Coding Dojo

I look back at my time at Coding Dojo with great gratitude. Three and a half month bootcamp starting out with a Web Fundamentals course. I then moved on to Python, followed by C# and finished with my favorite, the MEAN stack. I went in with ZERO experience, computers and I did not get along. I left coding dojo as a self sufficient developer.

My cohort in all 3 stacks were amazing people, eager to learn and put in the hard work (A lot of hours!). Those that did not succeed, or had a hard time with the program where usually ones that you would find talking about irrelevent topics throughout the day, or would complain that the work was too complicated. On the other hand, I surrounded myself with what I termed "the winners". Those people were determined, and didn't allow a bug to ruin their day or have the thought cross their mind "this is impossible". They worked through it, searched through stack overflow, and grinded to find a way to make it work... Many people will complain that the TA's don't give much help, but, that's the point, at Coding Dojo the TA's are there to guide you, not give you the answer. Maybe, they don't know the answer, but, they will tell you the keys in uncovering possibilities to FIND the answer.

The struggle will lead to growth, and you will have many "uh huh" moments, where you uncover a bug, or find a new way of doing things. It is very difficult, but, if you are willing to put in the hours. I would recommend between 70-90 hours a week, then you will become a self-sufficient developer in due time. You are going to want to quit sometimes, but, just fight through it...

I really wish I could go back and do the bootcamp now, with the knowledge I have now. It was just an amazing experience. The first hour of the morning is spent doing algorithms. DO NOT be afraid to ask questions, many people around you are thinking the same thing. ASK ASK ASK! Don't be embarrased. It is complicated stuff, but, the more you immerse yourself in this program and ask what you think might be 'dumb' questions, the more you will grow. PUT THE WORK IN! The staff is great, they are there to guide you, and want to see you grow! 

Before Coding Dojo, I worked a part-time retail job. I decided to go to Coding Dojo because I had a strong passion for coding but wanted a better understanding of how people in the real world do it. They taught me me how to code on my own, by pushing me to learn in a way that would sustain me for my life-long career. Now I work as a front-end developer for ABI Insurance. I do meaningful work everyday that allows me to feel accomplished and I never get bored. I no longer work a dead end job, and work doing something I truly enjoy doing becuase I learned to code at coding dojo. 

I didn't come with much of a computer science background. In fact I was a project manager for tech companies (never coded). I liked Coding Dojo because they covered multiple different languages when so many of these schools only seemed to cover JavaScript. Also, tuition was cheaper than most other I've seen so that was super nice.

Yes, job hunt will be rough. Luckily, I actually found an internship right after school to get some experience and just recently landed a full time job ~3 months months after graduation. If I could do it, anyone could do it.

A year after graduating with a finance degree and working as  investment analyst, I knew I had made the wrong choice in respect to a career path (to be completely honest, I knew I made the wrong choice in my penultimate semester). I always had a passion for technology and computers, and after taking some courses during college that required some light programming, I fell in love with coding. I began trying to learn to code on my own and quickly realized with an abundance of information that was avaialbe to me from all sources, I needed some structure. That is when I began researching coding bootcamps and came across Coding Dojo. After reading plenty of reviews and success stories, along witht  the great curriculum that Coding Dojo offers, I decided to apply and enroll in the online program (as I was workign full-time). BEST DECISION I HAVE EVER MADE!

The online program offered the flexibility that I needed as welll as not breaking the bank (Did I mention scholarships?). The instructors were amazing at breaking down concepts in laymans terms. The amount of resources Coding Dojo provides is fantastic. The online program course was mostly self-driven but instructors were always availble to help outside of lectures. In addition, you are connected with the dojo community (instructors, students, and alumni) so there is always someone to help you when you're struggling. The career services Coding Dojo offers really prepares you for your job search as well as offers assitance in landing a position. 

YOU WILL LEARN A LOT...NOT EVERYTHING...BUT A LOT. By the end of this program, you will be a self-sufficient FULL-STACK developer able to create your own websites, applications, etc. That being said, this program isn't a walk in the park, especially the online program. You really need to have a passion for coding as well as good discipline to keep up with assignments and projects.  My most memorable quote from my first lecture was "You will get out of this program what you put in". Truer words could not have been spoken. If coding is something you really want to do, whether your an existing programmer looking to learn new technologies or someone like me who had little-to-no prior programming experience, I wouldn't go any other way but with Coding Dojo. 

Nine months later from the start of the program, I was offered my first developer postion. Currently, I absolutely love my job and love what I do.  Looking back at the start of my journey and the transformation I made is mind-blowing. I am proficient in multiple technologies and built my own websites and applications from scratch. Now at my job I am learning a new technology stack and I can't even begin to tell you how well Coding Dojo has prepared me for this role. 

Coding Dojo is the way to go! You'll be a Ninja before you know it!

Before Coding Dojo, I was attended a public college to learn coding. In addition, I was trying to learn myself and was assisting a friend of mine who is a freelance developer in simple tasks. I knew about Coding Dojo, but I always thought the self-studying and the college classes were enough for improvement. In contrast, my expectations did not become reality as I was not improving and was continuing doing simple tasks. After carefully examining the Coding Dojo`s curriculum, I applied for Coding Dojo in October 2017. Even after the first belt exam, I had a deep understanding of how full stack development works. Now not only can I work with the tools that I was taught at Coding Dojo, but also with tools that I have never used before. This is possible because I know the concepts of full stack development which was provided by Coding Dojo. 

At the beginning of taking the course I was excited and eager to learn but didn’t know exactly what to expect. The teaching approach was the most impactful because it taught me how to learn rather than just the abc building blocks and be on your way. This changed the way I evaluate and learn new things. I was able to take my python skills that I was taught and apply them to finance and the stock market (with additional study for that specific area) and apply simple to more complex algorithms in quantitative analysis. Also Wes’s extra walkthrough’s of the algo book they recommend was incredibly helpful in understanding new concepts. They have some good people who care and I thank the team for their time with me. 

I decided to attend Coding Dojo as an alternative to University primarily because of the cost and it is, without a doubt, one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I had dabbled in programming a little bit and even took a C++ course in community college, but I had almost no knowledge of what I was getting into. I decided to take some of the free courses (Web Fundamentals and Algorithms I-IV) provided by Coding Dojo as preliminary courses and really felt welcomed by the instructors (Speros and Jason). It was a great precursor because I found that after I started Coding Dojo, I had the same feeling. Instead of just coasting through the Web Fundamentals portion (since I had taken the class before the program started), I helped the class as much as I could. This proved to be a great solidifier for my learning, so I continued to do so throughout the program and three days before the program ended, I got a job as a Systems Engineer.

My fellow cohorts, instructors, and the TA’s were instrumental in my completing the course and without them, I don’t think I would have gotten a job so soon. In particular, Wes Harper, Jason Franz, and Minh Nguyen were always there to assist me if I needed it. I can’t thank them or Coding Dojo enough for how my life has changed!

The 14 week on-site full stack developer program was very challenging and taught you the basics of 3 different stacks. During my time as a student I was able to learn Python, JavaScript, and Swift as well as their surrounding topics. As a full-stack developer, I am able to deploy a full website from client to server to database. With each language, we learned a multitude of supplementary skills such as responsive web design and front-end frameworks like Flask, Django, and Angular. In the iOS stack I learned how to use local storage and make apps I could personally use. If given the chance to polish up my project, I would proudly deploy it to the Apple App Store.

A majority of the curriculum is stressed on Algorithms and Data Structures, which in the end will land you a job (during the technical interview phase). Every morning, we do algorithms to imitate a real life interview situation.

What I gained from Coding Dojo, is not only the skills needed in today's tech climate, but the ability to learn on my own and to pick up new skills that will help me land a job. After Coding Dojo, I took up freelance developing where I was able to expand my knowledge and learn new frameworks like React.

I decided to dive into the tech world after many years of getting by with my two former jobs. Don't get me wrong I loved what I did, Oral Surgeon's assistant and Youth Pastor, but in the area I was living, with a second kid on the way, it just wasn't a great outlook. I saw that the tech world provided growth and stability and after several unsuccessful months of job applying and hearing that I just needed more skills I decided to take a leap into one of these coding boot camps. A friend had ushered me towards Coding Dojo and I didn't have to look back. I was apprehensive and anxious arriving on my first day but soon found that this was a great place to learn and struggle through problems with peers. The only experience that I brought to the table was some HTML/CSS that I had done in high school, which I was 15 years removed from, alongside some computer graphics classes that I had taken as well. Coding Dojo does a great job of giving an intuitive platform with just clear enough instructions that you're not spoon-fed everything. They put into place great instructors, can't say enough about Gikuyu Nderitu (D2) and Anthony Morris (Tony), whose goals were to not just have us complete the material, but really understand and struggle through understanding what it was we were building. I definitely appreciated both D2 and Tony, who instead of giving us answers to our questions gave us more questions to help us find our own way to the answer. One of the things I've learned through this process is that through struggle and the intentional gaps in the platform an exponential amount of learning was provided, though at the time it was a pain. After the immersive 14 weeks, they even help you decompress and set you up with success by providing you with an on-site career advisor. You take a week with your cohort to normalize yourself and begin to sharpen all your tools to take into the job market. Herman Pryor did a tremendous job building up our confidence to realize what it was we just went through. I cannot compliment him enough in the work he does for the students at the Coding Dojo. The wonderful people that were at the Coding Dojo help invested in my future and I will always be grateful for the job that they did.

I attended Coding Dojo in 2016. It was a good environment and my cohort was full of great people. The programming knowledge you can learn here is real. There is algorithm practice every morning, informative lectures, and challenging course work. The campus is open to students 24/7 so you can spend as much time as you need studying on campus, which can be very helpful if you don't have a good study space at home.

From my experience, hard working people succeed here. The people who always come to morning algorithms, spend extra time studying, and work together with other students on algorithms and exercises.

After graduation, Coding Dojo's career services department will actively send you information about job opportunities and if you want they will always be willing to meet with you to talk about your job hunt.

In my opinion, the biggest strength of Coding Dojo's curriculum is JavaScript. If you are interested in web development using JavaScript, this is a fantastic bootcamp.

I graduated in Sept '18 and they taught 3 stacks in preparation for employment as a full stack/ web developer. It requires a full time commitment and the instructors provide assistance to complete the course. I don't have enough experience yet to comment on their career assistance.

Coding Dojo can help you learn what you would have taken you years to learn in few months. The structured currilculum and time crunch to stay up with the rest of the cohort will drive you to accomplish this. Throughout the Bootcamp you have to work harder than you’ve ever worked before. You will be frustrated when you spend long hours fixing one problem but once you fix your problem, you will have incredible sense of accomplishment. You will be ready to move on to next challenge. You should chose to do this bootcamp only if you can give 100%. They offer 3 stacks. It's pretty challenging and can get overwhelming. You have to put in so many hours orelse you are not getting the most of the bootcamp. The best part of the bootcamp will be your cohort mates. It's very important to know them because they will be your partners in struggle for the next few months. Coding Dojo has a 20 min rule. You will have to struggle for 20mins before you go for help. The instructors will not help you before the 20 min rule. After 20 mins, you will have to approach your cohort mates for help. This will help you verbalize your problem. This will also help your cohort mates verbalize their solution. For me, this is the best part of the bootcamp. After you and two other cohort mates after struggle but couldnt fix your problem, instructors will provide their help. 

Once you graduate out of the bootcamp, they have solid career services and one year residency program. They also provide workshops based on alumni requests. They have algorithm whiteboarding for alumni once every week. Please dont join the bootcamp expecting there will be a job waiting for you upon graduation. You have to work lot harder once you graduate and please dont expect more than an entry level position.

I had a fairly good time at Coding Dojo. Asking for help and learning from your cohort mates will get you a long way. You will a LOT of skills in a short time, skills that may take several months to learn by yourself.

PROS:
- Learn how to make fully developed web application/apps in only few days. If we were on our own, it could take months to learn!
-Become an indepent developer.
- Exposure to many different technologies
- Peers willing to help and work together
- The technologies and skills you learn will help gain interest of many recruiters.

CONS:
-not enough practice for algorithm challenges for job interview

It was certainly an amazing experience. What they say from the very beginning (actually, from the first time you go there for a campus visit) is that the course is very intensive, and students should expect to put around 60-80 hours of work every single week. It seems like a lot, but I tell you that those hours go by so fast (specially during exams where you can swear an hour goes by every 5 minutes of work done) that you barely notice. The fact that Coding Dojo teaches 3 full-stacks instead of just 1 it is a huge plus. I have very fond memories of arriving at 5am on campus to start studing while everything was still dark, fueled by cold coffee from an Starbucks nearby and peanut bars from the kitchen drawer. I highly encourage everyone who are considering joininng a coding bootcamp to at least make one visit to Coding Dojo to check it out. Have to mention Donald, my campus career services manager, for always being there whenever I needed his help. 

Looking back, most of my frustration with Coding Dojo can be attributed to the way it was marketed. Be wary of the 'zero-to-hero' promises. They can't teach everyone to code and you won't be hounded with job offers after you graduate. Most importantly, you won’t just ‘Become a Software Developer in 14 weeks.’ You’ll have had a very rushed, crash course with sizable price-tag. 

Yes, you'll learn a lot, but I'm not sure that you'll learn very efficiently - and no, you won't stack up to someone with a CS degree. Much of Coding Dojo's curriculum is internally focused and tends to follow more of an inductive reasoning pattern. They'll spend a lot of time focused on semantics, and language-specific syntax, and breeze through concepts. They continually emphasize that they're teaching self-sufficiency - more accurately, they'll avoid teaching. The curriculum focuses on outdated versions (unavoidable to some degree), but this becomes a problem when they emphasize language specifics over concepts. You’ll learn some basic debugging methods, and get great at copying and pasting code. The pace just doesn’t afford much time for foundational understanding. Regardless of whether you get it or not, you have to keep moving. Honestly, If you're disciplined enough, and can afford to, you may be better off devoting the time you would spend at Coding Dojo to working through learning plans on Pluralsight (or some other online learning platform).

You probably won't find a job as quickly as you think. I saw a recent stat that showed the majority of attending students hold degrees from an accredited university as well. Most of the marketed graduate employment stats are misleading. As a military veteran and a graduate of the program (with some prior university experience), I struggled to even get interviews. A degree, unfortunately, still seems to be one of the biggest factors in finding employment. Coding Dojo alone is not an effective alternative to a traditional degree (though their marketing may convince you otherwise), and at its price point, I don’t believe it’s even a worthwhile addition. The quality just isn’t there. So, for those looking to avoid the traditional approach to a CS degree, I'd advise you keep looking.

Additionally, much of the Coding Dojo staff consists of prior students (red flag) - but that’s not something you know prior to enrollment. You are told you’ll be taught by “industry professionals.” Don't get me wrong - I really enjoyed being around most of the Dojo staff, but they seriously lacked the technical experience I was led to believe that they had. Most hadn't worked as developers outside of Coding Dojo.

Post-grad, I am full of regret and stressed due to the burdensome loan. I finally found an internship through some other connections (I got lucky) - still don't feel qualified.

TLDR - The program isn't accurately marketed. The curriculum is lacking, and most of the promises made are not promises they can make. If you're considering this program as an alternative to pursuing a traditional CS degree, don't. If you have plenty of prior experience and want a crash course on some unfamiliar tech (and happen to have a spare 20 grand laying around), go for it

Although Marketed, it does not replace a CS degree. There are basic fundamentals a CS degree covers that you do not within the boot camp.  You do learn some fundamentals in terms of the three Stacks, however I felt that the curriculum could use an update as some material is outdated. However it is dependent on who your instructor is, if they are bad you are going to have issues. It should be noted that most of the instructors don't have direct industry knowledge. Most are graduates of the program. Don't get me wrong, they still can be very knowledgeable.   You do much of the learning with your group via "strength through struggle." However I highly recommend going through the fundamentals of the languages you want to learn before coming to the boot camp. Be prepared to spend at least 80-90 hours a week studying the material if you are going to come to class.  Although you will be more prepared after leaving the boot-camp. You will have to make it a habit to spend time to continue to better yourself. I wish they would have focused on two stacks instead of three to give more time to have those building blocks and fundamentals of those two stacks instead of cramming three into 14 weeks.  The career adviser is very good in terms of fixing resumes and helping you prepare for mock interviews. This is a plus if you struggle with these things. Although I got a job in the field after graduating, I just feel my experiences could have been better. 

At the dojo, there's no room for excuses. You get your money's worth and a little more. I travelled from a different country especially for Dojo's fullstack course, and returned as not only a software developer but a critical thinker too. The community at the Dojo is very refreshing and welcoming and the atmosphere gets you to push yourself to get where you need to be. 120% would recommend it to anyone!

I attended the Chicago onsite bootcamp about a year and a half ago and I haven't regretted my decision at all. The instructors are all very knowledgeable and helpful and the program is set up to help students succeed, both in understanding the material and securing a job post-graduation.  The career coach at my location, Donald, was very thorough and approachable; I consider career week one of the best aspects of the program itself. The curriculum is constantly changing which can be a little tough to navigate as a student sometimes, but I graduated having learned so much about the languages and about myself that overall it wasn't an issue. I'd recommend this program to anyone interested in coding or looking for a career change.