Coder Camps

I have no idea what these other guys are complaining about.  Numerous people went through the course and then got jobs, but only give 3 stars?  Seems like they are nit-picking to me.

My experience was everything that I wanted it to be.  In short, I could have had a few things better here and there, but the teachers were amazing, the staff was very helpful, the financing worked perfectly, and the outcome was what I wanted - I got hired at $90k per year (as did more than half of my class).

No camp is perfect.  Coder Camps comes as close as you can get.

The teacher was very knowledgeable, cared about student learning and progress and definitely took time to answer questions. I was online, but our class was delivered with in person students. The teaching method made sure everyone was included, during class time... Unfortunately, there was no offline office hours given. I know that the in person people were able to ask questions of the teacher and other staff members, but, knowing the value of expert advice and feedback, I'd think the program would find a way to create a similar experience for offline students. I graduated from the program, I learned much and am very confident in my skills. I think I can do most things I need to and am equipped to quickly learn other skills and languages in the future. However, for me, I'm not sure the 9 weeks was long enough (my top choice and similar programs are 12 weeks, and don't be fooled by the inclusion of coding from scratch, other schools do similar pre-work and are still at least 12 weeks). It definitely seemed like they were trying to build the plane and fly at the same time. Week six was very light on lessons, it was supposed to be on mobile development but there was only 1/2 day of teaching. We self taught the rest of the time that week. They mentioned several times that they were working on the lesson plan, but we never saw it come to fruition. The absolute worst was the after graduation student support. Their career advisor missed out appointment twice and never acknowledge his error. The advice he gave was very generic input one could find anywhere on the Internet. Overall his demeanor was that of a used car salesman. After our 30 min talk I never heard from anyone in their office. I will say this school was my third option, but my family situation made it so I had to go with their online program. If my other schools had the option, I would have chose them. Doing my research beforehand, I had serious misgivings about this program. I used LinkedIn to chat with previous CoderCamps grads and heard some very lackluster reviews. But they were the best option for me at the time. That said, and being a man of faith, I will say that was were was supposed to be. They were available during the time I needed them, they had an online option, the teacher was an expert and good at actual instruction. Finally, I was able to land a job and the knowledge and skills I received will make it easier for me to add on the necessary skills to become an expert in the field in the next few years. I am happy that I went there, but I want you to think long and hard and definitely do your research. This program has its eye on expansion, and while the teachers are concerned with student success, the leadership and rest of the staff don't appear to be.

Executive summary: first week is HARD but it gets easier. Facility is great, instructor is great, job assitance is mediocre, 75% of my troop was employed by the end. 

 

I was in the pilot troop for Coder Camps in Redmond. There wasn't even a classroom set up when I moved into the apartment the week before. There were 4 people in my troop: myself with a BA in computer science and tube performance, an ex-chef, a downsized Microsoft engineer, and college grad who majored in Arabic. With two advanced students and two novice ones, It was a great atmosphere and made it easy to reinforce the concept through pair programming. 

The Course:

The course as it was when I attended was: 1 week C#, 2 weeks building a website ASP.NET, 1 week Javascript, 2 weeks AngularJS, and 3 weeks working on a group project.

The first week is HARD. As a person with Java experience, I felt C# week was a good clip but manageable. For the students with no object oriented language experience, it was brisk to the point of unreasonable, since not only are you learning a new language, you're learning a whole new paradigm. But hey, it's a boot camp after all. After that things relax slightly. I reminded me of taking intensive study courses in college.

The facility:

Coder Camps is at the location of a former bank. The main lobby had been converted into a classroom, with a smaller group project room. There are 3 study rooms, as well as a full kitchen. It's a great environment, and I stayed late most nights (you get 24/hr access). Coder Camps has troops in 6 week intervals, so while we were working on tha group project in the side room, the new troop (also 4) was in the mian classroom. This was also handy because if you need a review or a refresher, the class was literally be taught again in the room next to you.

The company housing is accross the street and very convenient, but EXPENSIVE (it is in Redmond after all). You'll probably pay living literally anywhere else. Parking is plentiful and free, which can be an issue given the location. 

Job Hunting:

The Camp unfortunately didn't hand me a job with my certificate. They had people who were willing to mock interview you and offer suggestions, but you were on your own to fill out the job apps, work with recruiters, and try to get interviews. I feel like they could have been a bit more involved.

I chose to stay for the addition 3 week "master course" which was actually just me sitting in the side office and filling out applications all day and helping the new students. I had hoped for better outreach and connections to jobs in the area, but I found that exceedingly lacking. Still, at the end of the 12 weeks, 3 of the 4 of us had jobs.

The Staff:

The main instructor, Steven Walther was very well qualified, formerly an instructor at Microsoft himself (Look him up!. He taught well enough to make sure the new students were successful and has quality projects, while being knowlegable enough to answer the two advanced students' questions about compilers and data structures. 

Among the other staff was the camp director and two TAs. The director did a great job making sure everyone was comfortable and handing the logistics of the camp. One of the TAs taught a beginning JS course during the day and was very helpful. The other was more of a distraction than anything, and left halfway through my time at the camp, happily announcing that he was submitting endless applications to other jobs instead of helping us do the same. 

A little about me:

I earned my BA in computer science in 2013. After having a few tenured profs who didn't understand the job market, and splitting my time between a double major in music, I didn't leave that 4 year institution with much of a hope of getting a job. After sitting on my unemployed ass for two years, I decided it was time for a change. 

I chose Coder Camps was local to me and convenient, there weren't really other factors.

In addition to adding a ton of skills and technologies to my resume, the camp taught me confidence and surrounded me a support group that helped me be successful. For me that's what I knew I needed. I had about a dozen interviews while there, each better than the last. The skills I picked up in web development definitely helped me become a better developer, and I use them at my job, though since I had a degree I was able to work at a larger company than the startups that Coder Camps targets.

 

I'd be happy to answer any specific questions and give out as much information as I can, though I may be a little biased. I'm working full time as an engineer and am in the process of buying a house, and it's because of Coder Camps. 

Pros: My instructor was amazing. Stephen Walther is a professional developer who worked at Microsoft on the ASP .NET team, has written books, and knows his stuff. I learned a lot. I had almost no experience with code development. It was intense, and frustrating but very rewarding.  The other students were great. It was a very supportive class and a positive atmosphere. 

Cons: My first complaint was having a class with both in person students and remote students. The flow of the class was....strange....and often very distracting with students who were joining the class via the internet.  We wasted a lot of time fixing technical difficulties and dealing with communication challenges. 

Secondly, after the first few weeks when the class works on the team project, there was little to no help. Our group struggled with the project and it took a week for someone to look at our code and tell us how to fix it. Even then it was minimal. You can only Google and use StackOverflow so much. So the last three weeks we were basically on our own with no guidance other than a very short weekly check in. This is because they piggy-back the troops on top of one another so the instructor is on to a new class and doesn't have time to assist the former class. I don't fault Stephen with this. He's just doing his job. 

The website claims Coder Camps has "Hiring Partners". Apparently they don't have any in Seattle. We were not introduced to any of these partners, not one employer came to Demo Day, which they claim is a job fair (not even close), and the only reason I got any help with my resume was I consistently emailed the corporate office for some help. Then I was told that it's a bad time of year for hiring (I get that...the holidays and all) and was giving a list of employment agencies. I could have (and did) done that on my own. 

While we learned a lot of great skills, there was absolutely no job interview preparation or resume advice/help. I didn't know what a technical interview was until I started researching the interview process on my own. White-boarding? What is that? 

Honestly, if you have the discipline to learn development on your own, do it. Or find a program that has an internship or a job placement guarantee or at the least a REAL job fair and connections with employers and plenty of preparation for real world job interviews. 

What I learned from Coder Camps paid immediate dividends for my company and me. I had very little programming knowledge when my brother and I entered the startup world, and even though I was on the business side of the company, I knew programming experience would be invaluable.

I entered Coding From Scratch with just basic HTML, CSS and JavaScript skills from webmasters in high school and codecademy, and I was able to get everything out of the 9-week .NET course that I expected. But you can’t just show up and put in the minimum amount of effort required – this isn’t a college course for credit, so it’s on you to take the initiative and put in the time to master the material.

CEO David Graham and his staff were eager to see you do well in the course and in your career afterwards, and they did everything they could to help. Coder Camps also did an amazing job of putting a group of highly motivated students together in an environment that facilitated learning from our instructors, and one another.

And one final side note, I didn’t even look for a developer job after I finished camp since I already had my company, and still got emails and phone calls about open positions. There’s no doubt the need for developers is high right now, and Coder Camps is a great place to start if you’re looking to become one. 

i must say that attending Coder Camps was one of the best decisions I've ever made in terms of education. I've never been motivated by the college environment. I would just study to pass tests and slack just because I wasn't interested in what college had to offer. I can say happily that there wasn't a single day that I wasn't engaged or trilled to be there. I would spend 14+ hour a day at Coder Camps for the 12 weeks I was there doing the program.

Now I will say that if you attend Coder Camps you better not take the opportunity lightly. You have to work very hard and absorb as much of the information as possible. Do not go in with the attitude that just because you are sitting there that you'll become a rockstar developer. It's been 2 months since I've graduated and I'm still learning more and more each day. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Coder Camps has created the foundation for this learning vigor.

The environment at Coder Camp was amazing. I'm still friends with the instructors and most of the people in my troop. Coder Camps made an effort to do events so everyone could get to know each other.  Not only that but they have put the graduates in contact with many job opportunities.

So I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to David Graham and all of the Coder Camp's staff. It was truly an amazing experience and I will never forget it. 

I was super scared coming into Coder Camps.  I had very little experience coding and I almost quit in Coding From Scratch.  Cody, my instructor for Coding From Scratch, was awesome.  He really pumped me up and made me feel like the struggles that I was going through were normal.  It gave me a huge boost in confidence about my code.

While I was there though, I found out just how strong I was.  Whether it was the exhaustive days, or the extremely difficult projects that pushed everyone to their limits of frustration some days, or the compassion that I had to show to my fellow classmates when they weren't quite getting it.  Coder Camps made me a better person along the way.

They say that you never know your limits until you really try... well, I know mine without a doubt. It's funny how the hardest thing I have ever done is also the most rewarding thing.  

Oh, and I got three job offers within two weeks of graduating.  One in Washington, DC, one in Florida, and one in Washington state.  I am from Florida, so that looks like my first choice as of now.

I had a great experience with Coder Camps at their Houston campus. I came in with extremely minimal knowledge of programming; I had only completed HTML, CSS, and half of JS on codecademy before I enrolled and began their Coding From Scratch program online then went on to attend the Full Stack .NET course in-person. Nick was my instructor at Houston, and he is an absolutely amazing professor and resource as well. He was always more than willing to help myself and other students with problems during development, as well as with understanding concepts better from class that day that were hard to grasp. He is able to break hard concepts down to smaller pieces in real-world, not technical ways to help you understand the concept if the technical definition and use was too much. The atmosphere at Coder Camps is incredibly resourceful as well as supportive, and everyone, including my fellow classmates, was always willing to lend a hand if I needed some help. Chris Lipari, a relatively new employee, was absolutely amazing at helping me build a resume that tech companies want to see, as well as with giving good advice for applying and interviewing. Coder Camps also offers mock technical interviews (the CEO, David Graham, is even willing to do this with you), although I didn't take advantage of that myself but I had friends who did and found it extremely helpful. Coder Camps really is a life-changing experience, and you can get as much out of it as you put in. I was skeptical at first of getting burnt-out with the full-time schedule, but you soon find your ideal balance and what works optimally for you. Looking back, I think it would be a lot harder to learn .NET development if it was spread out, since doing it full-time ensured that all details were still fresh and you were ready to keep building from the day before.

I was part of their second troop (started May 04th, 2015, graduated July 24th, 2015), and I'm writing this review to highlight issues not only with Coder Camps but also boot camps in general. I DO NOT RECOMMEND going to a boot camp in the Seattle area because they have not caught on really at all here, unless you have prior experience (atleast some college experience). I was a high school graduate with no coding experience before this, took their CFS and their Full Stack .NET bootcamp, and while they said they can take anyone (who was willing, and I was) from zero to hero, and said prior to my graduation that 'I would have no problem getting a job' as I was commended frequently for my hard work and dedication, yet here I am, less than 2 weeks from paying my first massive payment for an education which so far has served no career purpose whatsoever. I have applied to over 100 jobs in the Seattle area, focusing on Front End Developer, .NET Developer, and any junior positions but have only received communication back from less than 5 companies, 2 of which gave me introductory interviews but nothing after that. I'll admit, I'm not the greatest at interviews because Coder Camps didn't train us on interviews, they trained us on getting a website up and running and well, yet interviewers are not asking these questions, but asking Computer Science questions and notepad coding, something that takes years to do. I think coding bootcamps are feasible, but DON'T go to a Seattle area one, and DON'T go to Coder Camps. Why? Coder Camps doesn't offer to pay (or simply hold) your payments for the non-student loan you have through them, even if you don't have a job. Their 90% placement rate seems bogus because I don't believe anyone in my troop has gotten a job, the previous troop got jobs outside of the Seattle area, and the troop ahead of me only has one who got a job in Alabama.

The problem with a Seattle bootcamp is that there isn't a lot (only Coder Camps and Coding Dojo that I'm aware of), and that doesn't give you the selection like you would have down in San Fran, so apply there, where you can try and get deals and make sure they will hold your payments until you get a job. Coder Camps was a great experience, but I think every coding bootcamp is, so it isn't special, and that's why while I'll recommend going to a coding bootcamp, I don't recommend Coder Camps nor any in the Seattle area, as the job openings are mainly for Senior or Mid-Career developers with years of experience on top of a BS in CS.

I plan on editing this review if I do get a job to accurately portray my experience with Coder Camps and coding bootcamps.

Finally, here's two of the major cons of Coder Camps: 1. Doesn't withhold your payments if you don't get a job, and 2. Doesn't get you hired. I have received zero help (period) from Coder Camps in finding a job. They work with TEKsystems, yet I went in for the set-up interview and they have yet to even get me a single interview, versus just going out on my own has gotten me two.

TLDR; Don't go to Coder Camps anywhere, and don't go to coding bootcamp in Seattle area if you don't have already progress towards a CS degree. Go to a bootcamp in San Francisco and find one that withholds payments for your non-student loan if you don't find a job. I graduated 3 months ago, have been actively looking for a job, applied to over a hundred jobs for modest positions, gotten two interviews, zero help from Coder Camps on getting a job, and in 10 days my first payment of $350 dollars a month will kick in where I have not improved my wage at all. I'll update this review if I get a job. Thanks for reading, and beware!

Before coming to the Coder Camps Greater Seattle (Redmond, WA) location, I also had a chance to go through the curriculum down at Houston.

At first, I was hesitant to go through the program because I wasn't sure if it would be possible to learn ASP.NET+JavaScript Technology stack in just a short period amount of time (9 weeks). I decided to give it a shot since there were such high demand of ASP.NET developers in Seattle and I wanted to get my skill set up as quick as possible without having to go back to school with a 4 year CS program.

Starting day 1, right away, our main instructor, Nick, a senior developer who specialized in the .NET framework for 13 years, guided us and taught us the practical skills we needed to know to be ready for the job market. It was lecture followed by Individual tasks/projects/homework non-stop through out the day. There were times where I felt overwhelmed and frustrated when my project wasn't working properly, but thanks to TAs and senior students, I was able to get the help needed.

At the end of week 2, I found self in the classroom, at night, writing a twitter-like application using JavaScript and Firebase for my homework project. Yes, It did have to study and work hard every day and night to get this project to polish up, but once I finally completed the project, the satisfaction I felt was as much as the hard work and time I had to put into over the last 2 weeks. After week 3, I was able to work with Angular. After week 4 and 5, I was able to use the ASP.NET MVC 5. After week 6, I was able to combine ASP.NET and JavaScript AngularJS. Week 7 to 9, I was able to complete three major projects (one small group project, one big group project, one individual project) and during that time, Nick and other TAs were always around to help out. I have learned a ton. Camp experience was more than I expected. Now I'm craving for more.

For those who are looking to learn the trending technology, ASP.NET + JS, Coder Camps is definitely a place to look into. Especially with Stephen Walther at the Greater Seattle Location, my Instructor/mentor Nick at Houston, and Jeremy at SF bay area, you will be provided with all the knowledge you need to be in the trending job market. I have been taught by all three instructors and they are all truly dedicated and passionate at what they do.

One last thing I would like to comment is that Coder Camps also helped students with now only polishing resumes for students, but also held weekly workshops that helped with how to interview properly, how to polish your linkedin account, and many other tips that helped prepare looking for the right career. (Thanks to the Admin Team!)

I attended Coder Camps from January - March 2015 at their Bay Area location. It was the best decision I've made in my high school/college drop-out career. I worked in sales for a company and made decent money. It wasn't fulfilling, and I knew I could do more with my brain. So I took the leap of faith and enrolled in camp.

Before coming to camp, I was asked to learn and was tested on the basics of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. During the first 3 weeks of camp there is a heavy focus on HTML and JavaScript. CSS is not a primary focus, as a better understanding of it comes naturally as you build out websites during camp. In my humble opinion, understanding JavaScript is much more important unless you want to be a designer but I digress. 

The next phase of camp is learning .NET which is the framework of your web applications. This was a little more difficult for me to grasp. I had to dedicate the entire day (12+ hours a day) to learn the material and do the homework. But hey that's what you are signing up for right?!

The final phase was group and individual projects. This was my favorite part because it was truly amazing to work with my peers; just a few weeks prior we had no idea how to even begin building out web applications and now we were operating like developers on a team. Also, the instructors were constantly coming by to offer assistance if we ran into issues. Instead of just solving the problems they teach you how to dissect the problem and rectify it. This is the way I like to learn - by doing, by trial and error, and by figuring out how to figure it out. The ability to problem solve is invaluable. Also in this phase, you learn source control (allows you to share your code with teammates and open source projects) such as how to use TFS and I taught myself how to use GitHub. I wish this had been introduced at the beginning of our troop. From my understanding, it will be taught at the beginning of the class for future students. 

Overall, I feel confident with the skills I gained from attending Coder Camps. I started applying for jobs during the last two weeks of the course and had two job offers within a month. Caution: Do not come expecting that, come expecting to learn how to program and the job offers will come when they come. If you are someone who feels unfulfilled at your current job and have secretly always wanted to be a software developer, then a development bootcamp is for you. Coder Camps just so happened to be my program of choice. Whichever one you decide - good luck, work hard, ask questions and I know you will be pleased with the results. 

They do not teach you Comp Sci theory in 9 weeks (I don't think it's possible) but they do teach you how to program. For me I tried for a whole year before coming to camp and could never get past the basics. Coder Camps pushes you through that. They teach you how to teach yourself, and how to learn a programming language, which is powerful. More powerful than just memorizing syntax of one language.