CodeCraft School

This is a review a few months after graduating. I expected a lot more. I got very little. I felt like I was sold something that wasn't really there. 

I feel a review like this is needed so people looking into schools actually get a real opinion about it.

I wish I could say tons of good things as the people there were extremely nice and I made a lot of friends but reviewing the school is different than saying I had a good time.

Instructors: Erty and Dave are clearly knowledgeable teachers and understand the field. With that being said, there was a lack of structure and clear growing pains of a new company. Some days we would learn stuff, some mornings we didn't learn anything and kinda just sat there. There wasnt much access to instructors outside of class hours, just one weekend in particular during final projects.

Curriculum: Clearly needed work. Was not set up prior to the day or even cohort. The first two weeks were easy since no one knew anything, but the deeper the cohort got the less we knew what we were gonna get day to day. Should have spent a lot more time solidifying a real understanding of javascript, and not jumped into frameworks/libraries like they did. Jquery was introduced in about a 20 minute lecture and nothing really more than that. No real teaching of higher order functions and there was a lack of teaching how to code properly, with best practices i.e. not creating nested loops when possible and how to problem solve.

Job Assistance: zero. Two of the people who were there when I was a student were fired or quit and not a single member of code craft informed any students who were looking for jobs of this. There has been no help and I can count on one hand the people who obtained software engineer/jr roles after a few months of looking.

overall: I learned, but this could have easily been replaced by freecodecamp and other resources. I would honestly reccomend anyone truly interested in a bootcamp to look into learning on your own and applying to a more higher-level bootcamp that requires you to interview and come in with knowledge. That way your fellow students will be ~ the same level as you are and you will get way more out of the school. I still needed to put a ton of time into learning vanilla js to get to a level of a jr dev after code craft, and used free resources from other bootcamps and sites to do so. 

I completed the part time full stack web development course. It exceeded my expecations. I was doubtful that the instructors could teach me the fundamentals of coding but they went above and beyond to ensure I understood and completed the course successfully. The instuctors commiment was outstanding. They made themselves available at all hours for consulting and support. Since graduating, I have been able to use my coding skills to automate processes at my current job. The bootcamp is worth it regardless if you want to be a programmer or just better understand how to deal with engineers. 

I've already recommended this part time bootcamp to several collegues. I would happily continue to take other courses with CodeCraft. By far, the best bootcamp around.

So glad I found CodeCraft! Their mission to make tech education accessible to everyone created a really unique group of students whom with I will remain friends and professional colleagues with for the rest of my life.

Most important to me was the small class size, which meant instructors were free and available to help students whenever needed, including weekend and evenings. Instructors David, Dallas & Erty were always there to provide a guiding light when I got lost or felt hopeless on a topic. The instructors dedication to students demonstrated an unprecedented and core differentiator between CC's coding bootcamp and the majority or its competition. 

For their first cohort, CodeCraft did an amazing job of turning 11 coding novices and complete newbies into web developers ready for our first jobs in tech. CodeCrafts really takes the time to focus on each individual's unique goals, ambition and passion.

In addition to web dev skills, career preparation was a large part of the bootcamp program, we ran mock interviews, practiced whiteboard questions, met with tech recruiters and hiring managers in both informational and hiring settings alike. I built an incredible new network that includes my cohort,  CC staff/faculty team, plus local industry pros. 

If you want to land a job [of your dreams] in tech, CodeCraft is the best school in Boulder by far.  You won't feel like just another number as you might at larger schools, but like an individual who's needs are seen, heard and addressed ASAP. 

As with any program or course that lasts only 10 weeks, be prepared to challenged in a BIG way. Erty, the lead instructor, and Sarah, the assistant instructor, do an impeccable job of teaching the important basics of the MEAN stack. They stay after-hours to help get you to a point of understanding material that may not have sunk in during class. Oftentimes, as a student you feel like you are constantly at the firehose doing everything in your power to understand, digest, assimilate, and wrap your head around the curriculum, only to feel you are getting further behind. I don't know how many times I wished for 30 hours in a day to get caught up, take an online course to fortify my knowledge, learn more about was taught in class, etc.

My suggestion is don't apply to this program unless you have a firm grasp of JavaScript fundamentals, because otherwise you will be struggling with understanding the basics in class, when instead you could be focusing on Erty's golden nuggets that he teaches during the course. What I truly love about this course (besides the great staff and instructors) is that you develop projects from scratch, meaning there is no template that you are handed and build upon. Instead, you start off from the absolute beginning, meaning you sketch out the website on paper, create a Minimum Viable Product framework, and build the codebase. In two instances, one during the hackathon and the other for my final project, I either worked with a team or on my own, to build a product from scratch. That is an aspect of this program that very few other programs can claim, and I am proud that I was a part of that. And I am sure that prospective employers will look at that and lend me more credibility as a junior web developer candidate!  

I have to be honest: I had some grueling days where I wanted to give up, but the staff, including Eric Wallen, Campus Manager,  and Meredith Rafter, Career Services guru, and my fellow coder buddies kept me going. Don't be surprised if you're in this program and you become overwhelmed. Expect to be overwhelmed. Expect to be dreaming about coding at night. Expect to feel like you ass is being handed to you. But all those things only prove that you are truly learning. And in the end you look back and see that it was all worth it. Don't be fooled, though--this 10-week course is only the beginning of the journey. But at least you started the journey on a good foot with the incredible team from CodeCraft. Go for it!

I came in to this cohort with more of a creative background and wasn't sure if my brain was going to absorb seemingly complex programming languages. I was pleasantly surprised by the instructor's conscious teaching approach, directing his explanations to both the math-minded and the visual-creatives, like myself. It takes a special gift to switch from a technical expanation to a visual explanation so quickly. Erty has those skills! His patience with the differing students, our backgrounds and skills, amazed me each day. Some students had no website experience and some were already in the tech and development industry. I think all of us felt we received customized and individual instruction. Be assured that the instructors and assistants will not give up until an *aha* moment is achieved. This course not only taught me programming skills but more importantly how to think like a programmer! My brain is different as a result of those 10 weeks. I approach problem solving in new more purposeful ways and that, I know, will be a life-ling benefit of this course. 

I have been running sustainable small business / web startup company for a few years.  Being entirely bootstrapped, it is difficult to attract tech talent when salaries for even entry level positions are relatively large budget line items.  Prior to CodeCraft, I was able to hack through the occaisonal HTML/CSS task, but my skills were lacking.  

My decision to attend CodeCraft was based on two key objectives; learn to complete basic web development tasks for my business; and learn to deploy software developemt resources more effectively.  

When comparing CodeCraft with other learning avenues, CodeCraft differentiated based on the time necessary to complete the course - ten weeks.  My company was paying for my tuition (and my salary), during my attendance. Thus, ten weeks was the right timeframe (and $9.5k the right price point).  For my learning style, I did not believe that an online or weekend course would offer the immersion necessary to truly learn the skillset, while a 24 week course is expensive and impractice for someone like myself.

Ultimately, CodeCraft was a solid choice to achieve my learning objectives.  The instruction was focused on teaching us to think like a programmer and be autodidactic.  The staff was well networked and very helpful in assisting to integrate students into their fields of interest.  For myself, the director of the school was tremendous with introductions to thought leaders in the Boulder entrepreneurial community, which has yielded friendships and mentorships.

I chose to attend a coding bootcamp for unorthodox purposes - I was not seeking a job, but rather seeking to be a more knowledgable and valuable decision maker for my company.  CodeCraft was almost a sabbatical of sorts to spend 500 hours learning software development.  From this experience, I've become confident in understanding the software development process, how to work with developers constructively, and how to deploy resources more effectively.  

Recently, I've signed a $50k contract for application development with a development firm to build my company's software vision.  Thus, the true test of my learning objectives lies ahead.  However, I'm confident that the CodeCraft experience has equipped me properly to achieve our vision.

Austin Johnson

Founder - eFowl.com

Austin@eFowl.com

Great course. It moves fast, but Erty and Dave are always available, they've come in early, stayed late, and came in on weekends. I am very confident the when I finish the certification, it will be easy to move into the tech community as a junior developer. I'm so excited to be interviewing for jobs, and I got those interviews because June does some incredible work with cover letters and resumes. And I can't forget Halie, who makes us feel at home, promotes us left and right, and tells us about events that are great opportunities to meet potential employers and expand our professional networks. It's a fast paced and well-organized course, but they never leave anybody behind. 

Overall: I would rate my experience as average. The every day atmopshere  of the class room was upbeat and right for learning. The other students were friendly and helpful. I felt that there was adequate time offered by instructors but nothing above and beyond the call of duty. The curriculum was fair and on topic, although subject to change at the Instructors will. That there was some preparation during the course for the upcoming job search but nothing beyond graduation. My communication from them has been limited since the staff changes. 

Instructors: Erty did a great job of balancing some really techinical topics with entertaining material. He is the reason that you should consider attending this school. I believe that a more solidified course would do this school a world of good. From week 5 on we threw out the syllabus and dove into a topic that was derailing in nature from what we had been learning. There were times when it felt like the only person coding in the room was Erty. I feel like it helped me understand the power of what I was working with but did not necessarily make me a better coder. I wish that he stayed on his original track.

Curriculum: The main subject of the course was to learn Javascript and specifically the MEAN Stack (Mongo, Express, Angular, Node). There was a plan on day one but the plan broke down over time. 10 weeks, 400 hours of class room time with instructors is a short amount of time to learn any technical skill. I believe that a better prepared curriculum could have prevented this breakdown. The work load given was fair and that the majority amount of time in the class was spent on learning Javascript, everything additional to Javascript felt it was rushed to make sure that they covered what they said they would.

Job Assistance: During the course, CodeCraft brought in some technical recruiters in the Boulder community, they offered and helped me rewrite my resume, and worked with me specifically on technical and personal interviewing. They made it seem like there were all these great companies that they could match me to. After I graduated I barely heard from them. I applied to multiple jobs a day and was expecting them to reach out with these companies looking for students to hire. I was lucky to find work with a friend. This was the most dissappointing part of the program. 

Opinion: You can do better for yourself by looking elsewhere. If you are dead set on a school in Boulder, Erty is a good teacher but make sure they have something more concrete planned for your cohort and thoroughly question them about Job Assitance.

I am so happy with my decision to attend CodeCraft. To be honest I mainly picked this school because it was cheaper, conveniently located, and they taught the MEAN stack. What I did not expect was the exceptional quality of the teachers and staff, and the genuine care they have towards each student's success. Erty was our main instructor and I was really blown away by his talent for teaching. He is so passionate about the coursework and makes the learning experience, as challenging as it can be, fun and exciting. He was always patient and willing to take the time to help, no matter how long it took. The assistant teacher was great as well, and they do about as much as can be done to help prepare and assist you in getting a job after the cohort. I can't say enough good things about my experience and would recommend it to everyone thinking about attending a coding bootcamp. Thanks again, CodeCraft!

I completed the fourth co-hort of the CodeCraft Full-Stack program. I highly recommend it. Not only do they directly teach the hard skills you need, they teach you how to teach yourself, which is so important in the ever-changing world of technology. It's a great fast-paced curriculum, and they support you in rapid-learning. They are light on documented materials, which they acknowledged, and they improved even during our cohort and I suspect will be up to snuff for the next group. For job assistance, they made a key hire as our program was coming to an end, and started producing results for people.