Coding Dojo

I came to bootcamp with no experience at all , i didn't even know what HTML is) An immersive 14-week long course that prepares its graduates to be highly competitive with an in-depth knowledge of the industries latest technologies, algorithms, and data structures. For more than 1000 hours taught and applied such programming skills : Front-End Fundamentals, Full Stack Python with Django, MEAN (MongoDB, Express, Angular, Node.js), C#, ASP.NET, HTML and CSS in responsive design. After graduation i found the job within a month .This course help mee a lot and I hope that will help thousand people more.

Question:

When I was 16, I got my first job at a collision shop in Seattle. I'm now 25 and have worked there for 8 years. I held various admin roles, became the I.T manager for our internal server infrastructure, and ultimately became the solo mechanic of the shop. I explored an option to combine computers and cars, the two things I knew I had a passion for and went to school to become a certified Tuner in high performance vehicles. Later in 2018 I was introduced to the idea of a coding boot camp that was located here in Bellevue Washington called the “Coding Dojo.” It didn’t take long for me to be confronted with a huge life decision. Not only would this add another loan to my already existing tool loan, but the recommended hours of commitment was a huge drawback. So, the question was do I risk dropping everything after 8 years with the same company (job security, income, work relationships, over 60K in tool investment, etc..) just to go do something I'm kind of interested in that has no guaranteed foreseeable future?

Decision:

My wife, daughter and I were living with our parents while my wife finishes school which would help ease the financial burden of my not working plus adding another loan. My decision then boiled down to what I was interested in more. Ultimately, I decided to risk it all. I applied to the Coding Dojo, I got a loan, quit my job, and walked in blindly with absolutely no expectations even despite my feeling of uncertainty. Did I make the right decision?

Experience:

A lesson I learned while working at my previous job that I take to heart is: "you get out what you put in." I spent everyday at the Dojo working from 8am-10pm every day. I didn’t miss one single day and showed up on almost every Saturday from 10am – 5pm. That being said, every single day introduced a new level of difficulty. Not every day did I have an instructor as a resource to go to for questions therefore, that forced me to develop the skills to read the documentation and get a deeper level of understanding. I also had to rely on my cohort students which kept my teamwork skills in tune. Not having the resource at my disposal made things super frustrating for me but, I understood why. I have an appreciation for their methods even though in the moment I’m angry and want to give up. Though despite all the frustrations and challenges, graduating makes the whole experience worth it. The Coding Dojo program teaches 3 different stacks, each being 3 weeks worth of curriculum learning and 1 week for you to create your own project with the knowledge you’ve gained. This schedule is very vigorous, and truth be told, you literally cannot learn an entire stack in 4 weeks. That’s why most coding boot camps offer just one language for 4 months. So why teach 3 different stacks at the bare minimum? The answer, Versatility…  Learning 3 stacks gives you what I believe to be the most valuable lesson of all. “Learning how to learn”. Having programmed in 3 different language gives you the ability to learn other languages quickly which ultimately makes your adaptability a super valuable attribute for a future employer.

To go or not to go?

If you do not have a passion for programming or you think maybe you could do it just to see if you like it, then I would highly recommend looking elsewhere to discover your interest in coding. Any boot camp program will test you on dedication, time, patience, and commitment therefore, be prepared. I can’t speak for other boot camps but the Coding Dojo gives you pre-course work to do before you start your program. Do it all, without fail. If you walk in with 0 coding practice, you will be in for a tougher time than you think. In the end, if your interested and believe you can commit the time and energy, the I wouldn’t hesitate to take the opportunity and just do it. It was a ton of fun and super rewarding.

I attended Coding Dojo in the Fall of 2018 in Seattle. I was a product manager for seven years at Amazon/AWS, but I wanted to switch to an SDE role because I'm more interested in technical issues and coding plays more to my strengths. I've had some background and experience in coding, having taken most requirements for a CS major in college, but at the time I was planning for a different career, while programing was just fun. I've continued to enjoy coding, and it's been a hobby over the years since, and I finally decided to pursue it as a career. In transitioning from PM to SDE, I was looking for a boot camp that would immerse me in coding, refresh some of what I'd learned in the past, and teach me new technologies/frameworks. Coding Dojo's 14-week intensive program was a good fit in timeline and topics.

The Coding Dojo experience was great for me and has worked out very well. The instructors and teaching assistants were great. They were engaging, explained concepts well, and encouraged a lot of collaboration. It was a lot of content to cover, but they kept us motivated and pushed us along with the right combination of compassion and sternness when necessary. Aside from a few students who figured out in the first few weeks that the program wasn't for them, everyone in our cohort finished a pretty grueling curriculum, and that's a credit to the teaching staff and fellow students who all helped them along. You learn an incredible amount in those 14 weeks, and it's amazing what students are able to build after a few weeks on a new stack. Daily algorithms was one of my favorite parts, and good practice for interviewing and thinking about coding. I'm also glad that I learned 3 stacks (Java, Python, and MEAN). I primarily use Java now at work, but the others are good knowledge to be more well-rounded and draw on occasionally. I also really enjoyed getting to know and working with my fellow student. It was a great, and fun group, and Coding Dojo encourages activities and projects make it more interactive.

I think Coding Dojo gave me all I could ask for in a 14-week intensive coding boot camp. It’s been just what I needed for my transition to a coding position. I will say that my prior experience has also been important to help me in this transition. Prior coding experience is not required for Coding Dojo, but it helps. For me it’s given me a little more depth in some areas and that has helped. Coding Dojo teaches you all they can, but there’s only so much you can cover in 14 intensive weeks. Importantly, they do emphasize learning how to help yourself and find answers in manuals and searches.

I really enjoyed my time at Coding Dojo, and I definitely think it’s been a good choice for me.

I am about to deploy a beta version of a financial modeling software that will be tested at two real companies that do business globally.  It has been coded with Angular 7 and Node.js.  Development time has been around 1200 hours and is algorithm-heavy.  I was told it would cost anywhere between $250,000 to $1million to do do this by an established software development firm.

Two rules have been broken here.  Financial modeling on Javascript (not Python!!!???).  From a full-stack perspective, Javascript made more sense and where the project is now I think it was the right call.  The extra work of building own financial libraries was also quite rewarding and fun, and that counts too!

The second rule is that I am in my 40s.  Most famous and successful tech entrepreneurs are college dropouts not corporate dropouts with a family.  So out of courage, conviction and vision, I started my search for the best way to make the app of my dreams a reality.  

The decision process was:  a) I have to do this myself ... b) I have to learn --fast, so immersive bootcamp ... c) it has to be good --- Coding Dojo.

I made lots of research and chose Coding Dojo.  Having gone through their curriculum gave me the vocabulary and the technical and mental seeds that have helped me get this far with the project.  Reality will come after deployment, but I’m among friends with my beta testers and still got the juice to keep going!

The experience at Coding Dojo was challenging, inspiring and energizing.  A few months after graduation, it feels rewarding.

As the senior pastor of Bellevue Korean Presbyterian Church, and a faculty member of Northwest Reformed Theological Seminary, I’ve been desiring and planning to develop a online course of Christian Education Program in Korean language and Bible app. Not only learning programming language itself but I wanted to understand the whole span of the LMS: Learning Management System and developing apps from front-end to back-end, I have decided to study the process of software development at Coding Dojo.Another hand, I would like to prepare my post retired life having a part-time job or freelancer in the area of software development.

I met amazing instructors and well developed program at Coding Dojo which is great for me, especially I have learned and being challenged for the way of teaching style of Coding Dojo, called "learn how to learn". After studying at Coding Dojo, I have tried to apply the way of teaching in my own class which is grateful.

Thanks 

I truly loved my time at Coding Dojo's Seattle Campus.  I think the biggest reason is because I was "All In" and was willing to put in as much time as I could to succeed.  Throughout the entire 14-week curriculum, I pushed through all the coursework on weekdays and weekends to become as self-sufficient as I could.  Learning all three technology stacks was not only fun but rewarding.  Moving my personal needle of understanding for all the technologies gave me a great sense of pride and the end of section exams were challenging to say the least but if you put in your time and follow their mantra of “Strength Though Struggle”, you will succeed!

Daily algorithms practice also allowed my cohort to learn how to think on our feet and explain thought processes even if the solution wasn’t immediately within our grasp.  That is a skill in and of itself.

The Dojo Instructors genuinely cared about their students’ progress towards success in their own unique ways.  Some pushed you to find solutions on your own and others gave a little more guidance but all of them were invested in your success… very much so.

My experience at Coding Dojo was excellent; insofar as what can be expected from 14 weeks. I expected to burn through course materials and be supplementing with things I found online - but they keep students who get ahead busy with relevant "optionals" that take the concepts learned earlier to a more advanced and real-world level. I programmed for 12 hours a day on average, a minimum of 10 hours per day seems like it could work.

Pros of Coding Dojo:
Depending on your cohort; this is a wonderful experience, everyone helps one another and keeps each other motivated during - and after - the bootcamp. It still feels like a second home. The stacks are very relevant to the current tech industry in the Seattle area; and learning 3 instead of two confers more advantages than disadvantages in my experience. Once you've learned how to set up a full stack project learning on your own becomes a lot more efficient. Which is to say in my experience it's more of an advantage to have three stacks, than two in which you have slightly deeper experience. Not only do the additional technologies look good on a resume, they also help you mix-and-match when you inevitably need to work with stacks you're unfamiliar with. The algorithm sessions were massively useful for confidence and skill in interviews. The teachers were generally very good, and friendly in my experience. The project weeks were helpful after graduation and taught me a lot about programming in the real world - not to mention being fun.

Cons:
The learning platform is mostly good, but a couple spots (I believe in particular the C# stack) are clumsily put together. Additionally; I am going to give the Job Search category a strong 4 star review because the new hire; Mark, at Coding Dojo Seattle is doing incredible work to connect with the community and build opportunities. During my cohort however it was terrible, the Career Services coordinator left on our first week and we didn't get a new one until we were just about out of there so...Quite minimal assistance there.

Advice:
I believe it's getting harder out there for bootcamp grads...That said; I would not be working as a programmer right now if it weren't for Coding Dojo. If you believe in yourself I highly recommend it. If you love coding as I do, I highly recommend it. I can't imagine more expensive bootcamps teaching more...in fact I can't imagine how one could learn more than I did in the same period of time.  But start programming before you arrive, you need to love it - I recommend starting with CodeAcademy and doing a course from the following blog (not mine) http://blog.agupieware.com/2014/05/online-learning-bachelors-level.html. When you leave don't rely on digital applications; you'll need to network. Expect it to take at least 2.5 months; I was a "stronger" student, and I got almost no bites on the proverbial line until 60 days in. DO algorithms, a lot of students get scared around month 1.5 and stop going....But it's a HUGE component of feeling confident and getting a job. Finally; after you graduate, get a startup going with your friends and put it on your resume =D

Five months ago, I decided quite my job and learn to code. I did a lot of research and I started my journey in Coding dojo. In the beginning, I was really nervous because I have zero coding experience. However, during the three months, I learned more than I thought I could. At here, you will get as much as you put in. Especially when you study with the cohort who have a programming background. It will really push you to spend extra extra time to do more and more coding every single day. And it definitely worth the time and efforts when you look back.

Just like anything, you get out what you put in. I attended the program in my mid 30s and was switching careers after 10+ years in healthcare. It was a huge and scary leap, I’m 100% sure I would not have gone through switching careers without attending a program like this.

I looked into a lot of onsite bootcamps in the area, attended open house meetings/ and decided on Coding Dojo one main reason. I attended a few free coding workshops that Coding Dojo hosted and could tell the instructors were knowledgeable and enjoyed their teaching style. It’s always nice to try before you buy and would recommend trying to attend a workshop if they are still offering them.

The instructors were all excellent and were the strongest part of the program. They put in one on one time and all of them went above what I had have expected to help struggling students. 3 stacks felt a little ambitious and during the program it was hard to tell if a smaller scope would have been better. In hindsight after working in the development field I’m glad to have that broader view of the options out there and it helped during the job search to be comfortable applying to more jobs.

One important thing is that the success rate seemed from just my personal observations. About half of my cohort never finished the program due to a slow attrition for various reasons, mostly I think from deciding this wasn’t for them. Just be prepared for a fairly intensive program with a lot of material to go through at a pretty fast pace at times. I wouldn’t recommend a program like this if you can’t spend 60+ hours or more per week to learning.

But in the end I’m working at a great job for almost a year, my work has been interesting, and my career growth has been more promising than ever. It’s been an excellent choice for me.

TLDR: I’m very happy I attended and would recommend it to anyone who is serious about a program like this. Just make sure you’re ready to chew what you’re about to bite off.

Before Coding Dojo I had just graduated with a degree in a completely unrelated field, Communication Studies. I'd done a specialization in computing during college so my interest in programming had been piqued but I hadn't had the chance to really get as hands on with it as I would have liked. Before graduation I did some searching around and found Coding Dojo. I was generally interested in their whole philosophy of learning multiple stacks and learning how to learn as opposed to just 'learning a language'. I do feel like it's helpful to do your own research beforehand and figure out what's popular in your area/areas you want to work just so you can make a more suitable decision. In general, I was satisfied with the way the program went. The curriculum and in house platform was rather nice to follow along with. It provided a nice comfortable base to come back to in case you ever got really overwhelmed searching the net/just saved a good amount of time when looking for things. Their approach to ongoing tech interview prep is solid too. I think algorithm questions aren't really a thing a person should be cramming for a couple weeks toward the end of a program and Coding Dojo fixes that with the daily doses of algos. My main complaints were cohort size and career support, although they're maybe a bit related/unique to my case. I had an abnormally small cohort which I felt hindered the usual networking benefit you get from these sorts of programs. Oh also, some more structure around exam/project time would have been nice. It's nice the you can kind of just test at your own pace but then also it sort of makes projects difficult to coordinate when instructors are more hands off and students are finishing up tests/preparing for tests at different times. But back to career support. Again, a bit unique to my case, but our career services person (who ironically ended up working at a different bootcamp that I TA'd for later) had just left right as we were entering our career week. We had someone come down from the Bay to handle it and overall it wasn't a bad experience. But it was definitely not optimal to just have someone temporary for that sort of thing. Also, I feel like in general it would have been nice to maybe have more career resources check ins throughout the program. Maybe even organize some group networking events/meetup attendance. Set up tours with local companies or something. It's weird, I feel like I've gotten more job lead emails months after leaving/when I've finished my job search (probably an artifact of the previously mentioned change of staff). Overall though, very solid program that will definitely get you up to speed with web dev in a relatively short amount of time. As evidence to this, at my current job I work as a React Native developer. I only briefly played around with React and never touched React Native before starting, but I believe my time at Coding Dojo helped me become the sort developer who was able to get up to speed with this new exciting tech in less than a week.  

It wrote and rewrote this review several times. My Bootcamp experience was intense with many ups and downs. It is good to have some time to reflect on my experience.  

I remember reading reviews on this site when I thought about changing careers. The basics are as follows: Coding Dojo is a fourteen week (15 if you include career week) full-time Bootcamp where you learn three programming stacks. It has an online option, but the bulk of the students in the program are onsite with actual instructors. They advertise that will be working 70-90 hours a week for this Bootcamp, and they weren't lying.  In short, this school is for people who are willing to have their life consumed with coding for 15 weeks. The "three stacks curriculum" is incredibly fast-paced, and even the best of us have felt overwhelmed at times.

I personally loved the challenge. I have taken several online grad school classes and having an instructor physically there to help me felt like a breath of fresh air.  I was also lucky to be in an amazing cohort.  Some of my best memories of my experience was trying to finish difficult assignments with my classmates. I would get stuck, and my neighbor would help me. When they got stuck, I would help them.

I can't speak for all of the locations, but I know that the career services manager in Dallas is fantastic. Throughout the Bootcamp, we had lessons on how to network. I had the opportunity not just to meet, but to present my projects to potential employers throughout the Bootcamp.  When I finished, my career services manager was someone I could talk to about my job search, to give me mock interviews, and to help me negotiate with potential employers.  I never took advantage of it, but if you also want to move to another location, Coding Dojo can help you with that. A student who took his courses at the Coding Dojo branch in Virginia did career week at my location, Dallas.  

I know many people did not have as positive an experience I did. A significant percentage of the students who started with my group did not finish or had to retake parts of the course. Some people who graduated earlier than I have who have not been hired for software development jobs yet.  I don't know how these numbers compare to other Bootcamps, but I can imagine the rushed "three stacks" curriculum probably made it worse.

I wish there were a way to tell you if you are a good fit for Coding Dojo.  I have seen some students who came in with significant programming experience drop out of the program. I have seen other people who have never written a line of code before the Bootcamp thrive in the program. In the end, if you are someone with grit, and are in a place in your life where you can spend 14 weeks to dedicate your life to learning how to program, Coding Dojo likely will be a rewarding experience.