Codesmith

Transitioning from a non-technical background to software engineering was a daunting decision for me. The fear of regretting such a significant career change, coupled with the financial investment and uncertainties surrounding immersive programs, made me hesitant. However, in 2020, I took the leap and enrolled in the full-time remote Codesmith immersive, a decision I now cherish as one of the best I've made.
My journey with Codesmith began with their free JSX course, which not only provided me with a solid foundation in JavaScript but also introduced me to their supportive community on Slack. Their free online Hard Parts workshops further cemented my decision to join their full-time program, showcasing the community's commitment to building confidence and providing empathetic support to engineers.
Enrolling in their CS Prep course was the next step for me, serving not only as preparation for the immersive program's interview but also as a personal gauge of my commitment to the full-time program. The CS Prep course was fantastic, once again immersing me in their supportive community and affirming my decision to pursue software engineering with Codesmith.
Ultimately, I committed to their full-time online immersive. Though intense, the curriculum was exceptional, covering TypeScript/JavaScript to React and Redux, and Node and Express. While challenging, the hands-on projects and insightful educational lectures equipped me with the skills crucial for my first role.
What truly sets Codesmith apart is its community. Throughout the program, I felt supported, encouraged, and challenged, especially during moments of imposter syndrome. The post-program support, including resume assistance, mock interviews, and career guidance, further underscores their commitment to their students' success.
Four months after graduating, I secured a software engineering role with almost double my previous salary. Codesmith equipped me with the foundational knowledge I needed. While there were still gaps in my knowledge (which is expected in any SWE role for any engineer at any level at any point in their career), Codesmith instilled in me the mindset of continuous learning and problem-solving, which has been invaluable in my career.
Now, several years outside of the program, I continue to excel in my career as a Software Engineer and utilize Codesmith’s alumni resources. It's a community I know will accompany me for a long time.
While Codesmith offers the technical foundation for a software engineering role, achieving success demands dedication and effort. It's essential to recognize that success isn't guaranteed; Codesmith provides the tools and guidance, but it's up to you to put in the work. This entails committing to deepening your skills, practicing rigorously, and actively networking. If you're prepared to roll up your sleeves and fully commit, Codesmith will undoubtedly pave the way for your success. However, if you're expecting a passive experience and hoping to coast through the program effortlessly to land a job, I would advise against taking the leap.
If I were to offer one suggestion for improvement, it would be to provide more support on System Design interview preparation. While some time is allocated during the immersive, additional dedicated time in this area would be beneficial. Nonetheless, I was able to supplement my technical knowledge independently to excel in my interviews.
I'm genuinely grateful for my decision to join the Codesmith immersive. The strong community, comprehensive curriculum, and post-program support make it an excellent choice for anyone looking to transition into software engineering.

Codesmith is one of the best decisions I ever made.  Not only does their unique approach to teaching engineering truly set them apart, but the folks I met along the way have become some of my most important friendships. Learning to code is tough, and the environment they foster and the standard of excellence they promote is second to none, allowing their students to grow and learn in ways most of my classmates doubted were even possible. Many of my classmates were changing careers, didn’t have a background in tech, and most had never seen any code before beginning their application process.  While they set themselves apart by expecting students to work hard to understand the concepts, they also are incredible at tailoring the experience to make sure every student is able to succeed. Everyone struggled with one concept or another at some point, and yet, all of them came away from the program with serious, industry-ready skills that set them apart– even from folks with computer science degrees.  Being a professional engineer means constantly facing new tech, concepts and challenges– one of Codesmith’s greatest strengths is that they teach their students “how to learn” in a way you simply don’t see elsewhere. I came away from the program not only with a really solid foundation, but also with the confidence that I’d be able to tackle anything new in my career. I learned how to break down problems and incorporate new tech and skills on my own  As a student that went through the program and graduated in the midst of the 2023 tech lay-offs that happened world-wide, I was scared to say the least when it came time to hunt for a job. In the end, I found one within six weeks after completing the program. Not only had they prepared me, more than perhaps I even realized, but they also provide incredible post-graduate support that helped me every step of the way.  I wholeheartedly would recommend this program to anyone, it sounds corny to say so, but it really changed my life. 

I didn’t love every aspect of my Codesmith experience but I will say if you are to do a bootcamp, Codesmith is your best bet.

Starting with the positives: The support and community is top-notch. Everyone from instructors to TAs to alumni to support staff go above and beyond to make you feel welcome and battle imposter syndrome. It’s cheesy and borderline cult-like but as much as people rag on it, everyone feels safe, supported, and seen. The emphasis on projects is where you get your money’s worth and is the cornerstone of your resume and interviews. You’ll learn the basics of git and have plenty of options for answers to behavioral questions during interviews. The hiring portion at the end of the program I don’t think is as amazing as everyone puts it out to be, but they really do mean lifelong career support. Plenty of alums still use their postgrad career services. There are also some opportunities to connect with alumni during the program which proved valuable on the job hunt. 

There’s a lot that I wish were different about my experience. First, the weekly assessments I don’t think were a good measure of what I learned throughout the units. I was able to pass them just by copying a lot of the code from the units and changing them slightly. Just because I’m able to recognize a pattern doesn’t mean I have a deep understanding of the concepts. I felt like I skated by not really knowing the material. The TAs are previous alumni who just finished the program and it was obvious some of them didn’t know the material well enough to teach it and answer questions about it. (I did have some exceptional TAs though that I think deserve the senior engineering roles they landed after TAing.) There’s also no structure for the capstone project that you do. We were left to our own devices, tasked with building a solution to a technology none of us knew nothing about, and no one told us about good coding practices or did code review with us. I’m still proud of my group’s progress on the project and it gave me a lot to talk about during interviews, but I really feel Codesmith is missing out on a great opportunity here to teach us how best to code instead of just scrapping for an MVP.

Overall, I’m glad I did Codesmith because it helped me find a SWE job in a pretty brutal market between the career and alumni support but just know what you’re getting into if you go for it. Codesmith isn’t a golden ticket to a well-paying job. You’ll have to work hard to get through the program and you’ll need to supplement that with your own studying. If you’re not afraid of working hard and staying determined, Codesmith will be a good choice for you. 

I initially started looking into a career change after not being happy with my previous career trajectory and consulting with a friend that was in the industry.  After doing some initial research into another program, I noticed that Codesmith had superior analytics in regards to job placement and salary.  It's very important to do your due diligence because you are spending big money so you want to make sure that those funds aren't being wasted. 

Once I knew that CodeSmith would be my target, I started using their free JS learning resources (at the time called edx) and attending their free workshops.  This gave me an introduction to some of the lead instructors, some of the teaching fellows and the format of the lectures.  I also decided to enroll in both of the prep courses (since the cost was subsidized from the Immersive Tuition) and from there started to prepare for the interviews to get into the immersive itself.  I ended the CS Prep course in mid-july and pretty much studied from then till I got accepted into the course in October of that year.  There were two formal interviews, the first was a character interview where you spoke with someone over the phone to confirm your cultural fit, after you pass that you then need to pass a technical interview, which was done over zoom and was pretty much a coding interview. (One thing here is that this felt very similar to the actual job interview process).  It took me three tries to pass the technical interview but when I did I had a call with the lead instructor who told me I had passed.

Once I reserved my place in the cohort (maybe 2 weeks before it started) I was given some pre-course work which was setting up my environment with ide, connecting to github and working on pre-course work to prepare me for some of the upcoming work. (again the whole prep process was very similar to what it would be in a professional environment).

At this point the course started, i believe there were 4 weeks of lectures/smaller partner projects, 4 weeks of group projects, 4 weeks of capstone project and 2 weeks of job searching preparation.  I'd say my biggest takeaways from the learning/project side, is that Codesmith didn't necessarily pump all the information into me to make me a capable senior reaCT engineer, instead they more gave me a taste of technologies, and during the project phase, it was up to us to know how to research/read documentation to make things work (again very realistic to a professional setting).  Drilling into us how to research and problem solve was one of the biggest benefits to the program.  I've heard in other programs, people are just coding along and copying the instructor but with Codesmith we were literally building things from the ground up and figuring out how to do that.  When I got my first job I quickly realized that the process of building and problem solving felt very similar to the project phases at Codesmith.  And if you need extra help or are falling behind, the staff is there to help and assist.  During the lecture phases there were weekly assessments and if you struggled during those, you would get 1 on 1 sessions with staff.  I think I had a 1 on 1 session for every assessment I took.

The last 2 weeks of the program were also invaluable.  During this portion Codesmith helped us build our Resumes and Social media presence as well as going through interview prep with each other and also Alumni.  It was very similar to what I experienced during the job hunt.  and the Career assistance is for life!

In conclusion, I would like to say that the journey through Codesmith and the job hunt were not painfree.  I think I was interviewing and studying for a good 6 months before landing a job and even though there were some embarrassing interviews, I learned from each one and continued to learn and prepare for the next one.  It's very Cliche but you get from Codesmith what you put in.  The harder you work there the easier the transition will be into the workforce.  I stayed at my first job for 1.5 years and recently got referred and hired to another company.  I wouldn't say my life is stress free nor would i say software is easy, but I am in a much better place then before thanks to Codesmith.

Codesmith changed my life.  Before Codesmith, I was working a dead end customer service job.  I came into the program having studied for about 2 months to get into it, and then after the 3 month program, I was able to land a SWE position in less than a month, more than tripling my total compensation from before.  In talking to some current students and even some of my cohortmates, it's tempting to think that you know better than Codesmith... but from my perspective, it's like why would I pay $20k to do this thing and not give my 100% and see it through to its finish?  My advice would be to keep an open mind, give it your all, and then give it some more.  Codesmith was one of the hardest things I ever did, and the subsequent job search even harder, yet it was all worth it in the end to get to have a career that I always dreamed of.  

Codesmith is, without a doubt, one of the best immersives for software engineering. What truly sets it apart are the people who work there to create an environment that allows engineers to grow and learn. You can tell that the staff genuinely cares about their students. The curriculum pushes you to truly understand the fundamentals of engineering and to lean into the unknown. It's a lot of work and dedication, and it's so worth it. Go into it giving your all - and you will get everything out of it. 

The alumni network and job support team are unmatched - they're dedicated to seeing their students succeed in an ever-changing industry. Eric Kirsten offers unparalleled advice when it comes to landing a job as a software engineer. The teachers offer invaluable insights into what it means to be a great engineer, and the entire staff provides you with advice, support, and encouragement throughout your journey. If you're looking for a program that offers a challenging curriculum (that will make you stand out as an engineer), excellent job assistance, and a community of people who will support you throughout - you've found it in Codesmith. 

I attended Codesmith mid-last year, despite everything I heard and read about the market. All in all, between studying for and attending the program, and Job hunting I managed to land a job in just over a year. The entire process has been quite literally life-changing, I make nearly 4x what I made prior.

Is it easy?
No. The bar of entry is high, the program requires your entire undivided attention, and the job hunt is more difficult than both of those combined.

Is the market bad?
Yes, the majority of my cohort mates are still on the hunt, and 

Is it impossible?
Absolutely not! I have no degree, and was still able to land a role and a salary that had you asked me 1 year ago I would have never thought possible.

Overall, yes the market is bad, and yes nothing is guaranteed, but Codesmith is far and away the best BootCamp on the market, and the skills that they teach absolutely prepare you to successfully switch careers.

Codesmith was great for me. Attending was one of the best decisions I’ve made, and I think it’s a really fantastic option for some one looking for such a program.

It’s difficult to review a program like Codesmith because it’s (obviously, explicitly) not right for everyone and will hit students in different ways. For me, it was very good — one of the best uses of my time, money, and work that I’ve ever made.
I had a self-taught background coming into Codesmith, with several pretty specific areas of focus. The curriculum reinforced areas of my experience from different perspectives and introduced me to a wide variety of other technologies I hadn’t used before. 
The material was thoughtfully-chosen, presented with a strong ‘under-the-hood’ focus, and well situated within the wider landscape of competing technologies. The projects went deep into engineering considerations and building well as teams. Overall, it gave me an extremely solid basis and tools for continued growth. I found a good position shortly after graduation and have felt very well prepared in that role.

A few considerations of pause / maybe it’s not for you:
- The program moves very quickly, often spending 1-2 instructional days on technologies that take months to become strong with. The better your pre-course background, the more you will get out of it. Students who struggled early continued to struggle throughout the course. I would recommend really mastering the pre-course work and maybe doing some other project before starting, in order to get the most out of it.
- On the same note, you cover a huge amount of content for the time.  While you are given many tools to go deeper, you should have realistic goals for what’s possible in a few months. It’s a solid basis + survey that trains you to learn and dig in — but it can’t actually replace years of learning and experience.
- There’s not as much direct instructor support and evaluation on projects as I would have liked. You can get input, but no one is reviewing the quality of your code or your major design decisions in detail.
- The job market is pretty challenging right now and finding a job takes a lot of work and patience. Research this bit and make sure you know what you’re in for. It’s a legitimate path to a challenging and rewarding career, but it takes work and time.

I had an excellent experience with great learning platform. I liked the way the course is structured, the lessons are clear and the material is extensive and complete. Would like to comment about the mentoring learning sessions, optional content and practice projects that certainly makes the difference for me to understand the concepts. Also the support for the program manager (Vineet Mishra) makes great difference always giving the support I needed. Thank you Vineet!

I surely recommend this course for everyone who wants to become a Data Scientists. Is worth of mention that I had zero experience with machine learning, AI and python but with a great effort I could complete satisfactory the program including with 2 projects with maximum scores. I am very happy to have chosen MIT IDSS with Great Learning!!

Before Codesmith, I was working on switching out of the medical field through self-learning but I quickly realized that a reliable bootcamp is a much better option. Having done research for months, I decided to go with Codesmith and the decision has been the best one I've ever made. The education I received at Codesmith in the short 3 months I was there made me a stronger dev than I could've become in 3 years of self-learning. I truly owe all of my professional success to the program and would recommend it to anyone I know as the education they provide is second to none. The community of people I met was truly amazing and has helped me still to this day in my coding journey. That support network of other engineers is by itself worth the price of admission. Even with the fast pacing, no one was left behind in learning as well all boosted each other, and the staff truly cares that everyone is learning and growing by providing whatever support is needed. Along with that, the way that the curriculum is taught was outstanding and truly gave me such an in-depth understanding of JavaScript and other frameworks were I feel that I have a better understanding of the technology than most of my coworkers. This is the best bootcamp by far that is out there!

This program is undeniably challenging—extremely so. It's not a scenario where you can simply coast and expect to land a fantastic job within a few months. However, if you possess a genuine desire for this and are committed to putting in the hard work, the program can be remarkably effective. It stands out as an exceptional program, and it almost feels unfair to categorize it with other bootcamps because, in my experience and observation, it surpasses them by a wide margin. The hiring segment of the program alone justifies the cost. I give it a perfect 10/10 and cannot recommend it highly enough for those truly dedicated to pursuing this path.