Codesmith

Back in January 2015 I decided to move from NYC to LA. I was a consultant for the world's largest technology consulting firm and really wasn't feeling it. After struggling to learn Web Dev on my own for the longest time, I decided to quit my six-figure job, move across the country and enroll in Codesmith. I was part of Cohort 3 running from Oct '15 to Jan '16. 

  Needless to say Codesmith changed my life, but it wasn't easy! Anything worthwhile shouldn't be easy! We started with fundamentals, data structures, algorithms, DOM manipulation...and before I knew it, I was building full stack projects using the latest libraries and frameworks out there.   Although the curriculum is exceptional, the most important piece of Codesmith is the culture and environment. I had 0 friends when I moved to LA, and it was amazing to quickly be so welcomed into a community and surrounded by talented people that I continue to stay in touch with. Even after graduating, I feel like I am going to my second home when I visit.    Just to make sure this isn't a puff piece, Codesmith - like every program does have wrinkles that need ironing. There were parts of the program that were not perfect. We were all clocking in 80-90 hours a week, and having us do a hackathon at 8pm until late into the evening was just draining and caused a bit of grumbling. Also the schedule is 'flexible' and can change without notice, but that is just part of being in a start-up and things changing quickly due to iteration.    If you made it this far in the review, then you made it to the most important part - jobs!! I can say without doubt that if you put in the effort, embrace the struggle, and trust the program you will get a job. I received my first offer after 2 days, and after 2 weeks I accepted another offer for more than I was making in NYC as a consultant.    If you are looking for an immersive program in Southern California, Codesmith is it!

Codesmith has transformed my career path in the course of 3 months.  It is truly an immersive program, dedicated to teaching fullstack web development.  The program is very challenging, in terms of pace and substance, which includes teaching fundamental computer science concepts, Angular and React frameworks, using Node to implement a backend, creating and managing a database, and much more.  There is also quite a bit of support for graduates which consists of additional lectures on various topics and tons of job support.  Codesmith has since become a second home for me, which can be accounted for by the special culture it engulfs you into.

Originally posted on Yelp : Link 

I first heard about Codesmith as my big brother picked up an interest in becoming a software engineer. My brother decided that he wanted to jump straight into JavaScript and we learned about Codesmith while looking for local meetups.

Now although Codesmith is a 12 week software engineering program, they do hold weekly "Build with Code" sessions so that new developers can come in, learn some JavaScript, and  get a feel for the education that one may get when applying to Codesmith.  I've been coming to Codesmith with my big brother for their weekly "JS the Hard Parts" series and it has been amazing. Will Sentance who is CTO and one of the main instructors at Codesmith teaches the sessions and makes an effort to involve everyone in the learning process, as well as make sure everyone is understanding the material before moving on. Our first day at a session was really fun and motivating as well. It really makes you excited to learn and it's what keeps us coming back. I've talked to a lot of people that have been to other places for coding sessions and they often say that the other ones they go to are really boring and they feel more like a study group instead of a session where you actually go to learn something.

I really encourage everyone to check out Codesmith. Whether you are looking for a program to learn software engineering or you are new and want to meet people who are just starting like yourself. Check it out, it's a great environment, and it is extremely friendly and welcoming.

This review was originally posted on Yelp, available here: Anshu S.'s review of Codesmith

If I had to choose a word to describe my experience at Codesmith it would be: transformative. I first heard about the program by reading the CTO, Will Sentance's answer to a question on Quora: quora.com/Are-there-any-…

A friend of mine from high school was interning with Codesmith for the summer and posted about their weekly "Build with Code" sessions which they host in Codesmith HQ Thursdays. I had no plans that day and decided to go, if nothing else but to support a fellow Falcon. I was treated to a lecture by Will on the fundamentals of web development and walked through a tutorial on incorporating video-chat to a web app using Icecomm. At the start of the lecture, Will asked us a series of questions to gauge our level of experience. The only one I got was "Do you know what a variable is?"

That was the extent of my programming knowledge when I started the 8-week academy at Codesmith in the summer of 2015. I am a political economy major at the University of Southern California and my only experience with programming had been a 2-unit Java course that I hastily withdrew from. By the end of Codesmith, however, I had developed a full-stack application that had been a dream of mine for years: an interactive tool for USC students to plan their curriculum over four years. See: class-map.herokuapp.com I also built a snake game, an integrated calendar-chat app, and an alarm-clock that posted messages to a Slack channel via web-hooks when you pressed Snooze.

The difference between a college class and Codesmith is simple: at Codesmith you are surrounded by people who are all vested in your success. The Engineers in Residence that were recruited hailed from some of the top engineering schools in the country --UC Berkeley, Duke, UCLA and the University of Pennsylvania -- and were always eager to help and incredibly supportive. Through a combination of lectures, pair-programming challenges, and projects, the program helps you realize your goals as a web developer. The lectures were clear and informative, and the challenges were difficult enough to force growth as a learner. The "Hack Hour" problems at the beginning of each day solidify your understanding of JavaScript fundamentals and teach you creative ways to tackle standard interview questions. This immersive environment is critical for learning something as difficult as web development.

In addition, Codesmith provides access to the industry through a series of guest lectures which are open to the public. I personally saw Tom Occhino, one of the lead React engineers at Facebook, speak and they recently hosted Netflix tech lead Jafar Husain. The team behind Codesmith is committed to helping every cohort achieve their career goals.

If you are still undecided, I would recommend going to one their weekly meetups and meeting the people behind Codesmith who are all extremely talented and approachable. It's a decision you won't regret, I guarantee it.

I was part of Codesmith's 2nd cohort that went from late June to the end of September in 2015. During that time I've met, worked with, and befriended several intelligent, hardworking, awesome people. I can honestly say that, having gone here, I've changed my life for the better.

I didn't have much of a coding background at all before coming here, but after my 3+ months at Codesmith I feel confident and happy in my abilities. Before applying, be aware that this is a VERY strenuous course; you will be here 60+ hours a week for 12 weeks learning exactly what you need to learn to build a strong foundation and break into the industry. 

That being said, the staff is extremely compassionate and dedicated to the success of the students. If you have the passion and work ethic to push through the challenge, Codesmith can be a very rewarding experience.

The curriculum focuses on JavaScript, Node/Express, Angular, and React, but also covers jQuery, databases, and authentication. The final 6-8 weeks are devoted to building projects.

If you aren't quite sure if Codesmith, or even becoming a software engineer is for you, then I highly recommend that you check out one of the many free Meetup events that Codesmith hosts:
meetup.com/codesmith

Beginners and experienced coders are welcome to come learn and meet with the teachers and students.

In the Los Angeles area I really can't image that there is anywhere better to learn how to code. Codesmith is devoted to providing the best possible experience and supporting the growing community.

Codesmith has transformed my life in such a short amount of time. I knew I wanted to be a web programmer and I was going to teach myself JavaScript over this past summer. On my own I probably would have still been trying to learn the fundamentals, not creating projects to reinforce my knowledge in different frameworks and libraries. Codesmith didn’t teach me to program by giving me the syntax to a function, but they explained the process of a function and how its variable store works. Getting a deeper understanding of how a computer executes a callback function, for example, has gotten me further than solving a single problem on an online tutorial. I have learned how to be/think/act like a full stack engineer.I didn’t come from a stereotypical tech background, I graduated with a B.A in American Studies a few months ago and now I have a good understanding on how servers, databases, and multi-threading work. It is such a great feeling to be able to understand the process of what your code is doing, but there is so much more I want to learn. Technology is constantly evolving and Codesmith has equipped me with a skill set to keep learning on my own.

I had just graduated from college with a B.S. in computer science when I stumbled upon Codesmith. Looking to get some web development experience, I decided to take the course and am very happy I did so.

As many people will tell you, there is a gap between industry expectations and what you learn through computer science classes and projects. This is a gap that can be largely filled by experience, and Codesmith does just that. At Codesmith, you receive a balance of computer science fundamentals and practical skills. Among other things, you will become intimately familiar with data structures, basic algorithms (sorting and path-finding) and Big O analysis. You will use what you learn in development so that you have practical skills to accompany the theory.

The web-development curriculum provides excellent exposure to full stack web development. At Codesmith you will learn many things the hard way first, for example, learning to use Node to set up servers without any frameworks before learning to use Express or Hapi. This will give you a deeper understanding of both what’s going on underneath the hood, and in the bigger picture of your application.

One of my favorite things about Codesmith is that they value holistic growth, meaning you won’t just be taught to be a developer who can create websites with ready-made tools. You will be encouraged to become an engineer, who can architect systems beyond websites, and to modify or create your own tools as you see fit. You won’t just be an engineer with team experience. You will be encouraged to lead through empathy, and follow industry workflow with version control and testing. Additionally, Codesmith holds “tutorials” where you will have moderated discussions on tech. One of my favorite discussions was on Client side vs Server side rendering. You will be encouraged to form a strong understanding of whatever technologies you’ve been exposed to so that you can communicate your thoughts coherently to laymen, as well as anyone else in the industry.

It does take commitment and hard work on your part, but if you want to be a full-stack developer and like what you have heard so far, I recommend checking out Codesmith to find out more.

I am a recent graduate of Codesmith, and it was an incredibly rewarding experience. I came to Codesmith looking to make a career change, and the experience was way more than I expected.  

Codesmith teaches you to be a full-stack developer, and you are challenged constantly throughout the process.  You build a deeper understanding of data structures, algorithms and fundamental javascript concepts with daily hack hours. There are lectures daily on key technology topics as well as application-specific concepts. Most importantly you will also learn Angular, React, Node, Express as well as database applications like MongoDB, PostrgreSQL. The days are broken up in a way that you are always going and the time really flies. As you learn new technologies, you are challenged to build both group and solo projects of your choice utilizing those technologies.  The projects are both challenging and incredibly rewarding as you solve real problems encountered while building and deploying applications. 

Beyond the coding - there is an incredible community at Codesmith. Guest speakers from major companies like Facebook, Netflix, NFL.com and NPM just to name a few were great additions. Most importantly, the friends you make, and relationships you build are amazing. The engineers/instructors are genuinely invested in your development as an engineer and are always willing to go the extra mile to help you. If you want to learn something - they will help you get there!!

I completed the 8-week Summer academy at Codesmith this past summer and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  At the time I had just finished my MBA at USC Marshall and was looking to continue learning and challenging myself in the available months I had before I began my new role.  I was familiar with Codesmith from their weekly Javascript - The Hard Parts sessions, meetup.com/build-with-co…, and it was immediately apparent this was a well-designed program with serious promise.

It was an intellectually challenging experience. My previous programming experience was limited, so the initial learning curve was steep.  The full 12-week program is designed around a 30% - 40% working familiarity with Javascript starting day 1, so I had some ground to make up, but I did.  Within a few weeks I was working on teams building full-stack applications, browsers games, and a hilarious web scraper that kept you alert of everything Donald Trump was tweeting.  The progress I made in a matter of a few weeks was pretty remarkable.

Learning by building is the approach at Codesmith, and it's effective.  The first weeks of the program cover computer science fundamentals like algorithms, data structures, APIs, and databases, but they are taught via coding challenges and mini projects that merge theory with real world application.  Some topics come more easily than others, and some days require an inhumane volume of coffee to finally debug an application, but the rate of concentrated learning is unlike anything I've ever experienced before.  The remainder of the program is dedicated to working in teams on group projects.  The Codesmith engineers kick off each day with hack hours as well which help you continually hone your coding chops.

The building is spacious and crackling with a palpable feeling of enthusiasm and hard work. Everyone is there to help, and you can feel it. I highly recommend the Codesmith program.

Currently,  there are only a few bootcamps located in Los Angeles. I have attended  meetups and online questionnaires at a few of them e.g MakerSquare,  General Assembly, and Codesmith. My favorite of all is Codesmith for the following reasons...

BTW, if you don't want to read this article, you can watch a video summary below...  :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hToEL-nNtyM
 

For those of you who don’t know about Codesmith, it’s a 12 week immersive Software Engineering program teaching Computer Science, Full Stack JavaScript Engineering and mobile development.

They   also teach you how to think like an engineer, and give you that  mindset  so that you can invent and build the projects that you want to.

There are 3 key components that adhere to Codesmith. They are Community, Curriculum, and Passion.   Now these aren’t necessarily mantras of Codesmith themselves, rather   what I have noticed in attendance of their meetups, and this is one of   the reasons that I am fascinated by being there and around that energy.   Which in turn, leads me to the first component...
 
Community:
Talking of energy, It’s   probably safe to say that it is highly unfathomable to know what it   must have been like being around in the beginning of Apple, or  Facebook,  or any other major company that started similarly, but the  feeling that  I get being around Codesmith is what I would imagine that  experience to  be. 
 

1. The people! Everyone is so nice and welcoming. They make you really feel like you are a part of the family. 
2. The Instructors! The CTO Will Sentance and Lead Engineer Alex Zai are probably two of   the most brilliant gentlemen that I have had the pleasure to meet. Not   only are they entirely genuine and remarkable, but they are   revolutionizing the Software Education Industry along with the Tech   Industry. Aside from Codesmith, they have also developed some  extremely,  amazing things. One of those is Icecomm. Icecomm is an  WebRTC based,  Peer to Peer feature that allows you to add serverless  video chat and  data transfer to your application in, I believe under 10  lines of  JavaScript and 4 lines of Angular. How great is that? Now to  go a step  further, they are going to open source it, so that in itself  speaks to  their wonderful character. If I could pick their brains all  day I would.  haha
3. The Environment! The building is like a spaceship. It’s really cool! When you get off  of  the elevator you are met by these multicolored, fluorescent lights  that  resemble something from the future. The whole area is one large  circle  with several nooks and cranny’s for you to explore. The views  are also  great. There are balconies with a panoramic view of water and a  large  portion of Silicon Beach. 

Curriculum

This   is one of the things that sets Codesmith apart from everyone else in   the software education realm. Also what places them at the forefront of   technology because they are using what is now on the forefront of   technology. The core of their Front-End curriculum is with React.js. WHAT???
 

1. React.js ! If you don’t know what React.js is, React is an open-source JavaScript   library for creating user interfaces that aims to address challenges   encountered in developing single-page applications. (or simply put, “The Future of interwebs development” ;) “
2. React Native! React Native enables you to build world-class application experiences   on native platforms using a consistent developer experience based on   JavaScript andReact. The focus of React Native is on developer   efficiency across all the platforms you care about — learn once, write   anywhere. Facebook uses React Native in multiple production apps and   will continue investing in React Native.
3. Distributed Systems and Some Machine Learning! Seriously,   it couldn’t be better. These are the things that are powering the   technology around us all today, including, but not limited to Gmail,   iCloud and Google knowing what you want to search before you finish   typing. No one is teaching these things in any bootcamp or program   currently. 

Here is a photo of the curriculum for a more in depth view:
 

 

Passion

One   of the most important features of Codesmith and everyone there is that   they are endlessly passionate about what they are doing. It’s highly   evident in everything that they do. They actually want to help everyone   bring their dreams to fruition, to build the projects and companies  that  they envision, and change the world for the better. This fact is   something that I cannot stress enough. I only mention this because I   have been to some of the meetups at other places like MakerSquare and I   cannot say the same things. I really can’t even say anything remotely   close, and I don’t want to go into a barrage of Makersquare or anything   like that. This was simply my experience and mine alone, but it was   quite uncomfortable. When I walked in everyone just kind of had an   attitude and they weren’t welcoming. Everything seemed fabricated. You   could tell that at the end of the day this place is just a business and   they seem to only care about one thing: money. That is not an   environment that I welcome, nor should anyone else. With Codesmith it’s   different, not just for the aforementioned reasons alone, but also I  am  beyond enamored with the devotion of everyone involved.  It’s a  really  special place and I suggest that everyone experience it for  themselves. 


Build With Code

You   may ask, “how can I experience it without going to the program?” Well,   I’ll tell you! Every Thursday from 6:30 - 9:00 pm Codesmith offers a   free Meetup called Build With Code. I can’t emphasis enough how great   this place is and especially the Meetups. Who doesn’t like free drinks?   Who doesn’t like free food? Not only do they offer those things, but  you  are able to build cool things and learn about programming in   JavaScript. We’ve built a video chat app. A YouTube app and currently  we  are learning about the hard parts of Javascript, which for anyone   trying to get into a bootcamp is essential. Last week it was Callbacks   & Higher Order Functions. 

The   way that it works is, in the beginning you go around and introduce   yourself, then tell everyone a little about you, what you’ve been   building (if anything) and what your interest in JavaScript is.   Subsequently the instructor Will goes into a lecture with slideshows  and  breaks down everything to first principles, which if you are a fan  of  Elon Musk (I am) means that that is how you get the job done.   Will’s  teaching methods (Socratic, I believe) are fantastic. He makes   everything so clear and concise that the light inside your mind goes  off  and you finally understand what it is that you have been making so   complicated. You see the solution simplified… Especially in dealing  with  two of the most misunderstood objects (no pun intended) in  JavaScript. 
After  the lecture, you  are split up to pair program. I know you may be  thinking... "I don’t  want to pair program! I won't go just because of  that," but It really  is great! Not only can you possibly make a new  friend, but you also get  the chance to see how other people think, and  how they arrive at a  solution. That is invaluable in itself because it  can help you approach  a problem differently one day. When you are pair  programming the EIR’s  (Engineers in Residence) come in and walk around  to offer their  assistance to anyone if they get stuck and also to answer  any other  questions you may have. These guys are really great. Super  friendly and  helpful. Will then wraps up with a summary to help solidify  all that  you have learned and then you can wander around the  facilities, grab  some drinks and food, and hang out and talk with  everyone there. If you  don’t want to do any of that, you don’t have to,  but I can’t recommend  that you should enough. 

I   hope that I am able to clear a few things up for anyone, and if not  you  can message me or get in touch and I will gladly answer any  questions  about my experience. If I can’t answer those questions Joseph  at  Codesmith is also a really great guy and he will be glad to help  you.  Below are some links to where you can find information on the  topics I  covered here in the postings...
 

• Codesmith
• Build With Code - Los Angeles
• Icecomm.io
• A JavaScript library for building user interfaces | React
• React Native | A framework for building native apps using React

It's tough for me to write this because it almost sounds contrived, but I love Codesmith most because, it's become my home.

I am currently enrolled in Codesmith's 12-week immersive program.  We have just finished week 4 and I am excited to get started on the project portion in just 2 more short weeks.  I can't say enough good things about this place.  The community is the kind where we spend Sunday together even though it's not part of the program.  The people are amazing, passionate and incredibly smart.  I haven't felt this happy, excited and welcomed in years.  

So far we have learned: HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery, React, Node, Angular and MongoDB.  We also learned a bunch of ancillary things like Express, Mongoose, Bootstrap, Ajax, etc., but those aren't really concepts so much as tools you learn how to use when you need them.

It's tough to recognize the progress you're making while immersed in the program because you're comparing where you are today to where you were yesterday.  Fortunately, every now and then you get a reminder of just how far you've come.  The most recent moment for me was just after presenting my first full-stack project when a student in the junior cohort asked me to help him with understanding hash functions.

Before entering codesmith I was barely understanding closures and callbacks and I didn't even know what a hash function was or what it could be used for.  Now I'm deploying a full stack application to Heroku and using a hash function in conjunction with a database to implement my own authentication!  It's an amazing feeling!

In short, I love this place. I'm learning a ton and If you're serious about becoming a full-stack engineer, apply today!

A deeper dive on the experience here:

Things I love about the program:

Community

The community here is amazing.  Everybody is super friendly, hard-working and always willing to help you understand a concept.  

Instructors

The instructors here are top notch.  Will Sentance, the CTO teaches a bunch of the tough concept lectures.  I don't know if it's his british accent or friendly demeanor, but I find him incredibly easy to learn from.  Even with my ADD, he keeps my attention and his explanations are really really clear.

The pace I'm learning

When you start the course there is a large disparity in the knowledge between students with a computer science background and those without.  Coming from economics and business, I was really far behind!  After the first few weeks, however, the disparity is much smaller and you start learning things like React and Angular - topics that nobody has seen yet.  Although I don't expect to understand computer science theory as well as some of my fellow students, I'm just as good as them at building apps!

Thursday night happy hours

This is an incredibly hard program.  Everybody here is really driven to succeed.  People stay late every night to finish their projects or study up on concepts they're struggling with, but on Thursday nights we party... It's awesome.

Things I get frustrated with:

Workload is very heavy

I understand why the workload is so heavy.  We're going from 20% to a full-stack engineer in twelve weeks.  There really isn't an easy way to do this.

Hours are really long

We work 12 hours a day, minimum.  My typical day starts at 8:55 AM and ends around 10 PM.  Again, I understand this is necessary, but I do miss free time.

Things I have a love-hate relationship with:

Pair Programming

If you haven't pair programmed yet, you should.  Find a friend who is about the same level of programming as you and pair!  There is more to it than this, but essentially you don't touch the keyboard ("navigator") and they take directions from you ("driver").  After twenty minutes, switch roles.  This is likely going to be an incredibly frustrating experience for both parties.  However, it is absolutely the best way to accelerate your learning.  I love learning quickly, but in the moment I get frustrated because I just want the answer!

The Socratic method of teaching

The Socratic method of teaching essentially boils down to this: the instructor does not give answers they just ask you questions to guide you to the right answer.  This is super effective because it forces you to make the connection yourself.  Pretty much all law schools teach this way as well as Harvard, Darden, and Tuck Business Schools.