Codesmith

If you're like me, you're probably creating a huge Excel sheet right now full of every bootcamp in the world and how good their outcomes are so you can try to feel better about a decision everyone else seems to think is so risky and dumb. I mean $20k isn't cheap, and neither is the 3 month commitment to a career you're probably not entirely familiar with. 

If you want the best shot at curating a new career for yourself in tech, I'd wholeheartedly recommend Codesmith. I was lucky enough to receive a job offer after the program despite having very limited software engineering experience. More than the curriculum (which is great), they also teach you how to *think* like an engineer and embrace hard learning. This mindset alone is invaluable and probably the ultimate reason so many codesmith grads go on to receive amazing job offers. The job search hints are another invaluable resource codesmith provides - especially for anyone reading this who wasn't part of the elite circles in high school or college that received this advice beforehand. In some ways, it's just as valuable as the coding experience itself!

I won't say the program is perfect, no program is, but the fact that they can turn you from a beginner with no coding experience to a mid-level software engineer is incredible. My only suggestion for improving the program now that it's over is probably a stronger foundation in algorithms (but this is something you can learn on your own as there are TONS of resources online and it's something that doesn't happen in just a few short weeks). The curriculum is incredible and all three of the current frameworks I use at work now were taught at Codesmith. The opportunity to work in group projects on complex code is great experience to refer back to during the job hunt too.

If you don't want to waste your time or money, you want a top-notch bootcamp taught by very engaging & caring instructors, and you want to be working long days and late nights surrounded by other students (all of which have been screened for good energy) with the same goal as yourself - then Codesmith is the place for you. The program was hard, even excruciating at times, but it was honestly pretty freaking fun too. There were highs and lows for sure - what do you expect when you're trying to fast track 2-4 years of software engineering experience and Bachelors Degree in Computer Science into 3 months? 

I'm really happy I chose this program. Not everyone I graduated with got an insanely high offer ($130k+), but many did, even some without proper prior coding experience or education like myself. And as someone who really did make that 100+ line Excel sheet a year ago, I can tell you Codesmith really is the place to be.

Codesmith is the best from the curriculum, instructors, all the way to job support. I was a full-time musician before this and had no technical background. I started by doing CSX challenges and attending workshops, taking JSB and CSPrep, all the way to the immersive. I took on the fellowship after graduation and got a job upon finishing the fellowship, WFH at a tech company in Silicon Vally. Every step of the way, I was supported by the most loving, passionate people, from Codesmith staff to graduates. It’s more of a family than just a community. I received so much love and support here that I want to give back. Many graduates felt the same way as me and went back to giving mock interviews for the current students, sharing their job-searching experiences... If you are on the fence about picking a coding school, I highly highly recommend Codesmith. It’s so beginner friendly. You can start from all the free resources it offers and take the free workshops from its website.

I chose Codesmith for a number of reasons. I was coding as a hobby for a year prior and decided I wanted to "up my game" and attend the best coding boot camp-style program I could find. Codesmith seemed to have the highest ratings (but highest tuition), but I believe that one generally gets what they pay for. And I was very, very right. The tuition is $20k, but I just landed a job that pays $130k. If you look at Codesmith's independent ratings on CIRR.org, you'll see that I'm not really an outlier.

Codesmith's program is broken down into three semesters (or, as they call them, "portions"), which are just thirds. The first semester is all lecture. Each week or so, you learn popular frameworks and tools in the following manner: Lecture, pair-programming with a new partner each time, and usually some kind of review lecture (or recitation, to use college terms). There are tons of smaller events and lectures sprinkled in, including coding challenges, approach lectures, code reviews and more. You are given many different types of multifaceted opportunities to continue building and bolstering your coding skills, including hackathons and "hack hours," which are just basically LeetCode challenges; mentorship/menteeship opportunities; tech talks (10+ minute presentations in which you select and present upon a technology/framework/language of your choice), and more. There are social opportunities to make friends and get to better know one another, which builds support and rapport.

The second semester is project-based work. You build a few different types of applications on preference-selected teammates. This includes a Solo project (a project you design and build from the ground up, yet you are the only developer); a Scratch project (a project you literally build from the ground up with a team), and an Iteration project (a project you inherit and iterate on, again with a team). Collectively, these projects steadily build skills you'll need in the field. This was my favorite semester because some of the projects I got involved with really gave me memorable experiences I could proudly speak to in interviews following graduation.

The third and final semester is a mixed bag. You work on a project called an Open Source Product, or OSP, which is supposed to be your flagship project that you will eventually publicly release and show off on your resume (above your other projects, presumably). This project is supposed to instill skills that mimic the real world as much as possible. Here, you're forced to build a "developer tool" (rather than some random cool idea you might have), so you look extra smart and altruistic building a tool that directly helps the developer community. You're also encouraged to build it using tools and frameworks that haven't been taught in the program thus far, so it's a great opportunity to explore and, essentially, run wild and have fun. Towards the end (and, luckily, after the release of your OSP), you'll build a Reinforcement Project, which is your (and your team's) opportunity to explore more technologies that you either love or wish to explore further. You'll also have a bunch of super fascinating lectures on other tools and such that I found very fun to learn (build tools, TypeScript, CI/CD pipelines, etc). You may or may not have heard of those things, but I will tell you this: If you want a job in this field, you'll have to know what those things are, and Codesmith does a greatjob of preparing you.

While this program was incredible and very worth my money/time, I only have two criticisms of it: (1) There is somewhat of a lack of real-world preparation. Sure, Codesmith gives you valuable experiences that help you in the real world, but there are many aspects of being a software engineer that Codesmith simply doesn't teach you about. This includes Agile methodology, scrum meetings, tickets, backlogs, sprints, etc. While you may or may not have heard of these terms, they are absolute backbones to this field, and Codesmith never really spoke about any of them. (2) The other criticism I had is that several of the people delivering "career advice" on software engineer job interviewing and salary negotiation, or who offered career support, weren't even in the field of software engineering. Like, really? While the staff who offered advice on this stuff were helpful -- how can I take advice on software engineering interview best practices and salary negotiation from some 24-year-old who's never had a software engineering role in their lives, and is far less knowledgeable than myself? Not to sound ageist or snobby, but I'd much rather take that kind of advice from someone who not only works in the field, but has for a long time. This is surely not unreasonable, especially considering I'm shelling out $20k, the price of a college degree. And I've noticed that, at least in my cohort, this lack of experienced staff was a bit of a pattern I started to notice towards the end (the guy offering weekly salary negotiation lectures in software engineering never worked a software engineering role in his life and was simply giving "general advice" ... no thanks!).

Criticisms aside, this program is the way to go. I've met plenty of people who've come from different programs, and based on what they've all said, this is the best one. You're well-prepared, immersed deeply, and will have a ton of fun becoming an analytical, efficient and empathetic engineer. I wouldn't have done it any other way. Having landed a job after 2 months post-graduation, I can say that the skills I used to interview almost entirely came from my experience at Codesmith.

The results speak for themselves, and luckily it did for me too.
I was not hired by Codesmith at any point so I hope my perspective can offer meaningful insight. I’ll be as honest as possible, including the parts I thought were challenging. Nothing is ever perfect, but rest assured - I highly recommend Codesmith, and I’m glad I chose Codesmith over other programs.
Like with any learning institution, simply completing it will not itself guarantee a job. Instead, Codesmith gives you every tool, resource and support you need to push yourself to the place you want - which is no small feat. I’d also give a fair warning that you have to be in a physically and mentally prepared place to complete the program. I couldn't have done this without my partner and family's support. 
A little background: I started the career transition process a little over a year ago. My path is completely non-traditional (although I was on a STEM/engineering track for a while until I decided against it mid-undergrad... but now, I am at a different point in life). Last June, I started taking some informal computer science classes and tutorials, attending Codesmith's free workshops and their JavaScript for Beginners course. I really liked the teaching style and was impressed by their strong outcomes, so I began preparing to get into Codesmith. I took CS Prep, and completed their online resource CSX which dived deeper into JavaScript. Passed the interview, and was excited to finally begin. 
A lot of prep work - but necessary! This review will be long, so bear with me. 
CURRICULUM Codesmith's curriculum uses a modern technology stack and teaches you basically everything you need to get the foot in the door for many mid-senior level places. 

• There is zero handholding not only in the curriculum, but throughout the duration of the program. This is both a good and bad thing, but mostly good. Bad because it’s hard, and good because it prepares you to navigate ambiguity in the real world. In other words, Codesmith's teaching style encourages you to learn by doing, which in my opinion allows for the course material to actually stay with you.
• Each lesson, you are provided with a short, higher-level overview and demo of a specific topic before being thrown right in. The demo only gives you a taste of what’s to come - the assignments (which you pair program on) is where you struggle the most, but also learn the most. 
• After you work through as much as you can with your partner, the instructors hold a session where they walk everyone through the solution, and suddenly things start making a lot more sense. I really liked this approach and I thought it was extremely effective. 

PROJECT PHASE (OPEN SOURCE PRODUCT)The second part of the program (project phase) may require you to put in even more hours, but at the same time is way more fun. You finally get to build things you can be proud of and put on your resume. 

• Most projects are team-based (4-5 people per team), and only one (the first one) is solo. The final one - the Open Source Product (OSP) - is an excellent, unique chance to gain some real experience on how to develop and release something that everyday developers will use in a practical sense. 
• For the OSP, you can really prioritize software design, infrastructure and best engineering practices here (pipelines, version control, testing, code architecture and system design, Agile methodology, etc.) and learn some additional highly marketable technologies quite deeply to bolster your resume and talk about during your interview. 
• I personally poured my heart and soul into the OSP. The results were fruitful and helped plenty down the line during my job search. 

COMMUNITYBesides the curriculum and projects, Codesmith really centers itself around ego-less and empathetic engineering. 

• The instructors and staff are extremely kind and truly care about your learning experience and growth as an engineer. 
• There were optional fun activities, socials and even a women/non-binary space throughout the program! Codesmith genuinely tries to foster a safe and supportive environment, and I've made wonderful friends through this experience. 
• You also get access to the alumni space after you graduate. 

HIRING SUPPORTThe hiring portion is good, but I struggled with this the most. 

• What I really loved was the actual resume reviews/edits, hiring support engineers who help you 1-1, negotiation strategies, designing your narrative and practicing it, and the larger alumni network. All incredibly valuable and sealed the deal for me. 
• While Codesmith offers you the knowledge you need to build practical engineering skills and have relevant items to list in your resume and talk about in your interviews (which is impressive), it does not provide you the loads of practice you might need to actually get through interviews. I'm emphasizing this because I personally wanted structured practice during the program. In my ideal world, I think Codesmith's hiring portion could have been less “trust the process,” at least a month total with continued structure. But I will say everyone’s experiences vary, so what’s true for me may not be true for someone else.

POST-GRADUATIONAfter the hiring program, you graduate. Now, you have your cohort support group and access to the entire alumni network. You can ask for resources, advice, networking and emotional support. 

• I thought I’d put in effort during the program, but it was nowhere as difficult as the job search. This isn't to scare anyone - but it's the reality, especially for those with non-traditional backgrounds. 
• I was ready for it, though. At the end of the day, this was a 180 degree career transition for me and I know it could have been so much more difficult otherwise. I was willing to put up with anything. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard and mentally draining!
• For me, the "practice" I mentioned earlier spanned across months, unstructured because it was 100% dependent on how many mock interviews I could schedule + how many real phone screens and technicals I could get. The no-handholding part was brutal for me until hire.
• You have to seek it all out and learn on your own, especially in areas you're not too confident about (thankfully, your peers and other grads will be on a similar timeline, so you’ll be able to support each other). For instance, for me the data structures and algorithms curriculum was nowhere near enough to be prepared for Leetcode-style interview questions. 

Things you’ll have to do on your own time until you land a job, with resources but without any of Codesmith's programmatic structure:

• Grinding Leetcode, diving deeper into system design, or doing code reviews / pair programming / mock interviews with other grads. (My advice: Locate where you're hitting a wall, isolate the issue and learn/practice what to do next time. Debugging in real life.)
• Outside of technical prep, I had to edit my narrative many times, which I only knew how by putting myself out there. This meant diving head-first into the phone screenings, failing them and/or realizing "oh I should have said this, not that," debriefing and getting feedback from other grads about my answers, and so on. 
• The interviews you do become new sources of learning, iteration and continuous improvement. This is especially relevant for those like me, who may not be the most natural at interviewing. The more you do, the more at ease you become and the better it gets. 

OVERALL -  YES, GO FOR ITAll in all, Codesmith’s approach works. What stood out to me was: 

1. Learning, but also learning how to learn new technologies
2. Pair programming, ego-less and empathetic engineering
3. Sincerely supportive staff who care about your growth during the program, and after you graduate
4. Adapting, wearing multiple hats, making tough decisions in the face of ambiguity and using best engineering practices while working in teams on a product - reflecting a real engineering work environment
5. Thorough resume/LinkedIn reviews and job search resources
6. Designing your narrative for interviews and tips on how to talk about your past projects (especially something as impressive as the OSP)
7. Alumni network and the option to have 1-1 support from engineers who have hiring experience

Eventually, about five months after graduating the program - after hundreds of applications, countless rejections, and a lot of learning - I was able to land a pretty sweet role that I'm excited about. 
Looking back, I’m glad to have chosen Codesmith based on the positive experience I had - plus personally experiencing the result it boasts of. It will be HARD but certainly worth it if you're ready to take the leap. Without hesitation, I'd recommend Codesmith to anyone serious about a career change.

I went through Codesmith from a non-technical background and it was a great experience and definitely set me up for success in getting a job as a software engineer. I would not have learned even a fraction of the skills if I had tried to do it on my own. The Codesmith community is no joke either -- everyone is helpful and encouraging, and it makes the experience that much better. Definitely worth the time and money spent to change careers and enter an industry I would have had no chance of being a part of.

After going through the full-time immersive program, I can confidently say that Codesmith was the best choice of bootcamps and it absolutely changed my life. 

I come from an engineering background and like many others, I shopped around quite a bit before deciding on the right program. Codesmith caught my eye because of its high bar for entry, its curriculum and tech stack, its resources including CSX and hard-parts lectures, and its amazing outcomes from testimonials and CIRR reports. However, what really sold me on Codesmith above all other reasons was its community. I became part of such a welcoming, friendly, and smart community that all had an interest in bettering themselves and everyone around them from my first day of joining the CSX Slack channel. And that community was present throughout my first hard-parts lectures, my CSPrep class, my immersive program graduation, my hiring support, and into today. The community remains a huge part of my life and I have made wonderful connections and friends throughout my time.

So much could be said of why Codesmith is so successful, but I truly believe that they have captured lightning in a bottle. The community that I mentioned is the first part of that. The curriculum is intense and focused on modern tech stacks, in-depth topics of learning, and hands-off approaches that force the students to learn to learn.  The program also focuses on building passion projects and involving the students in open source work that is both challenging and teaching moments for the students, but also marketable in the job search as proof of problem-solving at the forefront of the current developer environment. The last piece that brings it all together is the amazing hiring support that Codesmith provides for its alumni. It is for life, on-demand, informed, and invested in the graduates' success. I personally had connections I made through the program willing to help me make connections to secure referrals and get me noticed.

Codesmith made me a software engineer. I would not change anything about my experience and would recommend Codesmith to anyone looking to follow the same path.

This course did not prep me for the technical interview. I dislike that it was advertised by codesmith that it will aid you in the technical interview. The instructor was good but the material wasn't that helpful. You do have pair programming but the first week was about 15mins and the final week was ~45mins. Its not helpful if a lot of your other classates are beginners.

1. Skip this class if you are unsure if you want to join codesmith
2. Do csx, freecodecamp and leetcode if you want to do well on technical interview

Overall a fantastic experience. Curriculum was very thoughtfully constructed.
Algorithm approaches could have had a bit more structure in terms of introducing specific techniques with which to solve certain types of problems. Deployment / testing was not a focus, which I think occasionaly makes it quite easy for recruiters to filter graduates as coming from a bootcamp paradigm. 
But, coming from a non-technical background, I now earn $180k TC, having graduated a couple of months ago. I was pretty cynical going in, but if you’re not scared of hard work, the process delivers solid results.

I graduated from Codesmith last May.  Having now worked as an engineer for a full year, I can unequivocally say that Codesmith is not just a program that will get you your first job, but a solid platform for the rest of your career.  

- Even though I've already graduated from the program, every Codesmith instructor / advisor / coordinator have all been extremely open to providing great guidance and resources whenever I reached out, even though they really didn't have to (special thanks to Eric & Annie!).  They really view the program as a community, and it shows.
- The alumni network is phenomenal.   Whenever I need any career-related advice, contacts at certain companies or how to navigate a work situation, I know I can reach out to the alumni slack/discord and there will always be multiple alums eager to help me out or share insights.  Codesmith has a way of getting together people who are genuine, collaborative & kind.  As a career switcher w/o a lot of school friends in the industry, the alumni network has been invaluable. 
- Codesmith's emphasis on communication & collaboration truly sets you up for long-term success as an engineer.  I know many cohortmates & alums who are extremely successful in their engineering careers, be it getting promoted in their respective companies and/or getting great offers for their second/third roles.  I attribute a lot of it to how Codesmith provides the correct perspective on what being an effective engineer actually means.  This also goes back to the value of the alumni network -- though the program is not very old, many alums are already very senior engineers, and are fantastic contacts & resource for everyone.

I would absolutely recommend Codesmith to anyone who wants a solid platform for the rest of the engineering career.  Yes it will get you your first engineering job, but it will continue to pay dividends long after you graduate.

I'm usually wary of reviews that have only positive things to say, but it's difficult for me to denote anything intrinsically wrong with Codesmith.

In essence, you don't need a bootcamp to get a job, all the information necessary to get a job exist if you're driven to find it. But what Codesmith offers, which I don't believe you can find anywhere else (except, perhaps, another exceptional bootcamp. This is my only experience so it's all I can speak to) is the community. I was wary of joining an online immersive, but I developed strong bonds with the other residents, we all struggled and succeeded together. From the core curriculum to the hiring process, we stuck together and looked out for each other. That community is largely responsible for my success, and Codesmith is intentional about building that community, my experience wasn't an anomoly.

In terms of the hiring process, the hiring-support team were worth the 20K price tag alone. Eric Kirsten heads the salary negotiation and job search strategy lectures, and that lecture alone got me a 10K signing bonus. In every stage of the process, they were present and helpful, at no point did I feel abandoned or alone in the search.