Codesmith

I’m coming up on the one year anniversary since starting my journey with Codesmith in January 2019. And, looking back at this past year, the amount of personal growth and experience I’ve gained in such a short amount of time, is incomparable to anything else I’ve been able to achieve before. For several reasons.

 

*I will note that my experience at Codesmith is a bit different, I attended the immersive Codesmith Bootcamp and then joined the Codesmith NY staff for 3 months as an “engineering fellow”. An engineering fellow is essentially a mix between teacher’s assistant (TA) and engineer. I spent six months in full at Codesmith NY between my bootcamp residency and fellowship.

 

The bootcamp is difficult, exhausting, and relentless. Thank god it was, I wasn’t looking for a bootcamp that was easy, rejuvenating, and relaxed. However, as EVERYONE is mentioning, Codesmith is also fun! So, how does something that is difficult and relentless remain fun? The community. Codesmith has a strict policy against people with a superiority complex. I couldn’t imagine working at Codesmith (often for 14 hours+ a day) with people that I couldn’t sympathize/have fun with.

 

I am now a “real” software engineer and the outcome statistics are real. As I accepted one of the several six-figure offers I received, I knew that I would never experience the same level of commitment, passion, and companionship that I had witnessed and experienced within the Codesmith community anywhere else. Something special happens at Codesmith, I've been trying to figure out what that secret ingredient is for months, and I still can't put my finger on it. It's the perfect mix of acceptance, humility, and determination. 

 

Looking back a year later, I cannot believe how much I was able to accomplish with Codesmith. I’m so grateful to be more than financially stable now. And, I’m sure that if I went to one of the other bootcamps that I was accepted to, that I would have a job by now too. However, I’m 100% certain I wouldn’t have the ability to walk into my job and be fearless about learning a coding language that wasn’t part of Codesmith’s curriculum (Python). I’m certain that I wouldn’t have made long-lasting friendships that still exist five months after my bootcamp finished. I’m certain that my salary would be anywhere from 1/2 to 1/3 less than it currently is.

 

Read the other reviews if you’re still thinking about going to App Academy or Fullstack.

Short Version
Pros: AMAZING HIRING SUPPORT, solid curriculum, amazing people, friends to last a life time, challenging experience,
Cons: Beginning to outgrow their current space

Long Version
If your are anything like me you might be reading this review with a little bit of skepticism. Four months ago I was that person -- I was tentatively hopeful that Codesmith would be experience I need to radically change the direction of my life but was skeptical of the claims that they made. I was not a person who attended the Hards Parts series in their NYC classroom or even someone who joined in on the online class -- I discovered them through CSX (great free course by the way!). After working through about 60% of CSX I decided I was going to give Codesmith a shot. I applied, passed the cultural interview and attempted the technical interview. I failed my first attempt, but It was the catalyst I needed to take CS Prep, a three week online prep course. This course when way beyond the basics and ended with me building my first ever project from scratch!! It gave me the confidence to say I can do this. Right after CS Prep I did my second attempt at the Codesmith interview and passed -- little did I know what a difficult and fantastic journey this would be.

The Codesmith Immersive program was the difficult thirteen week I have ever had. LONG LONG days packed with lectures, coding challenges, and amazing conversations with my cohort-mates. Codesmith not only teaches you how to write code but also how to THINK about code. It teaches you the tools to approach any problem with a mindset that is determined to figure out the answers. Learning the toolkit of a fullstack developer (JavaScript, Node/Express, Databases, React/Redux) was just the beginning --- mixed into this first half of the program are daily coding exercises designed to promote understanding of algorithmic approaches, coding units which taught not only skills but more importantly TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION, code presentations and a Hackathon! 

In the second half of the Codesmith experience you work alongside a team to build a dev tool that is open sourced to the community at large. This is a daunting task but, obtainable because Codesmith has already taught you how to breakdown problems, find solutions and not give up. While building this tool you also begin an amazing hiring prep program which covers everything from how to apply to jobs (cover letters and double downs), create your resume (thanks Will!) but also how to negotiate (thanks Erik!). On top of all this work in the second half of the program you are expected to give a public talk on a tech topic! 

This brings me to the part that you have been waiting to read about. After one month on the job hunt I have secured my first ever role in software engineering. The hiring support that Codesmith offers is amazing -- there are people guiding and supporting you every step of the way. You can get support for everything: interview practice, resume reviews, cover letter help, double down help, technical tutoring, whiteboarding or even just a pep talk. When I first landed my job the offer was just a tiny bit lower than I was hoping for, I reached out to Erik and with his advice and support I was able to increase my offer!! In short, if you having doubts that bootcamp experience can work, trust me when I say Codesmith works! They understand what the industry is looking for in engineers and how to help you frame your journey to tech in a way that is honest, real and more importantly competent. I can not more highly rate this program and would encourage anyone who is considering Codesmith to go for it!

Cannot recommend this place enough.  Felt more like a summer camp than school.  Was super challenging and learned about 1-2 year's worth of self-taught material in 3 months.  I had a very strong background in analytics prior to coming here and had applied to over 100 jobs with no success.  After the program was over, I received 2 very, very good offers within weeks after having applied to just a handful of jobs.  I am now working at my dream job, a job I would never have landed without this experience.

The people make this place- everyone is very nice and facilitates an amazing learning community.  Job assistance is top notch.

This is not a bootcamp- it's a life-changing engineering immersive.  If you love being challenged, being surrounded by some of the most talented people in the country, while having a good time doing it, come here.

Just apply Codesmith. I’m a graduate from cohort 29. I guess many of you reading this review might have concerns. Maybe it’s not about 3 months of curriculum because anyone would’ve invested 3 months if they could become a decent software engineer within; I believe it must be the 18k tuition fee and some doubts that if it would work that way. However, results are just right at you. Almost every one of my family (cohort 29) and previous graduates are doing great in IT industry as a software engineer (can be easily found on LinkedIn). During 3 months, they taught me not only cutting-edge tech stacks (Javascript, React, and Redux), also how to think, speak, and behave like a software engineer. Everyday challenges made me develop my communicating and cooperating skills with my cohorts people. The system of Codesmith is just well-organized to help you in every single step to initiate your software engineer career such as how to write a professional resume and how to handle interviews with even negotiation skills. Now, I’m working as a full stack software engineer with full of satisfaction. Applying Codesmith was the best choice I’ve ever made in my life, and I would’ve definitely applied to Codesmith again if I go back. Don’t hesitate, be one of us.

Although I’ve never attended another bootcamp, based on my experience with talking to other friends that have attended other big name bootcamp (like App Academy), and by what I see the Codesmith staff do, I can confidently say Codesmith is likely one of the best if not the best program out there.First, I’ll talk about my thoughts on the curiculuum, life at CS, and the staff.The production project is what sets Codesmith and their graduates apart from other coding school graduates. Instead of creating a CRUD app, you spend 1 week as a group diving deep into various parts of the tech stack to learn at a deep level something that full time developers may not know much about. (Remember that the surface area of tech is very large and no one can be good at everything). As you research, your group will try to develop an application/library that helps with that particular technology. Once you start building and coding, you’ll get much more familiar about that piece of technology, which allows you to speak at a much deeper level and carry better conversations during your interview. If your team is interested in backend technology, your team might look into message brokers, such kakfa or rabbitmq, or look into new api technology, such as graphql. This is great because in your interview, you can now talk about that technology confidently because you spent a decent amount of your time learning and coding an open source project for it.In terms of landing your first dev job, the core curiculuum, which is done in the first half of the program, covers everything you need to know and more. The “and more” part is their unit on AWS, Docker, and Devops. I’m not sure if theres any other program that talks about devops.Life at CodesmithWhen your at Codesmith, you’ll be surrounded by people trying to achieve the same goal. At first, I thought that it was going to be super competitive since everyone is essentially competing for the same job. However, you quickly grow out of that mentality and everyone begins to help and teach each other what they know or learned from reading articles, etc. It’s much more effective for everyone in the cohort to help each other out because everyone will learn so much more and get there so much faster. A rising tide brings up all the boats.The staff is very helpful, is constantly working to improve their curiculuum, and just seems to do a lot of things well.In terms of improving their curiculuum, the devops/aws/docker unit is an example of how they consantly work to improve their curiculuum. Another example is that they will take feedback on the curiculuum and will act upon it and incorporate it into the lectures. No curiculuum at any bootcamp is perfect, however, if you decide to join Codesmith, I can guarantee you that your lectures and curiculuum will be better than when I went there.They were also able to coordinate community talks with very senior developers about their work at the Codesmith locations. A notable example is that they were able to get Felix Rieseberg, a senior staff software engineer and one of the founders of Electron to talk about Electron and also have a more private Q&A session with only codesmith students. Although people may overlook this bullet, since it really has nothing to do with whiteboarding, coding, etc, for my particular experience, it provided great insight for me into how an extremely senior developer thinks and talks about technology. This non-technical knowledge that you might learn just might give you an edge during an interview (remember that they are interviewing you for BOTH technical and non-technical aspects of the job)And of course the most important part is everyone that you meet during your stay at codesmith. The network and friends that you gain are invaluable to your success.

When I first came to Codesmith's "JavaScript the Easier Parts" I thought I had a decent foundation. I knew how to do a "for" loop. I knew that constant variables cannot be re-assigned. I felt like I was going to crush that workshop. And then...I heard the lead instructor Phil talk about 'execution context' and I had no idea what that meant. And what the heck is a call stack? 

It was at this point that I knew Codesmith truly went under the hood in explaining core Javascript concepts. So I kept coming back, week after week. Easier parts. Hard parts. CS Prep (their online 2-week prep program to help get you admitted to the 13-week residency).

Before I get ahead of myself, let me say this: Codesmith is not easy to get into. I don't have a tech background. All of this was new to me. But I finally got admitted in July 2019. If you're thinking about going to Codesmith I highly recommend it. Just know, that it is not for the faint of heart. Be prepared to spend 12+ hours a day 6 days a week for 13 weeks. The true growth comes after the day technically ends at 8pm. You'd see juniors and seniors working in the conference rooms, going over data structures, algos, etc. 

The main reason why I chose Codesmith was the culture and the inclusive community. Everyone in the building is here to help you. They actually walk the walk. From the fellows, instructors, and your cohortmates, the support is there for you when you struggle. (Trust me, you will struggle). But the struggle is where the growth happens.

Before this goes too long, I'll just say this. If you're looking for a school to push you past your limits, apply for Codesmith. 

JSB is a great course to learn the fundamentals of Javascript. The environment is an immersive online room where everyone is participating and learning together. There are breakout sessions where you work one on one with one or more partners. JSB is perfect for someone who needs to get the fundamentals down. If you go on to do Codesmith's CS Prep course or the immersive program, the tuition you paid for JSB rolls over to those programs. JSB is an excellent way to start to get comfortable with techincal communication ,which would otherwise be difficult to do on your own. You also get tapped into an amazing community of people who are striving for the same thing that you are. I believe right now they have a free tuition opportunity for female identifying students. If that's you or you are just getting started with Javascript, you have no reason not to take this course! You will learn a lot and it will inspire you to continue your education towards becoming a software engineer!

Coming to Codesmith has been one of the best decisions I've made. The program makes a concerted effort to bring up students that are underrepresented in the STEM community. As a female and a member of the LGBTQ community, I felt absolutely at home at Codesmith. Not only do they make an active effort to include women in their cohorts and staff, but they tackle issues that women frequently face in engineering programs by including lectures on imposter syndrome and implicit bias in their curriculum. The effort that the program puts into inclusion shows - women and engineers from underrepresented backgrounds thrive here. I have made friends and allies at Codesmith that I plan on keeping in touch with for years to come. 

Through the 13 week program, I built applications that provide real utility to developers onboarding new technologies. I come from a non-technical marketing background, but I’ve always loved problem-solving and wanted to move into programming. After completion of the program, I have grown in ways that I never predicted and I feel prepared to enter the workforce as a technically strong, highly communicative, passionate software engineer.

 

Codesmith has been a life changing since I've been here.  Not only have I grown extremely close to all of my cohort mates but I've had the chance to build some incredible technology.  

The curriculum has an enormous focus on learning through pair-programming and solidifying that understanding through building apps/dev tools.  Without Codesmith's mentoring, guidance, and structure I don't think I would have had either the motivation or the engineering prowess to build a cli tool, npm module, and web app to convert React class components to functional components with hooks syntax.

I attended the Codesmith coding school, and I was appreciative that event the intial entrance process required me to grow as an engineer, but gave me the resources to do so. Throughout the program, I not only grew exponentially as an engineer, as a systems architect, as a problem solver, but also as a person. I'm thankful for the entire codesmith community I have around me, and the network this program has given me to move into my dream job. The hiring portion is so well-informed and so intentional, and I look forward to using these tools well into my career.