Devmountain

Graduated about a year ago from the Phoenix Campus. Currently working as an Application Developer for Allstate in Chicago. 

PROS
- Great instructor / mentors 
- Campus and student-housing are literally a stone throw away from each other 
- Light Rail within walking distance, pretty easy to go to Tempe / Downtown Phoenix 
- The apartment complex for student housing is really nice

CONS
- The only food options within walking distance are Ruby Tuesdays and Circle K 
- Utah gets a lot more job fair events than Phoenix, although I believe they are working on that 

The DevMountain IOS bootcamp was a challenging experience.  For the financial cost and time spent, I don't feel that this was right path for me.  There are better layouts, curriculum, and instruction elsewhere for far cheaper and a better use of your time.  The saving grace of this program are the mentors/instructors.  They are a good group that can really help work through any issues in understanding of the curriculum.  One of the main reasons I chose this experience was for the job assistance; which is basically non existent.  Nice people but their setup is designed around those whom have never held a job.  

This was such an intense program, but it was great! I feel like their teaching style of just throwing you into what you'll be doing is one of the best ways of learning. At times I felt like I had no clue what I was trying to do, but the mentors are good at giving just enough feedback to get you on your feet. 

I do wish that they had given us more instruction on how to write case studies. After finishing I feel quite overwhelmed with figuring out how to write good case studies that will help in my job hunting experience. I know it's not their responsibility to build our portfolios and get us jobs, but I would have happily stayed one week longer in class to spend that time building my case studies with the help of the instructors. At least then I would know what the heck hiring managers are looking for.

But in all honesty, that is my only complaint of this program. The mentors are great, the environment is fantastic, and I am so glad I chose DevMountain to get my UX Design knowledge. 

 

 

At the end of 2018, I had begun my search for the perfect Bootcamp for me.  I looked through various other Bootcamps and none of them had really piqued my interest until I found DevMountain.  Once the applications opened up for their end of July start date I applied.  The application process was super simple and I was contacted in a reasonable time.  Prior to my entry into the camp, the administration of DevMountain was super helpful.  they provided me a number that I could text/call with any questions or concerns, and the staff was super friendly and professional with every step of the process.  

A few months prior to the start of the program some pre course work was given.  These activities were challenging and at times difficult.  However, I was not alone.  When I reached this point in the process I was given an invite to join my cohorts slack channel which gave me access to iOS mentors who worked at DevMountain. Any questions I had I could send to them as well as a code snippet of what I was working on.  

Housing in DevMountain is provided free of charge, which was a game-changer for me as it allowed me to focus on the program and not where I was going to sleep that night.  The housing is split between two different locations.  The one I stayed at was a very clean and very nice space.  

The program itself is unlike anything I had ever experienced.  For the first 6 weeks, I felt like I was drinking from a firehose.  Every morning we would work together as a class and build guided projects that would help us understand different topics.  During the Afternoon we would be paired up with another classmate and asked to work on a project together.  This is silently genius because it required me to not only learn from someone else but to also learn to communicate my ideas effectively.  and then after 5 pm we were given our homework, which primarily consisted of videos that would prepare us for the next day.  

After your break week, you begin the last 6 weeks of the program, which is very different than the first but still in a good way.  It's at this point that you are now ready to build your own personal and group apps.  every day you will be working on your app's and I can say that while the first 6 weeks of the program were awesome this is where the real experience comes in.  This project your making is your own and these problems and questions your going to have are unique to your program and how you built your app.  This sounds terrifying but is absolutely brilliant because at this point you now have the skills and the understanding to know what to search for, and what to avoid, and if you get stuck or can't figure it out the mentors are always a few desks away ready to help you learn. 

In conclusion, I can say that DevMountain was an excellent experience and worth my time and investment, and that i would do it all over again in a heartbeat.  

I really appreciated all the preparatory help DevMountain provided. During six weeks of self-learning before the program started, I got to chat with a mentor about my progress and any topics I was having trouble with.

During the actual program, I liked how the mentors were there if we ever needed help with the random bugs and errors we would encounter, but they never stepped on my toes. The curriculum was awesome, and I felt like we were learning the most current top tech skills.

The first few weeks of the course were a good review and knowledge-solidifier. As time went on, we got to focus more and more on learning by doing and putting together personal and group projects. The staff was very knowledgable, the facilities were great, and I have never had so much fun during a school program! If we needed a quick break, the fooseball table was right around the corner. Not to mention the video game systems (thank you Super Smash Bros!).

As we got closer to graduation, the employment specialists gave excellent assistance and feedback on our resumes, portfolios, and LinkedIn profiles.

I felt like my time at DevMountain really helped me learn how to learn, and how to pick up new technologies that I may not have as much experience in. I'm excited to see where things go from here!