Rithm School

Being a fresh university graduate with a degree in psychology and basic programming skills, I was curious how much I would grow in Rithm's full-stack web development boot camp. After landing a job in the tech industry a month after graduating, especially during these times, I believe it's safe to say that Rithm allowed me to prosper.

I really appreciated the intimate class size which allowed our vastly knowledgeable instructors to give detailed feedback and mentoring. The pacing of the curriculum was perfect, and the assessments given each weekend really solidified what I learned throughout each week. The internship opportunity they give towards the end of the cohort accurately emulates an agile methodology workflow that is common in the tech industry, and due to this, I felt very prepared and comfortable in the pacing of my current job.

Rithm also has a very close and strong alumni network to help with the job hunt after graduating. Some of these alums also participate in a mentorship program every cohort to provide advice and accountability to the students. Overall, you can just tell that instructors, alums, and other staff members are really for you and want to see you succeed. They will help in any way they can, and you can feel rest assured in them.

Rithm truly puts their students' well-being and success to the forefront, and it truly shows in the way they guide students through the initial application process to the final job search (special shoutout to our Career Services Director, Sophie Leroi, for her genuine interest and effort in making the job hunt as painless as possible!!). The curriculum itself was rigorous and compact but comprehensive. It was certainly not easy to commit to the full-time schedule + weekend assignments, but Rithm does an amazing job in alleviating burnout and providing plenty of time for a life outside of the program, which not many bootcamps do!! The program places a lot of emphasis on pair programming and first-hand industry experience to build your portfolio. My instructors, Elie and Kadeem, were exceptional at breaking down complex topics and preparing us for real-world applications of those concepts. Overall, I left the program feeling largely prepared for the job market, and thanks to Sophie's help, my cohort's help, and my Rithm mentor's help, I landed a position within 3 months :) Be prepared to really put in the work once you hit the market, however -- commit to a daily schedule, figure out how to best market yourself, and apply as much as possible! If you'd like to learn more about my experience at Rithm, feel free to reach out on LinkedIn.

Rithm was an amazing experience! I have a classical music background and a decade in the service industry. I was nervous to make a career transition into tech because I felt far removed from the industry. When I researched programs I knew I wanted a small class size and high student:teacher ratio. Rithm delivered and more. Even though it was completely remote, lectures still felt personal and engaging. I made a lot of friends through our pair programming sessions. Most of my cohort is still in regular contact and I actually got my job through a cohort-friend referral. As a queer and trans person I felt like I could show up as my whole authentic self and be seen and supported. I knew my instructors cared and were committed to seeing me thrive.

The tech stack is excellent and the curriculum is challenging but rewarding. As others mentioned, they're always evaluating and making updates so they're current with the industry. Rithm also does an excellent job teaching non-technical skills like collaboration, communicating errors and problems, and continued self-study. You graduate ready to work across the full stack.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it: the job search is rough right now. Sophie (director of career services) offers tailored guidance for what best suits you and your needs. There's not a one-size-fits-all solution to getting a job in the current climate, so having someone who can give varied recommendations and support is invaluable. I couldn't have done it alone, and I'm so grateful to Rithm's staff, alumni, and my cohort-mates for their assistance and encouragement.

If you're unsure, I highly recommend Rithm's free courses available on their website as well as their free private prep classes. You'll get a great feel for the instruction style and Rithm's values.

I highly recommend Rithm School. While it may not be as well known as schools like Hack Reactor or App Academy, I have absolutely no doubt that I made the right decision with Rithm. 
The curriculum is second to none. You learn the latest technologies and the curriculum is changing all the time in order to make sure you’re learning the latest and greatest. 
All of the teachers are incredible. My lead instructor was Joel, and he is one of the best educators I’ve ever had the privilege to learn from. It genuinely seems like he knows or has connections to every big name in tech today. Every staff member felt dedicated to seeing me succeed and always took the time to make sure every question I had was fully answered. 
I also felt like the small class size helped not only helped with one on one instructor time, but also with building meaningful relationships with all of my classmates. We still talk on a weekly basis even two months out from class, and I expect we’ll continue to stay in contact and help each other through our careers. 
The alumni network is fantastic too. Plenty of talented people front all types of companies were going out of their way to help me navigate the job application and interviewing process. Once I’m settled in my new role (landed a job 6 weeks from graduating) I look forward to returning the favor to new Rithm grads. 
I’m so grateful for all of the support and quality education I’ve received via Rithm School and I can’t imagine making the big career change that I did without them. 

Deciding to choose Rithm School was one of the best decisions I've ever made. The curriculum, company projects & job search support provided me the knowledge, techniques & tools to launch a successful software engineering career. But what makes Rithm stand out above the rest is the small class sizes and 1-on-1 support from experienced industry professionals. Through daily code reviews, I not only learned how to code, but also how to write clean, testable code applicable to the industry. This helped me standout during the interview process and ultimately helped me find a job that matched my personal goals. Other highlights include:

Curriculum: Tailored, holistic curriculum covering Javascript/Python for front-end and back-end development, SQL, HTML & CSS that reflects current industry standards.
Company Projects:  Provides a unique opportunity to drop into a large professional codebase, understand Git workflow, run daily stand-ups etc. This is similar to starting a new job and provides great content for interviews.
Job Search Support: Our career coach and instructors helped craft responses and refine techniques to succeed in the technical/behavioral interviews. During my job placement, I had a very high success rate to reach the final round interviews once I was able to talk to the recruiter.
Instructors: If you are a curious cat, look no further. Rithm instructors have a wealth of experience & knowledge for you to learn from. All of my questions and curiosities were answered during lecture, code reviews and 1-on-1 advisory sessions. Plus, they actually care about your wellbeing and create a positive learning environment.

Making a career change is always a risky & challenging feat. With Rithm School's support, I not only reached my goals, but also enjoyed every step of the way.

When I first started thinking about switching careers to become a software engineer, I looked around for resources to start learning, and stumbled across Rithm’s free courses. I loved that the entire curriculum was available and free, and that I could see where it was going and why they were teaching things. I didn’t understand what any of it was, but as someone with a Masters in Education, I really appreciated that the thought was clearly put into it and that it was all available. I sent a couple of friends who did know a few things about software engineering to check it out, and they confirmed that it was good. So, in January of 2021, I started putting in a few hours a day on the material.
I wasn’t completely sold on the bootcamp route, but as I continued through the free curriculum, I felt like I could feel how funny and down-to-earth these people were, and authenticity and human connection is really important to me. The fact that I could feel it seeping out of the webpage was a really cool thing. So, I started considering bootcamps seriously, with an eye toward Rithm, and I started reading all these Switchup and Course Report reviews that you’re now desperately reading, too, trying to see if all the nice things people say about Rithm could possibly be true. 
Well, they are. 
What finally convinced me? I connected with another alum that used to be a music teacher (if she could do it, omg, then I probably could, too!) and talked her ear off (thank you, Katie G., you are a godsend), and then I attended every free Rithm offering I could. Every couple of weeks they’ll offer a free one-night class on an intro to intermediate JavaScript topic, or they run something called Private Prep, which is a four-night class that’s meant to give you a taste of being a Rithm student and prepare you for the interview. I signed up for every single one, even the ones I was too green to understand, just so I could see the teaching style and meet them. 
Elie, the co-founder, and Joel, the VP of Education taught most of the courses I attended, and they were incredible. It was very clear to me that the personalities that I sensed behind the free course material were just as friendly and hilarious in-person as they were in print. Both were very encouraging and helpful, and I thought - if these are the people teaching at Rithm, I have no reason not to go. 
So, I continued studying 3ish hours a day, and interviewed in April. And failed. I got the right answers, but I was s l o w. So much slower than I thought. So, I studied for three more weeks, got an extra help session from Nate, and then got through a ton of questions at my next interview and passed. 
The class itself was the most intense thing I’ve ever done, and as someone who’s used to excelling at pretty much everything, I got my butt handed to me over and over again. There were points that I felt like I should drop out, but Joel assured me repeatedly that I was doing great, and that I had nothing to worry about and to trust the process. That’s a phrase you’ll hear a lot at Rithm. It’s so hard to do, but they are 100% correct. Trust them, they know what they’re doing and if you’re in trouble, they’ll let you know and help you. I’ve never been in a learning environment that supportive, and it was the thing that got me through. 
Speaking of supportive, another magical thing about Rithm is the people they let in - my cohort was full of smart, curious, driven, folks from a wide variety of backgrounds and we cheered each other on and encouraged each other. Three months later, we have a standing meeting to get together once a week and check in, and it’s great to still be able to support each other and catch up even though our time at Rithm is over. 
So here’s the part where I drop the other shoe…I believe in the quality and mission of Rithm so much, that when they offered me a job on graduation day, I took it without hesitation. Having worked with them every day, all day, for four solid months, I knew that these were humans that would make me happy to be around. And it’s true. Working here is the first job I’ve ever had where I truly look forward to what I’m going to accomplish every day, and get excited to go to work. The behind-the-scenes is just as good as what’s presented to the students, and that’s a rare thing for a workplace to be. As a Software Engineer/Community & Partnerships Manager, I get to do engineering work on Rithm’s websites and systems, and I get to connect with other people and organizations to help get the word out about Rithm and make our student and alum experience even better. Attending Rithm is literally one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Feel free to find me online and ask questions - I’m always happy to chat!

I have virtually nothing but great things to say about Rithm. I did a fair amount of research ahead of time trying to figure out the best program to choose. In the end I was deciding between Hack Reactor, Rithm, and Flatiron and (after a lengthy pros and cons list) chose Rithm because of its class size, language/frameworks it focused on, company projects, and alumni I spoke to.

Having worked my way through the program as the second "pandemic" cohort (so we were virtual), I can say I could't be happier with my decision. Between the level of instruction, preparedness of the lectures, order in which material is presented, and small class sizes (mine was very small given the start of the pandemic at ~12 I believe), I was able to understand the material presented, easily pursue my areas of confusion, and even dive into material beyond the curriculum. The instructors truly care about whether you understand the material and are willing to spending time with you on an individual basis or provide detailed feedback on weekend projects. The community is also fantastic during and after the program. Though I have not attended other bootcamps, I would easily recommend this bootcamp to anyone interested in participating in a bootcamp.

Things to consider that could possibly change my glowing recommendation:

• They will cold call on you during class - this was fantastic to make sure I was engaged but obviously not for everyone
• It is more expensive than other bootcamps - given their financial options, this still feels like a no brainer but something to consider
• I loved the two instructors I had, but I spent very little time with the other instructors - I've heard they have quite a high bar for instructors and have heard nothing but good things from other alum
• I spent time in class (~9am - ~5pm), time outside of class reviewing (probably another ~2 - 4 hours of the day), and then ~10 hours between Saturday and Sunday working on our weekend project/reviewing material. I think this is true in any bootcamp but fully committing to the 4 month program ultimately makes the most of the program

About Me: I attended Rithm school from 02/2021 - 06/2021. I left a career that I felt unfulfilled with as a biochemist in a very-well recognized biotech company in the Bay Area, California. Great work but just a bad fit in the role left me a bit sour, burnt out and looking for a change. I graduated university in 2014 with a B.S. in Biochemistry with great grades at an unranked and unrecognized private college.  I worked there at the biotech for a few years and did a couple of online programs (M.S. Analytics and a B.S. in computer science online) while working to see if I liked it. Please don't let the degrees fool you - if I were to do this all over again, I would study for the entrance exam to Rithm School 100 times over getting the degrees. However, I will admit that I do think they landed me interviews easier than others when blasting them out.

I felt I still lacked the confidence, portfolio, and network to succeed so I shopped around for a few boot camps. I also pinged a former coworker alumnus (she didn't know me but I reached out on LinkedIn - highly recommend doing this) and she attended a boot camp and highly recommended to pursue a boot camp. She became a Data Scientist from a lab job so I definitely heeded her advice.

Choosing The Bootcamp: I considered HackReactor, Rithm School, and AppAcademy - the top programs in SF. I didn't like the tech stack taught at AppAcademy so I applied to Rithm School and got in! I was stoked! I also applied to HackReactor because their tuition was cheaper and a shorter program but it felt really impersonal compared to Rithm. I came from a corporate impersonal environment so I didn't like that. Maybe it's true that I was coddled in private school haha. Oh well. I didn't put much effort into studying and didn't get in there but was completely happy with my choice in Rithm.

The Program: Their tech stack is solid, the curriculum is awesome and relevant (Python + Javascript + React, etc. - check out their home page as it changes - https://www.rithmschool.com/ ), and I was so impressed with the caliber of my cohort. Everyone was smart, hardworking, and a pleasure to work with. A little bit of trouble sorting out some internet issues but overall that was the only issue. A major plus is you work on a real live codebase. Not one that you can write yourself but one you get to sift through - work with other engineers, fix tickets, communicate asynchronously, with GitHub version control, etc. It REALLY builds your confidence as an engineer. It also gives you interesting things to talk about during an interview. This is the major technical differentiator for the boot camp vs the other ones.

The only con I would say is that it is a little expensive and being remote was a bit weird BUT (and a big but) financing is very easy and the salaries after are well worth it. DO IT!

Post BootCamp and Salary Stuff: I actually had some money left over and was still pretty burnt out from my prior career so I spent almost 2 months in Mexico clubbing... ehemm..... I mean studying for interviews. I also finished my comp sci capstone and spoke a bunch of Spanish there so don't judge me too hard! After bombing an interview, flew back to the US and started actually studying for interviews. I started applying and getting a lot of traction about a month after I really started the process. I sent about 50 apps a day and had it streamlined to a little over an hour for that. HOWEVER, THE HIGHEST YIELD APPROACH IS LOOKING FOR ROLES AT YOUR FRIENDS/FAMILIES COMPANIES SEEING IF A ROLE IS AVAILABLE AND IF THEY WILL REFER YOU. Also, the interviews from these are waaay easier.

Salary + Offers: Guesstimating all the numbers here except the offers....over 2.5 months from actually trying to get interview -  post Mexico - to starting the new job: 15+ phones screens, 6 tech interviews, 2 offers: 1) 120k salary at a startup in SF - full stack software engineer - weak benefits, high stress, low probability of product success, 2 weeks vacation, equity grant but is meaningless unless there's a liquidation event and high valuation which from funding rounds didn't paint a rosy picture. 2) 101k + a bunch of other benefits at a biotech. I took the biotech as it came with tons of vacation for American standards, equity grant up front (30k after a year), bonus (target at 10-12k), was established, less working hours, I felt I would love the work, etc. 

TLDR: Take The Leap And Do Rithm, Study A Lot, Get Some Killer Offers and Most of all.... be Happy With Your New Career Where You Build Cool Stuff!!!

I had a fantastic experience at Rithm School (Class of July 2021) and would highly recommend for anyone who is considering the bootcamp path to becoming a Software Engineer.

Key highlights:

• Company Projects: This by far is what makes Rithm stands out from its competitors. We were able to get exposure to working in a live codebase to fix bugs, create features, practicing scrum based development. When trying to get your 1st job after a bootcamp, I was able to talk about this experience in every interview and it caught the attention of every interviewer I had.

• Curriculum + Instruction: The curriculum is up-to-date with the changing dynamics, best practices, and technologies of the dev community. My class size was 11 and we had 2 instructors + a teaching assistant which made the student to teacher ratio great. It was easy to ask questions during projects and get a thorough code reviews and feedback. I continue to use what I learned in these code review sessions in my day to day job to practice good coding habits/skills.

• Job Support + Community: What also makes this program standout is its dedicated 2 weeks to recruiting prep. One week of technical prep such as white boarding, speaking on technical topics, etc. The 2nd week on behavioral such as Linkedin profiles, cold emailing, networking with engineers in the field, panels etc. I found these very helpful in getting me ready for the post bootcamp application cycle in making the most of my time and reach the end goal of getting competitive offers in the industry. In addition, Rithm as an alumni mentorship program and I had a great mentor who met with me to do practice problems, talk through the application highs and lows and just provide support during a stressful time. This is in addition to our career coach from the school who met with us every 2 weeks after the program to check-in on our application process. The community looks out for each other and I can speak to that personally as I ended up getting my offer through a referral from a classmate.

In conclusion, Rithm is longer and more expensive than most bootcamps out there, but it is well worth the extra investment for a life changing decision. 

Rithm School was amazing! I loved the small class sizes, and their curriculum is solid. I’m a fan of how they try to keep up with industry standards with the materials they teach. The structure of having a lecture in the morning, lab right before lunch, another lecture after lunch, and another lab in the late afternoon was super effective in helping me learn and retain everything well. My one critique is that not all the instructors are on the same level, and your mileage may vary for code review sessions and quality of lectures. Also, I really appreciate having the company projects, and it’s one of their biggest selling points that distinguish them from other bootcamps, but I will say that the quality of the project also varies depending on which one you get. Overall, it was a great program and it definitely prepared me well (especially with React) and landed me an awesome role after 3 months. What you put into it is what you get, and you gotta take accountability and ownership of your learning experience.  

The admissions process at Rithm School gives you an idea of how the classes will be.  First, you solve a couple easy/medium questions and once you pass, you schedule a pair programming interview with an instructor.  Yes, it's really just you and one of the instructors pair programming (and not you with 20 other people in a Zoom breakout).  They'll challenge you and ask you how you can make your code better, or if there's another way to solve what you just solved.  They also give specific feedback on what you could improve.  This process is pretty indicative of what you can expect from Rithm - a challenge, but with someone guiding and helping you along the way.

The days are typically broken into a morning lecture & lab, then a corresponding afternoon lecture & lab.  Mornings go from 9-12 and afternoon goes from 1-6.  Expect to be working on labs with a partner for a majority of the time, with instructor code reviews every couple of sections.  If you get stuck, you're free to call in an instructor at any time, although you should spend 20-30 minutes trying to figure it out with your partner.  Code reviews are essential because you'll be able to get immediate feedback on what you just wrote, so it's appreciated that these are baked into the lab time!  Even though classes end at 6, you should either study & solidify the day's lectures or if you have it down, take a look at tomorrow's lecture notes to get ahead.  I spent 3-4 hours every night studying the day's lectures & practicing related problems on my own.

One of the best things about Rithm is the weekend assessments.  I know, I knoooow, no one likes weekend homework!  But these are thoughtfully created to help you solidify the concepts learned that week, on your own (vs with a lab partner).  Expect to take anywhere from 6-12 hours (avg ~8hr for me) to complete these.  They give you a prompt and some base requirements, but a lot of it is up to you as a developer to decide what you think is the best solution.  You have the whole weekend to submit it and an instructor will go over your answers and code.  THIS FEEDBACK IS INVALUABLE!  You can really tell the instructors read your code, line-by-line, and give you feedback on how to make your code more readable or performant.  This really helped me sharpen my skills as a developer and I cannot thank the instructors enough for taking the time to do this!!!

Another great thing about Rithm is the internship.  I don't know how much having an internship helped on my resume, but it doesn't hurt!  I mostly saw the internship as a glimpse into the future as a developer.  Yes, we're thrown into a production code base.  No, we don't know what any of this code does, BUT that's ok and expected.  Working on a bug for 3 days made me realize that the world of software development isn't always making cool and flashy apps, sometimes it can be a drag and would I be ok with that?  (Answer: yes!) It helped me set expectations of what real work could potentially look like and emotionally prepared me for my future career.

One amazing thing about Rithm that I think is underrated is the career coaching portion.  Sure, we're not learning to code anymore, but the career coach Zach prepared a very thoughtful set of lectures that really helped me, both in the job search and in general life lessons.  He starts with reviewing your resume (I had to revise 3 times) and opens the career coaching week with how to deal with rejection, finding out what you value, and how to look for jobs that align with your values.  Throughout the career coaching week, Zach had hands-on activities for us to practice/do.  However, DON'T expect Zach to look for jobs to throw your way - looking for jobs is entirely your responsibility, but Zach will always be there to help answer any questions you have, even past the career coaching week.

The single best thing about Rithm is the instructors.  They're super knowledgable, patient, and willing to answer any question you have about the curriculum.  You're matched with an instructor as your advisor, who you meet with every other week.  These are mostly student-led so don't expect them to have an agenda for the meeting - unless you do!  I used this time to air out my anxiety about my career change and sometimes asked them to re-teach concepts I didn't understand or ask for advice on how to improve XYZ.  Beyond that, during the lecture and lab time, they are entirely focused on your class and can take the time to explain things slowly or otherwise in a way that allows students to really grasp the lesson.  You can definitely tell they are there to help you succeed, so never be shy about asking questions!  Also, maybe unpopular opinion: I like that they cold call during lectures to make sure you understand previous concepts and/or the material that was just taught.  It reinforces what you should know but there's no shame or embarrassment if you don't know.  (I literally answered a question with: "I have no idea" and the instructor was like "That's fine")

Attending Rithm School was one of the best decisions of my life! Like all bootcamps, it wasn't 100% perfect, but to me, the drawbacks are completely outweighed by the benefits. Here is an honest review of Rithm based on my (REMOTE) experience:
Environment/Culture: Pros: 

• SUPER collaborative and tons of pair programming experience. It really helped me improve my technical communication, and it was a great way to connect with my classmates. 
• I thought that the cold calling during lectures would be scary, but the instructors make you feel comfortable so even if you don't know the answer to a question it's not a big deal.
• Everyone in my cohort was supportive, friendly, and a delight to work with. Even after graduation, many of us stay in touch regularly through weekly Zoom meet-ups. We all want to help each other succeed!
• Zoom + Slack === a near-perfect virtual experience.
• Rithm has a strict "anti-burnout" culture, unlike the big bootcamps like Codesmith, Hack Reactor, App Academy, etc. In my opinion, this made learning much more efficient and enjoyable. 

Cons:

• Although the remote environment was as good as I think it could've been, it would've been extra awesome to attend Rithm in person!

Instructors:
Pros:

• The instructors are super knowledgeable and friendly - I always felt comfortable asking questions. Due to the small class size, they were usually very quick to hop into our Zoom breakout rooms when we needed help.
• You get assigned one instructor to meet with 1-on-1 every other week. This is a great opportunity to get your code reviewed in more detail, do mock coding interviews, or just chat about random stuff.  

Cons

• Some instructors are more prepared to help with certain topics than others, so the time it takes you to get "un-stuck" may differ depending on who joins your breakout room.

Curriculum:
Pros:

• The curriculum was extremely up-to-date and relevant, and I loved the emphasis on testing, documentation, security, and fundamentals of how the web works.
• If you find yourself with extra time, there are PLENTY of "further study" materials that will push you to learn and practice with more advanced topics.
• By the end, you'll have built tons of mini projects and a few big ones! Project-based learning is highly useful for solidifying topics that you cover in lectures.

Cons:

• They would probably need an extra week or two to fit this in, but more of a focus on CSS/accessibility or DSA would have been nice.
• "What you put in is what you get out". You do have to meet the minimum requirement of passing the weekend assignments, but you can also learn way more if you put in extra time to ask instructors more questions and/or do the optional "further study". This isn't really a drawback, but just something to keep in mind - knowledge won't just be handed to you, you have to put in the work to make it the best experience possible.

Company projects:
Pros:

• Company projects set Rithm apart from all of the other bootcamps. No other bootcamp that I've heard of does this. It is basically a mini-internship. 
• You get to work on a team to build some cool things in a complex codebase! By the end I had great real-world experience for my resume and I was a much more confident engineer. 

Cons:

• Instructors are busy during this time preparing for the upcoming cohorts, etc., so they are sometimes spread pretty thin depending on the size of the team (my team was on the larger side with 6 people) and the complexity of the project. It usually wasn't an issue, but sometimes it took a while to get help when I was stuck.
• Some of the company projects aren't with actual companies - one of the projects in my cohort was an open-source project. Still a really cool experience, but just a bit misleading.

Outcomes and Job Support:
Pros:

• I got a job at a company I'm really excited about only 3 weeks after graduating! Although a big part of it was luck (I was referred by a friend in my cohort), I owe a lot of my success in the interviews to Zach (the career coach) who helped me prepare for interviewing and negotiation, and the whole Rithm experience for training me to be a skillful and confident software engineer!
• After graduating, Zach was always available to answer questions and meet with us regularly. He even found time during his busy day to meet with me right before I had a scary negotiation phone call! You can tell that he loves his job and is passionate about helping us find HIGH QUALITY jobs.
• It's been a little over a month since graduation and at least 5 out of the 16 people in my cohort have gotten job offers already! (4 have accepted offers). 1 person went to grad school, so it's more like 5/15 people.
• The alumni network keeps growing and is filled with supportive and successful engineers that want to help Rithm grads land great jobs! 

Cons:

• I can't really think of any significant areas of improvement here! If anything, perhaps a few more mock technical interviews would have been useful.

I will also add that they regularly had us fill out feedback surveys. Rithm is continuously improving their curriculum and experience based on the feedback - they truly care about providing you with the best learning experience possible!
 
TLDR: If you're debating between Rithm and the other top bootcamps, choose Rithm for the small class sizes, excellent curriculum, company projects, and overall great learning environment and culture!! You won't regret it.
 

Initially, I didn't know what to expect going into this program but the Instructors are great and caring. I had classmates from different cultures and backgrounds that all succeeded throughout my time as a student. There were three active instructors in my cohort of about 15 or so students. Having three instructors on call helped a lot. I thought the lectures were very concise and clear with a lot of time for paired programming. The career coach definitely takes time to make sure you're on track after graduation and Is always of resource as someone who can give advice, help and any information you need well beyond graduation. The staff here are most definitely one of the most caring educators I've had in my life and would recommend this program without a doubt. 

I loved my experience at Rithm School. My favorite aspects of Rithm were the company projects, the staff, and the career search module.

Company projects were mini-internships where we were able to touch a working codebase. We had been building projects throughout the program, but this was where you had to put it all together. I honestly had no idea what to expect work to look like when first going to boot camp. Company projects gave me real-world experience that I could speak of in job interviews. The only change I would make would be adding another week. I'm not as outgoing as some of the others in my cohort, so I was timid in putting myself out there and running with the opportunity.

I went to Rithm just before COVID and Shelter in Place. I got to sample in-person and online classes. What I wanted was an in-person experience. The staff had stressed the importance of the teacher-student interaction when I was applying. When our class went online, the instructors did everything they could to make themselves more accessible. What I did miss the most from in-person instruction was overhearing someone else in the computer lab with the same problem and then teaming up to figure it out. The instructors would still pop in on our breakout rooms during remote instruction, but it wasn't quite the same. 

Rithm closes the program with a week of career search. I needed the extra help in transitioning my non-technical resume to something I can send to tech companies. This week helped me process a lot of imposter syndrome around my resume and tying together the skills and experiences gained at Rithm.

Rithm is an incredible bootcamp and I had a great experience! The material is very relevant and constantly updating to keep up with the technology trends in the industry. I always felt the work we were doing or the concepts we were learning were highly practical tools that we would need in the job, and now that I'm in the workforce, I see just how true that is.

The work is definitely challenging, but the guidance from the instructors was excellent and the small cohort size made it very easy to ask questions and get hands on assistance with any concept, or project. Frankly, I sought out Rithm because I knew it would push me, and that's exactly what I got.

Leaving the bootcamp, I felt fully prepared for both the interview and job search process along with whatever job would come my way. Zach (the Career Coach) did a great job of getting us ready for the job search and was always available for questions and assistance after the bootcamp ended.

Overall, Rithm School is a great community of instructors, students, and alumni who genuinely care about getting you prepared for and educated in this industry.

I thought after reading so many glowing reviews that Rithm wouldn't live up to the hype, but it really is as incredible as others say! I received an offer at my dream company, The New York Times, 3 weeks after graduating from Rithm, which I truly don't think would have happened if I hadn't attended Rithm (side note: this was really fast and I do think part of it was definitely luck, but part of it was also attending a bootcamp that gave me the skills and confidence to succeed in an interview just a few weeks after graduating). Below is a quick summary of my experience:

Why I chose Rithm (& would chose it again!!):

• Small class size & collaborative culture - my class was 10 people with 2 instructors and 1 TA. With pair programming, cold calls, and a great classroom atmosphere, I was able to feel really close to everyone in the program even though it was all remote. Everyone at Rithm is  talented and motivated while being caring and pushing others to grow as developers. I was amazed by how often my peers would share tips throughout the program or job openings after the program, and it really felt like everyone wanted each other to succeed as much as themselves. 
• INCREDIBLE instructors - I studied engineering at a good university and have been taught by great professors, but somehow Elie & Joel (& Brit as the TA) exceeded my previous experiences. They were patient, funny, caring, and so talented, and I would join the program again just to be taught by them. The instructors at Rithm are deeply invested in your learning and growth and even check-up on you once the program ends. 
• Curriculum - In addition to what you read online about the curriculum (Python & JS, company projects, etc), I thought Rithm also did a great job of stressing what it means to be a professional developer. During code reviews, the instructors would not only comment on the logic of our code but also on documentation and testing. There is also cold-calling during lectures which terrified me at first, but has improved my ability to speak on technical topics. When I was interviewing for jobs, this proved incredibly useful and has given me confidence starting my first full-time job.
• Job support - Two weeks at Rithm are dedicated to interviewing and applying for jobs, and I never felt alone in the job search process. Zach (the career coach) is so helpful throughout the entire process, from figuring out when to start applying to reading over your negotiation email. 

In summary, Rithm is expensive but worth it. I can't think of a negative aspect to write in this review, and I think that says something about how Rithm really has it figured out! 

 If you are looking for a coding bootcamp to attend, I would honestly just stop searching now and choose Rithm School. I was once a prospective bootcamp student and did extensive research on every bootcamp in the San Francisco Bay Area and I ended up choosing Rithm due to its small class sizes, well paced curriculum, and most importantly: its company projects. 

As many of us know, small class sizes means that you are able to get more individualized attention from each instructor in the course. It makes it extremely easy to ask questions and get a response. Many other bootcamps have very large class sizes making it so that when you have questions or need help while you are working, it takes a ridiculous amount of time to get the help you need. If you truly want to take advantage of your instructors, then small class sizes are essential. Rithm paces their curriculum in a way that makes the material digestible instead of having to “drink water from a fire hose”. While Rithm may be longer than other bootcamps in terms of its duration, this added length really helps with truly understanding the material without having to feel like you are being rushed. The longer length also makes it so that you are able to get more support from your instructors over a longer period of time.

The most important feature of Rithm is definitely the company projects. I want you to picture company projects kind of like mini-internships. These company projects give you real world experience working on a real live codebase. I cannot stress how much this gives you a leg up compared to all the other bootcamp graduates as you will leave Rithm with actual real world experience that you can then use in your job search.

After the main meat of the course, Rithm also prepares you for the job search through their awesome career coach, Zach. Zach does an extremely good job of making sure that you are well equipped for the job search ahead by discussing interview best practices, job search best practices, and even self-care best practices. He will literally teach you how to hack the job search and make yourself stand out in a vast ocean of applications. 

If you are looking for a coding bootcamp, Rithm School is definitely the way to go. However, I also want to preface this by saying that attending a coding bootcamp requires a lot of commitment and work on your end as well. Do not assume that going into any bootcamp will automatically land you a software engineering job with minimal work on your part. If you are willing to fully commit a few months of your life to learning, then Rithm School will definitely be a life changing experience for you. 

I really didn't imagine beforehand what a great experience I'd have at Rithm.

What to expect (I think a lot of this applies to most Bootcamps):

• You won't be made into an expert, or magically transform into an amazing developer in 4 months.
• You'll be given context on a bunch of relevant web technologies, all while improving your skills as a coder. It's basically accelerated learning where you should come out with many of the tools necessary to get up to speed when you do land a job.
• Around 40 hours per week in class (more if you want to do extra), and 6-9 hours on the weekends doing assessments (I spent more to go deeper into the topics). This is something I appreciated about Rithm - the Bootcamp is longer, but the pace is more manageable compared to some others.
• Days start with (the numbers could be a little off) ~60-90 minutes of lecture, then 60-90 minutes of pair programming with a random classmate until lunch. 60-90 more minutes of lecture, then pair programming with the same partner until you're ready to go home.
• When you get out, depending on where you want to apply you could find yourself behind on Data Structures and Algorithms (only spend a week on it). A lot of companies are not heavy on this stuff, but just something to keep in mind as it can take some time to get up to speed.
• You won't be dropped once you graduate, they have office hours every week where you can go get job hunt related or technical advice, and they'll continue to follow-up with you until you get a job!

What I loved most about Rithm:

• Classmates! I was really impressed with their ability to find so many smart, friendly and motivated people.
• Class size - 6:1 student-instructor ratio means you can almost always get help when you need it, and the fact that you're pair programming makes this ratio effectively 3:1 for most of the day.
• Company projects - this is a standout feature of Rithm, and owes itself in part to the fact that the class size is small enough that they're able to find enough companies willing to let you work on their codebase. It's a one month internship where you work in 6 person agile teams and put to practice everything you learned during the Bootcamp!
• Instructors - all awesome people who really seem to care about your success. You'll have a bi-weekly one-on-one where you can discuss your assessments, talk about how it's going, ask questions, or generally just make sure things are heading in the right direction. I'm giving them 4 stars here because, while they were most definitely a very positive part of the whole experience, there were some (infrequent) times when I felt like they couldn't help and I had to figure things out on my own. It really didn't make a difference in the end though.
• Feedback loop - they frequently ask for feedback, and it really feels like they're rapidly evolving the course and making it better even during your time there.
• The curriculum felt very well put together, well paced, and at a good level of depth for you to understand it without being too simplistic.
• As you may have noticed from the other reviews, there is a large and growing community of people whose experiences were similar to my own, who would love to tell you their experiences, give you advice, or maybe even become a referral.

Other things of note:

• They gave us mentors! A former student now working as an engineer who you can meet regularly with to ask questions or get advice.
• They had people come to speak with us and provide advice at the end of the bootcamp. This includes two companies, one of which gave us free interviews and hired 3 of my classmates, and another who offered to skip us past the screening process, and is the company I currently work at!
• There's a slack channel where you can frequently find job opportunities post-graduation, including roles opening up at former grads' companies.
• One of the underrated things about Bootcamps as opposed to self study is that you instantly get a team of people who can keep you motivated, practice interviewing, answer questions, share advice and generally make the whole job hunt process a lot more manageable.

In short, Rithm school is the best. 

Previous reviews already point out why Rithm is a great Bootcamp. So, I would like to emphasize a couple of points that deserve more attention.

1. Incredible instructors and a career coach

Elie, Joel, and Tim taught my cohort. Not only they're knowledgeable, but also they're incredibly passionate about teaching and the industry. They were always approachable and they always focused on important fundamentals, tips, and tricks that you can not learn from an online course. They were huge for me to build a strong foundation to start my journey as a software engineer. I really do miss their classes because they are amazing at explaining difficult concepts in a succinct manner. Seriously, my only regret after the Bootcamp is not bugging them more. If you are going to join Rithm school, pick their brain and ask as many questions as possible because they will always have answers for you and sometimes even if they don't, they would go out of their ways to get those answers for you. Also, Zach is the best career coach you can ask for. When you finish your Bootcamp, you are not done. You are just starting and the hard part begins. Job search. However, Zach is always there for you and does his best to help you. Having Zach to rely on, ask questions, and get help from was huge for me during my job search. I can not thank him enough.
2) StudentsThrough interviewing many students, Rithm school not only accepts quality students to each cohort but also Rithm always emphasizes the importance of respect and teamwork.Thus, during the Bootcamp, I was able to learn a lot not only from the instructors but also from the students in my cohort. They were motivated, smart, and personable. I was confident that even if after the Bootcamp, those students will do great and I was excited to grow as a developer together with this group. I was able to become great friends with them and we still reach out to each other. Another thing to note was how helpful the Rithm community was. Whenever I reached out to different alumni, they were always willing to help and I can not thank them enough as well.
So in conclusion, go to Rithm if you are willing to work and stay motivated. Rithm school is a place where the more you put in the more you get out.

Before I get into everything else, I'll lead with my overall review, which is that I would highly Rithm to anyone willing to put in the upfront work it takes to prepare for the program. Once you're there, the instructors do everything they can to ensure that you are successful there.

Before Rithm, I spent the first 2.5 years of my professional career in brand strategy consulting. I realized that my favorite part of my job was learning how the companies and products I was branding actually worked, which sparked a renewed interest in engineering and specifically programming. My exposure to coding before the boot camp was fairly minimal - I had taken two mathematical programming courses in college but had no experience with Javascript before taking their free online courses (their curriculum is open source).

When I first started doing research into boot camps, I had narrowed it down to App Academy and Hack Reactor because those are the ones I had heard of. Then a friend told me about Rithm, and it was everything I wanted: smaller class sizes (capped at 18 so you can get to know your cohort well), instructors with industry and teaching experience (i.e., it's not somebody that just graduated the boot camp teaching you), a full-stack curriculum that covered multiple languages (Javascript and Python), a focus on work-life balance to prevent burnout (other boot camps tout their demanding curriculum requiring 80+hour weeks), real-world experience (there's a 3-week internship towards the end with a start up), and job support (the last 2 weeks of the program are dedicated to practicing behavioral and technical interviews). So I decided Rithm was my top choice, though I had read it could be pretty selective since, unlike other boot camps, they do all their filtering upfront. So instead of doing what Hack Reactor does and accepting most people and letting them drop out themselves when they can't keep up with the material, they do a good job of making sure everyone has the same fundamentals down before starting the program.

Originally, I was planning on slowly working through some of their online courses (starting with their Javascript Fundamentals course) and then eventually applying in 6-8 months. I ended up liking their curriculum so much that I decided pretty soon that I wanted to apply much earlier. The first step in the application process is setting up a conversation with the Director of Admissions. She'll direct you to a set of ~50 practice problems and a few courses from their website you should complete before interviewing (the Fundamentals course I mentioned above plus the first three sections of Javascript Intermediate). Once you complete those, you can set up an interview, which will be a whiteboarding style interview (for COVID, this would be a screen share). From there, they'll get back to you within a few days to let you know if you got into this cohort or if there are areas you need to work on before applying again (you can interview up to two more times, but the first time you have to wait 6 weeks, the second time a few months).

So all in all, it took me a little over 3 months to study, work through the problem set, apply, and get into Rithm (was working through this material after work). Once I got in, there were 80-120 hours of additional prep work (a few additional courses plus a few small projects and a personal website). I completed most of this in a two week period after I quit my job before I started the program). I joined their March 2020 cohort, and we had a glorious 2 weeks together in person before the shelter in place order went into effect in SF. I wish we had had more time together, but we all worked together to adapt. It was new for everyone, and the instructors quickly figured out the tech to emulate the in-class experience as much as possible.

The three main differences between the COVID zoom classroom format vs. the in-person format were:
1) When we were in person, there was this room we'd go to for labs in the morning and afternoon and the instructors would do walkthroughs to check in on people as they were working. Once we switched to online, it was harder for them to sense that a pair was struggling since they can't see us in the breakout rooms, but what they started doing was just popping into our zoom breakout rooms to check in and that was helpful.
2) When you're in person, you can also see when other pairs are struggling and can often overhear that they're working through the same issue you are, so you can just join their group for some brainstorming, or at the very least you can commiserate together and know that you're not alone - it's hard material! In the breakout rooms, you can commiserate with your partner, but you're somewhat removed from that environment where you can hear other people struggling. What our cohort had to do to adapt is we had to start being more vulnerable over our slack channel during labs, like "hey, we're really struggling with X - has anybody else been struggling with that too?". And slowly we transitioned to being more communicative over slack to keep up the cohort's sense of community.
3) In person, there were happy hours and game nights every so often where you could hang out with your cohort and other cohorts. We, unfortunately, didn't get to do this before we left, but we started organizing zoom game nights and happy hours on Friday afternoons to try to continue getting to know each other. That ended up creating a good foundation for us to continue supporting one another after graduation - our cohort continued to have a weekly stand up and happy hour where we could check in on one another during the job search.

With all that said, I would highly recommend Rithm School. Everything that I mentioned above about why I chose them in the first place was exactly what I experienced at the boot camp - high-quality instruction from people who have a ton of experience, knowledge, and passion for teaching, getting to learn multiple languages and some of the most relevant frameworks and libraries,  internship experience, and job support from the end of the program throughout your job search. They also have technical and job support office hours weekly that you can drop in all throughout your job search (and beyond - people who already have jobs will drop in to ask questions about things that stumped them at work too). 

During my internship, I was able to work out a lot of my insecurities and imposter syndrome so that by the time I started my new job, it didn't feel so scary, and I felt relatively comfortable within 2 weeks of starting. I started softly recruiting 2 weeks before graduation and got a job 5 weeks after graduation. I'm really happy at my new job - I'm a Full Stack Engineer at a pet health start up - and I owe much of that to Rithm for preparing me so well.

Before joining Rithm, I was a restaurant manager. I had absolutely zero technical background. Now I am a backend engineer at one of cloud native database company. Rithm school made this switch possible! There are so many bootcamp options but I will tell you why you have to choose Rithm school.

1. Curriculum
Rithm school teach full stack web development. They teach frontend development in Javascript and backend development in Javascript and Python. Which are pretty similar with other bootcamp. However, MAJOR DIFFERENCE is that they teach not only practical knowledge but also fundamental concepts behind the practical knowledge. This makes students to adapt new technologies and language easier and effectively. They also spend quite some time on CS fundamental and data structure which are often neglected by the other bootcamp. It is very possible that you have to do your interview or new job with unfamiliar language and technologies. The combination of practical knowledge and fundamental concepts that Rithm school teach you will definitely help to adapt them much more effectively.

2. Class size
Rithm school cohort is very small. My cohort was only 11 students. And we had 2 instructors and a lab instructor. Bootcamp moves very fast. We were introduced new concepts and technologies every day. This can be overwhelming and hard to catch up if you fall behind. However, thank to the RIthm small class size, we were able to get personal help from instructors and lab instructor one on one. This is very very variable advantage that Rithm school can offer you. You will never be left behind in Rithm school.

3. Instructors
Knowing technologies and languages and teaching them are totally different skill set. Rithm school's instructors are teachers as well as engineers. They are very passionate about teaching and helping students and trained to teach. This makes huge different how much you can learn from their lectures. They really care about students. Time during bootcamp can be stressful, but instructors at Rithm will definitely help you to get through that.

4. Support
Rithm school supports students many ways. They support you on technically and emotionally. Whenever you need support during bootcamp and job search, they are there to help you.

At the end of days, you as student have to put effort and work to learn. But with Rithm school, you can learn everything you need to know in order to start new career as software engineer.

I highly recommend Rithm school.

I recently completed the full-time immersive program at Rithm and strongly endorse the bootcamp. As most of the other reviews have positively note, Rithm places a critical emphasis on student learning. Small class sizes are tremendous and the low student-to-teacher ratio gave us all plenty of one-on-one time to ask directed questions and ensure understanding of the day's lecture or exercise. Additionally, instructors often stayed late with students and were easily accessible if needed.

Choosing a bootcamp wasn't a decision I took lightly. I attended info sessions, interviewed, and researched all of the top programs in SF. Larger programs (not be named) seemed to be operating a business model of churning out students--this is especially true where students from a prior cohort (often only a couple months of finishing the program themselves) were tapped to teach the incoming class. This was a redline for me. I'm happy to report that the Rithm instructors each have years of instruction and job experience as software engineers. 

What happened to me? I leveraged the program's curriculum and my product background to get a techical product management role at Hulu. 

Again, I strongly recommend the Rithm program. Comprehensive curriculum with quality instructors who care about your learning.  Get in the Rithm!

 

Read the reviews posted by others. Rithm school is as good (and maybe even better) than they say.

Rithm focuses on small class sizes.  They teach the newest technologies.  As part of their curriculum, they also feature 'company projects' - this sets them apart from other bootcamps.

I was able to land a job as a Engineer a few short months after I attended Rithm.

If I could do it all over again, I would choose Rithm in a heartbeat.

If you've researched Rithm School as much as I had across Course Report, SwitchUp and Yelp, you probably had the same questions I did.  Let me put your mind at ease; no these reviews are not from bots, yes they are all posted by real graduates, and yes Rithm School is just that amazing!  I can only reiterate on all the advantages that make Rithm stand out that have been hammered in by so many reviews below:

1. Company Projects: In terms of the post-grad job search, this matters - a lot.  Having real experience in a live production codebase that is magnitudes larger than personal apps and small projects counts for so much in the eyes of recruiters and engineering teams.  Most entry-level engineering roles involve less of creating things from scratch and more of going into an existing codebase blind, learning and navigating the code structure, and making tweaks and changes to improve the final product in a way that complements the existing methodology.  Being able to put this experience in your resume, and more importantly talk it up during interviews, puts you light-years ahead of most self-taught curriculums.

2. Instructor Quality: While company projects help to get your foot in the door for a new job, it's really the learning and retention that keep you there and allow you to thrive in your career.  The instructors at Rithm are all top-notch in their knowledge of technical concepts, working methodology, and modern topics in the engineering industry. However, it's really their focus and experience as educators that set them apart from those at other bootcamps.  They continuously consider and tweak the material and teaching styles to ensure that each student comprehends the most relevant portions of each concept, and at the very least has an avenue to pursue further learning.  They genuinely want each person to succeed in their own personal goals, and will work alongside them to help navigate that path to success. That also means they are willing to call out areas that you may need improvement on, or if you're going down an irrelevant, tangential path. They're also hilarious.

3. Small Class Size:  Class sizes generally range from 12-18 students, a far cry from the 30+ you'll find at other bootcamps.  The high teacher-to-student ratio allows for more dedicated time for each student to ask questions, receive more help, and pursue advanced topics if desired.  You'll also get closer to your classmates than you would expect as you struggle and bond together. The alumni network at Rithm is ever-growing, and genuinely looks out for one another.

These are the big three stand-out features I felt really distinguishes Rithm School from other bootcamps.  Other aspects that are also high-quality are their focus on pair programming and learning collaboration, their late-stage and post-grad guidance and connections for job-searching, and a truly social and welcoming environment to build your network and friendships.

Absolutely attend one of their many free evening meetups just to experience their teaching style, talk to the instructors, and ask a million detailed questions of every concern you might have.  Reach out to myself or the many Rithm alumni that will be happy and excited to talk to you about their experiences. And do that with any other bootcamp you're considering so you can make the best decision for yourself.  Transitioning careers is never easy, and while Rithm School will provide you with the best tools and mindset for making that change, in the end it will be up to you to push for what you want to achieve

This review is not short! But I wrote the novel I wish I could have read when I was gathering data on which boot camp to enroll in.

 

A little of my background/coding journey: Prior to enrolling in Rithm school, I was a music teacher and band director in San Francisco for 3 years. I had no prior experience coding. I spent many hours scouring the internet looking for others with non-traditional backgrounds being successful after a coding boot camp. I failed the Hack Reactor interview twice, I failed the Rithm school interview twice, completed First Step Coding, and finally passed my third try at the Rithm school interview. However, I was the first in my class to get hired as a software engineer, just two weeks after graduation. The skills Rithm school taught me have allowed me to survive in thrive in my new role!

 

PSA for any boot camp - do not expect to be spoon-fed a job offer, just as having a college degree does not guarantee you a job in your field of study. I frame this review as “for 24k, will Rithm school efficiently teach you skills that set you up for success for a career in software engineering?” tl;dr is YES.

 

Rithm school is professional and transparent from end to end. It is very hip nowadays to say “everyone can learn to code,” and some bootcamps, unfortunately, have a business model based on “everyone can pay to learn to code”. A lucrative career in a job market that isn’t going anywhere is a sweet dream to sell. Some bootcamps I interviewed at were more than happy to accept me on the sole basis that I could kinda write a for loop, as long as I could foot the bill. Rithm school does NOT give off this vibe. They are clear on the educational objectives of their program as well as expectations for students. The top two things I was willing to shell out 24K for was the opportunity to add a highly marketable skill to my existing skill set and the internship to work on the codebase of a real-life company.

 

I felt supported ramping up to a career pivot by Rithm school prior to even enrolling. Their material and exercises that are free to access online proved to be an excellent source for me as I began my self-study during my teaching career. They offer free in-person evening classes, which I was able to attend while working full time to get a sense of the instructors, their teaching style, and the Rithm space in FiDi. Angelina was thorough in answering my many questions about the program. The work and time that the people at Rithm put into these components were miles beyond anything that other boot camps I was considering demonstrated.

 

The interview process helped me refine the objectives of my self-study. Having a set of Javascript “toy” problems to complete before the technical interview was really helpful. Additionally, the instructor Matt went out of his way to give me specific feedback to improve my skills for my next Rithm interview attempt.

 

Small cohort size was a huge part of my choosing Rithm school. I had toured Hack Reactor (since acquired by Galvanize) and was immediately put off by the 80+ students per lecture. I was horrified by the Hack Reactor practice of throwing a pillow microphone to any student who wanted to ask a question during the lecture. I am not a shy person, but I know the way I learn new material best is to ask lots of good questions. My cohort had 12 students, including myself. I felt SO so comfortable raising my hand to ask a clarifying question. My instructors Matt and Micheal never shot me down and took the time to answer. My quality of learning would have suffered if I didn’t have the intimate learning environment Rithm provides.

 

My instructors Matt and Michael were stellar. There was never a time where I felt the “uuuuuuuh what’s next” - I’ve seen many a teacher - myself included- fall into this, and I appreciated the professionalism that Matt and Michael showed up with every day. I feel fortunate that my personality and learning style meshed well with their personalities and teaching style. It’s always tricky when it comes to teacher preferences, as everyone responds differently to different personalities and teaching styles. Any instructor you have at Rithm will give you a quality experience, but I highly recommend dropping in a free evening class to get a feel of each instructors’ style. Matt was my assigned advisor, who I was able to meet with in a 1:1 every other week. This individualized attention, among many other things,  is what I was willing to pay half my teacher salary for. From a pedagogical standpoint, getting a teacher’s undivided attention and support is invaluable to learning. I utilized this time to go over concepts I was having trouble with, battle imposter syndrome, and get my resume and cover letter critiqued.

 

The first 12 weeks of the program are what people usually think when they think “coding bootcamp”- learning many concepts in a short period of time. However, Rithm has struck the balance of lecture time and hands-on learning to accelerate your understanding. Yeah, you could sit in your house in the mornings and evenings and hack through a course on Treehouse/Udacity etc, but having experienced instructors to guide you through the nuts and bolts towards a tangible lesson objective is so powerful. If you are a band nerd/orch dork like me, it will feel like one of those multi-day high school band festivals, where you work your butt off for hours every day, but the infectious energy from your peers keeps you going. As a former teacher, I appreciate the organization and though they put into their curriculum. I had access to a google doc that detailed hour by hour what material and exercises we would be completed in the coming weeks. I had access to the lecture notes the night before, so I could read it then, take notes on it in the morning, hear it in lecture, and practice it in the lab. This focussed structure and organization allowed me to thrive and learn quickly.

 

The labs were a good balance of lecture vs hands on learning time (“I do, we do, you do” teaching model). None of the labs felt like “busy work”, they lined up well with the concepts that were taught in the lecture. Written instructions for labs well written and organized - a clear goal for each one. There was a good starting code provided, clear and organized steps for the exercises. Sprints were multi-day labs working on a larger project, which could be featured in your portfolio. Having these jumping off points to build my portfolio was invaluable.

 

Sidenote: I LOVED the space available to students. The office was clean, great couches and study lap things. I especially loved the whiteboard tables and walls! Writing out material in an organized way is a huge part of my learning style, I used the whiteboard tables daily in the morning to go over the lecture notes for the day. The lecture halls have excellent projectors that make it easy to follow along with the material. There are nice office chairs to sit in both the lecture halls and labs, with proper whiteboard tables. I mention this because I noticed that both Hackbright and Hack Reactor had students sit on the floor to take notes, and I couldn’t fathom being able to focus in that environment.

 

Company projects were perhaps the biggest deciding factor in choosing Rithm school. I knew that coming from a nontraditional background  I was going to need something tangible to add to my resume. I know other boot camps have you build things for a portfolio, and that pales in comparison to Rithm’s offering to be able to work on a real-life company code base. For three weeks I was able to work on team of 6 of my classmates to contribute in a meaningful way to a company codebase. The experience of having morning standup (checking in with the team), learning a git workflow, writing tests, and adjusting to a large codebase were all factors that gave me a huge leg up in the job hunt.

 

In terms of job hunting support, I will reiterate what I mentioned before - I went in knowing I was paying 24k for individual attention, a small cohort size, a well-organized curriculum, the office space, and company projects. I 100% received what I expected for the price. I knew that I would need to be proactive in my job search and to take what skills they taught me and run like mad. That being said, Rithm still does provide some basic job hunting support - resume work, time to work on your portfolio and website, mock interviews. It is more passive support than aggressive support. I am happy to hear that they have recently hired a career coach, who advises students to use many of the strategies that I myself used to get hired two weeks after I graduated.

 

Having worked full time as a full-stack engineer for nearly two months now, I can say that Rithm truly prepared me well for my role. Although my company's stack is in Ruby/Ruby on Rails, the solid tenants of professional programming that the instructors instilled in me serve me every day. From test-driven development to pair programming to problem-solving, I feel prepared for whatever my job throws at me. This is an incredible feeling, especially thinking about how I was a k-8 music and band teacher just a year ago.

 

The Rithm alumni network is an amazing resource to be able to tap into. When I was scouring for reviews about a year ago, the number of alumni was smaller, and I am thrilled to see it continue to grow. A fellow Rithm alumn who was also a teacher in a former career works just down the street from my office, and we communicate near daily our experiences in our job.

 

I love talking about my experience at Rithm school as well as job hunting strategies. Please feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn if you would like to learn more about my experience at Rithm! I am happy to help the next person into this exciting career from a non-traditional background.

 

In short, Rithm was a truly incredible educational experience that allowed me to transition from my previous job as a high school math teacher to a full-fledged software engineer.  It’s hard to write something that hasn’t been already covered in depth below, but let me reiterate on two main points that make Rithm unique: the learning experience at Rithm, and the company projects.

Rithm is an amazing place to learn full stack web development. The small class sizes make asking questions or getting feedback on your code a breeze. The lectures and exercises are of high quality and carefully structured to build on each other. They also constantly incorporate feedback into their lectures to make them more effective. My last note on this are the incredible teachers. I know what it looks like when a teacher is there just for a paycheck, and when a teacher is passionate about teaching and working with students. Without a doubt, the teachers at Rithm love teaching, and want to see you succeed.

The company projects are one of the highlights of being at Rithm. Not only does it give you a feel of actually working on production level code, but it differentiates you from the other bootcamp grads out there (and there are a lot). It also gives you something concrete to talk about with recruiters and other engineers. I talked about my company project in every single interview. It showed how I could take project specs, break them down, work with others and deliver under a deadline. Which is what you do every day as an engineer.

I was very fortunate in my job search and received two job offers in two months after graduating. I couldn’t have done it without Rithm and can’t recommend the school enough.

My name is Hinesh and I attended Rithm as part of the 8th cohort. I was looking at some other bootcamps but a friend had attended Rithm and recommended it and from the first day, I could see why. The classes sizes are small and access to instructors is always there. 

The instructors at Rithm truly care about teaching and it shows. They are also extremely talented developers themselves. The curriculum is extremely well thought out and does a good job in balancing breadth and depth. They also really take feedback well and make changes to the curriculum for the better based on it. 

The internship experience is also incredible for 4 weeks and differentiates Rithm. You get to work with a large, real codebase and complete tasks which gives you an insight into life in software development after the bootcamp. 

If you put in the time and work hard you will succeed at Rithm because the environment, from the class size to the instructors to the job support after the program, will ensure that you do. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made and would make it again in a heartbeat. 

In short, my return was certainly worth the cost of admission - especially with the deferred tuition model. In four months, I went from not knowing a lick of JavaScript, to getting my Pull Requests accepted on production codebases with React Native advanced patterns. Technical expertise isn't the only thing I got from Rithm. They also taught me invaluable interprersonal skills as well as strategies for navigating the jobseeking process. I even got a job within the first few weeks of graduating by using one of my Rithm connections.

 

In more depth, the small class sizes made the instructors incredibly available - all of whom are skilled software engineers. With their varied expertise, I could get all of my questions addressed - no matter how deep I went down the rabbit hole. If I wanted to know why 'with' blocks function the way they do in Python, I could ask the guy who contributed to the Python source code. If I wanted to know about NP-Complete and how that relates to Big O, I could ask the one with a Mathematics pHD. Even if I wanted to know why "{ } + [ ]" returned 0 but "[ ] + { }" returned "[object Object]" in JavaScript, I could get my questions answered.

 

Their curriculum is always being updated on multiple levels. By asking for data from recent graduates about their job hunting experience, they can focus on relevant technologies while relegating less important topics to footnotes or Further Study. Additionally, every lecture has an option for feedback, and they definitely pay attention; the Callback Pattern exercise was substantially rewritten after they processed our feedback.

 

Their support continues even after graduation. They keep office hours every week specifically for alumni and assist in fine tuning the job search for best results. They're really looking out for their students' best interests.

 

Lastly, they understand the importance of work-life balance. The assessments are just challenging enough to solidify the lessons learned throughout the week. Even though the core requirements are designed to be completed in a reasonable amount of time, reach goals are included as well for the ambitious student. They also throw parties for significant curriculum achievements - such as completing your first sprint! There's often a group of people staying around after class to play a few board games. Although the schedule quite rigorous and challenging, the culture really makes it manageable.

 

All in all, an incredible experience

 

Bonus: The company dog is great, and they let me bring my own well-behaved therapy dog to class!

There isn't much I can say that hasn't already been said by the reviews below.

Kristen's TL;DR is a great example of what I mean. All of us feel the same way about Rithm. From the instructors to job assistance, it really hits it out of the park throughout the entire bootcamp.

The curriculum is insanely well thought out and executed. There is the right amount of lecturing and the right amount of project building (seriously, check out any of our Github accounts - there's a ton of cool projects we've built).

In addition, it's constantly evolving using feedback from previous cohorts in attempt to provide the best experience possible.

Not understanding a certain topic? That's OK - you have advisor hours with one of the instructors where you can go through certain topics and discuss what's tripping you up.

Not enough? That's still OK - the instructors will go out of their way to help you understand. They're there to do that, they love teaching and want to see you succeed.

That sort of environment fosters a lot of personal and educational growth which benefits both you and your classmates.

The instructors love teaching (that's why they're there), love seeing people succeed and love answering any and all questions. I recommend attending one of their nightly classes (or auditing a class) to see them in action.

Finally, finding a job post bootcamp. It's hard. Really, really hard. But that doesn't mean impossible (Setting that dramatic tone, no?).

Rithm prepares you for your post-bootcamp life by teaching you CS fundamentals and exposing you to real-world work. When you talk to recruiters, they'll want to see and know more about that real-world work and you'll have that in your back pocket.

When you talk to other engineers, they'll want to know how much you know. Those CS fundamentals will come in handy.

You'll be confident about yourself, what you know, and the work you've done. And then you'll get a job. And then you'll find yourself writing a review saying the same thing we're all saying, what a challenging yet rewarding experience this was (couldn't help myself. Love corny endings).

Good luck (and feel free to hit me up if you want to chat about Rithm or programming or anything really)!

 

tldr: Rithm wins for best instruction, curriculum, community, and job seeking support. 

Curriculum: All of Rithm's curriculum can be found online. They are continually re-evaluating and making sure they are teaching the most relevant and in demand topics while also teaching solid CS and engineering skills. The content is modern, relevant, and still full of the necessary foundational computer science and problem solving skills you need to be a successful software engineer. 

Internship/Company project: Towards the end of your program, you'll get assigned to a company project where you'll pair with fellow students and a Rithm instructor to make meaningful contributions to a real production code base. This is ran like an internship and nothing is more satisfying than seeing something you built go live!!! And when it comes time to job hunt, you'll have relevant experience to help guide those interview conversations. 

Instruction: If you want to teach yourself, just go watch youtube videos and read tutorials on medium or quora. If you want to actually have instructors that will patiently help you with ANYTHING that you're struggling with, go to Rithm. Code alongs, lectures with slides you can actually keep/reference back to, lab projects and sprints that involve pair programming and solo projects, stretch goals for advanced students and further study for students who need more scaffolding before mastering a topic. 

Community: So much of community depends on your fellow cohort members. Each cohort will have its own personality, but the staff will go the extra mile to make sure everyone is included, safe, and comfortable. Sorry judgy mcjudgersons, you won't find a home here. 

Job seeking support: At the end of the day, what every potential boot camper wants to know is "will I find a job." Rithm publishes their numbers transparently. The onus is you to do the job seeking, but they are there for you to provide the skills on how to job seek and where to look. The Rithm alumni networking is growing and we refer where we can. The instructors helped me with things like advice for negotiating once I got my job offer, editing my cover letter and resume, practice whiteboarding and take home projects. 

Rithm has all kinds of free coding meet ups. There is no better way to check out a school than to see how they teach these free workshops. Most of us alumni are also very findable on LinkedIn, so feel free to reach out to chat! Or better yet, just apply to Rithm and join our awesome community! 

A brief history--I majored in Film & Media Studies, worked at a Fortune 500 animation studio, as a nutrition & exercise coach, and EMT & Firefighter Intern before transitioning into software development. After getting my feet wet with some JavaScript prep work, I had my pick of the larger well-known boot camps in the Bay Area. Ultimately however I decided upon Rithm School for several invaluable reasons--each of the instructors was previously a developer with a passion to educate others, class sizes are intentionally small to maintain a productive student-teacher ratio, and Rithm networks with Bay Area businesses to provide each of its students a full time, one month internship working alongside professional engineers to develop features for production codebases. Without any direct mobile experience, I was able to join a team developing a React Native iOS event hosting app to beta for user testing, helping to create a mobile experience and additional source of revenue for a company with a pre-existing web version of the application. In just over three months after graduating Rithm School, with much credit due to my internship experience, the rigorous curriculum, and supportive instructors, I am employed full time as a software engineer on a mobile development team with incredible room for professional growth across the stack. I have a great deal of work to do to continue to earn the opportunities before me, but without a doubt I have been prepared to remain consistent and confident as I grow as an engineer because of my education with Rithm School. I was taught to be resilient and thoughtful--a problem solver first and foremost--with a wide range of exposure to full stack development/technologies, conceptual knowledge discussion, data structure/algorithm practice, and career coaching to support me. I went from zero coding experience to earning an excellent role within one year of committing to pursuing this path, and there are many other stories like mine. If you dream of working in software development, or are even considering it a possibility, I cannot recommend nor express my gratitude for Rithm School and its staff enough.

Going to Rithm School was one of the best things I've ever done for myself.  

As an individual who was unable to finish college due to some unavoidable circumstances, I was always so concerned I would never be able to pursue a career in technology.  I was wrong.

I spent a handful of years working in jobs that I didn't really like.  It always felt like something was missing. This led me to tinker with the idea of going to a coding bootcamp, and eventually decided to take the plunge and move forward.  I completed the Hack Reactor prep program remotely, and absolutely loved what I was learning.  I worked hard throughout the course, and at the end I passed the technical interview and was accepted to their immersive program.  I wanted to pursue other options in order to make the most informed decision.  One of the guys I met through the Hack Reactor course told me about Rithm School, and I also applied to Galvanize.  I was accepted to all three (HR, Rithm, Galvanize), and I had to make a decision.

Through word of mouth, I heard amazing things about Rithm School.  At the time they were a much newer program, and had only worked with 5 cohorts.  Their approach was much different than most of the other programs I looked into, and I liked what I saw.

The main reason I chose Rithm was because of their emphasis on small class room sizes.  I have never been able to learn very well in large classrooms.  I found the idea of working in a small intimate group much more appealing than being just another person in a massive room.

If anybody tells you that going through Rithm's immersive program is easy, they are lying.  I worked harder than I ever have in my life.  There is so much material to learn, and it moves quickly.  From day one I felt extremely welcomed by all of the instructors, and they served as an excellent source for me to get personal questions answered, which made a huge difference.  There were many times I felt like I had hit a wall.  I wanted to give up!  But those feelings always passed, and before I knew it I started to feel like an engineer.

Rithm does an excellent job at providing the necessary information and tools to be successful in the course.  It was obvious that they had a clear picture of what works and what doesn't.  The curriculum is well laid out, and each topic tends to build on the previous one.  

My favorite part of the program was the company projects phase.  I was able to work with an awesome start-up, and build deployable features for their application before I had even finished a bootcamp!  It was an awesome experience, and it really solidified everything I had learned in the first half of the program.

The last phase of the program (outcomes) was also crucial for my success.  There is so much I didn't know about the interviewing and hiring process for technical roles.  Over the course of just a few weeks I learned how to master technical interviews, take home challenges, phone screens, and even post offer negotiation.  I would've been screwed in my job search process without a lot of this information.
As the program neared an end, I had mixed feelings of both excitement and fear.  I was very concerned that I would have a super hard time finding a job without a Bachelor's degree on my resume.  I applied to hundreds of jobs, over the course of just a few weeks.  There were plenty of rejections, and it was hard work.  Amazingly enough, after a long interview process, I ended up getting offered an awesome position through a referral I had gotten from one of the instructors at Rithm.  All of the hard work was suddenly SO worth it.

Looking at my life today, I am beyond grateful for the opportunities I was given based on my decision to attend Rithm School.  I have built a strong group of peers (friends) through Rithm School, that I believe will remain a part of my network for many years to come.  I have a career that I LOVE, and I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else.  What more can I ask for?  I am so glad I chose to go to Rithm.

I'm naturally skeptical of a lot of things - Rithm at first was included in that.

After I decided to transition from being a photographer and designer to a software engineer, I began looking at bootcamps in the SF area. The ones that stuck out to me as the two most promising ones were App Academy and Rithm School. After attending App Academy's Bootcamp Prep - I opted for Rithm due to a variety of reasons.

Mostly: 

1. The word of mouth surrounding Rithm was exceptional. It was even recommended to me as a top notch program by my instructor at App Academy! It was difficult to find people who had anything negative to say about the program (again, I was skeptical, but read on). 

2. The month of real world company experience unique to Rithm's curriculum.

3. The small, intimate learning environment with real world instructors.

My instinct was pushing me to go to Rithm, and after attending their bootcamp prep program and meeting with Elie, I was sold. 

I worked harder than I probably ever have in my life but the amount of experience I was able to absorb in only 4 months was astounding to me. 

Rithm does a phenomenal job of giving you what you need to learn, demonstrating the value of it, and getting you moving on learning it immediately. At times I was worried that I was being fed things on a silver platter, but I later realized that it seems this way because they focus on essential patterns and best practices. They simply they don't dwell on inessential material. They save you a tremendous amount of time in doing so and you can always go back and experiment later on your own.

The trap I often encountered at Rithm was that because I didn't realize how much I had learned, I doubted myself. The skepticism was always lingering in my mind. Part of it was that I had little to no technical knowledge before attending the program, and another part of it was simply self-doubt. 

Now that I am on the other side, have landed a job, and am now integrating into a new codebase - I can honestly say that Rithm is ridiculously legitimate. A truly A+ quality program. Rithm takes a modern, adaptive approach to a modern, adapting industry - and the solution is pure elegance.

The beauty of their system is that it not only works, but it improves every time. They are constantly re-evaluating and sharpening their program and output. They adapt to give each individual person what they need to succeed and they listen when you have an issue. 

It's hard to believe at times that four months with the right people can so dramatically change your life if you let it. If you're going to be attending Rithm school: work hard, don't doubt yourself - if you do, never give up. 

TLDR: Rithm's ROI is more than worth it.  Go to Rithm.

When I first started thinking of making a career switch into coding, I was thinking about taking an online class and working at the same time.  I wanted to see if I liked coding and could do well at it, so I attended some free (yes, free) workshops at Rithm.  I learned a lot in those free workshops and realized I would learn much faster in person rather than online.  I still wasn't sure about Rithm because they were a bit more expensive than other bootcamps, but after attending some more workshops, I was sure that's where I wanted to go.  You get way more value for your money there.  Elie, Joel, Matt, and Michael are all very knowledgeable in addition to being excellent teachers.  I was impressed by their level of expertise, as well as their patience and skill answering questions and explaining concepts.  Four instructors for sixteen students allows you to get much more attention.  They took the time to meet with us one on one periodically to give us feedback and listen to our concerns.  It was clear they genuinely cared about what we were learning and were invested in seeing us succeed.  

Besides the outstanding instructors, which is sufficient reason to attend Rithm, they have a month devoted to a real-world company project that I could list on my resume when my job search began.  It was during the company project that I actually felt ready to be a professional developer and gained the confidence that I could actually do this.  

When it came time for me to find a job, they exceeded expectations.  All along, we were doing morning warm-ups in data structures and algorithms, practicing conceptual questions that come up in interviews, and practicing our problem-solving skills.  During the outcomes period, we practiced whiteboarding and answering conceptual questions in front of others.  And when I actually had phone screens and interviews, I was ready!  Everything we practiced was actually relevant and helpful.  Jeremy did an excellent job of explaining the value of reverse recruiting, how to reach out to people, how to negotiate job offers, and how to use the tools out their to find jobs.  It was not only helpful for finding my first job, but I'll have that knowledge throughout my career whenever I need it.

Not only did Rithm do an exceptional job of training me, but they actually found me a job just six weeks after I finished the program.  I applied to hundreds of jobs on my own, but Rithm got me the interview that landed me a job, a good one with a salary that I wouldn't have had the confidence to expect or ask for without their coaching.

In addition to all that, it was great experience and I had a good time getting to know my classmates and the staff.  So glad I made the decision to go to Rithm!

I was a university lecturer and legal-economic researcher before I decided on a career change. I attended Rithm’s 6th cohort and was very pleased with the education, the corporate project, and the job search support. I can only wholeheartedly recommend this bootcamp to anyone interested in switching to a career in software development.

 

You may ask why I attended a bootcamp, especially with so much college education under my belt as I have. I’m quite sure I would have been able to become a self-taught developer, given time, but I decided to attend a bootcamp for the time saving bootcamps can provide. I reasoned that a first-rate bootcamp would have a well thought out and well organized curriculum that distills the most important things I need to know to launch my career as a developer. I thought that the teachers would also keep me focused on these essential things, so I would absolutely not waste my time on learning unnecessary or low-priority things. Plus I hoped that the teachers would help me identify and leverage my strengths and identify and level up my weaknesses to be easily able to get a developer job after the bootcamp. In addition, I thought that the bootcamp would also provide a community of committed, like-minded people all of whom are in the same situation as myself, which can be very motivating and can help me through the rough patches of the learning process and job search.

 

I’ve been accepted to five bootcamps and vetted all of them before choosing Rithm. The reasons were the quality of Rithm’s curriculum, the commitment of its teachers, the company projects, and the included outcomes weeks and job search support. Rithm’s curriculum was very well organized, especially in comparison to the curricula of other bootcamps, where some of the elements even seemed ad hoc, as if grafted on as an afterthought. Obviously much thought was given to the design of Rithm’s curriculum, as it was building and expanding my knowledge gradually without major leaps or missing steps. Rithm has a permanent teaching staff with low turnover and an excellent teacher to student ratio; so I knew up-front who were going to be my teachers and what kind of teaching I was going to get. Other bootcamps have more temporary teaching staffs with high teacher turnover, so often they weren’t able to tell me who the teachers were going to be, not even how many of them we were going to have. During the bootcamp and even afterwards during job search I found the teachers of Rithm very professional, very committed to their craft, and also very committed to our success.

 

Rithm’s practice of contracting students out after 10 weeks of lectures to do real life company projects was also very sympathetic to me, and I haven’t seen this implemented anywhere else at Bay Area bootcamps. I thought of this as a final check whether I would actually be able to do the job and the final stage of actually becoming a real software developer. My company project also turned out to be a great conversation starter during my phone screens and interviews, and I suspect that my resume often got picked out of the pile because I had a company project on it. About the job search support I was a bit skeptical initially, because every bootcamp claims to provide some form of job search support. What was a bit different about Rithm was that the bootcamp had three weeks set aside specifically for “outcomes”, which was essentially education how to get a software developer job, from improving the resume to salary negotiations. This training also proved to be very useful and I even discussed my activities with the teachers and got advices after the bootcamp was over, right up to the point when I got an offer.

 

So I can’t thank Rithm enough: I really enjoyed the bootcamp and learned a lot in a very short time. And most importantly, at the end I landed an awesome job just five weeks into the job search. Thank you Rithm School

I attended Rithm and was part of cohort 5. At first I was a little skeptical about attending a boot camp since up until that point I was taking a bunch of online classes on Udemy. Why would I pay to go to school to learn something which I could easily learn online right? I couldn’t be further from the truth and a couple weeks in it was readily apparent to me that I still had a lot more to learn. 

The teachers are top notch and know their stuff really well. I did my due dilligence and went to a few meetups to see their teaching style as well as ask questions. They break down each topic into the fundamental parts and are able to answer most if not all my questions. They got me to where I needed to be and I was able to get a job shortly within a month of graduating. 

The reason why I chose Rithm over other bootcamps is the small class sizes and focus on company projects. I can tell you first hand how imperative it was during my interview process to talk about tangible work experiences and problem solving. This instantly gave me a competitive edge over other applications because I was selling myself as an "experienced hire".

Another reason was the small class sizes and tailored help. I asked alot of questions and I always got them answered promptly, even at night. I wouldn't get this type of support anywhere else. The teachers also provided ongoing support after graduating. I was going into Rithm as an alumni and doing takehome challenges and the teachers were more than willing to help.

Overall, my experience was really positive. I'd recommend this bootcamp. 

I was part of Rithm’s 3rd cohort (Elie, Matt, and Tim taught) and enjoyed learning there. Like many of you are doing, I was researching a lot before deciding on a coding school and spending hard earned money.

I hesitate to say like many others do that “it’s the best decision of my life” or “life changing” because everyone has had to make many smaller decisions up until the point in deciding to get into development seriously (or most any other career path, tbh). Plus, no matter what school/program you go through, it’ll be life changing— either you’ll end up with a job or you might give up and perhaps be in a significant amount of debt. You’re going to have to balance your skepticism, self-doubt, time, and energy to make it happen and trust the process. That being said, Rithm was a the best choice for me.

From the get-go from getting a call and then having a technical interview, Elie and the team were all friendly and gave specific feedback on how to improve as I whiteboarded problems. I really appreciated this, as Rithm’s interview process mirrors more of what it would be like for a job interview. Another school I had interviewed at before had me debug some code and though it is a needed skill, I’ve never had to debug code arbitrary code that was given to me during a job interview.

Here are some of my key takeaways from my time at Rithm as well as having mentored others who are starting to learn JavaScript (not at Rithm).

• You’ll learn faster with community. I was trying to do it on my own— Free Code Camp curriculum, many cheap/free online courses, community college classes, you name it— it’s possible of course (just look at all the Medium posts of success stories in X amount of months), but for the most part, you’ll be working on a team and many companies want to see that you can produce great work and collaborate with others, rather than seeing solo toy projects. The company projects and pair programming during the course helped build these skills.
• Teaching is iterative - every time you teach is another chance to improve the curriculum and explain things better; Rithm gets that. No teaching by watching video clips or teachers-who-are-really-students that just graduated from that very program. The material is relevant and up-to-date.
• Ask questions! This is crucial- the instructors are there to help and are responsive. I was too chicken to ask questions earlier on (I gave myself a time limit to try to solve it on my own), but I should have gotten over it sooner. Everyone at Rithm is trying to help you learn and improve. I also learned how to ask better questions by listening to others’ questions.

I didn’t include the job assistance rating, as this was primarily done through Outco. This is not to say that Rithm was not supportive in the job search before, but there was a clear division between Rithm (learning and practicing web development) and Outco (resume help, technical interview prep, and CS fundamentals). I think Rithm keeping this in-house will benefit all future cohorts, as there is a greater level of care provided.

Lastly, I just want to say that coding is for everybody. Don’t let a school, company (when applying for jobs), or setback tell you that you can’t make it as a developer, keep persisting and putting work in. Job searching is difficult, and though there is a 6-month job guarantee, it ultimately depends on what you’re looking for and your own confidence in your technical skills, which come from experience. Hopefully you can give yourself some additional time (if needed) to get the work you want.

I had a fantastic time at Rithm School. I was in the 3rd cohort in a class of 11 students. We had so much individualized attention that I was never waiting on a question for more than a few minutes, and the other students were very helpful, kind, and down-to-earth. It was not a cut-throat environment because we were not competing against one another; there were so few of us and there are so many engineering job openings that we knew that the most important thing was helping one another succeed and trying our best. We got experience pair programming, working on real features with startups in an agile sprint format, and building our own independent projects. The environment was fun (we all wore horse masks as the end as a prank to the instructors) but still intense (we moved very quickly and had to work hard every day to keep up). 

A bit about my background: I had a Computer Science degree that I completed in 2015 and 2 years of work experience at startups working in Business Development / Operations / Community Management. My software skills were rusty and my web development knowledge was out of date and shaky. I came in wanting to get the preparation I needed to work as an engineer at a modern startup, and I wanted to develop confidence in my skills. Rithm was amazing for both of those -- we learned all the common tools and practiced interview questions so that we would feel prepared when going out on our own. 

Job search afterward: I joined when Rithm had a partnership with Outco, and I did the Outco 1-month program in August 2017 right after Rithm ended. The partnership was very helpful because I got to work with some of my classmates and go through the process together, though now that job prep is in-house it will be even more of a tight-knit feeling. Whiteboarding every day was very helpful because that aspect of interviews became less intimidating. I had a bit of a weird path because I was strongly considering PM roles and applied to many of those, but ultimately when I wasn't having luck, I started working for my friend's startup in Community Management while searching for Engineering jobs. I knew I wanted to focus on Frontend so I could utilize my UX Design knowledge, and I lucked out in finding a UX Engineer role that combined Frontend Engineering, UX Design, and Product Management. Rithm was so helpful throughout the whole thing - I met with Elie every few weeks whenever I needed help and he was always available. It was so great to have the support of my cohort members, too, because friends going through the search alone shared how isolated they felt. I'm now 4 months into my role and really love it!! I know Rithm prepared me very well and I recommend it as often as I can to anyone considering a bootcamp!

Hi 👋 my name is Andrew Mundy. I was part of Rithm’s second cohort at the beginning of 2017. As we approach a year since the beginning of my developer journey I wanted to outline my experience. I had been living in SF and working in the bar and restaurant industry for some time. I didn’t have a college degree, I hadn’t been in touch with technology, I had a flip phone. Besides some experience with Adobe products, print design, and a little HTML- my knowledge of coding was infantile. So how did I emerge from a 4 month bootcamp and land freelance gigs, a position as a front-end engineer, and most recently join a startup as a product designer and booking meetings with VC’s pitching for millions of dollars in such a short time?

 

Rithm.

 

TL;DR

• Founders are Galvanize expats
• Small, personal cohorts. 3 instructors, 8 students.
• Curriculum included JS, Python, React
• Real world projects tackled beginning to end as a team
• Go to a free class https://www.meetup.com/rithmschool/?_cookie-check=yR93aGhYTWHrN8Wm
• Their entire curriculum is available for free here https://www.rithmschool.com/courses

 

No other bootcamp can provide what Rithm can. Honestly, it’s a question of whats important to the bootcamp you’re considering. Maximum efficient profit or maximum efficient developers. Who will be your instructors? Students of the previous cohort or world-class, seasoned masters? Rithm provides their entire curriculum online for free. They are not afraid of losing potential customers to themselves. They are selling a mentorship not information.

 

With so many bootcamps to choose from and the seemingly endless amount of Jr devs fighting to enter the workforce. The question is no longer, “I hope I have what it takes to graduate.” But instead, “How will I graduate with a competitive edge over everyone else?”

 

The founder / instructors include Elie, Matt, and Tim. All ex Galvanize instructors that didn’t just think there was a better way, they knew there had to be. They didn’t just think they could create the next great developer, they knew they could. The dream team lineup- Elie, a natural, legendary instructor. Matt, a published doctor of mathematics.  And Tim, the personable sleeper genius, I think he’s in Mexico right now? Oh, and Whiskey the dog for moral and emotional support.

 

My cohort was only 8 students to 3 instructors. That meant that no question went unanswered. No person fell between the cracks. It was abundantly clear to everyone in the room if you skimmed through the previous nights homework, the level of accountability was daunting and necessary.

 

Our final projects included splitting the class into two groups and creating tools for UCSF and Slow Ventures. From choosing what technology stack to outlining an MVP and stretch features, we collaborated with our respective POC’s and created everything from the ground up. Halfway through completion we swapped teams and picked up where the others left off. This simulated the real world situation of walking into a brand new codebase. Going from Python’s Flask to ReactJS proved to be a challenged we were well equipped to tackle.

 

I never thought I was capable of learning so much so quickly. It was the perfect combination of world-class instructors, intense personal accountability, and real world projects that culminated into an experience that no other bootcamp can provide. Post graduation, I’ve talked to so many grads from other bootcamps and they are always surprised and envious of my experience. I could not recommend Rithm enough. Please, just do yourself a favor and go talk to em, they have free classes all the time. I am also more than happy to answer any further questions you may have or accompany you to any of their free classes. Hit me up! andrewmundy@gmail.com