Tech Elevator

At the time of this writing, I graduated 3 days ago. I was a C#/.NET Student at the Cleveland campus.

I loved my time at Tech Elevator. My classmates were great, the instructors were knowledgable, and the Pathway Director has guided me into 4 interviews and 1 offer. The cirriculum moves extremely fast, which is a good thing. It only took 14 weeks, but I feel confident going into Junior Developer interviews. I've done technical mock interviews with friends in the tech industry, and they were surprised at how well-prepared Tech Elevator has made me for a Junior Developer role.

The cirriculum is hard, and you only get three hours of lecture a day on each subject. After lecture, you are assigned an exercise to hone your skills on what you just learned. LEAN ON YOUR INSTRUCTORS AND YOUR CLASSMATES! Everyone at Tech Elevator wants you to succeed and they show it. There will be times when this program is really stressful, but the payoff is worth it.

The biggest draw to Tech Elevator for me was the Pathway Program. The program teaches you skills on how to prepare and interview in the technology space, from resume workshops to setting up a LinkedIn profile (my resume looks AMAZING now). In addition to teaching you how to navigate the tech job market, the Pathway team regularly brings in (virtually) local companies who are interested in hiring bootcamp grads. These employer showcases give students a chance to see what kind of work is available in the area and make connections with local technical recruiters. As a graduate, Tech Elevator offers 6 months of post-graduation job assistance. There are bi-weekly meetings with your Pathway Director to check in with you and help you on your job search.

Once you get to the last few weeks of the bootcamp, you have two days of company matchmaking, which was easily the most valuable part of Tech Elevator to me. You are given the opportunity to interview with 4 companies for 30 minutes each, asking and answering each others questions. I landed 3 interviews from matchmaking!

The only complaints I have about Tech Elevator are that some subjects could use an extra day and/or improved lecture materials. To no fault of the instructors, some of the lecture code they used in lectures was not applicable to what we were learning. Our instructor did their best to make a lesson that worked, and for what it's worth, they did a great job. On the pathway side, I think Tech Elevator could do a better job of verifying whether or not the showcased companies are hiring and what their tech stack is. Most of the companies that were showcased used C#/.NET, which was good for me, but the Java students felt underrepresented. I interviewed with a company that was showcased at matchmaking and completed a coding assignment for them only to find out that they were not hiring for a few months after the end of the bootcamp.

Overall, Tech Elevator was an experience that I will remember fondly forever. I made good friends, learned valuable skills, and pushed myself farther than I thought I could go. Take the leap and go all in! Read less

Where do I start? If you’re deciding on taking the online course and end up getting [name redacted] as your instructor then please run. His instruction is very poor. He does not follow the lecture code he is given by the TE curriculum team and will try and make his own and get lost and confuse you more. If you ask a question then expect everything to be answered but what you asked him..

The pathway is just a lot of bologna. Day 1 they show you a big slide about how their is a reason as to why they are a preferred bootcamp due to their hiring partners but they only had 4 employees come see us and half of them didn’t even have any open positions. Now this could possibly be due to the economy currently but who knows right? 
They give you tons of material to read and then the following day waste your time with a Zoom meeting rehashing everything you just read when you could be coding or anything else really!

This bootcamp labels themselves as a fullstack bootcamp but really all the curriculum is mainly focused on backend with a little bit of front end. The 3rd module which is supposed to be front end spends 2 days on JavaScript and then they show you Vue which is not a very in demand JS Framework. 

I have heard wonderful things about this bootcamp but I’m assuming it was because those students had taken the bootcamp in person vs online.  Read less

Wonderful experience.  They give you a good foundation on the technical side.  More importantly they prepare you for the team oriented endeavor that is programming today.  You will have to work, and the more you put in the more you get out. 

Brian is an excellent instructor! Read less

Women in our class, including myself, have reported some form of harassment and/or violation of student conduct rules by a certain student. Unfortunately no action has been taken and the student is still in the program. This is very disappointing coming from a program with such a high reputation.I feel unsafe and uncomfortable in our building, and not able to be present or focus in the way I would like to be. I am very disappointed that a month has gone by and nothing has come of it.  It’s to the point where we avoid walking alone whenever possible and it’s always in the back of my mind. The coding program itself is amazing, but this situation has been detrimental to my experience.  Read less

I did a lot of research before enrolling in a bootcamp and I think Tech Elevator is a great choice because of the languages taught and the career help. The bootcamp is very hard and intense but the other students were great to work with and we did a lot of pairs programming which I was skeptical of at first and ended up really enjoying the process. They have matchmaking days with some employers hiring entry-level tech jobs (like development, QA, and tech support roles). A few people from my cohort got jobs through this and TE's career people do a good job of trying to get you connections to help you find a job. I found the job search very difficult and it took me 4 months to find a job once I finished the bootcamp. But it varied for a lot of people in my cohort, some landed a job right away. The instructors were amazing. They all had about 10 years or more of industry experience and were great to work with. You could set up meetings with them to practice for technical interviews or discuss side projects. Overall, my experience at Tech Elevator was very positive and I would recommend it to anyone trying to break into the dev world.  Read less

It's hard, it's scary, it's stressful, BUT it is completely worth it. You'll meet a lot of other great people learning just like you, and it'll seem like it's impossible to learn all of the stuff in the program, but you just have to trust in the process. It is absolutely a life changing experience. I was skeptical, but after you do a couple of interviews, you'll build that confidence that you truly know your stuff. In the end I had to two offers, and couldn't be happier with where I ended up. So if you're still feeling a bit skeptical, go to one of the alumni meetups, or reach out to graduates on linkedIn and talk to us! If you want to be a developer and you're willing to be in the work, you won't regret it!  Read less

Tech Elevator was an amazing experience that changed the course of my professional career. I came into the program with little idea of what I wanted to do going forward with my life, and I left with direction and the skills to become a professional in the tech field. Read less

Prior to joining Tech Elevator, when I was deciding on a Bootcamp to attend the two things that set them apart were the Pathway Program and the fact their job placement rate was 90% and that number was updated and checked by a third party each year. The Pathway program completely exceeded my expectations and did more than what I expected. They help you from day 1 until you find a job. They helped us prepare our resumes, practice interviews, taught us how to network and market ourselves as well as so much more. Even after graduation, your team of professors and Pathway directors are always available for you to reach out to if you ever need anything. The curriculum is rigorous as any good Bootcamp should be, but the main factor that sets them apart is the amount of help you have at your disposal. To start you're taught by experienced professors who have been in the industry for many years and who almost always have the answer to all your questions. Then you have your study group of 3-5 individuals who are also from your class that you can always reach out to and ask for help. If that fails you can always ask for help from the Academic Fellows who themselves have been through the Bootcamp and have been in your shoes. If you are looking for a Bootcamp that will give you results it would be a great disservice to yourself to not consider Tech Elevator!  Read less

I went in to Tech Elevator with a couple of random college courses in coding and some self taught knowledge, and graduated from the program with a job starting a few weeks later. Not only did I get up to date and speed on current technologies and techniques used in industry, I also gained major soft skills working with others on code and got invaluable guidance through my job application processes. Not to mention the fact that the pathway team at TE set me up with more than half of my interviews. Absolutely would recommend for someone seeking a structured learning environment and guidance through job applications and interviews. Read less

Enrolling at Tech Elevator turned out to be a great path forward for me and my career. Pairing their certificate program with any amount of existing education will give you a huge advantage in entering the tech workforce.

My cohort was initially supposed to be in-person when I enrolled, so I was apprehensive when it was decided to go fully remote because I had very little experience with remote learning. However, the transition was seamless and I felt that I got just as much out of it as I would have in-person. Tech Elevator's instructors are knowledgeable and great at connecting with their students. The perspective they provide is invaluable, and is a real advantage over some other self-paced curriculums you may find online.

Their Pathway job placement program is the secret sauce -- about a third of your time with Tech Elevator will be spent improving your resume, portfolio, and interviewing skills so that you're most prepared to land a job as soon as possible after graduation. There is an extra level of commitment and investment to making sure every student has the opportunity to succeed, especially since Tech Elevator markets their program on their astounding job placement rate. This sort of job placement support I received at Tech Elevator was leagues beyond what I got out of my undergraduate education at one of the most expensive universities in the United States.

I'm earning a decent salary in an exciting career only a few weeks out of graduation. I'm very pleased with the experience I had with Tech Elevator. Read less

I've always wanted to have a career as a software developer, and when I was laid off from my job because of the pandemic, I decided there was no better time to just finally DO IT. After extensive research, I chose to go the bootcamp route instead of going back for another degree and Tech Elevator was in my short list of options.

The main reason I picked TE was because of how localized it is. I wanted a bootcamp that knew my area and had connections to companies there. I was also appreciative of their application process, the screening/pre-work, and how they helped to get you ready for the bootcamp before it even started.

Bootcamps are still a fairly new concept and they all have some bugs to still work out. But TE is on track to being a shining example of what a bootcamp should be. Their curriculum is challenging and relevant, their staff cares about their students, and their growing local networks provide many opportunities to their students. Overall, I am very happy with my decision to not only attend a software engineering bootcamp but also that I chose Tech Elevator.

Pros: 
-instructors are knowledgable, helpful, passionate about teaching, and greatly care for their students' success 
-Java is a challenging programming language to learn and their curriculum breaks it down into very manageable pieces 
-matchmaking with local companies, many of which may lead to job offers 
-post-graduation support to help you prep for interview and keep you on track with your job searching

Cons: 
-some of the career-prep content is too generic, lacking in content, and doesn't feel individualized Cons: -some of the career-prep content is too generic, lacking in content, and doesn't feel individualized Read less

This 14 week bootcamp gave me the fundamentals I needed to transition into the tech industry. Even though it was a really fast paced bootcamp, I learned a heck of a lot and built some very neat things in the pairs programming and capstone team projects. The tech instructors were very engaging, extremely helpful, and did a great job teaching remote. The Pathway program was one of the main reasons I chose Tech Elevator over other bootcamps- their network of hiring partners, the assistance with job searching, and the program director acting as a dedicated recruiter to help students find jobs was phenomenal! Read less

I graduated with a bachelors degree, and after that much schooling I can easily say my instructor at tech elevator was the best I ever had.  I learned a great deal and was able to grow my skills.  It is fast paced, and if you are able to keep with it you will progress very well.  They are great at preparing you for challenges for a future in tech.  There is also a strong emphasis on helping you land a position in tech.  They have and develop relationships with many employers to help their students find placements.  A great deal of work is developing them. Read less

This was the greatest experience in my life and it changed the directory that I was going in that ultimately saved my life. This program was amazing and everyone involved was caring about not only making sure I grasped the material but that I was prepared for the working world after and that I landed the job I always wanted  Read less

I went to TE during the fall cohort of 2020 in Columbus, Ohio. It could not have been better. I was in the .net cohort and we were completely virtual. The instructors there are some of the most caring people you can meet. Matt and John are so sincerely invested in every student's success. They are available for way more hours than they have to be and they always give 100% effort. They will work with you until you get the concept and give you advice for how to succeed. The curriculum is so good. I have a friend who just went through another columbus boot camp (i wont say which one) and she did not get nearly the detail or attention and was underwhelmed by the curriculum.  The pathway program is the secret weapon of this bootcamp. I had 7 interviews lined up for me all thanks to the amazing pathway directors. Of those 7, 6 asked for a second interview. I decided to move ahead with 3 of those, and all 3 made an offer two weeks before school ended. Dont try to save yourself 2 grand by going with that other bootcamp, TE is more than worth the money. They even help you find a job after school is up, if you didnt get one during bootcamp. Just ask them for the statistics, out of the 18 in my .net group, i think about 8 of us had offers 2 weeks before school was up. Its been nearly two months since bootcamp ended and all my friends have jobs I would be excited to have myself. Read less

I began my journey into software as a self-taught developer in January of 2020. In three months, my passion for software had driven me to learn the basics of QA automation, basic object-oriented programming, and to develop appealing web pages. I had secured a software engineering internship to begin in April 2020...we all know what happened next (I lost my position due to the pandemic). I continued my job search for months, going from weekly interviews to dead silence. I'd lost hope to continue on my own.

Tech Elevator was the best career decision of my life. Although extremely rigorous, we covered nearly 3 months of my self-taught journey...in as little as 3 weeks. The curriculum covers object oriented programming, followed by databases, then API's, and finally web development. These are the skills need to build any full-stack application. They helped me refine my software development skills as well as my professional soft skills, capitalizing on my strengths and patching my weaknesses through practice and mentorship. 

Everyday, we'd have 3 hours of instruction followed homework and projects (this would consume the rest of the day until sunset). Every couple weeks, we'd meet with our Pathway Directors, who were responsible for helping us refine our job search, soft skills, and interview skills. I had the most fun during our four capstone projects, which were big projects that our skills (and mental durability) to its limits. After 14 weeks of lectures, Pathway, and capstones, I graduated Tech Elevator with some job offers in-hand. 

TL;DR: Tech Elevator is extremely rigorous but rewarding and efficient. This is a good step to finding a career in technology as a software developer.

P.S. Andy Chong Sam is a great instructor. His lectures are clear and concise and he has no issues with changing the way he teaches. However, what makes Andy a superstar is his ability to teach 1 on 1. I promise you, things will click in no time with him around. Read less

The staff at Tech Elevator are amazing.  Our instructor had many years of relevant experience and made himself available to help when we needed it.  The course content was difficult and really pushed me past what I though my limits were.  The job placement portion was top notch also.  Throughout the cohort they had several high level people from major companies speak with us.  They also had technical and behavioral mock interviews with real companies, and help match making sessions to get us in front of companies that were hiring.   Read less