UNH Coding Boot Camp

I just completed the UNH Full Stack Web Development Bootcamp and it was a very positive experience.  I have 20 years of developer experience working at a large corporation, but I felt stale in my job and wanted to learn some newer technologies.  This bootcamp really did the trick as it re-lit my passion for coding, so I am really glad that I took the course!

When I was deciding if I wanted to enroll or not, I had 2 issues that I worried about.  One was the time commitment, especially committing to every Saturday for 6 months.  The other was the instructors; I wondered if UNH could get qualified instructors because  some of the technologies are so new that not a lot of people have expertise with them.

The time commitment is significant - I spent about 25 hours a week during the first half of the class, and about 40 hours a week during the second half of the class on class time and homework.  But it is for a finite amount of time so it is do-able.  Make sure you are prepared to put in the time, because you get out of the course what you put into it.

The instructional staff was excellent so I worried for nothing on that one.  The Instructor and Teaching Assistants were all knowledgeable and able to communicate difficult concepts to a class with a wide diversity of backgrounds.  Also, they encouraged collaboration rather than competition between students, so that made the whole experience a lot more fun and was a huge benefit to learning.  If I had a question on homework, I could put it out to the class and someone would help within a few hours, either another student or the teaching staff.  And this collaboration reflects the open source culture and a real work place, because wherever you end up working you will probably be part of a team, so to learn how to operate within a team is an important skill.

UNH partners with Trilogy Education for this Bootcamp.  Although the program is new to UNH, Trilogy has been doing it at other Universities for a long time so the curriculum is pretty well nailed down.  It is very fast paced and challenging and you learn a lot of information in a relatively short time.  However, you don’t learn Java in this course.  It is misleading for UNH to mention Java in the course description because we only spent 3 hours on Java.  You could easily dedicate an entire bootcamp to learning Java and object oriented concepts, and if that is what you want to learn this is not the right program for you.

There is a career services component to the course also, since most people will be looking for a job when they complete the bootcamp.  I found this helpful because I haven’t looked for a job in about 15 years, and the job search process has changed in that time.  There is a Trilogy career curriculum which I found very helpful.  However there was a lot of turnover in the career counselors, so that was a disappointment because you were working with strangers and never really had a chance for them to get to know you.  I would rather have had 1 or 2 people helping me, rather than the 5 or 6 different career counselors that we ended up having, as a result of turnover.

I thoroughly enjoyed this course and got a lot out of it.  I have already recommended it to friends and mention how great it is to everyone who asks.

You will learn a lot. Not just HTML and CSS but JS, Node, express, react, performance, storage, how to deploy and databases as well. That being said you will have access to your teacher, teacher assistant, student success manager, career services (take advantage) and a tutor session which help the learning process so much. I know so much more now than when I started the class. The knowledge you gained will make it possible for you to create and deploy a MERN stack application on the web & phone across OS as well. My classmates were a great group of people and you will gain some friends as well. Take advantage of this opportunity. 

I am grateful for having had the opportunity to study at UNH, It was incredible. Mainly the course structure is thoughtfully built so that even beginners in coding can grasp it easily. Instructional staff, student support, and career support
staff is highly dedicated to enabling aspiring students to make informed decisions on their path to academic success. I recommend UNH Bootcamp to all who simply want to explore the coding world or want to achieve more success in their career path.

Review from a recent graduate.

Pros: 
- Instructor, Teaching Assistant (TA), and additional support staff were very engaging and insightful. 
- Very streamlined process getting set up during onboarding. 
- Curriculum goes over Full Stack development using the MERN stack. It's very empowering to know the fundamentals of what makes a web application tick. Excited to start leveraging that knowledge in future projects, personal or otherwise.
- Plenty of services/resources provided by the Career Services Team to get things like your LinkedIn, Resume, and Portfolio ready for potential employers to view, including weekly Virtual discussion sessions.

Cons: 
- Substitute instructors/TAs: I was fortunate enough to be in a cohort where our assigned instructor and TA were engaging and made learning fun and easier to digest, but whenever either one of them had a substitute due to scheduling conflicts, the dynamic of the whole cohort shifted, and not for the better. I don't think that the substitutes themselves are at fault for that, but more that there did not seem to be enough done to make the transition less jarring. Most of the subs seemed to have to do catch up on the material/lesson plan while they were in session with us. Luckily, substitution was not commonplace.

I joined this online coding bootcamp in June, 2022. My overall experience with this bootcamp has been amazing! I'm going to give a brief detail of each question that you may have.

You may feel unsure about a few things as I have listed below:

• I don't know if this is what I want?

It is normal to feel that way, because I was actually a bit concerned in the first and second week. But soon I learned to give a bit more patience to get to know my teacher- Mohammed, my TA- Bobby and my student success manager- Jeanna (SSM) (warm up a relationship!), once I feel more natural in a few classes, I definitely open myself up to ask questions during class or at before and after office hours. I showed up in the office hours every time, and most of time, I'm the only one who's there, so you can be the same to take advantage of this great one-on-one opportunity. Just you and your teach and TA! And they want to see you there!

• I don't know if this is going to be worth my time?

Learning a new skill is definitely not an easy task! Especially for those who has busy work life and family. Time management is very important! From my own experience with this coding bootcamp, I can tell you, don't feel like you don't know anything compared to those students show up with more confidence than you. Keep doing each week in-class activities and assigned weekly challenge, you will see how much you are building each day. At least, I feel learning so much by keep doing it. This is a fast-pace class, and it's going to be hard no matter what, but the truth is- The teacher and the TA team are trying to show us how to solve the problem by finding the solution on own own, so we can feel less fear not to understand everything, (No one understand everything!) 

My advice for you here- You can always say coding is not for you, but Give yourself some time to learn a skill, to get to know a new skill first! 

• I don't know if I am going to get help if I get stuck with my assignments?

I got a lot of extra help during in and before office hours. Like I said above, I showed up in the office hours to take advantages of working with my teacher and TA, they provided a demo of the part that I got stuck or other students got stuck, and we can even send requests in the Slack channel to inform them that I want to go over some topic from yesterday or last week during the office hours, and they will surely say YES!

Besides, my teacher and the TA.  I used tutoring sessions regularly, meaning- my coding bootcamp was part-time, so I was allowed to book a tutoring session with a tutor 1/week. I noticed that some students were not happy with their tutor, but I was lucky because I found a great tutor working with me through my coding bootcamp journey. 

The solution I'm going to share with you here- you can also request for a different tutor, but once you find one that you'd like to work with, you should make sure to bookmark their personal Calendly, so you can book a session with them!

• I don't know who can answer my struggles and concerns or can provide me with any possible support in the bootcamp?

I was very concerned in the first and second week. I talked to my student success manager- Jeanna (SSM) very often, more than you can't image. I explained why I need help with tutoring, I let her know I was struggled with what week's class material. She was the one who always responded and provided some good feedbacks. I booked a call with her via Calendly, so it became more personal once you can actually talk on the phone to express a feeling or a concern. 

My advice for you here- get to know your SSM, they are here for you, they won't know you need them if you don't reach out to them. They are on Slack every day except weekend, I didn't wait till last minute to reach for support, contact them as soon as you notice you need support, and you can actually start getting support in your bootcamp!

• I don't know if I am going to get a career coach to work with me to be more employee-ready?

There will be a career coach team for you once you graduate from the bootcamp. You can also start working with a career coach before the bootcamp ends. I started working with a career coach after my bootcamp, there will 4 things I need to complete before receiving on-one-on coaching session. My career coach provided back with very constructive feedbacks and great resources to each item I have submitted. 

4 things you need prior to get a one-one-one coach session:

1. Resume + Cover Letter
2. LinkedIn Portfolio
3. Profession Website
4. GitHub

My advice for you here- taking time to complete what you can first and keep building your stuff in a professional way with their useful tips. 

I can describe my UNH Coding Bootcamp experience in one word---Transformative! 

When I think of my coding knowledge, skills, and abilities at the beginning of boot camp and where they are today, just 6 months later, I am amazed. I’ve learned a lot. While I have a lot more to learn, I’m confident that I’ll be able to secure an entry level web development job and add value to a team. 

I expected the pace to be fast (and it certainly was) since there are many topics to cover in a full stack program. The program was rigorous and most weeks I spent 15-20+ hours outside of class on homework and review.  

The curriculum was well-designed and full of hands-on activities that reinforced the lessons, weekly homework assignments and three team projects. The instructional team was knowledgeable, experienced, and supportive. My classmates were of various ages and backgrounds and getting to know them throughout the course was a highlight. We worked hard, encouraged each other, and had fun. 

I had no coding experience prior to the boot camp, and I felt overwhelmed at times. However, there was a lot of support available to students: Instructor and Teaching Assistant office hours (before and after class), tutors, online support, and a Student Success Manager. The Student Success Manager took feedback from the weekly surveys seriously and worked hard to ensure students had the support they needed and had a positive and meaningful learning experience. 

The program was well worth the tuition and the significant time and effort. The program left me energized and inspired to continue my web development journey. Plus, I have a portfolio of projects that I am proud to share with prospective employers.

Background: I spent close to ten years implementing, supporting, and maintaining clinical systems but did not have a technical background. In fact, I had majored in Anthropology and Justice Studies at UNH. I wanted a better understanding of the systems that I was working with and knew that many clinical systems were going to Web Application route. This program seemed like a great choice because of its Web focus and partnership with UNH which I trusted based on my undergraduate experience. I also liked the fact that Trilogy partnered with companies in the industry to determine their technical needs and built a program that would provide students with those same technical skills.

Curriculum: The curriculum is a great combination of technologies that are currently in demand in the development world. You also touch briefly on larger topics such as Computer Science and Java. The pace is fast and the material you cover is vast. It can often feel like you’re attempting to drink from a firehose. Your focus is to try and absorb what you can in the moment so that you are able to do a more in-depth dive during your homework and projects. Ultimately the goal of this program is to provide you with the tools you need to begin your journey as a developer.

Instructors: This is where the program really shines. Our instructor and our teaching assistants (TAs) were absolutely phenomenal. It was great to have industry professionals reviewing the material and adding additional insight to areas they felt were important. They were always available to review material, answer questions, and provide guidance. I can’t speak to the tutoring Trilogy provided additionally, as I didn’t use it. The teaching staff were available enough that I was able to get everything I needed from them in person.

Job Assistance: The career development portion of the program was great. They help with resume building, interview prep, etc. The whole team was instrumental in helping me to secure my current position. Aubrey was there every step of way, helping to provide me with additional resume review, answering my interview etiquette questions, and following up throughout the interview process with recommendations on follow-up. I will forever be grateful for the help that she and the rest of the Trilogy team provided.

Overall Experience: My overall experience was incredibly positive. The program does a wonderful job of setting you up to be as successful as you want to be. The more time, dedication, and attention you provide to this program, the more successful you will be within the course and in your job search. I take recommendations very seriously and have recommended this program to multiple friends and family members. It, without a doubt, changed my life.

Before I began this 6 month journey, it was tough to conceive how we would learn 'enough' in that relatively short amount of time, to begin a career as a viable coder. While there was an immense amount of material covered, it was done in a very methodical way -- covering the basics of how to think like a computer programmer, as well as running through the fundamental technologies of web development as it currently stands, in an intuitive order that would build on prior units of material. This doesn't go into immense detail for any one technology (not enough time), but it gives you the groundwork upon which to build your technical skills, and links you to a supportive network which will help you build the other (non-technical) pieces of being an attractive job candidate.

Our instructional team was an excellent combination of personalities, both extremely generous with their time and patience. I would take a class with these two (or either one) again if I was looking to.

Make sure you have enough free time carved out (like 20-40 hours a week) so you both don't get too far behind or psychologically 'lose it'! This is an extremely intense 24-week class -- but if you're willing to put the time in -- even if you don't fully 'get it' yet -- you will pass the class. The good news is this isn't graded like a 'weed out' class -- they want you to succeed and they know it takes a while before you're actually 'good' at coding. As long as you submit enough assignments, participate in the three big projects, and attend enough classes, you will pass, even if you aren't fully grasping what is going on. With time and more practice, you will eventually grasp it -- thinking in this particular way is very difficult, thus takes a lot of time for it to become 'easy' -- no wonder it pays well!

Great experience. The curriculum is solid (and always being tweaked and tuned to make it better and keep it relevant). Scott, our instructor, was always clear, knowledgeable, and helpful. It was made clear upfront that your success is up to you and you will be expected to spend a lot of time outside class, practicing and learning additional material on your own, but they always point you in the right direction and offer plenty of support. Tutors are available and staff is accessible online.

It was hard to gauge exactly what career services would entail beforehand. You're given guidance on your resume and online profiles along with some interview prep. Our final projects were presented in a "tech fair" format, which was attended by a few industry reps.  At least a few students landed a job before they even completed the course.

Overall, very satisfied.

I loved this bootcamp, but know that it's really difficult to keep up with it and work at the same time if you are neurodivergent. I took the 6 month course, and had to quit my part time job just to keep up with school. I had Lada as a teacher and he was really knowledgeable and helpful. He really wanted us to learn and learn the proper updated way to code. It's easy to look at Chat GPT and use it as a tool, but don't let it do the work for you, otherwise you won't learn and will fall behind in knowledge. All that being said, this course does help you get a job because of the assignments that you do, go straight to GitHub to build your portfolio. But it does not set you up with any connections to businesses that they say work with the school. I linked my GitHub to my LinkedIn profile, and because of the assignments I've done from the class, it helped me get interviews a lot! Getting a job in the field comes from you doing the footwork. I fortunately made connections from my previous job and was able to land a job that way. But if you are thinking you can get a job at Google, Amazon, or any big company after this, you might be mistaken. Unless you absorb EVERYTHING you learn, or if you learn crazy fast. There is no way to remember everything you learn, but just keep trying. That's the key, is to try! Also, it would benefit you to make a group chat with anyone you connect with as classmates, it makes the experience way less lonely and you're able to lean on each other during problems.