Redwood Code Academy

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!

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