UNC-Chapel Hill Boot Camps

I just completed the UNC Full Stack Coding Bootcamp and it was the best decision I could make for my career and professional development!  I decided to work full-time and complete the program, so I will say it was a ROUGH 6 months.  Even though it is advertised as "part time" it feels like a full time job because you dedicate anywhere from 15-25 hours a week on the program.  Do not let this deter you, just be prepared for the stress.  I ended up doubling my salary, and landed a great job the day before graduation.  The curriculum was well thought out, the weekly homeworks and activities did a great job utilizing the skills/concepts we learned, and my instructional team was absolutely amazing (shoutout to Lisa, Noah, Tom and Aly). 

My only complaint was I felt that career services was too slow/not proactive and did not provide great feedback on "milestones" (resume, linkedIn, portfolio).  I had my submitted materials reviewed by a tech recruiter, who felt I was not given great advice.  I know this is subjective, but this is just my experience and opinion.  I also wasn't able to meet with my advisor until after I had found a job.  Her availability was so limited (not her fault - maybe overworked?) it took a month to get on the calendar, so I ended up taking on the job hunting process with the help of my instructors and recruiters I connected with on LinkedIn. 

Overall, this is hard work, especially if you have a job and personal life, but it is worth it.  The sooner you start, the sooner you finish and move on the better opportunities. 

I've been teaching elementary school for  10+ years and was hesitant to start this program because I thought I might be too old, or it was too late in my career to start over.  I was wrong.  This program is excellent and will teach you everything you need to know to start a new career as a programmer.  The teachers are 100% always there to help you.  The program itself is intense but flexible.  The other students in my class were so great and helpful.  I feel like I made lifetime friends in just 6 months.  If you are older and thinking about changing careers I would not hesitate to recommend this program.

UNC Chapel Hill Coding Bootcamp was an incredible experience. There was an instructional team that was kind and made themselves available. They adapted to the students' needs and provided whatever support was needed. There was additional support outside of the classroom. Lisa was encouraging and always made herself available. They understand life occurrences and did whatever necessary to work with you. The program itself it fast-paced but has an abundance of resources. It was an incredible experience! 

I was very nervous about applying to UNC for their data analytics bootcamp. If you are feeling like that don’t!!!! It was the best investment I have ever made for my future. If you are lucky enough to get Michael, Taylor, Brianna, Jacob and Justin you won’t regret it! It is fast paced but Michael explains it in a way that makes sense. All the TA’s are very understanding and want you to succeed! They are all rooting for you and want help you in the future. By far the best class ever! Michael is brilliant! Taylor, Jacob and the other TA’s are so knowledgeable. You won’t make a mistake taking this bootcamp! It was worth every penny! Lisa is amazing, I have never met someone who is so nice and encouraging before. 

I couldn't have asked for a better experience with this Boot Camp. I did do some self-taught HTML/CSS before committing to make sure this was something I was really interested in first, which I suggest as this isn't a cheap commitment. 

This is a fast-paced course with lots of material to cover so plan to devote at least 10-15 hours a week to study/homework outside of class. Our instructor was extremely knowledgable on all subject matter and the support received from the instructor, TAs and tutor was above and beyond. This course can be challenging and the work can be frustrating at times, but if you complete all of the homework, with assistance from TAs or tutor if needed, then expect to leave this course with lots of useful knowledge and technologies/programs to add to your resume. As you're completing your homework and projects, you're basically building your own portfolio. 

The Boot Camp was built with a goal for all graduates to land a job in the field. Career Services is very involved with resume, portfolio, LinkedIn, etc. help. They provided a workshop almost daily centered around finding tech based careers.  

Highly recommend! 

I highly recommend the Data Analytics and Visualization Boot Camp through UNC-Chapel Hill! It was a game changer for me. I'm switching careers from being a teacher and I have learned so much in the past 6 months, it's truly amazing. The instructing team was awesome and genuinely cared about all of us. I looked forward to seeing them in class each day! Also, I made several great connections with my fellow boot camp peers - I'm going to miss them! (FYI, This course is intense and you should be willing to put in 20+ hours a week for class, homework, and projects, especially if you do not have prior coding experience (which I did not).)

In addition, Career Services has helped me become employer-ready. My resume and LinkedIn are spot-on thanks to my Career Material Advisor.

Overall this was a tough but amazing journey over the past 6 months and I would do it again in a heartbeat! 

Data Analytics course at UNC Chapel Hill is a recommended for all people who are willing to put their hard work and who is passionate and enthusiastic to work with real data. The course syllubus is  well organized and the Instructor ,TAs were so helpful and knowledgable. The home works and projects were well designed and its a great practice and it was a great learning experience to the people who are new into this field. I highly recommend and encourage to take the Dat aAnalytics class and succeed.

I found the course via word of mouth from a peer who went through the course. She had nothing but good things to say in regards to the relevancy of the curriculum, and the doors it opened for her.

Being only three months in, I can already confirm that this has been the best investment of both time and money that I have made since completing my undergrad degree in Finance. 

From other Developers that I have spoken with, and the communities that I browse online, what we are learning / have learned is exactly what the Software Development industry is demanding. The relevancy of the course material is what I appreciate the most. 

The course has taken us through the front end of Web Development, beginning with the basics of HTML, CSS, Bootstrapping, and Javascript. Then, we moved towards creating command line applications by leveraging the power of Node.js. Now we have reached the backend portion of the full stack curriculum. 

It is fast paced, truly a bootcamp. But if you are of the mindset that you want to make a better professional life for yourself, or even pursuit independent entrepreneurial endeavors that may revolve around creating online applications, then this is the place to start. 

Lastly, my advice to any applicants would be to be both disciplined, and excited. This is a chance for you to learn something that you enjoy doing, while challenging your standard train of thought. It will become a lifestyle, and studying won't feel like studying anymore, because the course will always leave you yearning for more.

 

The 24-week coding experience was an awesome game changer for me. I attended school with some of the most knowledgeable cohorts, in addition to, the smartest TA's - Noah, Tim, Zach and Paul. 

One of my most unforgettable and touching class observations, was viewing a fellow student struggling. Alper, our instructor, observed it, too. So, he walked over and pulled up a chair to sit beside him. Alper, sat with the student until he was able to understand the new material.

Lastly, Lisa. Lisa, was always thoughtful, uplifting and kind. She would sometimes Slack words of encourgement (because life will show up) to let me know, I was not alone on my journey. 

This was truly a game changer, and I'm glad I decided to take the leap of faith. The people you will meet, I promise you, have the potential in becoming your rock.

The Coding Bootcamp through Chapel Hill was professional, challenging and extremly informative .  When I decided to perform a career pivot I looked at several options for bootcamps and decided to apply to the UNC program due to UNC's reputation for collegiate academics.  I was not dissapointed!!  The program itself is extremely challenging, especially to someone like myself with little to no experience within the web developement community.  I was supported throughout the entire process by career services, student support services, the instructor and our ta's.  They all take time to ensure you understand the material and excell.  The program takes you in-depth through the different parts of web developement from the basics of HTML, CSS and Javascript to Mongo, Node applications and React.  The coursework is challenging but through the homework and class projects you are set appart from others with a Professional Portfolio you and your future employers will be proud of.  If you are looking to make a career change, would like to futher your current knowledge of web developement or just enjoy tinkering within the industry I would highly recommend this program.

I completed the bootcamp in May of 2018.  After graduation, I worked for Trilogy as a Teaching Assistant as well as a Video Curriculum Engineer on their Enterprise Curriculum Team, and I recently got offered a position as a UX Developer with Fidelity. 

Overall Experience: 
I had a good overall experience in terms of the sheer amount of material that I learned throughout the course as well as in securing a job in the field afterwards.   A++ to my Instructors, Student Success Manager, and the new Career Services Director.

Incoming Knowledge: 
I came in with almost no experience, but this course made it easy to succeed with the right amount of effort outside of class (which absolutely varies from student to student).  I did work during the bootcamp as well, which was difficult but manageable.

Course Advice:
Even though this is a part-time course with only ten hours a week of in-class time, what you put in outside of class is essential for success.  From experience in my own cohort and from being a TA, it is pretty consistent that the people who put in the most work outside of class are the most successful (including students who work hard being more successful than students with prior knowledge).  The course sets you up very nicely to learn how to learn, but there is so much information out there that you need to be prepared to take the class activities and use them as a jumping off point for deeper learning.  Additionally, you can do just enough learning to get through the homework, but spending the extra time while you're in the cohort and have the instructors as resources is pretty invaluable in terms of growing your coding skillset for life after the bootcamp.
Final piece of advice: do not get behind.  Keep up with the classwork and homework, because the courseload grows expoentially as you dive into more difficult subjects, add projects, and start job hunting. With that in mind, if you are ever struggling, there is one other huge perk to the bootcamp, which is access to free(!) tutors who can work with you outside of class.  

Career Services:
I would have given career services no stars because they were completely unhelpful during my cohort.  However, the new director who has taken over is terrific!  She made the effort to follow up with former graduates like myself, had incredibly useful advice for job hunting, and is as hands-on or hands-off as you prefer in terms of scheduling followups and coachings.

Post Graduation:
I got funneled into working for Trilogy almost right away, which was a great way to get my foot in the door in the development world.  You will come out of the bootcamp with a lot of knowledge and skills, but very little experience on your resume.  However, If you are persisitent about keeping up with your learning (show that on github!), actively working on side projects (again with the github), practicing talking about what you know (maybe buy a whiteboard...), and being proactive about your job search (make a spreadhseet), you will definitely be set up to find a good job!

TLDR:
This course is definitely worth it! You get what you put in.