• CodePlatoon (CP) offers best value for money - no other bootcamp can match that.

• If you're thinking of applying through Job Boards or companies' career postings - you're doing it wrong. You will be among hundreds of applicants for entry-level positions (college grads with Computer Science degrees, other bootcamp grads, and other junior engineers).
• The best way of getting a job is through your network! A lot of times great positions in good companies are unadvertised and/or are filled through referrals.
• CP has a massive network of staff, alumni and volunteers who are professional software engineers. Once you graduate, they become a part of YOUR network. 

• Since CP is tailored for veterans and their spouses - it is a very exclusive bootcamp and class sizes are really small. 
• You can get attention and assistance from several full-time instructors, teaching assistants, volunteers.
• For example, during a normal day I could ask for help from 2 instructors and at least 5 TA's - all for a class of 20 students. Compare that with a bootcamp where you are a one of a 100 other students. 

• No video tutorials, no BS, just the stuff you need for work.
• A lot of hands-on programming and exercises!
• The curriculum is always evolving - to adapt to job market requirements, and with the feedback from prior students.

• This is the secret sauce – you get to interview with the best companies in Chicago and get a shot of landing an internship with them immediately after graduation. 
• The best part is that they come to you! They come to Code Platoon and interview you!
• I have never ever heard of any other bootcamp or even CS grads getting such an opportunity.

The Code Platoon full-stack development boot camp is outstanding in every way.  The curriculum is up to date and relevant to the current job market.  The instructors are all consummate professionals with tremendous knowledge and insight to share regarding what is really happening in software development today.  The instructors, staff, and teaching assistants are all selfless to a fault in giving of their time and energy to ensure each student's needs are met all of the time.  The Code Platoon administrators have thought of every need a student might have and they provide resources and people to meet those needs.  For example, each student is assigned a mentor who currently works in the software development industry and an equally-qualified personal resume coach.  The mentor and coach have at least weekly interactions with each student throughout the course.  The curriculum also includes extensive instruction and practical exercises on interviewing skills and job search strategies.  Any veteran or spouse of a veteran could not find a better boot camp in all the world!  A first-rate organization run by first-rate people!!

Code Platoon is by far above and beyond anything I expected. Code Platoon is very passionate and dedicated to the success of all their students. They not only have a challenging and well structured cirriculum, but also they connect each student to a network of driven professionals to support the student's journey to success. The program from start to finish covers Javascript and Python algortihms, Functional and Object Oriented Programming, Test Based Development, Html web development, CSS for Html designing, SQL data base language, PostgresSQL relational database management system, Django Framework using Python and Postgres for backend and frontend development, and React.js for frontend development. The final outcome from the coding cirriculum is two projects. One project is your own personally design application and the second is a group produce application. During the program you will go through many presentations from professionals, that will help with understanding certian languages, github (service for storing, distribution, and version control, interview preparation, and much more. When you graduate from the program you will have an opprotunity to obtain an apprentiship with an assortment of great companies. The staff is friendly, patient, and extremely helpful. If you are interested in a dev boot camp, this is one you can put your faith in. 

If you are a veteran looking to attend a coding boot camp and break into tech, this is absolutely the program for you. Code Platoon is about more than teaching you how to code. It's about preparing you to be a well rounded candidate for a postition as a junior developer. There isn't another program out there that has the support staff, volunteers and networking opportunities that Code Platoon has.

CodePlatoon covers everything to help you build your first web application.  You learn a lot of tools, JavaScript. Python, React, Django, SQL and are given a lot of guidance and support.  They also put the extra effort to form your resume, give you career coaching, help you make new connections in the community, and make sure you are set up for a new career.  It is intense, but in that amazing way where you never run out of things to work on, so you are growing at an exponential rate. The instructors are so involved and really care about what they are doing for their students.  The director and human resources person are the same, this program exists because of their real passion for helping veterans start new careers.  I love everything  they have done for me. I learned more than I imagined was possible in 3 months and feel like I am at the beginning of an awesome new journey in technology with unbelievable resources in the community because of this bootcamp.

I am so grateful that I as a military spouse was able to attend code platoon. My husband who is a veteran attended code platoon last year, and he had an amazing experience. He completed the 14-week program and was able to get an apprentice position through this bootcamp. Now he is working full time as a software engineer. After his experience, I too decided to attend code platoon because I was looking for a career change, and they accept military spouses! I had a great experience throughout this course. At the end of the course, I was able to build fully functional full-stack web application. I definitely recommend this bootcamp for veterans and spouses who are looking to get into web development and software engineering.

I decided to to attend Code Platoon after completing my Bachelors in Interdisplinary Studies and my Masters in Business Administration. I learned more throughout this Boot-Camp than my entire 6 year education prior to it. They teach allot more than programming. They bring in brilliant people to teach you about the learning process and it helps motivate and encourage you to struggle through the material. They also bring in tech-business experts to teach you about the industry and provide informal emotional intillegence training to help you get better at working with others.  They provide you with certifications, like SAFE and Amazon Web Services that will help you stand out during your job hunt. At the end of every week students have the ability to provide feedback on the Course Material to make each cohort better than the next. The teachers are outstanding and the TA's are awesome, patient and take time ourt of their own day to ensure you learn the material. The only hard part is swallowing your pride and asking for the additional help. Its their if you want it. 

My only quam about the program is not being able to apply for work if you decide to enter their apprenticeship program. Apprenticeships are not guranteed but they do their best to make sure they have enough apprenticeships for the entire class. My cohort had 7 Apprenticeship positions for 9 in person students so the odds of landing a job are much higher than applying on your own.  With that being said it is optional to participate in the apprenticeship program and your competition is less steep if you decide to  enter in it. It is just not guranteed you land an apprenticeship. 

So my advice to you is take your time with the pre-work make sure you learn everything, ask questions before you get in the program, the instructors are more than willing to help. It will only set you up for further success. 

All In all this is the only learning environment where I fealt loved and supported throughout the entire process. Even when I wanted to quit others around me encouraged me to struggle and grow. Forever grateful for the experience and happy I struggled through it.

I decided to go to Code Platoon after graduating with a Biomedical Engineering degree.  The director, Rod Levy, was welcoming from the beginning.  He was understanding and adaptable to my needs as a wheelchair-user, specifically taking in account my travel difficulties and health concerns.  Sometimes I would need to take the class as a remote student.  Additionally, both instructors, Jon and Josh, explained concepts clearly, encouraged questions, and would support frustrated students during individual coding exercises when the students were stuck.  Every Monday through Thursday, a couple of helpful TAs would assist us with coding after hours.  The general atmosphere was great because all the of the gladly students jump in to help each other.  Just like the military, we don't leave our battle-buddies behind.

Even with all the support, the course is very challenging.  Students are expected to do research, experiment with code,  and figure out how to solve our problems.  This is an absolute necessity in the world of programming.  Google is our best friend.  And there are many tricky concepts where Stack Overflow has suggestions to help us.  The school has plenty of outsiders come in and give us workshops on key concepts such as Git, Data Science, SQL, React, and job searches. Code Platoon also gives lots of help to finding a job by developing Linked-In profiles, resumes, white-boarding challenges, and giving interview practice.  Most of the students here will get a paid internship.  And for the several who do miss out, Code Platoon has lots of connections to other software companies in the Chicago area, many who seem to be scouting for talent.  I have full confidence that I will get an internship or a job very soon.  I feel like I've learned more in a few months here than in a few years attending college.

Anyway, I love the program and recommend it to anybody who is will to put forth 100% effort.  I suggest that newcomers not only do the pre-work, but also take online courses (YouTube, Udemy, etc.) on Git, Django, and REACT.  REACT was especially difficult with the asynchronous programming, and I think it will benefit students to try to understand it in advance.  Good luck everyone, and I hope to stop in and see my fellow Code Platoon cohorts in the future!

First and foremost, I want to give hats off to the instructors; Both Jon and Josh are extremely diligent and willing to take the time to answer questions you might have, and are receptive to feedback. There was never a single point during my time at Code Platoon that I felt like I couldn't go to them with concerns, or even technical questions.

Pros - 
In terms of the workload, it IS a lot of work, if that puts you off, then this probably isn't the program for you, but if you're willing to put in that work in terms of studying the material, trying to apply it outside of just the homework, and actually take it seriously, you will do well. On that note, it's not entirely one sided: The TA's are a mixture of industry devs, as well as prior students, and that's not something that's forced, it's because they ACTUALLY do care and want to be there, which is pretty awesome compared so some other bootcamps I've read stories about.

As for non technical aspects, there are multiple occasions throughout the course where we got to visit other companies and sort of gain insight into how being a dev is on the other side, so that was a pretty huge advantage for me personally. 

In terms of soft skills development, they do an excellent job of giving you insight on how technical interviews work, and some practices to get into before you actually start applying for real. Probably one of the biggest plusses in my opinion.

Cons -
Again, it IS a lot of work. You will probably be spending not only the 9-10 hours a day you're in class, but an additional 3-4 hours a night outside of class every day to practice, learn new material, etc. And there were instances later in the course where I was going off of just a few hours of sleep. I chose to make that decision, but I put it as a negative simply because it is something to consider before applying.

Towards the end of the course the schedule gets kind of hectic; you'll be preparing for projects, still studying material, and visiting places / growing your network, so for me that was somewhat difficult to manage all in such a short time.

If you have any questions or just want some personal insight from a graduate, you can email me at 
skyelahbay@gmail.com, and I'll reply when I can. All in all I was impressed, I would recommend this course to any prior veteran who is thinking about it (and their spouses now! :) )

 

It was exactly what I as an aspiring developer needed to get me over the hump in my understanding of web development. It lasted 4 months. Was intense but with preparation and grit most can benefit immensely especially for veterans. It got me in the door as an front end developer intern at a large company in Chicago. I would do it all over again if I had to. The program focuses on Ruby and JavaScript with plans to transition to python next year. 

I am currently a student at Code Platoon in my 13th week of the program.  The program is fully immersive, and takes someone with no coding experience to employable within 4 months.  I personally had no prior coding experience besides the prework for the course.  Throughout the course, I have learned a tremendous amount, and now feel comfortable interviewing for Junior Web Developer Jobs (which usually start at $60,000).  Jon, the lead instructor, does a great job explaining the material. Addittionally, there are multiple TAs in the classroom at all times, helping students with the material.  

If you are willing to put in the hard work, with very long days, they will do everything they can to help you learn the material and become employable.  Rod, the owner of Code Platoon has a personal relationship with every student, and commits to help all current and former students.  Overall, this is the absolute best program for any veteran looking to be a computer programmer.