If you find yourself frustrated with your self-learning journey in programming (i.e. progressing slower than you'd like, not having all the answers to your question), then Redwood is definitely for you. Their full stack developer bootcamp is very thorough in preparing you for a junior web developer position. What you get out of the program is all dependent on what you put in, but Redwood definitely provides the resources for you to push yourself. Paul Epps is an amazing instructor and Senior Dev with 20+ years of experience. He can answer any questions regarding programming or the career path, and makes himself available before class to walk you through any topics you are struggling with. Karim also works full time to help you in your job search full time, providing feedback on every step of the process and helping you find leads wherever they are. The TA also put in a lot of extra hours to ensure no one fell behind the rest of the class. 

I thought the job search would take months, but it took me two weeks of job hunting to land my first dev job under the tutelage of Redwood (It sounds ludicrous but somehow it happened). You definitely need to devote yourself to the program if you want to get the results you're expecting, but Redwood gives you an abundance of opportunities to grow as a developer. 

Before attending Redwood, I visited various coding bootcamps in the OC area. Instantly, I felt Redwood was the right fit because from day one, I never felt like a number or just another student. Redwood was also the only program in the area that offered a C# / .NET back end curriculum and allowed me to learn the complete full stack throughout the program instead of choosing between front or back end halfway through the program. Before choosing Redwood I reached out to alumni and was very happy with their outcomes and feedback which also set Redwood apart from other schools.

When inquiring about the school, I was happy that I met with the program director, Karim, instead of being presented with a sales pitch in a room full of people. He met with me one on one which I appreciated. He took the time to thoroughly discuss the program and listen to my goals. He made me feel like he cared about my future and whether I was ready or not. He made sure I wanted to join a bootcamp for the right reasons and that I had enough understanding of basic Javascript, HTML, and CSS to do well in the program. He also addressed all my concerns and fears of quitting my job to start Redwood's program and my anxiety about successfully finding a job after the program was finished.

My instructors were AMAZING! Each of them had a unique style of teaching that allowed me to learn so many languages in such a quick time. If I ever felt lost or unsure they were willing to give me extra lessons and spend time with me after class to make sure I was absorbing new concepts. Most importantly, they cared about my success. Their success was my success and they were willing to give as much advice and mentorship to help give me the confidence I needed to finish the program.

The program and the job hunt both require hard work and persistence. Because of the support of the Redwood staff, I successfully completed the program and within a month of my job search began receiving job offers.  I now work as a web developer and couldn't be happier with my decision.

Overall I am grateful that I placed my career in the right hands. I am confident if you give Redwood a chance and believe in yourself, work hard and make the sacrifice, you will be successful.

Thank you Redwood!!!

The Full Stack Immersion course was difficult, but the more work you put in & out of school the more you get out of it. If you need the extra help they have after hours which helped me greatly, cause that's where you get 1on1 help. I went in right after highschool with little to no knowledge of JavaScript and I came out with a knowledge of Full Stack Development in 3 months. There's also a week 13 (optional, but highly recomended) and it's all about job prep. e.g. mock interviews, resume review, and job searching, but remember YOU also have to put in the work of job searching. The campus was bigger than I expected; two classrooms, spacious break room, and a sequoia room(which is like a quiet room for anyone to use). Overall I had a great time at Redwood all the staffs and students vibed greatly.

I attended Redwood Code Academy in the Summer-Fall of 2018. I also graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a Computer Science degree, and had some previous Software Engineering experience. I had always wondered if I needed to attend a bootcamp to further myself in my career, and was extremely conflicted when deciding whether I should attend one or not. I hope this review will be helpful for those who are also wondering whether they need the help of a bootcamp or not.

To start, the bootcamp is VERY intensive. There is a lot of material to learn, and there is little time to digest all of it. Each day, we would start with either lab review, or a whiteboarding session. Then we would go into the lesson for the day, do a couple exercises pertaining to the lesson, and then move into doing the lab for the rest of the day. On most days, it would be difficult to finish the lab, and I would have to finish at home. In addition, if there were any difficult parts, I would spend the night coding more trying to fully digest what we learned. It’s very important to note, you get what you put in. If you don't put in the effort, you will most likely fall behind, and this is coming from someone with experience. I would not suggest attending if you give up easily, refuse to ask for help, or do not want to put in the extra effort to fully understand the material.  

Now, I would like to first address the negatives of the course.

• C#/.NET section: I was very disappointed by the second half of the bootcamp for C#/.NET. I had expected more from a bootcamp that claims they are specialized in the .NET framework. In comparison to the earlier JavaScript half, the lessons were not clearly planned beforehand. Harrison would have to debug issues that appeared during lessons. Other students and I had lots of confusion and issues on the labs because the lessons did not fully prepare us, and even other instructors weren’t well equipped to help with this section as well and would have to do a lot of research to help us. In comparison to the well-structured JavaScript first half, the second half was rushed and there wasn’t enough concept reinforcement. I had really wanted to learn more in this section, but core C# concepts (object oriented programming) were brushed over quickly, and there wasn’t practice to learn them.
• Curriculum: Not everything that was promised was went over to where I feel job-level comfortable. I had hoped to learn more about Agile/Scrum methodologies, Cloud Development, and Firebase.  They were either not mentioned, quickly brushed over online resources, or not given proper practice with.
• Job/Interview Preparation: Another section where I do not feel professionally prepared for the real world. Data structures/algorithms were quickly went over and we were told to learn the others on our own time. Resume review was lacking. I received a few lines of feedback from Redwood, but when I asked someone in the industry, they would give me paragraphs of feedback. We were only given one 30-minute mock interview with quick feedback. Yes, it gave me a sense how an interview would go, but I do not feel any more prepared to ace the interview than when I first started the bootcamp. I had also expected better connections or a chance to meet with hiring managers, but instead we only had the chance to meet with recruiters for a day, and most job postings were links to online job postings. Proper GitHub READMEs were also something hiring managers wanted to see, but this was something I had to learn on my own.
• Externship: The part I was looking forward to the most was being able to work together and connect with a working professional in the industry. Even though the project was intense and I learned a lot working on it, there was little feedback on our design, and zero feedback on our code. I had hoped to work closer with the client, but that was limited to just one meeting halfway through the project, and one more time at the final demo.

Now, the positives:

• The instructors: The two lead instructors - Taylor and Patrick - were fantastic and truly made my time at Redwood enjoyable. They spent countless hours helping my classmates and I and have been incredible resources this entire cohort. I have learned a lot from them and I cannot thank them enough for all the hard work and dedication they have put into teaching us. When I asked a question, they would make sure I fully understood what they were saying, and if they didn’t know the answer to something, they would look into it and make sure to get back to me. There were also additional office hours that taught supplementary material or to help with current material that was extremely helpful as well.
• Javascript Section: The Javascript/React/Node lessons and labs have been fantastic. Lessons were structured very well and the labs helped us further understand what we learned that day. Previously I thought Javascript was my worst language, but now it is one of my best and most enjoyed language.
• The classmates: Some people may think programmers are unsocial, but everyone in this cohort was amazing and friendly. Everyone knew they were here to make a change for themselves and everyone worked their hardest to work towards a new beginning. Everyone would work together and no one refused to helping another.
• Environment: The environment was very clean, there was plenty of parking around the office building, and there was a fridge and microwave for lunches. In addition, there was a ping pong table, chess set, and poker set that you could use to de-stress or to help process information.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed my time at Redwood. Unfortunately, the second half and job assistance part I came for were lacking, and can use a lot of improvement. I definitely feel more confident in my ability to program and I have projects I can display, but I wish I could have the same confidence for tackling interviews and landing that post-graduation job.

I hope you have found my review helpful!

I attended Redwood Code Academy Summer of 2017. I was always interested in development and technology, before I found Redwood I worked a bunch of minimum wage jobs that were not fulfilling. I got fed up so I decided to better myself. I found Redwood and took there tour and Harrison was great at explaining what you will get out of the course. During my time there I learned different technologies that are on demand in the market. I enjoyed the courses and gained a strong foundation in which i can excel in the field. A month after graduating I was able to land a job at Santa Monica, CA for a software company called CallFire. 
 

Here is my linked in if you have any questions.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-canlas-57445813b/

I looked long and hard for a web development bootcamp in Southern California and I am so glad that I chose Redwood Code Academy's Full Stack Immersion Program. 

My favorite part about Redwood is the teachers. Harrison, Taylor and Patrick are extremely knowledgeable about complex topics in web development, yet completely understanding and encouraging to students who are learning them for the first time. They provide a ton of support for students who struggle with the material without holding their hands, ensuring that everyone grasps it on their own terms. It is abundantly clear that the instructors truly care about the success of each student, and will go out of their way to help them when they need it. 

Each day starts with a brief warm up period, which gives students the opportunity to practice writing and studying Javascript functions before the daily lecture where a major web development topic is taught and explained. After lecture, the rest of the day is dedicated to a lab where students take previously learned topics and actually code something. The daily labs given during this bootcamp are challenging, yet realistic, requiring students to leave their comfort zones and to apply everything that they were taught to complete them. 

If you are looking for a constructive and engaging environment to jumpstart your web development career, then Redwood Code Academy is for you. I would highly recommend for anyone who is serious about becoming a full stack developer

I attended Redwood Code Academy (RCA) in April 2017 and I am currently working as part of the Xamarin Team at Microsoft. 

Harrison who is the lead professor and the Founder of the academy has invested so much in making RCA the best Coding Bootcamp in the OC. Harrison and his staff care about the student's success in and out of the program. All the instructors are very knowledgeable in the technologies they teach and work hard in making sure that you understand everything they show you.

After I completed the program, Harrison helped me every stepped of the way until I found my dream job! I really felt that RCA went above and beyond by helping me prepare for every interview I attended.

I would recommend Redwood Code Academy to anyone who is serious about becoming a software engineer and are looking into making a life-changing career.

I want to start this review by stating that bootcamp, as a whole, may not be for everyone. Every day that you are attending bootcamp, you are making a commitment to yourself to put your best foot forward and become a better asset in the job market. When you read coding bootcamp reviews, they are usually all positive. People talking about how they were successful and how they landed their dream job. It sounds like a miracle! Who wouldn't want to have the opportunity of job security and a high paying salary? However, the truth of the matter is, coding bootcamp will not provide that for everyone. It will provide that for the people who show up daily and do the grind. The hours are long and you need to have self-discipline. At Redwood, they do their best to create a stress free environment by having ping-pong tournaments and class parties after class on occasion. They don't do this to distract their students, they do this to help us all out. We spend the day staring at a computer screen, working our butts of to get things done. When I was attending the bootcamp, I had no life outside of it. My dreams started to contain code, I started telling coding jokes! It invaded every facet of my life. And I loved it. I wrote things down that I didn't understand and I researched them when I got home. During the project weeks, I went home and worked on the code til the wee hours of the morning. It was fun to learn and I loved every day of the bootcamp! 

With all that said, this bootcamp is not a free hand-out. You can't expect to pay the money and have Redwood get you a job if you aren't willing to work for that job. If you are willing to work for it, Redwood is there for you. I never missed a day, I showed up on time, I asked questions and I put my everything into the bootcamp. At every turn, Harrison, Karim, Taylor and Zach were there to support me. They were all so supportive in their own ways. Some days I would come in and be so stressed out from a late night and Karim would be there with a joke to cheer me up. Any time that I was freaking out that I wouldn't get a job, Harrison would be there to pick me up with positive reinforcement. Zach and Taylor were always in the classroom during our daily labs, helping all of us with our problems and finding those pesky little syntax errors. 

Another thing to take into consideration when choosing this bootcamp is that you are entering a bootcamp that is small in size, relatively new and owned and operated by the lead-instructor. It isn't some huge corporate bootcamp that has been around for ages. But that it what I loved most. When I finally decided to take the plunge and start a bootcamp, I started looking around in the Orange-County area. Redwood was the only bootcamp that sent me a personalized email. When I went into Redwood for the first time, the first person that I spoke to was Karim. He greeted me at the door with a huge smile and a warm welcome. I spoke with Harrison as well, but briefly since the cohort before me was currently in session. Like I said before, Harrison is doing a lot. I have so much respect for what he does. But it's important to remember that people can't be in multiple places at once. I think one of the main reasons for my success at the bootcamp is that I used the staff for the things they were there for. I never fully relied on one staff member for my success. There is a reason that the people that work there are there and if you do end up going here, use them! They are all so nice and they all really do care. They wouldn't be working with all of us and our craziness if they didn't. 

When it came time to find a job, Redwood had my back. Harrison brought out some people that he knows from the industry to prepare us for what people in the market are looking for. They never sugar-coated the fact that the job hunt would be a grind. It really was. In the beginning, I was filling out job applications for hours a day. About 15 a day. It was exhausting, and I wasn't getting a call from anyone except recruiters. Harrison told us, never turn down an opportunity. So I answered every email and every call. I signed up for every job site I could think of. I took phone interviews from every company, leaving my opinions out. Within about 2 months, I was accepting a job offer.

I wouldn't be here without Redwood, Harrison and the rest of the staff. I will always have gratitude for the opportunity they provided me. It is an opportunity that I would relive if I could. There was so much learning, growing and fun had at Redwood! Thank you.

 

Redwood Code Academy is an amazing coding school. Before I enrolled in May 2018, I also was looking at the General Assembly in Santa Monica. I went to both school meetings and started considering the pros and cons of both schools. I finally ended up choosing Redwood even though it was much further away for me as live in Torrance. The reason why I choose Redwood is that they seemed to really care about their students and were genuinely looking to help them learn how to code. I am glad I choose Redwood and here is why. I came from a real estate and sales background so I had no technical knowledge at all. The first three days at Redwood told me I definitely needed more help with understanding the concepts. So I went to the advisor's office his name is Karim and I told him I was struggling and I needed help. Karim right the way went to talk to the owner of the school named Harrison who then scheduled extra tutoring for me and other students an hour before class and another hour after class. With me getting more help I started learning more. Then again a month later I realized I was still having a hard time with JavaScript functions so I went back to Karim who talked to Harrison again and this is when I understood that this school really wanted me to succeed and was not just about taking my money. What Harrison did is he created an additional two and half hour during the first portion of the morning class to give students like me more tutoring. Patrick and Taylor who were both our instructors in class and our tutors took turns every morning to give us more practice exercises with JavaScript functions and concepts to help us understand it better. I am so happy now because of this caring nature of the staffs at Redwood I was able to learn to code and I can safely say that I am a full-Stack web developer. I am looking forward to graduating in August and starting to apply for jobs. I know that I have been thought well at Redwood and they prepared me for the job I will be doing. I had several conversations with senior web developers outside of the school and when I share with them the technologies we are learning a lot of them would tell me "I don't even know how to do that" and this made me feel good about the skills I learned here at Redwood. If you are looking to enrolment to a coding program I highly recommend Redwood Code Academy. I am grateful to Redwood for teaching me so much and not giving up on me. Mamma Fnu

Before going into Redwood Code Academy I had very little computer science knowledge, had taken a course or two at a local community college.I had learned a lot more at redwood than I did in a full semester. The atmosphere is great, instructors were very supportive. If you had trouble with the material being reviewed they were more than willing the help you out every step of the way. If you ever find yourself stuck on certain material dont be afraid to ask for help, thats what they are there for. Always continue to learn. 5/5 Would recommend. Some quick advice for anyone looking to join, review the prework assigned and put in some hours after class.
 

I came into Redwood with a very limited background in comp sci and software development and as of 3 days ago, I've successfully completed 12 weeks of their full-stack development bootcamp. The huge amount of material we were able to get through was very well laid out and taught by Harrison and their instructors. The lessons themselves were very helpful to get an introduction to all the moving pieces that are involved in web development and I believe I have a strong foundation to start my career in software development. 

For future cohorts, I recommend focusing on the JavaScript prework and always put in time outside of class to dive deeper into programming. Redwood does an excellent job of providing a foundation of coding knowledge but there's always more to know and more to practice.

TL;DR -- 5 stars. Would recommend!

As of three days ago, I completed Redwood Code Academy's full-stack immersion program. While it may be premature to say it was the best career choice I've ever made, it has the potential to be. I cannot be more excited to embark on a new career and take the skills I've learned and apply them. Harrison, Billy, Taylor, and Karim were integral parts in my acquiring the foundational knowledge and best practices that will help me succeed in the field of software development. Each had their own area of expertise and it was evident in their lessons. Equally as important, all were more than willing to help me through my bootcamp journey even before and after class. Coming from a background in education, the lessons were well adapted to multiple learning styles and engaged students individually, in pairs, and small groups, which was a plus. If you are looking for a school in Southern California, I would highly recommend Redwood.

If you're looking to go into the field of coding and you're thinking about going through a bootcamp, Redwood Code Academy should be at the top of your list. Learning to code will be one of the most difficult things you ever do. Making sure you pick the right bootcamp is crucial. Redwood Code Academy offers amazing instructors who genuinely care about you succeeding. Check your attitude at the door, and Redwood will make sure you get everything you need to become a full stack developer with highly sought after skills. Good luck. "The name doesn't matter, it's hotdog." - Billy Pruden

Redwood is the code school to go to! 

I have a little bit of a unique experience because I have previously completed the course at Orange Count Code School and worked for a year and a half as a front end developer. 

Redwood has exceeded my expectations as a code school. We learned far more technologies than I thought was even possible to learn in 12 weeks. The teaching and support here is incredible and the teachers really care if you understand what you’re learning. 

I think it is a huge privilege to graduate knowing the C#/.NET stack and the MEAN stack. Yes, the programming concepts are the same but you have a larger skill set for the job market and you are able to figure out if one strikes a greater passion in you than another. Personally, I got a job using C# but my passion is the MEAN stack and I was able to figure that out here. 

Bottom line if I had to choose all over, I would have come to Redwood in the first place because the teachers are outstanding and I really felt comfortable asking questions here. 

Redwood has proved to me that they are efficient as a school and as a business. The staff maintains a great balance exhibiting professional and personable manners. I was never treated in any condescending way, as I had been at a previous coding bootcamp. The course is streamlined to guarantee every student picks up the languages at the same pace, build applications accordingly as individuals and as a group. Assistance is available at any time, after class and even when you're at home. 

I greatly respect the efforts Redwood's staff has put in, to ensure the students are crafted into full stack developers, and would invite anyone curious - to spend a day here to get a feel for what a typical day is like. Watching the staff work with all different kinds of students who learn differently, have different personalities and behaviors that shape them into their own kind of developer, it's fascinating to see how fast they all can move and handle such a variety of people. Every student's frustration and challenges were always taken care of. The E in Redwood could go for exceptional or efficient, either works well. Redwood has a community that is evident with previous students and professional developers coming in as guests speakers, who are able to use the environment as a mini work space or to just hang out and visit.

A very good friend of mine in my cohort had actually become employed halfway, week 8, (this is not to say you will be employed early on), he accepted the employment and Harrison was personally helping him with in-depth learning in a particular language, guiding him with problems and making his transition out of our bootcamp smoothly into his new full-time salaried job! This bootcamp does not guarantee its' students a job, but job assistance is most certainly available and is put in place. For anyone who is worried about job placement, at any coding bootcamp you go to - it's always going to be up to you to do the hours of searching, applying, interviewing and putting yourself out there. Redwood does provide the environment, time and effort being put into us to ensure we are maximizing our productivity of job search. 

As a business too, they genuinely care about how they're doing, if they're meeting the students' expectations. We have one on one's that check in on how the student's are doing, how they're feeling so far and what kind of feedback they have if any - this happens every few weeks. I have never read any coding bootcamp reviews about the schools' staff and Founder, taking the time to check in on student's personally and making sure that both sides are happy. They promise a specific cirriculum, and they delivered accordingly. 

 

 

 

 

When I was 18, I thought I knew exactly what I wanted do, had my entire life planned out to the very last detail, and put in countless hours to get to where I wanted to be. After graduating from UC Irvine, I received an amazing offer at an established company that provided me with many opportunities. Although everything was falling into place, I began to feel a great sense of emptiness. I was very fortunate have an extremely patient supervisor that provided me with the resources to succeed, however, I knew that this was not path that I wanted to continue on.

Despite the countless moments of conflict, I was assigned the task of redesigning the company website which I eventually took on the role as a Project Manager for this project. I used Adobe Illustrator to create wireframes  of the look we were aiming for and also worked with the developer to determine the best user interface for our customers. Althought it was not an easy process, it was extremely rewarding to be able to be a part of creating something that our users enjoy using! This was the most enjoyable project that I had the opportunity of working on and this was also when I began thinking how could actually make this a career. 

After much consideration, I decided that it was time to redefine my goals and move on. I knew for a fact that I wanted to be in an environment where the learning opportunities are dynamic and continuous. I looked further into Software Development and found the field to be absolutely fascinating! I then left my job to pursue a career in Software Engineering, which was extremely intimidating as it is a field that I had absolutely no background knowledge in.

I was nervous about taking a risk of attending a full-time bootcamp, but since I've gone through it, I am confident I made the right choice. They helped guide me through a few steep learning curves that would have taken me much longer to get through on my own. This applies to both the languages themselves and the tools used to make it all work. There have been some concepts that seem overwhelming, but Harrison and Billy are very knowledgable and break it down into smaller bits that are easier to digest. Having done my research before attending a bootcamp a common piece of advice I read about was that you get out of it what you put in, if you're willing to put in the work, Redwood will definitely go more than halfway to get you to your goals. I highly recommend Redwood to anyone that is serious about learning to code.

 I was just like anyone else at the beginning of the course. I had a lot of hope that this was not going to be a bust or waste of time and I'm so happy that 9 weeks later I feel I'm doing things I used to watch other techies do and wonder if I'd actually get to learning it in my lifetime. Now I'm mad I just did not do this a long time ago Harrison and Billy really have an excellent way of teaching so that you get the meat of it all.

  I checked out a couple of other boot camps before and they were cool but they did not cover any mobile or app development mainly just javascript. I wanted flexibility in my future career path so I really appreciate  Redwood Code Academy giving me multiple paths to choose from and instructors that really code for a living.  

 Harrison and billy are a beast when it comes to knowledge and experience in the field and I'm so happy I came here because I know for a fact it very rare that instructors have such a deep pool of knowledge to draw from. I feel very confident on interviewing for the job I want due to the fact your teacher could pretty much hire all the people that would be trying to hire you. Harrisons Bio doesn't come close to what you learn about him in person and Billy is always there to back you up when hit that wall.

 Jobs Jobs Jobs That's what you want to know about well in the mean time I'm trying to get everyone I know in here for the fact I already have three job offers halfway through the course. The need for developers is not dying it's growing as we head into this new technological era so once I started just telling people what I was studying for people were giving me there business cards offering pay that is 50% more than what I currently make at my lame 9-5 job ummm can you say complete life change.

 I have a daughter coming around April first and at the beginning of this year I was stressed out on how I'm going to pay for everything so i can be a great dad considering I have not been back to school in 20 years, to be able and pick this up and start a new life is beyond words to me.

  I personally feel that this is the time to get into a boot camp and save yourself for 4 years of debt. If you go to college it would take 4 years to get what we get in 3 months at Redwood but main difference is we use the technology when it's hot, school you will be going back to  BootCamp to learn what's up to date. If you don't have the luxury of time and free rent, food and people just flat out paying all of your bills this is the place to be, and if you do, it's still the place to be lol. Redwood Code Academy did not change my life it literally saved it to think I was going to procrastinate and take a later class, id just be further away from the success that I'm enjoying today and the class is just 4 weeks to go.

 

Is it tuff yes its a challenge you will hit that brick wall but the teachers are here to pull you up and they always do. My advice is to never give up stay hungry and time will fly so many people waste so much time in 3 months you are literally a different person and personally I'm basking in the new me.

 

10/10 Life Changer

Hello World, I'm Brian. 

I went to this "coding bootcamp" from Mar-Jul 2017. 

Harrison Spain, Billy Pruden, and Taylor Thomas misled, and misinformed me about their experience and qualifications to teach code, and scammed and defrauded me out of $12,500.

A LOT of students paid thousands of dollars to this "coding bootcamp" in 2016 and 2017 got scammed and defrauded by Harrison Spain (Redwood founder) because he frankly lied in a very elegant manner.

Playing A LOT of ping-pong, eating cheap pizza and junk food, getting cheap apparel with the stupid poorly designed "Redwood" logo, having my candy bar stolen and eaten without my consent, and spending OVER $12k for nothing is NOT what I signed up for. This is what happened to me at this place. I'm NOT making this up!

He claims that jQuery and Angular.js were "modern" javascript libraries and frameworks (they are NOT!!) These are NOT ES6 (ECMAScript2015) javascript libraries/frameworks, in fact, they are pre-ES6 (legacies). The curriculum was completely overpriced elegantly package garbage!

Coding-along = copying code from the projector screen while the instructor talks and types in front of the room, while you type out the code on your own computer screen, is NOT the way to teach someone how to code!

Until this day he has NOT provided FACTUAL PROOF of his claims and statistics when it comes to student outcomes and curriculum success. 

The Redwood founder has NO Github account to validate his "coding skills" for the "supposedly" 15 years of experience he claims to possess.

He has hired "former students" as TA's and given them the titles of "experienced developers", which is a complete lie.

Harrison doesn't have the experience to teach code, this is why he had to hire an "experienced" developer to take over his school as of right now in 2019. If he did this from the start in 2016, then he would NOT have any kind of problems and I would NOT have to write about this at all.

The "job support" was microscopically non-existence and the path to a developer job was NOT clearly given (applying to all dev positions disregarding junior-senior positions is NOT good job advice and direction)

Harrison has bragged that he was interviewed over 500 developers throughout his years in the tech industry, but when I ask him what they would ask me in an interview, he couldn't even give me ONE question or advice. He says, "you never know what they will ask you." This type of nonsense useless advice is NOT worth OVER $12k!

This "coding bootcamp" was operating unregulated by the Department of Consumer Affairs Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education from Oct 2016-Jul 2018, therefore any sort of fine or legal punishment against Harrison Spain, his associates, and most important his school, is non-applicable = meaning "Us" students from 2016 to 2017 got RIPPED OFF! The only way to get justice from what Harrison did is to take legal action against him and his school, which would cost thousands and thousands of dollars to facilitate.

There are A LOT of online coding programs that are better and more affordable as of right now in 2019!

Avoid this coding bootcamp. Avoid this place. And don't go here!

 

 

HERES THE TRUTH ("You" refers to Harrison Spain/Redwood Code Academy):

• You were NOT accredited by the BPPE while I attended your school.
• You didn't teach modern javascript - jQuery (library 2006) and Angular.js (framework 2010) are not modern javascript (ECMAScript2015 aka ES6) libraries and frameworks. (I can prove this).
• NONE of your students in the part-time front end developer night classes have NEVER gotten a job as a front end developer because you were not teaching coding properly to supplement those skillsets.
• The MAJORITY of your students from 2016-2017 could not get a job as a developer, whether front end developer and especially full-stack developer because you weren't teaching enough to substantiate those skillsets.
• You, Harrison, have NEVER made a single phone call or initiated a slack conversation to find out whether or not I had secured a developer position after attending your overpriced, deceptive, fraud school.
• You NEVER looked over my LinkedIn.
• You NEVER helped me write my resume or cover letter (I had to take a resume writing course after Redwood).
• You NEVER looked over my GitHub account and didn't teach me how to use GitHub the way that professional developers use GitHub in the workplace and workforce.
• After attending Redwood and ending in July 2017, over six months later, you told me to apply to every developer position out there, even though I was NOT qualified for any of those jobs because you didn't teach the right stuff to qualify for those positions.
• I expressed and complained to you and Taylor, and you accuse me of threats because I spoke up to a White Man; you didn't want to help me at all and you didn't care at all.
• You hire your past students (Taylor Thomas) as TA's to cut cost in hiring an actually experienced developer.
• You hired another developer with 25 years of experience (more than you) because your "experience" was insufficient and inadequate.
• You created fictitious reviews for your school online (I have proof!!!).
• You exaggerated and lied about your experience and qualifications (you did NOT win multiple hackathons)
• You have NO GitHub account to validate and show your claims as an experienced developer (where are you web applications that you've built in your 15 years of experience?).
• You told me that my projects were good enough to get a job (they are not).
• You provide NO substantial and factual proof to validate any of your claims.
• You blame me for not being able to get a job because I got pissed off at you and spoke up to you.
• At face value, most importantly, you are a deceptive, and calculating liar!
• You and your lawyer, Raeesabbas Mohamed at RM WARNER LAW (8283 N. Hayden Rd.  Ste. 229 Scottsdale, AZ 85258) are pathetic and sick individuals that make-up non-sense and untruth claims in your demand letter against me and tried to entrap me and extort me.

THIS IS WHY I HAD TO REPORT YOU AND WHY YOU WERE INVESTIGATED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS BUREAU FOR PRIVATE POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION (BPPE) IN DEC 2018.

 

 

READ THIS:

https://bit.ly/2VuIJ48

Had a great experience attending Redwood. Initially I was trying to teach myself but could not progress at the speed I wanted to go. So I took the plunge and attended Redwood. The instructors were great. Harrison, Taylor and Zack were on hand to guide us to find solutions when needed. The format was perfect in terms of learning the material. Lessons with the daily and weekly labs, followed by a few projects. It was a wonderful learning environment. Harrison and Taylor did excellent jobs presenting the material in a way that was easy for me to ingest. I was able to get a job a couple of months after the bootcamp ended. Should you decided to join, definitely commit and put in the effort since the time goes by quickly.

I attended the Summer-Fall Cohort of 2018 as part of the Full Stack Immersion course. I had graduated from UCLA with a degree in Aerospace Engineering so I a little bit of experience in coding (took one basic C++ course and mostly coded mathematical computations using Matlab).

Before I started, I went into it knowing it was going to be very difficult and worried a lot whether or not I could keep up with my cohort members. I was so worried that I had gone over the required section of the prework about 4-5 times over until I had a sense that I had grasped the basics in javascript, html, css. I didn't even try to get to the intermediate and advanced sections of the prework until felt like I had fully understood the basics. I also finished some of the certifications from freeCodeCamp to prepare myself. From my whole experience, I would say that my preparation helped build a foundation that I could work from and would really recommend going over the prework meticulously (maybe not as much as me).

Overall, like most of the other reviewers had said, you really do get as much as you put into it. The instructors at Redwood try to help you to the best of their abilities and provide you the resources to become a better developer, but at the end of the day, it wholly depends on how much of an effort you put into it.

Pros:

• Instructors were great, Patrick was extremely knowledgeable with every question that I asked him and would give me extra resources if I wanted to know more about something. Taylor was also very great, he was extremely patient and kind to all the cohort members especially if you were at a roadblock. Harrison was also great as he was especially knowledgeable of the industry and with most of the holistic aspects.
• Loved the atmosphere as everyone in the cohort was extremely friendly and just fun to be around.
• The after hour lessons were extremely helpful as they went over concepts that we did not have time to cover in normal class hours. (Would highly recommend you stay for the after hour lessons for at least the first half of the course).
• I also gained a lot of insight about the job market as guest speakers came and answered any questions about the hiring process.
• We also participated in a group project (optional) for after hours in hopes that we would develop a deployable application. This was extremely fun and rewarding as I had learned a lot from this experience. Sadly, we were not able to finish it as we had gotten too busy with the externship and personal projects.

Cons:

• The first few couple of weeks were a little slow for my pace, but I decided that take that as an opportunity to hone my skills further by assigning myself extra goals or finish more of the curriculum from freeCodeCamp to prepare myself for the upcoming weeks.
• As the 12 weeks were coming to a close, I still felt like there was so much to learn and I was still not that confident in my coding skills. After all, I was competing in the job market against 4 year CS degree students. It still felt like I had a long way to go before I was ready for my first job.
• Overall, I did not have too many gripes about the curriculum as whatever I believed they were lacking, I took it upon myself that it was my responsibility to ask for resources and do independent studying.

I don't really have any input in terms of job assistance; I got sick on the day of the mock interview (which I really regret missing). I would recommend attending this academy only if you have the motivation to learn. After the cohort ended, I took job searching a little slowly (tried to make it a goal to get at least 7-10 job applications a week). After about 3 months, I was finally able to get my first job offer which I gratefully accepted.

All in all, I really am thankful of the instructors of Redwood Code Academy for helping me achieve my goal of landing a job as a developer!

I would like to preface this review with a disclaimer that this review was not meant to attack the school itself, but instead provide an honest review on how I experienced the program. I hope that my readers will take these points into consideration instead of meeting this review with anger.  I also want to give "Overall Experience" 3.5 stars since I did enjoy parts of the cohort (but there aren't half stars!).

I'll start with the cons:

• Job assistance: going into this program, I really wish that the recruitment process would have been a lot more transparent in terms of job outlook. If it will take an average of three months to find a job, please make students aware of it. I was very unhappy to learn that months into the program, considering I was encouraged to leave my full time job for the full time cohort, with the push of "You'll make [the 13k tuition] back in two paychecks." With interest piling up, I don't quite think so. Job prep definitely should have been more hands on- resume help should be in person and not over Slack. I had to seek assistance from my classmates to turn my less than stellar resume into something that really showcased my professional experience. It is also worth noting that interview prep and "recruitment" only took place over two days during an optional week. Please prepare students with more information on the computer science side of interviews. Integrate more concepts into lessons. I can code, yes, but can I explain it? Not really.
• C# and .NET: For technologies so marketable in the area, I was hoping that this portion of the cohort would be more comprehensive and involved. Instead, I didn't feel that I got the most out of this portion. It felt disorganized and rushed. Trying to study C# outside of the program really emphasized how little I knew about the language. 
• Externship: Our capstone project. I have mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, it was a really neat experience getting to "work" in the industry, but was it really work? There was no code review for our work - after the presentation, we instructed to just zipped our code up and ship it to, what I will assume is, our client. Nothing else was mentioned or said about the project. There needed to be more transparency and more professionalism with this project. There is no paper trail of our having done work for our clients, yet we were instructed to list the externship as work experience. I want to know what our project became since my group and I worked extremely hard on it. Also, there was very little communication with our client. 

The pros:

• The instructors: The instructors were absolutely fantastic. Super supportive, and fun to be around. There was no such thing as a stupid question to them, and I really appreciated how open they were to helping students to make sure nobody falls behind.
• The culture: Speaking from the perspective of the only female in the cohort. Everyone here was very inclusive. Not once was my gender made salient. The school was awesome in that regard.
• As I've mentioned above, there were parts I really enjoyed about the program. The first half of the program was very informative, and I learned a lot during my time here. But the second half of the program really could've used some fine-tuning. First half had really good pacing; second half was rushed. 

So, you might be asking why this stuff is being addressed here. Well, I think when you've initially graduated, the thrill and enthusiasm from accomplishing something big really fills you with positive feelings, but as I started to recap as I am preparing to get out there, I began to realize parts that were really lacking. 

I loved the school, honestly. I hope that this review doesn't discourage you from applying,as there were good parts, but instead helps you to really think about it. It's a huge life decision, so having both sides of the coin is helpful, in my honest opinion.

Congrats on your decision to attend a coding bootcamp! I absolutely recommend to take the bootcamp route. Although I know a few self taught developers, I personally feel much more prepared and skilled having attended Redwood Code Academy. I graduated in the April 2018 cohort and landed a job just 3 weeks after graduating! What I learned at Redwood thoroughly prepared me for my position with a small start up working with React Native. At Redwood I learned various languages and frameworks. Redwood is one of the only bootcamps in the area that teaches React, which I think is the best framework to know when getting into the job market! We learned Vanilla JavaScript, JQuery, React, React Native, and some Angular. I appreciate the instruction I received while learning .NET, because I learned a lot about MVC frameworks. It was especially great that we got exposure to Node.js as well. At Redwood you will get a taste of everything you need to become a succesful developer. As with any bootcamp, at Redwood you will get the foundation you need to effectively learn any language or framework and build your skills to become advanced in your preferred stack(s). Harrison offers great advice regarding getting your first job. He keeps it 100% real as he was responsible for hiring many developers throughout his career, and he knows what he's talking about. I'm so grateful for my time at Redwood and helping me change my life by becoming a software engineer.

Initial impression...

When I arrived for an info session at Redwood I exprected to be ushered into a room full of people for a typical hour of power point slides and a general sales pitchy type session.  Instead I was welcomed by Harrison, Redwood's Founder and Karim, Redwood's Program Director who sat me down for an individual interview which I appreciated. This allowed me to get better insight for the program and allowed me to ask questions I would've been hesitant to ask in a group setting.  The transparency was present from the beginning and reassuring when making a big decision like this.  It truly set them apart from the options in OC.

Cohort 

Got nothing but respect for everyone in my Cohort.  We all put in hard work, long hours, coded together and on most Fridays had a student podcast. Friends were made and I would be happy to work with any of my fellow RCA alum knowing they have the skills and programming thought process required to make software. 

Technologies 

My Cohort covered HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AngularJS, Git, Node, API’s (used after I understood API’s PostmarkApp, Optical Character Recognition OCR, Walmart Search API) & C# & Azure SQL Database)  I knew Harrison would not be teaching something that did not have value and man was I right. 

Things move fast in development and the technology stack that was covered was a great starting point for my foundation of knowledge. I left knowing I would need to continue to evolve over the next few months and years to come. 

Instructions 

All instructors Harrison, Billy and Taylor we’re always professional accessible at any point of my frustration or confusion and I knew that help was only one slack message, "Hey Billy, or help me.. I don’t get it. " 

In the end.. 

My personal limits were the only boundary… RCA might teach programming but they teach a skill even more valuable and that’s the ability to think like a programmer. To me, programming is a thought process and I can confirm that the RCA instructors can teach one to become a developer if the student is willing to be taught. 

After Graduation:

Updated my resume with my newly acquired software development skills and had no issues finding work with in the software industry. Happily coding most days.