DevPoint Labs

I was a part of the 2014 spring cohort at Devpoint Labs, and I had a great experience. First of all let me get this out of the way, programming is hard. You are going to have to work your butt off to get it down, but it is such a great feeling when you build cool stuff or figure out a problem that had you stumped. 

The staff at Devpoint Labs is great. They were all very helpful and enthusiastic about helping their students to learn and grow. Throughout the entire course, I felt like they were very concerned for my progress and improvement as a developer. The instructors definitely know their stuff, and they were very willing to take extra time to explain concepts or provide extra help to anyone who needed it.

I would recommend Devpoint Labs to anyone who is serious about development. The experience will either help get you on the developer path, or it will help to fine tune your skills if you are looking to pick up a new language.

 

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I would not choose this program unless you have a higher than average understanding of Javascript. You will not get what you need out of this program without it. The entire cohort you are copying and pasting instructors code into your projects. You aren't taught how to code a project from start to finish on your own. You will learn how to alter the preexisting code that your instructor very quickly goes through, but won't understand what each section of the code is doing. You aren't taught how to debug either. All in all I would not recommend this program to someone with no experience in front and back end development. The people were great, but the material will not in any way shape or form set you up for employment. I have no ill feelings towards the people there. My experience there was stressful, but enjoyable. The issue I have is that they didn't teach us how to write code. I literally paid thousands of dollars to copy and paste what my instructor typed during the lectures into my projects.  Read less

Here is a bit of information for any prospective students of DevPoint...

For the Fall 2018 cohort, as of February 2019 (3.5 months after graduation), as far as I know only 4/25 students have jobs -- based on what I've seen on our alumni Slack account and on LinkedIn. 

Yes, these numbers aren't very uplifting. You have to understand that students that did not get a job after applying for months (like me) were hesitant to put any reviews at all here--so the "five stars" is deceiving..DO YOUR RESEARCH FIRST!

***I was someone who left a job of 10 years and sacrificed a much better paying gig to come here and work in web development. I never was lax about this program and tried very hard to keep up, understand and ask questions. I'd say I was "middle of the pack"***

TO REVIEW: 

The content: I feel like what DevPoint presented for us to learn was decent in terms of demand, but the way they presented this information was extremely disorganized, ineffective, or both. The reason is that they implement a method of going about this that is one technology one day, one technology another, and don't much time on the basics whatsoever. We learn Ruby to begin and then abandon it only to circle back around to it months after in coding exercises -- how are we supposed to be sharp at that point when we've been studying other languages? They would have been much better off in my opinion making this a JavaScript based course as the demand is much higher in this technology and you could have skipped out on all the time learning Ruby basics (and only basics). 

The instructors: Some of the best instructors that are actual software developers having had experience at a professional level have departed as of this posting. The lead instructors now are relatively inexperienced and I will also add that several of the instructors last cohort had an indifferent attitude when helping students. Not to say all instructors were "bad" in any sense, as a few are very friendly, but overall not what anyone should be paying for. 

The daily routine: Get to class at 9:30, start a topic until 12:30 with breaks in between...So this amounted to around 2-2.5 hours of lecture. Also to note, most of the time this was just a "code along" and we really didn't ever break down what were typing until the app "worked" and then we were left to figure out how it did on our own time.
Then, the lecturer would announce a homework assignment after lunch and from around 1-5 pm we would work on that in the chapel with little to no hands on help from instructors or TA's, who more or less sat in the middle of the chapel on their laptops. This made for an awkward situation as it seemed like we had to bother the TA's rather than them actively coming and looking for people to help. So essentially if you were stuck on something and couldn't get help from students around you, you went to the TA's who would give you a nudge in the right direction but really never actually guide you completely through a problem for the most part. That's 4 hours of the day. Half the day. What we were doing. 

Career assistance: None. This is where DPL really fell off the map. You're given a certificate--fun, but after that you really only have an alumni slack channel to vent on. Why couldn't they have gone with an income sharing agreement so that all of DPL was more focused into getting students into jobs to get their money? We did have a day of "career advice" which was just motivational speak about getting our Linkedin resume up to par, but this was pointless really. 


If I could do it again, I would have chosen a school that focused more on a few core languages (say HTML/CSS, JavaScript, ReactJS, NodeJS) and left out the Ruby/Rails. There is no way you can be a real effective full stack developer in 12 weeks unless you have significant experience coming in -- and you see this with the results from our cohort and others. Only a handful seem to be able to get jobs from prior experience, knowing just the right person, or having had CS education beforehand. 

Until DPL changes all of these things and the results speak to the quality of the school in terms of jobs, internships, anything for students after graduating -- I can not recommend this school. 

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Big promises and hopes... Decent curriculum... Childish, under-prepared staff, and a complete lack of communication. The entire class and curriculum is satisfactory, at best. Even motivated and dedicated students were unable to keep pace or grasp concepts in the last 5 weeks due to lack of focus and increasingly frustrated instructors . The developers who teach the course, who can only generously be considered educators, were unwilling or annoyed by slowing progress. The most common phrase you'll hear at week 7 and on is "let's just get through this. I'll fix it at break". The developers who teach the class are not teachers. They do not know how to engage students. At the beginning of the cohort, they stress that "you'll get what you put in", but effort is subjective. One instructor showed up late nearly every day at the end of the cohort, and when confronted by a student, had an awkward, embarrassing, all day argument that frequently interrupted class for childish squabbling. This is one example from three months. There is no job assistance. That's simply not offered. They discuss it, but what it amounts to are visits to companies that don't even seem to care you are there, as well as a outdated resume requirement. This is where "you'll get back what you put in" really falls apart. After the instructors had chosen the two or three people that they deem capable, the rest of the class was nearly ignored on this front. I was very lucky, and have connections to get a very good job not too long after the class. The bottom of our class is now working as T.A.s for them. Most left class without any prospect beyond the certificate they handed us. I got the education I HAD to have to break in to the field and I am grateful for that. The rest will, hopefully, be quickly forgotten. Read less

This course is perfect for students who are self-starting. I found it worthwhile and am interested in DevPoint's other offerings. I wouldn't go in expecting the course to make you a master by the end of it, that's an interesting expectation because this field requires a lot of work, failing and frustration...a lot more than 11 weeks. I think what it does really well is teach you how to teach yourself and the ways to get yourself noticed by recruiters. The modules are packed with a ton of learning resources that leave you with a toolkit for continuing to improve upon your skillset, and they've really engineered a learning environment in which you can grow and ask questions and receive almost 24/7 support. I appreciate the atmosphere of the studios (sodas and snacks, good humored teachers and TAs, and access to the Church and State workspace). And even though there are high expectations, the staff is reasonable (I was PT) with life conflicts and the stresses of balancing FT work and the class. The TAs respond within usually a couple hours over Slack (don't try to reach them over the canvas platform). I probably learned more in this 11 week class about the language we were learning than I did in my University programming classes. DevPoint is smart, they are making money with this offering, but they're not swindling anyone. They're doing a real service and have filled in gaps that exist in traditional university offerings. I was invited to recruiting events immediately after I finished the course and got the job I went into the course wanting within a week of the course starting. 

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There is little to no Job Assitance here and almost no prep for interviews or resumes best practices or job search strategy ect... I have had several tech interviews that didn't go so well after graduating and have just had nothing but disappointment on the job search. I didn't realize upon graduating that these kinds of questions and puzzles would be so important to master.  Other coding camps around the valley have dedicated teams to assist you in the strategizing the career shift from a previous role to that of a web developer successfully. I have friends that took full-time courses here from the year before and they have still to find work in a "hot" field. Two of them confirm the same, Job assistance is nearly entirely non-existent. All of us spent time and money and sacrificed full-time jobs to move onto something better only to have no support at the end. 

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I am just writing this review because I want to be honest and I want people to know what to really expect from attending DPL, at least from my perspective.

First of all, I want to say that the instructors are great and I will be forever grateful for their support during the 10 week cohort (yes, 10-week, I will get to that later). Even though the instructors definitely know what they are doing, the teaching style and pace may not work well for a lot of people.

When I initially spoke with the people at DPL, they made it seem as though we would have instruction for basically 8 hours each day, then we would have homework to turn in each night. When I started class, I was pretty disappointed to find out that there was only really 3 hours of instruction (sometimes maybe an hour or 2 more, but rarely) and the rest of the time, you do homework and can get help from TA's. Most TA's are students from previous cohorts, so they are still kind of new to everything also. Expect to spend at least an hour if you need help. You won't get help from instructors unless the TA can't figure it out either (those are the "rules"). I expected to get some feedback on homework as well, but never really did. They also don't give you an example of working code most of the time, so if you are stuck and can't use a TA, you just have broken homework.

The pacing is really fast, but you are aware of this coming in of course. I honestly feel like I would have done better and learned more if we focused on really understanding concepts or fundamentals rather than skimming over a few things here and there. That's what the class felt like to me, skimming. Never actually really learning anything (deeply). I've heard from students from another bootcamp (in Lehi) that actually understand JS. They don't learn as much "fancy" stuff but at least they understand the fundamentals to be able to learn other stuff on their own. I would have preferred that. I feel like I know nothing very well at all. 

Make sure that you are getting your time and $$ worth. This is supposed to be an 11-week cohort. Unfortunately I attended during the Holiday season. When we signed up, we were to graduate around January 20th. A few weeks into the cohort, they told us that they had changed the graduation date to the 12th. We were all a little confused, and a little angry, but they assured us we weren't missing any time or instruction. I had recently counted each and every day we should have had class, as if there were no holidays. We should have had 54 days of instruction. We ended up having 48. We were cheated out of 6 days (one m-f week and a day). So our cohort was only 10 weeks even though we were assured 11. We should have counted the days while we were still in class. Maybe they would have refunded the $1,200 (yep, it's $1,000 a week to attend). 

After attending and realizing how much I paid for what I know now, I wish I would have done a bit more research or just taught myself with the vast amounts of free resources online. I am not sorry for going into the direction of software development, I think it is a good idea if you are looking for a change. I am just not certain if DPL is the way to go, especially for the price (their price is avg for bootcamps). I am weary of bootcamps all together at this point.

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After working dead end jobs for years, I decided to change my life. I was contemplating going back to school to get a CS degree. While I was looking into this I meet some developers. They had all gone through a bootcamp, and were now working in the industry. Some were working in automated QA, Junior Developers, and a couple had made it to Mid Developer after a short while.

I was intrigued and starting looking into it. There were a couple to choose from. I talked to quite a few devs that I knew and worked with. After looking over the bootcamp's curriculum, the majority of them leaned toward DevPoint Labs.

I applied to DevPoint and scheduled an interview. After talking with them, I realized that I wasn't ready to go. I wanted some practice before I started, and my financials were not in order to quit my job for three months.

I spent a year getting my life together in order to do this. I also spent that year studying. I feel like this helped me out immensely. I was familiar enough with the topics that I didn't feel behind during the cohort.

I loved the experience. The instructors are great, the staff is great. I came out with a whole new skill set. I'm now a web developer. I couldn't have done it without DPL!

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Dev Point Labs teaches you how to think like a coder. I was stuck in the front end developer world and the only thing that got me out of that was this boot camp. I wasn't as dilligent with the pre course work as I should've been so during the course a lot of key concepts went over my head. I did under the big picture and how all the components play together. As a result, I am understand the smaller parts as I review the notes after graduation. I find myself getting more excited with what is possible every day. Dave's decision to move React into the course work is nothing but inspired and I feel extremely confident with my employment opportunties going forward. Do yourself a favor and do all the diligence ahead of time to prepare for this course, and when you get stuck, don't be afraid to ask for help.

 

 

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I am currently attending DevPoint Labs and I absolutely love it! I am in the full stack rails course and it is intense. I am really enjoying the course, I have learned so much and appreciate everything we have done to prepare me for a career as a developer! I feel like everything we have learned is very up to date and that it will be useful to know in my future hobby projects and career! Before this class, I didn't even know how to teach myself more programming and now, through all the skills and experience I have recieved, I am set and ready for the future! Thank you so much!

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Having taken the daytime Ruby on Rails and also attended the evening JavaScript course I can attest to how great the instructors, program, and curriculum are. Dave Jungst and Jake Source are React and Rails experts and are both great teachers and developers. I'm also really happy that they decided to teach React, as I ended up getting a great job where I use React extensively several months after graduation. I feel that they are doing a really good job of staying on the front edge of the tech curve so that students can learn skills that will be useful in the coming years. DevPoint also cares a lot on helping you not just learn one language or framework, but learning how to continue to learn as every company has their own tech stack. I've also seen all of the work they have put in to help students improve their job placement skills thanks to the help of Mark Anthony. I wouldn't recommend that everyone become a developer, but I would recommend that everyone who knows they want to become a developer to check DevPoint out! They have a great community, instructors, and curriculum!

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I wasn't able to go all in and take the full time class so I opted for the after hours web class. Even though it was part time it still demanded a lot of my time outside of class. So be weary about that and I noticed the students who didn't do so well never put in the time outside of class. Just goes to show you only get out what you put in. Anywho, the reason why I chose DevPoint is because of their curriculum, the amount of support I received, and I guess the excitement and energy I experienced on campus. I really liked the fact that I was learning the latest in javascript like react and redux. This was big for me because personally I like to keep up with technology trends whether in coding or all the gadgets I obsess about. I know I learn best when I have someone to ask questions to help me think about how to solve my problems. This is exactly what you get in and outside of class. A side effect that I didn't think I would care about is the energy and excitement I felt around campus. I would do this again just so I can be around people that want to work hard. It really is contagious. DPL rocks!

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DevPoint Labs in Salt Lake City, Utah was well worth the time and money. Before diving into the full-time course, I reached out to alumni, researched other options, and then made the plunge. I was, of course, a bit nervous about what the course would look like, and if it would be a worthwhile investment of both my time and resources. There is no way I could know what I know now without the instruction, experience, mentorship, and active alumni group present through DevPoint Labs. I still have many questions, and I don't know everything, but I know how to troubleshoot and find the answers I need to move toward success. The team and DevPoint will be there for you, support you, and work their tails off to ensure you get the most out of your experience. The limitations of this program are your time and your willingness to stay engaged and keep moving along and listen to those advising you. 

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