Codesmith

It's tough for me to write this because it almost sounds contrived, but I love Codesmith most because, it's become my home.

I am currently enrolled in Codesmith's 12-week immersive program.  We have just finished week 4 and I am excited to get started on the project portion in just 2 more short weeks.  I can't say enough good things about this place.  The community is the kind where we spend Sunday together even though it's not part of the program.  The people are amazing, passionate and incredibly smart.  I haven't felt this happy, excited and welcomed in years.  

So far we have learned: HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery, React, Node, Angular and MongoDB.  We also learned a bunch of ancillary things like Express, Mongoose, Bootstrap, Ajax, etc., but those aren't really concepts so much as tools you learn how to use when you need them.

It's tough to recognize the progress you're making while immersed in the program because you're comparing where you are today to where you were yesterday.  Fortunately, every now and then you get a reminder of just how far you've come.  The most recent moment for me was just after presenting my first full-stack project when a student in the junior cohort asked me to help him with understanding hash functions.

Before entering codesmith I was barely understanding closures and callbacks and I didn't even know what a hash function was or what it could be used for.  Now I'm deploying a full stack application to Heroku and using a hash function in conjunction with a database to implement my own authentication!  It's an amazing feeling!

In short, I love this place. I'm learning a ton and If you're serious about becoming a full-stack engineer, apply today!

A deeper dive on the experience here:

Things I love about the program:

Community

The community here is amazing.  Everybody is super friendly, hard-working and always willing to help you understand a concept.  

Instructors

The instructors here are top notch.  Will Sentance, the CTO teaches a bunch of the tough concept lectures.  I don't know if it's his british accent or friendly demeanor, but I find him incredibly easy to learn from.  Even with my ADD, he keeps my attention and his explanations are really really clear.

The pace I'm learning

When you start the course there is a large disparity in the knowledge between students with a computer science background and those without.  Coming from economics and business, I was really far behind!  After the first few weeks, however, the disparity is much smaller and you start learning things like React and Angular - topics that nobody has seen yet.  Although I don't expect to understand computer science theory as well as some of my fellow students, I'm just as good as them at building apps!

Thursday night happy hours

This is an incredibly hard program.  Everybody here is really driven to succeed.  People stay late every night to finish their projects or study up on concepts they're struggling with, but on Thursday nights we party... It's awesome.

Things I get frustrated with:

Workload is very heavy

I understand why the workload is so heavy.  We're going from 20% to a full-stack engineer in twelve weeks.  There really isn't an easy way to do this.

Hours are really long

We work 12 hours a day, minimum.  My typical day starts at 8:55 AM and ends around 10 PM.  Again, I understand this is necessary, but I do miss free time.

Things I have a love-hate relationship with:

Pair Programming

If you haven't pair programmed yet, you should.  Find a friend who is about the same level of programming as you and pair!  There is more to it than this, but essentially you don't touch the keyboard ("navigator") and they take directions from you ("driver").  After twenty minutes, switch roles.  This is likely going to be an incredibly frustrating experience for both parties.  However, it is absolutely the best way to accelerate your learning.  I love learning quickly, but in the moment I get frustrated because I just want the answer!

The Socratic method of teaching

The Socratic method of teaching essentially boils down to this: the instructor does not give answers they just ask you questions to guide you to the right answer.  This is super effective because it forces you to make the connection yourself.  Pretty much all law schools teach this way as well as Harvard, Darden, and Tuck Business Schools.

My experience in Codesmith was fantastic. The technical learning (with a focus on full-stack applications with React & Javascript on the frontend and Node/Express on the backend) was excellent. The structure the program provides really helped me to maximize my learning during my time there. The empathetic support Codesmith uses was instrumental in helping me to succeed in the program and beyond. Codesmith's career-support was amazing by providing practical strategies that helped me to land a job as a software engineer.

As a graduate of Codesmith, I found the program to be highly rewarding yet challenging. Like many intensive learning experiences, what you gain from it directly correlates with the effort you invest. Codesmith provides a rigorous curriculum and ample resources, but succeeding requires dedication and resilience on your part. The program offers excellent support through various accountability groups and resources, fostering a community that encourages growth even after program completion. However, securing a job post-graduation demands continuous hard work and perseverance. If you're willing to put in the effort, Codesmith equips you with the skills and community needed to succeed in the competitive tech industry. 

I also enjoyed the tech support in particular from Cassandra and Eric. They were kind, helpful, and informative in my job search struggles and negotiations. On the other hand, I had some mixed experiences with some of the interview prep "fellows". While some provided valuable insights, others seemed overly interested in specific details about my interviews, such as departments and contacts, which made me feel uncomfortable at times. 

Codesmith does a great job of providing students with resources before they begin the immersive program. Even though I had been studying JavaScript for a few years before applying, the CSX program really helped me better understand important topics like closure, asynchronicity, higher-order functions, and recursion. On top of the CSX program, applicants also have to do live coding interviews with Codesmith faculty which encourages applicants to practice coding and get real-time feedback during their interviews. To me, the lead-up to the immersive program is one of the things that makes Codesmith stand apart from some of the other bootcamps / immersive programs.  I think it would be very difficult to find a SWE job if you start any three-month immersive program without any prior coding knowledge. 
To me, it seems likely that Codesmith's curriculum isn't vastly different from other programs. And as a former educator, I wasn't impressed by the actual teaching methods. It's mostly just an instructor narrating over powerpoint presentations (whose material seems to come mostly from the documentation for that particular technology), asking a couple questions to check for understanding, and then dismissing class for pair programming on the topic. During the pair programming, you might get an instructor or TA's guidance for five minutes, but because of the ratio of TAs to students, their time is quite limited. They will call this "hard learning" where you need to lean into being stuck, looking up documentation, and considering different approaches. These are worthy habits, but it's also "hard learning" because the lectures are hastily done and simply a pretty ineffective pedagogical approach. By the end of the program you have a decent understanding of a lot of the common tech stacks, but, for most students, further study is definitely needed to be fully job-ready.
The crown jewel of the program is their job search portion. They pour a lot of resources into helping students with their resumes, interviewing skills, and networking. That on top of the time and effort they put into building a community (I'm still a part of the Codesmith slack today) really helps students find a SWE role right for them.
Overall, if someone has really tried to get a SWE role through pure self-study (Udemy, YouTube, FreeCodeCamp, books, etc.) and is feeling like they're spinning their wheels, I'd recommend Codesmith as an immersive program that can help direct your learning, connect you to a community of other aspiring developers, and prepare you for the job search process. 

A little context, I was part of a much smaller cohort than the normal 22-27 (my estimate) which may have affected the amount of help/attention our cohort received from instructors and our Senior cohort (that were 1.5 ahead of us in the curriculum).
Getting into Codesmith was a major challenge but I appreciated that they laid out a path to prepare to reach their level of javascript expertise for you to progress through the program at its pace for 6 days a week, from morning to night. The "Hard Learning" method they use is a great approach to learning these difficult concepts with limited time. I wasn't sure about this approach but now when I hit a block, getting to a solution takes me significantly less time and my frustration is much lower than when I was self-learning. 

As of May 2024, the job market continues to present challenges for CS graduates, self-taught developers, and non-traditional engineers alike. It currently is more difficult for ANYONE to get hired right now, but that is a reflection of the current market and not necessarily on Codesmith. Thus, my review will reflect on the quality of Codesmith’s curriculum and my personal growth as a developer during and after completing their program. 
Background:I hold a B.S. in Management Information Systems. During Codesmith, I completed two software engineering-related internships, and graduated from University. Post-Codesmith, it took me six months to secure a new 6-figure job offer, with an additional three months before the start date, in a new graduate role. 
Curriculum:Codesmith has a really solid curriculum that is continually refined in response to student feedback. The program includes daily hack hours, and learning full-stack development in a way that equips students to easily adapt to new technologies. Regarding the content, the curriculum is really good and helped me to understand web development on a much deeper level.
My only real critique here concerns the group projects. NOTE: This is not necessarily a fault of Codesmith, but more so a consequence of certain team dynamics. Some students may “fall through the cracks” and miss out on crucial learning opportunities if their team dynamic favors delivering impressive results over collaborative understanding of the codebase. 
Advice to Codesmith: Have instructors emphasize the educational purpose of early projects. The smaller projects are invaluable for mastering the core fundamentals. Students will have PLENTY of time to show off their coding chops for the OSP/Reinforcement, so really take advantage of solidifying the fundamentals before then. This gives everyone an opportunity to fail and learn on the core aspects such as frontend, backend, databases, testing, etc. After that, moving on and expanding on your knowledge becomes So. Much. Easier. 
Instructors:The quality of an instructor goes beyond industry experience; teaching, guiding, and mentoring are equally important. The Codesmith faculty, including Matt Severyn, Sam Arnold, and Erika C. Reynolds, along with a dedicated group of fellows, excel in these areas. They challenged our cohort by prompting us to find answers rather than providing them outright, and ensure comprehension of solutions they suggest. Their approachability and commitment to student growth significantly enhanced the learning experience. A special thanks to Erika for her excellent engineering book recommendations.
Job Assistance:The support from Codesmith extends well beyond graduation. It includes regular check-ins, post-grad groups, access to an alumni Slack channel, and various Codesmith events. Career Support Engineers, often alumni, offer a range of resources such as resume and LinkedIn reviews, technical interview preparation, and job search strategies. The ongoing support from the Codesmith community has been invaluable, especially when the job search got grueling. The community is very wonderful and I find myself frequently going back to offer tips, ask advice, or just chat with alumni that weren’t even in my cohort! I’d love to shout out the many alumni that helped me since before starting the program to now, but there are just way too many to list. The community is truly one of, if not the, best part of this program.
Overall Experience:For me, Codesmith has been an unparalleled learning environment. I can’t imagine getting where I am today with just self study. The program offered a structured path to learn full-stack development, and now my confidence has skyrocketed since graduation. I have a deep interest and ability to explore more in the field of Computer Science, and going through Codesmith was a catalyst for that change.

After the burnout of working in hospital administration/fundraising during COVID, I knew I wanted to pivot to something different after my 10+ year career. I had briefly floated the idea of attending a coding bootcamp before, but the timing just was never right. In 2021, I made the decision to quit my job and pursue software engineering, but had the task of deciding which school to attend. My research led me to Codesmith - while it had a much more selective acceptance criteria, I knew that it would give me the best possible shot at landing a job after graduation. From the moment I sat in a free online coding workshop, I knew this process was going to be special. I attended the early 2022 remote online immersive program, and my life changed forever. The curriculum was absolutely intense and difficult, but the results speak for themselves. Within just two months of graduation, I had secured a position as a full-time software engineer. Attending Codesmith was truly the best decision I ever made.

Joining Codesmith was one of the best decisions I've made. The bootcamp really dives deep into JavaScript and front-end development with a curriculum that's both challenging and incredibly rewarding. The instructors were not just knowledgeable—they were truly dedicated to our learning, always ready to offer extra help when needed. What made the experience stand out was the sense of community; everyone was eager to help each other out, making those tough coding challenges a lot more fun to tackle. The job support from Codesmith was phenomenal too, guiding me through the job hunting process with practical tools and advice that landed me a tech job faster than I expected. I can't recommend Codesmith enough for anyone eager to get serious about a career in tech.

Codesmith is super intense, but seriously was the one thing that got me where I am today—a senior software engineer at a successful start-up. It doesn't just teach you the most important technologies you'll need to know, but also teaches you how to think, how to work in teams, how to think about software from a product perspective—all sorts of things you don't learn with a CS degree but are absolutely vital to success in software engineering. One of the most critical aspects of all this is the job search module they do at the end—I was skeptical going in to the program about how useful that would be, but the job search skills I learned at codesmith are a lot of the reason why I found a job within 3 weeks of getting laid off, and many of my former colleagues are going months without bites. I'm not getting paid to write this review, I seriously rave about codesmith to anyone who's not sure how to break into tech. The price is definitely higher than a lot of other bootcamps, but for a good reason. I got my first software job three months after graduation, with total comp of about $160k. (I was definitely on the higher end of starting salaries, and the market was a bit better when I graduated in 2022, but I was also by no means an outlier.)Go for it!

I graduated from Codesmith at a terrible time for entry level software developer jobs (they try to push you to apply for mid to senior level roles, and that works for a select few but the vast majority, including myself, are not qualified for that after just this program). Their application and interview style is honed and specific, so it must work for a lot of people, but I ended up kind of lucking into my job. But at the end of the day, I did get a job which was the point. 
I think Codesmith's curriculum is maybe more rigorous than others, which I appreciated. And the "final project" is much more impressive and technical sounding, which is what you're supposed to learn on when job hunting. 
If you're gonna go the boot camp route, this is probably the top option. Their CS Prep and free workshops are also great to get your feet wet. 

I would say the social accountability, community and environment you're thrust into is #1 about the program. I did NYOI for this reason, to completely immerse myself and give it my all while I was there. Curriculum was alright, about what I expected but good nonetheless. It's very hard to formulate and cover a curriculum that checks all the boxes of core topics (React/Node/Express/DBs), as well as more advanced things that are also important (Typescript, DevOps, testing, containers, systems design) in a 12/13 week span while MOST people coming into the program just about know a decent amount of JS programming fundamentals and what HTML/CSS is + but never really built a fullstack client/server CRUD app before (maybe this should be a prerequisite before entering into the program?). Jumping from just learning React for the first time w/ basics like JSX and props/state and Express building out a few simple HTTP endpoints to building a developer tool involving tech like Docker/Kubernetes or Terraform is borderline insanity looking back 😂. Some corners were cut along the way to make it through. You never really feel like you understand topics 100%. But that's what it takes to become a dev and I think it primes your mindset to jump in and get your hands dirty - that's where the real learning in engineering comes from. I made good friends from the program, remained in contact with my postgrad group up to 6 months post-grad until I landed a job. Overall I'm happy with my outcome and what I got out of the program!