Skill Distillery Reviews
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Chad
Coding Bootcamp! It was the “______” decision of my life!
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My experience at Skill Distillery has been top notch. I feel as if the team, the curriculum and mission are strong and resonate throughout the culture and results that the bootcamp provides. I am about halfway through the program and I am continuously impressed by the depth of topics covered as well as the responsibility that we are taking on in such a short amount of time.
In my latest blog post on Chadington.com https://chadington.com/2016/04/12/codingbootcamp/ I have shared a more in depth perspective on my experience and what one should consider especially if they are coming from a "sucessful background" but are either looking to recareer or launch a tech startup company. Please feel free to reach out at ChadingtonChat@gmail.com to continue the conversation. Thanks!
Excerpt from my blog post: Coding Bootcamp! It was the “______” decision of my life!
...While that 4-year CS degree served as a gold standard entry point into the aforementioned career trajectory, there are certain forces at play that have changed the dynamic. The demand for a technical workforce has exploded. Specialized technical talent is hard to come by.
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Tim
Exactly What I Wanted and Needed!
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I've wanted to break into the web development industry for probably about two years now. After graduating college in 2008, I spent 5 unfulfilling years working in the insurance industry and then 2 years working for a small business and trying to teach myself code on the side.
I needed professional guidance!
Since beginning my training at Skill Distillery only 9.5 weeks ago, I am amazed at how much I've learned already and what I've been able to accomplish!
Skill Disitllery has proven to be everything I wanted in a coding Bootcamp. It's extremely challenging but there is no short supply of guidance and personal assistance when needed. The instruction has been of the highest level I've ever experienced!
It is challenging and certainly not easy; but if you're looking for easy then you've probably picked the wrong field! So far I believe I've been given everything I need to succeed and am confident it will continue! The days are a perfect balance between lectures and hands-on coding along with group and paired coding projects.
It was a great decision choosing Skill Distillery!
I am about half-way through and will look forward to posting an update upon completion!
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Anonymous
Learning more here than I ever did in college
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I'm not a math person. I'm not a science person. I've always had a book in hand, and would rather spend 10 hours reading than 30 minutes doing calculus. When I told people I was going to do a coding bootcamp, they all said, "Wow, really? That's going to be hard." And they were right - but I don't think they could have ever imagined how rewarding my experience at Skill Distillery has been.
I looked at a large handful of bootcamps before deciding upon Skill Distillery. They were the only program in the Denver area that personally followed up on my application, responded to all my inquries within the same day, and accommodated my completion of the application process while traveling abroad.
The classes are extremely hands on, extremely thorough, and taught by phenomenal, passionate coding veterans who will work as hard as you will to ensure your success.
This program is all about what you put into it. If you're looking for a bootcamp that pushes you past the point you thought you could push yourself, and inspires you to create projects that you never would have dreamed of, then this is the place for you.
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Maya Mohan
*Updated Review*
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Hey Folks!
I am back updating my review from 1/12/16 like I promised I would!! I'm a woman of my word.
All jokes aside- I'm not going to lie, the negative reviews that I read on this site bothered me. Paying $16,000 for a school that had a lot of negative reviews while I was still in the program, made me worry about what was to come. They made a lot of changes from the cohort before mine, and so my experience was much better than theirs.
I am honestly so glad I stayed. I had ZERO coding experience before the program, and at times, I truly did struggle and worried about whether the program was for me. But the instructors, the TA's, my fellow students, and our school director, helped me stick through it, and man is that the most rewarding experience to say that I graduated! I am so thankful for the program and people I've met.I now will be working as a junior java developer at American Healthcare Technologies, where I was doing marketing before.
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Jonathan
Update!
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I wrote the review "Grateful" and needed to write an amended review. (Admin, if this needs to be combined with that review, please feel free to do so.)
I just received a Job offer from a mid sized company for a Java Stack Web Developer.
(I still have 2 weeks left in the program at Skill Distillery and received the job offer.)
I had ZERO professional experience before this school and Skill Distillery was able to assist me in getting to a place that would help me have a career in web development.
**Be aware, many of the negative reviews come from a class that was here while I attended and they quit because they said the program wasn't teaching what they thought was important. Clearly they were mistaken. If *I* can get a web developer job after attending school here, anyone that has a desire to write code can do it too.
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Shelby Escobedo
Amazing bootcamp to help change career paths
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After leaving the news industry, I decided to look into a coding bootcamp. Skill Distillery was worth every bit of money. The instructors are very hands on, and help you through the learninging struggle when coding. Not only are you being taught how to code, you have several projects to show potential employers your abilities. I have been told the stack they teach is very close to what is needed in for development jobs. I might not be a veteran, but they do accept the GI Bill, which is a huge plus for veterans getting out of the military. I am about to graduate soon, and am actively looking for a job. Skill Distillery is helping me with the process, looking at my resume, my cover letters, and even suggesting jobs I should apply.
I wouldn't change my bootcamp experience for the world!
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Jonathan
Grateful..
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My name is Jonathan.
I'm grateful I have attended Skill Distillery. It's opened a whole new world of career opportunities for me to provide for my family.
I'm a Marine Corps veteran that's done mostly manual labor or a service industry job most of my life. I have very little coding background apart from this school. (Veterans...use the GI Bill here. It's worth it)
I've already had multiple phone calls and interviews from potential employers for a web developer position and I still have 2 weeks left in the program.
The staff here are brilliant, very kind and will work with you as much as possible(no they are not bribing me to say this). They will not hand everything to you on a platter though. If you come here to learn, expect to work and study A LOT.
It's worth it.
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David R
Strong program with which I changed my career for the better
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A little less than a year ago, when I was in the process of finding my next move, I remember browsing this very website for information about different bootcamps. At the core of what I wanted to know was whether a program would be able to plug me into a job with the skills needed to maintain it and begin a career that I could eventually climb.
Not only did Skill Distillery provide that for me, but it was a truly enjoyable learning experience. Like some of the reviewers below, I was in the second cohort that began in July and ended in November. In a relaxed but focused atmosphere, my classmates and I got to know one another well. As Kimberly mentioned, we occasionally got together for study groups on the weekend, hung out socially outside of the school, and enjoyed each other's company. In the classroom, we recognized our individual strengths over the course of the program and gained from the insightfulness and curiosity of one another. Obviously each class will be a different set of students, but I cannot write a review without highlighting what a pleasure it was getting to know and being in class with such a wonderful group of people.
And I extend that statement to include the staff of Skill Distillery – who were open, hard-working, and care deeply about the students and the program succeeding. The instructors have been praised in reviews here: they deserve it. But here is the truth: this is an opportunity for you. This is a serious endeavor, an investment, and (potentially) a career change. The program is laid out for you to develop the right skills, with aid from instructors and TAs, but it is on you, 100%, to make the most out of the materials. Heed Cole R’s advice – one can only recommend this program (or any on CourseReport, for that matter) if you are serious about programming and technology. That’s not to say you need to have a plethora of background experience, or already be a coder, but you do need to have a passion for technology, tenacity, and be ready to work hard.
I chose this program because I was driven to become well-grounded in a tried-and-true object-oriented programming language that would provide me with a springboard from which to launch a career. I wanted to dive in to a difficult subject, invest time, money, and effort, but come out of the experience with a strong capacity to pick up new languages and technologies. That’s exactly what happened. I worked extremely hard, produced a massive personal portfolio, and impressed nearly every interviewer. I was able to apply the jobs that I was actually interested in, instead of just applying to anything I could find that remotely related to my skills. I was employed within a month of sending my first application.
At my current job, I have to understand the full stack. We do not have dedicated roles for each technology – it is thanks to the exposure and opportunity Skill Distillery provided me that I am so diversely capable. Because of this diversity, you have the capacity and opportunity to make decisions about your future career and shape your trajectory in a way that you know will be self-rewarding and right for your skills and interests.
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Cole R
They are teaching what you need to know
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Summary:
Skill Distillery is an intensive training program teaching in-demand technologies. Being successful in the program requires dedication and hard work. Completion of the program and understanding of the curriculum will give you the skills necessary to build and deploy a full stack Java web application (of relatively small scope). These skills are in demand – after one month on the job market I was invited to 6 on-site interviews with different organizations and received 3 job offers. During these interviews, employers were impressed with my knowledge of Java, the architecture of web applications, and how relevant the skills I had been taught were to the jobs they were hiring for. Skill Distillery has enabled me to begin a career in software development and was a great use of my time and money.
Know What You Are Getting Into:
I chose to attend Skill Distillery because of their focus on Java development for the back-end. Java is not the easiest language to learn – it is sometimes verbose and it is not always as easy to do a simple task (or build a web application) in Java as it may be using other languages/frameworks. Java has great performance, proven scalability, and is in use on a large scale in enterprise applications. These considerations contribute to there being lots of Java jobs out there. Some reviews have mentioned that there is a dearth of entry-level and junior-level Java positions. It is true that there are many more job postings for Java developers with experience than for entry-level positions, but those junior-level positions do exist and are obtainable upon completion of the program. It may take work and time to find those positions, but you should expect and prepare for that; a job will not simply fall into your lap because you complete this program.
You should only do this program if you are excited about the doors that knowing Java might open for you and ready for the challenges and frustrations that you will encounter while learning it. I would not recommend doing this program simply because it is the only coding program that your V.A. benefits will pay for. I would not recommend enrolling in this program unless you have taken some time to determine that you enjoy programming and you have a fair bit of aptitude for it.
Curriculum and Instructors
If other reviews have not made this clear – the first quad of the program on Java fundamentals is really well put together and the lead instructor Jamie is fantastic. Parts of the second quad were rough. The material was more difficult and we had a guest instructor for two weeks that I felt was not very competent. I had to do a lot of independent work in this quad to understand the material. While there were some major issues with the instruction and course materials, the stuff we were being taught (SQL, JPA, Spring, Spring MVC, and REST) was the absolute right choice in terms of curriculum and what employers want you to know. I am confident that Skill Distillery is working hard to make the delivery of this material smoother and more effective. The final two quads focus on the front-end. I felt that the front-end basics could have been taught more succinctly and would have enjoyed the opportunity to study some JavaScript frameworks (Node.js and Angular) in greater depth. The time spent learning Java at the beginning of the program made learning JavaScript a breeze.
Job Assistance:
We had a resume workshop, interview preparation instruction, and the opportunity to do a mock interview. These things were all very helpful preparation for the job search. There were also a number of emails with job leads.
Skill Distillery gave me the skills I needed to land a software development job that I am very excited about. The curriculum that they are teaching is extremely well-geared toward what employers are looking for.
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Kimberly Saviano
Great foundation in a difficult language, and the skills to learn more languages, libraries, and frameworks
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I was part of the second cohort at Skill Distillery (SD) and my 19-week program ran from July through November. Of our initial class of 10 (with an additional person who audited some of it), two people dropped out fairly early, and one person joined us halfway to retake the second half of the course. We had a close-knit group where most everyone got along really well, we initiated study groups on weekends, some went to meetups together, hung out socially, and really got to know one another. Our group was dedicated and worked hard, I was impressed with how much each of us learned and I would be happy to work with any of them again in the future.
I tended to go in pretty early each day and often stayed late, plus I was reading and practicing coding for many of my evenings. This is not a bootcamp to sign up for lightly - it was very consuming and challenging, forcing us to assimilate a great deal of knowledge, introducing us to a large variety of topics, and requiring a passion to learn and experiment on your own to really get many of the concepts. I chose to learn at Skill Distillery because they were the only bootcamp I could find that was teaching a "real" language like Java whereas most of the other bootcamps offered framework languages like Ruby on Rails or did JavaScript for the full stack (both front-end and back-end). I wanted a true foundation to build a new career upon and I wanted that to be either Java or .Net.
Following the course, I took some time to myself to relax for the Thanksgiving holiday and then spent the first two weeks in December getting my resume polished, crafting my website to showcase several examples of code I had written in and out of class, ordering business cards, and starting to network more heavily in meetup groups. But the job market was pretty much shut down for the holidays by that point and it wasn't until the new year that I felt like I really got serious about finding a job. Two weeks from that point I had my first two job offers, and in another week, I had negotiated and accepted a position as a Java Developer I for a mid-size company (I start at the beginning of February). The technical interviews, that I was nervous about when first going in, went great, with questions about Java and object-oriented programming that I could answer immediately and correctly, and I really got the sense that my interviewers were impressed by the depth and amount of what I knew, and that most recent grads from bootcamps do not have as much command of these foundation concepts. While technically it was about 8 weeks or so from graduating to securing a job for me, given the holidays, it seems to me like it was really only two-or-three weeks from when the business world came back to life to getting a job.
Was the Skill Distillery program perfect? No, of course not. There was a TON of information to get through and some concepts went by way too fast, and for others it felt like time was a bit wasted going over older technologies to develop an understanding and appreciation for newer technologies. I thought most of the Skill Distillery-written material was good, but there were some questionable materials which I understand are being replaced in future classes. I think the program could be strengthened by having more consistent teaching (in an effort to introduce us to different perspectives in the industry with guest teachers, I think less of that and more consistency would be better) and having projects that built up with the student's knowledge (i.e., take something simple with console output to eventually have a fullblown website dynamically drawing from databases and providing output where the complexity and techniques used in the backend evolve and mature with new concepts, etc.) rather than "throw away code" from tutorials that was abandoned. I actually think they should have MORE homework and grading and reading assignments, and I say that already recognizing that we were working at a full pace schedule with little time to ourselves already.
But a bootcamp is supposed to be hard -- if you are not in 110%, if you have too many distractions or obligations, this may not be for you. You need a support structure for yourself, resources taken care of so you don't spend study time worrying about things. If you have a spouse/partner, they need to understand what kind of commitment you are taking on. I have always been very big in volunteering my time and serving on the boards of non-profits, but I had to trim my schedule a lot to make room for this course, and in retrospect, I should have trimmed even more off my schedule to dedicate to study. Further, Skill Distillery wants to be able to take someone new to coding and get them through all this at a breakneck speed. I wouldn't actually recommend that -- do a course or two online BEFORE you start a bootcamp, make sure you have the real basics down and that you are committed and self-disciplined and really desperately interested in the subject enough to take this plunge.
I'd even suggest that Skill Distillery consider reducing the scope of the bootcamp. Right now "Full-Stack" is the buzzword everyone says they want but no decent size company actually wants the person designing the UI to also code the backend logic and database connections. The skillsets and talents are too different to make anyone a master of both (although I'll agree with enough experience, one could be decent at both). Instead I think Skill Distillery should go all in on what they are really good at: Java back end coding. Maybe spend a few weeks introducing JavaScript and some of the frameworks, but in my opinion, there were too many specifics to cover to get good enough at any of them. I feel like I learned enough about HOW to approach libraries, APIs, and frameworks, and far less about any particular one.
But that is what companies want from junior developers: they want someone who knows HOW TO LEARN NEW THINGS. We're juniors - we're not meant to know a ton about anything, we're meant to know how to take in a great deal of knowledge, integrate it into the basic concepts that we understand, and start the practice with good coding techniques. That's where I feel like I am coming out of the Skill Distillery bootcamp.
For me, Skill Distillery delivered what I was looking for and expecting. I have a firm understanding of a fundamental programming language that will always be relevant and useful. I got some experience with integrating databases and using some frameworks and libraries that help me do the work better. I feel like I am starting with good coding practices that will serve me well and an understanding of the importance of testing and working together on a team. I never thought for a minute that Skill Distillery would be the end of my learning, but just the beginning. I am making a huge career transition into something I always wanted to do but never thought I would be successfully able to transition to. Now I'm going into my first developer job and I'm excited, and a little scared, and yet confident, too, that I'm going to be able to build on all I learned and was introduced to at Skill Distillery to make a great career for myself
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Draddog
Get READY TO WORK
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You had better bring you A game, because these guys are not playing. I'm serious! If you are going to walk the walk and talk that talk you had better be ready to sweat. I'm talking 10 hours a day and catch up on the weekendes. You are going to compress 1500 hours of coding into 16 weeks. If you can't adapt to the needs of the job, if you can't take intellectual pressure then get out of the kitchen. BUT!!!! if you can hang in there and hold on until the end you will be ready to handle anything the job market has to through at you. You wont find better. Easier yes, better doesn't exist. Try, hit up Seattle, San Fransico, New Your, or India. To be honest thier should rename themselves to the IronWorks. So roll up your sleaves and get ready to job.
BTW Rob and Jamie are the bomb!
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Anonymous
OMG DONT ATTEND SKILL DISTILLERY EVER!
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look here's the deal. Skill distillery is worse than second rate. It's the red headed step child that has always dreamed of becoming the first rate biological first rate loved first born. I do t know what to tell you, every accurate review thus far ? All negative reviews) have already stated the truth. Skill distillery does not deserve your 16k. Go to Turing or otherwise. You'll be glad you did.
Bruce Batky of Skill Distillery
CEO
Jan 20, 2016
Hi Anonymous,
We have a pretty small cohort of students in each class and we strive to provide a lot of individual attention. Since we dont know who left this review, I cant respond to any specific challenges you may have to our program. Were you a student here? Our door is always open if you would like to share your experience with us.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or ideas you may have: bruce(at)skilldistillery.com
~Bruce -
Aaron Aguil
WORTH EVERY PENNY
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PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE REVIEW IF YOU WANT A 100% IN DEPTH ANALYSIS OF COHORT 3 AND THE REVIEWS POSTED BELOW
First off, because Mr. Anonymous two reviews below mine is suspicious of the five star reviews, lets ignore ALL of the positive reviews on this page. That leaves SIX reviews, of which FIVE, I believe were written by students from my cohort (SD3). Some of their comments are justified, but I feel that they may have been decieved by their own expectation of a program that was never offered to them. I only say this because I was one of the people who complained constantly, requesting more changes to be made. I now realize that the program structure is in tact and the program need not make changes for one particular cohort. In this review, I will attempt to address all of the grievances that the previous reviews have mentioned. I will discuss EXACTLY what happened throughtout my time during the course of my enrollment.
1. Quad 1 was by far the most promising portion of the program. The instructors were great (which EVERYONE else below me has confirmed) and everyone felt confident with program structure, as well as course material. Labs and keyboard time was abundant and 5 of 9 people who took the exam, including myself, passed the Associate Java Programming certification, which I felt was a good percentage based on the difficulty of the test. I came into this bootcamp with zero (AND I MEAN ZERO) programming experience and learning Java was an ambitious task. Yet, I managed to pass the Oracle certification with the help of extremely knowledgeable TA's (Andrew and Kris) and instructors (Jamie and Rob). As a prior Air Traffic Controller, I thought controlling live aircraft while adhering to hundreds of pages of rules and regulations was hard. I expected to cake walk through this bootcamp. That was most certainly not the case!
2. Quad 2 was when things became more difficult. Some of that was due to the difficulty of course material. We were warned numerous times that quad 2 is the bottom of the curve in regards to “The Pain Cave". As if the program couldnt get any harder, learning SPRING MVC was an @** whooping to say the least. I feel that it was in this section that everyone lost motivation. Many of the complaints were about dry material and long lectures. I can say that based on our classes feedback, changes have been made and were made at the time of complaint! It hurts me that they would write reviews saying that the school did not attempt to adjust course content based on student feedback. I am seeing those changes every day. I wont say that im not disappointed seeing others reap the rewards from my criticism. Its discouraging in a way to see the next cohort benefit from these changes, but thats how life works right? I do want to mention that I am MORE than comfortable with building full applications using Spring and Java! Yes, Quad could have been taught in a more interactive (meaning more keyboard/lab/project time) manner. However, that has changed and I feel that we were given enough tools to learn the material.
Also keep in mind, from my understanding, NO other bootcamp teaches you SPRING MVC. That already puts you ahead of the competition if you can mention that you have built (even small) applications front to back using these technologies.
3. It is ABSOLUTLELY FALSE that the school did not consider our feedback! Approximately two weeks into Quad 2, and realizing the difficulty of learning SPRING MVC, many people (INCLUDING MYSELF) began to complain about the teaching methodologies of the program. This was completely disregarding what we were told multiple times that two other cohorts had gone through the same program structure/curriculum/course material. Due to our persitent requests from class organized/one on one feedback sessions, the school attempted to cater to our needs. We asked for more lab/keyboard time. WITHIN 48 HOURS this was created for us. The TA's also spent time outside of work to create a lab that they felt was more accomodating to what we wanted. Ultimately, we were unsatisfied (AGAIN INCLUDING MYSELF) with what they had orgainized. Everyone wanted to do a project that showed individualism and creativity, rather than showcasing a project similar to everyone else in the class. However, what we failed to realize, is that it is extremely difficult for instructors to control the scope of everybodys project when students are given free reighn to determine what they want to build. I realize now that the ideas we were confident in implementing were not realistic based on our capabilities at the time. I also realized that although individuality shows creativity, most employers are concerned with collaboration and team work. We were offered this opportunity in Quad 3.
4. In quad 3 the complaints kept building and the school made, in my opinion, too much of an effort to cater to what we felt was good for us in hopes that we would be satisfied. This is something that will NOT happen again because they have realized that their structure is solid and produces legitimate programmers. We have had countless hours of feedback during quad 3 and changes were made within 24-48 hours. This is not to say it was exactly what we wanted. And I feel this is one of the reasons for everyones departure.
5. Paired programming has now been implemented in the course structure starting with SD4. Although that may not have been the case throughout my time at Skill Distillery, it is something that will be focused on moving forward. Also, what the other reviewers failed to mention was that paired programming and Agile was expected to be implemented into quad 4 of our class. But its hard to see the results of the feedback if you leave prior to giving the school a chance to making the appropriate adjustments.
6. This is DEFINITELY worth your GI Bill. Yes, it takes 9 months of your alloted time. However, just based on the first 4 weeks of the course, I would be able to skip ONE YEAR of intro to programming courses in school. Also, you are unable to take web application courses without previously taking intro programming courses. This alone will take you AT LEAST 2 semesters of school, which equates to 8 months. That is ASSUMING that you are able to fit in Javascript/Node.js/Angular.js/CSS/HTML etc into your course schedule.
And by the way, a university will not spend money, nor train you for a week, for an Oracle Java certification. You'd be lucky if you were capable of even taking and passing a java certifcation test after an intro to java course!
7. NO ONE GUARANTEED JOB PLACEMENT! The school DOES care about your job placement and they actively work with employers to assist you after completion of the program. Their network of employers may not be as big as some of the other bootcamps. However, I just went to an event in Denver and multiple employers were familiar with Skill Distillery and personally mentioned that the school has been in contact with them regarding employment! Keep in mind, we were told ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL that there is no guaranteed job placement. However, this is the case for every bootcamp that I have talked to (Hack Reactor, Dev Bootcamp, etc.). This is not to say that they arent pushing for you to find a job. Why would ANY institution care about enrollment and not about job opportunities? They wouldn’t be in business for very long.
One of the complaints below mentions marketability as a java programmer. I WANT TO NOTE that one of my classmates was one of 15 students to SUCCESSFULLY complete Dev Bootcamps New York program, a class that began with 40. I asked him why he decided to spend another 16k to come to Skill Distillery. His response was that upon completing Dev Bootcamp, he asked his instructor what the next best step would be to take in becoming a successful programmer. His instructor said to GO LEARN JAVA!
Skill Distillery doesn’t pride itself in students becoming expert Java developers. They pride themselves in producing smart and capable programmers that can be groomed to learn any language based on their exceptional fundamentals in Java!
If anyone has any questions, feel free to contact me via email.
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Ted Kubach
Challenging
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After having just left medical school early upon becoming disillusioned with a career in healthcare I sought out various development bootcamps to geek me out for a stimulating career in technology. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this program. Having worked previously for a creative digital agency out of NYC, and working directly with the CTO and CEO on talent management, I was accustomed to the technologies being sought after. I ended up choosing SD over 2 other competitive bootcamps I’d been accepted into primarily because of their unique Java/JS program of study. Being quite accustomed to the day-to-day rigor of higher education, I figured that I’d be able to slide through this program without much difficulty. I can now say without question that the learning experience at Skill Distillery is on par with the most challenging of STEM curriculums. If you can’t handle a demanding intellectual experience, one that will completely consume you, then this program is not for you. You will likely be disappointed and dropout. However, if you feel you can rise above your own ego and personal failures (which you will encounter) then I think this will be a very rewarding experience for you and your career. Ted Kubach SD4 -
Anonymous
Difficult to justify the cost
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I attended the SD program prior to the authors of these other reviews, and I feel compelled to add my thoughts to the discussion.
Following the same format…
Pros: I like the location and the building SD is housed in. There is a common area, kitchen, and additional space for students to study. Garage parking is free for students, and there are restaurants surrounding the school. The program started out very promising, with the first quad’s Java instruction being top notch. Spirits were high during and immediately after the Java certification exam, but this enthusiasm didn’t carry through to the remainder of the program.
Cons: I agree with the thoughts of other students that Java EE is not suited for bootcamp instruction. While the material presented was fascinating and well taught, there are fewer job opportunities for entry level Java engineers than for entry level coders of different languages. Modern technologies were not covered, and students leaving the school are at a disadvantage competing against other boot camp graduates when interviewing for local jobs. Job placement assistance was non-existent, and the program's voluntary attrition rate looks to be extreme.
I find suspicious the five star reviews from students that have yet to complete the course. The shortcomings of SD appear after the first quarter and I suspect some damage control is taking place. I wish everyone the best and hope that things improve for current and future students.
I cannot recommend the school at this time.
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Anonymous
Do your research
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Do not be deceived by the five star reviews.
Overall Experience: The first part of the program was superb. If I were to have written a review during the Java portion of the course, I would have given it five stars out of five. After five weeks of studying and practicing pure Java, about half the students were able to pass the Oracle Certified Associate - Java Programmer exam, which is impressive in my opinion.
The program self-destructed in the second quad of instruction. In stark contrast to the first quad, there was very little hands-on time. The few exercises that were featured in the second quad consisted of copying and pasting code written in a book. The materials were absolute garbage. If you truly believe you can learn databases, MVC, and Java EE from someone reading out of a dry, uninspiring book, then perhaps this course is for you.
The same continued in quad three, which was the front-end portion of instruction. At this point, most of the students would show up to the classroom only to tune the lecture out and try to learn on their own. Before the quad concluded, eight of the eleven students decided to withdraw.
Instructors: This was the one part of the program that made it bearable. The instructors are extremely knowledgable and able to effectively communicate with students in spite of the tremendous gap in knowledge and experience. Unfortunately, they can only do so much when given awful material to teach from.
Curriculum: The program prides itself on offering instruction on “non-trendy” languages. There’s a reason other bootcamps focus on Ruby, MEAN, etc: People are able to obtain employment in them with little experience. Do yourself a favor and research entry-level Java jobs before making a decision, as most of them require one to three years of previous development experience to be considered.
Job Assistance: I have no way of sugarcoating this. They do not care what happens to you after you complete the program. Concerns arose when previous graduates were not finding employment, and we were told they were of questionable character and talent. The word “zeroes” was used to describe previous graduates. This lack of professionalism did not sit well with anyone. In addition to this, we were constantly told companies were inquiring about hiring graduates and that we would receive emails as proof, but that never happened. If you are considering this bootcamp, you are likely a mid-career professional looking for a change, so keep this in mind before you make any life-changing decisions.
Do your research before you make a decision. Look at job advertisements to see which technologies and languages have the lowest barrier to entry in terms of experience. Don’t take a bar chart on a website as gospel. Perhaps the program can change for the better over time, but at this point you are probably better off spending your time and money elsewhere. They advertise 25+ years experience in teaching programming, which is true, but it is stated in a deceptive manner. Their experience is in shorter corporate classes, which has virtually no relevance in a bootcamp environment.
Bruce of Skill Distillery
CEO
Jan 20, 2016
Dear Annoymous (sic),
I am sorry to hear that you were not happy with your experience here at Skill Distillery. We know that this program isn't for everyone and we know that learning Java is difficult. Passing the Java Oracle exam is a big accomplishment and is very valuable, but that is just the beginning of the journey to becoming a skilled programmer. The latter portion of our program is where things get really difficult, and we know that some students will not make it through.
Based on our last 5 years providing boot camps to corporations and our previous two decades of teaching people to code, we chose the most in demand technologies for our curriculum. We are teaching the most sought after skills based on our experience with companies and data from sources like the US Department of Labor and Glassdoor.
We spend a significant amount of time working with companies to place our students into internships and jobs. Just this morning, two of our graduates were placed with a major tech firm in south Denver as entry-level Java Programmers after only two weeks of submitting applications. We also spend time and energy helping students prepare resumes and performing mock interviews. But, for students to take full advantage of our network and hiring resources, they need to stay the full 19 weeks and graduate the course.
If you would ever like to come in and chat about your experience, try again to complete the program, or learn more about our hiring resources, please send me an email: bruce(at)skilldistillery.com
~Bruce -
Anonymous
Not recommended
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Pros:
The Java instructor was excellent. He is a true teacher whose gift has helped many and will continue to do so. The first portion of Java was successful.
Cons:
This bootcamp did not produce as promised. After the first portion of Java programming, everything fell apart. The course content was advertised as unique and created in-house, however, instructors ended up reading out of external courseware manuals. The learning process consisted of unengaging lecture with very little hands-on programming. Important concepts like Agile methodology, paired-programming, and GitHub were not adequately understood or practiced. Instruction in later portions was substandard for a variety of reasons: some instructors had little or outdated industry experience, while others were simply not skilled at teaching the material. Additonally, there was no career planning component and very few graduates currently are employed in the industry. Lastly, prior and current student personal information was not kept in confidence, which created an unprofessional atmosphere.
If looking for a bootcamp that offers GI Bill support, please wait for other area bootcamps to receive approval from the Veteran's Administration.
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Maya Mohan
great opportunity
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First off, Jamie Placensia, Why are reviewing a school you never went to? Second, move on! Welcome to the real world, no one owes you anything.
I am a current student at skill distillery and so far, so good! Jamie is an excellent instructor, TA's are helpful, and there's a good group of people in my cohort who come from all kinds of backgrounds. We all kind of help each other out. The program kicks your butt, but what do you expect? I feel myself being constantly pushed, but I know at the end it will be a rewarding experience.
I will update this review when I graduate :)-------
Hey Folks!
I am back updating my review from 1/12/16 like I promised I would!! I'm a woman of my word.
All jokes aside- I'm not going to lie, the negative reviews that I read on this site bothered me. Paying $16,000 for a school that had a lot of negative reviews while I was still in the program, made me worry about what was to come. They made a lot of changes from the cohort before mine, and so my experience was much better than theirs.
I am honestly so glad I stayed. I had ZERO coding experience before the program, and at times, I truly did struggle and worried about whether the program was for me. But the instructors, the TA's, my fellow students, and our school director, helped me stick through it, and man is that the most rewarding experience to say that I graduated! I am so thankful for the program and people I've met.I now will be working as a junior java developer at American Healthcare Technologies, where I was doing marketing before.
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Pelham
A Consistently Rewarding Experience
I came to Skill Distillery with no prior coding experience whatsoever. I was worried, but the excellent instructors and support staff at Skill Distillery have made me feel at home, and I'm learning so much every day. I looked at coding boot camps all over the country, and frankly,I could not be happier with my decision to attend Skill Distillery.
Cole Frock of Skill Distillery
School Director
Jan 21, 2016
Hello,
Thank you for your positive review and thank you for being our student. I couldn't be happier to see your progress and success!
~Cole -
Anonymous
Good Technologies, Great Teachers
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I enjoyed my time with Skill Distillery. The staff were courteous and professional, and they cared about the students. It's a genuine challenge to fall through the cracks at their school.
I went to SD for the enterprise Java development aspect of the program. It's a very difficult school to complete successfully. I think a large part of that is due to the nature of Java as a full-fledged programming language and not a scripting language. After working my face off in the program, I’m now working with startups in Denver, Houston, and Santa Barbara. I can’t describe the sense of pride I have from completing something as difficult as SD’s program and being a success afterwards. Their curriculum is great; it hits all the major topics that you need to get going as a developer, and it provides a springboard to something even greater if you put in the work. My advice is to work your ass off and make great projects.
I can attest that the staff take feedback very seriously and act on it quickly. The only "downside" that I saw was that the location isn’t "cool," but that’s not really what you’re there for.
I was hired before I graduated the program, so they must be doing something right! If you want to be a developer, go to this bootcamp. They teach the most prolific technologies with an expertise rarely found in other training programs. -
Jamie Placensia
No Professionalism
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I was never a student and got turned down for the November 2015 cohort.
I AM NOT HERE TO PROTEST MY REJECTION.
I would like to simply provide feedback on the lack of professionalism shown by the admissions staff. During the process, I was really more curious as to what my shortcomings were so I could develop them and re-apply, if able. Throughout the process, multiple emails and phone calls went unanswered by Admissions Rep, even though she told me in-person that ALL applicants are given feedback, regardless or their acceptance or rejection.
After 3X emails to her, I had to physically visit the office to confront her for a simple explanation as to my status. She immediately claimed she gave my application to the School DIrector for review and notification. If this is true, he simply never followed up with me. Why? You'll have to ask him.
As of 1/4/16, I followed up to see if I could re-apply for the FEB 2016 cohort. The School Director choose to email the next day claiming that the application process would not be revised until July and that I was unable to apply until then. I see no fault in this, as the school is free to do what they choose.
However, i'm not OK with the fact that the School Director offered to answer any questions I had in his email, but has yet to reply to anything I asked about...i'm still waiting.
Overall, it appears that Skills Distillery is CHOOSING to treat people this way...and that's their prerogative...as long as they are willing to deal with the consequences:)
FYI...I did take both Learn by the Byte courses offered by the school on Udemy.com. The online Instructor was excellent...and i'm sure he's probably even better in person.
Cole Frock of Skill Distillery
School Director
Jan 20, 2016
Dear Jamie,
This program is not for everyone, and we sent you a letter describing why we did not see you as a fit for our school. We have a record of our correspondence with you, and if you have questions about why you were rejected please feel free to email me: Cole(at)Skilldistillery,com
The employee you mentioned is no longer with the program, and she was no longer here when your emails went unanswered. However, if you have questions please reach out to me.
~Cole -
Aire
DO NOT ATTEND!
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All thumbs down... do not attend... don't ask me why, Mr. Boyle has already told you why.
It pangs me to write this as I truly do appreciate and value the staff at Skill Distillery but unfortunatley when 9 months of my ("would-have-been-had-I stayed-til-the-end-and-not-left-half-way-through") GI Bill benefits are at stake, the exchange is idiotic. Mr. Boyle gives you the "why", I am here to confirm his sentiments.
Perhaps as they evolve, assuming they figure out a way to do so given the fact that, last I checked, all but one student has left the third cohort, they will become a more appealing bootcamp. Until that day comes, I'm skeptical that it will. That said, stay away from Skill Distillery like its a rat with the plague.
I want to reiterate, this pangs me immensely to write this as I did grow fond of the folks there but again at the end of the day when 16k is on the line, or 9 months of GI Bill benefits like it ultimately would have been for me, my god, do not toss the dice here. You'd have better luck taking a late night stroll through a back alley in Compton.
///Quick injection to note. The two lead instructors were more than professional. In no way does this review serve to paint an ill picture as to either their quality as individuals or developers/instructors. They were plagued with antiquated methodologies and dogma that kept them from actualizing as they could have had they, i guess "see the light" of optimal learning methodologies.///
Bruce of Skill Distillery
CEO
Jan 20, 2016
Hi Aire (Austin),
I am sorry that your experience with us wasn't satisfactory. We are really proud to be able to offer training to students using the GI Bill and we take our duty to the veterans in our class very seriously.
We know that our program isn't for everyone. Learning Java is very tough, and we are working hard to make sure that when students leave here they are capable of working in today's very competitive job market. The first-half of our program lays a foundation, and our students are put through a full Oracle Java certification course and exam. While that is a tough and demanding section, it pales in comparison to the challenges in our second half. We know that some students won't make it over that hump and we know some will need to leave the program. We do everything we can to help students through the pain, but that won't be enough for everyone.
I am sorry that you are no longer in the program. If you ever want to try again, or ever need help figuring out your next steps, please reach out to me: bruce(at)skilldistillery.com
~Bruce -
Clayton Boyle
Incompetence at its best
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Skill Distillery is a poorly planned and executed bootcamp that will take enormous amounts of both your time and money. A dangerous mix of incompetence and questionable integrity creates a learning environment that robs students of motivation and their money/VA benefits. Students have been exiting in droves after getting a glimpse into the inner workings of the school - my cohort started with 12 students, went down to 3, and is potentially losing more students before they finish.
Despite advertising decades of experience, we were only their third cohort. The previous cohorts consisted of 5 and 8 students. Skill Distillery hired a couple students out of the previous cohorts, but beyond that they provide no examples or success stories regarding students getting employment. From what I gather, some students have gone back to their previous employment. They refuse to showcase previous cohorts projects, probably due to the fact that one TA described them as 'sucking.'
Simple concepts such as paired programming and integrating into the workforce were barely covered. They were shoehorned in at the last minute in a last ditch attempt at saving our class, but this futile attempt at reinvigorating the class failed spectacularly
Hours of lecture, consisting of material being read from books in a monotone, took up the vast majority of the days. Keyboard time was minimal, and consisted of editing, cutting and pasting code provided by the publishers of the texts.
I and several other students spent hours and hours in meetings giving requested feedback to no avail. Previous cohorts were described as being unmotivated and/or of questionable talent. The lack of professionalism was a red flag, the refusal to showcase prevoius students final projects was a red flag, the disparaging remarks regarding previous students was a red flag, the terrible texts provided to us after the first few weeks were red flags, but perhaps the biggest red flag of all was the look of utter defeat on the faces of the students in the cohort ahead of us. Unfortunately, I managed to ignore all the warning signs for a while, due to my desire to make this program work.
There was one shining part of that program, and that is the instructor who teaches the first quad covering Java. He is an amazing teacher. After that, the program falls apart.
It is my opinion that anyother bootcamp in Colorado is superior. If you need to use your VA benefits, wait until other bootcamps get certified. Many are in the process of doing so right now.
I have always wanted to be a developer, and I will not let the shenanigans at Skill Distillery deter me from that goal. I am attending another bootcamp in Colorado, and I will post a review once I complete it.
It is my opinion that you should choose Skill Distillery only if you are long on time and money, short on wits, and wish to remain unemployed for as long as possible.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at my first and last name at gmail. Everything I have stated is factual and accurate - I have saved all emails, text messages, and slack messages in the event that I am questioned or attacked for providing honest reviews.
Bruce Batky of Skill Distillery
CEO
Jan 21, 2016
Hi Clayton, I am sorry to hear that your experience here was disappointing. Since you wrote a
series of lengthy comments, I want to take a few minutes to try and address
some of your concerns. Since you left halfway through the program, I think it's
fair to say that you missed quite a bit of what we offer. I think it is important to first take account of our experience. We have run boot camps for Disney, Key Bank, Raytheon, and BNYMellon in the last ten years on the corporate
side. We are not a stranger to boot camps. We got into this business to
share our knowledge of programming and development. We opened
Skill Distillery because we had been asked for years to create Java boot camps
for big companies, and we wanted to create an option for the general public to
have access to accelerated learning programs and to our capabilities to
share that expertise. You mentioned your disappointment was that you weren’t introduced to paired programming.
We certainly do a deep dive on paired programming, but we engage this topic
later in the program, after you decided to leave. As for job placement, we tell all of our students to expect about a 3 month lag time from the time they start applying for jobs to when they find one. From the time people start, our team
works hard to make sure their resumes are ready and that they are prepared to
go to interviews. We work with our network to try to get students to events and
to meet potential recruiters and hiring partners. Last week, three more of our students from the class before yours got hired into a major tech firm in Denver. These are Java developer positions and were obtained within 2 weeks of applying … reviews are on the way. Finally, we don’t read from books in class. Our instructors have a long and serious history of teaching, and they know their stuff. If anything, they go too deeply into a given subject, but
that’s all from their vault of knowledge locked in their heads. We know that our program isn’t perfect, and it isn’t for everyone. This is a tough and
demanding curriculum, and it requires hours upon hours of tedious and arduous work to succeed. In our experience, that is the only way to succeed as a programmer! If you would like to talk, or if there is anything I can do to help you, please
reach out to me. Our door is always open.
~Bruce -
Anonymous
A Great Decision
The Java Full-Stack course that Skill Distillery offers is absolutely fantastic. I learned so much in a short 16 weeks and came out of the course feeling well prepared for the next stage of my life. The staff is great, very helpful, understanding, and supportive. Going through this program was easily one of the best career decisions I've ever made. -
Anonymous
Great Program
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Skill Distillery is a great opportunity that benefited me greatly. You get what you put in, if you're ready to fully commit to learning how to code, you will undoubtedly get a job in the industry. The instructors are always available to make sure you are succeeding and excelling in the program.
If you do job searches, you will find that Skill Distillery provides very up to date education with all of the tools you need to stand out and get started in a Jr. Software Engineer role.
Advice: Always be thinking one step ahead and apply yourself. With mid term and final projects, challenge yourself to come up with projects that you will be proud to display as key talking points in interviews. -
Anonymous
Best Decision for my Career
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Skill Distillery was, simply, the best decision I could have made while making a radical career change in my mid-30s. The staff was enthusiastic and knowledgable, the curriculum was relevant and rigorous, and the quality of my fellow students was inspiring. A year after graduating from this school I can say, without a doubt, that the training I received there is directly responsible for much of the success I've had in the time since. I would highly recommend this course to all students, at all levels of ability, who are looking to work hard and make a positive change in their lives.
Prior to attending Skill Distillery I spent time as a musician, bus driver, and 6 years in the Navy. When it was time to transition from active duty toward a new career, I was looking for training in computer programming that would be comprehensive enough to get a job but wouldn't take so long that it would take me out of the job market for an extended period. I chose to go to SD because it seemed to offer both of these: the curriculum boasts an impressive list of technologies with an emphasis on Java and the training is only 19 weeks long. Because they also took the GI bill, it made the program an obvious choice.
I arrived at the school with previous, self-taught experience. The training I received at the school was way beyond what I could have done on my own, however. I was challenged throughout the curriculum, as were the other students. But, with that challenge came a lot of employable skills. I left the school with an Oracle Java SE7 certification and a strong grasp of OOP/OOD, Java SE, Spring, SQL, Amazon Web Services, JavaScript, Angular, Agile methodologies, and more.
After leaving the school I had four job interviews within one month of graduation and got four job offers. Two of the job offers were for Java developer postions and two were for python ( a language we didn't even cover at the school). Two of those jobs offered 6 figure starting salaries. The job I chose put me in a very interesting and fullfilling role as a cyber security web application developer for a large bank usign python/django. Within a few months I was a lead developer. Many of my fellow developers have no idea that I have little on-the-job experience. Because of the comprehensive training I received at the school and the experienced I gained rapidly developing projects, I fit in rather easily.
I would absolutely recommed this school to anyone who is serious about making a change into software development. You will be challenged, for sure. But, if you stick with the curriculum, you will be amazed at how much you can learn. Because this school doesn't cut corners or offer only easily-learned technologies, you will be in a great position to show potential employers that you have what it takes to make a meaningful contribution to their team!
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Anonymous
AVOID AT ALL COSTS
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Steve, the main core Java programming instructor, is let's just say, emotional. I can't even tell you how many times he has yelled at our class or threatened to kick someone out in front of the class, and in some cases succeeded much to the financial detriment of the student. Do not take this course, if you get even a little behind they will force you to quit or fall back to a previous cohort. This used to be a very good environment, it's very disappointing now, it has become a culture of fear and is very hard to learn in.
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Anonymous
Made me more employable than my three degrees
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Skill Distillery first caught my eye when I saw they accepted the GI Bill, and they happened to be close to home. I'd heard vaguely about coding bootcamps, and dismissed them without much thought, figuring they were all a scam somehow. But all of a sudden I had a relatively low risk option, and decided to check them out.
What I got was far beyond my expectations. I took about a year of computer science back in college, and this program blew through everything I knew in the first two weeks. It was challenging. Java is challenging. And adding in the full stack to build web applications with SQL, JDBC, JPA, JSPs, HTML, and CSS made me wonder if I could grasp it all. And then moving to JavaScript and building these apps using a whole other suite of technologies (Node.js, Express, jQuery, AJAX, Angular...) was like climbing to the top of a mountain only to realize I was only at the saddle. Looking back I can't believe how much I learned in 19 weeks.
I started looking for a job a little later than most, but started interviewing in the last week of school. In every interview I had I would describe what I had learned and the response was always "you worked with [fill in the blank] technologies? Well that's exactly what we do here." In some cases the employer could see areas where I could show them something new. All my interviews were favorable, and 10 days after I graduated I had an offer I couldn't refuse working with a great group of people. For the first time in my life I'm turning down job offers, and making more money than I ever would have imagined.