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/

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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Redwood Code Academy Review
Check out the review on switchup.org and on yelp.com. Just search for Red Code Academy.
My Medium Review:
https://medium.com/@brianchotisunanta/it-has-been-one-year-and-i-applied-at-over-250-developer-positions-and-i-still-dont-have-a-web-7ebdefe79c4e

Background:
My name is Brian Chotisunanta.
I attended Redwood Code Academy from March 2017 – July 2017 for both the front end and full stack classes.


Part-time front end class (No longer being offered):
Date: March 7, 2017 – May 11, 2017
Days and Time: Tues & Thur, 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Instructor: Billy Pruden (lead instructor)


Full-time full stack class:
Date: April 24, 2017 – July 14, 2017
Day and Time: Mon – Fri, 9 AM – 5 PM
Instructors: Billy Pruden (lead instructor), Harrison Spain (founder and lead instructor), and Taylor Thomas (assistant instructor who joined during the week starting on May 15, 2017).


Starting in Sept. 2016, I visited every single coding bootcamp in the LA and OC area. I was going to attend General Assembly in LA in Nov 2016 but backed out because the admissions guy kept pushing me to enroll, which I didn’t like. After the part-time front end class ended, I was thinking about going to either Coding Dojo in April/May 2017, and considered going to General Assembly again in May 2017, because I figured since Billy Pruden attended the General Assembly Web Immersive Program a year prior, and seeing how good he is as a developer, I must have been wrong about General Assembly months ago, and thought about reconsidering because I wasn’t sure what the .NET framework was.


Before reading the Review, I would like to define what defamation is to avoid legal conflicts and to prevent my review from being removed:
My review for Redwood Code Academy is not an attempt at committing defamation, specifically libel, which is written defamation.
I am citing defamation from the following source:
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/defamation-law-made-simple-29718.html


Defamation is not a crime.


To show Defamation, you need to show published, false, injurious, and unprivileged statements.

"Published" means that a third party heard or saw the statement -- that is, someone other than the person who made the statement or the person the statement was about.


A defamatory statement must be false - otherwise, it's not considered damaging. Even terribly mean or disparaging things are not defamatory if the shoe fits.


The statement must be "injurious." Since the whole point of defamation law is to take care of injuries to reputation, those suing for defamation must show how their reputations were hurt by the false statement.


The offending statement must be "unprivileged." Under some circumstances, you cannot sue someone for defamation even if they make a statement that can be proved false. 


I know Harrison Spain is going to try to have my review removed and/or threaten legal action against me.


I have to protect myself by stating what Defamation is before proceeding with my review.


All statements made by me in this review are accurate and honest.


Review
It’s quite long, so you might want to sit down and get some coffee…
Look, initially a month after the bootcamp, I wrote a very positive, good review about Redwood Code Academy. But I never posted it on CourseReport.com or SwitchUp.org because I wanted to see how things played out after attending the coding bootcamp, especially in terms of post-bootcamp support, and in gaining employment as a web developer after going here.
I have to take some responsibility because I made the choice to go here. BUT, I only went here because after speaking with Harrison in-person TWICE, I felt like this is the guy that can help me and teach me the necessary skills to get a web developer job in 2017… I was wrong… it is now June 2018 and I still don’t have a web developer job… and honestly, I’m in financial trouble because of the SkillsFund loan that was used to fund my Redwood tuition.


The Good:
I mean…
You get a lot of errors when you code, especially with JavaScript and when you start learning Angular.js and the instructor is always running around class helping everybody fix errors to get our apps working. They do help you, and they are always open to questions. It was a pretty laid back atmosphere most days. The most stressful weeks were the three project weeks because you had to build a web app with the things that you learned, even though you don’t fully understand everything that you’ve learned.
We played a lot of ping-pong. We had pizza parties, free candy bars and candy, and got a free Redwood tee-shirt, hooded sweatshirt, stickers, a water bottle, and a paper certificate (I actually disposed all of these things… as you keep reading my review you will understand why – I will be posting the video of this on my youtube channel, where I will be talking about my experience at Redwood – Stay tuned!). On the day of the final project presentation, there was lots of food and drinks.  These things are the only highlights of going to Redwood.
I did get some help with the code for a web app that I was building, in Dec 2017, a few months after the bootcamp, but it took them over two weeks to get back to me, and they only added 10-15 lines of code, to help me get my functionalities working properly.
ONE THING THAT REDWOOD IS GOOD AT:
Redwood Code Academy, specifically Harrison, is good at marketing his coding bootcamp as the go-to coding bootcamp in Orange County, CA. Redwood is claiming to be “… the Fastest Growing Orange County Coding Bootcamp” (taken from redwoodcodeacademy.com/full-stack-immersion/). Harrison is definitely good at misleading people into thinking that you will be learning current, in-demand, relevant skills, at least he did to me in 2017 and the rest of the other people that went to Redwood in 2017, when in reality, that was not the case. I mean, redwoodcodeacademy.com clearly states on its homepage:
“We make becoming a software developer a reality. Join our growing community of passionate, driven, and motivated coders. People enroll at Redwood Code Academy Orange County coding bootcamp to change their lives by learning skills that the world needs.”
Now the last sentence in this quote is definitely hypocrisy! It’s BULL****!
Basically, what I’m saying, Harrison is a master BULL****TER, Marketer, Scammer!... and he’s good at it.


The Bad:
I have to tell it like it is…


False promises, Misleading actions, and Breach of Contract:
I never received or undergone help in resume writing, online profile setup, such as LinkedIn, interview prep, mock in-person interviews, and mock phone interviews, like Harrison said we would do from Day 1. This is why I’m still struggling to this day. Let me tell you, I paid for this stuff and it never happened. I want my money back… seriously and immediately!!!
I actually had to take a resume/cover letter writing course 3 months after the bootcamp, to learn to how effective build my resume.
Redwood never followed through with everything that they said, either in-person, on redwoodcodeacademy.com, and/or on their brochure.
I am referencing the 2017 Redwood Code Academy online pdf brochure because that was the year that I attended Redwood.


The brochure can be found here:
https://redwoodcodeacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Redwood-Code-Academy-Syllabus.pdf


I mean they say in their brochure, “Your success is our success. We will do everything we can to help you meet your goals.” BULL****!
Here I am still without a developer job a year later.


Lack of Integrity, Transparency, AND Fraudulent and Misleading Statistics:
Redwood is claiming on their online pdf brochure that they “are confident that we can achieve a 95% graduate hiring rate within 120 days of graduation,” and “Our graduates are expected to receive entry level offers soon after course completion.” BULL****!


Is the graduate hiring rate correct?
NOT TRUE… BULL****!
It’s more like 95% NO HIRING RATE!


Redwood is claiming average salaries for roles in Southern California:
Full Stack Developer - $82,000
Front End Developer - $71,000
Mobile Developer - $69,000
Business Analyst - $69,000
… BULLSHIT!
What Harrison tells you at the end of the bootcamp is to expect salaries from $50,000 to $70,000 per year. The salaries listed on the brochure seem to be for experienced developers, not for coding bootcamp graduates, specifically Redwood graduates.


Negligence to review each student’s code:
Not all of my projects underwent “code reviews” to see if the coding was good. Your web application can still function, and function well, and look great, even if the code is bad, unorganized, needs refactoring, or just plain written sloppily.


Demo Day presentation lacked potential employers and recruiters:
I was disappointed that during the Demo Day: final project presentation on Wed, July 12, 2017, there were NO potential employers and recruiters, only other student’s friends and family. I was the only one that didn’t bring anyone. I was under the assumption that there was going to be company reps for job placement. This did not happen. Disappointing.


Lack of Integrity and Misleading:
After the bootcamp, as the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months… I became frustrated and disillusioned about going to Redwood because I still haven’t found work as a developer. Other students who went to this bootcamp, that don’t have developer jobs yet, can probably and most likely relate. I understood that there was no job guarantee.
BUT, I was under the assumption from Harrison that there was going to be on-going job assistance and support… There wasn’t any!
He Lied!


Here’s the thing (The Bad Continued):
You are going to learn how to code. BUT, you’re not going to learn enough to get hired as a front end developer or full-stack developer.
MEANING: you are not going to be competitive enough in the job market for developer jobs, compared to the curriculum at other coding bootcamps. Redwood never taught my class Modern JavaScript (ES6 aka ECMAScript2015) and only demoed React WITHOUT Redux (The instructor, Billy, demoed React and clearly got the example from a Udemy course).
Throughout the past couple months after attending Redwood, I have had other developers, who have professional experience, review my code. They tell me it’s not good enough to get a “junior” developer role. After hearing this from a few professionally experienced developers, I realize that the THREE PROJECTS THAT I MADE AT REDWOOD ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO GET A WEB DEVELOPER JOB. You cannot just make a simple, basic CRUD application with RESTful APIs, either through the use of a third-party API, or by building your own API in the back end of your application, with a topic that you are interested in, like Star Wars characters, and expect to get hired as a front end developer, and/or full-stack developer. There is a lot more to web applications than just CRUD and RESTful API HTTP verbs. I did not know this!


The curriculum is NOT targeted for a Full-Stack Developer position:
The term Full-Stack Developer is a marketing ploy used by a lot of coding bootcamps, such as Redwood, but they just don’t give you enough training to get you to that position.
You are not going to get a job as a Full-Stack Developer going here!
Look at the job descriptions for Full-Stack Developer on Dice, Glassdoor, Indeed, LinkedIn, Monster, ZipRecruiter, and other job sites, and you will see that the curriculum is not enough to get the job. I did not know this!
I have undergone a tremendous amount of learning months after the bootcamp to supplement the skills that I did not get while at Redwood. Why did I even pay Redwood, specifically Harrison Spain, $12,500 for leaving me with a lack of skills? 


Leaving Redwood without a full understanding of C# and the .NET framework:
Until this day, I somewhat know C#, through signing up with Treehouse.com, but I still don’t have a clue about .NET, ASP.NET, .NET Core 2.0, or any other functionality that the .NET framework provides… I don’t understand every single line in .NET because Harrison didn’t go over every single line of code in the .NET framework!!! You know what Billy’s answer was… go buy a C# and .NET course on Udemy. And these guys are claiming to be “supposedly” industry professionals? WTF!


Curriculum taught by a former Redwood Student with no Professional Experience in the tech industry:
SQL, which was taught by Taylor, who is the Head of Outcomes at Redwood, didn’t teach it very well and all I know is that you just do queries… SELECT, FROM, ORDER BY, WITHIN… that’s all I know about SQL. His lesson notes were sloppy, unorganized, and just a copy and paste of the markdown files.
Another frustration I have is that we never learned how to build a database. As of June 2018, Redwood is teaching their students MongoDB. We never learned MongoDB. They changed and updated their curriculum after my class.
Before going to Redwood, I asked Harrison if he would ever hire any of his past students like other bootcamps have done, and he said NO. He Lied. He did the exact opposite and hired Taylor (who was in his first class from Sept-Dec 2016).  You can see Taylor’s review for Redwood on CourseReport.com, dated on 12/28/2016, titled: A great experience.


How can someone teach someone how to be a web developer, if they have never worked professionally as one?
If I had known this, I would have never gone here. I was misled and misinformed = lack of integrity and transparency.


Unknown job placement statistics among students that attended Redwood:
I don’t even know if everyone from my class has a web developer job because Harrison doesn’t want to tell me how many students that attended Redwood have secured a developer job. He told me some guy from my class got a job at Microsoft. So I looked this guy up on LinkedIn and “supposedly” he works at Microsoft as a Support Engineer (which has nothing to do with web development, so I don’t think this counts). But I don’t know if this is true or not. Anyone could claim on LinkedIn that they work for “supposedly” Company XYZ. I know that a lot of students that went to Redwood don’t have developer jobs.


High Cost to attend Redwood:
I paid $12,500 to attend this coding bootcamp...$12,500…$12,500…
And NO!... this is not a typo, I actually typed out $12,500, 3x TIMES in a row to prove my point and frustration in wasting that much money. I had to get a loan to go to Redwood. Harrison financially screwed me!
I mean there were days where we played more ping pong than actually code.
I didn’t pay $12,500 to play ping-pong!!!
I paid $12,500 to learn all the necessary skills needed to secure a job as a front-end developer, full-stack developer, and/or web developer in general… but not enough was taught to get any of these jobs.


I WOULD SAY THAT I ONLY LEARNED ABOUT 20-25% OF THE SKILLS NEEDED TO BECOME A FRONT END DEVELOPER.


What is the point of going to Redwood, if Harrison tells me that I need to learn the other skills all on my own? Why did I pay Harrison $12,500, if his answer is that you need to learn it on your own? Redwood is basically saying pay them $12,500 and learn the rest through online learning platforms, such as Udemy. What!!! You have got to be F***ing kidding me!


Long Lunch Breaks:
In the beginning, lunches lasted for 1 hour and 10 mins, and towards the end of the bootcamp, increased to 1 hour and 30 mins, to 1 hour and 45 mins.


Redwood Code Academy’s website doesn’t’ use C# and .NET:
Redwoodcodeacademy.com is built with PHP and Wordpress, instead of C# and .NET. It’s very surprising that Redwood would teach a web technology, such as C# and ASP.NET, and not use it in their own website/web app.
I found out that it is so easier to build a website with Wordpress and PHP.
I really don’t know what to say about this.
Just go learn PHP and Wordpress on your own and you can get a dev job too I guess.
I’m speechless.


Here’s the thing (The Bad Continued):


Misleading Job Network:
Redwood and/or Harrison has a list of “Employer Networks” and claims that “We have an extensive employer network who have hired and are looking to hire more of our graduates.”
The companies listed on the redwoodcodeacademy.com are Cake, Glidewell Laboratories, First American, and Technossus.
Here’s what people don’t know, these four companies are Harrison’s past employers, except for Glidewell Laboratories. These companies are not going to hire you straight out of the coding bootcamp because they don’t hire junior level developers. I don’t know anyone who went to Redwood that got hired by any of these four companies. Maybe some have, but they just haven’t updated or posted their current workplace on their LinkedIn.


Here’s the truth:
Redwood states that “We are ready to take anyone from zero to hero.”
Here is the reality:
It is foolish of you to think that you can just go into this from Day 1 not knowing anything about web development (what is front end vs. back end? What is a full-stack?) and be able to pick up HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a week. You should have some experience doing these three front end technologies before going to any onsite/online coding bootcamp. I would say spend at least 3 months, really learning these three technologies, and look up what back end technologies these bootcamps are teaching and have some basic understanding of them, before going to a bootcamp.


Too much competition for junior developer jobs:
Orange County, primarily the Irvine area, and LA is filled with many, skilled Web Developers. These hiring companies don't care that you've attended a coding bootcamp. In fact, you’re not even supposed to tell these companies that Redwood is a coding bootcamp. Harrison tells you at the end of the bootcamp to not tell these companies that attended a coding bootcamp, UNLESS they ask you directly.


Why?


Because these companies (NOT ALL THOUGH) are VERY SKEPTICAL about people who attended a coding bootcamp. Once I bring this up or if they ask me this on my phone interviews, the interview immediately goes downhill from there. A lot of these companies want someone who has 3-5+ years (this is mostly mid-senior level developer jobs) of web development experience with proven “professional experience” NOT “academic experience.”


Other Redwood Students CourseReport.com and SwitchUp.org reviews:
I don’t understand how almost all the reviews on the coding bootcamp review sites are giving Redwood 5-stars for job assistance, yet these students failed to talk about what Redwood actually did for them in terms of job assistance, and what company they currently work for or got a job in thanks to Redwood. A lot of the Redwood reviews were written really fast, contain large amounts of grammar and punctuation errors, and just hype up the school WITHOUT providing details.
This should be a big red flag to prospective students.




Post-Bootcamp:


Two attempts to check-in with me only after the bootcamp, but not from Harrison:
After the bootcamp, I only received a phone call TWICE, by Taylor Thomas, the Head of Outcomes, at Redwood, and this was within two weeks after the bootcamp ended, around the first week of August 2017 and another phone call approximately a month after the bootcamp ended on July 14, 2017.
The first time Taylor, the Head of Outcomes called me, he left a message, because I didn’t answer my phone (I forgot why but I must have been busy or maybe in an area with low cell reception). I returned the call and left a message back but he didn't answer his phone.
The second time that Taylor called me, he didn’t leave a message, so I HAD NO IDEA IT WAS HIM. I had to look back at my call logs to figure it out.
What is really disappointing about this, is that, why doesn’t Harrison (the founder and lead instructor at Redwood) himself make the phones calls to past students to follow up on their job progress? The answer must be is because he doesn’t care or is lazy to do so. F***ing BULL****!!! Straight Up!


A lot of Redwood students are in my SAME SITUATION:
Not every single student that attended Redwood Code Academy has gotten a developer job. Even with what they are teaching in the front end part-time class (no longer being taught) is not enough to get a front end developer job, because they don’t’ teach you Modern JavaScript and React/Redux, and you still have to know the back end, you still have to know the full-stack… read the job descriptions from these companies that are looking for front end developers if you don’t believe me and you will see that I am telling the truth.
Harrison has made over $637,500 since he started Redwood Code Academy, so I don’t feel bad for him. He ruined me financially. I will hold him liable:
Redwood had the following number of students in the FULL-TIME CLASS ONLY (This doesn’t include the PART-TIME STUDENT CLASS numbers)


Sept-Dec 2016:
9 Students


Jan-Apr 2017:
3 Students


Apr-Jul 2017:
7 Students


Jul-Oct 2017:
15 Students


Nov 2017-Jan 2018:
17 Students


Total Full-Time Students from Sept 2016 to Jan 2018:
9+3+7+15+17 = 51 Students


51 Students x $12,500 cost of tuition = $637,500
(This doesn’t include the money Redwood made from the part-time classes)


Sought out advice from other competing bootcamps:
Beginning on May 2018, I started visiting other coding bootcamps to ask them for help because I was getting NO HELP from Harrison and from the instructors at Redwood. I told these other coding bootcamps that I went to Redwood and it has been almost a year and I didn’t have a job yet. Redwood and Harrison left me to hang dry. I was shocked to learn that for the past 3-4 months, several students from Redwood have approached these same coding bootcamps, that I visited, stating the same exact thing I was, that we went to Redwood and it’s been months and we still don’t have a job. I am not surprised!
So I brought this up to Harrison, in-person on Wed, June 6, 2018, and he simply says that they are bull****ting me, and not to listen to them. Harrison even confirmed to me a lot of students that went to Redwood are in the same situation as me. This wouldn’t and shouldn’t have happened if Redwood was really teaching the right stuff. Harrison, I think I know and the rest of the other Redwood students know, who the REAL BULL****TER is!


Job Assistance:
The question that pops into my head is,
What Job Assistance?
There is no Job Assistance. It’s more like Job Instruction or Job Tips. I was never given any instruction on how to write a well-written cover letter and resume. For the first 3 months post-bootcamp, I was submitting a not-so-good resume, which I thought was good because I threw in all the keywords, but I did not get any attention from companies or recruiters from it. All I got was rejections and no replies.
I had to take a resume writing course (that I paid for), 3 months after the bootcamp, so I could learn how to write my resume from the beginning, and get it noticed by the employers and recruiters resume software systems ATS.


Currently, I have submitted my resume and applications to over 250+ Developer jobs.


Applying for developer positions:
If you have applied to developer jobs, you should have noticed that there really is no such thing as a Junior Full Stack Developer position. The term “Junior” doesn’t really exist for these job descriptions. It also applies to a majority of Front End Developer positions as well. That’s why you have to actually click on every single job posting and read the descriptions. And this takes time, hours. To put into perspective, if you do this and actually apply to jobs you think you qualify for and want, 10 jobs can actually take up 7 hours of your time!


No Help and Response from Harrison:
On April 15 – 16, 2018, I contacted Harrison via Slack, for help in getting an interview with First American, because I applied for the Associate Software Developer position there, and figured he would have “connections”, since he used to work here years ago and that’s what he is claiming on redwoodcodeacademy.com.
Even while at the bootcamp last year, he told me, and the rest of the class, if there is any company that you are interested in to let him know so that he can make the connection. Now, did he make the connection for me (And this is the only time that I’ve asked him to make a connection for me with a company since the bootcamp)… NO!... In fact, he never responded and blew me off. This is what I’m saying… WHAT JOB ASSISTANCE??…


Coding-wise…
var jobAssistance = false;
var jobReadiness = null;


TO SUM THINGS UP:
Are you going to learn how to code at Redwood Code Academy?
Yes
But is the curriculum competitive enough, compared to other coding bootcamps, for you to get a job as Full-Stack, Front End, or even Web Developer in the tech industry?
NO
Does Redwood teach enough coding for you to have the necessary skills needed to be employable?
Personally for me… NO!!!
Do some students who went here, have a job, or have gotten a job while, or immediately after the bootcamp?
I DON’T KNOW… really I have no idea! Harrison doesn’t keep track of where students go, or at least Harrison doesn’t publicly post it on their site.
I have asked Harrison for this valuable information and he responded very aggressively and defensively towards me on Slack on June 21, 2018, and vaguely in-person on Wed, June 6, 2018. This is why I had to write my insulting email to Taylor, and got banned from Redwood for life.
And those students that have gotten jobs probably have connections or know someone from the company.


The Real Question:
When Redwood started in Sept 2016, why didn’t Harrison teach Modern JavaScript, also known as ES6 (ECMAScript2015), since it came about in June 2015? He had over a year to prepare.
It’s probably because Harrison and the other instructors didn’t know ES6 at the start and probably didn’t learn it until late 2017. Redwood knew that many, and I mean many developer jobs needed ES6 JavaScript, yet failed, was unable, was unknowledgeable, or just didn’t want to teach Modern JavaScript. By doing so, Redwood under-qualified a lot of students, including myself, from learning the essential skills needed to get developer jobs in 2017 and 2018.
I even asked Harrison, in-person, on Wed, June 6, 2018, after 4 PM at Redwood, because I was in the Irvine area, how many students have gotten jobs? He told me some students have got jobs and this is not a scame. Some? Scam? So I said how many? He said he couldn’t tell me the exact number. I don’t understand why he cannot even say how many students or give a percentage of the number of students who have gotten developer jobs, out of the 80+ students that have attended Redwood. This to me is sketchy, deceptive, and malicious.
I actually asked Harrison in-person, at Redwood on Fri, June 15, 2018, between 2:00-2:30 PM, before going to my interview at Technossus, which he managed to secure, but failed to inform them (more like unintentionally left out the info) that I’m at the level of a junior developer, knowing since he has worked there as the Director, that Technossus only hires senior developers. I asked him what he told them about me, and he just said why does it matter in a condescending way. He just said I managed to sidestep the phone interview for you, so just be grateful, show up, and interview.
I asked for interview prep 2-days prior and he wouldn’t help me out. If this is his idea of job assistance, it is very lacking and non-existent. Like I said earlier, What Job Assistance? He told me that he taught my class ES6, which is completely false.
I was wondering why no past students from Redwood who have spent months and almost a year like me without work, haven’t written Harrison a review below 5-stars, and I think I know why. It is because he possibly sends them an email and threatens to take legal action against them. He cannot take legal action against someone calling him out for his false, deceptive business practices.


Harrison comes across as a very dishonest person. I just don’t trust him.


Harrison doesn’t want to answer how many students have gotten jobs because only a very few students from Redwood have gotten jobs (Redwood has like a 95% NO HIRING RATE!). He doesn’t want to be held liable. He doesn’t want to help any of his students get jobs. His job network is his past employers that only hire senior developers, not junior developers. He has no connections or refuses to share them with the students.
Those very few students that are on LinkedIn, that have an association with Redwood Code Academy, that have dev jobs ALREADY have experience in the tech industry, either professionally or academically. Some of these students have Computer Science degrees from Cal State Fullerton or Cal Poly Pomona. Some of them have actually worked as developers prior to attending Redwood. I have no idea why these students would go here if they already have jobs in the tech industry as developers. Probably to switch over to web development and learn C# and .Net I guess.
Harrison is trying to convince companies to hire junior developers instead of senior developers. Who is he to tell these companies how to conduct their way of business? This makes no sense!


Does Harrison not realize that people go to coding bootcamps in order to learn modern, current, in-demand skills, to become a web developer… right?
Yet he is not teaching those things.
Harrison is teaching legacy developer libraries and frameworks:
jQuery from 2006 and Angular.js from 2010, Agile/Scrum from the 1990’s instead of the current TDD software cycle. He should have started teaching React/Redux and/or Angular 2 and above, when he started Redwood, instead of Angular.js. He misled a lot of students like myself, walking into his school excited and naive about web development, into thinking that what he was teaching was current, modern, in-demand developer technologies, so he could fill in the seats in his classroom.


Notice on the Redwood brochure and even on their website, there is no mention of MODERN JAVASCRIPT!


I helped him fill in one of those seats and helped provide income for his family. Harrison was teaching the wrong stuff and he doesn’t want to admit it because of liabilities.


Banned from Redwood:
Harrison and his only staff member, Taylor, clearly do not care about the outcome of their students. They just like to collect thousands of thousands of dollars from naïve, prospective students. I felt like they gave me a big
F*** You,
so I had no choice but to send them an insulting email with a lot of
F-bombs.
Now I am banned from Redwood Code Academy, in-person and on their Slack account. Harrison has stated that he will be recording my emails for possible legal reasons. What legal reasons? For sending an insulting email?


I’m the one that should be taking legal action against Harrison and Redwood Code Academy.


I did not pay $12,500 to support Harrison’s lifestyle and Taylor’s vaping/smoking lifestyle (This is some of the things I said in the insulting email). Clearly, Redwood doesn’t’ have a drug-testing policy for its employees.
You cannot take legal action against anyone for insulting someone. I think Harrison just wanted to stop “supposedly” helping me, and he is using the insulting email, as an excuse and legal threat against me to do so.




Last words:


My view of Harrison:
I don’t think Harrison never really liked me. I was just there because I was there. I just think that he just let me in his coding bootcamp because he was desperate for people like me to sign up. I helped him fill in a seat for his bootcamp. That seat cost $12,500.


He just wanted to make money. When he met me, he saw “easy money.”


Harrison, you just don’t get it or give a F***! I didn’t pay you $12,500 to go to your school and get a useless paper certificate with the wrong date of completion on it.


By the way, getting a certificate from Redwood or any other coding bootcamp is irrelevant. It’s the skills that these bootcamps are teaching, that enable you to get a dev job, is what makes it relevant.


The way I see it, I hired Harrison for his “services”, which is to teach me relevant, in-demand skills to become a proficient web developer, so that I can get a web developer job in 2017. Harrison didn’t provide that “service” because he didn’t teach current, relevant, in-demand skills. Harrison and Redwood Code Academy was teaching our class legacy, out-dated technology libraries, and frameworks.


They were teaching SHIT!... Shit that will not get you a job in 2017 and forward.


I have never had any great conversations with Harrison. All of our conversations involved SHIT that we said to each other just to be nice, or it seems like. It was made very obvious to me especially after the bootcamp ended.


Harrison has never called me once to follow up with me, at all, about whether or not I have a dev job or not.


He never provided feedback on what I should put on my resume (remember I had to take a resume writing class after the bootcamp!), and never looked at my LinkedIn profile. Harrison has never even endorsed me for my developer skills on LinkedIn. All these things say a lot about the guy.


It says he doesn’t give a F*** about whether or not you succeed in getting a job or not, he is just there to collect the cash.


So when I showed up at Redwood on Wed, June 6, 2018, at around 4 PM, frustrated and pissed off, what kind of reaction does he expect from me. A happy and friendly interaction?


You have got to be F***ing kidding me!


The guy robbed me of $12,500, and it has been a year, I still don’t have a dev job. He taught our class Angular.js in April 2017 but knew that it was no longer in demand.
Why do you think I had to send that insulting email to the Head of Outcomes?
I probably should have sent that email directly to Harrison himself.


Harrison is a pathological liar. I don’t trust him. At this point, I’m disgusted by the guy.


Better onsite coding bootcamp options:
If I could go to another coding bootcamp again, I would have chosen to attend General Assembly or Coding Dojo in the LA area. Even LearningFuze would be an option (a lot of their students have jobs in the OC area). Sabio, I am not sure about them. Orange County Code School, is like the Hack Reactor of Orange County, it is very difficult to get accepted into, which is why they have a 100% Graduate Hiring Rate.


The illusion that you could code:
Redwood gives you the illusion that you could code well. But in reality, that is not the case. And I’m sure other students have realized that probably sooner than I did. They didn’t teach Fundamental JavaScript well, and they don’t spend any time on Vanilla JavaScript, which is very important. Modern JavaScript (ES6) and React/Redux, was not covered, which are highly in demand and very important for front end developer jobs in 2018.


Zero Outcomes and 0% job placement for front end classes:
No one student from the part-time front end classes has a front end developer job. You cannot get a front end position just knowing HTML, CSS, Some JavaScript, jQuery, and Angular.js, without Vanilla JavaScript or React/Redux in 2018. I don’t know what they were thinking in 2017. Like I said… BULL****!


Teaching the wrong framework and lack of skillset:
Why did they even still teach Angular.js in 2017 when they knew that it was no longer in demand? Because that’s all the instructors knew at the time and they didn’t know Modern JavaScript and React/Redux…obviously. BULL****!


Online learning platforms are a better option than attending Redwood:
I would have just signed up for the Udacity’s Nanodegree or Treehouse’s TechDegree programs that cost $200/month and saved myself thousands of dollars on the price of going to Redwood, hundreds of dollars on gasoline and maintenance cost for my car, and most importantly, not wasted almost 4 months of my life learning outdated, “supposedly” best practices in web development. I would find another onsite or even online coding bootcamp to go to in the Orange County/LA Area in Southern California.


Modern JavaScript is essential to getting a developer job in 2017 and for the future:
Notice on the Redwood brochure and even on their website, there is no mention of MODERN JAVASCRIPT!
The reason why a lot of students, that attended Redwood in 2017, don’t have a developer job is because Redwood didn’t teach Modern JavaScript (ES6 and above). Before you can learn and understand React/Redux and Angular 2 (and above), you need to be familiar with Modern JavaScript. Even Vanilla JavaScript wasn’t taught and emphasized.
Just because you can build a CRUD application with Angular.js, doesn’t’ mean that you know JavaScript.
Billy is telling me in an email that Redwood taught us everything that we need to get the job. Well Billy, if


```
function isRedwoodTeachingCurrentSkills(){
let ES6;
let modernJavaScript;
let reactRedux;
    let curriculum = ES6 = modernJavaScript = reactRedux = false;
    if (curriculum != false) {
        return `Redwood students have a developer job`;
    } else {
        return `Harrison is a F***ing Liar. Redwood is NOT teaching ES6, ModernJavaScript, and React/Redux; ES6 = ${ES6}, Modern JavaScript = ${modernJavaScript}, and React/Redux = ${reactRedux}`;
    }
}
isRedwoodTeachingCurrentSkills();
// "Harrison is a F***ing Liar. Redwood is NOT teaching ES6, ModernJavaScript, and React/Redux; ES6 = false, Modern JavaScript = false, and React/Redux = false"
```


why are a lot of Redwood Students without jobs? BULL****! And you know it. You cannot get a job as a Front End Developer in 2017 and 2018 without knowing Modern JavaScript.
Apparently, the policy at Redwood is to teach you some fundamentals and you have to LEARN THE REST ON YOUR OWN, either through Udemy courses (like Billy suggest) or through other resources. Well, the REST THAT YOU NEED TO LEARN is what you NEED TO GET THE DEVELOPER JOB, like I said earlier in my review. So does Redwood actually teach you enough code to be job ready immediately?
HELL NO!!!


Other Redwood Students:
If you have attended Redwood and it has been over 6 months and you have applied to over 100 developer jobs, and still don’t have a job, and if you want to connect, contact me on LinkedIn (I am not on the Redwood Slack channel because Harrison banned me from Redwood).


You still want to go to Redwood:
Despite reading my review and you still decide to go to Redwood, my question to you is 

WHY? 

Like I said, there are other bootcamps and options out there. I would not recommend anyone go to Redwood Code Academy.
Do not go to this coding bootcamp!!!... It is F***ing BULL****!


Most importantly, if Harrison thinks that I’m just going to let him walk away with my $12,500 tuition, and be left thousands of dollars in debt by his BULL**** coding school, he is wrong. Harrison claims in the Redwood contract that Redwood Code Academy is part of the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education. This is NOT TRUE. I am going to report Redwood Code Academy and Harrison Spain to the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (https://www.bppe.ca.gov/).


To sum up my experience at Redwood in several one-word words:
Bull****!


Disappointed!


Dishonest!


Expensive!


F***!


Misinforming!


Misleading!


… I could keep going but I’ve already made my point!




 

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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.
 

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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!

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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 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

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