Dev Bootcamp

I heavily relied on Course Report reviews when I chose to be part of one of Dev Bootcamp's first cohorts, so I feel obligated to share my own experience. First, there are components of the Austin Dev Bootcamp curriculum of which I was unaware, and when I was aware, I didn't take seriously. I wish in retrospect that I had. 

At the time I attended, the following was all true:
Dev Bootcamp has three assessments throughout the curriculum. If you fail the assessment, you are obligated to repeat. DBC campuses have rolling cohorts that allow students to immediately repeat each phase, but Austin does not. There is an assessment that happens two weeks before the end of Phase 0,  an assessment after the first three weeks of Phase 1, and again at the end of Phase 2. There were a handful of people in our cohort who either chose or were forced by the staff to repeat at the end of Phase 0 or at the end of Phase 2.  The students who repeated Phase 0 had to repeat the nine-week curriculum and wait for the next cohort to start their on-site portion. The students who repeated Phase 2 were forced to drop out of the current cohort, wait a month and half gap period before the next cohort, and instead of simply repeating Phase 2, were forced to start all over again at the beginning of Phase 1. The staff said this was so that all the students could "bond".  

This is necessary information because you may be a student who passes the assessments and feels confident in their knowledge, but if you do not, I would advise planning now whether you can afford the financial and logistical repercussions of voluntarily or forcibly being held back.

Second is the Engineering Empathy "EE" sessions. I deeply wish I had taken seriously some of the earlier Course Report reviews on Dev Bootcamp, which cautioned that both students and facilitators were not prepared to handle the serious nature and depth of the EE topics. Now that I experienced the sessions, I agree that they are great in theory, but counterproductive in practice, especially if you are a marginalized person in tech. As a woman, I found the way in which some were handled, particularly the discussion on microaggressions, distressing in a way that distracted me from learning to code. The discussions inevitably had the predominantly white, male members of our cohort questioning the two women about their experiences and asking them to justify their experiences. This also led to another big issue, the fact that we didn't address intersectionality or discuss anything besides straight white women in our microagressions discussion. I left feedback for the campus to start having the licensed counselor on staff facilitate these discussion and be in charge of creating safe spaces, as opposed to having a teacher wantonly naming "safe spaces" and facilitating off-the-cuff discussions. 

 

In terms of teaching methodologies, I appreciated the idea behind having little instruction and prompting students to directly jump into new challenges and figure them out, as that's what we'll be doing in our careers. However, as a beginner coder I felt like I spun my wheels more than was necessary. I know that DBC prides itself in a vetted curriculum, but I learned more skills when I finally gave myself permission to stray from some daily solo and team challenges to do what I needed to learn. Once I started doing what I had to do for myself and not relying on last-minute DBC breakout sessions, I felt I gained a lot more tools in my coding tool belt with which to work. I also felt I gained a deeper understanding of the code I was writing.

Job placement does not exist at DBC. The staff will help you with professional preparation, but I barely utilized these tools or found them helpful when I got my full-time development job. I had other resources to work with, such as my alma matter and local mentors, so I'm not sure what it would be like to only rely on DBC for help getting jobs.

There were great perks to the curriculum, such as an on-site counselor and weekly yoga classes. I took advantage of both and greatly appreciated them. The EE sessions on communication with senior developers were helpful when it came time for me in my work to pair with seniors or ask for feedback during code reviews. The curriculum is as extensive as it can be in the little amount of time that you are there, and Ruby on Rails is a very accessible language to beginners.

I feel DISCRIMINATED AGAINST at DEV BOOTCAMP, SF.  I was asked to leave the program because I was not learning fast enough, according the the staff.

3/2/17 (Thurs)

At about 5:30pm in the afternoon, I was advised by Walker (dev bootcamp director) and witness by Stan (instructor/mentor) that I will no longer be with dev bootcamp and they are kicking me out of the program.  They had made a decision that I will not be able to repeat and says that I will not keep up with the rest of the students if I refactor.  So therefore I will not be offered a refactor chance at phase 2.  This is after my first attempt at Phase 2 of the program.  All students were advise that each one of us would have at least one chance to refactor (redo) on each of the Phase in the program.  I have pleaded to the director and stated that I deserved another chance at this, I feel real good about the material and that I do have test anxiety and I don’t do well under pressure.  I stressed that I have not had a second chance at phase 2 and asked why I was singled out in the program and prohibited from a 2nd chance while the nearly half of my classmates were given another opportunity.  Mr. Walker kept on stressing that my gap was too far and I will not make it on the repeat.  I plead and plead for another opportunity, and had mention that there are other 19-25 year olds in my class didn’t try at all and had done worst than me on the assessment, why are they allow to repeat and not me?  I’m currently 43 years old.  What have I done wrong to deserve this?  Is it because of my age?  My looks?  My ethnicity?  What is it?  

 

I could not figure it out, he just kept saying I was not a good fit for dev bootcamp.  I don’t believe they have ever dismissed someone after the first attempt at a phase and I was the first one to do so. I have also stressed to him that I have stayed late, and nearly came in 7 days a week during the whole phase 2 studies.  There was a lot of material to be covered and I kept on telling him that I have a good grasp on the concepts and all I have to do is work on the implementation a bit and I’m right on pace.  He would not listen to me at all and ask for my key back.  So I left.

 

During that whole entire evening, I was extremely upset.  I have started to smoke again after quitting for about 3 months, snapping at my children for no reason and could not focus on anything.  While trying to get some rest, I popped up at around 2-3am and could not sleep for a few hours and woke my wife up to say, “I’m gonna fight them to get me back into the program”.

 

That same evening, I have wrote the director an email:

 

Hi Walker,

 

I really think it's unfair for you to give others a chance at phase 2 and not me.  I have done nothing wrong, DBC is a learning institution and you are suppose to teach us as students.  I was promised an adviser that will track my process during my phase 2 and advise on the items and the areas that I need to improve on and I was not provided that.  Everyone that I know of has a second chance at phase 2 and I was denied the opportunity to do so.  I might not have been great at explaining the codes, but I do believe and know for a fact that I have more knowledge than some of my cohort mates and they were given another opportunity to learn more.  

 

You can actually randomly select anyone in phase 2 and ask them if I was the worst coder in the phase.  Why am I getting dismissed?   Learning institutions are suppose to provide and assist students in their learning process.  I might have misunderstood the questions of my code reviewer or might have forgotten what the term of the variable or function that she has asked me about.  So teach me, give me a chance to understand better.

 

Going into phase 2, I was a little worried, but finishing the 3 weeks, I felt really good about understanding the concept of CRUD, Sinatra and Ajax.  I might have had a bit of miscues on JavaScript, but DBC is not giving me an opportunity to get better at it.  You are denying me even an opportunity to repeat phase 2 and that is very unfairt.  There are other students that repeated all phases and I'm just simply being denied the chance.  I would really love a chance to complete the DBC training.

 

Thank you for your consideration.

Tony Wu.

 

3/3/17 (Fri)

At about 9am, I went to dev bootcamp to speak to Walker.  Again, I stressed I deserve a 2nd chance and I would like to prove it to everyone that I can still learn the material.  I told him, dev bootcamp is like family, you and the staff are like parents, us students are like children.  I asked him, if your child is having problems learning a subject or a lesson you are trying to teach her, would you just kick her out the door after the first try?  Or would find another way to teach her, maybe try a different angle or just give her a little bit more time.  At this point he was still stressing that the gap was too big and that I will not succeed on the second try.  Yet again, I mention the other 2 younger students who didn’t do or understand anything at all was given a 2nd chance and not me.  I asked, why are you discriminating against me?  After pleading my case for another 10-15 minutes, he decided to reopen my case for the staff/instructors review to see if another chance would be awarded to me.  He said he will get back to me in the afternoon with the outcome of the meeting.  After that, I went home to wait for the decision.  

 

At around 4:58pm, I received an email from Walker:

 

Hi Tony,

 

Thank you again for reaching out regarding your assessment results.

 

As promised, the staff has reviewed your case and we've determined that you will be allowed to repeat Phase 2.  The decision was largely based on new information related to cultural components (e.g the 3 agreements) with no alteration of our concerns regarding your technical performance.  

 

It's important to convey that you will still have a significant gap to close on your technical skills and this may prove to be insurmountable over the next few weeks. That said, we expect you to bring 100% to the effort to succeed.  In that sense, I can tell you that we'll bring 100% as well and will offer you the same support that we offer all of our students in their efforts to succeed.  We will also hold you to the same standards culturally and technically.

 

We look forward to seeing you on Monday morning and hope that this news will brighten your weekend.  

 

Sincerely,

_walker

 

I was extremely excited on receiving the news that I get to continue my education at DBC.  I appreciated all my classmates that had pull for me during the all school standups and personally going into Walker’s office to tell him that I deserve another chance.  I was so grateful that all my friends had pull for me.  They had told me that students from all phases (1,2,3) had spoke about me and don’t believe I deserve to be kicked out of the program.  That same evening I went to the graduation celebration of the phase 3 students and was just thanking everyone I can see for the 2nd chance.  When I shook one of the instructor’s hand at the celebration, my friend told me what he had said in the all school standup in the morning when they were telling walker to give me another chance at phase 2.  This instructor made comments like “Why are you guys standing up for someone that plays ping pong and lays on the couch all the time?  They don’t deserve to be here.”  This really crushed my heart and soul.  I had thought that all the staff/instructors really feel like I deserve another chance to learn and would be there to help me on this journey.  At that point, I knew it was all the pressure from the students that had brought me back to DBC.  I was so grateful and really don’t know how to repay them.  I know I have made friends for life.  On the other hand, I have a great amount of anger towards all the instructors and staff.  I felt betrayed, hated and seems to be public enemy number 1 in the staffs/instructors eyes, because they wanted me to be out of the program and forced to keep me in due to the pressure from all students who supported me.  We had went to an after party that evening, and things did not sit well with me at all, I was torn up inside again.

 

Over the weekend (3/4/17 - 3/5/17)

I was feeling of angry, disappointed, and distorted.  I couldn’t believe what had just happened, how can one of the instructors make such an accusation about me.  Saying that I’m lazy and did not put in the effort and tried my best.  I had truly believe and lived the entire culture of DBC, to be kind to one another, learn at your own pace, we are all here to support you at any given time.  I got to say, most of the student were sold on the idea of the culture.  Over the whole entire weekend, I had mixed feelings about the entire program, do I still want to be part of this learning environment?  Are these people really willing to teach me?  Will they prejudge me and my abilities?  Will they be fair to me on my assessments?  Am I just allowed a 2nd chance because I deserve it or because of the pressure from all the other students who supported me?  My feelings of anger had grew in such a way that I couldn’t have imagined.  I had found myself yelling and screaming at my children for no reason and the constant depressed state was taking over me.  I could not focus on anything.

 

3/6 (Monday)

At my distressed state, I went back to the program and tried to focus once again on my studies.  My feeling of abandonment, stress, depression, and hatred had grew.  I knew I need to get this out of my system if I want to refocus and be successful in the program.  So I had booked the earliest appointment to see the in house counselor.  I told *rianna, the counselor what I was feeling and what was going on with me.  She had encourage me to let it out and think of the positive points and not be negative.  She told me I should think about all the people in the school who believes in me and try to move forward.  I stress to her that the negative feeling toward the whole situation and the staff was disappointed.  After breaking down to her in the private session, I went back to the sessions to give it another try.  Every time I walked by any of the instructors, the thought of them trying to kick me out pops up into my head.  Before this had happen, I’m one of the most cheerful person in the school.  I felt like I still have to be nice and put on a fake grin whenever I cross anyone’s path.  Inside, it was really hurting me.  The instructor for my new phase was actually the instructor who made the accusation that I was always playing ping pong and lounging in the couches.  In his open floor talks, he stressed that he will stand up to anyone who works hard help them as much as he can.  In back of my mine, I call ‘bullshit’.  All day, I was dreading being in the place.

 

3/7/17 (Tue)

The night before, I could not focus at all on my studies or anything at all.  Much like the previous few days.  I had decided to confront the instructor about his allegations on me.  When I confronted him in his office, he tried to play it off and says the statement wasn’t pointing towards me.  I didn’t not believe him for a minute, he looks to be the type that will throw you in the fire and let you burn.  Actually, I can’t say that because I have just met the guy, but I do not believe a word he says.  Once again, I kept trying to focus and was not very successful at it.  At this point, my distraction had really grown to a point where I couldn’t concentrate at all.  There was not an ounce of happiness in my soul that I can conjure up to be in this space with all these instructors that are suppose to help me learn.  I have stayed and tried once again to find the positive energy in my cohort mates so I can move forward with the program.  Once more, I was dreading the place.  When I got home, I found myself yelling and screaming at my 8 year old because she didn’t practice his piano lessons.  Lecturing my teenager about finding his career focus earlier in life and not turning out to be like myself.

 

3/8/17 (Wed)

The feeling had not changed so I wanted to see the in house counselor again and try to submerge these negative feelings and get back into focus so I can hopefully achieve my goals of becoming a software developer one day.  During this 2nd session with *rianna, the counselor, I had explained to her that the feelings towards the staff had not gotten better.  I explained to her that the feeling had gotten worst.  I told her what I was feeling.  It felt like all the instructors had surrounded me in a circle, with all of them lifting their feet and try to crush me while I’m right in the middle of it.  I had also told her how it was affecting my life at home as well.  Once again, she told me to lean on my cohort mates for support.  After the meeting, I talked to a few of my closer cohort mates to explain my situation and feelings.  They told me to just drop the ill feelings towards the instructors and do this for myself and for my family.  It felt good to have the support of all my friends.  I power through the day with their amazing support.  

 

3/9/17 (Thur)

Going back to class had been a challenge all week.  Especially difficult with the instructor who had accused me of my actions and trying to listen to him do talks.  Constant rushes going through in my head that these instructors don’t really care and I not even sure if they even like being there in the first place.  It felt like they were all trying to put on a show themselves.  They all try to say how good it felt when the students get a concept and the lights go off in their head when they get it.  I was asking myself, what about the students who didn’t get it, have you thought about why they don’t get it?  Is it maybe because you are not showing them in a way that they can’t comprehend?  I had compared it to myself when I try to show my children something new.  If they don’t get it the first time, I don’t think they are stupid, I just think to myself, how can I present it in a way that they can comprehend better.  That’s just how I think being a teacher should handle the situation.  Instead, these so call teachers are trying to kick me out after one try at it and not have to bother with me while I had paid over $10,000 for them to teach me.  At the end of Thursday, all my energy trying to put my feeling aside and keep learning from the institution had taken a toll on me.  After the EE (engineering empathy) session, I had told some of my cohort mates that I might not be able to stay in this institution any longer.

 

3/10/17 (Fri)

After Thursday, I need some time to think and reassess my stay with DBC.  So I took the day off from the program to figure out and weight the situation.  All week, I was not able to focus and it was having a toll on me and my well being.  I took the day to think about how I can possibly make this work or just leave the program.

 

3/13 (Mon)

After thinking about how I had felt for the week and what my feelings towards the staff, I had booked one final session with the counselor (*rianna).  I wanted to say farewell to her and thank her for the support during my previous week’s sessions.  At the session, I stress to her that there’s no way that I can stay in this environment, get discriminated against, and be focus at the same time.  Every time I walked by any instructor, there’s was still that hatred towards them.  The thought of them wanting to kick me out of the program stuck to my head.  I just can’t shake it off.  So after the session with the counselor, I gave the card key back to the director and said I just can’t trust that the staff will dedicate themselves to support me.

 

I FEEL BETRAYED, DESERTED, AND DISCRIMINATED AGAINST.  If there’s any out there that can help me, please drop me a line.

Email:  discriminated.against.me@gmail.com

Dev Bootcamp is good for beginners wanting to learn how to code. I liked the environment, very friendly towards diversity and soft skills. The curriculum is good, but the instructors do not do as many lectures as they could have. We had to ask for lectures, which was odd for me because I expected there would be lectures on almost every new topic. They have a "hands-off" approach style of curriculum, which is good for some with previous experience, but as a beginner I would like to have lectures prior to doing assignments. They are very accommodating, as they change the curriculum and get feedback every week on how to improve. The mentors are sometimes more knowledgeable than the instructors which was kinda weird. Most of the instructors are very knowledgeable, but they need to hire more people who worked in the industry for a longer time. The engineering empathy was fantastic, I like the emphasis of people skills especially when working on teams. I liked that they promoted agile methodologies. They have events in the space a lot which was great. Overall experience was okay, but if you're looking for a job right now I'd recommend learning the MEAN stack and to choose a school using JS for front end and back end, if you are looking for a great intro to Web Dev + programming using Ruby I'd recommend Dev Bootcamp. 

Pros: The best thing about DBC was the teachers and mentors. They were well-qualified, friendly, and motivating. The second best thing was the curriculum. I felt that the exercises and projects that were required for us to complete were good at illustrating important concepts and building real skills relevant to web development. The third best thing was the environment set by my cohort. Many of them were my healthy competition, as well as fun and interesting people to be around.

Cons: They need to hire a really competent OM. Some times, events and the space in general seemed disorganized. Further, there needs to be more emphasis on data structures and algorithms while students are going through the program. It could be really simple - like just requiring that students solve one algorithm problem per day.

--

After graduating, the careers team really went above and beyond to help me. I was motivated by their hustle to work hard in my job search, and it paid off. BOOTCAMP =/= JOB. You CANNOT coast. You must, MUST bust your ass, but hopefully you already knew this.

What Dev Bootcamp does not tell you upfront is a large portion of the students don't complete the program because they get kicked out for not passing an assessment after 6 weeks. In fact, many do not even make it to the onsite portion of the course. Yes, they tell you in some fine print on the website and when you sign documents that some students may need to retake a section, but they do not make it clear what percentage of students actually get kicked out. If they were clear about that you might go to a different bootcamp and then they would not get to keep a portion of your tuition, something like $2500. You get an email saying "you've been removed from the program, effective immediately" and there's no further discussion about it. 

The first 9 weeks is taught by TA's who have never taught before having just finished the course and are managing dozens of students online so the student to teacher ratio is really high. They do this to keep costs low and maximize profits. Your time to ask questions is over an online chat with a dozen other students asking different questions about the curriculum. It's a little chaotic and it's all wrapped up in this 'empathy' mask. 

This is the real problem with Dev Bootcamp (an many bootcamps for that matter), a total lack of transparency. A 90% hiring rate sounds sexy, but that can mean a lot of different things. It means an internship after 6 months, working as a TA partime for the bootcamp, a job you get through your cousin's friend's company in a role other than programming, or freelancing here and there. It's very misleading. Yes, it may work out for a good number of people after perserverance, but I'm betting there's a lot more people it doesn't work out for. Its a very lucrative business without a lot of transparency or regulation.  Be very careful what you think you're getting here. Keep your expectations in check. 

This was one of the most mentally and emotionally challenging things I've done in my life, but also one of the most rewarding. I was ready to put myself on a new career path that would ensure that I was always challenged, and always growing. Dev Bootcamp's immersive program crams a TON of development fundamentals into your brain in a short amount of time. You're always being pushed beyond your comfort zone, which when you're able to look back and see how much you've learned, is an excellent approach to teaching. As you near the end of the curriculum, they'll take the training wheels off and much of your progress will be up to you in terms of area of focus (languages, frameworks, industry of focus, etc). While this was frustrating at first, it became apparent why that was the case as I began my job hunt. After recently landing a job as a software engineer, knowing how to research and continue learning seems as important as the basics they teach you. Overall, a great experience. If you decide to enroll, work as hard as you can and own your education.

I'd been in positions dabbling in code for 10 years or so, and I entered Dev Bootcamp wanting to learn more and change my career to focus on coding and development more seriously. It was an intense 9 weeks, but one of the most rewarding of my life. My cohort was small compared to many others, but we bonded tightly and took care of each other to make sure everyone made it and understood all the concepts. We invented extra projects, gave each other additional breakout sessions, and later helped each other through the tedious job search process. The instructors were incredibly passionate and engaged. The whole experience helped me break down a lot of my difficulty with asking for help and seeking feedback -- it's still difficult sometimes, but I've grown a lot as a person in general from being in a place with that emphasis.

Dev Bootcamp is well worth it if you can handle the difficulty. It won't be a walk in the park, mind you. There were plenty of nights when I'd come home brain fried and there was plenty of drama with my cohort-mates during final projects.

But I made new friends, learned a new difficult skill quickly, and got a high-paying job out of it. For that, I'd say it was well worth the price tag and sort of paid for itself. If you're damn sure you wanna be a web developer, I would take the plunge with DBC. It's well-taught and if you apply yourself you'll get a nice new career with a shiny new salary out of it.

I consider Dev Bootcamp one of the best decisions I have made in my life.

I really shopped around and read a ton of reviews before choosing a Bootcamp.  It is a huge decision, financially and otherwise.  I personally do not think Dev Bootcamp was worth what I paid.  You constantly feel like you are being rushed through the program instead of actually being taught.  It feels like you are just money coming through the door instead of a student that is risking so much to learn a new trade. The assessments are not indicative of what you actually know.  It is easy to look at past work or Github's and pass the assessment. The skills you learn here do not set you up well for a new job. Period.

Now, I did get a job as a junior dev shortly after graduating the bootcamp but this required SO MUCH EXTRA WORK where I basically taught myself everything. I feel like I could have taken the months I spent at Dev Bootcamp, stayed at home and done web tutorials and would be MORE prepared than I was from the $$$ Bootcamp. 

While I was a student the staff was going through some major changes which definitely affected my the experience.  Multiple people quit, and the people that remained were constantly on vacation, sick or just gone for some reason. You get the feeling that they are not at all invested. Then you get stuck having to learn from a previous student who can't find a job and basically knows no more than you do.

What I will say about DBC is the career team is AWESOME.  They set up an awesome week with speakers and workshops and really are so incredibly helpful. Special shout out to Molly who you can just tell really wants to help you and makes the job search exciting instead of daunting.  

Dev Bootcamp's model is essentially giving you too many problems to complete in a day while paired up with another boot. If everyone in the cohort is struggling on a specifc problem then the instructor will go over it, otherwise they have done away with lectures altogether. I personally think $14,000 is a lofty price to pay to simply be handed some problems to work on with little to no instruction. I hope going forward that they will improve this model by being more involved. I've spoken to people who have attended other bootcamps where the morning is spent 2 hours in lectures and the remainder of the day is spent pair programming on relevant problems. I would do your research and make sure you know what you want out of a bootcamp and make sure their curriculum aligns. 

I was also disappointed with the careers team, but really didn't have my hopes up in the first place. Other bootcamps post their stats on percentage of grads getting jobs after graduation and average salary, Dev Bootcamp doesn't and I think there's a reason for this. 

Everything aside, the instructors are brilliant at what they do, it would just be nice if they were more involved (I don't think this is their fault, just think DBC's model doesn't allow for this). 

As a note, in San Francisco I think employers are getting less and less open to hiring bootcamp grads, so if you are going to choose one, make sure you put in the time to get into the right one. At the end of the day they will always hire someone with a CS degree over a bootcamp grad. 

I found Dev Bootcamp through a friend. Before I even considered it, he told me one thing that remains true to this day: you get out what you put in. After only a few days on site, it became abundantly clear who would go on to become a great developer and who would struggle. If you expect instructors to spoon feed you best practices, they won't. If you think you can coast through doing the bare minimum and then find a job, good luck. The people writing scathing 1-star reviews are struggling probably because they spend their time complaining and writing lengthy reviews instead of coding. That being said, here are some pros and cons:

Pros

• Their open teaching style allows students to focus on what they really want to be learning. 
• Empathy Engineering helps programmers become better employees and hone their interpersonal skills (because, god, do some of you need it).

Cons

• Career prep is basically non-existent.  It's one week of lectures that anyone with experience in the professional world already knows.
• They hire former students, kind of a conflict of interest in my opinion. One of the weakest people in my cohort struggled to find a job and then became an interviewer. How a person who could not get a job after Dev Bootcamp is qualified to vet prospective students is beyond me. 

Cons about code schools in general

The fact that there is an entire website dedicated to just code school reviews should tell you something: there are a lot. There were not many at all just a few years ago. All these bootcamps popping up are flooding the market with inexperienced developers and employers are taking notice. I think the most useful apsect of any bootcamp is not the 'quality' but rather the fact that you took ~20 weeks to just code and nothing else. 

 

I graduated from Dev Bootcamp in Chicago over a year ago and since then, it’s been an incredible journey.

After graduation, I kept in contact with a core group of friends and it’s been great to see each of us embark on completely unique paths. One friend started out her career in a Python shop, but decided to combine her love of teaching and community to become an instructor at Dev Bootcamp. Another friend built a prototype of an app at a hackathon, which led her to a incubator where she launched her own start-up. Another friend is currently working at a consultancy where she is receiving extensive training in multiple languages and best practices before working on client projects. I recently started my second developer job where I am learning Java, Swift, Rails and Node. We’re all women; we all come from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds; and we all started our journey at DBC Chicago. 

I’ve referred multiple friends to DBC because finishing the program is really just the beginning. I continue to encounter DBC alums as speakers at conferences, leaders at hackathons, as project managers, bloggers, designers, community leaders, and volunteer instructors at events all over the city. And having access to this wide network of people -- many of whom are doing interesting, passionate things and understand what it’s like to go through the program -- is invaluable. I found my first developer job through a previous graduate, and I know I’ll be helping future grads in finding what’s next for them.

I went to DBC to learn how to code, but I now realize that it’s taught me how to professionally engage with the tech world at large.

Dev Bootcamp is an amzing experience for people who are changing careers or do not have the time or money to go to a traditional CS degree school. Not only will they give you the tools and knowledge to succeed in the programming industry, they will open your mindset to make you a more successful individual. If you are dedicated, determined and have the passion to learn how to code, DBC is right for you. Their Engineering Empathy program will teach you to trust yourself and learn to work with others by being able to give and receive meaningful feedback. 

Coming from a background in educaiton, I have to say the pedagogy at DBC is the reason I wanted to go in the first place and it's the reason I reccomend you attend!

 

Research shows that they best way to retain information is to work on projects and DBC's whole curriculum is just that! Actually, I take that back... Dev Bootcamp doesn't ONLY focus on code; they truly teach the 'whole student' by having additional curriculum called "Engineering Emphathy" that tackles big issues in tech and helps you understand how to work in groups. Coming in to DBC, I thought I was really good at interpersonal things and couldn't get anything out of these sessions.... Well I was wrong; I became even better.

 

TLDR; Attend. It's worth it.

Instructors are rarely, if ever, regulated and given the authority to make executive decisions on a whim.  Expect to operate in an environment similar to your high school social scene.  Educationally, if you go anywhere else, your return will be significantly greater.  Unless you want to (possibly) be forced back through the 'gauntlet' of the worst nightmares of your high school career, attend a different bootcamp.  Again, completely unregulated with regards to instructors.

It's an intense but supportive environment. Expect to put in long days if you want to get the most out of it, but the focus on pair-programming really sets you up to learn a lot on any given day. I was sceptical about the pairing before I started but I converted to it very quickly. It really is a great way to ensure that everyone learns all of the material at the required pace.

The curriculum is very well-planned but it moves quickly. Most people will have stretches where they feel like they're falling behind or struggling to get everything. It is a LOT to learn in a short period of time so just be ready to work stupid hard for a couple months and you'll get through it.

You will definitely learn to code more than you learn Rails. People come out of this program and land in a pretty good spread of development jobs. It really does give you a solid fountation to reason about code, and the skills you need to self-teach any framework or langauge you need to pick up afterwards.

Devbootcamp was good before, that is the fact. Up until Kaplan bought devbootcamp, everything fall apart. I am not saying Kaplan is a bad company, it is a good company. It is just not as good as my peers told me as before( 2012-2015). 

First of all, during phase 0, I thought we were supposed to get some feedback on the homework. None received. The phase 0 instructor seems to just get everyone through phase 0 without asking too many questions. I feel like asking question isn't encouraged during phase 0. I dont' feel like their part time instructor wanted us to succeed. I am not sure if the phase 0 instructor understand that we quit the job, pay 13k and hand our faith to them? That is a question for them. I just want a botocamp that care about students' success. we are supposed to  understand the materials rather than rushing through the program and finish it, right? devbootcamp. Maybe a lot of people dont' understand, but I think they should. Bootcamp is what we made out of it but not just by finishing it. Yeah... exactly.

Secondly, majority of the interviewers are really nice and knowledgable and passionate about what they know. I give them a 5 stars. While.........some interviewers from devbootcamp isn't really knowledgable about what they teaches you or interview you. I asked them if they know what c++  is.....they dont' know.  And then I just dont' know what to say. This is just one of the fact. This is my personal thought, please dont' judge what I write here devbootcamp. This is just my thought again. 

Conclusion: devbootcamp was good before kalplan bought them. That is what I am going to say. I decided to attend another bootcamp because I don't know if they actually care about students' success. 

 

Dev Bootcamp really was a life changing experience. If you are looking to become a web developer in 19 weeks, this program will really help you.

First off, do your research and make sure you really want to get into web development. Do you enjoy solving complex problems and troubleshooting errors? If you do, you'll be fine. Otherwise, you'll want to look into a different profession. 

The first half of the program is remote and allows you to continue working as you learn the basics of HTML, CSS, Ruby, and Javascript. Office hours are there if you need some extra help, but you'll be in contact with so many other students that are willing to help others. There is an assessment at the end of what is called phase 0. If you do not pass, you are given the opportunity to repeat the phase to get ready for the assessment again. If you've done all the challenges and gotten through the practice assessments, you'll make it through. 

The truly fun but also difficult part was the immersive phase on campus. Core hours are M-F from 9-6 but many of us worked at least 12 hours a day and put in time on the weekends as well. If you like learning and coding and bonding with your classmates, you'll love this phase. You'll be able to get your own website with a database to store information up really quick.

In this phase, you'll notice the most successful people are the ones that really put in the time and effort to learn as much as they can. You'll be supported by Dev Bootcamp but your learning will ultimately be up to you. The instructors are always there to answer questions. There's even counseling and yoga offered once a week as part of your tuition. There are so many people there to support you. You just need to make sure you really give it your all each and every day.  

There is a career week after your final project week which is really useful. Dev Bootcamp is really involved in the development community and you'll constantly be in contact with people who could potentially offer jobs down the road. I was approached by a potential employer during our demo day. This was all thanks to Dev bootcamp. You'll also get advice on how your resume and linkedin should look as you go into your job hunt. I did not find any prejudice against me for being a bootcamp grad instead of a CS grad during my job hunt. It all comes down to your own abilities and how you display them. I am currently in the final rounds of interviews for a large tech company (Google, Apple, IBM etc.)

My overall experience at Dev Bootcamp was great. I learned how to become a web developer, made some friends, and most importantly had a lot of fun. 

This is the most brutally honest review, and remember the truth is usually ugly. To start off there are 3 harsh truths I had to learn:

1. They say they can teach anyone to code. No, they cannot. I don't even have to explain it - just think about that logically.  Think about the different types of people in your life, with their varying personalities, interests, and intelligence. Can you honestly say they can ALL learn to code? in a few weeks? And if you need any further proof, yes this place kicks people out. 

2. There is no demand for dbc grads and dbc is saturating the market with them. Yes there's a huge consistent demand for developers just like there's one for doctors. But who would you go to if you had the choice? A doctor with literally 0 years of experience and somehow learned to be a doctor in an accelerated 1 year program or a doctor that went to all 4 years of medical school and have at least 5 years of experience? exactly. And that's the cruel reality you'll face after you graduate and start searching for jobs

3. The rampant sexism. If you're an attractive girl - actually, just a girl, you'll be fine. But guys prepare to get ignored and graded on a harsher scale. I understand the benefits of affirmative action and equality and that we need more women in tech but letting them slide and ignoring the men is not the way to do it

-- And just a honest warning - if you're introverted - FORGET THIS PLACE. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. If you are introverted you will be ignored, uncomfortable with the noise level and general cultural environment, and you have no chance at a job afterwards, because their career plans is exclusively reaching out to strangers and soliciting them for a job. And like other reviewers said, forget any job support or any connections from dbc.

Also, let's not forget the favoritism, drama, and gossip. Everything is fake. half of it - yes you're learning how to code but I guarantee the other half you're going to be entrenched in petty gossip. Like the other reviews have said the instructors say they're there to help but are usually nowhere to be found - especially on Fridays when they take the entire afternoon off to get together for a "meeting" where they just talk shit about all the students. Casey who's as saccharine as it gets; Baker only talks to girls since hes "feminist as fuck"; and Leon is the fakest of them all. Of course they're all fake, since the entire concept of dbc is just a facade especially after Kaplan bought them and now its a for profit pump and dump factory. dbc used to have standards on who they let in - their application used to be extensive, with multiple questions and you were required to create a video of yourself teaching a skill. now if you'll notice, its just 2 questions - why do you want to go to dbc, whats your weakness and strength. great. they'll let anyone in and thats why instead of meeting cool creative people, you end up meeting a lot of people who are just in it for the superficial reason of money. Like someone else mentioned, do not trust Erin the counselor either. And I agree with other reviewers that engineering empathy was horribly facilitated and a complete waste of time. it just frustrated people.

I did everything right post graduation - i kept up with the weekly updates with the career coach, did cold outreach, endless coffee meets, meetups, etc. Still dont have a job and never will in this field. There is little room for someone who's only been programming for a few weeks. I know people who read this might think I'm just a naturally jaded person - I am not. I am in all honesty trying to save anyone from making the same expensive mistake I did. its more than 13K. Add all the thousands up from the living expenses in the 3 months you're there, plus the thousands during the job search. Try a conservative 20-25K

if youre truly interested, keep your job and do online courses. talk to your company and see if you can make a move to an entry level tech position, keep learning. go to meetups and work on projects independently. a lot of established developers ive talked to learned their skill on the job.

Good experience. I was struggling to learn how to write code on my own for about two years before attending DBC. I definitely learned things at DBC that I never could have figured out on my own. DBC is great in that regard. Also, the instructors are all very knowledgable and helpful. The overall environment is positive and encouraging.

The only complaint I have about DBC is that I believe the average starting salary they advertise is higher than what companies are current willing to pay for a junior developer with no experience. This is based on my own job search (which included two offers) and conversations I had with my classmates. They tell you a junior developer in the Chicago area should make around $55,000 - $60,000. But based on my experience and conversations with classmates, it's lower than that.

Overall, I'm still very happy with my decision to attend DBC. I learned more than I thought I would and the instructors genuinely do want you to be successful. Maybe the economy is just a little sluggish right now.

I graduated 5 months ago and close to no one in my cohort has a fulltime job. This seems to mostly be the norm in NYC. The experience was fine but I only really did it to get employed. I would recommend if you have another job or if you do not have the financial ability to dedicate close to 6 months after the fact to look elsewhere. Close to all of the bootcamps teach ruby on rails and it is no longer the most popular framework. You will just basically be applying to a ton of positions that will exclude you immediately because there are tons and tons of candidates just like you. DBC does not publish their job statistics anymore and for obvious reason. Like I said the experience was fine but I would seriously urge against going here if you do not have an extreme passion. Even if you do, I would recommend applying to a more selective camp (hack reactor, app academy), it will force you to put in the work prior to applying which will give you insight into whether it's something you really enjoy, and will also let you gauge your own skill.I would also reccomend freecodecamp.com, save yourself 13000. The job market in NYC is very stale without experience and is going to only continue to get more bloated.

Overall, I'm really happy that I took the plunge and enrolled in Dev Bootcamp.  I learned an insane amount of material in a short period of time.  It was exhausting but also pretty cool to test the limits of my learning capacity, and I realized that I was capable of a lot more than I realized.  I lucked out and got great teachers during my time (Iuilia, Sam, and Pan), and was also part of a cohort that was more than 50% women.  I felt supported at DBC by my classmates, mentors, and teachers. If I needed help with a coding challenge, I was usually able to get it quickly. 

I think they can improve on a couple of things. 1) Admission: I understand that DBC needs to make money off of tuition, but there were some students in my cohort that were not up to the challenge.  2) Job Placement: I graduated from DBC when there was some turnover in the careers department, so I didn't feel like I got a lot of help in my job search.

I get the sense that the market in NYC is starting to get flooded with Jr. Devs, and it made me feel a little helpless for awhile.  Regardless, I ended up getting a job in a field I love at a dream company I never thought I'd be able to work for. 

TLDR: The time I spent at DBC was challenging and there are things they can improve on, but it was worth it in the end. 

I had a wonderful experience attending Dev Bootcamp! When I started, the only experience I had programming was a college course in C++, and it had been 10 years since then. The staff, fellow students, and alumni worked together to create a supportive environment. It's been over a year since I graduated, and I'm still amazed at how much I was able to learn and grow in just a few months. They didn't just teach me how to program in Ruby, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. They taught me how to approach learning ANY programming language. I didn't truly appreciate that until I was asked in my current position to rewrite a code script in 8 different languages...only 1 of which I had any previous experience writing in (Ruby). The fact that I was able to complete this daunting task with only months worth of experience programming is a huge testament to the dedication and skills of the Dev Bootamp teachers, as well as to their challenging curriculum. 

Deciding to go to Dev Bootcamp was hands down one of the best decisions I have made. I was part of the first San Diego cohort, so I may be biased but they have the best staff in the best city. The instructors put their everything into it and make sure you're learning and growing as long as you put in the work. 

Having Phase 0, the remote, part time portion was a nice intro into what DBC would be full time. I was able to work and get through phase 0 and get my feet wet a little for the full time portion. It is fast paced, but not too fast for retention. Dev Bootcamp also has a great presence in the community and encourages the same of the students. Because of this and help from the careers team I was able to get a job just a few weeks after graduating. 

I came out with the confidence and knowledge to find a dev position and also got to meet and collaborate with some truly kind and thoughtful people. If you're in San Diego and are thinking about it, talk to Kimbra ASAP. 

The San Diego location of DBC is awesome. Great view, space, and arrangement. The staff here is friendly and courtious while providing all the support needed to help you through the program.

The challenges are tough and time consuming. Expect to be here 7 days a week for 10 to 12 hours a day (you won't even realize where the time goes). The direction for your learning is provided but to actually learn the concepts/material, you need to put the time and effort into it. There were many times that the teachers would stay late to help people with challenges and questions they have (even though they don't technically have to). You can tell that all the staff truly cares for the success of each individual that comes through the doors.

Definitely prepare yourself for the journey and it will be hard (especially on relationships outside of DBC). The outcome and transformation is absolutely worth it and I would do it again if given the chance/time/money.

I had a really bad experience at Dev Bootcamp. l found the teachers to be unhelpful and in a rush to leave at the end of the day. They told us that they are available to help, but when I asked, they never had time. 13k is a lot of money to be on your own throughout the program.

A lot of the material is rushed through, so it’s hard to pick up the concepts and retain them. They let you repeat phases, but tend to ignore you even more if you have to repeat a phase. I didn’t feel like the instructors cared about my success. 

The environment is very clickish. The instructors have their favorites. The environment is also hard on introverts or anyone who thinks for themselves. They say that they are open to feedback, but they will just tell you that “maybe this place is not for you” after you forked over 13k and quit your job, if you question the lack of help you are getting or question anything at all about Dev Bootcamp. 

There is not a lot of support to find a job. The curriculum is not very unique, and is largely self-directed, so I would recommend doing free tutorials online and going to meet ups, and looking into other paths to learn code. Definitely make sure to do your research. It can be a very costly and disappointing experience.

Pros:

+ They use specific languages and technologies to learn "how to learn" quickly in the ever evolving world of tech.

+ The goal isn't just to make you an engineer, it's to make you a better person.

+ The instructors, mentors, and staff really care about your learning and well-being.  The program is intense and everyone pushes you to your limit, but they also know when and how to help you decompress.

 

Cons:

- You get in what you put out, but your experience is also impacted by individuals who don't care about the Engineering Empathy, being respectful to others, dealing with difficult conversations, or providing feedback in a constructive manner.  There isn't much that the mentors and staff can do about individuals who act rude or pridefully outside of class or when the mentors aren't around.

- Some topics could have used more focus or been taught in a way to provide more effective emphasis, like JavaScript and testing.

- It would be fantastic if each cohort were slightly smaller and each session lasted a week longer.

The program I think worked well when there was a considerable dearth of talent in the web dev space and programs like this could easily provide developers that companies could train. That being said, in more recent times, Chicago has becoming saturated with Jr Developers coming not just from DBC, but GA, HackReactor, etc.. The neccessary reaction by these programs is to escalate their quality but I don't think DBC has done that. Instead, they've pursued quantity over quality. The result is that now every 3 weeks DBC graduates roughly 18-30 grads who are entering a job market where companies now can ask for much higher demands of their jr devs than in previous years.  

Overall I wouldn't say I regret doing a bootcamp, but given the current tech environment, I don't believe DBC adaquetely understands the challenges facing current grads, choosing instead on focusing on getting as many students through the door as possible. 

In reference to the Chicago location.

Dev Bootcamp tries to show that they're different from the rest of the bootcamps out there due to their engineering empathy classes, but its all terribly fake. I know, I was in these classes. 

They are really good at showing themselves as a great school by sponsoring meetups and events, showing they're helping the community such as women in tech meetups or people of color tech meetups. Its all an act to portray their beliefs. They are doing these things because its a huge advantage to advertise their school to the poor souls at these meetups. 

I felt like an outsider at the entire time by the staff. They were very subjective in who they liked and wanted to help more. They emphasize the issues in the tech world such as the lack of women/people of colour, but then don't even manage the same issues in the classroom. They hang out with the white crowd, pull jokes together etc but look at you weird and walk away when you like to join in. Its funny how segregated it gets in the classroom. If you are a woman, be prepared to be talked over, ignored and automatically treated as a nobody by the males. Its quite difficult when you have to work as a group. If you raise this issue with the instructors, be prepared to be treated as a student from nursery "tell them to stop". Yeah sure, like I haven't done that already.

They assign you to an advisor in which you cannot change if you don't learn well from them. He was a brilliant programmer, but a terrible teacher and even more terrible person. I felt like I was a waste of time for him and he was getting frustrated with me. His personality was cold and impatient towards me. At first I thought it was due to his nature. But as I watched him with other students that are white, he was the cheeriest and nicest person I'd ever seen. What a great way to learn. Its hard to separate these issues and focus on the lesson at hand when they arise day in day out. There's a reason why they have a therapist in the classroom (which by the way doesn't keep anything confidential amongst the instructors). I felt unsafe in this environment. 

I wanted to build my confidence as well as knowledge at Dev Bootcamp due to their views of the tech industry. But it was all the same. I left and found a better bootcamp that focuses strictly on the curriculum and none of the spewing of their "one love" anecdotes. Many of the students who aren't white admitted to me about this as well as not being able to find jobs. The whites were obviously oblivious and had no problem finding a job. 

So if you're white, enjoy.

I was at a civic tech hackathon this passed weekend called Codeswitch. It opened with a panel of speakers talking about inequities in the tech industry, especially around race and gender, and what can be done about them. The conversation ranged widely, and at one point the panelists were lamenting the lack of companies where the goal of bettering the world can be on par or even a priority over making money. One of the panelists said something like, "we haven't figured out how to hack human compassion yet..." implying that's why so many companies fail to benefit communities.   In that moment I thought to myself, "actually... Dev Bootcamp is kinda doing that already with engineering empathy..." I wasn't sure how to articulate it effectively during the panel discussion, but I at least wanted to share the thought with you.   I have to admit, going into DBC I was skeptical of the empathy stuff. After participating, I was struck by how the organization prioritizes its effort to teach empathy in the industry, and the way I could see that hacking compassion among students. Especially as coding bootcamps proliferate, I think it's really special that DBC is prioritizing empathy in such a big way. I hear about various organizations providing financial support to women or people of color who want to code which is great, but DBC is taking another necessary step that I think people don't realize is possible. I'm really glad I had a chance to see it in person, as I reflect upon it, I'm slowly figuring out how to share its value with others.