Devmountain

I couldn't recommend Devmountain enough! I learned so much in my 16 weeks attending there, and they truly go above and beyond for each student. Every day of class is something new and is filled with worthwhile information. Not once did I feel like it was a waste of time, and I was continuously challenged to keep growing and learning. Though the course is rigorous, I also never felt lost because the instructors and staff are so helpful, and like I said they really want you to succeed and grasp what is in the curriculum. They also have extensive help and resources for the real world job search, during and after you graduate. 10/10!

I attended the bootcamp from November 2021-March 2022. The first two months of the bootcamp is the Foundations portion which covers Javascript, HTML, and CSS. The last few weeks of Foundations is spent creating your capstone (website). I believe the Foundations portion did a great job at introducing students to coding and how a webpage is structured from front end to back end. The last two months of the bootcamp is Specializations where students in the cohort break into their chosen subject. This portion of the bootcamp was self taught through videos that I was able to code along with. During my time in Specializations we used the platform PluralSight to obtain our information. Specializations was similar to Foundations in the sense that both portions of the bootcamp finish with a capstone created by the student from scratch. Overall I had a great experience with helpful instructors, staff, and outcomes team. 

This course was amazing!  Before doing DevMountain, I had tried several programming classes and struggled greatly in all of them.  DevMountain was exactly what I needed to gain the confidence and skill to become a software developer.  The first 8 weeks is the foundations course where you learn the basic fundamentals of programming and I received so much individualized and group help that I finally started to understand how programming worked.  The second 8 weeks where I learned Java specifically was much more independent learning style but I still had plenty of support from a tutor, mentor, and also guidance counselor who all helped me to be able to pace myself and complete a full stack app where I used Javascript in the front end and Java in the back end.  The people at DevMountain really care about you and your interests and have the know how to help you succeed.  I had such a great experience that I am going to enroll in their IOS development program later this summer!

I want to tell you about my experience of studying at Devmountain. After a long search, my choice fell on Devmountain. I was happy with the price and read the reviews. Now I will definitely say that this is a very good start for programming. The first two months of the Foundation. At first I was a little frustrated because I thought that all four months would be devoted to learning iOS programming, but later I realized how useful it is to know web programming too! Using the example of web programming, we studied from the basics to how to place a site on the World Wide Web. There are lectures every day and homework every day. Every Friday, a knowledge test on the studied material. The remaining two months are specialization. Yes, most of the time you already spend in independent study of the material, but the material is so well structured and the videos are very thought out to the smallest detail that there are practically no questions. Well, if you have any questions, you can always ask the instructor. I chose iOS programming. The course is excellent, there is a lot of material, it is hard to study, but when you go all the way, you understand how much knowledge was gained during the training. Therefore, I will say this: I will advise everyone to this bootcamp! I want to thank the entire Devmountain team! In my opinion, I got more from training here than I expected. I hope my review will help new students make the right choice!

I had made the decision for a major career change. After a few months of research, I landed on Devmountain. I really liked what they had to offer and loved the fact they had in-person, which most bootcamps didn't offer due to pandemic restrictions. Understandable. I had an interview and a few days after the interview I was accepted! A few days before beginning I got word that I would be transferred to online learning instead (I think there weren't enough in my cohort for in-person? I don't fully remember, but it was something along those lines).

The program itself is split into two portions:

FOUNDATIONS:
The first portion is called foundations. The curriculum has you dive into all sorts of subjects not just the specific topic you chose (the courses listed they offer) JS, Python, CSS, HTML some light computer science,  UX/UI, algorithms etc. That exposure showed me that I wasn't as interested in Python as I initially thought and chose (for the 2nd half of the program) Web Development. Each week (Mon-Thurs) you'll learn anywhere from 2-3 topics and at the end of that week (Fri) will be given an assessment. A culmination of all that was learned that week. Mornings comprised of standups with our instructor, then live lectures, where you are encouraged to code along (highly recommended). Afternoons were labs where you'd put into practice with your peers, what was learned. During the afternoons you had access to something called a queue where you can ask for assistance on topics. At the end of this half of the program, we create a project and present it to our cohort/instructors.

SPECIALIZATIONS:
The last portion is called specializations. This is where we continue on the specific tract we chose during foundations. We no longer had live lectures, but instead are given access to a platform called Pluralsight. This website is where we do the remainder of our learning at Devmountain. I admit I am not a fan of learning this way (hence my 3 stars). You are completely in charge of keeping your own schedule and also attending the mid-day standups where you'd report your status updates, concerns, "wins/losses" etc. This part helped me out a ton!! Mid way I was given a SME (subject Matter Expert) and we would have weekly meetings for about an hour, and discuss whatever topics I was struggling with, expanding on what I've learned so far, or sometimes just having an ear to listen and help point me back in the right direction. At the very end we are given a second final project this one more detailed and guidelines more challenging than the one in foundations. This one will be presented live and with various staff from Devmountain. 

Throughout the ENTIRE program you will have meetings with people from "outcomes" which help prepare you for after completion and graduation of Devmountain. They will help with job placement, resume writing, LinkedIn, interview prep etc. All of these things can cost you by themselves upwards of $400-500 EACH TIME you use an outside resource, but with Devmountain, it is included and available even well after graduation for all alumni.

I overall enjoyed my time, and the staff there will do what they can to help you succeed, you just have to be willing to do the hard work. No matter your current or past background, you can do it!! If I could go back and do it all over I would, and I would try again for in-person learning.

DevMountain was a great experience, and I'm glad I did it.  The first 8 weeks of the foundation were incredible.  You had dedicated instructors who did lectures daily, live code, and daily labs. 
 
The problem I had with DevMountain was in the last eight weeks.   You no longer have dedicated staff who teach you, and instead, you are given a plural sight subscription and a list of videos to watch daily.  Some days the videos were 7 hours long.  Then at around 12:30 every day, there would be a small number of "subject matter experts" that would be available to help us if we had questions.  Some days it would take hours to get help because there wasn't enough SME's for the number of students.  

That being said, I would do DevMountain again in a heartbeat.  It was one of the best decisions I've made and I would recommend anyone to do it!