Tom Phillips Associate Technical Consultant • Graduate • Full-Time Java Coding Bootcamp - In-person • Detroit
Jun 10, 2020
My Background: I graduated with a degree in Music Performance six years ago and worked as a freelance musician before Tech Elevator. I was teaching lessons, touring the country, recording, and doing all sorts of musical odd jobs. It was a very rewarding career, but I found that I hit a point where I had hit all of my goals and no longer felt challenged. I wanted a new career that was mentally stimulating and rewarded hard-work and continued learning, but would still all...
My Background: I graduated with a degree in Music Performance six years ago and worked as a freelance musician before Tech Elevator. I was teaching lessons, touring the country, recording, and doing all sorts of musical odd jobs. It was a very rewarding career, but I found that I hit a point where I had hit all of my goals and no longer felt challenged. I wanted a new career that was mentally stimulating and rewarded hard-work and continued learning, but would still allow room for creative problem solving. Last summer, I took a few online courses on Edx in different topics that interested me to explore the idea of a possible career shift. One of those courses was Harvard's CS50, which introduced me to coding. I found that the abstract thinking and deep thought required to code was very similar to the creative headspace of composing music and felt at home. Around that same time, I met Jeff Jeung, Campus Director of Tech Elevator's Detroit campus, at a local event in Detroit and heard him do a presentation on their curriculum. Tech Elevator had just opened in Detroit and their Fall cohort was about to begin so I decided to enroll.
Admission Process:
The first thing I noticed about Tech Elevator was how seriously they took the admissions process. I was surprised that Tech Elevator's admissions process felt more thorough than when I had applied to college. It was clear to me that they only let students into the program that they believe can succeed. I took an online assessment made up of logic puzzles and then attended an open house event to learn more about the program. After that, I went back to the campus for a 60 minute interview where I discussed my story, my goals, what brought me to Tech Elevator, and was asked behavioral questions. The interview was a very pleasant experience and was very conversational. After that, I had to take a more comprehensive 90-minute assessment. After receiving the good news of my admission and deciding to enroll, Tech Elevator sent out approximately 40 hours of pre-work that covered the basics of coding.
Why Tech Elevator?
I'm inherently not a risk taker in life, so the thought of spending a lot of money on a program that had no guarantee of landing me any job had me skeptical at first. I did several weeks of research on various bootcamps, in Detroit and in other cities, and spoke to bootcamp grads to try and gain a picture of what it would be like, whether it was worth it, and what to look for in a bootcamp. The two biggest things I found in my research were to look for programs that are transparent with their job statistics and look for programs that are selective. Tech Elevator works with a 3rd party auditing company to verify all of their statistics, which made it a lot easier to trust their statistics and I've already mentioned how thorough their admissions process is.
At the time, I was also considering self-learning and going back to college. I thought that four years and spending a lot more money seemed impractical for my situation, and while I'm confident I could teach myself coding with all of the great available resources online, the idea of actually getting a job seemed intimidating. In the end, one of the final turning points for me was coming to Course Report and reading a review from a past TE student that had come from a very similar background as me and found success, so I hope to whoever is reading this, that this review helps to guide your decision too!
What Part of the Program Helped Me The Most?:
What sets Tech Elevator apart from other bootcamps is that they have what they call the Pathway Program, which is a parallel course to the coding curriculum that teaches you how to get a job. We started with writing and rehearsing elevator pitches, and then moved on to creating LinkedIn pages, going to meetups, learning to network, resume workshops, and doing mock interviews. A lot of these activities put me outside of my comfort zone, but being pushed to do five rewrites of your resume or being assigned to send three private messages to potential networking contacts on LinkedIn was invaluable to getting a job. Pathway was led by Nicole, who did an incredible job making me feel confident and provided invaluable feedback. By the time it came to applying for jobs, I felt really prepared with the whole process so that I could put all of my focus on interviewing and showing off my best side, instead of stressing about the little things.
The Pathway Program culminated in a Matchmaking Event where each student interviewed with a half dozen hiring partners in the Detroit area. Prior to Matchmaking, each company came in to do a presentation about what they do and what they're looking for in an employee, which made it easier to prepare for the interviews. I was lucky to receive an offer that I ended up taking from Matchmaking.
Coding Curriculum:
Tech Elevator's curriculum is divided into four modules: core Java, databases, server-side web development, and client-side web development. Each module is several weeks long and culminates in a capstone project that is completed with one or more other students. Each day begins with several hours of lecture, followed by free time to work on the assignments. Outside of the lectures and homework, the days are also filled with Pathway events, review sessions, and special seminars to learn skills like Test-Driven Development. You'll find yourself staying late most days working on the homework and collaborating with other students and the instructors. Learning to collaborate and solve problems with classmates is invaluable and is a skill that will definitely come in handy in the real world. Andy and Margaret, the instructors, are both exceptional people and have unlimited patience when it comes to answering questions and troubleshooting bugs. It's safe to say that every student's success is very important to the instructors.
Getting a Job:
As mentioned before, I was very fortunate to secure employment during the program during the Matchmaking event. I was hired as an Associate Technical Consultant for a company called Perficient. They came in to do a presentation early in the cohort and returned for matchmaking. During matchmaking, I had what was mostly an HR interview where I was asked about why I was changing my career and some behavioral questions. After that, I was given a coding assignment to complete in one week. My second interview was presenting my project and walking through the code and answering questions. After that, I received an offer.
My job started with two months on-the-job training in a project-based setting and then I was put on my first real project doing web development for a major automotive company. So far in my career, I am wearing a lot of hats every day. I'm doing web development with AEM and React, working as an Automation Engineer writing scripts with Java Selenium, as well as some QA Lead responsibilities.
How Well Did Tech Elevator Prepare For My Job?
An important thing to understand with bootcamps is that no program can teach you everything you need to know to be a successful web developer. There is so much to learn and technology is always changing to the point that someone who has been working for decades is still learning everyday in their job. However, the most important thing you can learn from a bootcamp is how to be a good learner. If you can successfully consume and learn Tech Elevator's curriculum in fourteen weeks, it's a good sign you'll be ready for anything a job will throw at you. When you're new to coding, it seems really important to learn as many languages and frameworks as possible, but really what's important is learning to think like a software developer, using good patterns, and how to ask the right questions. At the end of the day, I'm not necessarily using specific skills I learned at Tech Elevator everyday, but I've learned how to pick up new skills quickly, how collaborate and communicate well with my team, and how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Advice to Prospective/Future Students:
It's important to understand that simply attending Tech Elevator and completing the assignments will not guarantee you a job, but if you keep yourself accountable and push yourself there is a really good chance you'll find a lot of success. The best thing about enrolling in Tech Elevator is that you've committed fourteen weeks of your life to deep-diving into an exciting new world. It's rare in life to have such an awesome opportunity to focus entirely on one thing, so it's really important to make the most of your time. You'll learn a lot everyday in Tech Elevator, but you should still do your best to follow your curiosity outside of the curriculum. Anytime you see any word or line of code that you don't understand, google it. Any time that you're stuck on a problem and don't know what to do, ask a class mate or an instructor.
Personally, I made a concentrated effort to stay ahead of the readings at all times so that every lecture was reinforcing my knowledge, instead of hearing information for the first time. It's really important to try and work on a side project, even if it's small, so that when it comes to interviews you have something to talk about other than what you've learned in the bootcamp. I made a simple Tic-Tac-Toe game with Java and was able to talk about it in the interview that got me my job. Do your best to attend meet ups and network outside of class, it will be really helpful to have some contacts when it comes time for job hunts. I met someone at a meetup during Tech Elevator who is now a friend and a coworker. The time will move really quickly, so make sure to make the most of it, but also remember to enjoy the journey. Your classmates will feel like family by the end of the cohort and you should expect to form lasting friendships.
Also, I would recommend taking Harvard's CS50 before the bootcamp. It's free, will lay a great foundation, and will let you know if coding is for you.
Bottom Line:
Tech Elevator was definitely a life-changing decision for me, and a really wonderful experience. I'm incredibly lucky that I was able to successfully shift careers in only a few months and it would not have been possible without Tech Elevator's help. I made a lot of great friendships with my classmates and the staff and always look forward to seeing them. Tech Elevator will be a very difficult experience and at times you may doubt your ability to succeed, but if you work hard and persevere, you will find that you're capable of doing amazing things.