Coding Dojo

This is true for Coding Dojo more than anything else I've been a part of. The model of becoming an entry level developer in 14 weeks is highly ambitious but definitely attainable if you're 1) willing to put in the work, 2) have solid personal goals and 3) keep yourself accountable. Now the idea isn't after 14 weeks you'll know enough to get any job you want. But you should have enough experience under your belt in order to SELL YOURSELF to a future employer that you have the tenacity, aptitude for quick learning, and high work ethic on top of your hands on experience in a variety of different domains.

Do I believe everyone can be a software developer? Sure.
Do I believe everyone should be a software developer? Not at all. 

Too many people are attracted by the allure of a high paying job after 3 months of work. They aren't doing it because they like coding or because they like building things, they are doing it for the fast money. I'd say if that is you, be weary of your decisions as you may find yourself without the extra drive needed to get yourself past the finish line (finish line being landing a job not graduating Coding Dojo). If I were to take a guess the majority of the one-stars on here are a result of that kind of thinking.

If you're looking for something easy or guaranteed, I'd say save your money and stick with whatever you're doing right now.

However, if you're looking for a time efficient way of giving yourself access to new opportunities in the tech industry, Coding Dojo is a great structure to facilitate your own personal growth trajectory.

Tips for any potential bootcamp attendees:
1) Learn your algorithms. Seriously. You will hear this again and again so you know it's the real deal. Since graduating, I've observed the #1 reason people aren't ready to start the job hunt process right away is lack of confidence with algorithms (and thus performance on technical interviews). The hour of algorithms every morning is a good base point, but not enough to get yourself to where you should be by the end. I recommend an extra 1-2 hours on top every day to dedicate to algorithms.

2) Start preparing your post-graduation job materials now. There's no need to wait until Career Week to start building your resume/portfolio/cover letters/LinkedIn/etc. This leads to having an overwhelming amount of work to do and only adds to the stress of looking for a job. Start cleaning up your LinkedIn and growing your network today, reworking your resume tomorrow, designing your portfolio next week and once graduation rolls around (which it will before you know it) you'll already have all the things prepared. Now all you have to do is polish it up and send it out. This gets you ahead of almost everyone else and sets you up for that much more success.

3) Create strong relationships and don't be afraid to use your network. Tell everyone what you're doing and let them know your plans for when you're done 3 months down the line. You don't know whose friend's dogsitter will have a brother that's looking for a new junior dev at their company.

4) Use other resources when you get stuck on something and even when you're not stuck. If the curriculum isn't clicking with you on a certain topic or you're not understanding the teacher's way of wording a concept, find answers in other places! When I encountered Object Oriented Design for the first time, I couldn't wrap my mind around it.. so I watched YouTube videos, a lot of them. And after the 15th one it clicked just because of a specific phrasing I heard for the first time. Coding Dojo's philosophy isn't about making you the best developer, but it is about making you self sufficient. How will you react when the inevitable happens and you don't know how to do something? This is the true test for any good developer and what employers really want to see (for a non-senior position at least).

Coding Dojo is no small investment. If you're already a strong Developer and want to learn a new stack, network, or strengthen your portfolio, the Dojo might be a good fit! If not, I'd encourage you to continue looking for a program better suited for you! 

The program is rigorous and fast-paced. You should be a disciplined self-teacher as you'll need to study a few hours each night. The instructors will typically let you struggle through the remaining material in groups before explaining the most difficult topics. At just under $1K per week, you might expect periodic feedback from your instructor. Well, you'd be wrong. Staff offer to review code; but, rarely make themselves available.  Coding Dojo pays plenty of lip service to the idea of molding students into self-sufficient developers. With the exception of one or two staff and student leaders, I wouldn't characterize the culture as accessible or committed to student success. Beyond open house sales pitches and a weekly all-hands meeting, you'll be largely responsible for seeking assistance and sustaining morale. On top of the heavy coursework, you'll need to build your portfolio and initiate conversations with career services. That is if you plan to find a job after graduation.

With that said, if you're lucky enough to get an engaged instructor, you will likely grow during this program. I had an awesome instructor for my first stack. Thanks to the great mix of personalities in Dojo cohorts, lecture tended to be entertaining! My second instructor was a knowledgeable programmer who seemed uncomfortable teaching. She seemed better suited for a cubicle farm with little to no social interaction. For this review, I've changed the instructor's name to Becky. To say Becky was a poor communicator would be generous. She rarely covered a concept from start to finish. Even more disappointing was lecture Q&A.  Her answers to student queries showed little consideration for her students' knowledge gap; rather she highlighted her gift for crafting snarky quips.  With a lecture schedule as unpredictable as the instructor's mood, she'd routinely hold 20-25 minimal working sessions to help students. 

I didn't know how fortunate I was to have quality teachers in school. I've only studied under dedicated teachers, professors, and mentors, naively leading me to characterize all educators as "student-focused." I was afforded not-so-small services like office hours, personalized feedback, I even benefitted from one-on-one sessions to clarify concepts. If a student consistently demonstrates their commitment, I'd argue instructors have an ethical duty to champion them across the finish line. 

Who knew these would be considered luxuries at Coding Dojo? At $11-13K, the Dojo's as expensive as a 4-year private university.  Coding Dojo advertises their accessible instructional style. With classes between 10 and 20, you might be inclined to believe their interests lie with you, the student. If you're already a capable Developer and want to learn a new stack, network, or strengthen your portfolio, you should continue exploring this program! If not, I'd encourage you to look beyond this option to find a path better suited for you.

I drove to the DC branch all the way from Colorado. I did this because that branch had the best tuition pricing as well as the easiest options for housing while i was in the area. I have never coded before aside from some basic playing around with website stuff like facebook. At first it was a bit scary for me because i was out of my element but luckily the group i ended up in was great and became pretty tightknit quickly. For me this was essential because I am extremely bad at learning on my own and motivating myself to actually do my work. I was that guy who never did his homework in school. Regardless of that fact, with the help of my group and the different instructors and assistants they had on site (Marco Molina in particular) I was able to successfully learn and accomplish my assignments and I started understanding things I never could have on my own. The on-site experience was key for me. The tasks were demanding but you have 24/7 access to the building and they provide plenty for you to snack on and lots of space for you to take a break if you need to. I even had a nap or two during my time there.

By the end of it all, I definitely came ahead knowing a lot more than I expected I would and am happy to have made the friends that I did. I think the key was the size of our classes. They weren't too big and it wasnt overwhelming to try to get to know my cohort. I can safely say I became friends with everyone in my cohort and that would not have been possible if it were any larger. We had about 10-12 members.

I haven't tried any other bootcamp so I will not speak on others but as far as this one is concerned, I would recommend it to anyone looking to get into the field. Just don't expect to do it without working for it!

I entered Coding Dojo with no prior coding experience having not written any lines of code aside from their prebootcamp work they had me do to prepare for the 12 week bootcamp. After starting the bootcamp, I was surrounded by other people who were serious about learning, with several people who were much faster learners than me. It was intimidating at first, especially because the curriculum was difficult for me at the time. However, this was a good thing because it was beneficial to my growth as it pushed me harder than I would have pushed without that type of environment. It stayed difficult, the whole time, which was actually the part I benefitted from most because it accelerated my learning curve drastically. The assignments were all challenging as I was going but each assignment was built to make me engage in "problem solving" mode of thinking, which was the mode I was in practically every day. Their unique way of structuring requirements and functionalities of the apps we create made me learn to build upon fundamental programming skills and concepts, and adding on to these skills to be more effective at problem solving. Also, thoughout the bootcamp we all had the opportunity to learn by teaching as all the students help eachother along with the help of the instructors. 

I learned to be a self-sufficient developer because I had to build skills of searching through documentation with the guidance of the course platform and instructors, and learning new skills in a very quick pace. This skill of learning new skills in technology at a fast rate was the biggest skill I developed here aside from the actual coding knowledge itself. Learning HOW to learn programming was essential to my development. 

We went through a 2 week web fundamentals course (HTML/CSS/Javascript and Jquery library to make interactive web pages, then three months of three complete languages, from basic fundamentals to building out functional apps that can be used by people with databases included. These languages were Python, Full stack javascript, Java. Having people with the same goals, learning objectives, and passion for a career growth and change opportunity paired with the structured curriculum designed to build upon fundamental skills towards the trajectory of a self-sufficient career ready developer made this experience worth investment.

I also realized that being in the immersive environment actually reprogrammed my mind in a way where my brain is better able to learn new things well. After the bootcamp, now if I want to learn something else, i know how to approach learning a new language and how to structure my learning outside of the bootcamp, which is great because that is the fundamental skill gets great jobs and careers. There have been other graduates from this bootcamp during our Alumni tech talks where they say they learned certain langauges at coding dojo and then got hired for jobs where other languages were required to know, and still were able to perform at the job because of their ability translate what they learned to learning a new technology. The fact is many websites have been built using many different languages combined, and great web developers and engineers have the ability to come in and learn those new lanuages quickly and understand how the fundamental programming and web development process apply to whatever they are doing.

The career services is also a great feature of the bootcamp because there is a whole week of learning to attract the career opportunities at a high level, along with interview practice, recruitment information, resume and portfolio support, and many assignments from the bootcamp that can be shown off a projects to employers.

Lastly, the bootcamp offers online continued bootcamp services through their online platform that has many more languages and courses offered to go through after graduating. Additional languages and stacks like c#, swift, PHP, ruby, React javascript, algorithm modules, and Amazon web services made this investment last even after the bootcamp was over. 

I would definately recommend to anyone who is willing to change their career to the computer programming, web development, software engineering route and also to maximize their ability to learn to enroll in this bootcamp. Lots of opportunities have opened in my life in terms of a career and being able to earn money doing somthing that has flexible and plentiful room for growth. I just read recently that computer programming jobs make up 70% of all Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math jobs in the USA. I'm glad I haver this value in the marketplace now and I feel more secure and optomistic about my future. 

Coding Dojo was one of the best one of the best decisions I have ever made in life. I graduated a great college and paid a huge sum of money for a degree I never wound up needing. I moved to the DC area and began my career in the restaurant industry. I was a restaurant manager in the DMV area for 4+ years, but was never truly happy with my job. In my spare time I started to teach myself how to code through online resourses like code-academy, edX and Udemy(All great places to start). I started to enjoy coding and learning how to code more than I did my own job. Online resourses were great but were very slow paced and I wanted more. I new it was time for a change, I started looking into different coding bootcamps in my area. Coding Dojo was by far the best. I attened an open house, met some instructors and got all the info I needed to make the leap. I left my job and commited to the Dojo full time.

Coding Dojo's curriculum was top notch, You learn all the latest and most relavent technologies (HTML, CSS, JS, Front-end frameworks, JAVA, PYTHON, MEAN stacks, MYSQL...the list goes on.) The instructors are great and very knowlagable and the facility is very clean and well maintained. If you put in the effort you WILL be rewared, this is not a 9-5 school, they call it a bootcamp for a reason. I was doing about 12 hours a day mon-friday and put in some more time on the weekends (and loved every minute). The course platform is always being updated and improved, you leave the DOJO with a very extensive github profile having built a ton of projects. (Looks great for potentail employers). You also meet a ton of very cool people! After the Dojo, there is a career week where you fix up your technical resume, linkedIn, have mock interviews and a number of other great things to help you land your first job in tech! 

The price is about 14k, but its pretty easy to get some scholarships that the school offers and I wound up paying about 10k. If you really look at it, thats about a semester at college. But this one semester(instead of 4 years at collge) could kickstart your whole career if you put in the work.....And for me it did, I landed my first job as a junior Dev about a month after graduating. It was a serious step up form my old career and I couldnt be happier. I definitely recommend studying some html, css and basic js on free platforms online before starting a bootcamp as it gave me a solid foundation and head start. Could you learn all of these technologies on your own online?...Sure, but it would take years and years to cover the same amount of ground the Dojo covers in 14 weeks. This was one of the best decisions I have every made! 

The course is great. I've already reccomended it to all of my friends who are interested in tech. I actually feel pretty fortunate that I was able to go to a good bootcamp before they're too hard to get into. 

They call it a boot camp for a reason. It's not easy but you'll come out with very useful tech skills which will qualify you to work a wide range of tech jobs, especially software developer positions. 

I ended up getting a job as a contractor with a tech firm. Great experience overal! 

I just graduated from Coding Dojo Dallas in September where I learned three full stacks. While there I learned ruby on rails, python with Django and flask, and MEAN. It is definitely a difficult process, requiring long days and a whole lot of effort. I usually put in about 90+ hours per week to study, complete assignments, and study some more. Typically, days begin with an hour of algorithm work on the whiteboard, followed by a morning lecture. After morning lecture students work independently or together on assignments until the afternoon when there is another lecture. The instructors in Dallas are excellent, their lectures are always helpful (and recorded!), plus they are great at providing one-on-one help when you need it. While it takes a lot of work and effort to go to Coding Dojo it is definitely worth it.

I recently graduated from the Coding Dojo bootcamp at their DC location.  I signed up for the bootcamp because I was looking to transition to a career in tech, though not necessarily as a developer.  However, I wanted to gain coding skills because I know it will be helpful for me with whatever I end up doing in the field.

I really enjoyed my time at Coding Dojo.  The instructors were all extremely knowledgeable and supportive, and all of my cohort mates were helpful as well.  The curriculum is challenging and intense, but if you put in the time, it is possible to get through it.  I really liked the balance between algorithms, lectures, group work and individual coding time.  

One thing that makes Coding Dojo unique, in addition to the fact that you learn 3 languages, is that the instructors will support you at whatever level you are with coding.  Though you are encouraged to keep up with the fast pace of the curriculum, you are not penalized if you fall behind or struggle.  There are many resources to help you catch up though the instructors really do a great job making sure that everyone leaves with the ability and confidence to be a self-sufficient developer.

The only challenge I faced with the program is that one of the languages we learned (Java) was new to their curriculum when I joined, so the materials for that language had some gaps, which made it harder to learn Java.  But, they are continuously refining and improving the content, so that probably won't be much of an issue for future classes.

All in all, my time at Coding Dojo was a great experience.  Now I am working at a digital innovation agency leading product strategy and account management for clients seeking to grow their businesses using digital technologies.  I actually received two job offers even before completing the bootcamp.  My bootcamp experience helped me take my career in a new direction and I learned a great skill and made great new friends in the process.

Before enrolling for Coding Dojo in San Jose, it's probably good to mention where I was coming from. I graduated from SJSU in Dec 2015 with a degree in Computer Engineering. Typically you can get a full time job 3-6  months after school, but I unfortunately did not take advantage of school career fairs or apply for internships so I was already at a disadvantage. I did however receive a short 2-month contracting role working as an IT Consultant for Rogers Benefit Group where I got a bit too comfortable with an extended contract and stayed for the entire year. By the beginning of 2017, I had to make a decision whether to become a full time employee as a service rep for an employee benefit service company or go back to my coding roots and actually make use of my degree. Ultimately I stuck with my gut and decided to return to coding. However, my coding was rusty.

I needed a quick and efficient way to improve my coding skills as I had trouble teaching myself on my own without getting distracted. One of my close friends and almost mentor, Bryant Luu, was from the mid 2015 cohort and knew I wasn't in the best situation. He highly suggested applying for Coding Dojo as he was able to land a web developer position at a startup within 2 months of graduating. I knew myself that I wasn't going to get anywhere being indeceisive so with enough convincing from Bryant, I decided to enroll for Coding Dojo in San Jose since it was the closest option. From what I've heard about most bootcamps, they're fast-paced and difficult. However I had experience coding back in school so I knew I could pick up syntax and concepts much quicker compared to a first time learner. Mentally, I knew I was well prepared.

Those 3 months flew in a blink of an eye, and my expectations were pretty well met. The curriculum covered just enough of the fundamentals and depth (save for the Full MEAN section, some code snippets were outdated and there wasn't any mention of importing FormsModule in app.module) to move at a moderate pace. The instructors were also able to break down complicated concepts way better compared to some of the school professors I had prior. The difficulty felt perfect for me, but I can't say that for some of the cohort.

The #1 biggest complaint I heard from many of the cohort were instructors losing patience while trying to help debug and would speak in a much more condescending tone, up to the point where some students were demotivated and actually left the venue for the day to cool off. They were unlikely to ask some instructors for help again and would rather only ask cohortmates. Some instructors did have enough complaints where they would publicly apologize to the cohort about their impatience, yet I keep hearing the same complaints even afterwards. Perhaps during the instructor interview process, try testing the interviewees' patience by throwing them in a pretend situation where they have to teach someone who doesn't know how to code and see how they handle it.

For my job search, it's been 2 months since my graduation and I've only been getting about 1 response (typically rejection) per week. I could complain how difficult it is after the bootcamp, but I could also easily identify my main problem. I'm not applying or networking enough, which is the same situation I was in back when I graduated from school. However, my toolbox is much larger than when I started the bootcamp, and I'm definitely in a much better position than I was prior to the bootcamp. Even my friend/mentor Bryant says it should be easier for me since I'm coming from an engineering degree. Bryant's first time coding was when he started the bootcamp and he came from accounting, yet he got a job within 2 months. Why is that? He was aggressive. He applied to at least 30 applications per day and put himself in uncomfortable situations where he'd fail, but everytime he failed, he also got a little better. If Bryant could do it, I can do it, too.

I feel like those who come out of the bootcamp with a negative perspective perhaps came into the program with the wrong mindset. It is kind of like learning how to swim. Here are the different strokes. Here is how you do each stroke. Then by the time students finish their 3-month lessons, they expect to compete in the Olympics. Well, you still have to do a lot more swimming after that, and I feel some students don't see this perspective when enrolling. Why is that? Perhaps we are so focused on success stories like 94% job placement rate and 1000+ graduated students in 2016 that we forget that it takes a lot of failure to succeed in something. The hardest part of the bootcamp is not the bootcamp, but afterwards where no one is holding your hand. There's no daily goals written on the board for you, and you have to pick yourself up after every rejection. In a way, I think it would be nice to remind newcomers that they will encounter hundreds of failures and missed opportunities, but also remind them that they're doing great. It is completely normal to fail, and I feel like that is a good indicator that life is moving in the right direction.

The takeaway from all of this is before enrolling in the bootcamp, actually spend an hour doing some self-reflection. Not just whether you can put in the 10+ hours everyday to code, but how much you really know yourself. How much failure can you really endure? How do you handle rejection? What are things you do to motivate yourself? Are you willing to put pride away to ask for help? If you have answers to these questions, I feel like you know yourself well enough to decide whether the bootcamp is for you.

I had an amazing experience at the Dojo! It was an extremelly well-rounded program providing three full-stacks, daily algorithm practice, and collaborative projects with other students. The professors ranged from former students to veterans with decades of experience -- all of whom were very knowledgable and willing to help. They also stay very involved after the program, whether you are on the job hunt, or even if you have secured a programming job. Also, I was able to find a coding job within 3 months of finishing the program. I would definitely recommend Coding Dojo to family or friends.

I had an opportunity to attend full stack developer boot camp program at Seattle Coding Dojo and my overall experience is very good and would surely recommend Coding Dojo for anyone who has the interest to work in Software engineering.

Following were the some of the things I liked in Dojo.

• Algorithm lecture are conducted everyday and they cover data structure concepts in detail
• Course curriculum is well constructed and there are assignments that helps students to have hands-on knowledge on the concept that was covered
• Exams are conducted for every stack and helps students to strengthen their knowledge.
• Instructors are very dedicated and help students to learn the concepts
• Facilities/Infrastructure provided are very good
• Speakers from various disciplines in software engineering provide tech talk and that is beneficial
• There is a system where students can provide review on the course curriculum and the instructions delivered and any constructive feedback provided is acknowledged and is acted upon in a timely manner.