Coder Foundry

Coder Foundry has been such a valuable and enjoyable experience learning .NET, C#, MVC, SQL, and more, so far. The instructors are very knowledgeable and helpful in so many ways. There is nothing more valuable than hands-on, workshop style setting classes that incorporate important insight into what companies are looking for when hiring employees. Everyone at Coder Foundry is very helpful, and the one on one time with either the instructors or developers is always available. For anyone interested in learning this particular skill set, there is no better place than Coder Foundry for wisdom, job preparation, and most importantly, career opportunities.

Unless you actually know a little bit about coding it will be very hard for you to pick up on this skill they promised that anyone can learn! The ISA loan they put you in its predatory and you're locked in it for 10 years whether you graduate or not. They also use their own employees to boost ratings on review sites like this, so take it from an actual student who did the program with no coding background, 99% of our class did not graduate because we simply did not learn. Lectures were long and tedious, using code with me practices and then once you're done with that they tell you what you they want you to build and give you no other context. Oh and the job assistance they offered? When it got to that part of our cohort they let us know that they laid off their entire job seeking network, so the promise we were given thatbtheybwill find you a job is a lie too.

1. It taught me the fundamentals (and beyond) of an entirely unfamiliar technology stack. I went into the program having a good foundational understanding of OOP. Coder Foundry got me up to speed on an exhaustive list of technologies - C#, SQL, SQL Server, HTTP, IIS, JS, HTML, Bootstrap, JQuery, Visual Studio, LINQ, MVC, Web API. The hands on, learn by doing (learn by failing at times) methodology transmogrified documentation from theory to functional, productive skill. And, just as important, it taught me how to interview, which was arguably my most crippling weakness at the start of the course.

2. It got me a job  - and more than a job, a career! At double my old salary, none the less. Natosha did an excellent job of bringing job openings to my attention. She supported me throughout the interview process by coaching me on my presentational skills, reviewing and editing my portfolio, priming the employers' expectations (really, really important) as well as my own, and facilitated rapid feedback from employers after interviews. She's a world class pusher. She got my foot in the door, then got my butt derriere in a fine leather office chair...which is exactly where it belongs.

3. It helped me grow my network. Since attending Coder Foundry, my LinkedIn connections have grown by a factor of ten! More connections means more exposure to the IT industry, which means more job opportunities for years to come. More still, the Coder Foundry network has been a great support group, and the relationships I built during the program are priceless.

What more can I say? ...oh, yeah! My instructor was both immensely skilled and knowlegeable, not to metion devilishly handsome. Free coffee, frequent free food, professionally photographed and edited mugshots portraits cooked up by the talented 'kitchen' staff,extremely comfortable chairs, constant access to mentorship from the instructor as well as fellow students...well, read the reviews. Coder Foundry changes lives.

When I went through the application process to attend Coder Foundry’s Master Class, I was required to take a programming test that consisted of 5-6 JavaScript problems. Two to three of my programs were incorrect. (At this point, I don’t remember the exact figures and I no longer have access to my test results, but I am certain that the percentage of answers correct was well below 100%.) Moreover, I had indicated that I had no actual software-developing job experience. The Coder Foundry reps evaluating my application materials had no basis to think I was some kind of coding genius. Nevertheless, during the Google Hangouts interview with Coder Foundry reps (which was the last step in the application process), I was told that I would make $70,000 per year after graduating from the Master Class. (Coder Foundry’s website at that time stated that the average starting salary for a graduate was $60,000.)  Further, I was told that it typically took three months after graduating for a new graduate to land a job. This was important information, because I was considering borrowing a CLIMB loan to assist with paying the $9900 price of the course, and part of the terms of the loan were that the borrower would be required to pay interest only for three months after the class, with full monthly payments required afterwards. I had researched other information. In particular, Coder Foundry’s website at the time stated that 95% of its graduates land jobs. All of these claims together suggested that enrolling in the Master Class would be a good investment. I thus decided to enroll and borrowed the CLIMB loan.

Unfortunately, despite my researching and asking questions, my experience has indicated that I was far too quick to trust Coder Foundry’s claims. I was not inflexible about a job’s starting salary; I was willing to go well below $70,000 per year. However, the reality of trying to land a coding position is *nowhere near* what Coder Foundry claimed *before* it had my $9900. This became apparent even before graduating from the class. I had one rep imply that I should expect a six-month period after graduation before landing a job. (I was told three months was typical during the interview, before CF had my money.) I found the placement department rather cavalier about actually helping me land a job. I was told by the first recruiter who was there that he and his assistants were going to *aggressively* market me. At the time, I replied that I would appreciate it, but I found zero evidence that any such “aggressive marketing” was ever done. I nevertheless worked to complete and successfully demonstrate all four Master Class full-stack application projects.

When I began actively searching for coding jobs, I submitted *countless* applications, both to companies seeking to hire directly and to recruiters. All of the replies I received (with the exception of one) stated essentially one thing: that lacking any coding job experience, I do not qualify for the position. (The common response to the CF projects which I offered to demonstrate is that school projects have very little weight compared to actual job experience.) In other words, something which CF claimed—before it had my money—would not be a problem, has turned out to be a major, nearly insurmountable problem. (The one exception was a company with which I landed a phone interview, and did not progress any further.) Developer positions that are truly entry-level receive hundreds of applications from applicants (mostly recent college graduates) all around the country. There is nothing that being a CF Master Class graduate has done to help me stand out among these hundreds. Further, CF’s placement department has hardly helped (and is presently not helping at all), despite the fact that I was told, before paying and enrolling, that after graduating from the Master Class, my lack of coding work experience would not be a problem.  I went through a three-month period where I received no interviews from the placement department. It wasn’t until I complained, pointing out the discrepancy between what I was told during the CF application interview before CF had my money, and what it was doing then, that the recruiter finally secured some interviews for me. But then the recruiter left CF and another was hired, and I had a similar experience with the second one, getting some interviews for me after my complaining, and afterwards getting no phone calls or emails from her, sometimes not even in reply to my messages to her. It is now getting close to one year after my finishing the Master Class, and I not only do not have a coding job, I have exactly zero leads for landing one. When I now contact the recruiter at CF, I get a reply with no specifics, such as: “I will inform you of opportunities as they become available.” Given the past behavior of the recruiters and the vagueness of these responses, it is clear that I cannot expect any further assistance from CF’s placement department, despite having been told, before CF had my money, that my lack of coding job experience would not be a problem in landing a job. And of course, if it is true that I am among only 5% of CF graduates who fail to land a job, I expect no clear explanation from them of why, or of the general discrepancy between what I was told before I paid and enrolled and the reality of the job search after having completed the course. The placement department, after I paid for the course, has been opaque, murky, and inconsistent. In terms of the big-ticket investments I’ve made in my lifetime, Coder Foundry has proved to be the worst.

If you are seeking to transition to a developer position from another field, I would not recommend attending Coder Foundry, especially if you have no prior coding job experience. There is plenty of information and evidence indicating that employers seeking to hire developers value open-source contributions very highly—perhaps even more highly than paid, on-the-job coding experience. I recommend following Aaron Boodman’s advice at http://aaronboodman-com-v1.blogspot.com/2010/10/wherein-i-help-you-get-good-job.html. There are plenty of open-source projects to choose from; it doesn’t have to be the one (Chromium) Aaron’s blog suggests. Yes, the process will be difficult, and will take years, especially if you have to do it while working to support yourself. There will be multiple, complex technologies, as well as industry standards, to learn. However, it is better to decide from the beginning to go through such a process—and eventually land a coding job—than sink $9900 in Coder Foundry’s course, go into debt, and find out it was for nothing and that you need to spend years going through the open-source-contribution process anyway.