’t find a job right off the bat, but I was lucky not to have the financial pressure that would require me to get one immediately. Still, it has been less than three months since I finished, and I have one offer on the table and other jobs for which I am in various stages of the application pipeline. It is a different kind of stress, but a good position to be in. They are all regular, full-time positions with the title Software Developer or Software Engineer.  

The longer version:
- The cost of this program is... a lot. It's a huge decision to take on this kind of debt, especially when you are trying to make a career change from a job that doesn't pay well. The cool thing about Alchemy is that there are different options for paying the tuition, including an Income Share Agreement. If it weren't for the ISA option, this would not have been possible for me.
- The program is a 6 month, FULL TIME commitment. This means 40 hours/week for 24 weeks of in-class lecture time, work time, team project building, AND additional time after class and over the weekend to complete assignments and fully understand difficult concepts. Something that drew me to Alchemy over other programs was the course duration. I could commit to 6 months and felt like it would be enough time to really learn something. By the end of the program, I couldn't imagine being prepared to break into tech if it were any less. Alchemy teaches you everything you need to know to be able to learn the rest of everything you need to know afterwards.
- Finding a job after the program takes work. Part of the curriculum will be career development. This covers everything from resume/cover letter writing, to interview prep, to NETWORKING. As an introvert, this is the part of the program that I really wasn't looking forward to, but was also 100% essential to landing a job and developing my skills as a collaborator. Another thing that lead me to choosing Alchemy was the transparency in the data that was available for program completion, length of job search, average salary post-grad, etc. It's difficult to find companies that are open to hiring people early in career and from non-traditional educational backgrounds, but they are out there and many of them are particularly open to hiring Alchemy grads. Expect the job search to take 3-6 months (less or more for some). After the program, you will still have the support from Alchemy career dev and your Alchemy network, but it is ultimately up to you to put the work in to land the job.
- Be prepared. Alchemy offers a free, week-long Dev 101 intro course. The intro course is optional before enrolling in the program, but just do it. There is also assigned, required pre-work before the start of your cohort. The pre-work will give you an intro into some of the basic stuff you really need to know, and if you spend a lot of time getting familiar with the fundamental concepts and diving in a little bit deeper with the pre-work courses, you are going to struggle a lot less throughout the program. I would also recommend doing your own self-guided learning before even deciding to enroll at Alchemy, or any program. There are endless resources online for learning software/web development... if you take the time to build a foundation with some basic languages and concepts (HTML/CSS, intro to JS), you'll really set yourself up to do well at Alchemy.

My background/experience:
When choosing Alchemy, I really wanted to know this kind of stuff about the people who had success in the program...
- 10+ years in the service industry (barista, bar-back, receptionist).
- My prior tech experience was limited to MySpace coding and some self-guided learning (freeCodeCamp, Grasshopper, Mimo, Google).
- I enrolled in Alchemy for the Nov '21 - June '22 cohort, including Dev 101 and pre-work.
- I chose to cover my tuition via the Income Share Agreement.
- I received a job offer as a Junior Developer ~5 months after completion of the program and my start date was Nov '22.
- My income post-grad has increased by > 130%

* If you take the time to do your own research and preparation, understand the full commitment that this is, and have the resources and support to get through the program and job search... Alchemy Code Lab is 11/10 the program I would recommend.

Having just graduated Alchemy all I have to say is, WOW! This was such a great learning experience. The classrooms are much smaller than most boot camps (around 15-20 students) so you get much more time with instructors and TAs. I came into this program with 0 coding experience, I was previously a nurse, and I learned so much in 6-months here! There is a lot of help if you need it with the teachers and TAs and I never felt like I was drowning. With that said they don't spoon-feed you either. You will leave this program a very competent coder. The career-service side of the program is phenomenal! With the guidance of career services, I got my resume looking clean, learned to write an effective cover letter, learned how to interview confidently, and much more. I actually got a job as a full-stack software developer at a start-up 1-week before the program even finished. I would go through this program a second time if I could 😅.

I attended Alchemy Code Lab and completed the 401 Advanced JS course.  It was the best decision I could have made for my career.  I was offered a job in tech within one month of graduation....and my salary is higher than it's ever been!  I know that finding jobs like the one I have now is what leads most people to coding bootcamps.  And while I am very grateful to ACL for positioning me to land such a job, the new career is not the most valuable reward that I received from ACL.  

By far, the greatest benefits of choosing ACL over other bootcamps in PDX are the top notch education and unwavering support that students receive.  This is a code school that values community and goes to great lengths to support students.  And the support does not stop at graduation.  Just last week I received an email from a career specialist at ACL who wanted to share some new job opportunities with me.  Alchemy Code Labs goes above and beyond to help students meet their career goals.

Additionally, the education that you will receive at Alchemy Code Lab is unparalleled in PDX.  I recently attended a meet up where four of us in a group were all recent bootcamp grads (one from Epicodus, one from PDX Code Guild, and one from the Tech Academy).  We all swapped bootcamp stories.  The other boot campers were pretty envious when I started explaining what it was like to be a student at Alchemy Code Lab.  They were envious because of the community support and the school's commitment to equity and diversity in tech.  They were also struck by the deep knowledge and thorough skillset that ACL students possess. ACL provides a solid foundation of basic CS principles and plenty of white-boarding practice....I learned that these are lessons you will not receive at other bootcamps.  These are skills that set ACL grads apart from other bootcamp grads.  It may require a little more up front investment, but I can tell you, first hand, if you're serious about a career in tech, investing in training at ACL is well worth it.

In fact, one of the boot campers from the meet up remarked, "I discounted ACL because of the price tag.  I wish I had understood that what ACL was offering was a higher level experience than my bootcamp.  I'd probably have a job right now."

If you're on the fence about code schools in PDX, yes, ACL is more expensive....but if you're looking to be career ready and grab the higher paying jobs after graduation, ACL has every other school in town beat.

NOTE: Coding bootcamps are super intense no matter which one you choose.  Buckle up.  It's worth the ride!