Epicodus Reviews
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Michael
Very Good Bootcamp
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The Good: Great location, excellent offices, workstations and workspace. Very good lesson plans, helpful instructors.
The Lowdown: There are no teachers per se. You pair program which lends itself to learning or teaching other students. Also the classes are large so you can wander around and look for students who can help you. There are instructors you can ask for help, that you request for assistance. The internship program, although unpaid, was very good in my experience, but some students had a not-so-postive experience.
A good amount of my evening and weekend time was spent learning on my own. After the internship i conitinued to learn on my own.
Overall: You get what you pay for. Epicodus is a great place to meet people who will become your peers and friends. Its a great place to go to focus on learning and how to learn and be in s structered environment. They are not going to hold your hand though. If you don't understand the material, fall behind, are lazy, dont show up to classes, thats on you. If you work hard and can work indepently its a great place, with excellent speakers, helpful instructors, and a top notch support staff.
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Ramon
Solid education at a good price.
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About a year ago, I felt like I was at a point in my life where I could change careers. I had been in education for over a decade and wasn't really enjoying it anymore. I had a friend who changed careers to become a successful software developer, and she talked me in to at least looking into a career change myself.
I initially chose Epicodus for three big reasons: First, tuition was payable on a course by course basis. I was coming from a humanities background with no coding knowledge, and odds were good that, a week or two in, I'd discover that it just wasn't for me. If that were the case, I'd only be out a grand, rather than the $8000 - $12,000 the competition was charging.
Second, they promised career support and job assistance for a year following graduation. They claimed that I wasn't going to be pushed out into the street.
Third, they promised an internship.
They didn't let me down in any case. On the education side, it was tough, but fair. I had teachers kick my ass when it needed kicking, but it never felt unfair or out of line. I never felt coddled, and when I could have done better, I was told as much. As a former teacher, I really appreciated the candor, and I firmly believe it made me a better programmer.
Coursework was constantly in development, because it was constantly improving. As technologies changed, curriculum was altered to keep up. If a lesson was flawed, broken, or poorly written, we could leave feedback and it was often changed by the end of the day.
We worked in pairs all day, every day, and it was great. I made good friends, but more importantly, I learned to both write and edit code on the fly. I had to communicate with a partner eight hours a day, and our success was often directly tied to how well we could adapt to each other.
The internship is the only place where your milage may vary. My cohort was a really big one, beginning a few months before the expansion, and in the end, there just weren't enough internships out there. I knew about ten people who didn't get an internship, got paired with a company they reviewed poorly, or whose internship just closed down on them a week in. In each of these cases, Epicodus refunded the students' money in full or offered to get them an internship in the next cohort. It was a bummer that these students got the short end, but Epicodus did what was right, something I feel you don't see many places.
I had a great experience in my internship, and again, our cohort was unique. I hear that things are a lot better now, that cohorts are kept more managable and that our experience was a learning experience for the company.
Finally, regarding job support, I was contacted every single week by the job placement team. They checked up on me, kept me honest, and frequently asked if I needed help crafting a cover letter or offered suggestions for my LinkedIn.
It's not perfect, but I've never been to a school that was. For my money (All $5000 of it), it was a great experience, and it took me from knowing about nothing about programming in January to being paid to program software in September.
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Austin
Great program
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I took courses at Epicodus a while back, and am now working full-time as a developer. The classes offered a personal and effective education and provided a good network and valuable work experience. I got portfolio pieces, an understanding of the industry, and the tools to find a job all for a much more affordable price than other leading competitors. The staff are beyond friendly and helpful, and they make being successful possible and enjoyable.
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James
Great School
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It was a tough, but very educational. Worth every penny spent tear shed ;) The staff are fantastic and involved, although you will feel at times like you are teaching yourself (that's the point). I wish I could have slowed the pace down to go into more depth on certain things and refine my portfolio, but I did okay and the consensus among my peers was that it was a great educational experience.
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Andrew Brennwald
Nothing Short of Life-Changing
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Why did I go
I decided to attend Epicodus in order to switch from game development to web development. I had done some entry level learning myself prior to attending, and wanted a structured, fast-paced experience to capstone my transition. I attended prior to the new structure (there was no intro class), so I had to demonstrate basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript understanding in order to be accepted. The application and interview process was a breeze, and they put a lot of emphasis on making sure I was the right kind of person for their program, not just capable of graduating.
Format & logistics
The biggest attribute that set Epicodus apart for me was the pair programming aspect. As an extrovert and social learner, this was perfect for my learning style. I was also seeking an all-consuming experience so I could really inundate myself with the subject matter, and Epicodus provided just that. As long as I was willing to show up to class ready to build every day, they were there to ensure that I had the resources and guidance to grow.
The program was also much more affordable than other offerings, and there was a huge emphasis on economic and social accessibility at the school. This led to a very diverse group of peers, which I greatly enjoyed working with every day.
Coursework
The coursework was constantly growing and adapting to industry trends. They realized that their job was to produce work-ready junior developers, and they stayed as current as possible with tools and technology in order to do so. Feedback channels were front and center, and any parts of the coursework that were confusing or broken were addressed overnight, if not the same day.
The day-to-day emphasis was on building things constantly. If you’re looking to get your hands dirty and build, build, build, then this is where you want to be. Everything from multiple small projects a day, to multi-day efforts, to large group collaborations, to solo portfolio items, there was always a task at hand.
Staff & instructors
I couldn’t have known beforehand, but the staff and instructors at Epicodus were by far the school’s greatest strength (Shout out to Mike and Courtney!). Every single person working there had a passion for the success of the students, and not just in a “this keeps me employed” kind of way. They could charge a LOT more for the quality of education there, and they could certainly make more money working for one of those $10,000+ programs. These are people who care deeply about helping people change their lives. Whenever they’d hear about a former student getting hired, they would light up in a way that was telling of people who genuinely care about the welfare of others.
Internship
I had a somewhat unique opportunity to intern with Epicodus right after finishing the coursework. I don’t believe this is possible anymore, but it’s still something I want to bring up because of what I learned about the school through the experience. My passion and professional interest lies in the realm of tech education, so the opportunity was exactly what I was looking for. I got familiar with the technological, logistical, and financial realities of operating a bootcamp, and I emerged with even more respect for the people that worked there. Even behind closed doors, discussions were about student success and how proud they were of everyone. I was constantly delighted by how much the staff cared about the students’ growth and success.
I emerged from the internship with a number of open source portfolio entries and an invaluable experience in the field I wanted to make my career out of.
You should go if:
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You enjoy working with others and meeting new people.
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You’re ready to be consumed by the experience. They mean it when they say full-time.
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You’re ready to meet them halfway and bring determination and discipline to the table.
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You understand that their main goal is to teach you how to learn.
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You’ve got the stamina and desire to build all day every day for months on end.
You should not go if:
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You’re introverted or shy to the point that working with others sounds awful and scary.
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You’re distracted by other aspects of your life that might make you miss class often.
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You’re unsure of your interest in web development, and this is true of ANY bootcamp.
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You’re more interested in theory and computer science subjects than work-related skills.
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Ben Pritchard
Thoroughly impressed!
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I can't say enough about Epicodus. I shopped around a fair amount for other boot camps before commiting and truly believe I made the right decision. The atmosphere is very friendly and welcoming to people of all walks of life and I'm happy to have such a diverse network of fellow programmers now. The location was perfect as well, right in downtown Portland so we were in easy striking distance to lots of tech meetups. We also had lots of speakers from nearby tech companies come in and speak about various topics.
But the most notable thing to me is that Michael (the founder) actually believes in this as a cause and is not in it purely for the money. He could be charging triple what he charges but wants to keep the costs low so it's accessible to everyone. I believed him when he said he wanted to lower prices even more. I actually had a unique experience in that I attended Epicodus twice, the second time for free! (Sorry, that was just a temporary offer to recent graduates to fill spots where people had dropped out). But it highlighted the fact that this is a unique company not all about making money.
The only thing I would be sure to think about though is if you really want to be a programmer. Epicodus has a very well designed curriculum but if you don't have a passion for learning the craft, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. But if you're dedicated and like learning in a friendly environment, believe me, your portfolio will have some shiny stuff to be proud of in it by the time you're done and you'll end up a happy developer like me!
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Jess
Good starting point
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Hi, I am very glad to have attended Epicodus. It was affordable for me and I liked what I had read and heard through my research. I moved sight unseen to the city and was happy with the location and school. We had daily stand ups, pair programming, projects and internships. The school curriculum changes through each iteration/cohort but its changing for the better as they work out kinks from student feedback. They are also growing and adding more courses. For example, part time classes versus full time or courses broken into 5 weeks so you can mix and match rather than follow one specific track. After my time at Epicodus, I worked with a wonderful company as an intern and short term employee. Many different things spawned from my experience. I started learning pentesting and got certifications in that, so that I could code more securely and become more cyber aware -- especially since there is news of breeches all the time. I moved abroad and randomly had an idea for a start up. I was accepted to a startup pre-accelerator and just completed that one. I also just finished a small crowdfunding round. Linkedin's Cofounder and Women who code CEO contributed! It was a small amount but hey, at least they know who I am. My path was to work in a tech company, not start one. But I am much more creative now so I have a bunch of ideas for applications these days. Even if nothing works out, I have offers to work as a developer. Code - Job - Startup: You have options. Epicodus can prepare you for the basics and the rest is up to you so be prepared to focus, work hard and put your energy 100% to make things happen. Also be prepared to move. Don't just look to only work in the location of the school if possible. -
Alex
Eat Your Spinach
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I loved Epicodus, I think it is a great way for beginners to learn how to code.
That being said, potential students should make sure that they really, really want to code for a living, or whatever their goal is for attending Epicodus. Epicodus will give you everything you need to succeed as a programmer, but you really have to go for it!
The only reason I didn't give their curriculum 5 stars is because they fell down a bit during the Ember.js portion of my course (the old, 15-week set of courses they used to do). Other than that the Ruby/Rails curriculum was accurate and helpful.
Michael Kaiser-Nyman of Epicodus
President
Jul 21, 2016
Thanks for the review! We've made some big improvements to the Ember.js curriculum in 2016 :) -
Austin
Life Changing
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Epicodus really worked out for me. That and some "hard work."
I came to Epicodus with a goal in mind, get a job coding. I didn’t care what I was coding, what the salary was, or where it was I did this hypothetical coding. I just wanted to break free from my backup career in market research. I had motivation.
I studied every lesson, everynight that it was assigned. I would come home, eat, study, and sleep eight hours. There were nights off but those were when the assignments were done. Celebration was on hold until I could prove I could get my first job offer.
The course was a good fit for me. The pair programming forces you to work with different learning styles, and some work better than others. Even the garbage days held lessons. Most days were with people I wouldn’t have sought out and working with them helped in ways I didn’t expect. These interactions often led to surprise friendships, and the network I have now is nuts.
The syllabus was challenging enough that I could take on a new concept, drill on it a couple times, and then build on top of it. This is the same syllabus that led to my eventual job.Job Story:
First off, I was lucky enough to land the internship I really wanted. I landed at a Ruby shop in Vancouver WA and it was wonderful. It wasn’t as good as others and it wasn’t nearly as bad as a select few. I would have been happy anywhere that had taken the time to teach me some coding lessons like mine did.
Leading up to our course completion, we started working on portfolio projects. These are supposed to be something you think is cool and will spend enough time to actually be cool to other people. I made a social site for hiring programmers. It had complex object relationships and functions and only looked okay. I spent a few weeks on it but really only finished the main parts that made it make sense and made me happy to present to friends.
This project was going to be presented at a reverse job fair, where students could show off a portfolio piece to roaming employers and give out some cards (get some cards, FYI). It was here that I met a bunch of companies and pitched my project as well as I could. I felt good but I didn’t get my hopes up.
In my free time I was sending out tons of resumes and cover letters. I was particularly fond of Angellist, I applied to over 160 Ruby related jobs all over the country. I was getting interviews ~2+ per week. I never held out hope for any one company, I just kept applying. I wanted the company that wanted me, wishing was not the key.
It was a week after the project presentation that I received an email from Daimler, to interview for a job working in Python and Java, two languages I knew nothing about. The project lead saw that we (Epicodus students) knew the basics in programming and could obviously pick up new languages and tools quickly, so he wasn’t concerned. Six Epicodus students were emailed to interview for the position. This was the job I wound up getting.
Today I work in an office doing work I never imagined I would ever have the opportunity to do. My team is full of kind and smart programmers and engineers that have completely taken me in. The work isn’t easy per se but it’s coding, and that’s exactly what I wanted.
New Student Advice:
I recommend taking a surface deep approach to the lessons at Epicodus. Going too deep or going off track was a common fuck-up when pairing and it only led to heartache. Epicodus lessons are broken up in the following way (as of my attendance late 2015): homework -> morning warmup -> creative implementation. Here’s what you should do:
1. Follow along in the homework. Actually do it that night, just follow along with the video, don’t think much about it. Do the homework.
2. Follow the instructions the next day. You will likely start with implementing the homework from the night before. Just go along with the lesson as it’s printed, this is the warm up, don’t skip it.
3. NOW YOU CAN GET CREATIVE. After the homework implementation, you’re given an assignment that implements the concepts you just studied/practiced in a new form. This is where you really learn. You can do it how you want (but you will likely really want the information you just learned).
Finally, don’t get lost in front-end minutia, unless that’s the lesson or you’re done with the day’s assignment. This is the design rabbit hole. It’s deep and you’re new, take it easy.
When you’re about halfway done with your studies at Epicodus, take some steps to make your job search life easier.
1. Make a portfolio. Mine is hosted on GitHub Pages for free, using Jekyll, with a template. You do not need a hand-built site if you’re not a front-end developer, just get one up that looks good and be done with it.
2. Get your LinkedIn in order. Follow the guide on Epicodus in this regard, it paid off for me.
3. Get your Resume put together. One page. No references to jobs that have nothing to do with coding. One page. Write it like some great code, short and effective. One page.
4. Get a decent cover letter together. You do not need a custom cover letter for every job, you just need some parts to be custom. I have background information that doesn’t change in my cover letters, you can do the same thing.
5. The above will take you very far in the general arena of job hunting. Angejlist also allows for sending notes and if you go there, I recommend that you send them. Treat these like micro-cover letters. Get a general template that you can alter some spots and hammer those out. Make sure your Angejlist profile is complete though, just like your LinkedIn. -
Anonymous
Best decision I've ever made
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About a year ago, I didn't know the first thing about coding - but I wanted to. I started Epicodus in January, this past year, and spent 4 months learning everything I could. The program is not only completely affordable, but also, completely prepared me for my new career - even though I didn't really trust that on the first day of my internship. At first I thought I had mostly learned that there were infinite technologies I had not learned. Once I got started, I realized that my teachers had been right all along - what technology you know, isn't half as important as what technology you can learn. And that is where Epicodus excels! The program hops from tech to tech, and all the while, builds a solid understanding of how to program, how to pick up languages quickly, how to work with pairs and teams, and how to navigate the tech scene. The instructors are super supportive, and in all likelihood - your classmates will be too. This is the best school if you need to go from 0 to coder, or if you need a great refresher course. If you just want to learn one language really deeply... build something in it, cause code school is probably not for you.
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Bojana Skarich
A truly great program
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I loved my time at Epicodus. Being new to programming, I relied on my instructor for help, and she went out of her way to assist me whenever I needed help. I enjoyed the pair programming learning style, good for students who talk their way through challenging code - and found the curriculum to be relevant to industry demand. After I finished Epicodus, I got a chance to intern at a web agency where I participated in a team sprint and worked alongside senior developers. Epicodus continues to help students after they graduate- while applying for jobs, I got regular assistance with my cover letters and resumes, job leads, and help with interviews and salary negotiation. One of the most helpful things to my web development career has been the Epicodus alumni network, which I still keep in touch with. We formed close friendships during our time in class, and we continue to get together often at meet ups and to catch up with each other. I would recommend Epicodus to anyone wishing to start their web development career; it is an excellent investment and also a lot of fun!
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Anonymous
Best Decision I Ever Made. Seriously.
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TL;DR: Epicodus was a fantastic experience for me, and I would wholeheartedly recommend the program to anyone looking to learn how to code, up their skills, and/or make a career change.
I came to Epicodus mainly in order to change careers. I'd always liked programming but hadn't been able to study computer science formally in the past. I was on another career path entirely, but hating it the deeper in I got. A year ago, I decided to take a chance and pursue programming and software engineering on a 'non-traditional' path. I was certainly impressed initially with Epicodus's very affordable tuition and payment plan options, but wondered if the quality of the program could truly be so high for such an affordable price.After completing the program, I can definitely say that the quality of the curriculum and teaching was great overall. I also feel that the school makes a genuine effort to foster diversity in the program and bring in students from a variety of backgrounds, which was awesome. My class of 30 students was nearly half female, had several students who were visible minorities, and several who were non-visible minorities, including myself. There was also diversity in the ages of the students; I would estimate that the range of my class was early 20s to mid 40s, which was also a great asset.
In addition to the great curriculum and classmates, the Epicodus internship program is an especially strong and unique aspect of the school. Epicodus has worked hard to make strong partnerships with companies that can provide real-world programming experience. In my case, I was especially fortunate. Only seven months ago, I had pretty much zero professional programming experience and knew only very basic HTML, CSS, and the tiniest amount of JavaScript. After three months of (intensive!) full-time study at Epicodus, I began my internship. And after four months as a full-time intern, I'm about to transition into a salaried, full-time software developer position at my company. I've certainly had a good deal of luck, and this is not the experience of every Epicodus grad, but I definitely feel that Epicodus has been a great springboard to opportunity for every member of my cohort. I really can't overstate how happy I am that I took the leap and that I chose Epicodus. There's no way I'd be where I am without the curriculum, support, and connections that the program provides, and the tuition is more than reasonable for all the benefits that come with enrolling. Do it!!
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Nhu Finney
The best place to learn code in Portland OR
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You will find a new passionate at Epicodus like hundred students have done. This fantastic course just takes 4 months but give you all necessary background and sharp tools to jump into the coding market. After the course, they will help you going through processes of preparing for interviews, joining an internship and then finding a job. Epicodus is one of the best decisions I have ever made.
I started the course without any coding experience. I was overwhelmed at first 2 weeks but then I fell in love with coding quickly. Their lessons are easy to learn and upgrade my coding skills by days.
I definitely introduce Epicodus to friends who are looking for a place to start a new great path.
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Jeanette Fairless
Epicodus changed my life!
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The Epicodus web development program has changed my life. Epicodus emphasizes not only technical skill, but other desirable behaviors like pair programming, git and test driven development. I particularly enjoy bringing together all of the parts of a web application: testing tools, database, ruby and the front-end development tools to produce a well-running, efficient, and beautiful web application.
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Brian Kropff
A great decision to helped jump start a career as a software engineer
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Attending Epicodus has been a pivotal experience in my life. I had the time of my life: learning to program, getting to know my wonderful classmates, and having great support from the people who work there, but it wasn't a walk in the park. There were times I found it difficult struggling with new material every day, over the course of four months. However, by following the instructions in class, doing the homework, and ask my classmates for help, I have come out the other side with more than I ever thought I could learn. In class, we learned some of the industry's tools and techniques. The prominent of these was pair programming, programming with a partner. At times, it was the most challenging and rewarding way to program. Learning from each other and helping each other every day has made everyone a better programmer. By programming with others, I have built relationships that will last the rest of my career, too. After my class ended, Epicodus offer lots of help for finding jobs and practice for nailing interviews. I have never felt so prepared for an interview as I do now. It has been over a month out from our internships and most everyone from my class has a great job. I, myself, have had several promising leads and am currently expecting to receive an awesome opportunity with a great company by the end of this week. I truly feel lucky to have been a part of Epicodus and I would recommend it to my friends, family and anyone else looking for a positive, supportive place to make a big change in their life. -
Jessica Engel
Epicodus was awesome.
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My experience at Epicodus was great, it’s one of the best decisions of my life. I came in with a few tutorials and online classes in Javascript and Python and a foundation in HTML and CSS, by no means hirable at that point. Epicodus was the only bootcamp I could afford, and I did my research and found a lot of happy alumni, so I saved up working as a server and signed up for the Spring 2015 Ruby/Rails class. Once I got there I worked like a maniac and learned a ton. If I was confused or wanted to learn more, I did that here and there on the weekends (I wouldn’t recommend working a job if you can help it). I ended up with a good internship and 3 job offers (1 from my internship and 2 of them from the job fair). I prepared to be out of work a few months after just in case, because Epicodus doesn’t get you the job, what they do well is teach you a ton, make you hirable a LOT faster, and give you some connections from job fairs, talks, and sometimes internships. The teachers are past students so they’re great support, but that doesn’t mean they’ll always have the answer, and that’s just fine because a ton of what you learn when you code is on your own or with your peers. Michael, the owner, does a great job keeping Epicodus affordable and diverse, and I’m grateful he started Epicodus because I had a job as a junior web developer within a month and I’m loving my work for the first time in my life.
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Erica C.
Excellent!
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If you're someone who wants to get into web development but don't know how, Epicodus is the place to be. The transition from learning the materials, to internship, and transitioning into the web development world has been smooth! But due note, you get what you put into it too! If you're only here for a job and not putting effort with what you're learning, then you're going to have a tough time looking for jobs and learning the materials! Employers will see that in your work/portfolio. Networking has been an important success for me. I met people who were in development during the course, volunteered to work on projects and etc..this helped strengthen my skills as an applicant for jobs. I had a nice fancy portfolio to show with my proven skills - my current employer told me my application was on top of the stack! So don't forget to be driven and keep up with your skills no matter where you are. Even with my current job, I still code and keep up with other skills I don't practice at work. I'm just that driven! :) I am happy with where I am now compared to 6 months ago before Epicodus. I work close to home, great hours, have a nice and professional team! I am forever grateful to Michael and the Epicodus team! :) Thank you and I'd recommend this to anyone!
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Garrett
Good program with room to get better
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I went into Epicodus with about three years object oriented programming experience as a QA Test Engineer. My goal with Epicodus was to graduate from QA Engineer to Software Engineer, and given I just accepted a great offer with a local company, I'd say I was successful.
My take on Epicodus is that, for the current price of $3,400, it's a hell of a deal for those just starting out in programming. If you have more than a few years experience, this will likely be mostly review as it was for me.
I found it to be a solid program with some great staff, but their curriculum has room for improvement. The job hunting help was very nice; getting a job, even with development experience, was definitely not easy, but it helped have a 'job coach' there helping me along the way.
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Anonymous
Epicodus is a Big Joke
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Ignore most of these fake reviews. I attended Epicodus and it was the worst experience!!! They have no idea what they're doing, have no business "teaching" programming and don't really have many connections in the Portland community, which was obvious after today's announcement in class that they don't have enough internships for each student. Some things to consider before wasting money on Epicodus:
1) The owner, Michael Kaiser-Nyman, is a phony and somewhat of a scam artist. This is purely a business that takes advantage of people looking for a new career.
2) Teachers don't exist. Epicodus hires former students who don't seem to have any real world experience. And, it's 2 teachers for 60 students.
3) So many students are unhappy with the course.
4) Epicodus uses pair programming, which means you learn nothing all day. How does one learn to program by spending half their days watching another novice try to code? For this reason, a number of people have already broken away from the class to do a self-study given the weakness of the cirriculum.
5) The cirriculum they provide is drafted by former students and is riddled with mistakes. Additionally, Michael is extremely arrogant and is incapable of constructive criticism from his students/customers. He can care less whether people learn anything or not.
Overall, Epicodus merely provides a space to work (though not enough computers for each student) and charges $3500 for it. With no solid cirriculum, a lack of experienced teachers and inability to secure the internships (which is really the reason most people enrolled), this isn't really a "boot camp." And forget about Epicodus finding you a real job at the end.
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Sarah Joy C.
Epicodus: (n.) A place to learn and grow.
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I moved across the country to attend Epicodus. Not because I was 100% sure it would be the stepping stone to a fruitful and fulfilling career, but because I had a feeling it would be a great place to grow and work on my programming chops. And it was. Epicodus isn't in the business of teaching you how to be the next "Rock Star" or "ninja," it's invested in creating a coding community of equality and kindness. There were a number of things that I especially appreciated about Epicodus and its team, including:
1. the emphasis on growth-mindset. You will never, and are not even able to know everything about programming. What's important is that you feed your curiosity and know that you're always capable of learning. To start learning with that mindset, and be surrounded by people who share it is incredibly encouraging. 2. the emphasis on kindness. In their code of conduct they point out that you will be working with people all day long, and should be able to handle that well. I'm an introvert, with a touch of social anxiety, but when I read about pair programming, I believed everything people said about learning more and learning quickly. Their call for people to at least try to be kind helped relinquish anxiety about being out of my comfort zone 40 hours a week. 3. the diversity. As a minority (an Asian woman), not being in a room full of homogeneous people and minds was important to me. Epicodus makes it a point to have a variety of students (in terms of coding backgrounds, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic backgrounds, race, and age) which makes for a welcoming and inclusive environment. 4. the team's responsiveness to feedback. In college, we would fill out end of the semester reviews about a class and its professor. At Epicodus, there was a survey every week about that week's curriculum and our teachers. Plus weekly one on one check-ins with the teachers. Epicodus is experiencing a lot of growth right now, and probably some growing pains, but I'm sure changes they make will be led by the relevant feedback provided by their students to better the program and grow right alongside -
Karvari
Exactly what I needed to do for my career change
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Epicodus is not a sink or swim program. They don't expect you to have a background in coding. They do expect you to wake your brain up and put it to work! And along the way, they can help you actually understand how to be a coder, a student, a mentor, and a member of the tech community.
I started in January 2015 with one (traditional style) intro class and one unix class under my belt, and no computer to do extra research or projects(I had to borrow one to do my preliminary work). I quit my job as a property manager and dove right in. (Due to the nature of my job at the time, this means I also lost my housing. That's right, I did epicodus as a homeless person. A very resourceful, couch-surfing, house-sitting homeless person)
Epicodus has a seriously humble, pragmatic, well-spoken and politically conscious leader. Epicodus is truly queer and trans friendly and Michael is on the front lines of bringing and keeping women in tech. I am not a person of color, so I can't speak to the experience of folks that are, but basically, the code of conduct pretty much says that rude jerks will not be tolerated, (I am paraphrasing there...) and Michael means it. If you are feeling excluded or picked on, tell Michael and he will end it.
Pair programming daily is a part of the deal - and that can get really tedious really quickly. Not everybody matches up personality wise, BUT it also means you have an opportunity to see so many different points of view and work with all kinds of different ideas. (HINT: Always partner with someone new! It's very comforting to pair with folks you work well with, but you will learn more from the diversity of switching it up as often as possible.) Luckily, they also give you a break on Fridays to just focus on processing what you've learned all week.
They throw dozens of different technologies at you throughout the course... Scary right? Why don't they just teach you one language, like Javascript, in depth, so you can feel confident about knowing it well when you are done? The Answer - Because you would be completely useless in most tech companies.
The company I work for now, has no less than 20 different (and often changing) technologies that I touch every single day. If I was unable to adapt to the pace at which things change - I never would have gotten the job in the first place. I impressed my current boss during my internship by taking on a project they expected to be done in 2 weeks. I did it in 2 days. They extended my internship to give me a taste of a department I didn't have any experience in, and I had 4 projects to complete in 4 weeks. I did 3 of the 4 inside of 2 weeks, plus, 7 other side projects that happened to come up. My job offer was in by the end of the 3rd week. All because this program kept us hopping from project to project and tech to tech. I got used to being adaptable, thorough, focused, and communicative. Those skills, and a serious passion for programming, is all an employer needs from a junior developer.
Finally, I appreciate that Epicodus really really wants you to get a job when you are done - and they do everything in their power to make it happen. They reach out to the community and they let folks know that the pipeline problem would be a thing of the past - if they hired folks out of bootcamps. (HINT: We actually have more relevant coding experience than folks coming out of PSU with CS degrees. Subjective, I know, but it was a senior dev I know that said it. That doesn't include folks who make it through the PSU internship program. We are not that far behind those folks either though.)
They make the internship thing happen for 60 people at a time. They host meetups. They bring in speakers from the community. They even brought me back as a speaker to talk about the internship process! They keep us engaged even after the program ends.
I recommend this program to all of my friends, and I will happily, personally speak to anyone interested the program. I am a fan, obviously, but if you have concerns, I will be perfectly honest about the struggle side of things. Nothing this good comes without a price, and mine was a few moments of mental and emotional exhaustion (which had a LOT to do with outside factors -which of course everyone has at some point and should reasonably prepare for)
You can find me on linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/karvari- if you would like to chat about it.
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Benjamin
So Many Reasons For Winning
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Epicodus is one of the single best decisions I have ever made. My new career is more day-to-day enjoyable, more rewarding, the environment more relaxed, and yes, the pay is better, too. Meanwhile, I still regularly get together with my classmates, a remarkable network of friends. To understand just how wildly successful Epicodus is at what it does, there are a number of things you need to know, things that I personally found helped me.
Without their deferred payment option (pay $200 up front, the rest after the class is done), I simply could not have attended Epicodus. While the intellectual diversity of the class is something Epicodus intentionally aims for, it's the follow-through of things like deferred payment that actually make it possible for the school to cast a wider net and allow more people to attend. The pre-class work online gave me specific, actionable goals so that I would know I'd be ready for Epicodus. Before that, I'd been going it alone, having more trouble figuring out what to learn than actually learning it.
Epicodus takes advantage of a "flipped classroom," where your homework is to watch a class lecture/introduction to new material, and your classwork is the actual coding, right there where you can check in with instructors and other classmates. Pair programming helps accelerate everyone's learning. On my very first day I paired with someone who understood the command line and took the time to teach me; I was soon passing that information along to others. Ideas and discoveries ripple through the class as the environment allows for an easy dialogue. And this is where the diversity of the class really adds something special, a magic that I can't very well describe here. Where else can a writer and an MBA pop over to ask the meeting planner and mechanic how they solved that code challenge? Growth mindset is something you'll hear about a LOT at Epicodus. Taking a cue from the growing body of research that talent is more of an illusion than we realize, Epicodus has the attitude right to help you fight through the frustration of tough days (which everyone will have when learning something new). The best part for me personally was that the instructors have taken this to heart; when they come to help you with a problem, they're not really concerned about getting you an answer for That Problem. Instead, they use the problem as an example to help you figure out HOW to figure things out. They are constantly adapting/evolving. You'll have weekly one-on-one check-ins with instructors, and they're actually listening. The Epicodus team is constantly revising the curriculum to improve the experience, so each new class benefits from the one before. Some of those changes can be immediate; our class began to have more two-day projects during our Rails unit due to my and others' feedback that we wanted to dig deeper into some of our projects.
The internships offer direct, immediate experience as the final quarter of the class. (Mine led directly to my job!) Epicodus is constantly growing its web of connections within the Portland coding community, and this means they constantly have a number of partners who take interns, come to job fairs, speak at events, and co-host other events. There's a team dedicated to helping place students into both internships and, afterwards, help them on the job hunt. In an industry where job openings for senior developers are sitting unfilled because there simply aren't enough experienced people, Epicodus is helping companies figure out that they're going to have to grow their own...and providing a number of us a leg up as we step in and say, "We're new, but we're ready to learn." Quite simply, Epicodus was a remarkable, positive experience, and it set me up for my current success, and more.
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Anonymous
Yes
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I knew very little of the programming world before I attended Epicodus. In fact, I knew nothing at all.
I was a poker dealer in Montana for 10 years and realized that my career path had no future. I have a child and I own a house so I needed something more secure for my family. I was soon scouring the internet for code schools that would be affordable and worth it to spend that much time away from home. I came across http://bookertrex.tumblr.com/ and I was convinced after reading her blog about her experience with Epicodus. Next thing I know I'm standing in front of 64 other kids that all shared the same goal... All I can say is that it's very difficult coming from no programming background. Difficult, but doable. Try hard to keep up with the day to day projects, absolutely do the homework every night and no matter how you feel or if things aren't making sense, just keep at it and it will click at some point. Stay positive and and have fun and you should have no troubles. Oh and sleep sometimes too. -
Dexter Fitch
Awesome support
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I will always consider my time at Epicodus to have been a key turning-point in my life. I drove alone in Winter across the country, from Baltimore, Maryland to Portland, Oregon, because Epicodus was one of the few schools who had a payment deferment program for students who couldn't afford to pay upfront, which I really needed in order to even be able to attend. I actually couldn't even afford the gas money to get there; I'm blessed to have generous friends who sponsored my trip on GoFundMe. Web development and art are two subjects I'd always been interested in, but also considered myself not good enough, or smart enough, or privileged enough to pursue 'seriously', and limited myself to just doing work with them as a hobby.
I worried constantly that I still would never be good enough, even after I was accepted and started the program at Epicodus. Thankfully, I was quickly overwhelmed by how welcoming and engaging Michael, the director, and the rest of the staff and teachers were. They took a very positive, progressive approach, and strongly discouraged any negative talk - including negative self-talk. I have PTSD, severe anxiety, and morbid depression, and I'm endlessly grateful for the positive, empathetic, and inclusive support that the educators at Epicodus provided to me. Sometimes the stress and anxiety would get overwhelming and trigger migraines, but the classes are set up in such a way that you can access everything online, and Michael and my teachers were very understanding and flexible in allowing me to work from home when I had especially challenging days.
The classwork and program itself was excellent. Michael takes great pains to listen to and respond to student feedback, and refine parts of the program to make them more effective. Everything for class is conducted online and organized into units that build on one another, and the materials include video lectures, video and text tutorials, and links to outside resources, which is especially great if you want to revisit certain things or get ill. Videos are also transcribed, which I especially appreciated. I'm hard of hearing and having a textual reference to refer to when I missed something was fantastic.
In the end, I of course didn't need to worry about whether I'd ever be good enough. Before I even finished the program, I had secured a job back home in Maryland, working as a web designer. I didn't even do the internship portion of the program at Epicodus - I just went straight to full-time, with-benefits work. I'm so grateful that Epicodus was able to give me the training, preparation, and above all, the self-confidence I needed to finally begin a career that I'm happy to go to everyday.
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Anonymous
Epicodus : An effective way to transition into the tech industry
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I got it into my head that I wanted to learn computer programming and so I set out to learn it on my own. This proved to be wildly difficult as I had next to no direction at all in what to learn or how to learn it. After quite a bit of time doing this, Epicodus showed up on my radar, and I am really happy that it did! The format of the class, learning by doing, was a huge attraction for me when deciding on which coding school to go to. The idea of learning day by day with a partner (pair programming) was also a really great sounding idea, and it turned out to be quite a lot of fun, too!
You will mentally taxed learning the concepts and sometimes you will feel like you just don't get it, yet. Press on! Many of the concepts will become clearer and clearer to you as time goes on. You are not alone and there is nothing wrong with you. Reach out to the staff and your fellow students, and you will do just fine. A month will pass, and you will look back at previous projects, laughing to yourself that it seemed difficult at the time. That feels great! You will make friends and encourage each other through learning, the camaraderie of the students is a really awesome social experience :)
More than just learning how to program, Epicodus placed a very strong emphasis on landing your first job in the industry. After they place you in a five week internship as part of the curriculum, the awesome staff also provide leads on companies wanting to hire new grads, job interview techniques, as well as info on the local tech communities. By taking advantage of these resources, I was able to quickly get hired at a really great company downtown with a great dev team. Highly recommended!
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Sean Niesen
A great reasonably priced bootcamp in Portland
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I attended Epicodus last summer. I had very little coding experience. The first day of class I felt completely overwhelmed with the amount of information. It is now a year after I began attending Epicodus and I have had a full time salary tech job for three months. Epicodus was a quick way to get the skills necessary to get a job as a developer. One difficult thing about it is the student to teacher ratio. When I attended I think there were 60 students and 2 instructors. This meant that you didn't get a lot of one on one time with instructors. However every day you pair with another student. Some days my partner was more advanced, some days less, some days we were about even. If you want to learn the skills you can learn a lot from other students in the program.
Working as a developer is a culture and I think it just takes some time to get used to the culture and decide if you want to be a part of it or not. As a developer you spend a ridiculous amount of time in front of a computer. My first exposure to this was with Epicodus where you are in front of the computer at least 7 hours a day 5 days a week. There are meetups every week, different languages and frameworks that people use and are involved with etc. I didn't start doing well in interviews until I became interested in coding and the whole culture. I have found that it is not really just a job. I think I would have had an easier time in Epicodus and my internship if I was already excited about and committed to being a part of the culture. So what I'm saying is that Epicodus is a great program. I learned a lot, but I would recommend studying how to make websites, write code etc. on your own for a while before attending.
Also, they will put in a lot of work to help you find a job. They worked with me for months after the course was over, making introductions, helping me set up interviews. I really appreciated that, and overall I thought it was a great program.
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Luke Chinworth
An inspiring environment for learning
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I had a great experience with Epicodus. I moved from out of town to attend the program and it provided a great environment for making new friends. The teachers were very helpful and always pushed students to ask meaningful questions. This formulation developed thought patterns that allowed us to grow as students from helpless to empowered. Cooperation and communication are core values of Epicodus, and the pair programming reinforces these fundamental programming skills. I can’t imagine diving into programming any other way than with a partner. Having a partner allows you to learn how to talk about programming and it also keeps you focused because you are accountable to your partner and less likely to goof off. Pairing with a different student each day diversifies your communication skills even more. These by products of pair programming were vital to the success of the program, and I wholeheartedly back Epicodus as a proponent of the method.
The space itself was very nice. Bright, high ceilings, everyone in one big room chattering about programming. It gave me energy to work everyday.
The program is also very focused on helping students get placed in internships with companies on the Portland area. They bring in a bunch of companies and you get to interview with a couple of them that you found interesting. After the internship phase ends, they continue support by helping you reach out to companies looking for jr devs.
Anyone looking to get into web development, this is the code school for you.
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Jackie Fletcher
Great environment for a career change
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I worked for 7 years as a meeting planner. I had a good job with good pay, but knew it wasn't the right fit for me in the long run. I knew I wanted to go back to school for awhile, but the thought of going to class for a few years and spending loads of money for some sort of new degree was in no way appealing. Fortunately I found the Epicodus program. No one talking at you from the front of the room (yay!) - instead you are living the life of a programmer from day one, which in itself is the biggest lesson one needs to learn when starting this line of work. The growth mindset that Epicodus helps preach has helped influence multiple aspects of my life and I am grateful to have been (and still am) surrounded by the support and positive/healthy attitude from everyone affiliated with the program. The class goes by fast and moves quickly through content, and it can be mentally and physically taxing. Knowing I was doing this for myself and my future definitely helped me through, and it helped develop a frame of mind that one needs on the job. You can only learn so much in 5 months, so being able to prove your ability and mentality to learn on the job is a huge aspect that I was able to take away from this experience.
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Kathryn Brown
Great school for women changing careers.
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I signed up for Epicodus because I wanted to transition out of marketing roles at venture-backed startups into a more technical role.
I got just what I wanted at Epicodus.
The classroom environment was collaborative, and each day we worked in pairs solving difficult coding challenges. Our reading and video homework was completed at night or over the weekend, so we could spend valuable classroom time coding.
At the end of the class, I was contacted by an engineering-focused development shop, DevelopmentNow, for an internship opportunity. Together with two of my classmates, we worked on a Backbone.js mobile responsive client project, and we were all hired by the end of the second sprint. I was really excited to be an employed junior developer just a few weeks after class ended.
I learned more that just coding skills at Epicodus. I learned how to work on a project with multiple developers with git flow. I also learned how to make scope adjustments in projects and what the tradeoffs really would be - considering we only had a day or two to work on each project.
I'm also super impressed with the school's dedication to student diversity. As a women in tech, I really care about companies and schools like Epicodus that fully embrace minority student outreach in the tech industry.
I would recommend this school to any self-motivated person who wants to change careers with a little help from a community of fellow learners.
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Alex Kaufman
Best Educational Experience I've Ever Had!
Epicodus helped me transition to a new career and offered me month of hands on experience in web development. They are always upgrading their curriculum and are passionate about providing the best education possible. Studying at Epicodus was one of the best decisions I've ever made and I would recommend it to anyone.
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Anonymous
You Won't Find More Bang for Your Buck!
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Epicodus offered more than any other bootcamp out there. In fact, their job-search support is nearly worth the price of admission alone.
What made Epicodus an extremely worthwhile course in my mind?
1. Time: You spend hundreds of hours coding over the duration of the class, with other people, building actual working (for the most part) apps.2. Content: You are exposed to a variety of programming tools, and considering the timeframe, get a rather solid foundation to continue learning once school ends.
3. The internship: The last month of Epicodus is spent at an actual company, getting a sense of programming in the “real world.” The interview process for these also helps take some of the edge off for your first tech job interview.
4. The people: The staff was great and I met a ton of smart, interesting people throughout the course.
5. Career support: Post-Epicodus, we (graduates) had amazing support from the staff as we searched for real work. The plus for job-seekers: Programming talent is in short supply and high demand. Some found jobs quicker than others, but we were in regular contact with the Outreach Coordinators at Epicodus, as they passed along job leads, interview and cover letter/resume prep, and general moral support. The luxury of being able to work on code projects while they did a lot of the job search for us, was priceless.
Of course, not everything was spot on. Figuring out how to pace yourself to keep up and retain knowledge is a real challenge. During our class, they were still figuring out best practices for running Epicodus, but constantly asked for, and often implemented, student feedback. I would have liked to have had some actual group lectures/teaching to introduce new concepts.
Last, I think it’s really important to know what you want to get out of a code school like this and what your goals are after it ends, before deciding to attend. Epicodus’ application process did a good job of giving you a sense of whether you have enough patience for, and interest in coding. The rest is up to you.
Overall, I would recommend Epicodus. It opened up a lot of opportunities and gave me a great foundation to continue building my skills.
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Tina Ramsey
Attending Epicodus was the best choice I have ever made for myself.
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About 6 months before my first day of class I decided I wanted to learn programming, but I wasn’t comfortable or disciplined enough to learn it on my own. Epicodus was so much more than I expected it would be - not only did I receive skills that advanced me far more quickly than I thought was possible when it came to learning to program, I made friends and gained a network of great people who will be with me in the industry for my entire career. I cannot recommend it highly enough. As a woman in tech, I found the environment supportive but not patronizing - in fact I felt more included there than I have felt anywhere else. I strongly encourage anyone who is ready for a life change to sign up for Epicodus.
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Gabe Finch
Great value, everything you need to succeed...
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I love my Epicodus family (shout out to the Winter 2015 Ruby cohort). I am extremely happy with what Epicodus provided me. If you are considering attending a code school, I think you would be hard-pressed to find a better value anywhere else in the US. Epicodus gave me a leg up on a career change into web development, taught me how to tackle difficult coding problems, and showed me that I am capable of teaching myself new languages and frameworks. In the Portland area (and perhaps beyond) Epicodus has a reputation of graduating successful developers that follow best practices and pick things up quickly. This is not by accident. The staff is caring and from the top down everyone wants to give you what you need to succeed as a developer, including staff dedicated to facilitating your initial job hunt once you’ve graduated. Emphasis is on pair programming, which translates into the ability to work with people from different backgrounds, to contribute as part of a team, and to explain what your code is doing. It also results in the class partially teaching itself (as novel techniques disseminate through the classroom with each new pairing). I came into the program with a small amount of experience programming in other languages, but not a lot of confidence in my abilities. As with any code school, your personal motivation to become a developer is the most important ingredient. Having a computer background helps, but I also saw fellow students who came in with little or no background excel through hard work. The pace at Epicodus was reasonable, the night homework was generally 15 - 90 min. I have zero regrets about my decision to attend and I am optimistic and excited about the opportunities now available to me as an Epicodus graduate.
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Dorrit Geshuri
One of the most influential experiences of the past decade!
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I consider Epicodus to be one of my most influential life experiences of the past decade. The phenomenal curriculum, stellar teaching staff and hands-on approach to learning gave me a solid foundational understanding of programming that I continue to build on. I use this knowledge constantly in my current capacity as a Technology Consultant; supporting clients in finding and using the most appropriate apps/technology for their needs and abilities.
Epicodus catapulted my understanding of programming and boosted my confidence in problem solving. But the icing on the cake was how well I was taken care of after the program was over. Michael Kaiser-Nyman, President of the school, contacted me on a regular basis to support me in finding work. He gave me feedback on my resume and cover letters, and was my cheerleader through many interviews. Once I started working, he still sent me an email every few months just to follow up and see how things were going. This sort of care is so uncommon, and I really appreciated how supportive it was (and continues to be).
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Anonymous
Worth it
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It is not magical, but it is worth it. Pair programming is a fantastic experience. I do not think any complete noob can became job ready in 9-15 weeks. Epicodus is a great start. Affordable and well structured. There is a lot of places for improvement, but they are continuously worked on. The material is online, you can look at it. Epicodus is one of the few transparent bootcamps. You can actually make an educated decision, whether it is for you or not.
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Mike Piccolo
Epicodus is awesome!
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Here are the facts about my time at Epicodus:
1. I got a job as a consultant at a Ruby on Rails shop within a week of graduating and has opened the door to a career.
2. This was by far the most I ever enjoyed a class of any kind. I could not wait to wake up get to class and start coding.
3. I made a bunch of great friends.
If you were to ask me if Epicodus was worth it I would answer that it is a no brainer. Absolutly worth every minute and dollar I spent.
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Cat T.
Attending Epicodus was one of the Best Decisions I've ever Made.
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I was in the Summer 2014 session(Javascript, Ruby, Rails). I moved to Portland from Southern California to attend Epicodus. My only experience in programming was the pre-course work that we had to do for the class before Day 1, and maybe fiddling around with pre-made Myspace & Tumblr layouts way back when. I'll be honest, I definitely felt that not having any experience made it especially hard because it's difficult not to compare yourself to the ones who are moving at a quicker pace, especially during that first month.
About the school:
It's a 4 month long immersive program, with the 4th month being an internship at a local company. Class was 5 days a week, 9am-5pm (there would often be students who were there outside of class hours to work as well). Once a week, they would bring in a guest speaker to talk to us about the industry, as well as answer our questions and give us an opportunity to network.
Once internship time rolled around, we all had a few weeks to go over the list of companies available to us. We chose our top 10 to interview with. Out of the 10, Epicodus worked their matchmaking-magic and set students up to interview with 5 of the 10 they chose. The week and a half of interviews was stressfull as heck. It was the week students became sharks in order to get their top choice (just kidding). After interview week, students made another 'top 3' list out of the companies they interviewed with, and the companies also ranked their top candidates. Then Epicodus worked their matchmaking-magic again and boom, success, most of us(if not all) ended up with companies that we were happy with and had a great experience at.
Not only was Epicodus there to help us gain programming experience out in the real world, but we had a whole week of interview practice, something that colleges may offer but don't always push you to do. Best of all, a good number of Epicodus students were hired on full-time at the companies they interned at. For those who weren't, after the 4-month session came to a close, the Epicodus coordinators continued to work hard at networking and reaching out to companies in order to find employment for their alumni. They kept in contact with us, encouraging us to keep our github active, and not to give up on applying to jobs. They would also bring in recruiters every so often to give us mock interviews. It is no joke how much Epicodus cares about its students.
A year ago, I was working at a boutique PR firm, making minimum wage. Today I'm making games, something I never thought I would be doing in this lifetime.
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Anonymous
Go to Epicodus!
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I attended Epicodus a little over a year ago and had austerely minimal experience with coding beforehand. What I did have was a desire to learn and problem solve.
With a lack of experience came some nervousness, but that faded away after sharing my enthusiasm with Michael in our initial phone interview. What I had experienced over the phone came to fruition in class as well: what matters most is having the ambition to take the time to fully understand something and figure out how to make it better. Michael teaches you the "how" and "why" of coding. The class as a whole encourages how to teach yourself!
That's the beauty of Epicodus - you're immersed in a learning environment where no one knows everything no matter how long they've been coding! Everyone is learning all the time constantly having new ideas, creating and figuring out many ways to solve many a problem. While I took the Ruby/JS course, the point of an immersive coding class was executed in full at Epicodus. The objective isn't merely to learn as much as possible about the languages covered (however, that's awesome too), but to go beyond that and understand the building blocks of web development, regardless of the language.
Michael has a knack for spreading the excitement and fun in web development because he's a developer at heart. That's what makes him such a great teacher: always striving to make things better. Be it code, be it Epicodus itself.
Long story short, I recommend it :)
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Amoreena
Epicodus is a life changing experience. After taking the program, I have a new career and an amazing network of friends.
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The reason I chose Epicodus over other programs is the founder Michael. He is truly a wonderful person. He crafted the program with the intention to help as many people as possible. All course materials are freely available online and that alone speaks to his genuine passion to teach anyone to code. I would highly recommend this program to anyone dissatisfied with his or her career prospects. The Epicodus sponsored one-month internship is why I am currently employed and being paid to learn iOS development.
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Bobby Grayson (@_devbob)
The Best Choice I've Made
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I came into Epicodus, physically, with nothing.
However, I did come with a passion for coding and a desire to learn. It quickly turned into the best experience I could possibly have.
It is exemplary in teaching you the skills needed. This is shown even moreso in how Michael has continued to offer cohorts for students that fall into disciples other than the typical RoR and JS setup. He truly wants to play it to what the market needs and is best for the students.My class was very successful. Everyone has done well afterwards, and I'm doing amazing in my career and keep growing. And Epicodus doesn't only just teach you how to code. Michael is completely dedicated to virtues like diversity, lack of discimination and sexism, and other matters of that nature and it shows. It is the most friendly, inviting room in PDX and I believe it will be that way a long while.