Dev Bootcamp Reviews
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Lorena
Best decision ever
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Dev Bootcamp does more than teach you how to code. They teach you how to learn, which is one of the most important skills you can have as a developer. The teachers truly care about student progress and I never felt like I was left hanging when confused. We are encouraged to learn and explore beyond what they have to offer (which is already so much), but it is so great. Not to mention, it was so much fun and I met a lot of really amazing people through the process.
It was very challenging mentally and emotionally..and I'm fairly introverted, so I definitely had to come out of my shell. Totally worth the money for me. I got a contract job 3 months after graduating and now am working as full time software engineer :)
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Ezra
Dev Bootcamp San Diego
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Dev Bootcamp in San Diego was the most challenging, rewarding, and fun experience I've ever had. I went in not knowing how to write any code to being able to build my own website and web applications over the course of 9 weeks. The schedule is very rigorous but you'll be glad that you stuck through it. Dev Bootcamp is divided into three phases with an assessment at the end of phase 1 and phase 2. I'll give a brief summary of what Dev Bootcamp was like.
Everyday Life:
From day 1 you'll start coding and it will be extremely challenging. For someone completely new to coding that first week was the most challenging just to get your mind wrapped around everything that was going on. The hours say 9am-6pm but most students stay after hours to continue working. You'll pair program 90% of the time but before you know it things will get easier and you'll soon really enjoy coding. Each day there'll be a quick morning meetup to discuss the days lesson plan. You'll then jump into the morning challenges right up until lunch time at 12:30. From there you'll have free time till 2pm. At 2pm there'll be a quick meetup or instruction before you go back into coding for the rest of the day. DBC also offers engineering empathy classes once a week and Yoga once a week as well as free therapy sessions. Weekends are much more relaxed but most students come in and work on weekend homework.
Course Work:
At DBC you'll learn Ruby, Html, CSS, Javascript, Ruby on Rails and how to build web pages and applications. You'll work in pairs and teams to simulate real working conditions and also the hardships of working in teams. The course work may seem very intimidating at first but know that you and your classmates are in the same boat and are there for each other. At the end of every three weeks there is an important assessment that you must pass in order to continue the course. You'll be making your own projects from scratch and the final weeks are devoted to final group projects.
What I liked about DBC:
DBC was the most rewarding learning environment I've ever been a part of. In highschool and college I learned just to memorize and do well on exams. After exams I would forget almost everything. At DBC learning feels exciting as you are able to apply everything you've learned immediately and create things that you are proud of. The comradary at DBC is extraordinary and the people you meet will be your friends for life. The teachers are experts at what you do and will be mentors to you throughout your whole experience and beyond. The career counselor was wonderful, always notifying you of any potential opportunties, helping you craft your resume, and she has many connections accross Southern California. Lastly, DBC became my home, it was a place for fun, learning, and unforgettable memories.
Advice:
DBC is not a walk in the park. You have to give everything you have and make the most of every oportunity you have there. If you make it through you'll be equipped with the skills needed to break into a career in technology. For me DBC was a wonderful experience and I have absolutely no regrets. It landed me two interviews within a week of graduating and has helped prepare me for a career in technology.
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Jenna
graduate-dbc chicago
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I had a pretty great experience at DBC Chicago. It was simultaneously the best and hardest educational/life-altering experience I've had. The curriculum is designed well for people of all different skill levels (the only code I knew going in was what was on Codecademy) to keep things fresh and challenging and the instructors are very supportive and helpful for code and non-code related help.
The thing that I really loved about DBC unrelated to code was yoga and engineering empathy sessions. It really helped to get out of my head a few times a week and have access to those ways of relieving stress.
Now, post-DBC there are many events and assistance for job seeking...if you live in the city where you attended DBC. As someone who didn't stay in Chicago post-DBC, this wasn't super helpful and I felt pretty left out in the cold on the job search front. I was able to utilize the techniques the careers team taught us to reach out to and research companies to help find contacts, but ultimately what got me in the door at the company I ended up with was that one of the instructors knew some people at the company so I was able to warm outreach to them. Overall...curriculum is solid but the job assistance is only good if you don't move back home/elsewhere afterwards.
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Danny Pham
Life Changing
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I always wondered what if I pursued computer programming as a career. DBC allowed me to attempt that dream. I ended up loving every second of it. The staff, Brianne, Mark, Kevin, Amanda, and Kimbra were amazing and they were always quick to help. The cohort was also great; we were all there to be better people and pursue new goals and it was fun growing together. We spent countless hours together and I made new lifelong friends because of this. You'll be pair programming almost every day and work in a group almost every Friday. I felt like we didn't go enough in depth with JavaScript and I struggled a little on that subject. DBC has three phases breaking up the materials and an assessment at the end of each to check if everyone is on the same page. There is another phase after DBC and it's the phase one of your new career. The job search was difficult, there was a lot of nonresponsive companies, but two months after DBC was over I found a full-time programming job. DBC isn't kidding when they say you'll have to disappear for nine weeks. I found myself spending at least 60+ hours there a week, often times more. This is a commitment and unless you're absolutely sure you shouldn't do it. When you are fully committed this program will pay for itself. You'll get back what you put into it.
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Adam Fluke
Full Stack Developer
A front-end and api focused program to learn web developement skills.
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Lucy
Culture is Key
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The Chicago location of DBC is also just really special, culture-wise. There's no competition student-to-student; you're only ever competing against yourself, trying to learn more and be better than you were yesterday/last week/last phase. I had an amazingly great cohort (aka, the group you go through the program with), that had really awesome interpersonal dynamics and that definitely influenced my experience. I think about 99% of DBC Chicago grads would agree that it's incredibly hard to graduate, because as tiring and hard as your time can be, you don't want to leave this wonderful place and the people you've met there. With regard to experience: There were things I had to learn on the job, because my first position was with a small company, and many random tasks (like SSL certificate renewals) fell to me because I was the most qualified person, even if it wasn't in my technical job description. However, I was able to learn and try, because of my DBC experience. Everything I learned in Career Week has proved invaluable to me. I'm confident in negotiating, and will always negotiate, and have actively spread what I've learned (never say a number first, always negotiate, etc) to other people. I'm also confident emailing any person about work, etc. -
Mandy
Awesome Experience
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I had an amazing time at Dev Bootcamp. The instructors, Mark and Kevin, are awesome - probably some of the smartest and greatest programmers I'll ever meet and I feel so lucky to have learned from them. They truly care about their students and are still there to support us even after we've graduated. I also had a lot of fun and made some amazing friendships - I'm new to San Diego but already have a really cool community of friends and support.
I had no experience coding prior to joining DBC, and I thought Phase 0 was a great way to prepare and get an idea of what coding is like. Phase 1 was far more intense and felt like jumping into the deep end, so be prepared and expect it to be really challenging right off the bat (which is a good thing!). After the first week of Phase 1 I honestly didn't think I'd make it through, but I did. Don't give up when those feelings come - it's hard work but it pays off.
I've had a lot of office assistant-type jobs in the past, and I was always incredibly bored and lived my life waiting for the weekend. During my time at DBC, there wasn't a single day I didn't want to be there (even though we spent 12+ hours a day there for 2 months straight). I think that's pretty amazing, and I'm confident that thanks to DBC I will find a job I'm not just waiting to leave all the time. A couple weeks after graduation a few of us already have jobs/internships - the search is definitely challenging, but there is a lot of support here for you (including all your new friends who are going through it with you!). The career counselor Brianne is wonderful and hosted a really helpful career week for us with speakers and workshops that made me feel prepared for the search.
It's a lot of work, and it's really challenging, but it's also incredibly fun. If you like to code (try some online tutorials if you have no experience), and you're ready for a change, go for it.
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Ian
Awesome
I attended Dev Bootcamp's first cohort they had at their San Deigo campus. I couldn't be more impressed with the entire experience. Staff and facilities were great. The course was tough but did get you job ready like it was intended to. I was able to receive a coding job within one month of graduation without previous coding experience prior to dev bootcamp.
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Bradley
Developer
Awesome curriculum, very challenging. Expect to 'disappear' for 9 weeks working 6-7 days/week, which will pay off in the long run.
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Gabriel Bonner
A Wild Ride
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About seven months ago (Jan 2016) I did a ton of research on bootcamps, including reading every relevant review on Course Report. The most important question I was trying to answer was 'will I get a job afterwards'? That's probably where you're at right now.
Unfortunately I can't answer this question quite yet as I've only sent out one application so far, and that was yesterday. The good news it that I got a coding challenge in reply and will have an interview at the start of next week (assuming I finish the coding challenge), with a hiring decision made by the end of the week. I'll update this review as things progress.
Apart from employment, I can say that the experience was fantastic. Most importantly, Kevin and Mark are intelligent, thoughtful instructors who care about each student individually. They did an excellent job across the board, and that's coming from someone who was an English teacher for the past seven years. Kimbra, Brianne, and Amanda are positive, helpful, work hard to give DBC the largest footprint possible in San Diego, and are also constantly networking with employers in Los Angeles and SoCal. I personally benefited greatly from weekly counseling sessions with our clinical psychologist Terra, and Gia was a fun yoga teacher who kept classes appropriately challenging. All said, the staff surpassed my expectations.
I gave the curriculum four stars because I don't feel that it's perfect yet. I think the material was great, very relevant, and helped us cover a wide range of subjects in a short amount of time. That said, the presentation/submission format using Github was unwieldy at times (although to be fair it did give us lots of practice with Github) and difficult to keep organized. I think there is progress that could be made there, although as far as the educational content of material itself is concerned I give it five stars.
As for job assistance, I give it a solid four stars. DBC specifically states that they aren't a 'job finding service'. I seriously debated other bootcamps who offered things like tuition reimbursement if you don't find a job within six months, but in the end I decided that if I was going to bet on anything then I would bet on myself doing well in the course and being a strong candidate afterwards. I'm happy with that decision so far. Apart from that, as I stated before Brianne works tirelessly behind the scenes to grow the employer network, is in the process of setting up an apprenticeship program with local companies, and organized a very helpful career week which included eight guest speakers who currently work in the industry. So what could be improved? Well, nothing that they're not working on already. DBC is still pretty new in San Diego so the connections that they have with employers isn't as strong as other bootcamps that have been here for over a year, but they are catching up quickly. Also, I think the focus on finding a job could be emphasized earlier in the program. For example, in Phase 0 (the 9-week remote portion) it would have been very useful to read articles on the current state of the tech industry, who the big players are here in SoCal, info about good tech Meetup groups, making connections on LinkedIn, starting a tech Twitter account/online presence, etc. I did some of these things on my own, but felt overwhelmed when career week started and I realized how much I still had to do. I've given Brianne and Kevin feedback and I feel confident it will get passed along to the people in charge of Phase 0.
There are only two other things I'd like to cover. One, the workload. Previous to Phase 0 I had decided that I was going to be the hardest working, most applied, strongest student in my cohort and would have job offers within the first week of finishing the course, if not sooner. At the time it felt ambitious, but doable. Then we started Phase 1, and let's just say that I had severely underestimated the scope of the material that we would cover. For nine weeks I was generally the first one to arrive and the last to leave, spending over 80 hours a week at DBC, and I couldn't get all the work done (granted, I had zero prior coding experience). What I'm trying to say is don't underestimate the amount of information that you'll cover in a bootcamp. If you're thinking you can be a rockstar and learn everything, think again. After graduating from a bootcamp your value as an employee is less what you know, and more about how quickly you can identify, research, and implement new technology. Of course you should learn as much as you can,don't get me wrong, but it's important to have realistic expectations going in. You're climbing Mount Everest, and no bootcamp experience will get you more than 5% up the mountain, although they will give you all of the tools you'll need to the summit.
Lastly, perhaps you're wondering how various bootcamps in San Diego (at the moment of writing this there are only two others that I'm aware of, LEARN and Origin) stack up against each other in terms of quality of education. I can't say for certain, since I've only attended one of them. However I have been to four of their 'demo days' where students display their final projects, and I'm satisfied with having chosen DBC. That said, I think you'll get a very similar experience and gain a solid skillset at any of them, and I would counsel going with the bootcamp that best matches your needs in other areas (main programming language, location, tuition amount, class size, etc.) to help make a decision. You can contact for more specific info on that topic, if you like.
All in all, it was a wild ride. I pushed myself and got to places that I never thought I would, and although I am now aware of how little I know (which is still a lot!) I do feel prepared to join a team and be a contributing member from day 1. I've got some of the skills, but more importantly I've got the mindset. I know it can't be any more difficult than what I've faced here at DBC, which I overcame.
If you have any questions or comments, drop me a line at gabrielbonner at gmail dot com. I'd love to be of assistance to anyone else who is faced with the same tough decisions that I made seven months ago. Also, I'll update this as soon as I get a job, which I'm confident will happen in the next few weeks.
Oh, and if one of your doubts is whether this is field that you'd like to get into, coming from no coding background I can now say that I love it more than I ever thought I would have. My only regret is that I didn't find out about it sooner. :)
(UPDATE)Yay, I got a job! I finished DBC on July 15th, and started work on August 29th. (That's 6 weeks and 3 days, for those keeping track.) My title is Jr. Software Engineer, and I'm working with Django, Python, Backbone, Angular, and an iOS and an Android app. It's been quite a challenge getting up to speed, but I'm really enjoying myself.
Anyways, a few things to note. I got the job through another student from my cohort. They had done some front-end contracting work with the company before, and after they finished DBC they were offered a full time position with said company. The CEO mentioned that he was looking for a few jr. devs, and my cohort-mate gave me a referral. What's the take-away? From my experience, 75% plus of my cohort that have gotten jobs have gotten their initial interview through their network, so make sure you spend time building and maintaining contacts, they will be by far your best resource when looking for opportunities!
Another thing I'd like to note is that I did much better on the technical interview this time around. The first interview I went to (that I mentioned in my initial CourseReport review), well, I wasn't really prepared. I had the technical knowledge to pass it, but I hadn't spent enough time practicing algorithms with someone watching me, and talking aloud about what I was doing while I was doing it. My strong advice is to practice on Pramp (pramp.com) at least an hour a day once you finish a bootcamp, that will really help you seal the deal if you get to the technical interview.
Overall, 13 of the 18 people from my cohort have found jobs so far (although it should be noted that three of them didn't start the job search right after finishing DBC, two went on vacation and one went to Burning Man). We're 2 months out as I write this, so I feel like that's a decent success rate. I've been trying to help those who haven't found work yet, but it's tough. The job search grind is a long, slow process, and can be quite demoralizing if you don't stay busy. For example, one person sent out 81 resumes before finding a position.
Like I said before, I can be contacted if you'd have any specific questions that I didn't address here. All in all, although I didn't get a job quite as soon as I originally thought I would, everything worked out more or less according to expectations. I wish you well in your decision making process, it's a tough choice that has no guaranteed outcome. It's a calculated risk, one that you're researching now and that may eventually end up in a 'leap of faith' if you decide to entrust your time and money to a bootcamp to prepare you for a career change. For what it's worth, I can say that I'm very happy that I was a part of DBC San Diego's 2016 Pocket Gophers cohort. I'll leave you with a quote from John A Shedd that I find inspiring.
"A ship in harbor is safe; but that is not what ships are built for."
Best of luck.
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Kelly Ripple
Dev Bootcamp Will Change Your Life
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I blogged about my experience going through Dev Bootcamp as it was happening. Check it out here, or read on for a more general take on my experience as a whole.
I imagine that different people get different things out of this experience. I came to DBC lacking in self confidence and self worth. I had spent the few years prior in jobs that had sapped my energy and all but obliterated my natural optimism. This program was my last ditch effort to find something, anything, that I could be good at.
So my story was quite dramatic. In the span of 19 weeks, I went from feeling like a nobody to feeling like I had real value to add to society. If I had the option, I would go back in time to repeat the experience, it was that rich. There's was always more to do than there was time for.
Regarding the space itself - I'm not sure what it is, but it's like there's magic in the air. Returning as an alum, the feeling is still there. Partly, it's NYC. DBC NYC is on Wall St., and the energy and ambition there practically thrums. Add in this sort of reckless, unapologetic optimism from DBC, and the resulting mix is unforgettable.
On a more practical level - I chose to go to Dev Bootcamp because I wanted a software job and I couldn't find anyone that would hire me with no experience. It took me only a month and a half after graduating to get a very nice software engineering job at a company with a fantastic culture. In fact, they've been listed as one of the top places to work in DC for four years now. From a personal financial perspective, my return on investment was spectacular.
In doing Dev Bootcamp, I rediscovered my natural optimism and was able to build my self-confidence back up to normal levels. That, more than anything, is what has allowed me to be successful now, in another city hundreds of miles from my fellow DBC developers. I attribute this to the structure of the program itself and to the commitment and energy the DBC staff bring to work every single day. I am a success because of them. And I hope that one day someone else will be a success because of me.
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Nate Kandler
Dev Bootcamp was probably the best decision I have ever made
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I can't say enough good things about Dev Bootcamp. I went through in Chicago and had almost no technical experience before starting. Yes it was difficult, but it was also an amazing, fun and rewarding experience. The instructors were awesome and I received a ton of support the whole way through. I spent the last two years as a full stack Ruby developer and just started a new job as a JS developer, so really couldn't ask for anything more.
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Hanah
Best educational experience ever
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I absolutely 100% loved my experience at Devbootcamp. The educational experience there was amazing due to a few factors: the holistic, emotional intelligence approach; integrated pairing/group work; and just the fact the plain and simple fact that everyone was really excited to learn. Even though I was at a higher knowledge base coming in (and as such, requested some adjustments to my own learning experience during Phase 0), I chose DevBootcamp because of the culture. They are extraordinarily okay with failing, with making your own learning choices, and in general, just really care about you and your educational experience.
Other reasons why I chose DBC over others: good price point, the teachers actually have industry experience (some bootcamps only hire grads which makes no sense), raving reviews from friends, after graduation career support, and they were just so dang friendly and welcoming. Also, who doesn't want yoga and therapy sessions available?
More reasons that I found out DBC was awesome while in/after the program: The program is really, really open to feedback and actually incorporates your feedback on a weekly basis. I was unhappy with the technical interview training that DBC provides and how prepped I feel for jobs, and so they instituted some new changes to their careers program. Also, the space is available afterwards to alumni to work in, and the community/alumni events are frequent and great.
The actual educational experience itself was so great. It was collaborative, supportive, and most of all, really fun. It was long hours, but not as long as other bootcamps (which I was afraid would eat me alive). It was a good pace, with the curriculum and materials all building on top of each other. The instructor/student ratio was really great (at least 1 instructor for every 12 students). I didn't need to take advantage of the option to repeat, but I know some many people who did and said it was the best thing they did.
The only downside I would say are some things with the career program: there is very little technical interview training, the employee network that they tote is limited in scope (you are only allowed to reach out to a total of three companies), and they don't have a careers person that has actual technical interview experience. However, I know they are currently working on changing and updating the program, which is a testament to how much DBC cares about making the program the best it can be for their students.
All in all, I would happily recommend this experience to anyone. I literally found it to be educational paradise.
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Rex Salisbury
A Great Immersive Experience
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I highly recommend Dev Bootcamp for anyone who wants to learn to code. It's and intensive immersive experience that gives you about 1000 hours of rigourous, self-reinforcing learning in a community of people driven to learn. That's about as good as it gets. It's not easy and it's not perfect, but it's one hell of a start.
I wrote a blog post on my experience: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-05-09-the-benefits-of-immersive-learning-from-the-eyes-of-a-coding-bootcamp-student -
Anonymous
You come to learn to code and leave learning how to learn
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This was a great option to grow yourself personally and really stand out from other boot-campers. And even if you didn't end up wanting to be a developer, it's worth the time and money spent to develop intensely on a personal level and truly learn how to learn for the rest of your life.
You really learn to give and get feedback better along with strengthening your self awareness. The yoga is an amazing value-added thing as would be the counselors if you had more time and they didn't seem a bit detached (understandable given everyone there is used to saying goodbye every few weeks).
The downsides being that the cohorts are really big. I think this takes away from one of their fundamental values in connecting with people better and I often felt lost in the crowd or fallen in the cracks.
An intense personal situation also got worse because one of the counselors on staff thought that the situation would be better resolved by having a group session without any context or speaking with the individuals first. The whole thing was escalated by the staff despite strong resistance from the party who chose to give uncomfortable and private feedback during the weekly survey. This created a lot of distrust about giving feedback that was promised to be confidential. -
Mike
software engineer
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I agree with the two guys below. I attended the Chicago cohort and none of my friends have a job, there is a few, but not many. I don't think it's worth all the money now that I look back. Just because no ones talks about it, doesn't mean its not going on. Learn MEAN stack, Rails in this market is become obsolete. If you are junior and want to find a job I would recommend consulting companies like remote tiger, those guys help juniors get place in good companies like Disney or Apple as conrtactors, but they pay decent and are very helpful to get newbies started.
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Anonymous
Did what it was supposed to
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Dev Bootcamp was not the funnest experience of my life, but I wanted to learn to code and to get a job as a software engineer and, after finishing, I was hired right away and have been working as an engineer for nearly a year now. I love my new job and that makes the pain of getting through worth it.
I think a lot of what makes Dev Bootcamp grads successful is their ability to be flexible and learn quickly. This is not something you can teach in a brief bootcamp program, but if you have these characteristics, then you will likely pull through the very intense program and be successful in the industry.
For me, I felt like there was a bit too much emphasis on the etra-curriculars (things like doing impov with your team and improving yourself as a person -- which, of course, is not a bad thing, just not what you likely paid the tuition to learn/do), but other people really loved that stuff. And on the whole, the program perpared me and my cohort mates who made it through for good jobs ahead.
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Anonymous
Transformational and I'd Do it Again!
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I finally learned how to learn. I embrace being confused becaue it means I'm making progress learning something and that not being confused is a state of complacency. Sure, I learned SOLID principles, OOP design best practices and closures in JavaScript. But more importantly, I learned that I can pick up enough in a new programming language in a few hours to build a ToDo app or in a few days to build an app.
The instructors are amazing because they focus on guiding learning through so many channels - delivering lectures on new technical knowledge, creating resources to reveal more learning opportunities, through fostering and encouraging relationships that provide opportunities in deepening my emotional intelligence and leadership skills and habits.
It's a positive, quirky space that invites you to be YOU. To bring your whole self and dive into learning and build meaningful and beautiful projects.
Plus the yoga, counseling and balance of independent and team work make it a well-rounded place to learn!
The actual space could use a facelift but doesn't deter from the work environment or the culture of learning and community that is cultivated and celebrated.
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Clint
It is what you make of it (I made it great!)
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There are many programs like Dev Bootcamp now. I attended back in Summer of 2013 and I will say that it was an incredbile experience. Everyone helps each other, and you truly feel like you can shape the processes and lesson plans.
Things that set DBC apart:
1. Polish. They've had the most time to iterate on their program as it is one of the oldest of its type.
2. Engineering Empathy. It is not all about the code, it is really all about how to learn, be open, and humble.
People who succeeded:
- Prepped a lot before coming
- Arrive early, leave late
- Do more than the challenges required
- Hustle
People who did not succeed:
- Complained about others not doing enough for them (can be a valid complaint, but you need to step up too)
- Arrived late, left when the teachers did
- Tried only to complete assignments, not learn what was behind each assignment, how things worked exactly.
Today I work as a Senior Software Engineer at a growing startup getting paid a good amount of money and working on interesting things. I worked very hard in the program, and worked hard afterwards to find a good job. If you do this program, give yourself to it 100% and it will pay off. Do not try to do this part time, or if you just had a baby, or along with any other time consuming life experiences.
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Mark Miller
Great Experience at DBC-NYC
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My experience at DBC was top notch! I came in with a strong analytical mind and did very well in the algorithms phase (the first phase). However I initially struggled with the web developement phase (rails) and was very lucky to have the opportunity to repeat. I think this is something that sets DBC apart from other schools. I came out of DBC as a great candidate and got a job 3 weeks after I graduated. DBC is a great place if you are willing to put in the work and ask questions when you are stuck. Career services (in the NYC offices) are pretty weak. My career coach didn't help me too much but everyone else was awesome. If you attend DBC-NYC, talke to Sererna as much as you can. She is unbelievable at her job and gives great advice. If you attend DBC leverage everyone you can. It doesn't matter if they aren't your cohort lead, career coach, or instructor, everyone at DBC is there to help you learn and get a job. LEVERAGE THEM!
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Anonymous
software engnineer
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Dev Bootcamp is worthless, you don't need anyone to teach how to code. You can learn on your own starting at code academy and taking bootcamps in udemy. 13k and quit your job? Plust the market doesn't demand Ruby on Rails, most jobs now a days require to know MEAN stack. JavaScript is on demand not Ruby. Quit scamming people. I left Dev Bootcamp because I honestly thought the program was trash. It's not worth 13k, plus the guy Greg that was supposed to refund me my check kept me going around in loops to get my money back, the only way I got it back is lying that my dad was sick and I needed the money. For 3 weeks I kept asking him when will I receive my check, what he said was, "we are working on it". I had to contact another office to make it appear as it was an emergency to receive my own money back. After I talked to a girl in an office up north, a day after I had my check expressed mailed to my house. Yeah stay away
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Katherine
Best decision I ever made
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I was hesitant to make such a huge leap (from being a history teacher), particularly as I'd just finished my master's degree in 2013, but attending Dev Bootcamp (DBC) was definitely one of the best decisions I ever made. I had no prior programming experience (well, I'd tweaked the CSS on my tumblr once or twice to see what would happen), and I came out of DBC with not only a solid foundation in Ruby, Rails, and JavaScript basics, but also a great foundation in how to learn that will help me learn other languages and/or frameworks that come across my path.
One of the things that I appreciated the most about DBC was that they really meant their request for feedback. For example, two cohorts ahead of me had submitted some feedback that they felt they didn't learn testing early enough, and when I got around to Phase 1 (and even in some Phase 0 prep work), they made sure that we wrote tests at every stage.
Getting a job if you live in (or intend to move to) a city not near a DBC location can be harder because they might not necessarily have contacts there, so more of the work is going to be on you, but in the end it's always going to require effort on your part. My instructors were always willing to give one-on-one time to go over things that I was struggling with, but I had to speak up and request it. I think this speaks generally to their expectations of personal responsibility that you'll speak up and/or try, which I think serves people best in the long run.
One thing I always tell people about what surprised me about DBC, and it sounds corny to say, is that I honestly think I came out of DBC as a better person. I don't know whether it was any one area of instruction (even considering engineering empathy), or whether being more satisfied with my career path made the difference, but it seems true nevertheless.
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Anonymous
One of the best decisions I've made, not for everyone
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I look back on my experience very fondly. Before DBC I was at a point in my life where I needed to try something new, wanted the rigor of a learning something challenging, and was feeling desperately out of touch with what I was capable of and how I was making a living. Because of this, I went into DBC with only the expectations that I was paying for an experience and that what I gained from it would be directly connected to what I put into it.
Phase 0 was admittedly a little unorganized, but I had fun doing it and pushing myself to take direction of my own learning. Once I arrived on site, I saw how much feedback they gathered from us and I was actually surprised by how much the curriculum has changed and continues to evolve based on what the students ask for. This strategy does open up the possibilities for things to be shaky, unclear, or just simply fail, but I took more comfort from the fact that I was a part of something that was willing to try new things and be flexible.
My cohort turned out to be a really wonderful group of people: surprisingly diverse in personality, previous skills, gender, race, and home country. I recognize that this is not always the case. If you are looking for a hand-picked, curated group of classmates, this unfortunately doesn't exist at DBC due to the nature of their schedule. It comes as a tradeoff with the fact that you can apply quickly and get started immediately. Once I realized I wanted to make a change in my life I wanted it to happen quickly and on my terms. DBC allows you to apply and interview within a week and choose your own start date. I appreciated this flexibility and freedom. I guess in this aspect of the program I just got lucky. I do feel strange looking at cohorts before and after me that only had one or two women. As accepting and open as DBC is, it just unavoidably changes the dynamics of the conversation. I can't speak for everyone, but I wouldn't want to be in a conversation about diversity when I am the only minority in the room. What separates DBC from other bootcamps is that they make a conscious and strong effort in their Engineering Empathy curriculum (and daily on campus) to talk about what it means to be mindful when working on a diverse team. Technical skills completely aside, I do feel that I am better at communication and able to at least recognize the joys and frustrations of working with people who are different from me.
In the end, what made my experience were the teachers and staff. Getting to know them, befriending them, and trusting them was the highlight of my education. I continue to ask them for advice and look up to them when I think about my future path as a developer. I can't say that I'd reccomend DBC (or even a bootcamp) to everyone, but that's because it is an intense and sometimes random environment. I found that I succeeded because I was at a very specific point in my life: one where I felt responsible for my own education, open to most anything, and also just a bit lucky.
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Anonymous
Deliverede as promised
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I'm surprised to read the negative reviews on here and am wondering if the culture at each campus varies drastically? I was at the NYC campus and it was a great experience. The teachers were all excellent and got along with each other, there didn't seem to be any ego from them, and they would all stay late and go out of their way to help. They were organized in their lessons, and extremely supportive.
The students all had very diverse backgrounds, and everyone got along great for the most part. The EE sessions helped us all be open with each other, and there was ongoing support available if we felt we needed it. Everyone brought different strengths to the team and we were all able to learn off of each other. The mentors who were available were also solid and incredibly helpful.
The career support and interview prep needs some work but is getting there. We definitely have enough tools to figure it out on our own, but given the cost of the program, I hope they can make this stronger.
Some of the reviews make the program sound cultish, but I'm not one to drink the Kool-aid, and didn't ever feel out of place. Nobody actually used the "whole-self" etc lingo, there was just an unspoken understanding that it's up to us to be our best selves, and we'll only get as much out of the program as we put in.
Also, the ongoing support after graduating is great, they actually seemed glad that we continue to use the space as alumni, and the career support team works hard to stay in touch with us and encourages us to ask them for help or advice.
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Anonymous
I WOULDN'T CHOOSE ANYWHERE ELSE EVEN NOW
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I have nothing but positive things to say about Dev Bootcamp. Dev Bootcamp is designed for a beginner to come in, and by the end have the tools to be able to learn anything they want when it comes to software engineering.
This is exactly what my experience was. Out of all the bootcamps in NYC, not only do I feel as though Dev Bootcamp prepared me to go out and become a Developer, but it also taught me how to work as part of a team, grew me as a person, and taught me some yoga!
For something as intense as a bootcamp, I wouldn't want to be in another bootcamp, becaue I can't imagine a school that could be more supportive of you in the process. I grew deeply close to my other "cohort-mates", and would highly recommend it!
I recieved a job offer after two months with a tech consulting firm that has hired 5 students from Dev Bootcamp due to thier satisfaction with thier first hire.
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Devin Mandelbaum
Prep and Support covers everything
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When I was first looking into coding bootcamps, there were a lot of common themes about how intense each one's program was, and how much you would learn in a short period of time. At first I was having a hard time really distinguishing one from the pack that I really wanted to do over the others. Once I started learning about Dev Bootcamp, however, I was quickly hooked. I liked that they emphasized that one of the biggest things we took away would be how to learn a language, but even more I liked the focus on building us up as people. The Engineering Empathy curriculum, if you come in willing to participate, can change how you see yourself, the industry, and the world around you.
They weren't wrong about teaching us how to learn a language. In our final projects, two of our groups worked with things that we hadn't even touched while at DBC, and we made fully-functional mobile apps that we're all proud to show to prospective employers.
I was expecting the Engineering Empathy curriculum to be very much in line with a lot of things I have been learning about people in general, and I was expecting a lot that would help me (and the rest of my cohort) learn to bond well and quickly with others, and maximize our interpersonal relationships. What I didn't expect was how much I would learn about myself, and how much better I would understand myself and be able to recognize and cope with difficulties that relate to who I have become as a person up to this point in my life.
The intellectual and emotional support DBC provides makes the intense period of study an incredibly rewarding experience, and having spoken with my friends in the industry, I feel that they have prepared me well to join it. The job assistance program follows these same lines, and instead of just introducing you to employers (which they do as well), they teach you what you need to know to find jobs on your own, and help you build the confidence to undertake your own job search, with the support of their career counselors and the network that DBC has in place.
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Eleni Chappen
Satisfied Chicago Graduate
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I am a January 2015 graduate of the Chicago campus. I personally loved my Dev Bootcamp experience and cannot say enough good things about it. My good experience could be attributed to a few factors: the small size of my cohort (we started with 15 and ended with 10), the excellent students in my cohort (they were not only smart, but hardworking, caring, and optimistic), and the quality of my specific teachers, who were a mix of both senior-level programmers coming from the industry and teaching-focused, junior-level programmers. (Both types of teachers had their own complimentary strengths and weaknesses). These factors can change from cohort to cohort, so I believe that DBC's continued success lies in how well it can manage student/teacher ratio, and the quality of people it admits as students.
Ultimately, you should care about how well DBC prepares you for life as a professional web developer. I found DBC's curriculum and teaching methods to be very representative of the work life that I entered after graduating. Some of the complaints I read about DBC—like having to work with people you may not like, having a teacher ask you to Google for an answer instead of walking you through it, having your work day interspersed with lectures and other seemingly frivolous events—are very much like real life, work-world situations. Just substitute lectures for staff meetings, fellow students with coworkers, teachers with your senior manager, and your daily coding challenges with a nasty bug fix on a client's website. There are many times when a work situation reminds me of something I encountered at DBC.
I also found DBC's Engineering Empathy sessions helpful in my work life, in that they made me more aware of my own learning styles and gave me simple mechanisms to cope with the dangers of insecurity, Imposter Syndrome (a very real thing!), and burnout. The descriptions of these sessions may sound a bit goofy at first, but I would say they're effective.
As to the belief that you could learn all of this stuff on your own through courses and going to meet-up groups...well, yes you could, if you had a certain amount of prior coding background, knowledge of the resources available to you, and free time. Everybody is starting with different skill levels, different kinds of exposure to the tech industry, and different family/life situations, so a fully-immersive, accelerated program like DBC may be more appropriate for some people than for others. I was a person who had zero programming experience (other than some basic HTML or CSS), nor did I have any formal Computer Science training. I could see someone who has more prior knowledge than me feeling like they could get to where I wanted to be professionally through a more patchwork/self-taught route. But coming where I came from, I felt like DBC got me to where I wanted to be, with relatively little time and money spent. What I really paid for at DBC was time—an acceleration from the few years it could take to learn this stuff on my own to the few months it took to go from zero coding knowledge to professional web developer. DBC also gives you access to a world you may not have known how to engage with beforehand.
Do not expect to be awesome or an expert at all the things you learn at DBC right out of the program. Do expect to come out of the program with the language and confidence to be able to be able to learn whatever you want, and to become an expert at anything in due time. That's not enough for some people, but it was enough for me to be able to get a full-time job as a web developer, and to feel like I could make my way around some random programming Wikipedia article without feeling like it might as well be written in Mandarin.
In short, I had a very positive Dev Bootcamp experience, and I feel like I got my money's worth.
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Anonymous
My Review
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*Some of these points relate directly to the Chicago campus, but most can be attributed to the program as a whole.
The off-campus pre-work is okay. It definitely gets you up and going, but there NEEDS to be an weekly 'check point' in-person, on-site -all of my cohort members would attest to this. Having an ALL ONLINE pre-work regimen is bogus when you're paying nearly $13 THOUSAND dollars and are not allowed to come on-campus for any [likely] help that is needed; half of the time [we] struggled as a cohort to find much needed guidance/tutors as their availability was limited.
On-campus, everything was very "business-like", they want you in and out, into a phase and out as quickly as possible -and it shows! A handful of teachers were complete assholes, they thought they were 'cool' if they portrayed themselves as dominant alphas, simply because they knew more than the rest -as if it were a popularity contest. When 4:30pm came around, you can sense their wanting to 'give-up' for the day and just leave. Not a single instructor was willing to stay even 5 minutes after 5pm.
As far as resources, they essentially pumped us into thinking we can figure it out as a 'cohort' entitling us to essentially scour the internet and 'figure it out' - wtf? If I'm paying $13k I'm paying for tutors on-site, instructors on-site, and some form of structure -not being told to "Google it"; if that was the case I could've saved myself THOUSANDS of dollars and simply have done it myself.
All-in-all it's an experience albeit [IMO] not worth the asking price for tuition. The program heavily really relies on the fact that students Google things and show no real passion in teaching, (again speaking for most, not all instructors). Once you're through, you're not given much attention to unlike what they portray, their focus is on getting as many students enrolled for p0 and p1, thereafter they could careless.
ps. ANYTHING you're told verbally, get it in writing. A lot that is promised is vague and can/have easily turn their backs on.
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Anonymous
Dev Bootcamp
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There are a lot of things that could be said about an intensive bootcamp. The experience was probabaly overly intense and pushed harder that necessary. And that environment led to lots of coping mechanisms to be employed.
But I don't want to talk to much about that. Rather, I think that the measure of a bootcamp should be about whether or not it turns out people that 1. can become employed in their chosen field and 2. should be pursuing that type of job at least for a little while. I know that not everyone that wants to learn how to code does so to get a job as a programmer, but I believe that those people should not be in an intensive bootcamp for that purpose and the school should not cater to those people. Under that idea, I think that Dev Bootcamp grades at a B. The material can get you a job, but it is still an uphill battle to convince people that a bootcamp education is enough. The part where I think that can be improved the most is better screening of applicants and currently enrolled students. I know more than one person that was somewhat pushed through the program because the school didn't have any other way of dealing with them. I don't think that this should be the case. I think that is both harming the student as well as the bootcamps reputation. And as more of these schools are created and more students are graduated, those reputations will become even more important.
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Anonymous
Transformative Experience
The staff at the NY campus are directly responsible for me getting my dream job.
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Anonymous
Satisfied Graduate
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Going to DBC was probably the most important life decision I've ever made. I now have a job I love in an industry that engages me. The bootcamp experience was intense and while I had previous programming knowledge I felt challenged by the material. That being said, ruby is an easy language to learn and the basics of web development are fairly simple to grasp. Where DBC excels is empowering students to teach themselves after instruction has ended. This served me in learning a new environment and eventually landing me a job.
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Anonymous
waste of time, not worth the price tag
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Interesting, now 5 months later I get to write this review, I honestly think after Dev Bootcamp was bought by Kaplan, their methods were more into the money making machine that now bootcamps have become. I bailed after 5 weeks into the program, and it was the best decision I made. Not only were my former cohort mates dissapointed with the experience, none of them have jobs right now. Don't waste your money, this is not worth 13k and quitting your job. If you really want to learn, start at code academy, then move on to onemonth, then udemy courses. Right now I am lucky that I got a job as a developer, not thanks to dev bootcamp though.
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Anonymous
Questionable Methods
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I came to DBC because it was reported to be a professional and nurturing environment to quickly get a new set of skills under your belt. Firstly, the coding portion of the program is comprehensive and clearly helps to progress one through the necessary skills for an junior programming position. The head instructors have substantial expertise and are mavericks in their own right. But they are rarely available for one to one assistance and some of their lectures were Ad Hoc and disorganized, which was suprising . A majority of the assistance/mentorship received during the program comes from aides that have just graduated or have less than a year of experience. Mentoring from programmers at that level of education/expertise or better can be found at your local meet-up group or online and cost almost nothing, which was another dissappointing realization once in the program.
Secondly, with the cirriculum there is constant discussion about throwing away “the way you used to learn”. Due to this mentality the program culture is highly insular and they degrade other programs or traditional methods of learning. This is questionably effective when you are expected to work with or learn from people with inferior (according to DBC instructors) backgrounds. I was never sure if I should or shouldn’t use something I read from a traditional or competing source. Occasionally myself and others got lash back for suggesting those sources. Very “us” versus “them”. Graduates going out into the working world holding these beliefs about their future cohorts are very damaging biases to cultivate in a very small and intimate tech community. The 2 daily programming lectures were helpful, but the same contact cane be found on a youtube video or at any of the online coding schools. The coding exercises are very helpful and appropriately progress skill level. But, again, the same or comparable exercises can be easily found in coding books or online classes. Additionally, the job placement program doesn’t offer a lot of help with finding an entry level position. Most graduates find jobs through their own connections or pay for additional job placement programs.
Thirdly, for an organizational culture claiming to change the abuses and marginalization that persists in the tech world, this organization didn’t do much to change it. Most of the women I met at the program did not continue pursuing a tech position because of the overt sexism they experienced during the program. It went completely unchecked and was propagated by the staff. I saw instructors cut each other off frequently or belittled by other instructors during my time there. I heard one instructor being called stupid for using a certain method and one instructor was told information wasn’t wholly accurate in the in the middle of their lecture, which was very unprofessional and ended up being an inaccurate criticism (not to mention a waste of time). All the females that graduated my cohort reported they didn’t feel it was an optimal environment for women and many reported it wouldn’t be well received if they reported their these concerns. Despite a lot of lip service to addressing non professional behavior through their social education classes, there was no observable or consistent application of the education given during those sessions. It was basically a statement to the effect of “Come on, don’t do this” and when students and staff chose to continue inappropriate behavior, it was ignored.
Though this may or may not be a concern for most people learning code, the inappropriate use of psychological intervention through the program was a large noted concern during my time there. When getting emotional coaching assistance from their on site psychologist, you sign a waiver stating that all your information is not confidential and will be shared with the staff at DBC (the exact opposite of what happens if you go to a private coach/counsler). I would hear students expose their frustrations about the instructors, other students, or their personal lives and see it used against them during classes, either directly or indirectly. Instructors would yell at students (I know it is a bootcamp, but I assumed there was a figurative element to the term) They would also force individuals to publicly expose their most private experiences, with a lot of coercion, to a group of people they barely knew. It wasn’t unusual to see people crying or report feeling overexposed after these sessions. They insisted on telling students to open their boundaries to “live authentically” and be your “whole self”. If you choose for any reason not to open up you are pressured and ridiculed to do so by the staff (as I was pressured a few times during my time there). In any traditional mental health, coaching, or medical setting these are severe privacy breeches that could led to losing your license. Truthfully astounded these forceful methods are considered ethical in this setting.
Alternately, The majority of DBC students themselves are generally wonderful people. They pick really amazing, intelligent, driven individuals through their screening process. Affecting their future prospects is the only reason I hesitate to write this review, but people should know what they are spending their money/time on. The program definitely works for some, but I question the quality of the education they provide. Students who self studied found the information and instruction at DBC minimally useful. So for the cost, I would look closely at other options, I personally learned a lot more using other avenues. Simply put, paying over $13,000 for this program may be a bit of an oversell for their “innovate” approach and it is questionable in many ways.
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Anonymous
Student
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Not a good experience for me unfortunately. The school had good principles when it first started out. But that has now taken a dark turn as the school has been bought out by Kaplan. Those same principles are still being utilised in a coporate setting. There used to be 15-16 students per cohort, but that has doubled. The teacher to student ratio is a measley 2 : 45.
If a student repeats a phase, (which many do), prepare to be ignored by the instructors who will then focus on the students that had passed the assessments the first time round. I personally found the instructors to be fake. They show themselves to be a caring bunch by telling us "please ask for help if you're stuck for more than 10 mins" or "we're here for you whenever you need us"; but are very hypocritical. For example, they'll use terms the school has created such as bringing your "whole self". Which means you must be present, and be consistent in their expectations of you. However, you can't expect the same from the instructors. They tell you to tag them in Github if we need help. I not only did that, I asked them in person. They tell you to give them 5 mins. That 5 mins turns into 3 hours. At Dev Bootcamp, you don't have 3 hours to spare on one question. You have 9 cores to complete in a day. If you don't, you must complete them as soon as possible so that they don't question your "whole self" and whether or not you're dedicated. The average amount of help you'll get is once a week. Imagine attending a hacknight. Thats Dev Bootcamp all day everyday. Very little direction provided.
Dev Bootcamp is very good at advertising how cool their curriculum is, have cute animal names for their cohorts, are expanding at an insane rate (seattle, san diego and austin has just been added in the last three months). It makes sense; shove a huge amount of students in a cohort, in a small office where there aren't even enough computers or chairs anymore, have them graduate as soon as possible, take 13k from each student AND get paid by hiring companies. Very smart DBC.
The environment is also very competitive. Instructors will say things like "This is not a competition, you must work as a team" but no one cares due to the fact that there is very limited time spent on a concept, so of course a person you're pairing with would rather solve all the work than work together as they're getting the learning experience they need whilst depleting their pairs experience. Its a constant battle to fight for yourself to survive.
Lastly, you'll read great reviews from Dev Bootcamp students. Some may be true, but also consider why Dev Bootcamp has such high ratings. If the reviews were average or dare I say it, terrible, it not only affects the school negatively, it affects the graduates' reputation in finding a job.
It was a terrible experience. I felt that we would learn a certain concept for 5 mins and move on to a new concept. I can't learn that way. I need to tinker with that concept for at least a day in order for me to comprehend and remember what I learned. I was surprised to find that we needed to learn a framework in one day, then not have to use it at all throughout the program. Unless you're a genius, I cannot retain complicated information I've just learned in a day for the rest of my life....The pros of this whole experience is that you will meet some really awesome students that do want to work as a team that make the experience worth it. But bear in mind, these people are few. They are still my friends today and we meet on the reg.
If you are interested in attending Dev Bootcamp, please at least ask at their info sessions what their student to teacher ratio is. Good luck to you.
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Anonymous
DBC helps on my career change!
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Among the coding school offers from AppAcademy, CodingDojo (and later RocketU and Insight), I choose DBC because it looked not that 'tough' to students. I didn't have computer science background other than required CS101 for college students, what if I fall behind?
There are 3 parts in DBC curriculum: off-site(9 week), on-site(9 week) and career support(1 week). So I started to seriously learn Ruby/JavaScript in the off-site phase. For the on-site I learned ORM(ActiveRecord) and OOP(Ruby/JS), webapp frameworks(Sinatra & Rails). Very overwhelming and stressful, all mixed with Git work flow/Pair programming, Personal/Group projects, Yoga&counseling, etc. However the culture there care about student's feeling so happily survived and graduated.
Apart from ample teaching team, their career support clearly needs more members and weeks. Fortunately my career coach is outstanding. There were 5 or 6 companies joined our graduation in April, one contacted me immediately (but didn't survive their interview). DBC's hiring network contains about hundreds companies, 3 contacted me but didn't survived their interviews either. My personal estimation of positive response for job applications is between 1~5%, which is higher than average equity number on Angel.co. Finally accepted a 6 digit salary offer in July.
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e
Life Changing
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I always figured that I probably could have learned to code at some point, but the curve was just too steep. Curly braces and underscores were frustrating to type and codecademy never really made the connection between echoing something to a terminal and how applications actually work. At some point I realized I was climbing a ladder that I didn't want to be on. Started looking at code again, and in the course of my research decided that Dev Bootcamp seemed legit.
I also really liked the school's pedagogy and emphasis on tackling rather than avoiding issues of sexism, ageisim, white supremacy and general social justice in tech.
These are the two factors that most set DBC apart for me from dozens of other intensive code schools- a pretty established track record, a solid pedagogy and a commitment to social justice.
In terms of cost, I took out a 2 personal, unsecured loans for what amounted at the time to a year's salary using both my bank and upstart. Not worried about paying that off at this point, but having that amount of skin in the game definitely helped... motivate me.
The prep phase [0]:
For the entire 9-week prep I worked full-time while completing my challenges, generally 15-20 hours a week. This was also the time where it was still safe to fail and drop out and, knowing myself, the time that would be the most difficult (lots of self-paced work alone). It sucked but was necessary. I began lightly studying ruby about 3 months before the prep phase officially began and benefitted from it.
The onsite [1-3]
I was the only member of my cohort who lived in the location (Chicago) before we began. I might as well have moved as well... I can remember coming home at 6pm on a Saturday (weekend) once and thinking 'ahh... half day!' It worked for me as a highly motivating environment. The curriculum is refined literally every week- as a former teacher i can say this is basically what education should look like when you adequately fund it. Hopefully Kaplan doesn't mess it up, but they seem mostly interested in money. Dev Bootcamp's business model relies on quality education, so I'm hopeful that it won't change much.
The Job search.
The most difficult part. for me, 3 months of ups and downs and reminding myself that I can do this. In my personal experience, all but one person in my cohort to my knowledge was working in some capacity as a developer within the 4 months that we were told to expect as a baseline. In our case this would be about 85%, but the main takeaway I had from this was that as hungry as the job market was for developers, there is still a barrier to entry when you have no experience. I don't feel as worried about my next job, but the transition from 80-100 hour weeks coding to job applications and coding when you feel like it was rough.
For folks wondering about it:
Schedule a tour or go to an info session. Be realistic about your goals and what you can put into it. Ideally DBC would provide free day care for parents trying to pick up a new skill but that isn't there yet. Don't think of it as a 9-week program, but more like a 6-month program followed by several more years of developing youself in a new industry. Figure out as soon as possible whether you like it, but don't base it on whether some tedious codecademy course is 'fun'- most of your time for the next 6 months will be spent googling and doing othe rtedious work and wondering why you always feel 2 days behind. This is a 2+-year commitment, depending on whether you have dependents, safety nets, savings and so on.
And seriously, don't bother if you think gamergate is about ethics in journalism or that diversity in tech is some PC crap. you will embarass yourself and bring shame to the program.
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Sean
Best Decision
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I was a little hesitant at joining a coding bootcamp at first. I had been coding for two years prior, but still needed a leveling up experience wise. When I spoke with the staff at the Dev Bootcamp SF location. I knew it was the right decision for me. It was amazing to see a school approach learning the way that they did. It is really important in today's world to not only be capable of coding at a high level, you need to be able to collaborate effectively too. Dev Bootcamp's focus on those topics, I think, makes it an amazing choice.
Over the course of the program, you get quality instruction and insight from people actually in the industry. I truly believe that their approach helped me to land the job I currently have and I have been trying to get into Ops for a while.
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Anonymous
Dev Bootcamp Chicago
I recently graduated from DBC in Chicago. It was an amazing experience. The instructors are great and really care. Keep in mind that any of these boot camps are what you make of them--the harder you work, the more risks you take, the better you'll do.
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Miguel Melendez
NYC
Amazing bootcamp!
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Nick Christiny
Great Experience!
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Chicago location has become a sort of mecca for meetups and conference afterparties. They do a great job of hosting speakers and outreach to potential employers. Great student:teacher ratio, at least in my cohort.
After graduation you are invited to become part of their hiring network which is quite extensive and emcompasses companies from coast to coast, not just in Chicago. You are, as they say, part of the DBC family for life, and job assistance can continue even after the first job search into your second and third, etc.
One of the things I liked the most was the section of the curriculum that focused on current issues of inclusivitiy and diversity in tech and how to give and receive feedback and work more effectively in a pair and group projects. I think this is a massively undervalued skill in the industry today and in the formal education, so if you acquire these skills now, you will have a leg up on a recent traditional 4 year CS degree grad.
All in all a very positive and enlightening experience. Highly recommended.