Codesmith

I graduated September 20, 2016 and was hired exactly one month later, on October 19. I make almost twice now what I made managing accounts at a PR/advertising firm and am immensely satisfied with where my career is and with my decision to attend Codesmith. Without the program I would never have been able to make it to where I am, hence the five star review.

That said, there are a few things I wish I had known going in. These points are meant to be helpful to potential students and are a reflection of my own experience.

• Although the program lasts for three months, the time commitment that they tell you to prepare for is actually six months total -- three months of program plus three months post-graduation to find a job. So budget that in.

• Throughout the course, I never felt 100% prepared or felt like I was able to complete any of the coursework to a level that totally satisfied me. The pace was incredibly fast and there was never enough time to learn everything thoroughly or in-depth enough to make me feel relieved, like ‘oh I got this’. I think the program could be more effective if it was longer.

• When you come out, there is a huge gap in tech experience between the mid-level jobs you are going for and the years of experience you have. How to efficiently and effectively bridge this gap was never adequately answered, in my opinion, and depended a lot on the individual. In my case, I was able to get a mid-level salary due to the fact that the job I got specifically required agency experience, which I already had. That said, the Codesmith staff is super supportive and will be by your side through the entire process. Also, I know other graduates for whom this particular issue wasn’t a problem for them.

Those things aside, the program does work and I am immensely pleased to have gone through it. Like other reviews here, I’ll iterate that it’s not easy and that no one hands you a job once you graduate; the onus is really on the individual to maximize the tools they are given. But the staff is really supportive and they do a phenomenal job at proactively fostering and maintaining a positive and community-oriented learning environment. As one of three female students in a class of 17 I was a little apprehensive of a ‘bro-grammer’ culture but from day one Codesmith made it clear that there was a zero-tolerance policy for anything outside of a supportive and respectful atmosphere. I would absolutely recommend Codesmith, especially to other women. We need more females in tech!

I had always loved the problem solving and engineering creativity and freedom afforded by software, and it's hard to know what it truly takes to get it to the next, professional level. It is somewhat of a leap of faith to drop everything and go all in on learning a new skill. But if coding is something you truly enjoy, Codesmith provides an excellent environment for massively accelerating that process. That is for many reasons, and I believe the most important are the people involved there. The staff is truly dedicated to getting everyone to the next level, and just as importantly, you will learn and be pushed by the students you are learning with. This is hugely important, and I believe they do an excellent job of finding highly intelligent students who really want to learn.

With that being said, they cannot do everything for you. You must show up ready to go and ready to push yourself as hard as you ever have. Learning new skills takes time, dedication, and tons of practice along with the perserverance to keep pushing past inevitable hurdles and barriers. This will really never stop, and if you think it will, software might not be the right field for you. But if you bring that energy, you will be shocked at the things you can do. Codesmith provides an excellent engineering environment. If you love coding, building, learning, and people, I can't imagine a much better place for accelerating your personal devlelopment. I think the other reviews have accurately portrayed the day-to-day life there.

I graduated and am now working at a Bay Area company that I got into contact with through the Codesmith hiring partners. I love it there and am continuing to push myself very hard to grow as an engineer. I had multiple hiring offers in SoCal and NorCal within a few weeks of graduating and am excited about the talented, compassionate network of folks I've met in the program. 

Codesmith is the real deal. It's very challenging and rigorous but you get out of it everything you put in, and more. My cohort had 13 graduates and we all were super motivated and dedicated to learning as much as we possibly could over the 3 months. Teamwork and personal drive are crucial to succeeding in this program. I not only made Codesmith my number one life priority, I made it my only priority and I now have an awesome job that I love. 

The most valuable skills you learn at Codesmith are how to attack problems and efficiently search for answers. They do an amazing job of prepping students for interviews so you feel ready and prepared to hit the ground running after graduation. Their hiring day is also unlike any other bootcamp’s. They introduce students to some of the top companies and startups in the area, and many of these intros quickly turn into on-sites. 

My only advice prior to attending Codesmith is to do your homework and make sure you’re truly passionate about coding because learning at such an accelerated pace is no easy feat. If you put in the work and are excited by the idea of learning with and from your peers, you will leave Codesmith with invaluable skills and the job of your dreams.  

A bit of background about me. I graduated from UCLA with an Applied Mathematics B.S degree in December 2015, had a total of 2 C++ classes and that was the extent of my software engineering experience . I found Codesmith through a friend and visited JS The Hard Parts on a few Thursdays. I immediately felt the energy that people there had, I am not sure if this is just the software engineering culture but Codesmith just had that vibe that everyone wanted to be there. I now have my first job out of college as a software engineer. I graduated from Codesmith (August 2016) and I got hired two weeks after hiring day by one of the hiring day partners. 

Before I go on about my experience at Codesmith I would like to add an exception. That is, this program is only for certain people and those people are the ones who are 110% dedicated to learning, growing, and giving it their all. This is not some ‘chill’ bootcamp where you can just hangout and mess around and then expect to get a job, if you put in the effort the results will come. Now saying that, I put my life on hold for 4 months (two weeks before and after the program) and dedicated more than 80 hours some weeks to my learning and my projects. You don’t need to do that but you do need to be motivated and completely bought in to what they are teaching you because if you don’t, you won’t get all that they have to offer.

Daily Life

Make sure to eat a decent breakfast before you get there because once you are there the hack hours starts after the 5 minute stand up at 9am. You don’t want to skip out on any of the hack hours. I was one of few that would bring their own lunch and dinner. I used my Sundays to get laundry done, make lunch and dinner for the week, and then relax a little bit. I would make sure to have some type of caffeine right before the lectures as most of the times your lectures could fall right after lunch, aka food coma. Besides that, I had a good flow and think everyone should be able to manage their time with only the one day off, like I said before you just have to be completely focused.

Academics

As a recent UCLA grad I learned from my math professors who were the genius people wanted for their research and were not the best teachers. This is not how codesmith is. The lead instructor was a very good teacher and he is also brilliant. Make sure to utilize him and any other people there, they literally are there for you so make sure to annoy them with as many questions as possible.

Competition

Also my experience from my math classes was that everything was based on a ranking and if you did better than your classmates you received a higher grade. The one thing that was so different and amazing was that there was still the competitive nature at codesmith, you always wanted to show the best projects or get as far as you could on all of the modules. But never was there a time where anyone wished a classmate wouldn’t do as well as them, but everyone was held accountable and we all pushed each other. This was by far one the the best aspects of Codesmith.

Community

If you don’t know already, Codesmith hosts JS The Hard Parts on Thursdays and they are also becoming one of the biggest meet ups in LA for React and Node. There is great opportunity to meet a whole slew of different people with different experiences and endless amounts of networking. Definitely take advantage of this but do not make this your priority while in the program because you should be focusing on learning and retaining everything. 

Job Prep

I can honestly say I would not have been able to get any decent job without Codesmith’s help with my job prep. The mock interviews and resume building were the best help I have ever received in terms of job prep. The job search process is just that, a process, and they did an incredible job prepping me for that process. As long as you’re a hard working, compassionate, empathic, and personable person, you won’t have a hard time getting a job even if your experience is low, i.e. I have never had a real job before, and now I am a software engineer making 6 figures. Incredible to be able to say that and I owe it all to Codesmith.

Who are you?

I’m an EMT, Berkeley grad, and returned Peace Corps volunteer that joined the Codesmith program at the end of my 2-year service in the highlands of Guatemala.

Did it work?

I’ll be starting as a front-end web developer with a Codesmith hiring partner in Santa Barbara next week. I received two other offers some time after I accepted my current position.

Why Codesmith?

There are a number of reasons, but a lot of them are already covered in previous reviews. Rather than echo, I’ll pull a Steve Jobs, get obsessive and detail-oriented, and try to cover topics that are smaller in scope but provide insight to someone who hasn’t necessarily attended the school.

LEADERSHIP

There are benefits to having a CEO that is a strong and constant presence. Besides frequently handling business at the school:

• Will was there to set the cultural tone of our class on day 1 -- as a cohort, we succeed together or not at all.

• He gave a variety of different lectures on topics like object-oriented programming, technical blogging, and interviewing expectations throughout the weeks.

• Will was with us to give a kick-off presentation for our first hackathon together.

• He was there halfway through the program for one-on-one sessions.

• He was there on our Hiring Day to open the floor for our thesis project presentations.

• Two weeks after the program concluded, Will was there personally answering questions when the school brought our cohort in for job hunt updates.

Granted he’s not there every single day, he is available to you. Will might be encouraging a tech firm to attend hiring day or interviewing with journalists to discuss Codesmith’s philosophies, but I won’t hesitate to say that if I were to email him now as a graduate 3 months out, he would respond within a day.

CULTURE & COMMUNITY

It’s that moment when the fellows have been gone for hours. It’s 1:30 AM. You’re hammering away at a chrome extension with a partner and neither of you know how to proceed. Or maybe, you’ve invested an hour and your map method still isn’t working in Cheerio (protip: read docs and check the parameters). You know everyone’s exhausted and short on time, but you need the help, and you have to ask for it. These stressful situations are when culture really comes into play.

The community is focused on unconditional support. Expect to have it here, and expect to give it here. Let me give you a few examples.

I was working on a module with the avid surfer / Boeing engineer of our group, and we nail another exercise together. It’s looking like we might be on track to finish early. Get home. Break from the 80ish hour weeks. The first thing he asks is, “How do you feel about checking up on everyone else and seeing if they need a hand? It won’t take long.”

For a hackathon, we’re given about 6 hours (including lunch) to ad-hoc something functional. An experienced software engineer in our cohort has his eureka moment, bypasses problems with CORS and network requests with some proxy workaround, and has an hour and a half to make his project work. He then gets peppered with questions by cohort-mates. “Hey, how’d you get that proxy to work?” “Could you give me a hand with flexbox?” He carves out even more of his time to help. So much so that he presents an unfinished project (which I know for a fact he could’ve completed).

Even Will would put his money where his mouth was. Every. Week. He would lead meetups to teach the LA community about javascript callbacks, execution contexts, and closures. No costs or fees. No self-promotion of the school. Unconditional.

I could go on and on about the small details that made the culture so magical, but it really is a matter of seeing it in action for yourself. Visit the campus. Have a conversation with a few current students. You’ll understand.

FEEDBACK ON FEEDBACK ON FEEDBACK

If you bring up a concern, it will be considered. During the first 6 weeks, feedback is given to Victoria, director of operations. Every two days as a group, you’ll review the recently completed core modules and lectures. “Please split the testing and build tools module into two separate days.” Lo and behold, the next cohort has two days for the two modules. “Can we get more cheez-its in the kitchen?” And like magic, it appears. “Reviewing our React module with ES6 syntax when we learned with ES5 syntax? BAD.” You get the idea.

The feedback doesn’t end when sessions end either. After graduating, when I saw staff at a tech fair, I started chatting with Victoria. We were talking about the implications of increasing class sizes, and she said, “It’s great that you care. What do you think we should do?” She and her coworkers are open to criticism and change not because their job tells them it’s important for company development from 9-5. They sincerely want what’s best for students.

With all of that in mind, obviously not all suggestions will be implemented (there are still parts of the curriculum in ES5 and parts in ES6, there still might be grammatical errors in exercises, etc.), but it will be for a combination of reasons -- other low-hanging fruit to take care of, impact of changes, etc.

JOB SUPPORT

It’s interesting that the website doesn’t immediately mention this, but there is a support network when the program finishes.

• A week after graduation, the entire cohort is brought back to campus for school updates, discussions about job-search apprehensions, and personal meetings with Hira.

• There are check-in calls with Hira every two weeks after the on-campus meeting. She reaches out to track your progress, mental well-being, and again, answer any lingering questions. And the best part? She always follows through. “You’ve got an offer? I’ll get you in touch with Eric.” And the day after, I’m having a conversation with Eric. “Ah! AngelList messages can be tricky. Send over some of your examples and I’ll check them out.” A day after I send them, she replies. Here’s part of the email.

No problem Jeremy, that's what I'm here for!

Some notes on your messages:

1. The personal touch is great. You're really highlighting your passion for what the company is doing, I wouldn't change anything there.

2. Ultimately, the company wants to know what YOU can do for THEM. It's great that you have a learning mindset, and seek first to understand, but try to throw in a phrase about why you're qualified. Is there a particular stack they're working in that you're a boss at? Did you work on a technical project that is somewhat similar to what they're focused on?”

You aren’t the product of some easy-bake oven. Codesmith doesn’t “set it and forget it.” The job hunt was one of the more difficult parts of the journey, and it's genuinely nice to be able to rely on staff for solid guidance.

Bro. Now I have even more questions.
Feel free to get in touch!
jeremy.yip7@gmail.com

I'm a recent graduate of Codesmith, became a Codesmith engineering fellow, and am now getting ready to start a full-stack position with a wonderful company. I can say without a doubt that Codesmith is a transformative experience. I have honestly never worked harder in my life and it absolutely paid off.

The program is rigorous and designed to not only teach you core concepts, but also how to learn, find an answer, and problem solve. As a result, I felt prepared to enter the job market having learned in-demand skills while also feeling confident in my ability to continue learning and adapting throughout my career.

The projects you work on and community support are what really drew me to Codesmith - and I was not disappointed. The projects you build are technically challenging and are often directly addressing an issue in the developer community. I learned so much during the project period - not only about web development but also how to approach problems, debug, and coordinate with a team of engineers. 

I also became extremely close with my cohort. These students were successful  prior to Codesmith while also being caring and supportive, who I genuinely enjoyed spending time with (for 14 hours/day). The staff is also approachable and truly invested in your success - going out of their way to help however they can. They offer advice without hand holding through topics - forcing you think about concepts more deeply and giving you a personal sense of accomplish it when you figure it out.

I wouldn't be where I am today without Codesmith. It was a truly incredible experience.

A little less than a year ago I wrote my first line of Javascript and now I am employed by a wonderful company.   I build amazing software and earn more than enough money to payback the debt I took on to attend Codesmith.  On a daily basis I see a difficult task in front me and think "I have no idea how to do this." My very next thought is "this is going to be so much fun."  The brilliance of Codesmith is how the instructors to teach you to problem solve.  The curriculum is structured to teach you everything you need to know to land a job, but there is zero hand holding.  You learn how to google, use stack overflow, and read docs so that for the rest of your coding career you not only welcome unfamiliar problems you celebrate them.  Since Codesmith I have learned several new frameworks and a new programming language.  

In addition to the instruction the job placement was such a huge help.  Within a month of finishing the program I had two job offers, one of which was through Codesmith's job fair.  Although coders are high in demand right now, it always takes a lot of work to get a new job, and the job support from Codesmith (interview prep, resume iteration, job fair, weekly check-ins) made the process so much less difficult. 

All that being said, if you are seriously considering attending Codesmith you need to be ready to bring it.  I was no stranger to hard work and long hours before I attended but those were 12 of the most challenging weeks of my life.  Getting through the program, and landing a job on the other side, takes a lof of grit, determination, and most importanly you have to love to code.  Attending Codesmith, and being employed as a software engineer, is really hard work.  The high saleries won't be enough to get you through the day.  You must also have a passion for it.  

If you do have that passion Codesmith will provide everything else you need.  

Codesmith is the type of program where every student leaves as a transformed version of the person he/she came in as.  The most obvious transformation is one’s exponentially expanded software engineering knowledge and experience, but students also leave with a radically broader grasp on empathy, the kind of empathy you gain from intense pair programming sessions and grinding through 12+ hour days with your Cohort-mates. 

The curriculum is always evolving and is updated as a result of student feedback and/or the ever continuous momentum of the industry.  Over my 12 weeks (13 including a prep/gap week between cohorts) Codesmith presented daily opportunities for ‘aggressive expansion’ of my engineering and problem solving skills (for anyone thinking of the scene from The Dark Knight, there is never any battling J, though Ping Pong games can get intense).   You go deep in JavaScript, by the end you can truly develop a web application that includes a database, RESTful API based server, and powerful front-end (using Vanilla JS, React, Angular, or whatever you desire because you have to mental tools to learn anything new). 

You learn about more than just JavaScript at Codesmith though. Daily, you will experience the exciting challenge of a new algorithm problem, you learn data structures, engineering best practices, and possibly most important of all you will grow tremendously in your technical communication.  Anyone who has tried to solve a highly technical problem in a team setting will relate to how important technical communication is for the project’s success.  At every point throughout the program you will either be asked to communicate to your pair-programming partner when you are not actively typing, or with the Engineering Fellows during code review, and ultimately all of these experiences result in a deeper understanding of the material and an ability to explain your code that is highly valuable to teammates and employers.

Attending a coding bootcamp is a major life decision, and I have not once regretted choosing Codesmith over any of the other options in LA or elsewhere.  You receive full devotion during and after graduation and I wholeheartedly believe there is nowhere better to begin the next chapter of one’s life.

Hired:  Yes (In Los Angeles)

Cohort: 6

Salary: 100k+ and Equity

Graduated: June, 2016

_____________________________

I was hired by a company that Codesmith brought to hiring day.  I make a salary equivalent to a mid-level developer in San Francisco because that's the kind of quality engineers that Codesmith makes.  Prior to this I dropped out of graduate school for Landscape Architecture, and I worked in construction before that.

Review:

Codesmith teaches you the fundamentals in data structures, algorithms, and web technologies. You will learn the "whys" of how things work, which will make you a better engineer.  Every day you're challenged with an algorithm(which is important because companies will test your problem solving abilities).  You learn the current trending technologies that will assist you in getting a job. (I currently work with a front-end framework called React).  Then you build a project that proves you are a capable engineer, and people will be like "Ooo" and "Ahhh"(that means they'yre impressed).  Then they assist you in finding a job by throwing a huge party(well both an actual dinner party, but also a hirng event, which is pretty sweet).  After graduation, you will have weekly meetings that checks your current progress on your hiring status.

Opinion:

It all sounds shiny, but it will take a lot of work to get you from an unemployable world of warcraft player into an employable professional software engineer.  However it's a lot of fun, and Codesmith creates the culture and curriculum that gets you to that point. I'm glad I decided to go to Codesmith, now I can be an employed world of warcraft player(I kid, I work pretty hard at my job).  On a serious note, Codesmith's curriculum and staff is top notch.  I enjoyed my time there and I hope you do too.

Best of luck to anyone who's read this review, and you can do it!

Codesmith provides an excellent foundation in computer science and JavaScript.  The program positioned me incredibly well to transition from a career in finance to software development.

I graduated from Codesmith in April 2016 (cohort 5). I had three job offers in two weeks and started my new career within a month. I wouldn't have been able to make this transition without the program and the support of the Codesmith staff.  More importantly, despite using almost no JavaScript at my new job, Codesmith's curriculum taught me how to quickly pick up any topic and I've been able to add value from day 1.

Highly recommended.

I am a former student, former engineering fellow, and current employee (Software Engineer) at one of Codesmith's hiring partner companies. 

Previous Background 

I worked in tech for a few years in marketing and client success before deciding to take the leap into software development. I started learning Python about a year before joining the program and devoted three months (while working a full-time job) to learning JavaScript before applying. 

Application Experience

The staff at Codesmith was quick to respond to inquiries and setting up appointments for both the cultural and technical interviews was a breeze. There was a good amount of emphasis placed on learning JS fundamentals on your own before applying, and as a hard worker, I appreciated knowing that I would be surrounded by other hard workers if I got into the program. 

Something that really stood out to me during the application and interview process was how passionate the Codemsith community was about cultivating a positive engineering environment. I was deciding between Codesmith and another prominent bootcamp in LA that I was also accepted at, but the culture at Codesmith is really what solidfied my decision to go there. 

Student Experience

The program seemed to be academically challenging for all students despite people's varying levels of technical experience and background. It was well-paced, and although I was constantly challenged, I never felt like I couldn't handle the amount of work, and I certainly never felt bored. 

As a working software engineer now, I realize how relevant almost everything we learned in the program was. My employer seems to always be surprised by the amount I already know despite this being my first engineering job. 

Also, I'd like to add that getting into the program was a competitive process, but once you're in, you really develop a strong rapport with your cohort. I still keep in touch with my cohort mates and it's inspiring to see how much we've all grown and accomplished since the program ended.

Fellowship Experience

I applied and was selected to stay on as an engineering fellow after my session ended. I stayed on for an extra six weeks (though it's typically twelve) to assist with solution and approach lectures, guide students as they learn new concepts, and help debug students' code.

I was really able to solidify the material I learned as a student in the program having to explain it to new students and answer their unexpected questions during the fellowship. Being able to explain technical concepts in great depth really set me apart from other applicants when I started interviewing. 

Job Placement Experience 

I met my current employer at Codesmith's Hiring Day around six weeks into my fellowship. They noted that they were impressed with my communication skills and dedication to technical excellence, which wasn't surprising since both qualities are constantly emphasized at Codesmith. 

Even after getting traction in the interview process with a few different companies, the Codesmith team stayed involved and were always checking in to make sure I had the support I needed to be sucessful as I was getting close to landing my first software engineering job. I couldn't appreciate them more for having helped me get to where I am now. 

TL;DR

Before I joined Codesmith, I thought it would be near impossible to become a software engineer without a major in computer science. Codesmith not only gave me the training, but also the confidence and network that allowed me to become a working software engineer today. 10/10, would do it again. 

Two things set Codesmith apart in my opinion.

1. The people: There are hundreds of coding bootcamps out there and it was difficult to figure out which one was the best for me. I visited as many as I could, and tried to figure out what was differnent about each one, and what schools existed to just take my money. I attended JS The Hard Parts at Codesmith's headquarters in LA, and was blown away by everyone's willingness to help me learn. That continued after I started as a student. Everyone at Codesmith, from the instructors, to the fellows, and even the students was willing to stay late and help me become a better developer. On top of that, the students at Codesmith are exceptionally gifted and talented people who previously have gone to the worlds best universities and have been very successful in other careers. You can't help but learn faster when you are surrounded by such talented people all day.

2. Focus on personal growth: Throughout the program, but especially during the project period, students are pushed to step outside their comfort zones to become better thinkers, programmers, and people. People at Codesmith are always encouraged to pursue new technologies and learn new programming paradigms. Codesmith understands that the industry is always changing and while the curriculum is in JavaScript, the purpose of Codesmith is to teach you how to think as a professional developer. At Codesmith, you are always pushed to strive for more. The culture of creating autnomous problem solvers is really what makes Codesmith different.