Skill Distillery

If you are ready to put in the time for a change, this is the place to go. Staff and instructors are very intelligent and helpful, they are there to teach you how to code and they do it well. You will come out of Skill Distillery as a confident developer ready for the job market. You will get out of this course what you put into it. Be ready to devote yourself to a career change and you will have it.

I graduated Skill Distillery class SD23 two weeks ago and already have a job offer.

At the end of 16 weeks you'll have a really solid foundation and be able to build make websites hosted on Amazon Web Services EC2 using Java, Angular, and SQL databases.  Before coming here I'd always struggle learning programming languages on my own. I dropped a C++ class in college, and got by in other Java / Microsoft Access classes. Here they're not as concerned with the academic concepts of topics. They focus more on the practical application of writing code and that's how I managed to stay interested and learn quickly how to do it. Instructors and TAs are very approachable when it comes to questions or when you're stuck on something.

I'm 1 week into my job search and have much confidence in what I've learned during my time at Skill Distillery.

There are a lot of bootcamps out there but Skill Distillery is special. The small class size, and the rigourous selection of instructors from a cultural stand point make this place shine. You can really tell the instructors care and consider the individual strengths and weaknesses of every student. Behind the scenes, they are constantly strategizing your individual development.

The hard skills they teach, you will learn, will prepare you to enter the workforce as a Junior Level / Entry Level / Associate programmer. During the program you are introduced to the concept of pair programming, which will grow your soft skills. Your success, personal growth rate, etc. will be closely linked to how well you can work with others, and how you respond to feedback. But the good news is, if you get accepted, you already have those skills!

If you are concerned about not having a CS degree, rest assured that you will be qualified for the jobs. The challenge will be that you need to demonstrate knowledge and skills during the interview process substantially more than a CS grad. 

Overall, highly recommend A+ program. Attending Skill Distillery has been one of the best decisions I have made for my personal growth and development. I am stronger problem solver, with a lot more tools, and a lot more jobs available. I am graduating today and I am already experiencing a rush of interest from recruiters on LinkedIn and other jobs boards.

I enrolled at Skill Distillery in April of 2018.  After 11 years in the insurance industry, I decided to pursue software development, and the best option I found here in Colorado was SD.  The instructors there were knowledgeable, professional, and genuinely cared about the students learning and future goals.  The price was comparable to other full-time options and they did a good job of helping with financial aid.  I was able to land a job within 3 months of graduation and I'm using what I learned there every single day!

SUMMARY

The learning process was intense consisting of 60+ hours of work a week. Each of the instructors was among the best I've ever had the privilege of learning from. I accepted a job offer I am incredibly excited about, for a position I really wanted, only a day after graduation. Overall, it was the best decision I have ever made.

In the following chapters, you can read about my background, other students' backgrounds, Skill Distillery's strengths, the school's weaknesses, financing, and the outcome.

MY BACKGROUND

Firstly, have no fears about your background. The first person who to have a job in my cohort had never completed their Bachelor's degree. That same person was consistently one of the top performers in the course and had multiple job-offers weeks before completing the course.

When I joined Skill Distillery, my experience with coding was next to none. A couple of months prior to attending the boot camp, I picked up some Ruby as a hobby, doing it for a few hours a week. That was enough for me to know that I want to turn that hobby into a profession. I had a bachelor's degree in business from Germany and experience in business development/sales. However, I do not think that either of these was needed for me to get a job. All you need is a combination of passion for technology and problem solving, discipline, and an always learning and collaborative mindset.

OTHER STUDENTS

Other students in my cohort came from all walks of life. From people who spent 23 years in the Military, to those who haven't been born that long ago. From people with no degrees to those with advanced ones. From business owners, through chefs, to insurance sales representatives. One thing they all had in common was that they were ready for a change and willing to learn. 

WHY SKILL DISTILLERY (Strengths)

I did a lot of research before deciding which boot camp to enroll. Skill Distillery was a clear winner, and here are some of the reasons:

        1) BEST CURRICULUM ON THE MARKET

Java is the most popular language in the world (source: tiobe.com). It is used in many disciplines - from Web Development, through IOT, to machine learning. It is an object-oriented language, just like any other of the six languages with the highest TIOBE index. If you only learn Javascript, like at most other boot camps, you will limit your possibilities immensely. Also, switching from a statically typed language to a dynamically-typed one (e.g., Python) is easier than vice versa. At Skill Distillery, you get to learn Java, as well as the most widely used technologies and frameworks used with Java for web development (Spring framework, Maven, Gradle, etc.). Finally, you will come out a very well rounded web developer, as you will learn front-end technologies such as Javascript and Angular, as well as MySQL, a language very similar to SQL, which used to talk with your relational database.

      2) BEST INSTRUCTORS ON THE MARKET

At most boot camps, you will get to learn from recent boot camp graduates. At Skill Distillery, the instructors are world-class experts and have an average of at least 20 years in the industry. They are also great pedagogues, and their teaching style is very involving. Each student also gets the individual help they need whenever working on a project/homework. Finally, a big shout out to the teaching assistants who have done a great job, often sitting with us until very late hours on Saturdays, rather than enjoying one of Denver's breweries. Good job lads.

CONS OF SKILL DISTILLERY

      1 ) EXTREMELY FAST PACE

The biggest con is that you have to learn all of the technologies I mentioned above, and so much more, in just 16 weeks. What that means is that almost every day you will be learning a whole lot of new things, and there is very little time to catch up on something you struggle with. I stayed many nights until after 11 pm to cope with such a pace, especially in the first 5 weeks. 

On the positive side, we did get to work on two 10-day group projects, (a mid-term and a final project), which give you an excellent opportunity to work on your weaknesses and to exchange knowledge with your peers. Besides, you will get a week to prepare for Oracle's OCA exam, at which time you will get to solidify and improve your core Java skills.

FINANCING

Skill Distillery has a deal with Climb for loans, or, if you are a veteran, you can use GI Bill. I used Climb's loan to pay for the school. I am a recent immigrant, so my credit history is short, and therefore I got a very high interest rate. None the less, the return on investment is great. Consequently, even if your credit is not too good, it is probably still worth it getting a loan and attending this program.

Comparing to some other boot camps, financing options are lacking support for the cost of living. You will have to figure out how you will afford your living expenses during the boot camp, as you will not have any time to work. I strongly urge Skill Distillery to find a partner who will offer a loan for the cost of living in addition to the tuition amount, as that may open the doors of attending to a lot of people.

OUTCOME

My cohort graduated last week, yet 2/11 of us already have jobs. Another person created a cool application for which some real estate companies have already offered to pay a subscription fee.

Almost everyone from the two cohorts before mine found a job within 90 days of completing the course. The lowest salary accepted by an alumnus I have met was still above 60k, and the highest is over 90k. Everyone I talked to said that their income significantly increased compared to what they were making before attending the course, with some people doubling theirs.

I am a Marine vet and I was also a System Administrator wondering how to move laterally into software development. When I stumbled into Skill Distillery, I had 7 years of sys/network admin experience and about 6 months of teaching myself Java. I decided that I needed a hard change in what I was doing if I ever wanted to have a real career change into Software Development and I found this school. I wanted a bootcamp that focused on Java and Skill Distillery promised Java along with a full stack of accompanying technologies to give you the potential to do almost anything once taught. With that, I received and accepted a job offer as a Full Stack Java Developer 5 weeks before the course ended.

I covered the cost of the course with the Post 9\11 GI BILL. This course will take 9 months of benefits and was 100% worth every dime considering how quickly I went from absolutely beginner programmer to employed developer.

The instructors:

Steve is a pationate teacher and he will explain something to you 99 different ways if thats what you need to get it. Sometimes known as the "Java Meister".

Rob is a literal wizard disquised as normal person.

Kris is what happens when Javascript becomes self aware. Sometimes its scary.

Andrew is also self aware Javascript but pretty.

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In all seriousness, this is the best team of instructors that I have had for any course. Each instructor has a deep understanding of what they are teaching and often answer questions with additional context that answers questions that you didn't even know you had.

The Curriculum: 

There is a lot of material that is gone through in this course. You absolutely need to do all of the pre-work to get the most out of this course. If you have questions, you need to ask them as soon as you think them up. Sometimes things start moving fast and once you forget that question its pretty much gone forever.

The material taught in the course has more than sufficiently prepared me for my current position. You will do so much coding that it will shock you how quickly you learn a codebase and become actually useful on your first job.

In the time that I have been here, students receive enough training in valuable industry technologies that multiple students received job offers before the course ended. 10/10 would recommend.

I will start off with saying when I first started my journey at the Skill Distillery, I was skeptical and wary. I had done a lot of research before hand and there were arguments for both sides. I am not skeptical anymore. From Day 1 to Graduation Day, I have had nothing but the best experience.

On to the instructors. From Steve to Rob to Andrew and to Kris, I have to say that the Skill Distillery has the best instructors hands down. I have taken a Java course at a college located in Denver (not naming any names) and the experience was dreadful. Steve taught what I had learned in a semester in two weeks and I was able to retain it all. I would like to take the time now to address the anonymous complaint against Steve by saying that it not only pure nonsense but 100% unfounded. There is no instructor who is more invested in the well being and success of his students than Steve. He is hilarious, kind, passionate and he can be stern when he needs to be. Take from me, I have gotten called out for being on Facebook or dozing in class but never once did I think it was inappropriate or like I was being attacked. Steve is the best Java/Spring guru and you will learn valuable information from him. Rob is the terminal wizard. Actually Rob is pretty much a wizard at everything and I learned a lot from picking his brain. Kris and Andrew were our instructors for the latter half of the course. They tagged team what I thought was the most cahllenging subjects which were Angular JS and JS. The way they engaged the students and conveyed the subjects was perfect. Last but not least, I don't think any of the students in my cohort including myself would have succeeded so well if it wasn't for the help of Aaron the TA. Aaron was always there to help you and help put the technigal aspects into layman terms. I could go on and on but the TL:DR of it all is the instructors at the Skill Distillery are phenomenal.

All the knowledge and all the material we covered was staggering. It was challenging to say the least. I will say that you can make it through this course if you put forth 100% effort. That being said this course is not for everyone. I believe I came in every weekend for a minimum of 5 hours to finish projects or to have study groups. I came in early and stayed late every single day. I don't think I would have done as well had I not. We covered Java in four weeks and we got pretty far into the advanced subjects. After that we dove into the OCP prep. That alone solidified a lot fo what we had learned throughout the previous weeks. After that we covered Spring and some front end topics. From there we moved to JavaScript and then to Angular JS. I have interviewed with a few companies and done multiple coding challenges while on my job search. Everything we learned was covered in the interviews and challenges. In a nut shell the knowledge gained from this course will eventually lead you to getting a career in Software Development. Almost 90% of my cohort has landed jobs including myself so I can attest that this place works!

In closing, the Skill Distillery was the best decision I have ever made. It is in my opinion the best Dev Bootcamp out there because it teaches Java for which there are tons of job opportunities for. The instructors are also the best ones out there in my opinion. Cole, the director, works tirelessly to work with students as well as local companies to open up job opportunites. He is the reason I was able to land a job with a well known contracting company. The material taught here will open doors for you as long as you put in the effort. Skill Distillery has a lot to offer and if I were you, I would not hesitate to sign up!

Sincerely,

Dennis

P.S.: If you have any questions feel free to hit me up at dennis.carrasquillo@gmail.com

I'm a veteran who has prior professional experience (not coding related at all) in the corporate world. My prospects were quickly turning into a dead end and I had a family to support. I knew programming was the way of the future but I didn't have the time to dedicate to getting a four year CS degree. If coding boot camps like Skill Distillery didn't exist, I would have been a slave to a less than optimal job outlook.

Skill Distillery has given me the tools I need to successfully break into the software engineering/development market. If you have a clearance you will have an immense number of job opportunities. Those who do not have clearances have plenty of opportunities as well. The market is booming! However, I won't sugar coat it. The process to get hired for positions that don't require clearances will require more of a dog and pony show (white boards, live-coding, homework code problem-solving tests, technical question grilling, in-person culture fit interviews) when interviewing with prospective employers.

Now, let's get back to the boot camp. Before you actually get to the boot camp, make sure you go through the pre-work. Attempt to understand as many of the concepts in Java as you can prior to the first day of class.

The boot camp is NOT easy and you should not underestimate it. You WILL be challenged. The instructors are highly qualified and truly care about teaching as well as ensuring that the students progress if they encounter any road blocks. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Even if you think you're asking a dumb question, you're investing time and money to be there. Make sure you do everything you can to understand concepts that are troubling you.

Ultimately, do your best to stay light-hearted while your committing yourself to the intense learning process. It will be hard, but it will also be very rewarding. This is one of the few professions where you can build something from scratch that can be useful and solve real-world problems. Skill Distillery has all of the resources you need to succeed in this field if you're willing to put in the work.

First, I'd like to address the one anonymous review trashing Steve.  It's totally bogus.  Steve is passionate, smart, and hilarious, but if he sees you doing something you're not supposed to during classroom instruction, he is not afraid to call you out.  Not once did he yell at our class or threaten to kick anyone out.  If there's an issue with a student, the conversation is always held in private, there is no public shaming at Skill Distillery.  Now onto my review.

I can echo just about every other review on here and tell you that Skill Distillery was life changing.  Before SD, I was in the military as an Army officer and like many other veterans had no idea what I wanted to do after I separated from the service.  After the military I worked a few jobs where I was underemployed and extremely unhappy.  Less than a week after graduating from SD I secured a job with a top defense contractor making 36% more than I was making before with a benefits package my previous employers couldn't begin to touch.

The level of instruction at SD is top notch.  The instructors and TA are extremely knowledgeable and they are totally invested in ensuring you succeed.  Our TA would regularly stay until 9, 10, even 11 at night and come in on weekends to assist students with understanding topics and completing assignments.

One of my favorite aspects of the course was the strong bond my class had - everyone was always helping each other out.  The relationships I built in the class were invaluable and consider many of my classmates good friends.  The SD alumni network is also great and very supportive.

SD is not for everyone.  I have a four year degree and completed flight training for the Army and Skill Distillery was easily the most difficult thing I've ever done academically.  I personally put 60-70 hours a week into the course and came in most weekends to complete assignments, though I did find that in the last third or so of the course there's a bit more breathing room as you start to get more comfortable with the material.

Cole, the school director, has lots of connections and is always engaging with employers to help get students a foot in the door.  SD is always looking to improve and Cole is constantly looking for feedback.

For those of you reading this that hold a security clearance, especially a TS/SCI, I would HIGHLY recommend this course if you want to be a developer.  Since completing the course I get roughly 2-4 phone calls and/or emails a day from recruiters.

I'll close by saying you'll get out what you put in.  If you work hard and put in the time you will come out of this course successful.

If you have any questions about the course feel free to reach out to me at gmengler at gmail.com