Actualize

I debated between big, well-known bootcamps and ultimately committed to Actualize. The main reason, and I can say this even more as a grad, is the unmatched community and support. You get weekly checkins and support from career advisors, an instructor and a TA who will go above and beyond to aid you on this journey, and classmates who will become your new, trusted friends. Material is taught in a way that gets you to truly understand the material and teaches you the skills beyond the bootcamp to learn a new language all on your own. So give this bootcamp a chance because it was an irreplaceable experience for me.

I am a researcher when it comes to any decision, but especially when it comes to a big life decision. After deciding to change careers to coding, I did hours of research, review reading, and talking to different programs to figure out which would be the best option.  I work full-time, so having a night option was important. An important piece was to avoid a program that consisted of mostly pre-recorded videos where students are left to their own devices. I wanted a class setting where you can learn and grow with other students and have a teacher/program that actually cares about your success. That is exactly what I found at Actualize. From the start of pre-work and continuing after you finish the course, you are supported. Brian is an amazing teacher and mentor! The course is challenging but still fun and very rewarding. Honestly, the whole Actualize team is amazing, shout out to Kevin, Lisa, Alex, Lauryn, Bart,  and Jay!

After ten years of working in hospitality, I felt like I wanted to develop new skills and change my line of work. This brought me to decide on attending the Actualize coding Bootcamp. Being part of this Bootcamp was an extremely positive experience. I barely had any familiarity with programming and even before finishing the course, I felt like had learned and developed several skills and strategies. Now that I've graduated I feel like I've opened a door to a learning environment where I can constantly keep on growing and build on what I've learned.

The Actualize team was very flexible and helpful in many ways from the very beginning. Which was something that I really appreciated. Making this investment in myself is something I would do again mainly due to the experience I had with the Actualize team. Everyone, including the pre-work instructor, the TA's, the lead instructors, and career support assistants are all very helpful and believe that the students are fully capable of managing the material and tools that are provided.

I would definitely encourage anyone to enroll in their program. Especially if you have very little knowledge of coding or programming. Like I mentioned I had almost no experience in this field and graduating with a new skill set will only help me find a job as well as opportunities! and continue to build new skills in the future.

I looked into several different bootcamps and ending up choosing Actualize. I am so glad I did! Actualize feels like a family and they truly want you to succeed. I was in the evening/online cohort with Brian, who I would highly recommend. Not only does he know his stuff, he is an amazing teacher with a great sense of humor. He is easily approachable and was always willing to help us out, while at the same time challenging us and preparing us for our new career. The job hunting guidance they provide us with is excellent. Lisa and Alex are amazing and work hard to help us find a great job, I wish I would have had that when I graduated from college! I would highly recommend Actualize to anyone who is motivated to learn how to code. 

My journey with Actualize from start to finish has been such a breath of fresh air. The pre-work section was incredibly informative and really helped me get comfortable with coding before getting fully into the course. As for the course itself, I can't say enough good things about Brian, one of the teachers. He was an incredible teacher who never made me feel bad or dumb if I was slow to grasp a topic. He has a very clear and concise way of teaching and it's an extremely fun environment. The curriculum was great as well. I felt like I learned a ton, but not too much to be stressed out. The pacing was great and each day built on the previous lessons learned. By the end of the course, I genuinely felt like a developer. Now I'm confident that I'll be able to keep learning and growing on my programming journey.  And I can't wait to land a job 

I chose Actualize after researching many different coding bootcamps and finding that Actualize matched what I was looking for, a bootcamp with an emphasis on teaching its students how to learn and think like a software engineer and a staff that is available to work with you on all aspects from coding to learning how to conduct your job search.
The four-week pre-work was an excellent preparation for the 12-week online course that was to come and all throughout the course I felt a very strong sense of intentional teaching. From how our instructor built up the lessons and structured homework assignments to how the TAs interacted with us, it was apparent that the curriculum and its delivery were masterfully designed with the intention to provide us with the resources needed to begin a new career.
I sensed that the approach at Actualize is genuine. Between the instructor and TAs there was a very good teacher to student ratio and I think they truly live up to the teaching philosophy described on their site.

Like most people reading these, I spent hours upon hours researching and sifting through reviews after choosing the bootcamp route. Narrowing my choices, Actualize stayed at the top because of their emphasis on learning how to learn and developing the mindset of a software engineer.

That philosophy stayed true throughout the cohort. Instead of having code thrown at us to memorize with or without comprehending, the curriculum is designed to understand the logic behind the code and put it to practice. That made a huge difference with it being a lot of information in a short amount of time. Additionally, and maybe most importantly, we learned how to problem solve and develop the skills to learn any programming language, much like the actual job of a developer. 

Our instructor, Dani, was very knowledgable in not just coding but also the current industry from her real world experience. She and the TA's (who were extremely helpful Actualize grads) were always available to answer questions, guide us in the right direction, and make us think our way through concepts and issues. They also have career support that begins early in the cohort and continues after graduation, and the career counselor, Lisa, is readily available and helps keep you accountable.

While you can't learn everything within a few months, you can go from barely able to use an app to creating one, and leave with the skills to learn languages and frameworks beyond what's used for the class. 

I did a lot of research on which bootcamp I wanted to join and I picked actualize because of their focus to be teachers first. The curriculum is designed to actually teach you how to think like a software engineer. My instructor Peter and  TA Kevin were always there to help when needed. I spoke to many big name bootcamps and I just felt like a number where at Actualize it was a bit more personal.  The pricing was way more realistic as well! The job hacking lessons really helped me with my confidence in applying for jobs and prepared me in ways that I never would have gotten teaching myself how to code.  Id would recommend Actualize to anyone who is ready to make that commitment to a bootcamp that delivers beyond what you paid for. 

I choose Actualize because I know a lot of successful Actualize graduates and it has a great reputation in Chicago. They also have an after-hours program that makes it possible for folks who are working to attend the boot camp. 

I loved the program. We started by learning ruby on rails which is an easier programming language to understand. When we moved to JavaScript I was able to recognize the concepts we learned in Ruby. The pacing of the course was great. I cant stress this enough. Feeling like I was being pushed but still being able to keep up kept me engaged. Peter our instructor was fantastic. I think he might be the most experienced Bootcamp instructor in Chicago and maybe the US.

I'd recommend Actualize to anyone who is looking to make a career transition. +1 if you are looking for a bootcamp that you can do while still maintaining a day job. +2 if you have tried programming in the past but got stuck. Actualize is run by educators who are developers which makes all the difference. 

I enrolled into Actualize after seeing my brother go through the bootcamp and see the strides he has made in his career afterwards. After recently completing the program I feel as I can do the same despite the current state of the job market in 2020. Not only have I learned modern coding languages such as Ruby on Rails and Javascript, but most important I was taught how to be a better student as well. I feel confident that I will now be able to tackle and coding language/framework after being taught key fundamentals at Actualize. The instructors explain concepts well and are prepared to make time for each individual. The amount of resources and help available from the instructors and career advisors goes above and beyond in comparison from my knowledge of other bootcamps. I also was hesitant about online instruction, but I would say it is just as good as in-person!