Skillcrush

If you are a career changer, Skillcrush is the BEST program out there. You will not find a better, more cost-effective bootcamp experience out there. I signed up for two tracks: Frontend Developer and the Get Hired Tracks. It cost exponentially less than every other option out there that provides live support and access to coaching. 

The Frontend Developer track was very comprehensive and gave me substantive practice with many of the latest technologies. As you work towards completing each topic, Skillcrush provides regular checkpoints throughout the curriculum with a real person who can provide real-time feedback as you progress through each topic, making you feel confident about the code you have written and providing guidance if you are stuck. There are also live Q&A sessions available multiple times a week and a lively Slack channel that essentially provides 24/7 support. The portfolio projects showcase that you know how to build using the latest technologies and have been carefully designed to be great practice and great material for LinkedIn and applications.

The Get Hired track provided amazing guidance, particularly as a career changer. The units helped me convert my existing resume and LinkedIn profile to one that looked like I belonged in the software industry. In fact, Skillcrush's advice was so effective that recruiters from major companies reached out to me. In addition to the unit content, you also have access to a weekly coaching session for 12 weeks where you can share your progress (or lack thereof), get advice, and receive support. This was a very worthwhile investment to make in addition to the curriculum to help me locate jobs and be as prepared as possible for the interviewing process.

Thanks to Skillcrush, the process from starting the first lesson to the job offer was five months. I not only got a job offer from a major company, but Skillcrush also coached me on how to increase my salary and benefits upward. I cannot more highly recommend Skillcrush and their team. They guided me from start to finish towards a new career that will change life for myself and my family. Check them out - you won't be sorry!

The course is excellent for anyone wanting to learn tech skills, either starting out or as a career changer. The course is logically sequenced, well explained and reinforced by quizzes, feedback challenges and portfolio development to cement new learning. Students have access to instructor guidance within 24 hours, as well as being able to ask for help from other students through the Slack online community. The course content is delivered in a contemporary and humorous way, which makes the learning fun, while being relevant at the same time. The ethos at Skillcrush is one of respect for diversity. Everyone is welcome. This is very reassuring when starting something new. I haven't begun the component of the course that assists with job seeking as yet. However, I have absolute confidence that the instructors will assist me with this when the time comes. 

I am really glad I joined Skillcrush's Break into Tech bootcamp. I have just completed the JavaScript course and will start the ReactJS soon.
This course has given me the needed skillset to start out as a Front-End Developer. They  provide a lot of website coding challenges that will bring out the programmer in you. Being a self learner myself, the knowledge I gained here has really strenghtened my programming foundations. Part time learning or immersive learning. It is all up to you. Perfect.

I completed the Front End Developer Blueprint with Skillcrush a few years ago (2017). When I did the web dev course, it gave me so much confidence and I was able to land a role as a multimedia developer as a result. Now I'm back again for the User Experience Course to power up my skill set even further. About a third of the way through, it's been exactly what I needed, and has so much relevance to my current role. I love how transferable the skills are (I do instructional design as part of my job, as well as multimedia development). I chose to do these courses instead of pursuing a university degree. Yeah I know it's apples and oranges, but for me it's been such a worthwhile time and money investment, and I've learnt things that are immediately actionable rather than theory focus (like Uni).

I am presently learning front end development in designing web pages. It is my first attempt at learning these skills and I find it very challenging.  However, I also find it very rewarding in the sense that I am learning new skills (I love to learn new things) that may eventually lead me into a new career that I can work from home. I have already put two webpages online, both of which are pretty simple and nothing to brag about.  The fact that I wrote the HTML and the CSS and the JavaScript, purchased a domain, transferred my files to my hosted account through Filezilla with file transfer protocol and got my webpages online and available for anyone to see, is amazing!  I have to admit that it has taken me over a year to reach my current level. With covid and changing jobs and just life in general getting in the way of studying, I've had to advance at my own pace.  Just this morning I finished the first course of JavaScript fundamentals.  Tomorrow I will dive into JavaScript React.  Anytime that I have been really stuck on something, help has always been prompt and straightforward.  The instructors have made it look easy to get me pointed back in the right direction.

I signed up for some coding camps back in 2006 and got through part of the WordPress course but got intimidated. I finally came back to Skillcrush this year and completed the first course in the series on HTML and CSS. All my coursework was still there waiting for me in new improved formats. I had originally signed up for front-end development with the WordPress module and the design section. It was great to be back and get started again and found it much easier this time since I was already familiar with coding. Now that they have the Job assistance program I am planning to start that in 6 months once my skills have come along.

Skillcrush has been fantastic from day 1! Their instructors do a great job of not only explaining what you are learning but why you are learning it. Skillcrush does an amazing job of providing information about each lesson as well as providing examples of each lesson. Each lesson is set up for the student to interact with the lesson material and engage in hands on learning before moving on to the next subject material.  The one thing that sets Skillcrush apart from the other online courses is their ability to help you along the way if you get stuck on a lesson.  They are very fast at responding to your questions as most of my questions were answered the same day. They do an excellent job of encouraging the student to use the skills they have learned to help solve the issue they are stuck on. I recommend skillcrush to anybody who is seeking any kind of career in the tech field, but doesn't have any prior knowledge or work history in the tech field!

I took my first class at Skillcrush just under a year ago, and today I am working full time, remote, at a great little design and development agency.  I am SO glad I took the plunge and signed up for Skillcrush! (I did the "break into tech" package, which is the comprehensive all in one, and also includes the career prep class.)

Prior to Skillcrush, I spent a few months trying out classes at Codecademy and Coursera (some free and some paid), but never quite gained traction with those.

For me, what really set Skillcrush apart was:
- they're truly beginner friendly: this means it's okay to know NOTHING about code on day one, and still make meaningful progress.  It also means they walk you through setting up local development environments and publishing real websites on the real internet.  I couldn't quite get those things going in my previous courses at other places, but Skillcrush had just the right mix of super clear instruction, encouragement, and helpful teachers...and then down the line, I had more confidence to tackle new things on my own. 
- it's fun: the classes are a nice mix of videos, reading, projects, and the topics and the way they present it is entertaining. 
- they're super-focused on the daily skills of web development: collaborating on GitHub, doing a thorough QA (quality assurance) on your project before publishing, searching the internet for bug fixes...these are all core to my current job, and all things that I learned at Skillcrush.
- instructors (and fellow students!) are helpful and kind:  the internet is not always the friendliest place, and that can include "support" forums on the internet.  And at the cheaper monthly-fee coding schools like Codecademy, there just isn't the number of staff to provide a lot of support.  At Skillcrush, there is a super-positive and very quick to respond community of instructors and classmates on Slack.  (And importantly, they're much more likely to point you in the direction of answer, not just tell you the answer.)
- their career support is AWESOME: the classes on job readiness, and the personalized support during your job search, are amazing.  Like there is a whole class just on this! And during the class you get individual feedback on your resume, your LinkedIn, interview prep, mock interviews, negotiation techniques, weekly check-ins with career counselors and other students - honestly this aspect alone could be worth the price of admission.  

And, they have an express mission of bringing more women and BIPOC folks into the tech world, which is something I can really get behind.

I think the only reasons not to pick Skillcrush would be if you'd rather (and have the time for) a more condensed, full time bootcamp experience.  Or if you are set on a particular field in tech that is outside web design and development -- say lots of back end, or data science, or something else.  

All in all, a great coding school and a community I'm so happy I found!

I'm one third into the Front End Developer + React course and I love it. The courses are subdivided into lessons. Each lesson teaches a topic and includes an instruction video, a written summary of the information and tasks that allow you to apply your new skills to a practical project. At the end of the lesson you review the most important information in form of a quiz. 
I had no previous experience in tech before I started this course and I have to say that I do not regret the investment one bit. The entire curriculum is just so well-built that it is easy to keep going, despite doubts and minor frustrations. I particularly like the fun GIFs and the encouraging language all throughout the course. The Skillcrush community in Slack is also friendly and being able to share problems and successes is very motivating.

I signed up for the Break Into Tech blueprint a few months ago and have enjoyed it so far. Right now I'm working through the Front End Developer section and have completed both the HTML/CSS and Git/Github courses. I like the way Skillcrush stages their instruction so that they introduce new topics bit by bit and slowly have you practice them on your own to get confident with the topic. This is a self paced course so you do have to stay on top of it and make sure you take the time to work on it, or you won't get anywhere. 

For this tech newbie, I find the instructional method very helpful and effective. This particular blueprint includes 1-on-1 meetings with Skillcrush advisors and job training courses as well for those who want extra support. I have had one advisor meeting so far and will probably sign up for another soon. 

I really enjoy the active Slack community. Fellow Skillcrushers are very kind and helpful, and one instructor in particular, Lisa, is always willing to jump in when you get stuck. She's great! (They all are, I've just noticed that she goes above and beyond.)

One thing I must note is that when I send in feedback challenges, I sometimes write a message to the instructors about how the topic was confusing or difficult, etc, and I get a generic response back (ie. Great job!) I would appreciate a more personalized response in those cases, especially when I mention that I was confused about something. 

Overall I'm happy with my decision to start learning with Skillcrush. I'm not sure I see a full time web developer career in my future, but having some skills in this area definitely won't hurt my resume. I look forward to tackling the Responsive Web Design and WordPress courses. 

Thank you Skillcrush!