Viking Code School

Their course work has a significant amout of errors so most of the "information" you need to research on your own to confirm what is or is not correct. Most of which is based around raw memorization rather than understanding or experience.

Very little instruction or feedback is given in writing and is instead given verbally and is inconsistent between intructors.

No one associated with the school has any background or skill in education or teaching.

Most of class time is wasted "pair programming" [something you will never do in the real world] so very little time is spent productively in a given day.

There is no grading rubric and any assesment of tests or homework and are graded differently for each student.

 

So I had a skype call with Eric, and to be honest he is a nice enough guy, intelligent, and knows what he's doing.

However what I didn't like about him was the bait and switch tactics.

VCS is heavily promoted as being "tuition-deferred"...in fact they show up at the top of almost all the searches.

However during the call, he was heavily pressuring me into taking the "non-deferred" option...which is USD 13,800 paid upfront.

I was shocked by this as NOWHERE ON HIS WEBSITE DOES IT EVEN SAY THAT THIS IS AN OPTION.

Just another example of people trying to take advantage of students and education.

-Harry

Hey, my name's Morgan, I graduated the 2016 Immersive program at Viking.

TL/DR: Attending VCS was the best choice I have made so far in my 22 years of living. It helped me jump-start my career when college couldn't, and now I enjoy going to work every day because I get to do what I love. However, it is not an easy program and it will make you work every step of the way.

Before Viking, I attended college for computer science. Unfortunately, funds ran dry and I did not want to take on student loans. I had read that it was possible, albeit difficult, to get a job in software without a degree and that web development was booming. So, I left college three semesters in and set out to teach myself web development.

I did a lot of research to try to find some of the best free resources online. I found out about The Odin Project which is a sister project to VCS, though I didn't know it at the time. I quickly put all my energy toward progressing through TOP. As it turns out though, learning to program is HARD and teaching yourself to do it is even harder. And on top of that, I was working various full time jobs throughout these months/years and was always too busy or tired to sit down and program when I got off work.

Eventually, I got a lucky break and was able to put back enough money to look into attending a code school. It was about that time that I received a promotional email from The Odin Project informing me of VCS, so I studied my butt off for a couple weeks and I was in!

There were a couple of nervous months where I continued to teach myself and did the prep work I was assigned, and then finally the program began in July.

I was very impressed with the lesson material and content, as it was exhaustive as well as exhausting :) It's been said that code schools are akin to drinking from a firehose and VCS was no exception. But despite how tired I felt on weekends, it was well worth it. I think the lessons/projects hit the sweet spot of teaching us just enough to make us feel confident, but didn't waste too much time elaborating on minutiae either. Of course, I can say that in retrospect, but while I was in it, I felt like I was only retaining 10% of the knowledge being thrown at me.

Also, I should note that the instructors were phenomenal. Infinitely patient and they had a deep understanding of the material. I asked those guys question after question for four months and very rarely did I get an "I'm not sure." Even if they didn't know they would either try to find out or point me in the right direction.

Okay, story time. So at the end of the program we had our final, two week long projects. We split up into groups, and as fate would have it, I ended up on in the small group of four vs the other team's intimidating 10 (or so.) We took a couple of days to plan out our projects according to the SCRUM methodology as best we could and got to work. Unfortunately, after about a week my team and I realized we had very little to show despite our best efforts. Communication was not where it should have been and the project suffered as a result. So, we got our butts in gear, essentially re-built our project from the ground up(!) and by the time presentations rolled around at the end of the week, we had a reasonably well working application that we felt fairly proud of. The reason I mention it, is because after that quite stressful week, my team members and I unanimously decided we had learned some valuable lessons about persevering through a project and seeing things to the end. I use some of the lessons I learned during that week every day at my new job and I am grateful that Viking's structure gave me the opportunity to learn them.

After final projects, the program was technically "over." I use quotes because it wasn't really. We were still expected to spend the majority of our time applying to jobs, going to code meetups and whatever else we could think of to try to get an interview. Erik gave us plenty of ideas to implement in our job search process but it was still a nail-biting month and a half for me while I hunted for my first dev home. But in the end, I got two offers and chose the lesser one because the company was closer to home. And I got a 5k bump in salary thanks to Erik's great negotiation advice.

So to wrap it up, I would definitely recommend Viking to anyone interested in beginning a career in web development. It is not an easy program, but you will learn a ton, and if you work really (and I mean *really*) hard you WILL get a job at the end of it all. If I could do it without a college degree, anyone can!

P.S. If anyone reads this review and would like to reach out to me to ask questions about the program, feel free. Like some of the other Vikings that have commented here, I had some trouble sourcing information about the program when I first started researching it and it ended up feeling like I was taking a very big leap. It all turned out good in the end, but if I can help someone in the same shoes as myself assuage some of that anxiety, I would be more than happy. My email is `morganm5201@gmail.com`. Cheers!

ABOUT ME

Hi I’m Julia, and I graduated from the January 2016 immersive program.

 

TLDR

Viking exceeded my very high expectations and propelled me to a career that I love. I am now a Software Engineer working in Python and Flask.

 

BEFORE VIKING

I graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Environmental Economics and landed a project manager position at a solar monitoring company. From there, I got interested in coding and landed a software QA position at the same company. In that job, I spent 30% of my day writing automated tests in Python, and the other 70% doing manual testing and putting out fires. I kept seeking out more coding at work, and I spent my nights and weekends working through tutorials and reading Hacker News. I’m a very logical person (I love to play chess), and I find that coding presents a really rewarding balance of interacting with people and getting computers to do what I want.

 

WHY VIKING

I researched a large number of post-baccalaureate programs, graduate degrees, and bootcamps before making my decision (seriously, you should have seen my spreadsheet). Viking stood out immediately for the depth and quality of the curriculum, the student-teacher ratio, the remote format, and the deferred fee. Viking literally has the same aim as you: to get you hired. They fine-tune the curriculum to make sure you are job-ready, and they drill you on interview practice. You will have to work incredibly hard to get a job, but Viking is right there with you. I loved the remote format because I probably saved an hour of commute time every day (and every hour really counts). It was not difficult to stay on-task and focused because you are constantly interacting with your teammates and the instructors.

 

GETTING HIRED

From April-June 2016, I applied to over 100 jobs, landed 8 technical screenings, had 3 in-person interviews, and ended up with 2 job offers.

 

DAILY LIFE

Viking teaches you with project-based learning, and you generally tackle one project per day. 90% of the programming you do is pair programming, so you’re paired with a new student each day. Some of the projects were longer and spanned 2-5 days, letting you build a larger code base and more complex features. The days start at 8am PST and go to either 6pm or 7pm. Each night you will have 1-4+ hours of homework that requires your full attention. 

The program is intensely demanding and will challenge you in different ways. You will find your breaking point. Sometimes you will understand the concepts and feel like you’re in control. Other times you will feel like you are completely lost, going to fail, and that you are the only person in your cohort who doesn’t “get it”. That feeling happened twice for me: during the unit on classes and OOP architecture, and when we started making JavaScript games. I promise, this is when your best learning will happen! Reach out to the instructors, go for a walk, and realize that you will definitely get through it.

 

THE STAFF

The teaching staff is amazing, and I got exactly the support I needed. I was constantly amazed by Erik’s depth of knowledge, his approachability, and his positivity (especially as our exhaustion increased and we all developed dark circles under our eyes). I was always impressed with Chris and Andur’s areas of expertise, plus their ability to jump into a room and help us solve a problem when we got stuck. They offered weekly office hours as even more support for our learning. Dara, the program director, is an incredibly positive addition to the team. I could feel how passionate and dedicated she was to each and every student’s success. 

 

THE CURRICULUM

The curriculum is the best out there; it’s in-depth, high-quality, and never wastes your time. I don’t learn well from videos, so the largely text-based format worked well for me. One of the best parts of the course is the intermediate JavaScript section. You build your own MVC pattern, which immediately propels you from beginner to being able to understand existing JS frameworks.

Viking emphasizes a deep understanding of concepts, instead of just memorization. Like other people have mentioned, Viking teaches you how to learn. These skills will prove immensely useful when you start your first job, and hopefully throughout your career. 

 

MY COHORT

My cohort was made up of 4 women and 6 men. I was constantly impressed by my teammates’ intelligence, persistence, and generosity. Everyone got along well, and there was never any negativity. The atmosphere was supportive and inclusive, and we still keep in touch. 

 

SUMMARY

I cannot speak highly enough of Viking. I have recommended the course to my friends, colleagues, and people I’ve met through networking. One of my friends recently took the plunge, and she is actually in the middle of her cohort right now!

 

FINAL ADVICE

DO THE PREP WORK. Pay attention, do everything thoroughly, and take it seriously. It will help you get the most you can out of the program. 

Disclaimers: I attended the very first cohort of Viking Code School so my personal experience is specific to the older format of the program (12-weeks, part-time). I also helped with some of the very early design work before the program started. All that being said, I keep in touch with the founder and current developers for the program, and I am certain that my comments are still relevant to it's current form. I am giving my candid review as a student.

Before I start, the answer to the most common question is: Yes, you can get a job after this program.  I was offered a position as a "software engineer” working in AngularJS.  I am currently taking a different route, but I want to be very clear that it is possible to get a job with what you learn here.  (That it doesn’t mean that it’s easy).

This program is intense. Even the part-time version consumed more than every night and weekend.  Keeping up with the coursework required extreme dedication and self-motivation.  This is probably the hardest part of any remote program.  Having a group of people going through the material made staying on track a lot easier.  I had spent some time learning on my own before this program, and it was much more pleasant to go through with other people in the same boat.

The format of the program is “flipped classroom.”  All of the material is available on demand and you ask instructors and TAs questions during the group video calls. They do a good job of presenting a lot of media to consume the material, the core of the theory is presented in a written format with good examples and the application of theory is in video demos.  If you don’t learn well from videos, you can just dig into the demo code yourself.  You really have to self-motivate to get through the material and the exercises, because you’ll be discussing it with everyone. The discussions really show you where you thought you understood something and where you really did understand it.  

The instruction and learning materials are the best that I have seen online. Every question that I had was answered quickly and thoroughly.  There was one point where I was just burnt out, at my wits end from work and overwhelmed.  I just couldn’t understand some key concepts in JavaScript and couldn’t get a seemingly simple assignment to work. The lead instructor sat down with me on that assignment and dragged me through the JavaScript object model, stayed with me on the call walking me through the revealing module pattern until my code worked… at 11 pm on a weekday. It was a moment that really got me to clear the “pit of despair” and realize that I could do this stuff.

Surprises that I learned in this program:

• Laughing at your own bad code is surprisingly gratifying.  It feels great to understand why it is so bad that it's funny. You REALLY remember the funny mistakes.
• Peer code reviews are learning dense. Even if you get stuck on something and can’t finish it, the process of having people look at it and having to explain it will teach you so much.
• Peer coding is awesome and sometimes painful.
• Having somewhere to ask questions and have them answered nearly instantly saves you hours of searching through Stack Overflow.
• The most frustrating errors are caused by the silliest bugs.

Howdy, 

  So I am currently in the second cohort of viking code school, I think the structure is changing somewhat for the next cohort but here is what I've seen.    I had been self teaching a bit of ruby and whatnot on available resources from May to October 2015. I had been looking at development bootcamps, particularly with the chance to have a program that was not only quality but allowed for remote as I had to stay in my current location with work. Well, there was a good friend of mine who was halfway through this bootcamp and he had given me a hearty recommendation on it so I applied. There were a few interviews and coding tests and I was accepted.    I really think a good way to describe this program is you definitely get out of it what you put in. Every week we go through different areas of the stack and development (Rails, Sinatra, Javascript, AngularJS, jQuery, PostgreSQL, TDD, HTML5, CSS3, etc.); I have learned far more in the first 12 weeks than I did self-learning every single day the previous year.    The instructors drive you beyond your boundaries with tough love and support, and are available pretty much round the clock seven days a week.   The structure has us doing a kickoff/wrapup SCRUM on Mondays that looks over the last week's code and kicks off the upcoming week. We then have a chunk of material and SPRINT assignments to complete through thursday with SCRUM meetings wednesday and thursday night to review code and ask and answer questions and be quizzed. Friday we review each other's code on Github and get ready for the mega weekend project; we then pair up and pair program all weekend long on a much larger project. There were days I kicked off at 8am with my partner on a Saturday and before you know it it's 9pm.    This course is far and away the most challenging thing I have ever done in my life and probably the most satisfying too. I haven't been in other dev bootcamps so cannot compare that, but that was my experience. I know Erik is always accessible too if you have more questions as well!

Hi, my name is Nick, I am a graduate of Viking Code School’s first full time cohort, and am currently a professional software developer living and working in Austin, TX.

 

Viking was nothing short of a life changing experience. While one of the most challenging things I’ve ever committed to, it helped get me to a place where I am now doing what I love for a living.

 

A bit about my back story -- before being accepted to Viking, I had graduated with a BA in International Relations. I worked for a few years in international development, mostly as a project manager for overseas communications projects in Afghanistan. The work was interesting, but ultimately I always felt like I sort of “settled” in college and this career. It was not very fulfilling, and I was always envious of other people who really seemed to love what they were doing. The old sentiment, “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” certainly didn’t apply to anything I was doing.

 

While doing this, I found myself needed to write small programs to automate tasks, such as scraping and cleaning government contract award data. I had never programmed a day before in my life prior to this, but the first time I wrote a program that I actually used to solve a problem, I was hooked. I had always regretted not having the money to go back to school to become an engineer, and software development suddenly gave me a very accessible way to build and solve complex problems.

 

I spent almost all of my free time absorbing whatever I could, but even the most “directed” resources available still left me with large conceptual gaps about how software is designed, tested, and implemented. I could write code (which is good, because it’s totally expected of your before you are even admitted), but I still couldn’t really write and deploy usable software. Between working 50+ hours and week and jumping back and forth between resources, I found myself not making a ton of progress.

 

When I first learned about boot camps, I was extremely skeptical. I was naturally skeptical of anything that makes some of the huge promises these programs were offering (1 month and you can make $100k!), but as I did research I found that there were a handful of very highly regarded programs out there. I decided to try and find one that might work. My criteria was as follows:

 

• It had to have an emphasis on the software development process and not just teaching me how to write code

• It had to be based around building things, since the best chance of getting hired would be to have a killer portfolio

• It had to be highly interactive. I didn’t want a “mentor” telling me what to do and then checking in with me at the end of the day. I wanted to be working with people, day in and day out, since that is what would be expected of me as a developer

• It had to be accessible. I was living in Philly at the time, which isn’t a huge tech city, and I couldn’t afford to move to New York or San Francisco for a few months

• It had to have deferred payment. I have a ton of student loans already, and while I see the value of these programs and don’t mind paying for it, the reality was I was making about 40k a year in international development while trying to pay off student loans. I simply did not have any money

•  

These requirements narrowed my options down pretty fast to a bunch of online programs that came up short in some important areas, usually either not being much more than a “learn to code in javascript!” school, an expensive online mentor with no interaction with other students, or no deferred payments. And the programs that did meet my criteria were just not accessible to a guy living in Philly.

 

And then I found Viking. Erik had created a resource I’d used a ton already, The Odin Project, and was a graduate of a boot camp himself, so I knew off the bat he had a pretty good idea of how to take that big step. Furthermore, Viking offered a small cohort of 10 students, where we’d be pair programming every single day for 14 weeks, along with deferred payment. It was everything the top programs in NYC and San Francisco offered, but with the incredible convenience and accessibility of being online. It was terrifying thinking of leaving my job to take this on, but after a few personal conversations with Erik, I was convinced this was the right thing to do.

 

During the program, we spent every day pairing with different people on projects. Literally every single day we built something new. The process was basically:

 

• Go through a bunch of readings and material the night before about a new concept, technology, or framework

• Meet in the mornings for a Q&A and to discuss the day’s project

• Build awesome stuff that required us to use what we learned, along with a ton of creativity and Google to solve problems

• Code reviews where we reviewed each other’s code as well as had ours looked at by mentors

• Rinse and repeat

 

Honestly, one of the most frustrating parts of the course ended up being one of the most beneficial. Having graduated from college, I was very much used to classrooms where our hands were held and where everything was very directed. That is not how Viking works. You and your partner have to plan and design each day’s project. If you get stuck the team will help you find the best way to get an answer, but refrained from really telling you how to do anything. The result was we came out with the knowledge not just how to write good code, but how to solve problems. This is huge, has helped me on a daily basis as a professional programmer, and was one of the things interviewers loved to hear about.

 

We built so many awesome things, it is hard to even begin to list them. Early on we had to develop a chess AI that could maneuver a knight piece around to eventually capture a roaming king. We built games in Ruby and JavaScript, we built a fully functioning social network...so many interesting projects that not only beefed up my portfolio, but gave me the knowledge and experience to build and work with things I now work with every single day.

 

Perhaps most importantly, it gave me the creative freedom to be able to build things that I wanted in my free time. The personal projects I took from conception to reality during the course were some of the most valuable pieces of my job search arsenal, and the ability to have an idea, build it, and have people use it is something Viking taught me and employers loved about me.

 

But the course went well beyond just teaching you to be a developer. Their job search support and resources were incredible. We spent 30 minutes every day doing algorithm challenges to mimic interview questions, had people who hire engineers come in to talk to us about the process, and even talked about the best ways to negotiate salary. The program truly prepared me to be a professional developer more than I even imagined. They want you to succeed, and they give you everything you need to do it.

 

I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who is interested in taking the step to becoming a professional software developer. The program isn’t for everyone. It is extremely intensive, requires a ton of time and effort, and was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. But if you are serious about becoming a software developer, and don’t have time to spend a few years hacking together projects after work and hoping you pick up enough along the way to get a shot somewhere, you really can’t beat Viking.

 

TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read): Attend Viking Code School. Amazing instructors, great curriculum, and fun community. It’s tough, but worth.

Hey! I’m Andrew and I was part of the January 2016 Immersive program which ended late April 2016.

Before Viking, I graduated with a masters in chemical engineering and was teaching high school students various STEM subjects. While teaching programming, I found myself pouring unnecessary amount of time and effort coming up with creative projects I could have my students do. It became pretty apparent that these ideas were the things I wanted to learn and implement, myself. I had been self learning for a few months but eventually hit a plateau where I was making no progress and wasting time. So I decided to take myself and my passion seriously and pursued this opportunity full time.

Viking was tough. The curriculum will test the very limits of what you think you can accomplish and kick it even further. The first few weeks is where the prep work they have you do pays off. It’s the life vest you can cling on to keep you alive in the hurricane that will wreck you in subsequent weeks.

I spent most of the day pair programming and coding however, and it’s during this time when I saw how things work in action. Learning by doing is great and it’s one of the best ways to learn, but having another person to sit with you to talk about the code is even better. Time just flew. Also many of projects are interesting, challenging, and rewarding to build. I think it’s the combination of a few things that helped me retain and learn skills at an incredible pace:

1. Discipline and strong work ethic

2. Demanding curriculum/pace

3. Community you can ask questions and investigate solutions

The instructors are very understanding of how intense it can get but you have to be in charge of asking questions and taking initiative in figuring out what you are having trouble understanding (which should be a given at this point). It’s generally not expected that you’ll “get” everything without practice so it’s imperative to ask questions during the SCRUM meetings each morning and ask about things were confusing in the required reading. Many concepts build on each other so it’s crucial to be on top of this for the first few weeks. Also, there will some days where you won’t get to “complete” everything on the agenda, and that’s ok. The firehose of information and the constant deadlines add to the pressure, but please don’t stress out if you don’t complete projects, just focus on learning the core concepts and “finish” them up later in your free time on weekends or after the daily readings.

Also, if you have obsessive/perfectionist tendencies like I do, dump them immediately. This is one thing I wish I would’ve done sooner because I didn’t know how badly it affected my productivity until I became more aware of it. If you’re constantly worried about writing “beautiful/best practice/optimal” code, it’ll just add to the pressure. I’ve chugged many energy drinks and lost many nights of sleep due to this self-centered egoism. Just swallow your pride, and get shit done first without worrying about “beautiful code.” If you have time, you can refactor it then. It’s great to be mindful of best practices and absorb it when you can, but it’s honestly a luxury you can go without when your priority is to learn and get stuff done. This is one strategy I adopted to lessen the impact of the waves smacking into my face every week.

I loved that Viking brought in people to come in and talk about their unique perspective in the industry. It’s a series called Viking Codecast (check it out on YouTube! It’s pretty awesome!). Some of the advice and perspective that was shared during these sessions were incredibly insightful, and some of which I keep in mind to this day.

Also, Viking has a solid job curriculum section that covers everything from discovering leads to practicing mock interviews. It’s really helped me get a jumpstart in the job search process, and helped me land an offer I was happy with!

To summarize, I’d recommend Viking to anyone who is serious, self-disciplined, and committed to transitioning into software development.

Disclaimer: I want to acknowledge a few things and it’s really one of the reasons I’m writing this review, and it’s about anxiety. People have reached to me to ask about my experiences at Viking and the common question goes something like “was it worth it?” It’s a completely fair question, I do admit that I experienced that same anxiety that asked if this investment will really pay off in the end.

When I applied there was almost no paper trail online, there were only like 1 or 2 reviews at most giving great reviews on Quora and Course Report. Imagine shopping for a product on amazon that asked for months of full time commitment with no guaranteed return on investment with 1 or 2 five star reviews, how likely are you to purchase? For me it was worth it, for reasons I’ll explain later, but honestly they won’t convince you of anything. Do your homework. Check out the Viking Blog, the Viking Codecasts on YouTube, Viking capstone project presentations also on YouTube, Viking’s twitter, etc. The jury is coming out and it’s getting easier and easier to figure out what Viking is about. I’m here to accelerate that process and give my honest review so that your anxiety can be less than what I experienced in the past. For me, it was a combination of my hours of research literally scouring the web (i.e. google..lol, Quora, YouTube, The Odin Project) that convinced me it was the real deal. I found that VCS had a consistent web presence/message and I had a very positive experience in self-learning via The Odin Project, despite the lack of testimonials/reviews (at the time I looked into Viking).

TL/DR: I graduated from the Viking Code School’s July 2016 immersive program, and it is both as challenging and rewarding as advertised.

I studied political science in college and worked in politics and campaigns for about 5 years before starting at VCS. I started teaching myself programming after my job became more and more focused on data and analytics. I realized I had a passion for the mix of problem-solving and creativity that coding afforded me, and after a year or so of teaching myself through various online resources, I realized two things: 1) I really wanted to transition to a career in software and web development, and 2) I would never make that transition while learning on my own.

After hearing about people in similar situations enrolling in coding bootcamps, I started doing some research. Like you’re doing right now, I read tons of reviews of different programs on sites like this one, trying to figure out the best match for me. So here are some answers to some of the questions you, like me, might have:

YES, students really do get legit engineering jobs after the program. I might as well address this at the beginning, since it was the most important thing for me as well. I received my first offer about 6 weeks after the program ended, and a second offer shortly after that (which I accepted) as a Full-Stack Engineer at a biotech start-up in Cambridge, MA. When I accepted my offer, over half of my cohort of 13 students had already accepted offers and the others were right on my heels as well. This is real, folks.

YES, it’s a ton of work. Compared with other bootcamps, VCS has both more weeks and more hours per week. 70 and 80 hour weeks were routine, so you need to prepare yourself to let the program pretty much take over your life.

Living on the East Coast, class started at 11 AM, with an hour or so of review and QA from the last night’s reading. We would then spend 3 hours with a partner (different classmate each day) on a project, usually incorporating some of the concepts we had read about the night before. During this time, you could ask for help from one of the TAs if you got stuck on something. After lunch from 3 - 4PM, we would come back together as a class and do code review of what people had built in the first session, and then usually spend 10-20 minutes solving an algorithm and explaining our answers. That was followed by another 3 - 3.5 hour session with the same partner, either continuing the morning’s project, starting a new one, or continuing an ongoing project that might span a few days. The day wrapped up with another session of code review (this was usually done in smaller groups, not the whole class) and then an hour or two of reading a night. So yeah, it’s no joke.

Of course, the benefit of those longer hours and increased number of weeks is that VCS is able to provide a wider and deeper curriculum than any other bootcamp I researched. This was one of the main factors in why I chose this program over others. It’s been said in a number of other reviews, but I learned more than I could even imagine.  And while it could be exhausting at times, it also never stopped being energizing, as it’s easy to get excited when you’re literally learning dozens of new things every single day.

NO, it’s not for everyone. Having just talked about the workload, clearly not everyone is ready to commit to 70 or 80 hours a week of work, and that is certainly reasonable. And furthermore, VCS has higher standards for its applicants and includes a tougher interview process than any of the other bootcamps I was considering. But what this means for you, as a VCS student, is that your classmates end up being just as committed to working hard and learning as you are. I was constantly impressed by the ability and dedication of my fellow students, and with this bootcamp (like so many others) based largely on partner and group work, it’s critical that you’re able to trust, and learn from, other members of your cohort.

YES, you will have support along the way. Apart from not having to dig into your bank account until you have a paycheck again, the other benefit of VCS’s deferred payment model is that they’re committed to and invested in your success. But the team that runs the program are clearly not just doing this to make a buck. It was evident from the first conversation I had with Erik (the founder and main instructor) that he is passionate about educating people to succeed in engineering roles on day one. He and the TAs are almost always available to talk about the course material, your bigger picture goals, and the job search process.

NO, you don’t have to commute. VCS is one of the only full-time immersive bootcamps done entirely remotely. In my experience, this was almost entirely a positive thing. When you’re spending 70 or 80 hours a week in class, being able to save 5 or 10 hours a week of commuting to and from your bootcamp is incredibly important. It can potentially be the difference between occasionally being able to see your friends and family or not.

The instruction and partner work, all done through Google Hangouts, was really smooth and I ended up really getting to know my classmates and building good relationships. Plus, you get to meet students from across the country and world (and potentially gaining a couch to crash on if you’re ever in their neck of the woods).

YES, you will be prepared for the job search and the interview process. Pretty much from day one, you’ll be doing things with an eye toward the job search and interview process. The daily algorithms I mentioned earlier are meant to mimic the types of whiteboarding questions you might see in an interview, and were essential for learning how to tackle those quickly. During the first half of the program, and even before you start, there’s a focus on really figuring out what type of company and role you would want, what salary range you’re looking for, where you would move, and all types of other questions to really get your job search honed in on only roles you would want. And starting in the second half of the program, you start networking and sending out applications, and as was the case with most students, getting some interviews.

VCS has a good set of materials to help you prepare for the job search, both on the technical side and preparing for behavioral questions. But the best thing is their focus on networking and getting in through the side door. Yes, you will be applying to dozens of jobs a week at times, but VCS will make sure lots of your time and energy are spent reaching out to engineers at companies you like, attending meet-ups, and going to hackathons. It’s simply a reality that recruiters are getting dozens of resumes every day, and having some sort of connection can at least give you a chance to interview. And then it’s all up to you.

NO, I can’t make this decision for you. But I can’t recommend Viking Code School highly enough. It’s the best career decision I’ve ever made.

My name is Graham and I just completed Viking's Fall 2016 cohort (July 5th - October 28th). Before Viking I spent some time working as a middle school teacher, and in software sales. While working for a SaaS startup, I knew my desire was to be on a more techinical team, and decided to jump in head first with Viking.

It was a scary decison, because like most people googling for Viking Reviews, there wasn't a ton of information out there. I couldn't afford to fork over 15k upfront for a more traditional in-person code school so I knew Viking was my best shot.

I was pleasently suprised by how in depth the course material went. These guys really know their stuff. The focus on pair programming ensures that you are staying on pace and mainting best practices. The TA's are an incredible wealth of knowledge, and the other students you work with will suprise you with their brilliance.

During and after the program I've ahd the opportunity to meet other boot camp grads and developers, and they are always impressed by how capable I am as a developer after only four months.  

I'm now a week out of the program and have already accepted a Software Engineer position at a local company, so I would say it was definitely the right move for me. Viking has a TON of upsides, the only downside being that you are going to have to go out and hustle to build your own hiring network (which wasn't quite as difficult as I thought it would be).

I would reccommend the course to absolutely anyone!

My name is Kelsey, and I was in the January 2016 Viking Code School 

cohort. I'd considered code schools for a while beforehand, ever since I 

reached a point where I felt I needed help to get to a professional level. 

I completed the interview with Viking, and was accepted a few days later. 

Even before the program started, we had prep work to do, which set the 

tone for the effort and reward involved.

 

I was in the full time program, which meant 16 weeks of writing code all 

day, every day. We spent most of the time pair programming, rotating 

between different partners, although we also had individual projects. This 

way, we learned more than simple coding skills; we learned how to solve 

problems beyond the scope of a rigidly defined exercise. 

 

Our final project was built in teams over the course of 2 weeks, and was 

designed and scoped entirely by the students. Learning those time 

management skills, as well as how to properly scope a project, has been 

just as useful in my new career as every algorithm question put together.

 

When we started applying for jobs, we had practice interviews set up as 

well as weekly checkins even after the program had officially ended. I 

received an offer about a month after completing the program, and I've 

been working there for 2 months now. I still have a lot to learn, but 

Viking has helped give me the confidence to know that my journey is just 

beginning.

My name is Xin and I was student in Viking's summer 2016 full-time Web Application Engineering cohort.  I strongly recommend the program to anyone who is serious about starting a career in web development because it works.

Before Viking, I was a post-doctoral researcher at UCSF.  I wrote software to build computational models but the skills weren't enough for what software engineer jobs were looking for.  I joined Viking in order to get a more applied skill set in web development.  The week after I graduated from Viking, I got my first software engineer job offer from a Bay Area FinTech company. 

During the program, we built group projects every day and the instructors were always there to ask questions and review code.  The projects were not easy and we therefore learned a lot by doing them, including how to work on large teams and to build complex applications using Rails and Angular.  I appreciated the time spent understanding algorithms and data structures, which we did most days, and which helped a lot with interviewing.

In the end, I'm happy I joined the program and I'm very happy with where my career is now.