Skill Distillery

I came into SD with a very small amount of prior programming experience, no web experience and no exposure to object-oriented programming. The intense first five weeks at SD introduced me to OO and the Java language, and prepared me very well for the OCA exam. Web development curriculum did not disappoint either. The instructors were very available and very helpful, and consistently provided useful advice and feedback, and the alumni community proved very helpful in tracking down my first position. I would recommend SD to anybody looking to make this career change.

I am a graduate of cohort 27 - 16 week Full-Stack Development with Java - and attest to the fact that Skill Distillery (SD) is all it claims to be. Like most things in life, you get with you give. If you apply yourself, show up daily, and ask for help when you need it, you will have the skills necessary to excel as a full stack software developer. The curriculum is spot on providing you with the necessary concepts making it easy to learn additional languages.
SD is a family first and foremost. Every employee lives and breaths the SD Values.  Cohorts are small thus valuing personalized attention and success over profits. Every person is valued and feedback is not only valued but heeded. The alumni network is second to none. Complete strangers ban together providing assistance to one another whether you have a coding problem you’re trying to solve, learning a new language, or figuring the complexity of Hacker Rank / LeetCode.
The instructors are very knowledgeable and experienced. They are patient and open to questions as well as being creative and practical in their presentation of the material helping to keep you engaged when you think you cannot possibly learn yet another new concept. The teaching assistants have been in your seat and provide wonderful support and guidance without solving the problem for you.
Like most boot camps and computer science schools, Skill Distillery does not guarantee job placement. However, through out the boot camp brown bags are offered providing support for setting up your LinkedIn profile and crafting your resume. After graduation, instructors and previous graduates gave of their time to provide one-on-one mock interviews. The alumni network has a job search channel on which openings are constantly being posted. If you desire to work for one of the big firms (Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc), you will need to do additional studying on Big O and algorithms. Udemy is a wonderful and inexpensive resource. SD has great contacts for veterans.

 This was the best decision I ever made! I was currently in a dead-end sales job and not happy with where my career was going. I decided to take a leap of faith and do a career pivot into Computer Programming. I have now found the passion that has been burning inside of me! The Full Stack Java Web Development Program at Skill Distillery was the best! This bootcamp is no joke, you need to put in the time, work, and effort but just know you will be rewarded 100% once you graduate! The instructors are the best and are there to help you get placed into the right job! So if you are on the fence, think no more, DO IT! You will NOT regret it! #SD27  Pros:  The course is full of knowledge and you might think you are drinking from the fire hose but it is well worth it!!!! Trust the process! The Instructors are there to help you no matter what, so you will not be suffering in silence! The money you are investing is worth it x5!  Cons: My cohort was during the Covid-19 pandemic so it was all virtual - which was still amazing! But if you're not used to online learning - that might be a challenge - but the instructors and the team are there to help you and they made it just as wonderful! The only thing i would have to say is that I wish they offered a hard copy book of the material... all the material is online - but for myself I need a text book in order to make notes in. 

I attended Skill Distillery in 2019 shortly after leaving the military.  Everything about the experience exceeded my expectations from the first day of class through graduating and getting my first job as a developer.  The instructors are amazing and the curriculum is well designed to give you what you need to compete as a junior developer.

The program is intense.  It's not easy, and is not for everyone.  You need to have the aptitude for this kind of work to be successful here, and they will help you decide if you are a good candidate during the admissions process.  You will begin coding on day one, and it doesn't slow down.  They call this a boot camp for a reason!  Between class and homework, plan on putting in at least 60 hours a week.

I was amazed at what my classmates and I were able to produce in this short time.  You will write literally dozens of small projects while learning Java, JavaScript, SQL, and HTML.  You will also design and build two fully functional web projects for the midterm and final.  A week or two into the course, I watched the class ahead of us present their final projects and I remember thinking there is NO WAY I could build something like that.  A couple of months later I was even more amazed when I did.

You might be thinking this sounds great, but can you actually get a job coming out of a boot camp?  In a word, YES.  Some of my classmates had interviews prior to graduation.  I had a substantial commute to/from class which left me no free time, so I decided to wait until graduation to start seriously applying for jobs.  I sent out maybe 15 or 20 resumes.  Within days of graduation I had a promising phone interview.   That lead to in person technical interview two days later, and I had a job offer before the week was over.  I have been working at this company for over a year, and can honestly say it's the best job I've ever had.

If you are motivated, disciplined, and not afraid of drinking from the fire hose, Skill Distillery can offer you the express lane to a career as a developer.  Give them a call. You will be glad you did.

I started programming in college for a semester and discovered coding bootcamps. I found Skill Distillery through VETTEC. It was one of the few schools that taught Full Stack Java Development along with Angular. I was having trouble learning how to learn programming and getting everything to stick prior to attending. I loved the model that was used to teach. We would have a lecture and a lab to enforce what we learned for every topic. Skill Distillery allowed me to transition from the medical field into a Software Engineer position. I currently work using Angular and almost everything I learned in the bootcamp.

The instructors and assistants for Skill Distillery were very helpful and compassionate when it came to teaching and some even stayed with us after class was over just in case we needed help. Skill Distillery also had a lot of workshops for job assistance in the second half of the program as well as after we finished our final projects. I recommend working on HTML and CSS before attending and during your downtime since this coding bootcamp is more backend heavy.

I highly recommend Skill Distillery for anyone in search for a coding bootcamp. Just remember you get what you put into it. I spent a lot of time during my downtime making sure I understood the material and it paid off for me in the end.

I attended Skill Distillery (SD) around end of Jan 2020 and graduated first week of May. I have only good things to sat about the program and especially about the instructors. The course work was very well laid out and had a very good structure to it. Although it is Full Stack, most of the focus was on the backend especially Java using Spring Framework. I cannot, and I write again, I just cannot say how good the instructors are. Rob, Denise, Alex, and Paul are all great. They have over 15-20 years of teaching experience and they know how to teach. They have a vast amount of knowledge but they know how to transfer it over. I cannot thank them enough. The whole program is like a family and Briana, Bruce were very understanding and made everyone feel home from day one. I was lucky to be in a cohort full of veterans, and this definitely helped me. I only have good things to say about the program and the people involved in it. However, I feel that the networking opportunities should be better. Overall, I would definitely recommend anyone trying to get into the software engineering field to attend Skill Distillery. You will learn a lot while feeling at home.

Choosing to go to Skill Distillery was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I essentially picked up my whole life and moved across the country to attend, and I don’t regret it one bit. I was working on a computer science degree in college and felt like the degree was taking far too long, with a lot of irrelevant classes that made my course load feel bloated. It was simply a more effective use of my time to spend 4 short months in a boot camp vs. 4 long years at a university. 

Skill Distillery being a 16 week full stack program that covers front and back-end means that you’ll have a lot more experience with a wide variety of technologies when compared to most other courses. This greatly improves the amount of jobs you’re qualified to apply for. The course is legitimately difficult because of the speed you learn these new technologies at, but with the help of the instructors (who actually have industry experience), it’s nothing you can’t do if you actually study and put effort into your assignments. I can’t recommend Skill Distillery enough.

This was a very worthwhile experience. I'm coming from a very different field, and I needed a school that has strong connections to local businesses. I also wanted in-person instruction from instructors with experience in the field. This school far exceeded my expectations, and I feel well prepared to start a new career in a different field. The instructors are prepared to personalize instruction where needed, and they do a great job of breaking down complex topics for people unfamiliar with the content. The graduates also find work pretty quickly after completion, and the school is a big help with job search assistance.The entire staff is very open to student feedback, and I felt that they were very responsive. I'm very glad I came to this school. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to train or retrain for a new career.

Skill Distillery was one of the most challenging and over the top schools I have ever been to. Coming from a non coding background I believe what I have learned at this school has given me enough that I can succeed in this field of work. The Instructors here are very informative and down to earth they will help you whenever you need it but at the same time push you to the extreme to get you reading and breathing code. I will say this if you are not serious, can't handle pressure, and don't like failing this is probably not for you. Through this course you will come to understand that in coding you will have alot of pressure, you will be failing alot of code, and you will be playing catchup most of the program. But when everything finally connects you will be gratful for what this program has prepared you. You will be surprised at how much you know, and you will not regret it.

This boot camp isn't going to be easy. I think a lot of us made the analogy that it felt like standing in front of a firehose of information that we were frantically trying to absorb.

But I loved it, I remembered it all, and if I forgot anything I always had a fantastic resource to look back through to find my answers.

This boot camp will absolutely prepare you for your future, and they are some of the kindest and focused individuals you will get to work with to help you on your journey. When you are graduated, they encourage you to hang out and look for a job in their lobby, and ask for help with resumes and cover letters.

They are incredibly supportive, and the small class room (I had 10) means that you get a lot of focus and attention if you need it.

You'll have to work hard. I kid you not. It will be worth it though, and you'll be better for it, and the employers they know come to them specifically for students because they know we are well prepared and people who are capable of learning.