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Software Guild is closed
This school is now closed. Although Software Guild is no longer accepting students or running its program, you can still see historical information and Software Guild alumni reviews on the school page.
The Software Guild offers immersive full-time, online, 12-week or part-time, 10 to 14-month coding bootcamps. Courses focus on .NET/C# and Java and do a deep dive into the language fundamentals, server side, data tier, user interface, and tools. Software Guild focuses on .NET/C# and Java because those stacks are stable, proven, and in highest demand in the enterprise. The Software Guild takes driven beginners, or more experienced students passionate about development, and prepares them to compete for jobs as professional developers.
Prospective applicants must fill out an application, complete an admissions interview, take an aptitude assessment, and complete Software Guild’s Introduction to Web Development. The Software Guild looks for applicants who are self-starters with high levels of motivation and tenacity who know when to ask for help, work well with others, keep positive attitudes in the face of adversity, love learning and problem-solving, and are excited to build cool new things.
I am a recent graduate of the first .Net/C# cohort in Louisville, KY. My experience from the cohort was fantastic. The class was an immersive 9AM-5PM class, and after the first 4 - 5 weeks (once you master C#), it becomes more of a job, rather than a class.
What I mean by that, is Jason (The .Net Instructor) does give lectures in the class still, but on Monday, he will give you a project(a Web App) to do, that needs to be completed by Friday. This translates into how a job would...
I am a recent graduate of the first .Net/C# cohort in Louisville, KY. My experience from the cohort was fantastic. The class was an immersive 9AM-5PM class, and after the first 4 - 5 weeks (once you master C#), it becomes more of a job, rather than a class.
What I mean by that, is Jason (The .Net Instructor) does give lectures in the class still, but on Monday, he will give you a project(a Web App) to do, that needs to be completed by Friday. This translates into how a job would act outside of the guild.
Jason was always there to help, but wasn't shadowing over you the entire time. We had a rule: If you get stuck on something for more than thirty minutes, go to him to seek help. Something else that was more, job-like than you'd expect.
Of course, the main goal of this class is to get you hired somewhere. If you graduate the class, Jacob is there to help you secure employer connections and lead you in the right path. During the last few weeks at the guild Jacob was creating opportunities to connect to leading job employers from around louisville, and even further away! He created an "employer speed dating" day where the apprentices could schedule to meet with each employer, to help get a sense of what each employer has to offer, and vice-versa with the employer.
By no means was that the only thing Jacob did for us. Upon graduating he was also in touch with me every week, usually at least twice a week. Being the first graduating class, and with the awkward graduation date(1 week before Christmas). It was tough looking for a job. Jacob stayed in touch though, continously giving leads that he could find via email, and phone calls.
In the end, though, this all boils down to you. You need to stay committed to the program, in more ways that one. When attending class you cannot just sit through a class and expect to absorb all the knowledge to suceed. Participation is the key to being successful in this program. Particiapting by asking questions when you don't quite understand, attend meetings(outside the class hours) that the guild suggest you attend, and overall interacting with the class and the instructor. By the end of this program, the guild is not required to get you a job. The guild will assist you by any ways necessary, but ultimately it all relies on your participation. If you can follow everyone's advice, you will be successful.
If it wasn't for the guild, I wouldn't have gotten to where I am today, and would still be stuck working retail, and not living up to my potential. I have just gotten my first job as a developer, and owe a lot of my success to The Software Guild.
Personal Background
I've been messing around with programming ever since I was the age of 14 (I'm 21 now as of writing this review), and I knew that being a software developer was always what I wanted to pursue, so it didn't come as a surprise when my trajectory shifted from completing a college degree to joining a code bootcamp after 3 years of taking classes that didn't benefit my degree, and pretty much setting myself up to be in college for way longer than I ...
Personal Background
I've been messing around with programming ever since I was the age of 14 (I'm 21 now as of writing this review), and I knew that being a software developer was always what I wanted to pursue, so it didn't come as a surprise when my trajectory shifted from completing a college degree to joining a code bootcamp after 3 years of taking classes that didn't benefit my degree, and pretty much setting myself up to be in college for way longer than I hoped for. I really wanted to just jump into my career as soon as I could considering the previous experience that I had. After some research, I had selected my top three picks for bootcamps that I was interested in.
The Software Guild really stood out to me because of the employment statistics, along with offering a .NET/C# course which I was also pursuing. After looking into the school, I learned more of the fantastic job prep skills that the guild offered, and at that point I decided to apply.
The Experience
Upon being accepted to the guild as an apprentice, I was given the pre-cohort coursework that is mandatory to be completed before starting, which is an introductory, online web development course that focuses in teaching you the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This is so that all apprentices are on the same basic level of web development knowledge before starting that section of the actual course, which is very beneficial to your success at the guild (especially if you really dive into it!). It took me a little while to get the pre-work done, but it was very worth the time.
At the start of the cohort, it is all fundamentals. If you are new to programming, or just object oriented programming in general, getting through the first half of the course WILL be fairly difficult. There's a lot of material to cover, and you have to make sure that you're pushing yourself to complete your projects on time, and to get all the help you can get from your instructor (that's what you're paying for, after all) in each course milestone. Even with my previous experience with programming, there were still so many new fundamental skills that I picked up, and the workload of the course certainly challenged me.
The next section of the course is where you'll be putting all that basic web development knowledge, along with your newly gained .NET/C# knowledge to use. In my opinion, this is the most difficult section of the entire cohort, since there is so much information that is being taken in, and each week moves by so quickly that it's easy to fall behind. However if you are to fall behind at all in the course, you can quickly get caught up if you are proactive and get all the help you need to get up to speed with the material you might be struggling in. I don't think that there was a single day that I was in class and didn't ask at least a handful of questions to my instructor on what I was working on or anything at all that I was curious about.
There will be many presentations, guest panels, mock interviews, and other very beneficial tools available to you as an apprentice to get you ready for starting your job search that I STRONGLY would recommend not to pass up. Take all the notes and soak up all the information you can during all these sessions.
Concluding Thoughts
Like the title says, joining The Software Guild was one of the best decisions that I could have made for my career. I was provided with skills that I wouldn't be able to obtain on my own time, and it has opened up so many opportunities for me, as well as given me tools that are applicable to not only my software development career, but many other sections of my life too.
The #1 advice I'd give to somebody looking to join The Software Guild, or any code bootcamp in general goes as follows:
1. Be ready to work. You'll be very busy with projects and staying on top of course material throughout the cohort.
2. Don't miss up on all the opportunities & additional help that you're offered from the staff & instructors! You want to take in as much information as you can that can benefit you & your career.
3. Just have fun. Find ways to make the course enjoyable for you.
Background: I attended UofL Computer Engineering program for a year before dropping out in favor of this bootcamp. In 3 months I learned more than I probably would have staying all 4 years at university writing tic-tac-toe applications.
Coursework: Having some (although very basic) knowledge of Java helped me with the first week or so of the coursework. Regardless, the projects you will work on are challenging for a beginner; do not be scared off...
Background: I attended UofL Computer Engineering program for a year before dropping out in favor of this bootcamp. In 3 months I learned more than I probably would have staying all 4 years at university writing tic-tac-toe applications.
Coursework: Having some (although very basic) knowledge of Java helped me with the first week or so of the coursework. Regardless, the projects you will work on are challenging for a beginner; do not be scared off by this, it is good to struggle a bit when learning to code. The instructors will guide you through the purpose of fundamental techniques so that you can gain a solid foundation of learning how to go about solving problems through code. This is type of critical thinking is key to having a successful career after graduation and definitely seems to be the focus of the program, rather than just writing code for repitition sake.
Post Graduation: I have been working as a developer full time for nearly two years now and continue to use techniques that I learned while studying at the Software Guild. This program has been incredibly useful propelling my career and the community is great even after graduating -- I still talk with friends I made in the program regularly and sometimes go back for Wednesday night board games.
I can only consider my experience at the Software Guild as the best career decision I have ever made. Because of the skills I learned at the Guild I have been able to excel in an incredibly challenging, lucrative, and fulfilling career. You are thrown into a very expansive and comprehensive curriculum with only a certain amount of knowledge and encouraged to struggle and learn from the difficulty. This was key for my success in the Guild and now in my career. The single best skill I learne...
I can only consider my experience at the Software Guild as the best career decision I have ever made. Because of the skills I learned at the Guild I have been able to excel in an incredibly challenging, lucrative, and fulfilling career. You are thrown into a very expansive and comprehensive curriculum with only a certain amount of knowledge and encouraged to struggle and learn from the difficulty. This was key for my success in the Guild and now in my career. The single best skill I learned was how to effectively research issues, problems, code, etc and how to find the answer I needed. I will say at some point I do wish I was given a bit more direction at the beginning of the bootcamp when I knew practically nothing and slowly given less and less as I learned on my own but nevertheless I was successful.
I had some previous coding experience through school but didn't want to pursue a bachelors so I decided to try the Software Guild out. I had a newer instructor so the first few days were a little rough around the edges but by the end of the program everyone was prepared for an entry level position and had the skills to continually learn new things. The course is really hard if you don't commit to it and use your time efficiently, several people switched to online because they couldn't keep...
I had some previous coding experience through school but didn't want to pursue a bachelors so I decided to try the Software Guild out. I had a newer instructor so the first few days were a little rough around the edges but by the end of the program everyone was prepared for an entry level position and had the skills to continually learn new things. The course is really hard if you don't commit to it and use your time efficiently, several people switched to online because they couldn't keep up.
They really do help you with finding a job, resume reviews, networking, interviews, etc. Basically the entire part after completion of the program. I found a job after about a month and the job market was slowing down when I was applying because of the holidays. (Nov - December)
I highly recommend checking the guild out if you are interested in a tech career. Also, you should probably research your job market when deciding which language to learn but it's not a big deal because they give you access to the other course at the end of the program. I learned Java but my job uses .NET/C#
Employed in-field | 91.7% |
Full-time employee | 87.5% |
Full-time apprenticeship, internship or contract position | 4.2% |
Short-term contract, part-time, or freelance | 0.0% |
Started a new company or venture after graduation | 0.0% |
Not seeking in-field employment | 0.0% |
Employed out-of-field | 0.0% |
Continuing to higher education | 0.0% |
Not seeking a job for health, family, or personal reasons | 0.0% |
Still seeking job in-field | 8.3% |
Could not contact | 0.0% |
How much does Software Guild cost?
Software Guild costs around $13,750.
Where does Software Guild have campuses?
Software Guild teaches students Online in a remote classroom.
Is Software Guild worth it?
The data says yes! In 2019, Software Guild reported a 47% graduation rate, a median salary of $60,000, and 92% of Software Guild alumni are employed. Software Guild hasn't shared alumni outcomes yet, but one way to determine if a bootcamp is worth it is by reading alumni reviews. 161 Software Guild alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Software Guild on Course Report - you should start there!
Is Software Guild legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 161 Software Guild alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Software Guild and rate their overall experience a 4.66 out of 5.
Does Software Guild offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Right now, it doesn't look like Software Guild offers scholarships or accepts the GI Bill. We're always adding to the list of schools that do offer Exclusive Course Report Scholarships and a list of the bootcamps that accept the GI Bill.
Can I read Software Guild reviews?
You can read 161 reviews of Software Guild on Course Report! Software Guild alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Software Guild and rate their overall experience a 4.66 out of 5.
Is Software Guild accredited?
Kentucky Commission on Proprietary Education, Resident School License No. R-0470, Minnesota Office of Higher Education, OHE Assigned Institution ID: 1829945
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