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Skill Distillery is an intensive, 16-week Java bootcamp in Denver, Colorado. The course is arranged into three units – Java Programming, Server-side Java, and Front-end Development. The curriculum focuses on the fundamentals of programming, Java (and its libraries), unit testing, Spring, Spring MVC, and using a source code repository. Students will also gain experience deploying web content to a web server and navigating the server file system from the command line. Skill Distillery graduates will be prepared to take the Oracle Certified Associate – Java Programmer exam and will be on track for a career as a web interface designer or a full stack application developer.
No prior coding experience is required; instead, Skill Distillery looks for driven, determined and passionate people wanting to make a change in their life. Prospective applicants must complete an online assessment, meet with an admissions advisor, and finish a logic test.
Skill Distillery’s parent company, Batky-Howell, has more than 25 years of experience training more than 40,000 IT professionals from companies such as HP, Lockheed Martin, Level3, Time Warner and Disney.
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 ...
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.
There are lots of coding bootcamps out there, and picking one can be an extremely intimidating process. There are all these schools to choose from that all teach different coding languges and all seem to boast a phenomenal hiring rate. So, how are you supposed to choose?
I didn't know this when I was choosing a coding bootcamp, but the two most popular and profitable languages to learn today are 1) Java and 2) Javascript. Skill Distillery is the only coding bootcamp I know of th...
There are lots of coding bootcamps out there, and picking one can be an extremely intimidating process. There are all these schools to choose from that all teach different coding languges and all seem to boast a phenomenal hiring rate. So, how are you supposed to choose?
I didn't know this when I was choosing a coding bootcamp, but the two most popular and profitable languages to learn today are 1) Java and 2) Javascript. Skill Distillery is the only coding bootcamp I know of that teaches you both - and they teach them to you well. I started applying for jobs about a month and a half before the program ended, sent in applications to just three companies, and landed a job as a Java developer three weeks before the program ended. My new salary is 50% higher than the job I had in marketing and communications less than a year ago. I'm going into my job confident in the skills that I learned at Skill Distillery, and confident that I now have a solid foundation as a developer and can teach myself myself anything that may be required of me in my new job.
I would like to preface this review with the fact that before this bootcamp, I had zero experience and only an extreme interest in the idea of coding.
Application Process/Why I Chose Skill Distillery
After searching for about a week through different bootcamps across the country, I decided on Skill Distillery. I was prior military in Colorado, so going to school in Denver sounded like a great place to be. The fact that they accepted the GI Bill was a b...
I would like to preface this review with the fact that before this bootcamp, I had zero experience and only an extreme interest in the idea of coding.
Application Process/Why I Chose Skill Distillery
After searching for about a week through different bootcamps across the country, I decided on Skill Distillery. I was prior military in Colorado, so going to school in Denver sounded like a great place to be. The fact that they accepted the GI Bill was a bonus factor for me, but not the primary.
The application process was fairly straightforward and quick. After sending an email to them, I heard back within one business day (I had applied on a Saturday evening). They had answered all of my questions and concerns, and within the next two, maybe three days, they had me take a 'creativity and logic' test of sorts, all done virtually with one of their administrators. After that, I believe it was another 48 hours when I received an email stating that I had been accepted and I began the course pre-work after I made my deposit. Total, I say about a week and a half had passed for me to finish the entire process and receive my pre-work once my deposit was made.
Classroom Experience
The classroom is pretty small, but comfortable. You're close to your classmates, but it isn't overbearing. We had 13 students in our class, and during the first half of the program there is almost always at least 1 instructor and one TA, or two of either, to help. This was important to me, because I knew I would have a lot of questions and not be afraid to ask them.
There were a couple TAs each day that would stay behind after normal class hours and often I would be there with several other students well past 7pm continuously asking for guidance, and they would stay there with us until the last student left. This includes the weekends, even when snow storms slowed down most of the Denver Metro area.
The first two quads were hell, especially for someone with no prior experience such as myself. But with the additional guidance and constant paired programming as well as plenty of hands-on labwork, I would say that most of us were able to keep up without issue. Anyone who did have issues would put the time and effort in on their own time and during the weekends and they were fine.
The last two quads were just as quick paced, but were focused on Javascript and at this point I believe some people, myself included, began to lose a little focus. This was just from possible classroom fatigue or primarily beginning the search for jobs in their preferred fields of Java, toward the end of the last quad.
Overall, I believe the instructors (Jamie and Rob especially) and the TAs did a great job of holding our attention, addressing our issues and weaknesses, and learning from previous cohorts to improve maximize our experience and Cole and Bruce will continue to improve this for the cohorts going forward.
Gripes
Not much for me to say here, as I'm pretty easy going about this type of stuff. The only things I would have to say here would probably be that the last quad be locked down a bit better regarding the MEAN stack. Even though I am putting this here, it's fair to note that this is also being addressed, as we had our end of school sitdown with the director in regards to our concerns, and it's being worked on to improve for future cohorts.
Job Hunt
** Again I will note that I had zero experience in programming before this. Prior to this bootcamp, I had worked as a medic in the Air force and a Customer Relations manager in the Healthcare Technology field. I don't have a college degree, and did about a year and a half of college courses toward my AA before I decided I wanted a change. **
Due to my unique situation, I started looking for jobs about a month before school ended. Within about a week and a half of applying to a number of jobs, I had three interviews that I had gotten past the phone screening stage. Two of the three were impressed with what we had learned from a bootcamp, and they continuously stated that it seemed we knew more than most CS grads fresh from college. About three weeks into my job search I got my first job offer and I currently work for them here in Denver.
If you have any questions regarding this program, feel free to shoot me an email. I'll gladly answer what I can.
Making the decision to attend a coding bootcamp was one of the most difficult I have had to make. The bootcamp model is relatively new and there are mixed opinions everywhere about the merits of a condensed and accelerated programming regimen. I approached the beginning of the program with a fair amount trepidation, and I knew that I was taking a risk, having no idea if it was going to pay off. I can now say, after watching previous students and fellow classmates receive high paying job offers from reputable companies, that the model and curriculum that Skill Distillery has instituted is world-class and without peer. The Skill Distillery team has repeatedly shown that they can take anyone with a logical mind and turn them into quality programmers.
I ended up choosing Skill Distillery over other bootcamps for three reasons, they have over twenty-years of experience in corporate training (Disney, Sony, Lockheed Martin, etc.), they teach a serious stack (Sql, Java, Spring MVC, JavaScript, etc.), and they are one of a very few that has been approved for the GI Bill by the Veteran's Administration. I could not be more satisfied with my decision as each one of my reasons for joining were exactly what was delivered and more. As far as the experience gained from corporate training, that shines through in all aspects of the staff and instructors that work at the school. Jamie Romero and Rob Roselius have been teaching Java and Sql/Database Administration/JavaScript respectively, continuously, to professional programers for more than 15 years each, and their professionalism and raw ability to teach is far beyond what any other program offers. Both Jamie and Rob wrote the curriculum that they teach, and have developed it over the past 16 years, continuously updating it all the time to be at the cutting edge of the programming needs of both us students and also the companies that need to have their programmers learn the latest technologies. Cole Frock the school's director has been invaluable to students in helping to connect students and companies, local programming events, and professional groups in the community. What I really wanted from my time learning to program was to walk away with the skills that would be desirable by professional companies and that is what I got from the Stack taught at Skill Distillery. The first 10 weeks of the course are spent learning Java, not just procedural programming like taught at other schools, but in an Object Oriented way. Object Oriented programming is not taught at other schools and this is why some bootcamps get a bad reputation for putting out coders who don't understand how to actually engineer enterprise level applications. Spring MVC is also taught here, MVC (model view controller) being a programming pattern integral to secure web application design, I have talked to students at events that graduated from other bootcamps that have no idea what the MVC pattern is much less how to implement it. After moving on from Java other hugely popular and highly desirable technologies are covered to include JavaScript, NodeJS, Angular, MongoDB, BootStrap, and jQuery. As for taking the GI Bill, about six of my fellow classmates were veterans and we all agreed that being able to come to Skill Distillery with our earned benefits was amazing. We came from all over the country and were all blown away by how much value that we were able to get from attending this bootcamp. One of the students that I went to school with, no prior programming experience, had a job offer across the country weeks before the program even ended. In my cohort we now have had eight students that have had job offers and or started a job as a Java/JavaScript developers, not QA testing, not sales, not anything other than full developer positions, this and we graduated just a bit over a week ago. I could not have ever hoped for a better experience or a more solid education in programming fundamentals and CS design patterns from any other bootcamp. I will report back when I find a job and to let you know how my experience goes in the coming months. I am currently in the process of moving to California and have no doubt that I will have great success with the impressive tool chest that I am bringing away from my time at Skill Distillery.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...
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
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 assis...
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.
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 organizat...
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.
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. ...
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
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...
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!
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 wa...
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.
If you're trying to choose a coding bootcamp, think very carefully about the kind of coding you want to do and what you want to get out of the experience. Think about the stack you want to use at your next job. Skill Distillery is a full stack Java bootcamp. We started with Java, then worked our way to the back end, designing databases with mysql and persisting data with SpringMVC and Hibernate. Next comes Javascript. By the end we'll be able to create a web application from start to finis...
If you're trying to choose a coding bootcamp, think very carefully about the kind of coding you want to do and what you want to get out of the experience. Think about the stack you want to use at your next job. Skill Distillery is a full stack Java bootcamp. We started with Java, then worked our way to the back end, designing databases with mysql and persisting data with SpringMVC and Hibernate. Next comes Javascript. By the end we'll be able to create a web application from start to finish. There are a lot of technologies to learn about to get through this process, and the learning is intense. There is a good mix of structured lectures and group and individual projects. You can be as creative as you want. The team here is dedicated, professional, very experienced, and interested in our success. They have carefully chosen what technologies to present to us, and they have carefully structured the learning experience to create the most employable and most capable developers possible. In 19 weeks. It feels very back end heavy, which is what I prefer. If you are mostly interested in front end design, you might want to look elsewhere.
I am currently halfway through the course at Skill Distillery. Prior to this, I was attending college using my GI Bill. I had taught myself a little programming, but I had no direction and it was a very slow process. I found Skill Distillery and decided to take a chance on something new, and I have zero regrets! It has been a great experience so far, and I am amazed at the knowledge I have gained from this school.
The classes are a mix of lectures, labs, p...
I am currently halfway through the course at Skill Distillery. Prior to this, I was attending college using my GI Bill. I had taught myself a little programming, but I had no direction and it was a very slow process. I found Skill Distillery and decided to take a chance on something new, and I have zero regrets! It has been a great experience so far, and I am amazed at the knowledge I have gained from this school.
The classes are a mix of lectures, labs, partner projects, and individual projects. I noticed some of the other reviews said that there was not enough hands on time, and that is definitely not true. The instructors always make sure to balance lecture, examples, and hands on time as needed. The material is not easy, but it is manageable if you are willing to work hard. Very knowledgable and helpful instructors and TAs are always available and willing to assist you. There has not been one day where I went home with a question unanswered. Overall, it is a very relaxed and friendly environment with all of the resources you could ever ask for.
Also, for the veterans - Skill Distillery offers a great value for your GI Bill, and I would encourage anyone that has the opportunity to consider this school. I don’t think there is any other place where you can use part of your GI Bill benefits to gain such profitable skills.
If anyone has any questions about my experience here, feel free to email me at alexmp1689@gmail.com. I will also be updating this review after I complete the course.
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How much does Skill Distillery cost?
Skill Distillery costs around $19,950.
What courses does Skill Distillery teach?
Skill Distillery offers courses like Full-Stack Web Development w/ Java Bootcamp (Online), Full-Stack Web Development w/Java Bootcamp (Onsite).
Where does Skill Distillery have campuses?
Skill Distillery has an in-person campus in Denver.
Is Skill Distillery worth it?
Skill Distillery hasn't shared alumni outcomes yet, but one way to determine if a bootcamp is worth it is by reading alumni reviews. 145 Skill Distillery alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Skill Distillery on Course Report - you should start there!
Is Skill Distillery legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 145 Skill Distillery alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Skill Distillery and rate their overall experience a 4.73 out of 5.
Does Skill Distillery offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Yes, Course Report is excited to offer an exclusive Skill Distillery scholarship for $500 off tuition! Skill Distillery accepts the GI Bill!
Can I read Skill Distillery reviews?
You can read 145 reviews of Skill Distillery on Course Report! Skill Distillery alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Skill Distillery and rate their overall experience a 4.73 out of 5.
Is Skill Distillery accredited?
Skill Distillery is a certified vocational school by the state of Colorado.
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