Code Fellows Reviews
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Anonymous
Good, Solid, Efficient
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I graduated from the Python Development Accelerator in the Spring of 2015. The course was fast paced and focused on real world programs and methods. After graduation, I was prepared to enter the work force and knew how to present myself and had the tools to continue my learning and experience on my own time.
I would and do recommend Code Fellows to my peers quite often with the only caveat having to do with the job market. Seattle is indeed hiring developers like crazy, but the industry is still warming up to graduates of code schools like Code Fellows, IF you don't have technical experience already.
In my experience, Python graduates have the most difficulty finding good jobs after graduation, not for lack of skill, but just because of how the industry is. Python specific jobs are few and far between, while strong developers who have Python as a tool in their tool kit, are in high demand. One of the main problems that I ran into was, companies that are looking for python devs, are looking more for backend devs that know C, C++, C#, Java, and Python is a plus. If they are looking for purely a python dev, they rarely have the bandwidth to absorb a junior dev. Having said that, the jobs do exist, they are just hard to find, and are often a sluggish process as experienced devs are put on the front of the queue.
JS specific jobs, on the other hand, seem to be more common and can absorb less experienced developers. If someone asks me for advise on what class to take, I answer differently depending on the person. If you have little to no technical experience and no CS degree, like I had, the JS class might be a better way to get into the industry. If you are already a developer, have technical experience, or a CS degree.. Python could be a good fit.
I also can't leave a review or tell people about Code Fellows without mentioning the Python instructor Cris Ewing. The guy is amazing. He loves the industry, programming, python, and teaching. He pours his heart and soul into his students and will do everything he can to help you understand the material, IF you are hungry for it. Cris is excelent at what he does, and is a very busy person. If you are willing to put the hard work, effort, and time it takes to absorb the information, he will always have more for you to learn. If you just sit back and expect to be spoon fed.. You will get just as much as you put in.
The last bit of advise I give people is be patient with the job hunt. Sometimes it takes a while. I am not really sure where they get the statistics on job placement, but in my course, they aren't really that close to reality. I think with the JS courses, the placement statistics are pretty spot on. In my class, only a couple people out of the 12 person class had jobs in the first two months, and right now, at the 9 months mark, I know of at least two people that still don't have jobs, but are good developers. It just takes a while to find a job sometimes. I had right around 40 interviews before landing my job, which from the first contact, to my first day on the job, was 15 weeks. And that was without any "give us a couple months and we'll get back to you" which is something I heard a lot. The process just takes a while.
So if you are doing a complete career change, get a CS degree. If you can't, or don't want to, take the JS course, or be prepared for a long job hunt. But having said that... I don't have a degree, but have a 'just out of college' level job, about 2 years before I would have if I did the traditional school route. So I still count it as a win!
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Andrew Nelson
CF sorts through the noise and delivers the signal
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I'm a software developer with thirty-odd years experience, from x86 assembler right on the silicon up through C and C++, to SQL stored procedures and SOAP Web services. But learning JavaScript full-stack dev was like hacking through a swampy jungle - there are a LOT of opinions out there, and like anything else, half of them are below average.
Where CF really added value for me was their deep experience with what hiring managers are actually hiring for. After 8 weeks in the Mongo/Express/Angular/Node stack, I was ready for interviews, and in fact accepted a job offer during the last week of class.
There was a little bit of instability in the TA staffing, as both our TAs got jobs during the course (is that a bug, or a feature?), but the curriculum was solid and the instructor was outstanding - knowledgeable, articulate, and pretty funny, which doesn't hurt.
Would definitely take another CF course.
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Anonymous
Full-Stack JavaScript Development Accelerator at code fellows got me a job
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This class was seriously awesome. It was 8 weeks and covered a multitude of topics. Two of these weeks are dedicated to projects. I actually got a job offer in the seventh week. They literally do everything they can to get you employable. You just have to put your effort forth. You get what you put in to it. If you don't put much into it you will just see it as a waste of money. They have a fairly structured program. You have 3 hours of lecture every day M-W and following that 3 hours of lab. On thursday you go over data structures and algorithms. This is essential to getting a job. Even though code fellows acknowledges that making a canidate do a whiteboarding test at job interview is not the best way at evaulating their skills they teach it to you because its just the way the job industry is. On Fridays they teach you about the strategic ways you should be applying for a job. It was super benefical because they help you form your resume, personal brand and linkedin. Their staff is very helpful and encouraging. The lectures help you understand the topics and you do homework and projects to nail in the concepts. The structure of the program is the key to making you employable. If it was just 8 straight weeks of lectures it wouldnt be the great program it is. The curriculum is dynamic and based off of what gets you a job. It is modern stuff and they dont teach you anything that wont help you get a job. During my interview I was able to answer all the question they asked becuase of what I learned. It so crazy that 2 months of learning can get you so far. This program is really a dream come true. If you want to work hard and change fields it can be right for you.
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Kevin Townsend
Thoughts from the inside and out
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Having been both a student and a TA at code fellows I can tell you that it's a wonderful atmostphere. The teachers really know what they are talking about and you can always ask someone for help. Everyone is very patient and always willing to help. You will learn everything you need to know about being a web developer in any course you take. From the basics of yoru language, to how the request/response cycle works, to RESTful applications and datastructures and sorting algorithms, you will know how things work when you're done.
CF will always try to help you out with your studies and your job hunt. Their space is made available for you, you get a mock interview and some solid help with writing your resume. At the very worst, you get your money back if you can't find a job, but with only 3% of students unable to find a position, I doubt that will happen.
As a TA, I tried to continue this tradition by always making myself available to the students. Generally, I could answer their questions off the top of my head, but if I couldn't I was more than willing to sit down and figure it out with the student.
It's really difficult to be in bad mood while at CF, if not impossible. It's less of a school and more of a big family. It's large enough that you get the benefits of the name, yet small enough that you get to know everyone.
I might be moving on for now, but I have a sneaking suspission that I'll be back :) -
Anonymous
Great instructors/school, not so great class
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Hello, This is my expriance with Code fellows Foundation II: Front-End Design & Development
Instructors:
CF have the best instructors, they will do everything to make sure you have the best understating of any information they teach. Feedback on homework was minimal, but they were always available if I or any of the course participants needed help.
The course:
The course itself on the other hand was a disappointment. I had some coding experience before from self-study and the help of teamtreehouse.com, so I skipped Foundation 1.The class was almost identical to Foundation 1, they even had a better intro to JS. What differentiate the course from foundation 1 was the advanced CSS part. Sadly we skipped half of it "SCSS Part" because we spent. Part of it become we spent a big chunk of time ( almost 30%+ of the course) On Git because half of the class didn't take the "mandatory" Git workshop before the class started. the other reason is because course curriculum was not planned out to fit the course time.
The course had many faults and I think CF realized that. couple of month after graduation CF were offering a SASS/SCSS workshop (we were giving a discount, but I think we should have got it for free) and at the time I am writing this review the course disappeared from CF website (looks like no longer offered).
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Andre Gonzalvo
Code Fellows Foundation I Review
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Taking the Foundations I course was an eye opener for me. I was already working as a QA Test Engineer for a small tech startup but lacked the knowledge in Javascript and other programming language. Code Fellows bridged this gap and gave me the knowledge and skill to be able to do my job better. They gave me the resources to be able to help myself in finding out the information I need to be able to find the answer that I needed. All in All the class was well worth the cost.
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Anonymous
Computer Science & Web Development Bootcamp
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I feel so much more confident in my web development skills now that I have gone through the Computer Science & Web Development Bootcamp. It differs from the F1 night class in that it is more intense and more in-depth. For the majority of us, it didn't prepare us technically to go straight into a development accelerator from the bootcamp, but I feel like it did prepare us for what the experience would be like -- the long days filled with assignments, pair programming and the final project.
The curriculum is great, but a lot of it goes by so quickly, you'll need to spend time digesting it further after you graduate. They say the class is like work, but sometimes I would have preferred a bit more instruction. Overall, though it wasn't perfect, it was a great experience. Not for everyone, but for those who really want to be immersed in web development and build up a solid base of knowledge.
I rated the job assistance a 1 because it doesn't come with this class. Although, you are added to the alumni channel where jobs are sometimes posted.
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Anonymous
Great Instructors and TA's, perfect pace
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I recently completed the Computer Science and Web Development Bootcamp offered by Code Fellows at their Seattle Campus. Our instructor was Sam Hamm, who has lots of previous teaching experience (in music) before becoming a Code Fellows instructor. Frequently instructors fall in one of two camps. Some are obviously brilliant and know the content, but are awful at teaching. Some are good teachers, but you can tell they're barely a chapter ahead of the students in the textbook. Sam is a great teacher who also knows his stuff pretty well.
The course is advertised as fast-paced and intensive, which is basically true. But it's not really that challenging. If you complete the pre-work and come prepared you shouldn't have any problem. Of course, the bootcamp is designed to take someone with no previous coding experience and introduce them to the basics of javascript and web design. We had a pretty broad spectrum of expereience levels in our class, from people with degrees in informatics to people who haven't done any coding before whatsoever. Coming in with a little experience helps. I think having done a little bit of Python and C++ in my past let me catch on a little quicker.
I learned a ton, however. I basically went from knowing very basic HTML, heard of CSS, and never really touching Javascript before, to being able to put together almost professional-level interactive web pages. This class doesn't teach any back-end. Everything that you learn is front-end. So it's not the whole picture but nor is it designed to be. It's a great introduction to web development, learning how to use git and github, javascript, html, and css fundamentals, and learning how to do some basic web server setup using Node and express.
I'm giving one star in Job Assistance because this class isn't designed to get you ready to be a full developer. The Code Fellows way is to eventually take one of their Development Accelerators (DA), after which they guarantee a job or your money back. I haven't taken a DA so I can't speak to how well their job assistance is after one.
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Anonymous
Code Fellows Bootcamp review
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Three levels of classrooms and labs near the Amazon campus in South Lake Union, Seattle, Washington. It was a hard class but the instruction was great and so was the support and help from teachers, ta's and students as well. Lecture in the morning, lab in the afternoon. Reading or tutorials at home each night. I think immediate level of understanding varies according to your experience previously, but they really want you to succeed and they will help you as long as you help yourself. The experience was invaluable to me. I have a lot to learn btu I know I can get there with Code Fellows.
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Randy
Got my moneys worth in questions alone!
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Greetings,
I have recently graduated from the iOS dev accelerator at Code Fellows (Seattle). The course was awesome, demanding, and inspiring. There is absolutely NO WAY I could have or would have learned all that on my own in 8 weeks or even likely in 6 months. I am switching careers from biotech and had spent the past 2 years attending university part time. I was told about Code Fellows and bootcamps in general and after interviewing both grads and developers in the industry who had not attended a boot camp I decided that getting a certificate like this and spend the next 2 years in the industry would be a much better education compared to just attending classes at university and earning a second bachelor's degree.
Fast forward to the Dev Accelerator (DA). I would recommend spending minimum 6 months on the stack you are thinking about taking before you jump in. I was woefully underprepared but I figure at $5 per question I got my tuitions worth from the instructor over the 8 weeks. He was patient, very knowledgable, probably 10 years my junior ;) but I honestly cant say enough good about him (Go Brad!), To be successful in the DA, really have nothing else going on during this time in your life, be passionate about coding and learning, dont sweat the small stuff, and work your tail off. Dont quit, just drink more caffine!
There was a good amount of job search guidance in the program but they dont give you a job, just like everything else in the course you need to earn it. You do the work, they provide support, guidance, and some leads. If you are looking for rescuing from your current dead end job (like I was) you will need to break out of your own shell and put yourself out there.
Would I do it all over again? After preparing more, you bet I would!
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Sarah Hermanns
IOS Development Accelerator
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We are learning how to create mobile apps in Objective-C and Swift. We use industry tools and frameworks such as Cocoa, Xcode, UIKit, Git, and more. The class will dive deep into UIKit, asynchronous code, CoreImage, NSURLSession and JSON, MapKit and CoreLocation, AutoLayout, Source Control, Core Data, Animation, and the app submission process. I also took the computer science bootcamp as well as the Foundations II workshop for IOS.
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Tim Miller
Great Start to My Professional Career
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It was after a lot of consideration and researching that I decided to quit my job in retail to attend classes at Code Fellows. The only exposure to programming I had was free online courses, and I knew I would need something in person to take the next step. I spoke with alumni from seveal coding academy's in and around Seattle. And after weighing all options I knew if I wanted complete caree change my best option would be Code Fellows. I've started with just the Foundations 1 course and am completely loving it. I plan to take several more courses finally ending with one of the many development accelorators they offer. I have no question in my mind that I will be ready to enter the work force as a computer developer.
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Efrain
Python - Dev From Scratch
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Seattle Code Fellows is a great little code school right in the heart of downtown. Its literally next door to Amazon headquarters so you really get the feeling of being part of the tech community even as a student. The best part of the school is its focus on taking raw talent into developers.
They practice a methodolgy of having you start with a night course or two to make sure you have solids basics. The instructors at least for the python class (Cris Ewing) really care about the students.
They do a decent job on job placement but I think they could probably improve with some internship opportinites right out of the gates.
Over all strongly recomend!
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Anonymous
Great starting point, focused on shipping products out
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In my Yelp review, I compared an investment in Code Fellows accelerator program to an investment in a classic Burberry trench coat. To continue that analogy, let's say that a few months later, I discovered that the lining on my coat started unraveling, which is unexpected for such a pricey item. I was part of the iOS Development accelerator program at CF and while there are things that could be improved, I would go through the program again.
The Cliff Notes version: CF will teach you how to ship apps and how to ship them fast. It will not teach you how to be a good engineer. It will take you about 25% of the way to getting a job, the rest is up to you.
What Code Fellows does well (from my experience within the iOS Dev accelerator):
- Teach you how ship apps and how to ship them fast (we made 8 apps in 8 weeks, all of them are quite impressive and varied in functionality and types)
- Give you a taste of what's it like to work as a developer (sort of). I learned a lot working with other developer wannabes and also with backend developers.
- Expose you to these things called data structures, algorithms, memory management, and blah blah... other skills that you don't necessarily need to ship apps fast, but you actually need to build good, sustainable products.
- And most importantly, they still treat you as if you're a student, even after you've long graduated. It's like the good ol' pension plan. It's a little too good to be true and probably not sustainable if poorly managed.
- Give you the most up to date tools. Brad, the iOS instructor, is super passionate about his craft, so we learned the latest and greatest (WatchKit, Parse iOS SDK, etc).
- Screen incoming students well. I really liked the people in my development accelerator. Great diversity too.
What CF does not do:
- It doesn't have a strong network... yet. If you ask most CF alumni, you'll rarely find that they got their job from CF. CF is still a young company, establishing and expanding their networks in multiple cities. I think it would've been better if they had partnered with companies to get students working on real-world projects (like GA does) or to get students hired as interns or apprentice (like Ada Developer Academy).
- It doesn't teach you how to be a good engineer. The old project management adage is true: fast, cheap or good, pick two. In this case, pick one (fast). There needs to be a bit more structure in the lab/homework part of the course. I wish I'd been tested on my knowledge of the topics discussed in lectures, either through an online quiz, HackerRank puzzle, etc. When I went to school here, the lab portion is pretty open: 4 hours to work on homework (with assistance from TA and instructor) or do whatever you want.
- It doesn't train you to write beautiful code. This goes hand in hand with the previous point. I had a senior engineer look at my code, and it was embarrassing and insightful (thanks Aaron). I wish they'd put more emphasis on incorporating coding style guidelines when we were learning, but I'm not sure how much more stuff they could've crammed into our brain. It would also be helpful to learn about how to think like an engineer in a bit more systematic detail.
- Again, it's a young company, so they're still working kinks out. There are some things they could be a bit more buttoned up about. Unfortunately at $10k a class, I don't think people are willing to tolerate much.
So there, my two cents on my classic Burberry trench coat. Would I do it again? Yes. -
Truyen Nguyen
Software Engineer
The student needs should have a basic background in Computer Science before apply for a bootcamp program.
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Anonymous
Experience is advisable
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My overall experience at Code Fellows is a positive one. The staff are incredibly helpful and very good at their jobs. The curriculum is a tough thing to rate due to the fast pace at which the industry can change. That being said what we learned was pretty excellent stuff! Having had zero experience with code before starting Code Fellows, I would strongly advise that a prospective student take a CS100 class somewhere to begin wrapping your head around the concepts that you will encounter. For instance, I spent two months after the accelerator learning how to code and not job searching... Which leads me to the job assistance. During the program you have at least one half of a day set aside for guest lecturers or staff to talk to your class about the best processes for getting a job. Which is helpful. But the "job assistance" that you get is two mass emails sent at the end of your program to their partners. Which isn't helpful. Outside of that you're pretty much on your own, you must complete a survey once a week describing your actions towards landing a job, which is fair. The problem with the process is that you quickly run out of companies that you would actually like to work for in the state that you would like to work. Its been five months and change since I finished my program, I have zero prospects and have had three responses to my applications. Total. So in sum, the course work was awesome, the instructors are awesome and the staff is awesome. I just wish they were more honest about how much experience you should have and what they really do to help you land a job.
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Anonymous
Ruby on Rails Development Accelerator
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I took the Foundations 2: Ruby course, then the Ruby on Rails Development Accelerator. I'm very good at self-directed learning, and have been a hobby-level programmer for several years, but I felt like I needed an extra boost to get an actual job.
In hindsight, I think I would skip the F2 course, becuase you can learn the basics of Ruby elsewhere for much cheaper (Codecademy, Code School, or Treehouse). The instructor was great, but I found I spent most of my time helping other classmates because I already knew the concepts. However, doing the F2 course "got my foot in the door" at Code Fellows, and made my enrollment process for the DA a bit easier.
The DA was very intense. Thankfully, our class was very small, so we got lots of one-on-one time with the instructor and the TA, which helped a lot. Just like other reviewers have said, what you get out of it depends on how much you put in. We were all very dedicated, and spent well over 60 hours a week working...but even still, some of us fell behind by the end of the course.
Their philosophy of teaching is called stacked learning, which takes some getting used to. It takes a week or two to "click" into that mode, but it's much easier once you do! Lectures are 3 hours a day Monday thru Thursday, with lab time the other part of the day. Friday mornings are for the "Professional Development Curriculum", and the rest of the day is more lab time.
Honestly, I don't feel like I got much out of the Professional Development Curriculum. I came from another part of the IT industry, so most of my resume still applies, but I can see how it would be more helpful for people coming out of completely unrelated industries. But a word of caution: they don't provide much in the way of "job placement", it's more along the lines of "job-search assistance". I was assuming that since they've got the job guarantee, they would be actively trying to get us in the door with their business partners, but all they do is give their partners access to our resumes before we graduate. I was not contacted by any of their partners. However, when I had questions specific to my application process with other companies, they were very happy to answer questions, and were very excited for me when I finally got a job.
If I had to do it all over again, I would go to one of their quarterly info sessions and talk with some of their instructors then. I would also try to stop by during one of their weekly "Open Houses" to get a better feel for what it feels like during the day, and talk with more instructors and staff then. Since I had previous programming experience, I would skip the F1 and F2 classes, and apply directly for the DA.
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Anonymous
Code Fellows - Javascript Development Accelerator
I think Code Fellows has done a really good job of getting us prepared for skills that we will need to be contributing members in the job market today. Each class is constantly being updated to reflect the frameworks and libraries currently being used and making sure best practices are taught.
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Anonymous
Try Again..
This bootcamp had a lot of potential and came with the right goals but the implementation and day to day classes were poorly planned. I believe having had better instructors that have a broader perspective, longer backgrounds, and overall understanding of all aspects of programming is necessary to have a conducive learning environement and that was, unfortunately, not present in this bootcamp.
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Anonymous
Excellent instructors, laser focus on skills you will use
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The class format has changed since I attended, but when I went it was 8 weeks of intense instruction with lots of hands-on practice, talks by successful developers and entrepreneurs, and opportunities to network with local startups. I already had some dev experience so I think I had an easier time than some, but everyone got enough instruction to make a career change. It definitely felt like Code Fellows was located at the epicenter of the local startup scene.
The one area I wish had been stronger was individual help on getting a job. My mentor was pretty hands-off and offered generalities and the job development position at the school was in flux while I was there. From what I hear, it has improved since then. I successfully transitioned to a full-time ruby on rails software engineer from a previous career as a project manager and credit Code Fellows with making that happen.
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Anonymous
Job hunt afterwards
Quality education. Most people get jobs fairly quickly afterwards, but I have met quite a few graduates from different programs that are failing to find anything. So I would say that Code Fellows will give you the resume to get interviews, but it's up to you to get the job from there. -
Anonymous
Excellent program -- A bit on the expensive end
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I really enjoyed my time at Code Fellows! This is a great course for any one who wants to learn how to build a website and learn JavaScript. It does not go in too much detail but it gives you the foundations to keep learning on your own or take one of the Development Accelerators. The curriculum is good and you learn a lot and get the foundations for things you might have trouble learning on you own. The two books for the class are about 50$ total. Which is a lot less than most universities. The instructor I had was very fun and helpful. He had a passionate drive which was obvious. You also get as much help as you need the whole day which is great. The class is rather expensive for one month of learning so be cautious if you are coming in with little money. I would take the foundations 1 course for 500$ and you learn a decent amount and then try to self study until you have enough for the development accelerator. I am planning on taking one! Be weary if you live outside downtown seattle and don't have a good bussing option to SLU because parking is expensive and traffic is horrible. You can always bus to westlake and walk faster than taking a second bus or trolley.
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Kevin
Worth
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I attented Code Fellows near it's infancy. While the Job Gaurantee initially attracted me to the camp, it does provide a great incentive for the school to invest in all the students success. The camp not only provided a good basis in technical skills but also intensive career advice. The instructors and speakers were every bit as supportive as they were informative. The amount of speakers provided a great variety of insight and the time spent with the mentors and instructors provided the deeper more personal advice.
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Jake Anderson
Python Development Accelerator
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This course sets you up to be a full stack python developer. We covered everything form data structures and algorithms to deployment and web development. Assignments included building a pyramid blog app that acted as a daily learning journal, a django app that was build for image sharing. Other small assignments covered building everything from a linked list to graph traversal and dijkstras algorithm to find the shortest path along with sorting algorithms. The instructure and TA's were all very knowledgible and were willing and able to drop anything at any time to help you when you got stuck.
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Mandi Grant
100% worth it, but you get out of it what you put in
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The JavaScript dev accelerator was a great experience, it changed my life and was the best educational experience I've ever had.
I attended Foundations I in June 2014, Foundations II in July, and the Full Stack JavaScript Development Accelerator from August-September 2014. I am now employed full time as a software engineer at Expedia in Bellevue, WA.
I'm normally a do it yourself-er when it comes to learning new stuff, and I had been learning on my own for years before I attended the accelerator. What the accelerator gave me was a lot of things I couldn't get on my own:
- access to knowledgable teachers and TAs
- an instant network of peers
- exposure to technologies I wouldn't have discovered on my own
- team project experience as a developer
- my resume in the hands of CF's 40+ employer partners
This program is for students who have already been self-teaching for some time and already understand the fundamentals. You will continue self-teaching in the accelerator, just at a much faster pace and greater intensity.
To prospective students I recommend the JavaScript Road Trip on codeschool.com and setting up a website and/or Wordpress blog on some $5-month shared hosting (and you can re-use that same hosting later for your professional portfolio site). Build as much "real stuff" as you can - codeschool is only good for an introduction to the concept. Actually getting something working and available online is much, much more challenging. If you enjoy these things, though, you will probably enjoy the accelerator.
The accelerator is INTENSE and HARD (which is good, considering what it costs). Plan on being there every single day. People who missed a day missed a lot and fell behind. You will get a fresh dump of homework daily. It will be difficult to keep your head above water. You will have to fight through frustrating problems, work on the bus ride home and all the way until bedtime just to keep up, and stop socializing and playing video games and whatever else you do for fun for the 8 weeks you are in it. If this sounds horrible to you, you will probably not enjoy the accelerator.
If you're still eager to start, don't worry about which language to go with - there's no "one right choice", and you'll learn new languages on the job. Start coding now, in anything. It's a long journey (for me, it was about 8 months from the first day of Foundations I to the first day of my new job) but it is absolutely worth it if you have the drive and the discipline. (And the money.)
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Fan Yang
A great start
Bootcamp brings me from a piece of white paper to a real web developer, and to a foreign student like me, the instructors are clear and loud speakers without any accent. I think we should cut off some of the afternoon self-study time and try to learn more even though instructors answered all the questions.
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Ron Floyd
What you get out of a program like this is largely up to you.
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My overall experience with the Code Fellows web development bootcamp was very positive. I gave the curriculum three stars because for the amount of pre-work they have you do before you get there, I felt like the curriculum should have been harder and perhaps taught at a faster pace.
I was in the first cohort offered in Portland, so things were a bit rough around the edges at the start. Week one was fairly disorganized and slow going, and I questioned whether I'd made the right decision. But the wonderful staff at Code Fellows are very concerned about making your experience as great as possible, and things really started to take off after that. We completed several projects during the course which were good enough to include in a portfolio.
Like most things in life however, you will get results from this course which correspond directly to the level of commitment and effort you are willing to put into it. You don't actually need Code Fellows to learn the topics covered in the curriculum. The value that Code Fellows provides is the structure and interaction that comes with being in a classroom, working with other students, and being guided by industry veterans whose knowledge and experience far exceeds yours.
Throughout the course, Jordana (our campus manager) regularly presented us with info on meetups and other tech industry gatherings in the local area. If you decide to take one of these courses, I highly recommend attending as many of these as you can. You'll soon discover that developing soft skills and making connections is just as valuable (if not more so) than the actual coding skills you are learning.
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Anonymous
Poor quality for the price
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I recently wrapped up the iOS dev accelerator and felt like the overall experience was pretty weak give the high cost. In hindsight, I likely would have gone to another program and simply done a web dev accelerator, but I wanted to do iOS. If you are really looking to get into iOS then this is really the only option for newbies in the area, which is unfortunate. The team at CF is great, but you really don't get much instruction - you basically sit in a room with other people and work on the homework.
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Anonymous
Spend that money elsewhere
Code Fellows is ok, but the evening courses are definitely not worth the cost. The material for the Python class is available through codecademy.
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Anonymous
Challenging in the beginning but excitement fizzled out at the end
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I attended the 8 weeks iOS accerelator bootcamp. The beginning weeks were fabulous and challenging, but the excitement soon fizzled out towards the end. Although they claimed it was a 8 weeks course but the actual lesson time were much much lesser. Among these 8 weeks, 2 weeks were used on team app development (2 different apps), the final week was mostly interview mock test, and there was NO lesson on every Friday too, so all in all it was only 5-week lessons. The instructors were very good, the lesson was given in the morning at 9 o'clock till noon time, the afternoon was merely self/group practising. It would be so much better if it was a FULL 8 weeks course and they offered lessons in the afternoon.
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Mark Palfreeman
Take your static web skills to production-level front end best practices
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Summary
After attending Code Fellows to learn front-end web development, numerous friends have asked me questions like "How was it?" and "Would you recommend it?" My response differs depending on the person's prior experience and interests, but here's a high-level review to help with these inquiries.
The world of web development is one giant rabbit hole that requires continual learning, admitting you're wrong, and progress as the industry continues to evolve and shift. That aside:
The Decision to Attend
I would absolutely recommend Code Fellows, but it comes with a variety of variables/caveats that are different for everyone. Mainly: cost, ability to sacrifice the time, potential unemployment after completion, etc.
For me, I wanted a career change, so I knew it would be an up-front investment that would be repaid upon finding a job. The job guarantee, as well as local press and quality of leadership, made my decision to jump into Code Fellows feel safer to me.
Curriculum & Classwork
Coming into the program only having tought myself basic HTML and CSS, almost everything at Code Fellows was new knowledge. That said, Dale Sande pushed us to learn in-depth, production-level code, and it was a crash course on best practices in the industry. Our class focused on the interaction of design and development with a heavy emphasis on modular reusable CSS using Sass, semantic HTML, and web standards. Out of everything today's "front end developers" are expected to know, I do think the class fell slightly short on JavaScript and its many modern frameworks, but you can only do so much in two months.
I put in a lot of hours during that time to absorb as much as I could, but the learning still has only just begun—after graduating, it's time to really apply everything, put it to practice, and gain repetition.
Learning
What I will say is I never could have learned so much so fast on my own, and there's also a great support network of classmates and instructors both in class and after graduating. The small class sizes and tight-knit group made it easy to get help and share learning experiences very quickly, and nobody felt alone. After Code Fellows, people continue to work on projects, share job search experiences, and more. It was awesome to have this while we were all looking for something new and entering a new industry.
Job Placement
I did start a contract at a small startup after only one month and solidified a position at a larger firm two months later—both of these came through personal referrals, which helps immensely. All this said, there are still students in my class that don't have a full-time job yet (after four or five months as of this writing). Regardless of the quality of our training, it's not easy to convince companies hiring that we are suddenly "experts" that can solve their problems right away. A lot of people still want proof like projects and work we've done.
TL;DR
If you have the desire, the money, the drive to learn (and keep learning), and you can afford a few months of life without making any money to fully jump into something, Code Fellows is a high quality school offering a lot of potential growth. It was quite literally a life- and career-altering decision for me, and I'm thankful I got the opportunity to attend.
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Ivan Lesko
Ivan Lesko
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I took the iOS Boot Camp (now called the iOS Development Accelerator) in January/February 2014 and I can say without a doubt Code Fellows is the best educational experience I have ever had. I started learning how to code on my own 6 months prior to Code Fellows and landed an iOS dev position a month after the program ended. The best thing about Code Fellows is the pace and environment. Being surrounded by a class full of students on the same interests as you to bounce ideas off is invaluable. You will leave the development accelerator as an employable dev and make a great group of friends in the process.
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Anonymous
Save your money
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I completed my 401 course a few months ago. The curriculum was rigorous, as expected from a bootcamp. I excelled in the course, achieving a 98.9% score, and passed my whiteboard interview on the very first attempt, which led me to join the Career Accelerator program. Up to that point, everything seemed promising. But shortly after all my instructors lost their jobs, and the head of job recruitment was let go. The Career Accelerator program is a JOKE! They added us to a Slack channel and sent out weekly forms asking where we had applied that week and whether we received any callbacks. That was the extent of their career assistance. For veterans, the program is free, but I paid over $13,000 and can confidently say it was not worth it. Not a single person from my cohort got a job or any assistance from Code Fellows. Please get a degree from college and stay away from codeFellows. -
Anonymous
High Price for Bad Outcomes
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Code Fellows charges high-end boot camp prices without the results, curriculum, or staffing to match. Even the people who were getting paid to attend (CF accepts multiple forms of veteran education benefits) regretted attending the CF software engineering program. I would recommend staying away from Code Fellows entirely.
Most instructors didn't seem to have training in how to lead a class through the material, which made it feel like the instructors were always ill-prepared & short on time. Especially later on in 401 (the main courses), this program felt like watching an unprepared person talk to themself as they tried to go through the CF curriculum; this resulted in failing to include the class in instruction, not providing answers to questions, and frequently not even finishing the instruction for the day during class time. The material itself felt thrown together & stale; like someone just googled the topic for each day and picked the first result, rather than curating the material to fit the needs of the students (this was further amplified by regularly running into dead links and outdated material).
Two out of our three instructors had no industry experience. These instructors were better at teaching, and covered beginning material (HTML, CSS, JS), but they didn't always understand the material, and frequently didn't have time to provide answers to questions that came up during class. I had hoped some of this would be addressed once students broke into cohorts with a more specific focus, but that time never came, and a common theme in the program was students/TAs completely lacking the foundational fundamentals to build further understanding.
The instructor (401) that did have some experience worked one job after graduating CF, and then became an instructor after their role switched to hybrid from remote. This instructor was hostile with students who pointed out an error or alternate solution during lecture. When they couldn't get a library to work, they would say it was due to a bug, rather than their lack of understanding. Whenever they couldn't answer a question, they would either say there is no time for it, or that they'd come back to it later (it became a running joke because they never came back to these questions). The worst part of this program was having an instructor who still didn't understand that part of the job is learning how to find the answer, not getting upset that someone asked you something that made you feel uncertain. Nothing was done when the cohort tried to talk to the program about the problems with this instructor, and students stopped raising concerns due to fear of retaliation. In this final portion of our program we had 60% of our cohort drop within the first month. This was not surprising at all, and a lot of the students voiced to each other that they felt like the program was a cash grab. When a dialogue was opened to address some of the concerns, the instructor and admin staff were very confrontational. Time was set aside in class to explain why people were wrong about specific concerns in their "anonymous feedback surveys"; a common phrase thrown around by CF staff was that you "just aren't embracing a growth mindset". This was easily one of the most toxic work/education environments I've ever experienced.
Along with all of the above, the TAs were terrible providing useful input and very limited in availability. Despite being alumni, they didn't understand the difference between var/let/const, and were typically no help outside of telling you to write whatever code worked in their version of the assignment, rather than troubleshooting and explaining the refactor. TAs are paid ~$15-20/hr, need to stay below 30hrs a week, and work within a priority system that more often than not meant they were not available for students when they were requested. When this lack of availability was presented to the school, one of the lead instructors told people that you could pay $30/hr if you needed help outside of your cohort assigned time. Not having available TAs is insane for a program that costs $20k, and even crazier when the instructors think people should be paying an additional $30/hr to be properly taught something that the instructors failed at teaching. The TAs lack of learning, training, and availability all felt like a continuance of the school caring more about their bottom line than creating a suitable learning environment for the cost.
A good remote or self-paced program would be much more beneficial than Code Fellows. For the same price, you could even hire a good tutor to take you through the sticking points each week, while checking on your progress. If Code Fellows is your only option (in-person situation), then I'd take the time to ask questions about your specific instructors (there are some who are enthusiastic & seem to have a passion for the material/teaching), and ask to speak to some of their recent students who have been hired and/or sit in for a class.I do think boot camps work for some people, but not all boot camps care to create a curriculum, update it continually, and spend the time/money to hire & train capable staff; spending six months at the wrong place is an easy way to waste time/money, while also being turned off from the industry. -
Anonymous
Challenging yet rewarding
In this school you are going to learn something new every week but you are not going to use everything you learn throughout the whole course some lessons are more of intros to things so you know they are out there so sometimes you will have to do a lot of research on your own depending on what you are interested in -
Anonymous
Doesn’t not prepare you for a job.
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Our course material has typos, unclear directions, and still needs so much work before it’s ready for students. The curriculum does NOT prepare you for a job. They gloss over one new thing a day and you’re expected to put that in your resume as a skill. The class lecture is supposed to be 3 hours long, sometimes it is 1 hour. You would expect much more from a $25,000 course. Your “career” assignments consist of watching 45 minute YouTube videos that are 3 years old, and they call it “partner power hour”. Tech is always changing, but they don’t value their students enough to give them relevant material. You are also expected to give free in-depth feedback weekly, and for each new course. Please, especially veterans, do not waste your VETTEC benefit here. I made a grave mistake choosing this course. -
Anonymous
Overall - horrible experience due to [name redacted] - lack of follow up or communication
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I recently completed the Code Fellow Bootcamp course, and unfortunately, I was very disappointed with my experience. One of the biggest issues I encountered was the complete lack of communication from the staff. There were times when I had important questions or concerns that went unanswered for days, if not weeks.
In addition to the lack of communication, there was a severe lack of ownership taken by the instructors and staff. When I encountered issues, instead of working with me to find a solution, they brushed me off. It was frustrating and demotivating, to say the least.
To make matters worse, there were several instances where I tried to reach out via phone call or email, and my attempts were completely ignored. It was incredibly frustrating to feel like I was being ignored, especially since I had invested so much time and money into the course.
Overall, I would not recommend the Code Fellow Bootcamp course. The lack of communication, ownership, and responsiveness made it a very frustrating experience, and I feel like I did not get my money's worth. If you are considering a bootcamp course, I would recommend looking elsewhere.Jeff Malek of Code Fellows
CEO
Apr 26, 2023
Succeeding at Code Fellows requires grit, tenacity, kindness, patience, and personal accountability - the same things that are desired by employers. For those of you reading this who are considering Code Fellows and have these qualities, you will be welcomed with enthusiasm and will do well. This student does not represent our typical student, nor the values we work hard to uphold at Code Fellows. Code Fellows dismisses students for violating our Code of Conduct (https://codefellows.github.io/code-of-conduct/). We will not tolerate harassment of our employees on review sites like this or elsewhere. -
Anonymous
Mind and life changing.
Code Fellows gave me a place that facilitated material and provided accountability. The instructors and the teaching assistants shared their wealth of knowledge and gave room to grow and learn. Java 401 was challenging to learn a new language but extremely rewarding. I believe java laid a great foundation for software development. -
Anonymous
Excellent and Amazing
I gone through very exciting experience while learning ethical hacking and cybersecurity course from Code Fellows. Course is presented nicely and it was well elaborated. Instructors are so helping in nature. -
Anonymous
Satisfactory
Overall the courses and instructors are fleshed out and get the job done. Looking forward to job searching and implementing teachings and habits instilled by Code Fellows. Ryan Gallaway is a phenomenal instructor and really is there for the students. TA's are extremely helpful, especially Katharine Swilley & Justin Hamerly.