DigitalCrafts

In the past I attended a part-time course by MakerSquare in Austin and was only able to retain the HTML/CSS portion of the class. I was left very discouraged.

I have two friends that have gone through DigitalCrafts and decided to join because of them. I am very glad I did.

If you're looking to attend a coding bootcamp in the Houston Area, DigitalCrafts with Veronica is the course you should enroll in. Veronica's teaching style and patience surpassed all expectations. She is very thorough with her examples and will make sure you are not lost at any point during her lectures. If at any point you are feeling discouraged just remember that it is part of the learning experience. There were many days throughout the course where I spent a day or two on a piece of a project and just felt it was impossible to get it to function. These are the days you will learn the most even though it doesn't feel like it at the time. With the help of Veronica and our great TA Katy, I was able to complete the course and retain the knowledge learned throughout the 16 weeks. 

I am a recent graduate of DigitalCrafts Full-Stack Immersive program in Houston. This course was a great experience fo me. My background is in hospitality and the medical field, so coming in to the program, I knew nothing about programming. The course was 4 months long, and by the end I was comfortably creating full-stack web applications with in demand technology. The instructor, Azam, is very knowledgeable, and was able to help me with any problems I had along the way, while teaching me how to get past these problems on my own. I would strongly recommend this course to anyone looking to make a career change or become a confidant developer.

Before you consider going to a boot camp do yourself a favor and try to learn by yourself for at least 3 to 4 months, you will fail but it will test you commitment to coding. The majority of people that do really well had been trying to learn how to code online for awhile.  Think of coding as Vocational Education, but the time you graduated you will become a "welder apprentice" that’s the key realizing that you need to continue to learn, learn and learn.

Read coder to developer by Mike Gunderloy, read joelonsoftware.com or any old software developer out there that teach how to think software!  Learning syntax is not all there is to it, that's probably 40%, the key is how do learn to use your short term memory so you can juggle many things at once and connect them.

DigitalCrafts is great, you’ll learn the basics  and make good friends, the founders are always there and take their time to be at every demo.

Thanks to Jason, Chardonnay , Azam, Stephen and James! :)

DigitalCrafts is absolutely amazing. We mostly focus on the MERN stack here (with Postgresql as our main database over MongoDB), but we're really taught how to learn as a developer, instead of just learning a specific stack. Many people did their full-stack projects in different stacks (I did mine in Python/Django) because we knew the overall structure of how frontend and backend works.

The career services is amazing. They identify what you're interested in, and they help find opportunities for you. I got a phone interview from a company that I hadn't previously looked at because the career services team sent my resume to them based on my interests. So they're very invested in your professional success.

Also it's right in the Atlanta Tech Village, which is full of startup companies. Some people in my cohort were offered jobs with people right here in the building, so the location is a huge plus.

10/10 would recommend for anyone SERIOUS about diving into software development. (If you're only trying this to make more money, there isn't any bootcamp that will help you. It's about your drive too).

Before enrolling in this bootcampe, I was trying to decide if I wanted to pursue the law or pursue programming.  The law was calling, but I didn't want the risk of $150,000 in debt with no guarentee of a job in the end.  I figured that the things I liked (logical thinking within a clear rule set) would be present in programming, and the risk was comparatively low.

Turns out that I love programming more than I thought I could.  The instructors at Digital Crafts are top notch.  The curriculum has some lecture everyday, but the real value comes from the hands on projects and having access to such experienced and brilliant minds to help you through.  In addition to the lead instructors, there are 1-2 "Developers in Residences" (DIR) who act as T.A.s to make sure you don't get stuck.  They don't hold your hand, but rather show you how to think through your problems.

I was a DIR after my cohort ended, and while the pay was terrible (whatever you are thinking, think lower), but if you can get the position after, I highly recommend it.  It gives you continued access to the instructors and further develops your ability to communicate about code.  Also, debugging code (paticularly beginner code that can have some "interesting" patterns) is great preperation for jumping into a code base once you achieve your first full-time position.. 

As far a results, I am now a full-time software engineer with great benefits.  Also, while my workplace doesn't require me to work long hours, I find myself doing so anyways because coding is inherently fun.

When you enter the ATV location - where DigitalCrafts is located, you feel an eagerness budding. It has a fresh, well managed, and holistic feeling to it. By holistic, I mean ATV has a fully stocked kitchen, nap rooms, a gym, networking events, free (limited) monthly massages and open spaces attend to all of a member's needs. DigitalCrafts itself has a very holistic approach to a coding school: the paradigm of career - knowledge - support are captured well. Their teacher's assistants (referred to as developers in residence, or DIR for short) weave between students desks, to make themselves available for any student that is stuck, or needs clarification. The program director has a permanent presence at DigitalCrafts, and is incredibly accesible for all your concerns.

The career week gives ample time to focus on what the school emphasizes for gaining employment: writing a resume (with a full grade and broken down review) linkedin account, portfolio website, and interview etiquette - including this week is a mock interview. Also for the duration of the course, there are job related skills that are worked into the curriculum: the use of git (github in particular) for collaboration, pair-programming, agile-style stand-ups, test-driven development, AWS and deployment.

I researched bootcamps for a several years before choosing DigitalCrafts, and with its CIRR report (see below for more detail), comparatively high amount of instruction hours, raving reviews, and offer of  in-demand programming languages taught in their curriculum, I chose DigitalCrafts.

The curriculum is comprehensive and most current for fullstack development. A student begins at DigitalCrafts learning command line (useful for any developer in debugging, running servers, accessing files/directories), then quickly moves onto Python, a robust back-end language that is used as an introduction to programming language syntax that can be translated to the languages later used in the curriculum. Then you begin what you spend the remainder of the course on: JavaScript and all of its many forms (frontend, backend (Node), React, Redux).There are projects interlaced throughout the program, that give a student the opportunity to demonstrate their prowess of what they have just learned. Along with projects, there are in-class exercises that have specific requirements and that as a class, you progress through the steps together that add complexity to that exercise, or application.  Don't confuse this with a starter kit, or a code along. It's neither, it's a bit of demonstration and instruction, with class time to execute that feature. This is where the beauty of coding lies: stumbling and error messages are where you’ll build up your repertoire in debugging abilities. These debugging abilities give you insight on the fundamentals of how that programming language works. I encourage you to embrace the struggle long enough to precisely understand where your problem exists and then ask for help from your instructor or DIRs.

The instructor I had was wonderfully meticulous, and taught us best practice in coding protocol. He redirected those of us who drifted off-road of the best practice coding, with grace and patience. His methodology of teaching was to cause a lot of active learning, a proponent of existing in a constant level of struggle to facilitate learning. What this meant is the program wasn’t easy, but my curiosity couldn’t have been more piqued by what I was being exposed to. He provided enough background information to let independent coding commence, but not enough to avoid subsisting in that level of struggle that the instructor favored.

This course brings with it a kinship to the classmates you struggled along side of during the 4 month long course, which for me wasn’t recognizable until the last few days together.

Speaking of the other classmates, I’ve witnessed classmates earn jobs before the graduation of our cohort, securing salaries that the report on Council on Integrity in Results Reporting lures you into the program with. The promise of a job isn’t a lie, but it is a result of networking and job applications. On their slack channel, DigitalCrafts (DC) publishes almost on a daily basis job prospects that you either apply directly to, or submit your resume to DC’s career counselor for consideration.

This experience has felt like is has been life-altering, but that’s also dependent on my commitment to continue with a forward momentum into this industry - by studying, active networking, and consistency in submitting job applications.

I have no regrets, and encourage you to do an on-line web development course to assess your true interest. If your interest persists after the on-line course, sign up for DigitalCrafts bootcamp.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with my experience over the past four months at Digital Crafts. That said, I wish had more coding experience prior to enrolling. I was completely new to coding at the start of the course and sometimes it was hard for me to keep up with the rest of the class. If you're considering doing Digital Crafts, I would highly recommend spening at least a few months learning on your own before enrolling, and not just HTML and CSS, get comfortable with JavaScript too! I definitely learned a lot of the past 4 months, but the most successful students in my cohort had spent a lot of time learning on their own before the class started.

Almost all class excercises are done from scratch, starter code isn't provided. This is a better way to learn, but for beginners sometimes it can feel like you have nowhere to even begin. 

I don't yet have a job, but I have no reason not to be optimistic about my job search. 

I'll be brief on this, SAVE YOUR MONEY! Its overrated, over priced, under delivers on all aspects. You can pay a couple hundred and self teach this material and have a better understanding than 4 months from this bootcamp. They will sell you on the "networking" or "job placement" services but its a sham. You can network through meetups (which is what they tell you to do anyways) and your career services is nothing more than a couple presentations on resumes or portfolios that you coudl find watching videos on youtube. They are shady in giving select students higher discounts/money off tuition, and only offer job opportunities or work their connections to the individuals they deem worthy to forward their brand and name. Their director of career services isn't even local nor has any experience in recruiting, resume/portoflio critiquing, and no insights into proper grammar. Not worth your time and especially your money! Save yourself the frustration and debt from this sham of a "company".

Before attending DigitalCrafts, I had no prior coding experience. Coming from a sales background I decided to switch career paths and explore software development. Out of the many boot camps in Atlanta, I had the pleasure of visiting the DC campus and taking a tour with Admissions director Zakia. It was at that time that I knew what my decision was going to be. After being accepted into the immersive program I was giving multiple precourse work which helped tremendously. During the program, I faced many challenges, but my instructor Chris pushed me beyond my limits and motivated me daily to become better. The entire DC team is very caring and is interested in seeing each and every student succeed. It definitely makes the students feel comfortable going through the program. The most important aspect about DC is that you are taught how to learn technologies on your own even after graduation, a highly valuable skill giving the short amount of time you have during the program. Other amazing experiences worth mentioning are career week, computer science electives, interview practices, algorithm challenges, and many more fill-in-the-gap exercises that build character beyond just learning how to code. In the end, attending DC was easily one of the best decisions I've made regarding my career.