Coder Foundry

I attended the Masters Course at Coder Foundry (Kernersville, NC) in 2015, from July to September. Before attending I had very little knowledge of and experience with the technologies taught in the course and practically no knowledge or skill in web development. Coder Foundry's teaching methodology, along with great instructors, is what makes this program work. The intensity of the course, being designed to mimic a real-world software development work place, coupled with the fact that the student is having to learn and absorb the material as they are "working", makes this course work. The hands-on approach at Coder Foundry proves to be the best way to forge developers from people that have only a basic understanding of what programming, in general, is.

Along with learning the most relevant web development technologies in the marketplace, Coder Foundry offers their job placement services to students upon, and sometimes before, completion of the course. This service is invaluable to under-experienced developers coming out of the course. Throughout the course, every Monday, each student has to attend a mock interview session where they present their current projects, explain their code and answer technical development and web technologies questions. The preparation that each student receives to assist them in landing a job after the course is amazing. I had three interviews within four weeks after completing the Masters Course. Even for that first real interview, I felt calm and in control, using the training and techniques taught by the Coder Foundry team. I landed my first development job only twenty-seven days after graduating from Coder Foundry.

With my first job, I increased my salary by 95.3%. Obviously, the ROI from Coder Foundry is not an issue. There is enough demand in the marketplace for developers with the skills taught at Coder Foundry that finding a job after the course should be the least of a student's worries.

The course is not easy. I don't want to make it sound like it is. It demands a lot of time, in the classroom and outside of it, but if a student puts in the time, uses the resources available to them, asks a lot of questions and has a passion for coding, they can begin a successful career in software/web development with the help of Coder Foundry.

I am a more fulfilled individual in my new career. I enjoy the culture and attitude of the development community and with my new schedule and salary am able to spend more time with my family, enjoying the things we like to do.

As for curriculum, I think it was fine. The first 10 weeks definitely build upon each other in a logical order. By the time you reach the Financial App yo should have a pretty solid foundation.

I was not a fan of the Angular JS segment at the very end. At that point I was burned out and it was a bit much to absorb.

The good new is that I understand the basics and see that it was modeled after MVC. I am sure I can figure it out. I do appreciate the opportunity and experience overall. The 12 week accelerated did meet my expectations.

Ria was an excellent instructor. She maintained a consistent balance between letting us work through our own frustrations and stepping in to direct us towards solutions. Her patience was unending. The weekly interview presentations were also very helpful, as well as the strict deadline structure.

My expectations coming in to the course were different than what was actually here - mostly in the amount of preparation required. I expected to get more instruction on basics of development, Javascript, etc. The website and my contacts before coming assured me that I would be fine without prior experience, but once here I found that I was expected to already have strong foundations in front-end and object-oriented languages. It seems that the new longer program will address that.