Burlington Code Academy

I had always been interested in programming and had been trying to break into the industry on my own without success. I had heard about BCA from a friend and with the online course offering was fortunate enough to attend. The course was challenging and pushed the cohort to learn a lot in a short amount of time, but weekly projects helped solidify the lessons from the week and set benchmarks of what we'd learned. Bob, our instructor, was amazing and kept us moving at a steady pace while keeping (online) class engaging and interesting. The support we have received through career workshops and 1on1 meetings has been invaluable and will help me for many years to come. I highly recommend BCAs Software Development Bootcamp!

I came to BCA after deciding to take a leap into the tech sector following a decade in non-profit advocacy and leadership. The staff was very understanding of my apprehensions coming into an entirely new field and very supportive in helping me identify transferable skills. 

Throughout the course, instructors and staff would always make themselves available to go over questions and provide additional guidance. That said, be prepared to work - you definitely get out what you put in. For me, this meant 3-4 hours of work per day outside of class, as well as 10 or more hours on the weekends. It paid off though  - within two months of finishing the class I landed a great job at an amazing local company earning more than twice my previous total compensation. 

Wanted to leave a positive, but balanced review. Burlington Code Academy is great to learn the basics of coding. The curriculum is really good, though not very theoretical. I recommend going further in your education to learn theory (I'm getting my masters in Software Engineering). This is a really good way to test if you have a knack for coding and enjoy it. Bob is great! The career team is wonderful. I would say they promise a little high, if you are a woman especially, you won't come out of the bootcamp with an immediate job for 60k, but you will be able to break into the field. Also, the alumni network is super helpful. 

After graduating from college with a Computer Science degree, I struggled to find a job in my field. In college there never seemed to be one focus, one thing that I continued to build upon and get better and better at. About 6 months later I came across Burlington Code Academy, signed up for the course and got going. It wasn't until taking the bootcamp that I truly found my passion for coding and development.

The team was extremely welcoming, supportive and knowledgable. If I needed any support, there was always someone there to help immediately, be it the instructor of my course, or a teaching assistant. If I had any issues outside of code, everyone was always understanding and willing to help in any way possible. I can't forget to mention the really great career coach that helps everyone revise their resumes, prepare for the job search, helps with negotiating strategies, cover letters, etc. It was a really amazing experience that I will never forget and I came out of it with the skills to actually land a job in software development. I also came out on the other side with a few things that I didn't entirely expect, like new friends, connections, and some good laughs.

Even coming from having a Computer Science background, I still found the bootcamp extremely beneficial. This is a course for anyone who wants to learn how to code in an efficient manner and is willing to put in the time, effort, and sometime struggles to get the results.

Burlington Code Academy helped me do what I thought was literally impossible. After growing increasingly disenfranchised with my previous manual labor job of 5 years, I finally made the decision to change. One phone call with Alex and I knew right away that this is what I wanted to do.

The entire time through the program, I felt encouraged and valued for my input. The pace is great, the instructors are great, the staff is great. If you're tired of your current career, Burlington Code Academy is the best alternative. Thanks BCA!

I just graduated from the UX design bootcamp at Burlington Code Academy, and it’s incredible to think how much I’ve learned over the course of this program. I came into this with an English degree, some administrative experience, and virtually no knowledge of UX, and now I feel confident as I begin my job search as a UX designer.
Rick Machanic, the teacher of the program, is amazing. As someone who has been in the field of UX for over 20 years and started his own successful design agency, he brought invaluable insight into the mind of a hiring manager and a vast knowledge of the UX process. He always went above and beyond for us, whether that meant offering mock interviews or giving detailed feedback on our work. We also had Collin Hadley, our incredible TA, who constantly pushed us and inspired us. He hosted evening workshops to teach us more about Figma, the design software that we used, and other UX topics.
The best part of this program was the 9-week capstone project, which allowed us to work on a real project with a real client. We worked in teams of 4 to redesign our clients’ websites, culminating in a capstone presentation of the full process. This experience was invaluable because it forced us to figure things out as we went along (with helpful guidance from Rick and Collin, of course!). It gave us experience in every step of the design process, from research to mockups, and exponentially increased our skills in Figma. It also provided great practice for soft skills like teamwork, presenting, and working together remotely; while I was a bit nervous about the remote aspect at first, I ended up really enjoying it, and it was a great way to explore different online collaborative tools like Invision.
On top of the capstone project, we also had daily lessons, worked on our personal websites, and redesigned an app. Every Thursday, we had a Lunch and Learn speaker who talked to us about their experiences in the field and answered our questions. We also gained access to a network of BCA alumni. We were only the second cohort of this program, so there’s still some room for improvement in terms of the structure of the course, but BCA constantly asked for our feedback so that each new cohort will be even better than the one before it. 
I learned so much in such a short amount of time and I’m so, so grateful to BCA for giving me this opportunity to enter this exciting and growing field. Before this, I felt so stuck in my career path, but now I have so many more opportunities and I can’t wait to start applying.

I can't recommend this course enough to people either interested in UX/UI or looking for a career change. Everything about this experience was incredible. Not only do you get tons of help and aid throughout the course, but the end project is an actual job that has you walking away with actual work experience. Of course, the best part of the course is the instructor - Rick Machanic. He's genuinely and profoundly interested in getting people into and prepared for this industry. That being said, it is definitely a bootcamp - meaning it ramps up to be pretty intense near the end. However, no matter how rough or stressful it gets, you have access to constant aid and feedback from Rick and the TA Collin Hadley. You can start from knowing absolutely nothing about UX and you will end up with work experience under your belt, and a vast array of tools, people, and advice to aid you in the job search. This course essentially changed the trajectory of my life, so I can't say enough good things about it. 

Applying for admission with BCA and completing their 12 week bootcamp was one of the best professional decisions I have ever made. It took almost two years for me to be able to make the transition to leave my current career even temporarily, and make the family time work to be able to complete the course. Once I was admitted to the program the leadership kept me informed and welcomed me into whatever course I was able to attend. I was able to complete this spring 2020 bootcamp, which was a challenge for everyone since we needed to move from an in-person format to completely online. Our instructor and director of education made the transition as pain free as it could have been, with extra hours dedicated for teaching assistance and learning extra skills needed to work and collaborate remotely. It is hard and feels painful at times, but you will be so proud of what you can accomplish.  Burlington Code Academy is committed to building a foundation of new developers with the skills and best practices to move forward and I encourage anyone making the decision to go for it!

As a career changer, jumping into a course like this was a bit scary, and definitely a huge risk.  Quitting my job, dropping a decent sum of money, and not working for three months is a big ask when you have kids, but the folks over at BCA were always there to help, and figure out ways to make it happen.  They have been incredibly supportive of me from the beginning, and even now, two weeks out of the course being over they are still working with everyone to find jobs, continue learning, or just chat if the need presents itself.  The course was fast paced, challenging, and loaded with information.  I really enjoyed the projects we covered, and I felt like they solidified a lot of the concepts we were learning in the course.  This was especially apparent with the capstone project.  Being able to work with real world clients on real problems was huge, and gave me a solid footing when jumping into this new career path.  I can't express how happy I am that I took this course, and would recommend it over and over again!

I am a very non-traditional coder.  Think female and old enough to be most coders mom's best friend.  I wanted to move into a job that offered more pay and more flexibility.  I looked at a variety of online and out of state options but settled on BCA for a couple of reasons. 1. I know people who went through the course and have found work they like. 2. After talking with Alex, BCA's COO, about ageism and sexism in the tech I was reassured that they have also been thinking about these things and working with their hiring partners to address them. 3. BCA works with both Vermont's Department of Labor and Student Assistance Corp. to help defray the cost of the course.
They are quality through and through. Halfway through our course, coronavirus hit and we had to go online.  BCA did everything they could to make the switch as smooth as possible while keeping up the level of instruction.
BCA is quite responsive - if you need help they can help you find help, from the instructors to the TA's  to past students who volunteer to tutor to an active "help" channel on slack, you can get answers.
In addition to the coding, BCA contracts with a local career coach, Etienne Morris, linkedin.com/in/etiennemorris who helped us get our resumes polished, informational interviews set up and how to negotiate wtih potential employers.
Finally, while I can't guarantee that every cohort will be filled with students as wonderful as mine was, your fellow students are inspiring.

12-week course in full-stack development (JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Express, React, MongoDB and Firebase). 9am-5pm five days a week with 8 weekend projects plus a month-long capstone project that addresses specific needs of real groups in the community.
BCA provides an excellent foundation in JavaScript and web development, with plenty of practice in front-end and back-end design. While there is no coding prerequisite for the course, it is very rigorous and BCA highly recommends taking some time to get familiar with the three main languages they teach before joining the course. The weekend projects really help solidify the material covered, and the lengthy capstone projects, which are real projects submitted by local organizations, pull everything together in meaningful and unpredictable ways.
The instructors and support staff are outstanding: clear, detailed, and always available to assist.
There are weekly career workshops and exposure to local hiring partners, plus one-on-one career and resume counselling with a brilliant, caring mind in the field. The demo day at the end of the course brings in hiring partners as well as other area development organizations to see the capstone presentations and get better acquainted with each of the student teams.
The coding foundation they provide is thorough and meaningful, but is only part of what BCA offers: their goal is to grow the local talent pool and make the community aware of how developers can help to enrich and expand the way businesses and organizations operate. BCA is about developing coders who are an integral part of the community.

I can't say enough good things about my experience at the Burlington Code Academy. At 31 years old I decided to leave a very comfortable sales job at a great company to pursue a new career in coding and haven't looked back. The curriculum is very thorough and cutting edge with an emphasis on helping students learn highly marketable skills like React and working with APIs. BCA instructors Bob and Josh were truly invested in my cohort's success in the workforce - this was evidenced by their tireless commitment to education, we never moved on from a topic until each and every student felt comfortable with the material which is probably a rare quality in bootcamps. I was also surprised to see that BCA instructors including TAs were often available during off hours which made me feel all the more supported. Also kudos to BCA's career coaching program which was such an asset to the cohort - this included 1:1 resume workshops, weekly lunch and learns on topics like networking, and negotiation workshops. Speaking of lunch and learns, BCA stuff also went above and beyond in terms of connecting students with prospective employers - this included weekly seminars from members of the tech community as well as facilitating networking during our capstone project. Would recommend BCA without hesitation to anyone seeking to make the move to a career in coding. 

I signed up for the Software Development boot camp at the age of 42 to try to make a career transition. We started as an in-person cohort at BCA in Burlington in early February, then had to transition to remote learning about 6 weeks in due to the coronavirus distancing rules imposed by Vermont and other states. From the start, the experience was intense, very organized, and defined by the commitment of the BCA staff to our success. The TAs were available throughout the day, and instructors made time via Slack or in other ways in the evenings and through the weekend. The career transition support was excellent, with 6 career sessions plus 1-on-1 resume sessions with a professional headhunter / resume builder, as well as "lunch & learn" sessions each week with tech professionals / hiring partners. BCA also introduced us into a wide network of tech groups and alumni, who offered help, networking and support throughout. 
We were definitely helped in the virtual learning experience by having the initial 6 weeks together, but beyond that BCA bent over backwards to ensure the continuity of our experience over Zoom. The culmination with a virtual Demo Day, where we presented our capstone projects to hiring partners, project partners, and friends & family, was a great experience - very well organized and professional. As far as the education, I went from some familiarity with HTML and CSS to being confident I can figure out how to do a wide range of things in Javascript and any libraries/projects I might find using Google (because I've done it many times as part of class). 

The intro course I took at BCA gave me confidence, as well as hard skills in software development with JS. If it wasn't for this course, I can say for sure that I would not be where I am today.
BCA is a very welcoming place, and they do a great job at getting a wide 'variety' of students. Having many different type of people from different backgrounds that all had a passion to learn development in JS was very beneficial to my own learning. There was a sort of feeding off each other that I had not experienced with any other courses.

It was about this time last year when I first heard about the Burlington Code Academy (BCA). After making the decision to leave an industry and career that wasn’t for me, I signed up for the part time class that BCA offers. I then continued on to take the web dev bootcamp, that following summer. And to cut to the chase, I graduated from BCA’s program in late August 2019 and landed a full time salaried position at a local web development agency less than a month later. A job I wouldn’t have been qualified for, just 8 months prior.

 

What Burlington Code Academy Does Well:

• Exceptional Instructors and TA’s who are willing to go the extra mile.

• The founders of the school are both highly motivated to see you succeed and will also go the extra mile to see that happen.

• Giving students a strong foundational understanding of coding.

• Classes are well structured with Lectures, Labs, and Projects.

• Listening and responding to student input.

• The courses teach relevant technologies that are being used by today’s tech companies.

• Connecting you with local employers and tech leaders.

• The Capstone Project and final presentation were great real-world experiences.

 

What Burlington Code Academy Could Improve Upon:

• Prior to class beginning, communicating the commitment that is necessary to succeed.

• As a class going over higher-level solutions to projects and labs. Exposure to advanced solutions helped me improve my problem solving skills.

• At the end of the bootcamp more time should be spent on coding and less on the tangential material that is meant to broaden our horizons. I enjoyed it, but with the condensed schedule it ate into too much capstone project time.

• More movie nights ;)

 

All in all, Burlington Code Academy delivered on their promise to teach me how to code, and enable me to change career paths, in a very short time. It was quite the undertaking and requires a full commitment from you as the student. However, if you put your head down and focus, BCA will lead you to success. I owe them a big thank you wouldn’t be where I am without them.

 

I think with this program, you really get what you put into it. This bootcamp gives you the tools to learn more about whatever you want on your own, get a job as a junior developer, or do some freelance work. 

The thing I liked most about BCA was their focus on projects. Every week you work either in a team of two or on your own to create an app or program. In the beginning, you're just creating command line apps, but eventually you make web apps that run in browsers. This makes the classes centered around solving problems and learning skills directly relevant and useful for creating apps.

The main thing I think the class could improve on is how class time is spent in later lectures. Sometimes an entire app would be explained all the way through without much interaction from the class or with limited demonstration of what is happening in the big picture. Early on in the class, lectures include plenty of ~15 minute "labs," which allow students to try out new skills and test their understandings. These labs occur less and less later on in the class, unfortunately.

I think perhaps this could be fixed by focusing each lecture on a narrow and specific individual skill or way of solving a problem, along with an example and a way for the class to try it out on their own. Alternatively, projects could take up more and more of the week as the class goes on, and lectures could be specifically centered around getting the class started on certain parts of their apps.

That being said, I think that BCA will rapidly improve and be able to fit more and more material into their already fairly comprehensive curriculum. These bootcamps are very new and people are still learning the best methodoligies around teaching them. If you want to learn to code in a short amount of time with a great group of people and avoid the headaches of figuring everything out on your own, this is the best option.

Before I started the Upright Education(formerly Burlington Code Academy) Software Development Bootcamp, I knew nothing about coding. Honestly, I wouldn’t have said I was good at using computers in general. I had a few close friends suggest I might be a good engineer and that I should look into it. I was ready for a career change and enrolled with Upright Education in February 2022. It was a totally new world that I stepped into but the material was exciting and every day had something new to learn. Between lectures, labs, workshops, and weekly assignments, there were various ways to absorb the material, which is helpful for people with different learning styles. I really appreciated that every week built off of the previous one, providing context for the material but also allowing more time to absorb some of the more difficult concepts.Although the pace is intense, and concepts difficult to start, the staff was always willing to help, even outside of class hours. The true value of this program is provided not by the curriculum but by the instructors, TA’s, and staff. They were seemingly infinite sources of knowledge but also really solid people who wanted everyone to succeed. I easily recommend Upright Education as the best place to start for anyone trying to get into coding as a career.

I was one of the lucky few who got to attend the 7th installment of the Full Time Web Development course this past summer and the experience was amazing overall. The instructor and TAs are very knowledgeable and always willing to help (at a reasonable time of course) with any and all questions you may end up having about the course work. The course is definitely designed to be challenging but I never felt there was too much work for the time allotted for any given project, you just have to put your nose to the grindstone and put in an extra hour or two here and there when necessary. They have provided us with excellent resources to continue to grow from here on out and I look forward to see where my journey may go from here. Thank you BCA!

When I first became unemployed I started taking free online HTML/CSS courses and quickly found I wanted more structure and challenge. In comes Burlington Code Academy.  While this course is aimed towards people with experience ranging from none to some, I am glad that I had somewhat of a knowledge base going into it. It helped build upon and refine a coder's mindset with weekly assignments, labs, and lectures. Being a person who learns best through hands on projects, this course pushed us past our comfort zone forcing us to learn and retain concepts through constant reinforcement by either labs or projects. I would highly highly recommend this course to anyone who has any interest in web/software development. 

This Bootcamp was awesome!! The instructor and the assistants were all very helpful in the learning process and I feel the pace of the course was sufficient. If I had to change anything it would be my final coding project. Reason being, the final solution for the project did not involve any relevant areas learned throughout the course. i.e. React, or any backend frameworks(MongoDB, express, node.js). Was kind of hoping to be able to create a full-stack application, but instead we watched William make his game and my group seriously lacked in communication.

Let me first begin this review with a huge round of applause for the entire BCA staff and Bob Stauss, the main Software Development instructor. The amount of effort they put into the course and the support provided is evident from the very beginning. Anyone who is interested in a bootcamp that will teach them the fundamentals of web development and to a lesser degree software engineering should check out Burlington Code Academy. More importantly, BCA teaches you how to consume technical documentation quickly and apply it immediately which is arguably the most valuable skill starting out in the industry. 

The JS, HTML, CSS, and Server (nodeJS and Express) portion of the bootcamp are all excellent and will provide a great foundational understanding of how to build a full-stack application. My one big critique about the program and it does come with a caveat (as this is my personal experience) is that they chose to teach a NoSQL database called MongoDB instead of SQL. After graduating from the program and applying and interviewing for jobs as a software/web developer I overwhelmingly saw the need to understand SQL. Almost every job I applied to required SQL or a basic understanding of SQL. Every now and then I saw MongoDB/NoSQL but it was few and far between and usually also listed SQL along side it. I am not sure what the reasoning behind pushing a NoSQL curriculum (perhaps because the db using an object like data architecture which is familiar to someone learning JS) but I highly recommend for anyone looking to become a full-stack developer to learn the basics of SQL.

To close out my review, I highly recommend BCA as a bootcamp because you will get exactly what you pay for and access to such an amazing alumni network! The staff and instructors are great. My one big critique is mostly tied to my own anecdotal experiences applying for jobs after graduating and I am sure everyone has their own opinion. With that said its a top program and I came into with very little technical background and landed a job in the industry within a month after graduation. I am thankful for everything BCA has provided and hope they continue to grow!

APPLY to BCA - you will not regret it, I sure didn't.

Having dabbled with the idea of a much needed career change for the last couple of years, I decided at the start 2021 to finally take the leap. Enrolling in Burlington Code Academy’s UX program turned out to be one of the best decisions I have made to date. I previously completed a 4-year degree at Parsons, and had some concerns over whether or not a 12 week program would provide a level of preparedness to successfully embark in a new field. Now that I have completed the UX program at BCA, I can confidently say that I feel more than prepared for new opportunities. I would highly recommend the program to anyone interested in UX or UI. 
It's incredibly unique how the course is specifically tailored to the students taking it, regardless of their background. Throughout the 12-weeks (and beyond) it is clear that our instructor Rick, and all of the BCA staff were truly there to support student success. With thorough daily lessons and UI challenges/ critiques, we were provided with a strong backbone to aid in our 9-week Capstone project.  For our project I worked in a team of 6, to design from scratch a financial literacy iOS app for an awesome client. Working with a real client and gaining legitimate UX experience to add to my new CV was invaluable. The bootcamp offered a really fantastic balance of allowing our team independence and the opportunity to problem solve- while also having assistance available where needed. In a short amount of time, I think it is pretty remarkable what I and my team achieved and I am proud to showcase my work as I begin my career search. The course was certainly intensive and not without its challenges, but in the end more than worth the time, effort and cost.

This course is tough and rigorous but like with any good program, you get out what you put into it. The staff is extremely helpful with everything from outside-class assistance (like tutoring and group code-alongs), to job assistance after the course which is so crucial. I only wish I had more time there to soak up and cover even more material but I think the amount of knowledge you walk away with after 3 months is pretty astonishing. I would recommend this course and Burlington Code Academy in general to anyone who is looking to pursue a career in this field and is willing to put in the work. 

 I completed the BCA Web Development Bootcamp Summer 2019. This full-time 12-week course is a ferocious program that I found invaluable. Our course was taught by the renowned, Joshua Burke (a fellow alumni of Northern Vermont University) who was fantastic and very personable. Joshua cares deeply about each students progress sincerely -- something that cannot be taught. I felt as though I could contact him day or night and he would promptly get back to me. The teacher's assistants were also top notch and brought their own ideas and different teaching methods/styles/explanations which at times helped many concepts sink in on a deeper level. The next piece of this Bootcamp puzzle was their attention to setting up students with every possible opportunity to land a great job. We had an in house career counselor that helped us develop resumes and help with mock interviews. Then there were the Lunch & Learns: a chance to meet and connect with the local tech community. I thought this was brilliant. I had no idea there was so many tech companies right here in Vermont! These L&L gave students the chance to learn all the options for jobs in the area and also make personal connections --- crucial in my opinion, to get hired locally. Lastly, there was the capstone project which was a project where students work in small teams partnering with a company, non-profit, or organization to complete a task that has been requested by the company. This is such an important project and it culminates at the close of the course by presenting each team's project in front of the local tech community. Nerve racking (lol) and incredibly gratifying. You, in a way, are pitching yourself to companies (Hey! Hire me!) by showing how you worked as a team and applied the skills you learned during BCA Bootcamp. Important: I was a full time musician that had done odd jobs for years and now I make a great wage working at Dealer.com here in Burlington. Medical, Dental, PTO, other benefits --- things I am truly super grateful for. Benny and Alex (the "founding fathers" haha) are also two superb human beings. If you meet them once, you will never forget their professionalism and caring nature. Highly recommend. That is all. Sign up today y'all! 

I graduated from the full time software programming bootcamp course in December and had a very positive experience with the Burlington Code Academy. This program is now remote so this institution is open to people outside of the Burlington, VT area which is when I decided to jump on in! To preface, this 12-week course is very rigorous and intensive and will stretch you academically, in a good way. You are learning to be a full-stack web developer in under three months and BCA provides you with all the foundational skills you will need to do so. From the instructor and TAs being available around the clock to the hands on weekly projects and month long capstone project, you will graduate with an array of new skills under your belt and SO much hands on development experience. BCA also provides a wonderful career coach who helps tailor your resume to the developer you now are! In addition to that, they also provide "lunch and learns" where individuals from the tech industry come in and talk about what a relevant topic or what they do on the day to day. This is an amazing opportunity to network and it was through one of these discussions I learned about a company and found an employment opportunity within a month of graduating from BCA. BCA covers all the bases, you need to show up and put the hard work in!!

In summary, jump in with 100% and you will get 200% out of this course. They provide A LOT of support and it will be worth it! It is a large time and academic commitment but I highly recommend this course for anyone looking to strengthen their tech skills or career switch. 

Thanks BCA!

i am a recent graduate from this program, and couldn't recommend it enough. i live in new york city, and am used to the way things come and go here, so in many ways i was really drawn to the local environment and interpersonal skills that burlington code academy provided, above all.

now that the bootcamp is over, i'm missing my classmates a lot! when i was looking at other bootcamps and speaking with my peers (in other bootcamps, like thinkful) during my time at the program, i realized i was getting a way more hands-on, one on one, interpersonal skill-building experience at bca than other programs have to offer.

bca instructor rick machanic and ta collin hadley will not give you the cookie cutter get-it-done and thats it approach - you'll have active discussion/participation in discussing your design decisions. you will also get to know how to be part of a team, and coming from an agency background, i felt that those skills were sharpened so much more during that process. if you want to do ux, you have to learn how to work with people, that's for sure. and this program will not only give you an a-z UX/UI and more (lunch and learns with great guest speakers, 1 on 1 sessions with TA and instructors, social hours, workshops) but also help you work on soft skills that will ultimately help you in life.

on the flip side, if you want a program thats more prescriptive and akin to what you did in college (guidelines, guidelines, guidelines, little discussion) then bca might be more challenging for you. there's an autonomous attitude and approach to ux going on here that helps you be a designer and not just learn what a designer does. if you're up for the challenge, you won't regret it!

that to me has been so rewarding and i'm so glad i got to do the program! thanks alex, sadie, josh, rick, collin, mateo, etienne and everyone else involved in making this bootcamp so great, and a great part of my life to date. 

If you are considering taking a UX bootcamp, I highly recommend Burlington Code Academy. My experience at BCA was extremely rewarding. Our instructor Rick, and TA Collin were so helpful and knowledgable. They always made themselves available as a resource and I could honestly say that about everyone at every level at BCA. 

I went way out of my comfort zone joining this bootcamp and I learned and evolved so much in such a short period of time (it actually flew by). We were working with a real client on a website redesign by Week 3. It was a cool real world experience that was integral in my overall UX journey. Their support doesn't end when the class is over. In addition to providing a career coach along with your bootcamp, BCA also provides resources while you search for your next opportunity. If you are looking for a UX Bootcamp, you will not be disappointed at BCA.

Great learning experience. I have wanted to learn how to code for a while and BCA gave me the necessary guidance, tools and provided the information in a practical, logical and useful order, with each lesson building upon the previous one.  This material can be difficult to learn alone if you are unsure of what to practice first and don't have projects to work on or feedback.  The only thing I regret is not doing enough review before the course started. 

Coming into this course with no coding experience was daunting, but you quickly realize you’re not alone. You get tons of support from teachers, classmates, and the coding community as a whole. The remote structure takes some getting used to, but once you start, the 12 weeks really fly by. There are many challenges along the way, but every obstacle overcome is a problem you now know how to solve, which is an incredibly rewarding feeling. This is the place to be if you’re looking to learn new skills to help get a career in the industry. BCA gives you the tools to succeed, combined with a support staff dedicated to helping you find that new career along the way. 

I just completed BCA's first UX Design Bootcamp. It was an amazing experience. If you're in an appropriate time zone, you can take this bootcamp remotely. I wasn't anywhere near Burlington and I still felt connected. Their biggest strength is that the UX program is taught by Rick Machanic, who has decades of experience in this field. He owned his own web agency so he offers much more than the typical bootcamp teacher. BCA is great about gathering feedback and I'm sure they're going to improve the Bootcamp based on my program's initial feedback. They're going to solidify some of the prework, Figma lessons, and have more consistent labs that span the length of the Bootcamp. One of the highlights of the course was our capstone. They work with real clients so your portfolio has real-world experience before you're even done. Another shining star is Etienne Morris, the career coach that BCA uses. They place a high emphasis on finding a job and networking throughout your time there. The TA, Mateo Cohen, brings more experience from a visual design perspective. His feedback and design critiques were super useful and he's still helping our class out despite the Bootcamp being finished. All in all, you should definitely go to BCA if you want to become a UX Designer. I entered having only enthusiasm and left with a ton of new skills!

I was expecting as a 'code illiterate' person, that I would be lost and confused along the way. I had done some slight research about code and realized it can be like learning a new language. I was geared to take the summer intensive bootcamp course for three months but was allowed to take a Javascript specific course beforehand as a sort of precursor. I was lost from the beginning to the end. The homework and assignments were way above my head, even having the kindness and aid of a fellow teachers aid was barely keeping me afloat in class. Everyone else in the course had had some prior experience so I would not recommend for the actual beginner. Because this was far to0 much for me to personally grasp, I ended up realizing this type of learning and course was not for me and ended up cancelling my plan to do the more intensive course which I am personally happy about. I would say its a great way to test your knowledge about coding and to see if the summer intensive course is doable. For me, I didnt take much away at all. I would like to recommend that this is not for the actual beginner and having some background in code or javascript programming is definitely required. 

I really appreciated the positive atmosphere at Burlington Code Academy. We were encouraged to have fun, support one other, take breaks, and experiment and grow in our own way.

The instructors we had were top notch and came with lots of real-world experience as coders and coding teachers. And with the small class size, they were very accessible, so I was able to ask questions whenever I felt confused or just wanted to learn more.

The projects they designed for us were fun and challenging. Getting to work with other students through pair programming, peer code reviews, and the longer-term capstone project taught me so much because my eyes were constantly being opened to new ways of approaching a problem. It was also helpful in the job search to already have working full-stack applications in my portfolio.

I like the course’s emphasis on Agile development principles because so many companies use Agile. It made my transition to a new job in software easier because the Agile process felt familiar from my time at Burlington Code Academy.

The skills I gained at Burlington Code Academy allowed me to break into the field of web development and work every day at a job that I enjoy.

I’m really excited about what BCA is doing in the community and for its students. Personally, the class helped me advance towards a more technical role in my current position. The school has created a support network for its students and also engages the local development community in order to support events and programs that help advance technical careers in Vermont. I think they’re doing great things, and I think that a class with them is time well spent. 

I had a wondeful and eye opening experience at Burlington Code Academy. The education was fast paced and immersive, much like the industry that I was being prepared for. There were definite moments of doubt, but the intructing team encouraged me to see the problem solver in myself and never gave up on me. The course opened up a new world of understanding to me in both software and internet that I would not have been able to achieve in such a short period of time at a regular school. 

I run a search marketing agency and consult with businesses on how to drive more traffic, leads, and revenue through search engines like Google.

I went through the part-time JavaScript course with Burlington Code Academy in early 2019. The instructors were highly knowledgeable and did a great job of distilling complex subjects down into digestable lessons. The course itself was a bootcamp style introduction to programming with JavaScript.

The biggest benefits to me as a marketer and entrepreneur were:

• A deeper understanding of the technology behind Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and event/conversion tracking
• The opportunity to network and build relationships with other people in the local tech scene
• A 100-level introduction to the command line, git protocol, and programming concepts like loops and conditionals
• The opportunity to communicate with talented and experienced developers (the instructors) and learn how they approach complex problems

I'd recommend the course to digital marketers looking to expand their skillsets, professionals looking to switch careers or dip their toes into the world of web development, or novice developers looking to build their skills and project portfolios and ultimately pursue a career as a software engineer.

I am happy to provide further details of my experience as a student in the Burlington Code Academy course. You can reach out to me through my website at https://rileyfarabaugh.com.