Burlington Code Academy

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. 

Intense course with an incredibly supportive staff

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.

I had a legal career I was proud of but I wanted to take my passion for technology further. Not only did I learn what I needed to learn to get a great job as an Enterprise Architect with the State, I became part of a community that I continue to grow in.