Dev Bootcamp Reviews
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Anonymous
It's gotten way worse
I assume most of the good reviews were from the early days, the program now is run by people with very little technical talent or experience. The NYC program is lacking completly in teaching foundational ideals. Good luck toiling in an oversaturated market after coming out of this program.
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Anonymous
I wish i could give 0 stars
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I dropped out of college to attend Dev Bootcamp a year and a half ago, having only done the equivalent of one year of CS in self study. The experience was the definition of disappointing. The curriculum was all either exercises I'd done as part of my self study or some of the worst I've ever seen (ie. program an imaginary hospital even though we already gave you a week of exercises in the subject, OOP programming). When I approached teachers with questions, they would say that they'd talk to me after class and literally would avoid me afterwards. The absolute worst of it all was job placement. Stephanie refused to give me the counseling, resume help, and teaching I desperately needed, telling me to instead go talk to my fellow alumni. I wrote her bogus check in emails about how I'd saved orphans from burning buildings and she replied as if I had given an actual check in. I never was put in contact with companies. I was not alone in this, with few of my cohort getting jobs. Only the ones who previously had connections did. Later I enrolled in another bootcamp out of desperation. The precourse curriculum for that camp covered more than the entirety of Dev Bootcamp. They also provided the career help I needed, and I got a job making 6 figures with options and benefits 3 weeks after graduation. There are good coding schools out there, but Dev Boot camp is no longer one. -
Anonymous
Greatest experience in my life
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I thought it was awesome how they design and iterate everything based on student feedback. The environment, space and culture were all great but there is room for improvement instilling the correct mindset for continuing learning once the program ends. The bad (perhaps with any school) is that the best teachers are assigned to you by chance. In an ideal world it would be nice to have less discrepency in regards to the talent of the teachers. More to the point about instelling the correct mindset after graduation, you are caught offguard when the program ends and you're an adult again. There should be more emphasis from day 1 that things will be harder outside of the program. We need to be comfortable stepping out of the bubble while still having coding mentorship while working alone.
Also I wish there was more emphasis on data strucures and the science part of what we're going. It's a challenging thing to do because the more serious science you teach, the less you risk making things boring. DBC was a lot of joy. There's algorithm night every wednesday which is open for anyone but you usually end up not going because you're busy with other stuff. Getting into the program is too easy which means there are some students who aren't as serious as you are. That was a little frustrating.
Overall to end in a good note it is a necessary experience if you want to become a coder and a lot of the bad things I described I am sure happen in other bootcamps as well. I 100% recommend DBC but if you're very serious about learning and doing this as a career, make sure you research and ask questions. If you're the laid back type who loves coding and technology, DBC is the perfect place for you.
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Megan Gaebler
Dev Bootcamp
Best for self-starters, this gives you a tremendous leg up in the industry. -
Anonymous
Solid course with more polished curriculum structure
Experience can vary depends on the location and the time you attended the school (some times the school has more junior instructors than other etc.) But overall they are among one of the most structured curriculum I have seen and they really put an emphasis on engineering empathy which I consider to be very important going through such a demanding time both school wise and personal wise.
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Disa Johnson
Ruby on Rails
I wanted to learn Rails. This was a great way to go fast!
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Anonymous
Amazing course that allowed me to take minimal programming skills and after 9 weeks turn it into a career!
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I attend Dev Bootcamp (DBC) after having bounced around unfulfilling jobs after completing my Master’s Degree. I had gotten a small taste of programming in my coursework previous and had tried to expand that knowledge on my own with little success. I had heard of DBC when it was established in San Fransisco and was ecstatic to learn there was a Chicago branch. I immediately put in my application and after a series of interviews I was accepted into the program.
“Phase 0” at Dev Bootcamp is a series of exercises you are expected to do on your own time before your in person time begins. This theoretically allows DBC to further explore whether you will be able to survive the rigorous work that occurs during the in person 9 week session. This phase was rather lax and I feel like in the several guided pairing sessions I underwent I didn’t receive much instruction or utility. I have heard they have reworked Phase 0 since I went through it and hope that it involves more feedback on exercises and further instruction.
Heading into the in person section I was nervous but excited. The first week was definitely a shock as we were thrown directly into work that was very challenging (at the time) and took a while for us to complete. I remember seeing on the website that we’d be working 60-80 hours a week and thought that couldn’t possibly be true and that they were inflating that number to scare off anyone who was not serious. They were not… most weeks I was at DBC every day for at least 12 hours. During the week we worked on different exercises in pairs or groups (mostly pairs) and going to lectures, Engineering Empathy (team building/mental preparation?), and yoga. From Friday to Monday we were working on group projects that were rarely finished before Sunday afternoon.
Every three weeks is considered a phase and at the end of each phase there was an assessment where they determined if you were ready to be pushed through to the next phase. These were fairly stressful, as I was unemployed (no time for anything but DBC) at the time I was determined to make it through in the minimum 9 weeks so I wouldn’t go too much into debt. The assessments were tough but generally fair and afterwards you were able to sit down with an instructor and they would go over it with you and make a recommendation about whether they thought you were ready for the next phase. Your performance in the weeks leading up to the assessment also factored in and often were more indicative of whether you were ready or not.
At the end of phase 3 you participate in a final project where you work for 8 days to create a webpage/app from scratch based on someone’s ideas. At the end you get to present your final product to your fellow students/alumni and some employers.
After graduation, you have a week of resume and interview prep and you are sent out to find a job. I was underwhelmed with the amount of help that I received from the Career team, partially due to a transition period that was occurring in staffing. As one of the reasons I selected DBC was their career team I was fairly disappointed with this stage. Despite the lack of assistance I was able to secure a job within a few months of graduation and have been working for the company for over a year now. I really enjoy my job (something I’d never been able to say before) and I am thankful every day that I took the chance and went to DBC. Overall the program was great, the instructors were amazing and I have a bunch of awesome new friends that I keep in touch with that went through this bootcamp with me. I would recommend this course to anyone who is willing to work hard and be rewarded.
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Anonymous
DevBootcamp (Chicago)
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Great program. It was a lot of hard work but very rewarding and prepared me well for a job in Software Development. They provide a good full stack education so that regardless of if you want to go into front end, full stack or backend software development, you will have a solid foundation with which to get a job and continue your education in the workforce. The differentiatior in my decision making process was the more well rounded education that DBC offers and the universally positive reviews I was hearing from employers.
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Anonymous
Awesome well rounded bootcamp
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Bootcamp focuses mainly on Ruby and Rails, with a little bit of Javascript. Broken up into three phases you also get to extensively learn algorithms and logical thinking for 3 weeks building games like sudoku solvers, chess, boogle, and more. The professors are all superb, and the space is great. Free unlimited coffee, and career support after graduation.
On the other hand it is very expensive, and the job search is completely up to you. You also don't learn any JS framworks or mobile development. Also the interview process for developers is up to you to figure out by reading a book called "Cracking the coding interview".
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Anonymous
Superbly Superb
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DBC surpassed my expectations by leaps and bounds. I didn't expect the program to be drastically life changing in terms of overall growth, I thought that I would just learn how to code a bit. However, after going through it, I've met so many great people and learned significantly more than code (though we did learn quite a bit of it after all those super long days). I highly recommend the program if you want to learn and improve yourself in a supportive and positive environment.
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Anonymous
Life changing
Honestly. One of the best experiences of my life and just the thing I needed at the right time. It's not easy. It's intense. And honestly, it's not for everyone... But if you are willing to bust your ass and put in the work it can really really help you. -
Alex
Phenomenal Experience
My time with Dev Bootcamp could not have been more impactful. Going into the program, with only marginal programming experience to speak of, I foremost sought to feel equipped. The experience I recieved easily surpassed that expectation.
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Anonymous
Awesome Experience
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This was a great experience. I remember before I started, all the research I was doing on bootcamps was so tiring. I heard good and bad things about all of them. Eventually I pulled the trigger and decided to go to DBC. I made an amazing decision. This place prepared me to create a project I've been dreaming about for 2 years. Very happy with the outcome. Can't reccomend this school enough to everyone I see.
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Debbie
My experience at Dev Bootcamp
I had a great experience at Dev Bootcamp. I was both challenged and supported. Being new the tech industry, I was worried that I would experience a lot of prejudice as a woman. However, the school was so aware of the issue that it wasn't a problem.
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Anonymous
dev bootcamp
A dev bootcamp -
Anonymous
Accelerate your journey to becoming a developer
Attending Dev Bootcamp was the best decision I've ever made. It definitely changed the trajectory of my career as a developer. I am confident in the skills of technology and soft skills of empathy, and confident in being able to adapt to any other technology I need to pick up. The instructors are first rate. They care!
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Anonymous
Life changing experience
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Dev Bootcamp is the best thing I have experienced. The instructors know their stuff and it is sooo surprising what programming you can do in 9 weeks. Not only do they teach you Ruby on Rails and Javascript, but they teach you learn to learn a language quick and the idea of a web application. They care about good practice of a programmer, as well as how to not burn yourself out! They take care of your bodhy with yoga, and your mind by teaching you EQ. Not only did this program improve me as a programmer, but it has improved me as a person.
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Anonymous
Best Decision I Ever Made
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Attending DBC in NYC was hands-down one of the greatest decisions I've ever made. I came from a Psychology and Administrative background with absolutely no previous programming experience (with the exception of a few Codecademy tutorials). It was an all-around positive experience as I not only gained technical skills in relation to web development, but moreover, I learned "how to learn" in order to be able to teach myself new technologies, frameworks, etc. as a new developer. Instructors, staff and fellow cohort mates/alumni treated me with the utmost respect and kindness at all times, and were more than willing to help whenever I felt stuck, confused, or discouraged. They also all made it such a fun experience - I have never felt so comfortable around a group of people in such a short time span.
Unexpectedly, I learned way more about myself as a person and gained friends that I will have for life. Every person in my life has noticed a difference in my attitude and demeanor as I have become so much more excited, happy, and ready to take on this new chapter.
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Anonymous
happy and coding.
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Over All Experience
Best learning environment I’ve ever been a part of. I wish more of education were taught in this model- hands on, lightly guided and fast paced. You get to apply what you learned quickly. The culture of dev boot camp promotes cameraderie among the students and instructors. It rewards curiosity, hard work and persistence. I met a wonderful and diverse group of people here. They were and continue to be inspiring (in the lease cliche way possible).
Instructors
Instructors are very knowledgable, approachable and helpful. They never give you the answer- just ask a lot of questions about your process and thinking which helps you figure it out. Many of the instructors brought in their years of industry experience and excitement for new technology. I would have liked to be pushed harder.
It concerns me slightly that they will employ graduates of the program who have not had much experience with dev work outside of Dev Bootcamp. While it is valuable to have the support of people who have first hand experience as a DBC student, I think that someone with more experience is better equipped to push students out of the DBC comfort zone since they know what outside of DBC looks like. When I pay $12,000 I want my teachers to be seasoned and have given their lectures more than once. That being said, I found that the students turned instructors were competent when it came to assisting with the hands on exercises. I know that other boot camps also employ their old students.
Curriculum
I think it is relevant to compare the curriculum of a bootcamp to a CS program, because that may be who you are competing with for a job. (but a lot of people out there are self taught or went to another bootcamp). Dev Bootcamp is strictly a Web Development shop. It is not a computer science degree or its equivalent. you do not learn mobile development. You learn Ruby, Javascript, and SQL (plus HTML and CSS). Except for SQL, These are all scripting languages. The great thing about this curriculum is that they give you all the components necessary to hack together a fully functioning website. Really, that’s all you need to get started in web development. And they write the curriculum to prove to you that you can make real things. You build StackOverflow and Craigslist as projects.
When you graduate, you are most likely going to be ready for a QA role or something on the front end. You probably won’t do much on the backend because companies prefer to hire candidates with Data Structures and Algorithms experience/course work for that. You do not learn Data Structures or Algorithms. You will know what an Array and Hash are- you will need to study anything else.
A really big part of DBC’s philosophy is to reveal your ignorance. Never be afraid of what you don’t know, pursue it. Ask questions. I like that philosophy.
Job Assistance
Helpful. VERY helpful. They went above and beyond what I had expected.
They aren’t going to apply for you- but they give you the tools you need. There is a 1 week course at the end that kick starts your job search. You have LinkedIn and Resume reviews, brush up your portfolio and learn to stalk the hell out of potential leads.
They also give great tips on how to keep organized and motivated. The motivated part is super important because job hunting burns you out. All their resources are available to you and you can walk up to anyone and ask if they would be comfortable giving you an email intro (maybe even a recommendation).
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Corey
Best decision I've ever made.
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I have absolutely no regrets about my decision to walk away from my previous career, plunk down a ton of money, and take this giant risk.
I'm sure you've read all about the fast-pace and the short time-frame and the long days, so let me tell you about stuff you may not have read:
-You should be on board with Engineering Empathy. The people who got the most out of the program were the people who were willing to be open. Read up on it, ask questions about it, and ask yourself if you can engage in uncomfortable self-reflection and open discussions that will make you a better person and a better team member. If you're looking to focus on code and code alone, this probably isn't the place you will be happiest, and that's okay. I was drawn to DBC because of their emphasis on you as a whole person, not just as a programmer, but it's not for everyone.
-DBC accepts beginners - I was one of them - but the best thing you can do for yourself is to be as prepared as possible going into Phase 0. It was hard for me to get through Phase 0 and I didn't work during those first 9 weeks. Give yourself some runway and choose a start date that allows you enough time to really work through some tutorials and have a good foundation. The stronger you are going into Phase 0, the stronger you'll be going into Phase 1, and then you won't be spending precious mental energy trying to grasp the basics during fast-paced days - you can be reaching further into the curriculum.
-You're going to graduate with a lot of new skills, and you're going to need to keep working on them while you job hunt. Depending on how strong you are going into the program, you may feel confident enough when you graduate to go out and interview immediately. I gave myself some time after graduation to do a deeper dive into Rails and JavaScript now that I had the time to learn at a slower pace. Don't expect to graduate and land a job immediately - it happens, but it's more likely that it'll take 1-3 months, and during that time you need to be focusing on learning as well as applying for jobs.
-DBC is great at taking feedback, and the curriculum and overall experience is constantly changing. Get in touch with them and ask to speak to a recent alum rather than relying on internet searches. The phase 1 curriculum is a lot different than when I had it - I'm jealous of the students now. My only real criticism is that I wish we had even more exposure to JavaScript and algorithms, but that's based on my own experience and they've added more in since I graduated. There's a cool 'spike day' in Phase 3 when you get to pick any framework you want to practice with. All of these changes took place since I graduated in December 2014, so the staff is constantly working to improve the experience based on your feedback and their critical review of content.
-The Careers team is really awesome. No, they don't guarantee you jobs, but I would receive emails about job opportunities that companies had reached out to DBC to promote, and the job I have now is as a result of a referral from someone reaching out to the Careers team. DBC has relationships with "Employer Partners" but it seems to me that the majority of people getting jobs did so through their own searching vs those relationships. Shar'nee, the Career Coach, is really awesome about staying in touch, giving you advice, and helping you retool your resume and your approach to job hunting. Career Week itself is pretty invaluable for getting you started. Bonus: DBC is really welcoming of having alumni back in the space to work on projects and job hunting after graduation.
I would do it all again in a heartbeat. Good luck!
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Mehul
Pretty great
Changed my life
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Michael Angelo
DBC: Social Coding
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DBC gives you the skill that you need to succeed in the Tech industry. There is an emphasis on Social Learning and self-discovery, you will not only learn how to program but, you will learn how to interact and adapt to your surroundings quickly.
Curriculum: Primarily Ruby, Rails, and some Javascript. I think they are currently trying to change this, to be something more modern. They do encourage you to look at anything that you find interesting.
Instructors: The instructors are very knowledgeable and are always willing to lend a hand when needed. They also have a Coaches who are their daily to help you along your journey (they are invaluable)
Job Assistance: They have a career coach on staff; their primary job is helping you find a job.
Overall Experience: I loved it, it was the best fit for my personality, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone!
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Anonymous
Best investment of you time and money for your Developer career, by far.
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If you're looking for a bootcamp, I would highly recommend DevBootcamp for a few reasons. I loved the focus on empathetic engineering, pair program, best Object Oriented practices and TDD. They are constantly changing and adapting the program to make it better. If you do go to DBC, you'll have to be prepared to be adaptable yourself, because it's a pretty agile/ever-changing environment. Other than that it by far the best investment of you time and money for your Developer career.
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Anonymous
Best investment of you time and money for your Developer career, by far.
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If you're looking for a bootcamp, I would highly recommend DevBootcamp for a few reasons. I loved the focus on empathetic engineering, pair program, best Object Oriented practices and TDD. They are constantly changing and adapting the program to make it better. If you do go to DBC, you'll have to be prepared to be adaptable yourself, because it's a pretty agile/ever-changing environment. Other than that it by far the best investment of you time and money for your Developer career.
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Anonymous
Junior Developer
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Dev Bootcamp changed my life. I had previously worked in the finance and banking industry for seven years before I grew tired and needed a change. I am now gainfully employed as a junior developer in the Chicago area and am, for the first time in my life, happy with my job, where I work, and the people I work with.
Do not attend Dev Bootcamp unless you are willing to put in 100%. I believe that anyone who attends and gives it their all will get what they desire out of the program. The only people I know of who had unsatisfactory results (and they are few) were those who barely tried and complained the whole way through.
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Anonymous
Good for people with no experience!
I went to into DBC with no experience other than the required interview prep. As of this week, one month out of DBC, I got my first job. Just some proof that the program actually works!
They do a great job of making sure everyone is learning. They let you repeat each phase once if that's something you could benefit from.
DBC was one of the best things I could have done with any 18 weeks.
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Anonymous
DBC Review
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DBC is truly a life-changing experience. The staff has worked hard to develop a program that teaches technical skills and also emphasizes increasingly necessary "soft skills" like effective teamwork, feedback, and self-awareness. I chose to attend DBC over other bootcamps because it's been around the longest and I consider things like engineering empathy to be signs that a curriculum has evolved beyond the basics, and I was not disappointed.
In addition to getting a good start as a developer, I think I've also made some lifelong friends from DBC. The Chicago campus has a very friendly midwestern vibe and the atmosphere is extremely supportive rather than competitive. The kind of people that are attracted to this program are mostly smart and ambitious, but come from varied educational and professional backgrounds; I think this made it interesting to get to know everyone.
Curriculum
The curriculum is a very thorough overview of ruby and rails (i.e. explains the concepts in depth and teaches from the bottom up), but I think many people leave without a great understanding of more classical computer science concepts because they're not covered deeply and many may not have natural interest. I think DBC could do a better job of either teaching or recommending resources on topics like algorithms, managing computing resources, etc.
Instructors
I found everyone I worked with to be intelligent and helpful - particularly during final projects, the instructors all get very excited and were extremely willing to offer help in whatever field they had expertise. I think instructors can vary somewhat in how much they "coddle" their cohort - generally it seems people learn more when they have an instructor that emphasizes self-learning instead of providing answers quickly.
Job Assistance
The career team at DBC Chicago is stellar. They ran a week-long career counseling event after graduation to help us with our online presence and resumes. We also received helpful instructions and practice (not to mention great discussions) on how to best network to find opportunities. Beyond this week, the career team was committed to continuing to help graduates with interviews and deciding whether offers are good.
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Anonymous
Best programming experience ever!
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DBC not only teached you how to code, but also how to think, approach, and solve problems while communicating and working with team members as efficiently and pleastantly as possible. At the end of the day, software engineering is a team effort on many different levels.
Most importantly, in the world of computer science where things evolve and update constantly, the most valuable skill I picked up from DBC is how to learn quickly and have the confidence and the drive to accomplish tasks my rational mind thought were impossible. It's absolutely a very empowering experience that I'd highly recommend anyone to attend.
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Anonymous
Excellent School, Some Teething Pains
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Overall the experience was excellent. All of the instructors were top-notch and the structure of the curriculum hit an excellent balance of tech understanding with best practices for development (equally important). They were still going through some noticable teething pains, because they've only been in NY for less than a year, although nothing too dramatic. It was really impressive to see how everyone in my cohort progressed over the course of the program.
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Kathryn McClin
Current Student DBC Review
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Curriculum: I’ve got a Masters in education, secondary education. Coming from a teaching perspective and knowing that they don’t have the teaching background, there’s room for improvement. They’ve been really receptive to changes they could make to the curriculum or how it’s being taught. If you’re not sure you understand something, and there are gaps because everybody’s coming from a different place than I know that I can go to pretty much anyone and ask them to explain it to me.
Instructors: I think they’ve been pretty good after the fact of incorporating improvements or suggestions. I’ve written a lot of feedback and they’ve listened to it. They’re all pretty knowledgeable. If they don’t know something, they’re not afraid to say “I’ll look into it and get back to you.” They’re all nice people, too.
Job Assistance: Engineering Empathy has been good. It makes sense for people who don’t have as much of a reflective background. I’ve talked in a general manner with the careers people about the tech scene in DC where I’m from. We just got a new careers person and she’s talked to me informally about what I was expecting from her.
Overall: It hasn’t been perfect, but nothing is ever perfect. A big reason why I chose DBC was that they might not have all the answers, but they’re asking the right questions. Maybe something went wrong or we didn’t cover something enough, but they’re genuinely interested in your feedback and making it work for you. They might have an explanation for the way that they’re doing it, but they’ll explain it to you. It’s not some big secret. You have to ask the question. As much as I want to go home back to DC to my house and my comfortable bed, I’m going to miss being here. I think that’s pretty indicative of the great experience here.
It’s very much a sink-or-swim environment. There’s a lot of structure here that will support you, but you have to get over the fear of asking questions. That’s what initially held me back here. I didn’t want to be the person asking the dumb question. Don’t be afraid to ask for support. There’s not formal office hours, but don’t let it linger if you’re struggling. Get over your fear of asking questions early.
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Dylan Krause
Dev Bootcamp Review
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Curriculum: If you were being realistic about what you’ll learn in 9 weeks, I’d say the only downside is that the javascript stuff is a little bit rushed. The way that they present all the other stuff is about as good of a grasp as you can get. Javascript is very popular now and required in some places, and I think that’s why they put it in, but it doesn’t necessarily fit with the rest of the curriculum. Depending on your interest you can do more javascript stuff on the side. When you get to the final project you pretty much do either a javascript project or a ruby project, but there’s only so much you can really grasp if you’re learning it in a week.
Job Assistance: The job assistance is really good. It’s even better than I expected it to be. You wait to do things like interview prep and resume building until after the program is over. There’s a thing called career week right after the 9 weeks.
Overall: The atmosphere can be completely different between programs, so you have to kind of figure it out when you get there. The students really determine the atmosphere. I would absolutely recommend it.
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Anthony Edwards
DBC Review
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Aside from coding, I think Dev Bootcamp did a great job in teaching me about compassion and being aware of myself and others. That’s a really great skill to have when pairing with different people and being aware of things that they’re going through and being conscious of that. That can be with things like meditating or yoga. Those are great things that people don’t really think about when they think about coding. Coding is a side part, and awareness is the networking part. It’s about being a good person and a good teammate.
I didn’t give other bootcamps a hard look. I knew Dev Bootcamp did yoga and stuff like that and I’m really into physical fitness and sports and dancing, so when I saw yoga I thought that was cool.
Come with an open mind. Be prepared to not know a lot. They really emphasize that. You’re going to have your mind blown for the next 9 weeks that you’re here. Be prepared for that and open to changes because a lot of stuff you’re doing here you haven’t done before.
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Victor Yang
Recent Grad
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Instructors: It can be very hit or miss with instructors. My cohort got very lucky, but I knew people who repeated phases and told us that we lucked out not having a couple of instructors. Everyone that we got was great, but some of them have a style of teaching that may not work for everyone.
Job Assistance: I feel like the job assistance would be good preparation, but I can’t say for sure. It seems like they’re teaching us everything the right way and it seems like people are getting jobs. I don’t necessarily have a frame of reference right now. I enjoyed the extra-curricular stuff. Some of my friends didn’t like it as much because they were here to just code. That’s the thing, a lot of things here are feedback based, so whatever you want if you ask for it enough they’ll give it to you. Some people don’t like Engineering Empathy, but I think it’s unique to DBC and I think it’s very useful. It makes you more comfortable with the other people you work with. It makes a lot of sense to me.
Overall: I liked that they tried to build a soft skillset here. I think the progression of the curriculum was really good. They asked us to build a basic version of Active Record, which is a dev database, before even using it. We actually understood the basics behind it. Same thing happened before we used rails. I really liked the multiple step approach. The stuff they threw at us we had to struggle with, but they made sure we understood it.
Even though things are constantly changing, some things are set in stone. Everything is ruby-based, even with the move towards java-script. We ended up working with it while we were here, but half or two thirds of the course was still ruby. The other portion is just how they manage students. Our cohort was pretty cool. There are just very different dynamics between the cohorts. The rolling admissions thing works out well here because you can talk to people who have been here for different amounts of time.
They give you the resources and the opportunity, but the rest of it is up to you.
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Sahan Pitigala
Summer Graduate
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I actually ended up doing 12 weeks at Dev Bootcamp. At the end of phase 1 and phase 2 they do an evaluation of your skills. They do a coding test and stuff like that and based on how you perform in those they tell you whether you’re on track to repeat. Whether you should repeat, or whether you have a few things that you need to tighten up but you should be fine. Or green light you’re good to go. I got that middle one so it’s “like you have a few things that you could tighten up over the weekend, but we think you might benefit if you repeat.”
I didn’t have anything to lose. I don’t have kids or anything. So I was like “you know what, three more weeks of free instruction. I get a better grasp of all these concepts. So why not? It’s not going to cost me any extra.” So it was kind of an easy decision really, and it was the best decision. I got to really grasp a lot of things that I missed the first time around. The second time I was doing it, I knew a lot of things so I was teaching a lot of the new students.
Right now I’m a part-time coach. I’m coaching new students. I’m also doing the job search. Some weeks go by with no action, and some weeks it’s one after another getting calls. It’s definitely picking up.
Curriculum: I felt like there were some parts where the instruction could have been a bit clearer. I wasn’t sure if they had done this on purpose because in the technical world you have to learn specifications that aren’t always clear. Maybe they just wanted us to be in the confused state where you have to figure things out. There were some parts where I felt like the instructions could have been a little bit clearer.
Instructors: The instructors were definitely awesome. They flew in an instructor from San Francisco for all of my phases. The instructor for phase 1 was Sharif Abushadi. He is very opinionated on how things should be done. He’s very methodical about things. It was great to learn from him especially like in the first phase where you’re building your foundation, to have an instructor like that.
Phase 2 was Nate from Chicago. He was good. I think what tripped me up a little bit was maybe his teaching style. Sometimes he would do a lot of coding and I would lose him. He was a very laid-back soft-spoken person and sometimes I would end up tuning him out during the lecture. I was also tired from staying up and pulling all nighters and stuff like that.
The second time, when I repeated phase 2, there was an awesome guy, Tanner, who actually doesn’t work here anymore, but he was really great. He was very lively, jumping around and using his hands a lot. It was definitely easier to follow during lectures.
The last phase we had Steven Harms who also flew in from San Fran. Again, just like Sharif, he’s a veteran from the industry. He’s very methodical about things.
Job Preparation: I think it’s really different based on which interview you go to. I’ve had some interviews where they’ve thrown like computer science. They knew that I didn’t have a computer science degree. Some of them I struggled with, but some of them I was able to figure out. Then there’s other ones where I felt like Dev Bootcamp prepared me for the interview.
During the phases they didn’t really bug us about any job preparation because they didn’t want us to get distracted. As far as preparing for them, they taught us how to solve problems and even if you didn’t get the answer immediately, how to work through it.Even if you don’t end up getting the right answer, in the interview they’re looking at how you solve the problem, they’re looking for how you approach the problem, and not necessarily getting the right answer all the time. Just getting the idea and your frame of mind that’s what they focused on.
Afterwards, I mean they do have the employer network and I’ve had some hits with that, but I’ve seen a lot more action outside that network. I know they’re still working on getting people on board with that. I’ve just had better luck with people outside their network.
Erin the career advisor is awesome. As far as reviewing my resume, giving pointers, helping me prepare for interviews, I’d give her a 5. I give her a 6 really. As far as getting interviews out of the network they have, I can’t really rate it so highly. I’m not sure if that’s me or if I’m being unfair from my perspective. From my perspective I’d give it like 2.5 stars. I’ve gotten interviews out of it, but nothing solid. I’ve actually had better luck on my own.
Other Thoughts:
I would say definitely before you make a commitment to go to the bootcamp or put down any kind of money, the first thing I would do is take some time to see if this is something you enjoy doing. So, for example, I tried to learn how to code about three or four times on my own and I got stuck, I got frustrated. I never came back to it for a while, and I thought maybe coding isn’t for me. Maybe I don’t like it. I just left it like that. Then the 5th time around, I was following some video tutorials. The instruction made a difference, having someone guide you through it, at least in the beginning. That’s when I was like “This is great. I love it. I’m getting it finally.” If people can just try it on their own for a little while. Maybe do something like Code Academy, just to see if this is something that they find to be fun. If you don’t find it fun, you’re not going to want to do it. You can’t expect Dev Bootcamp to hand you these things. You can’t go in without a passion for it.
Having some kind of a pre-work basically. I think that’s really helpful. I think the biggest thing that helped was being comfortable being confused. It was almost like a buzzword in the beginning, but it became reality towards the end. It became clearer towards the end. You’re going to be confused all the time. It’s fine. I think not knowing that the first few times is why I gave up. Maybe I’m not meant to be a programmer, but being told that it’s okay to be confused. That helped.
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Jeremy Salazar
Dev Bootcamp Review
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Curriculum: They just give you so much stuff. I couldn’t even get through it all. At the beginning of each phase actually we had the entire 3 weeks of curriculum. Rarely did I go too much further ahead of time than that week, but you could if you wanted to. The content is almost all original, if not all of it. Some of them you can tell were a little dated like written by the original people who started it. Jesse Farmer is one of the ones who started it and you’ll see his name on a lot of the different challenges or integrated into it.
Instructors: It’s an interesting thing since I’ve been here. They’ve gone through some instructors and I guess were short staffed for a little bit of my time while I was here. The ones that were here were amazing. All of them are so great. They’re inspiring. I found out one of my favorite instructors was a year younger than me. They’re all really good at what they do and really good at communicating ideas. They don’t look down on you. They know how to be a peer.
That said, one of the downsides of being short staffed is that our cohort actually didn’t have a cohort lead. Usually they have an instructor who goes through the cohort through the entire thing along with the people who teach each phase. We didn’t get that this time because two went onto do other things while I was in the first phase. They’ve been trying to hire people on in the meantime, but the time was still ticking.
Job Assistance: They’re really trying to step things up because I’ve seen some of the other people in cohorts above me and some of them are getting jobs really quickly. Some of them it’s taking a while. I know a few people, a couple cohorts above, who still haven’t found a job. That was worrying me at first, coming into career week, but they brought everybody from all the locations out here. They’re doing this new thing called DevConnect. It’s specific to Dev Bootcamp with other companies. We’re getting to try that.
The things that we did throughout the program that would help the most with job prep would be things called EEs. Engineering empathy sessions. In phase 1 we did one every week and then we did one in each of the other phases. It’s bringing up difficult topics and making people talk about them. People drop any front they’re putting up. They just be real for a little while and understand how other people think.
Overall Experience: The reason I chose Dev Bootcamp was just because I thought that it was better known or in the news, so I thought it would be a better network. I had no idea about any of the intricacies of it. I just saw the numbers that they put on their site about the percentage of people who get jobs or average salary. It was a lot more than just learning to code. It did serve its purpose for that, but I got to meet a bunch of cool people. I feel better for going through something that I didn’t think I was going to be able to do. Going through that I think made me a better person in general. There’s a lot more to it than just learning to code. It’s fun. I was originally only looking at startups. I wanted to learn to code to get into the startup scene. I didn’t want to work at a big corporation. I think I just didn’t like what I was doing in terms of the job. Now I’m more open, as long as I’m getting something from my work rather than just a paycheck every two weeks.
They stress culture just as much as coding. I was expecting to get here and just work for like 12-15 hours straight at the computer. Everyone told us to chill out. You’re here for 9 weeks. Don’t burn out. You want to meet people and have a good time too. That would be something. I could see how if someone only wanted to learn to code that that could be a put-off.
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Anonymous
Constantly Getting Better
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Dev Bootcamp is one of the most meaningful experiences I've ever gone through. I learned so much and made connections with so many inspiring, innovative and creative individuals. The NY branch is constantly getting better and always looking for feedback. The staff is very impressive, attentive and always available to help. Also, having the support system of the campus and staff post graduation has been very helpful in my learning and growth.
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Anonymous
Intense and challenging
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The Wagon experience was intense and challenging, in only 2 months, we made a giant step in the tech universe. A lot of work was done, a lot of work remain, but it was an amazing experience and very useful. The teachers in Nice (south France) are basically awesome, mostly former students, very helpfull. The others students have become like army companions, we developped our skills but also our friendship. I highly recommend this very short course, intense and amazing, stressful but so enriching. -
Anonymous
Extremely knowledgeable, really good relationship
Very interesting, instructive and intensive, flipping to all kinds of emotions.
Interactive; realistic challenges; good structure; material, support.
I had an amazing experience with Le Wagon. -
Anonymous
A Life Changing Bundle of New Skills and Friends
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I chose this bootcamp based on the atmosphere and values that it promotes - Inclusion, continuous learning at any rate/age/speed, etc., empathy, friendships, working together, and creativity. You could go to any place to learn the skills, but paying to learn anywhere else I felt was cutting myself short. DBC not only teaches you the skills, but teaches you how to teach yourself new skills moving forward. It has become my home in terms of where I go to find comfort and hang out with people in my free time. I could not be more happy or proud from graduating from somewhere that genuinely cares.
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Anonymous
Almost 1 year, Still no job as developer
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Almost one year later and I still don't have a job as a developer. The market is flooded with junior developers and even as I build up my skill set, learn new frameworks and libraries, do more projects, actively attend meetups and apply online, it just seems as though I'm not making any progress from the lack of responses I receive. Dev Bootcamp is very good at soliciting feedback from the small percentage of students who do get jobs as developers. They'll magnify their successes on social media, but the bigger picture is most of their cohort members still don't have jobs. The careers team genuinely cares about your success, but they seem powerless to do anything about it. They're able to give you general career advice, but they're not specialized in understanding how to break into the software industry as a developer. They've always kept sending me potential jobs I could've got without spending 14k attending Dev Bootcamp. It feels less about the students success post graduation and more about pumping and dumping students as a business.
Dev Bootcamp was a great option from 2012-2014, when recruiters were desperate for developers, but in 2017, it's not worth 14k to spend on. I DON'T RECOMMEND DEV BOOTCAMP. Choose a bootcamp such as App Academy or Flatiron because they'll put their business on the line for your success. At least you'll have the insurance of receiving your money back if you don't get a job as a developer. I've attended a meetup where I met someone from App Academy who received a full refund of their deposit and no deduction of their annual salary after a year of being unemployed and unable to get a job as a developer. Dev Bootcamp will just shrug their shoulders and treat you as more of a statistic as they're piling up more unemployed graduates to support without any insurance of giving their money back. No bootcamp can guarantee you a job with the a saturated market of junior developers, but they can guarantee your money back if you put in the work and still didn't get a job as a developer. I will update this review once I land a job as a developer. If I don't, just know I'm still unemployed or gave up and took a different route.