Learn Linux at These 158 Linux Bootcamps

• Learning Process: I was in a small online class of 12 students all near the Dallas area so we were able to meet in person for group projects. Since the classes were so small the teacher and teacher's aid were able to help answer any questions we had and walk us through important concepts.
  • The lessons are very detailed, guiding you through basic to more advanced programming concepts, and at the end of the lessons, you code an assignment that you can add to your GitHub Portfolio. 
  • We had a virtual class two times per week for 2hrs where the teacher would go over the material in the modules, then an optional study session with the TA once a week which, I highly recommend going to. 
  • The teacher was very well educated and did an excellent job at helping you understand every concept in the syllabus.
• Projects: The projects are probably my favorite aspect of the class. You decide with your group what project you want to work on and everyone contributes to the project's Github similar to how you would do it in the professional environment.
  • If your group decided to make a Crytpo portfolio analyzer in the first project, in the following project you could build onto that and make an Algorithmic trading bot or whatever you want.
• Advice: My advice to people who want to get into coding or just want to learn Fintech, is to take this boot camp and put in what you want to get out, you won't regret it.
  • The more you study/practice the better your coding skills will be, make a schedule with plenty of study time and stick to it.
  • For studying, I found I learned best by working on the end of the lesson assignment as I learned the concepts, using Stackoverflow as needed, then using the optional TA study session to ask any questions I had; or fix errors I encountered in my code (which were many early on).
• Job Assistance: Of the career services I have used from other boot camps, this has been the best by far. 
  • At the end of the lessons, there is a career connection page that tells you how to add the new skills you learned to your resume, what jobs use these skills, questions jobs might ask based on what you just learned, and upcoming career events.
  • There are tons of webinars that you get access to! Coding interview prep workshops, Google recruiting webinars, and way more. I highly recommend signing up for every webinar you are interested in, even while you are still going through the boot camp.
  • A career material advisor gives you continuous feedback on your resume until you are satisfied with it, then you get paired with a career coach who, essentially coaches you through getting hired (technical interview questions, etc).
• OVERALL VERDICT: I went to school at a top-ranked university, and previously completed a Veteran Technology cybersecurity course, and I learned more in SMU's Fintech boot camp that actually applies to jobs than I did anywhere else. I would recommend this boot camp to anyone who is interested, if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me on Linkedin.

"Process over python" was a quote that the instructor Jeff reinforced throughout the course. Yes we learned the technical knowledge of python for building ETL pipelines from scratch, but Jigsaw also teaches you how to think like a programmer and approach problems using data engineering logic. You stop worrying about if you can solve something, and start breaking down a coding challenge piece by piece using the Jigsaw curriculum's methodology and principles that utilize python's incredible programming logic of data type transformations, functions, inheritance, etc. so you're prepared for any data engineering position. The course materials are 100% dedicated to data engineering, and Jeff is supported by incredible TAs that circulate rooms so that you're never stuck. Finally, the externship finishes off the immersive and the hands on experience was invaluable and tied everything together. The job support continues indefinitely beyond the course as well. Finally, my cohort was wonderful and we all learned as a team and I look forward to maintaining those genuine connections.

As a former full-time Android student and current Mobile/Android Developer, I can confidently say that TurnToTech has played an immense role in starting my career as a Mobile Developer. Their bootcamp offered an immersive hands on course experience which ensured I had the skill set needed to survive in a professional Software Developer environment.

TTT's course was not the typical class room/lecture environment. It was the kind of course which engages you to constantly learn by solving problems and creating projects (I'd like to mention that this was made perfectly clear to me before I enlisted). The hands-on course work included Object Oriented Programming (OOP), problem solving with algorithms, and creating many android applications that centered around specific functions with the addition of an Internship.

As a current Android Developer, I've worked at two companies now since my departure from TurnToTech; and I cant stress how similar the course work is to what I've faced on the job. To clarify what I mean, I'll give a quick rundown of how finding and working at a Mobile/Android developer role is like.

1) To get an interview, you need a resume depicting projects you've worked on as a Software Engineer. Thus my resume (I'll note here that I was a recent Nursing grad and the only job exp I had was at the Home Depot) compromised of small android applications which TTT's course provided to create and that I continued adding onto(polished them and added my own features), the internship project at TTT which I got to work within a dev team of fellow students under the instructor who I say acted as a product manager/lead developer, and my own small application which the instructors were more than happy to encourage/help me create. 

2) To pass the interview, you'll usually need to answer various Android (or w/e you specialize in) questions as well as solve an algorithm challenge/s. Both of these topics I covered within the course. As mentioned, TTT's course includes a dive into solving algorithms and learning about multiple data structures. And besides creating multiple Android apps pertaining to all the major Android components, the course provides multiple quizzes (open ended and multiple choice) to help solidify your understanding over a specific topic. In addition, the intstructors themselves offer mock interviews that are similar to what you'll face in real life. 

3) Once you get a job in any Software engineering role, you'll quickly realize how there isn't a one solution to fix all problems. You'll constantly be problem solving all day every day; and that is what I believe TTT excels at the most. TTT teaches you how to create/find the answers yourself. By being a bootcamp, which encourages students to become self-proficient, they prepare you for the everyday environment where you're expected to produce without much help.

To wrap things up, the experience I got at TTT was great. For the negative reviews regarding the nature of the course,  those people missed the point of the bootcamp. This wasnt a standard college course substitute. TTT was a place that accepted me with zero software development knowledge then prepared me for a software developer job in under a year. So yes, if you attend this course and have a question about a problem you're stuck on and the instructor kindly encourages you to find the answer on StackOverflow, its because thats what you'll be doing every day within your software developer career.