Coding Temple

If you are undecided about Coding Temple, I'll let you know now that the investment is worth it. You can really get job offers after the bootcamp. In around 3 months, more than half of my class already got their job offers in related fields, that's excellent comparing to other schools (ncluding another bootcamp I attended that majority didn't get jobs after graduation). Also, my instructor Nate is very patient, nonjudgemental, and knowledgable, I also got a technical issue during my time at the bootcamp but he would always stay after to help me fix them, thanks Nate you deserves a promotion!

I completed my graduation project yesterday and will be graduating from Coding Temple. I  am transitioning back to civilian life as I prepare to leave the Air Force. Whether you’re a veteran like myself, a civilian tired of working jobs that are meaningless to you (whether you’ve been stuck in retail etc), or maybe you’ve never had career experience and want a new job, the one thing we share is I’m leaving a career/job, I’m going back to ground zero, and coding was the “in” that I was sold on. If you’re one of the many, you’ll see ads for bootcamps as a way into tech, and I’m excited to say that they’re right. I don’t have a job yet, this is my weekend off since I just graduated, Sam and Devon were my teachers and they were amazing. I’m going to walk you through my full experience at Coding Temple from joining to graduating, I’ll write this in sections to make it more digestible. If you’re in the military or are a veteran seeking to use your GI Bill please read the end for additional info.

Required Hours & Class Schedule

Our class started with what 10 people, and we graduated with 5. Ensure that you are ready to take on what it means to do this.

Before we start let me get this question out of the way—what are the hours like for class/cohort prep, and what did a normal class day look like?

I spent 80+ hours prepping for pre-work just the first week alone, but I only gave myself a little more than a week as that’s when I decided to enroll in my cohort. The full time program was Monday-Friday and usually started at 9:30 CST ending roughly around 3:30-4:00 most days. If class ended a bit earlier we would usually stay in the Zoom until 3:30/4, complete work, and the instructors would be available via Slack until 5 for questions. I often worked really late into the night. After that you have night TA’s which are great, and there for you, however it’s a good idea to slowly ween off needing the TA’s for much help in my opinion, if you need them for homework etc of course that’s what they’re there for but eventually start pushing more to do things yourself (you CAN do it!). You’ll be doing homework practically every night which can take hours, and will have weekend projects due the next Monday. Always make sure to turn in homework the next morning, just don’t get behind in assignments, especially Codewars. Keep to a schedule and complete all work and Codewars before you graduate. You’ll thank yourself. Will this impact your life, mmm yes. Can you do things outside of it well that depends, how much do you want to get out of this experience? Stay healthy, drink water, get a schedule, workout, keep yourself right. Because I and 3 other close friends who graduated with me fully submersed ourselves into this thing. It will eat up all your time, but like the military in my opinion that’s what a bootcamp does. Class varies week by week, they’re always changing things at Coding Temple so what you cover, for how long, etc may vary from what we did. Look at the weeks on their site to get an idea of technologies you’ll cover. Look up imposter syndrome, first off never compare yourself to others, and second of all don’t worry. When you’re in the middle of the program you will think…DOES this click, will it click? I now UNDERSTAND code, it’s so weird how you’ll understand it and can now learn it yourself, this is the most important thing. You will not learn everything in terms of being extremely proficient, you cover so much in this bootcamp week after week. This exposes you to technologies and your instructors teach you how to teach yourself. Now that I’ve graduated I realize I can teach myself because I was taught by CodingTemple. Had I tried doing this by myself outside of a cohort, I can’t even fathom the year or year+ that it would have taken me to understand how to learn to code. Don’t be hard on yourself, you’ll be exposed to so much material, do your best, put in the hours, make friends with your classmates, and maybe purchase a Zoom membership to work with eachother — I did and that $30 I spent was worth it.

Python & HTML/CSS Pre-Work

When you finally decide and choose to go Coding Temple make sure that your cohort date is far enough that you can review your prework and have ample time to study. I’d say leave yourself one month (if possible)—I had about a week and a half, and another one of my friends only had two days? (he supplemented his prework with the first week of class—that must have been rough). You’ll have to read through a crash course Python book (provided by Coding Temple) and do their Python, HTML/CSS assignments. You want to have a good foundation for Python, it will make the learning experience better for you 1000%. However as I said, I only had a week to review and easily put 80+ hours in the first week of pre-work.

HTML/CSS Week

You’re going to learn to build websites. Week one was as you’d expect, my sites were no bueno haha. My graduation project though, wow my site looks too KLEEN. You’ll learn to love it, and I don’t think I’m even favoring front-end over back-end work. Maybe I like both? But nonetheless you’ll end up building sites and styling them. This was a fun week and honestly working on project websites was an important time to bond with classmates and really aim to develop those relationships. Please don’t be that class mate that doesn’t want to get to know your team members, you’re going to need friends to go through this with, you’re going through the same challenges, and not only will you learn from one another but you’ll be there to support each other. 

Python Week(s)

Python will be your primary language but you’ll also cover JavaScript after this. You’re going to do whiteboards every morning of every week of class, in Python. Whiteboards are preparing you for interviews, you’ll take turns each morning of the class week and will work on a problem in front of your classmates. You’ll learn to break down a problem, what you have to do, and code it. You’re going to cover all your pre-work material during Python week and then some. 

JavaScript Week

Wow Python-JavaScript brain is a thing. I worked on a whiteboard and started writing a combination of both languages. I’ll be working more on JavaScript now that I’ve graduated but this week is like the others, a good experience in being exposed to more things.

Flask/React Weeks

No slacking these weeks, these are likely the most time/content intensive weeks out of the cohort. Some opinion may vary, Flask is harder than React or vice versa, pay attention, do your assignments/projects, and I recommend that you determine which you like more and pay attention to what you do these weeks. You’ll be repeating very similar practices for your graduation project ! You’ll either create a react app, a react app that can lightly integrate Flask, or solely a Flask app (which is what I did). 

Numpy, Pandas, etc. (Data Science)

Some people want to become data scientists/analysts and may not want to become software engineers this may cover the lessons for you. If you want to be one of those people who plays with data for a living pay attention to some of the data manipulation you do this week. Start thinking about what jobs you’d like to pursue if you really like this week. Maybe you’ll want to apply to all jobs front/back-end and even data science. 

Graduation Project

As I mentioned you’ll build an app. I believe I started working two weeks out from graduation on mine in addition to taking class. This project is very important. You may not finish everything that you’d like, but I did what I wanted and this is one of the primary things you’ll outline in your software engineer resume.

Career Assistance

I can’t wait to work with Marlene, she is amazing. She’ll help you write your resume and all the things with lifetime career assistance, which was a big reason I joined. You’ll start working with her a week or two before you graduate on resume writing then you’ll dive in after you graduate and apply to jobs.

Graduates

So you’ve graduated, Coding Temple will then move you into their alumni group and will give you access to be part of the network of other graduates, and have interview prep, etc. I look forward to this!

Conclusion 

All in all, I knew nothing about coding when I started, and now I can teach myself how to code. I’ve learned so much, and had exposure to things in a curriculum that I never would have understood to put together myself. I feel that with my previous job experience, with how I can sell myself, and how I can communicate the experience that I’ve had at Coding Temple that I will be able to find a job. Before I even graduated I’ve had people reach out to me via LinkedIn requesting my application. I leave you with: 

def shouldijoin(answer)

if answer == yes:

     print(“You should join Coding Temple.”)

shouldijoin(yes)


GI Bill Benefits

(If you’re in the military or are a veteran and want to use your G.I. Bill try to get in touch with Ryan Butz at Coding Temple. Your VA payment to Coding Temple should be easy—mine didn’t process for a couple months because of a misunderstanding, but I then got in touch with Ryan and he took care of me quick (2-3 days VA confirmation quick)—thank you Ryan and Nicole is amazing by the way! Apply for your eligibility on VA.gov, and once the VA mails you your certificate of eligibility in the mail, then fill out Coding Temples paperwork. Ryan gave me the enrollment certification form to fill out. 

Very good program. I graduated from the 10 week full-stack online course. One thing I can safely say it that you need to commit all your time to this program. Having any type of job during this bootcamp is a bad idea. This bootcamp will demand all of your free time, especially in the case where you have no prior coding experience. My instructor was Terrell McKinney supported by Ryan Rhoades, both instructors were very friendly, easy to work with, and helpful. After graduating the bootcamp there is ample job search support. Another thing I would like to mention is Coding Temple attitude at constantly improving. Since graduating they are steadily adding more resources and as a graduate that is much appreciated.

After spending 3.5+ years in financial client service, I was ready to try a something new. Thanks to Coding Temple for providing the perfect opportunity to learn to code and completely rebrand myself. Coding Temple provides boot camp students with fantastic and friendly personal connections. My instructor Terrell McKinney did a great job going through a comprehensive curriculum with us and my TAs Ryan Rhoades and John Loveland were a blast to work with. There are also evening and weekend TAs to make sure you are always able to get help when you need it. We cover lots of technologies, but just to name a few, GitHub, Python, SQL, RESTful APIs, Flask, TypeScript React, JavaScript, Numerical Python, Python Pandas, etc. After the completion of the ten week program, students who complete the course with sufficient proficiency (plenty of support to achieve this if you simply commit to it!) are presented with a truly impressive array of job-seeking tools, including professional mock interviews through Skilled Inc and a comprehensive job board with Huntr. Plenty of guest speakers from all over the industry are invited in and they are truly inspiring and helpful for the beginning of a software engineer's journey. I finished in mid-December 2020 and now I am neck deep in the job search. With these tools at my disposal I feel confident that I will be able to embark upon a fulfilling career in software engineering.

Before signing up, please note that the program requires a lot of commitment. In my case, I was not working at all, not even part time, during the boot camp. That part can potentially be  tricky. My honest advice is that if you need to work at least part time, do not enroll for the full time course. Just do a part time course. Students with unshakeable commitments outside of the boot camp seemed to really struggle for it. Those with the most commitment made the most progress and seem to be the most likely to succeed in coding in general.

This is a good program as long as you have the correct expectations going into it. The staff is extremely helpful. I look back to where I was 10 weeks ago and where I am now and there's a noticeable change. Anytime I needed help on something there was someone available. This is fast-paced and understand that while you may only have 3-4 total instruction hours, you'll easily drop 80 hours a week working on the program. But you're going to get out of this what you put into it. 

The instructors and TAs are the best part of the program. Any question you have they can usually answer it and if they can't they'll show you how to problem shoot it. I highly recommend this program, just understand that it is A LOT of work. 

My overall experience was great at Coding Temple. Prior to joining Coding Temple I had absolutly no experience in coding. What coding temple does is it provides the students with everything you need to succeed. They have great instructors such as Shoha and Sam who are very knowledgable and open to questions during and after classes. You also have support from TA's after class and on weekends. I can confidently say that after graduating, Coding Temple has given me the skills and tools to enter the job market. 

I graduated from College in December 2020 with a Business Degree. I had no experience with Coding, but decided to try it out, and it was the best decision of my life. Coding Temple's services are top notch, from top to bottom. The support staff is wonderful, they have tons of TA's for night help, and weekend help, and the Professors are understanding, and very knowledgeable about every single topic. I highly recommend Coding Temple to anyone who is looking to get into the Software Engineer/Data world.

I came into Coding Temple with very little coding experience. I wanted a Bootcamp with a well-structured and up-to-date curriculum for full-stack development.  Sam and Shoha were the best instructors anyone can ask for. They are not only patient but are extremely knowledgeable! Coding Temple completely prepares you for the software engineering field in all aspects from building real-world projects, technical interview preparation, and career coaching from the amazing Marlene for life! If you're thinking about joining, you should! You won't be disappointed!

Coding Temple was my life for three months and in that time I really became a developer. I don't mean an expert on Python; I mean that I learned to think like a developer. The skills I developed in this bootcamp make me feel confident I can learn any language. That being said, I love Python and I hope to get a job using it.
My instructor Derek was excellent both at laying out the curriculum but also at answering questions, and my TA Lucas was absolutely essential to my success in the program. In my moments of doubt, Nicole was able to help me stay grounded and I was so lucky to have a group of students invested in each other. The student-led study groups organized made everything feel so much more manage-able and I strongly recommend future and current students do the same. Once you finish, Marlene is a wiz at helping you with all aspects of optimizing your job search.

Disclaimer: I have not been hired yet (but I only graduated a month ago).

Coding Temple was a great experience. I was a full-time student. I chose this bootcamp because it gave me a taste of front end, back end, and data, and also because of the job search support after graduating. I already had some Python, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript experience prior to enrolling, but I am still very happy with my decision. It lived up to my expectations and followed the curriculum available on their website pretty closely. Expect to be in class 9:30-4:30 everyday (sometimes ends 3:30-4:30). Some nights of homework took five hours and other nights took 30 minutes. Because it wasn't always a full day of coding with those shorter assignments, it was manageable. Projects took between 2-15 hours on the weekends (including most of Friday). Do not expect to be able to go out of town for a weekend trip during the bootcamp, but doing household chores, relaxing, and going to family gatherings was definitely doable. I didn't feel like my life was completely consumed by the bootcamp or that I was burned out at the end.

If you are joining this bootcamp (or any for that matter), be aware that you will not be an expert in anything right after graduation. They teach you some basics and how to learn quickly (which is the most important skill a developer can have), but it is up to you to dive further into topics you are interested in afterwards. However, to get started, the instructors were extremely helpful in answering questions or helping debug. Every class session started with 1-2 whiteboard problems with a student solving a question in front of the class. This was invaluable in preparing for technical interviews. I had Nate and Marcus as instructors, and I don't have a single complaint about them. They were fantastic and went above and beyond to help our cohort. They were often available outside of class hours even though they weren't obligated. And I know Nate spent many evenings after class working on lectures, supplemental videos, and technical issues. Other instructors/TAs are usually available when your main instructors are not. I've heard great things about other instructors, as well.

Job search support has been great so far. Thank you Marlene! She is basically always available to meet or answer quick questions. She is the main reason I joined the bootcamp. She helps you create a standout resume, write cover letters, fix up your LinkedIn profile, communicate with recruiters/employers, and negotiate salary. Without all of this help, I was and would still be lost. Again, I have not been hired yet. But I was surprised that within a week or two of graduation, I started an interview process with a startup and am now waiting to hear from them after a third and final round of interviews. You are not necessarily handed opportunities afterwards, and I think most people find jobs on their own. But the founder and some alumni do post some opportunities where you might have a slight advantage with the referral. You will finish with a full, diverse GitHub profile to show employers, but because of the nature of rushing through projects in a bootcamp, you will have to go back and touch some of them up afterwards.

Here are my very, very minor complaints that I think are worth mentioning. I think more time could have been spent on frameworks (React and Flask). I felt that we moved too quickly through those where we were practically copying what we learned in lecture in order to finish homework/projects. I think data analysis should be its own bootcamp separate from web development. It was nice to get an intro to data analysis, but that was not why I joined a web development bootcamp. I would have preferred to get rid of the last two weeks (data analysis) and add one additional week to each framework. However, many classmates of mine enjoyed data analysis and are searching for data jobs, so I know many would disagree with me. Also, I must say that my final project used React and was functionally significantly different than what we learned in class, and I was still able to use the knowledge I gained to build a project that I am very proud of. My only other minor issue was how much lecture time the instructor devoted to debugging and technical issues of other students where the student clearly did not try debugging on their own. Although, I'm not sure what the solution would be because everyone has bugs and technical issues from time to time, and you don't want to get behind. So if you are concerned about whether your questions will be answered, they absolutely will. There was definitely a no-man-left-behind mentality, for better or worse.

In my opinion, Coding Temple was a great investment. I would 100% do it again. Sure you could learn all of this for free online, but I tried that and could not stay disciplined to do it in a timely manner. This will keep you motivated, on a schedule, while also having someone who can answer your questions or help with debugging. Coming from the healthcare industry, I had no idea how to network or market myself when job searching in this industry, and now I do. This will give you the best chance at landing a job within the next year. And I believe the program will pay for itself many times over.