Tech Elevator

As you go through life there are key moments that drastically change your course in life, and, for me, the decision to attend  Tech Elevator was one of them.  After more than fifteen years in retail I was treading water in a position that had become just  a job to me, something I had to do to pay the bills.  I had done some work on my own designing a website using HTML, CSS,  PHP and a little Javascript, and I found it fascinating, but lacking direction and support I couldn't see myself getting a job  doing it.  What Tech Elevator offered was an opportunity to start a career that I had a passion for, something I wanted to do  rather than something I had to do.  

During the course, mornings were dedicated to lecture, and afternoons were dedicated to hands on coding exercises.  This  worked well for me because I find I retain knowledge best when I get to apply it, which in this case means writing code, and  writing code is something we had ample opportunity to do.  David, our instructor did a great job explaining the concepts and  syntax of coding, and was always willing to answer questions before, during, or even after class in the evenings.  We learned  how to design and code Java web applications from start to finish, using the tools, frameworks, and processes that are in use  in the field today.  Overall it was a lot of work, I lived and breathed code for those three or so months, but it really prepared me to enter the workforce as a junior developer.

Another major component to the Tech Elevator course is the Pathway Program.  This is a series of workshops and panels  with industry insiders centered around giving you the skills you need to actually get a job using the coding skills you're  learning.  Coming from someone who had worked at the same company for 14 years and had little experience with  interviewing and resume writing, this was invaluable to me.  Practice interviews, resume building workshops, improving your  Linked In profile, the whole team supports you from day one in getting you ready to land that first job. They even bring employers to the school so you can get that valuable in person connection. I felt like everyone wanted to see me succeed on a personal level and they were willing to go out of their way to help me make it happen.

Overall, I can say that I highly recommend Tech Elevator.  As I mentioned, I had done some self study previously, but Tech  Elevator offers benefits you can't get learning on your own.  You get top notch technical training, from instructors with a ton of  real world experience, and you get the support of a team dedicated to helping you start your new career.  But the proof is in  the pudding right?   What was my outcome?  Well, I accepted a job offer within a month of graduating with a starting salary that  doubled what I made before the course, doing something that I truly have a passion for.  Like I said, there are moments that  change your course in life, and if you're looking to make a change, I'd say Tech Elevator is a great place to do it.

After several years working in industry (international trade) I wanted to study coding both to add to my skill set and to open up new career paths. Tech Elevator's lead Java instructor, David, brough his extensive career experience into the classroom - he proved to be a great teacher, really devoted, and I felt he truly cared about the progress of our class, often responding to email queries on homework assignments late into the night and early mornings, and also working one on one to bring me forward on topics where I struggled.

The bootcamp covers full stack web development from back to front end, which means a lot of material in the time period. So workload is high, and pre-reading / pre-preparation definitely important… The school provides all this.

The resume and interview workshops targeting tech jobs were extremely valuable, as was being plugged into Tech Elevator’s professional network of employers and recruiters- a huge bonus of studying at this school, particularly if you’re network is not in this field.

After gaining these skills, I feel confident to go into software development positions, and intend to keep learning more skills as I go forward, which will open more and more doors for my career.

I should also mention that the people (both classmates and the school staff) were really friendly and I built some great new friendships over the course.

The pathway program is a series of useless material, which may not be useful if you have prior work experience in literally any field. The program does not prepare you for technical interviews, which is a crucial part of the interview process for tech jobs. The 6 month job assistance offered is limited to meetings with someone from TE, who only provides generic advice. The matchmaking event was not productive, as most employers were not hiring and the few that were required a bachelor's degree. The instruction provided is rushed, but not bad. However, they do not cover important topics such as data structures and algorithms, which can be encountered during the interview process.

 I had a poor instructor, and the campus director was not responsive to requests for a switch. Overall, the program is marketed as a workforce development program, but it is not worth the cost if the instruction is not tailored to the student's needs.

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!

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. 

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. 

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. 

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! 

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!