Coding Dojo

Pros:
--The sheer BREADTH of tech you work with in Coding Dojo is quite exemplary: HTML, JavaScript, CSS, TypeScript, Bootstrap, Python, Flask, MySQL, MongoDB, Mongoose, Node.js, React/Express, Postman, jQuery, JSON, Ajax, Java, SpringToolSuite, SpringBoot, APIs, AWS, Azure, and there is so much more nitty-gritty I could name here for each stack. (Note: I took MERN. Some students take MEAN, which is Angular over React, or C# or other stacks, and some take or have taken Python which uses Django rather than Flask, etc. but this was the tech I personally worked with)

--Being integrated into a community learning environment is great. You have instructors, TAs, and your peers. You are together in Zoom lectures, you can pair program in Zoom "breakout rooms" with a few people, and you can communicate in Discord servers/channels. I learned to really be pro-active in asking questions and seeking help, whether from instructors, TAs, or peers who had more knowledge/experience than I had, depending on the situation.

--You can continue to stay connected after graduating, whether through alum Discord channels/servers, connecting w/a community on LinkedIn, using career services support, etc. It's definitely a good starting point for building a network.

Cons:

--The biggest one to me is that access to the Login/Learn platform is cut off at six months after graduating. I will be frank that this strikes me as a bit ... strangely miserly. I mean, students are paying quite a bit of money for the bootcamp. Why cut off their platform access after such a limited amount of time? Especially because, again, speaking frankly, most students will still need to practice with a lot of these concepts after graduating, given how fast-paced the bootcamp is. I think students would look a lot more fondly on the program without this red tape.

--I said this elsewhere, but tech that's not directly a part of building a fullstack server for each language/library gets treated a bit haphazardly. JSON and APIs are touched on, but working with APIs is something that comes up during project week and is largely left to students to work through on their own. APIs can be very complex, so giving a week for a student to make a project w/API integration is a bit of a problem. Especially because you may not even have a week: many students need a little extra time to complete the 90% core assignment requirement of the stack and have to take exams a bit later, or they may need an exam re-take (or two), in which case they don't even have a full week for projects.  Peers are preoccupied with their own projects, even TAs may struggle to really help w/API integration, and instructors can be a bit sparse during these final stack weeks. This results in a situation where the students who need support the most are likely to not get much and not have much to show, whereas students who already have a lot of tech chops are the most likely to produce flashy projects. I didn't have a very good experience with project weeks, personally.

--Similarly and maybe a bit relatedly, some tech isn't actually taught, but is treated like sort of bonus material for Black Belts. For example, at no point were we really taught to deploy websites. There are deployment instructions on the Learn/Login platform, but this is something you self-teach for Black Belt features. Having options for Black Belt features is a cool concept, but being able to deploy websites seems like something that ought to be pretty integral to development. I graduated without being taught really anything about deployment. It's worth noting that Coding Dojo does offer optional certification in Azure, however.

Overall: Really, what each stack in Coding Dojo is oriented around is creating an application/server with full CRUD functionality. To that end, the program succeeds in teaching students how to build these servers from the ground up w/Python, MERN, and Java. If you think of Coding Dojo as being mostly oriented towards this, then it succeeds in what it sets out to do. It would be nice to flesh out some of the other aspects of tech a bit more, though. I have nothing but nice things to say about the instructors and TAs. When they can be reached for support, their assistance is excellent. One of the other challenging things is that if you need evening or weekend support for assignments, it can be harder to find people around to help, which can be tricky because a student may have most of their time for work on evenings or weekends. I would sometimes fall behind in my assignment tracker because I needed to check in with my instructor or a TA the next day for an assignment due the previous day. In fairness, I think the program tries to help with this by just having a lot of TAs on Discord, so you have to be pro-active in searching around and messaging them sometimes just to see who is available. I understand people have lives and there's only so much you can do scheduling-wise in terms of support, but students should be aware of this and try to plan ahead and start assignments ASAP and as early as possible to guarantee sufficient support if they get stuck w/debugging.

The reason why I chose Dojo over Hack Reactor and other bootcamps is because of Dojo's community. I learned that they have sports day once a week and they won't kick students out if they fail. Back then I was very depressed, so I needed a supportive school. On the learning side, Dojo is not kidding when they say they will teach you to be a full-stack developer within 3 months. Expect late nights of studying and hurdles throughout. It's critical that you study prep materials before you start. You will be tested on day 1. Even if you understand only half of it you will pass. I know because I was the worst student. Don't be afraid to ask teachers and classmates for help. The Dojo managing director told me to bug the teachers since they get paid for it.

I looked for a long time to find the right BootCamp.  I was leaving a career of 17 years for something I had no idea how to do. No background in tech whatsoever.  I compared tuition, reviews, Alumni access/involvement, time commitment, duration,  among other things.  I looked for at least a year and kept coming back to Coding Dojo. I made the jump last November and do not regret it one bit! Coding Dojo's instructors are all dedicated teachers who want to see you succeed.  Most, if not all of the instructors have been students at Coding Dojo themselves.  They know what you go through during the process and how difficult it can be. Mike, Seeso and Saurabh were all amazing!! If you're looking for a change, this is the place!

Coding Dojo is a great bootcamp for beginners. Concepts are explained in an understandable way and the Learn platform which is the bread and butter of the bootcamp is excellent. You build on concepts slowly instead of learning the more complicated stuff right off the bat.  They also spend an hour every day going over algorithms to prep us for our job search after the bootcamp.

My only complaints really are the other students. Algorithms are done in groups, and projects at the end of each stack are solo or group, however to practice the AGILE software development we were expected to do stand ups every day with other cohort-mates. In both the group algorithms and daily stand ups for projects, I had team members who did not contribute and that honestly does hurt the experience. However -- when I did bring this up to my instructor, she resolved it whenever it happened, whether that was moving me to a different group or making algorithm groups larger so that there'd be a higher chance of participation.

I would recommend Coding Dojo to any beginner who is trying to break into the field.

The course is awesome! The teachers and TA's are awesome and very dedicated to making sure that you succeed and understand the material before you are able to pass on to the next course. If you know little to nothing about coding and are taking this course, you'll want to make sure that you take the time necessary to do the reading and practice assignments. Also, try to find a group of people to do group sessions, this also allows you to get ready for the real world as well!
All in all, I would recommend this to anybody that is looking to get into coding and has the time to give this course 150%

TL:DR {
Coding Dojo is an awesome program but not without a few rough edges. If approached with a good mindset and strong work ethic it can turn you into a very competent and self-reliant programmer. This is important and something to emphasize - Coding Dojo teaches YOU how to be a self-reliant and curious software engineer by laying a solid foundation of skills and concepts and providing a structured and vetted educational approach (rinse and repeat) to get you oriented and familiar with the terrain. It will not give you all the answers. They help teach you how to learn and be resourceful, and I found that extremely helpful. Overall, I thought it was an amazing experience, extremely valuable in helping me transition into the tech industry, and a lot of hard work - but the rewarding kind. I would certainly recommend it if you're a hard worker and serious about learning software development on an expedited timeline.}

Long form - A bit stream of conscious:

I chose to participate in Coding Dojo's full-time 14-week online Full Stack Web Development Bootcamp after reading reviews on Course Report, so it only makes sense to follow up with my own report.

Overall, I had a really positive experience. "The Dojo" as it's called, is a quality program that has clearly been vetted, and it's going to give you a wide, but somewhat shallow, understanding of 3 prominent tech stacks and Web Fundamentals (full-time). I chose Python, MERN (React.js) and Java. There's A LOT of information packed into this course. More than you really have time to fully digest, thus the "shallow" perspective. It's not that the information isn't there to be absorbed, it's the amount of hours in a day and rapid pace of curriculum that somewhat limits the depth you can absorb of it. Thus, the title of my post. You will get out of it what you give, and they're not kidding when they say it can be 60 - 80 hour weeks. Not all weeks are like that, but definitely expect that to be the norm not the exception, and get yourself ready. Get your life in order and commit to the learning process by diving head first in. If you do, you will be absolutely stunned what you learn in 14 weeks. I came into the program with 0 coding experience sans some FreeCodeCamp.org (very basics), and I feel like I can now swim in the big-blue-bottomless ocean of web development. That's saying something.

In general, the instructors can be hit and miss, some are clearly looking for their own foot hold in the industry and teaching in the mean time. It can feel like those folks are phoning it in at times. Others seem to be there because they love teaching people how to code and they've found their niche. However, I feel this split will be anywhere you go. Heck, they felt more engaged and more interesting then most of my college professors. And I will say, they all new what they were doing and/or where committed to finding an answer to your question if they didn't know it. The LEARN platform (the virtual textbook you use during the program) is PACKED with solid information and additional resources that you can explore on your own beyond the baseline curriculum. It also has some minor mistakes and incongruousness, which can be annoying, but the organization as a whole is super feedback focused. They request your participation in surveys frequently (almost annoyingly) but the saving grace is that they actually put that feedback into practice and you can see it happen before your eyes. Again, this means communicating and filling out the surveys.

Passengers will drown on this ship - you must embrace being a crew member and take accountability for your learning. To this point, there is a good amount of self-directed learning involved. Let's be honest, you have to get into the weeds, do your own research at times, and lean into exploring what you don't know to better understand concepts or material not as thoroughly covered. Ironically, some of the things I didn't understand at first, I became the best at (SQL queries) through my own volition. However, I feel the Dojo does do a good job of framing this ahead of time. It's like riding a bike or learning to skateboard. Sure you can watch video after video of how to ride / skate. You can even have someone hold you up, but if you're not out there on your wheels exploring new terrain and trying new tricks, you'll always need the training wheels. The students who expected it to be spoon fed to them struggled with the pace of the FT curriculum, and not all of them made it out. That's a heavy bill to swallow if you don't complete, so it's worth putting in the time. On the other hand, the go getters made some really cool apps that will be awesome to show off to future employer prospects.

And on that note, I too think the Dojo puts an appropriate amount of emphasis on career services and personal projects - after all, that's what will get you hired. The career services team was great and frequently held workshops that were relevant to the career search. The whole career services process is very regimented and well designed, and although the career services team is bogged down, they make time for you and are very resourceful as long as (** apologies for being a broken record here)  you are putting in the effort and consistently communicating with them. The project weeks themselves seem to be taking on more structure to help support students, because it was easy to take your foot off the gas and relax after intense course weeks, but like I said, these are what make you stand out in the work force, so project weeks are not the time to relax. Double down in fact. Currently, I'm ~ two weeks out from graduation (minus the holidays) and I'm on the job hunt. It's intimidating for sure, but I think the hardest part is knowing that I have the skill set but not perhaps not the shiny credentials.... yet. So it will continue to be a grind and hard work, but that's this program. I know what I learned at The Dojo will put me on to rewarding career in software development because I'm confident in what I learned. Additionally, I've felt like I've been picking up traction this past week. Career services and the resources provided by the Dojo have helped me improve my response rate. I'll try to check back in with an update on how the job search goes, but overall, the prep by the Dojo for job hunting has felt adequate and much appreciated. But, (... last time I'll say it), they aren't going to hold your hand through it. This program takes commitment and discipline. They will put the resources and structure out there for you and it will be up to you to go and get it. Be a crew member, not a passenger.

My 3 tips of advice to any future student:
 - Get your life right to focus on school. Warn your friends and family that you won't have as much time during this period. Frame it early so it doesn't become an issue. 
- Find a small group of friends / study partners that you can hang out with to complete assignments. Many nights my buddies and I stayed late on Zoom and helped one another. We all took our exams on time and passed w/in 1-2 tries. This is the most important tip. Find a group that you can enjoy this experience with. They will hold you accountable / allow you to vent / and make it so much more fun. 
- Lastly, kick ass on the projects. Have a few ideas when you come in - it can be hard on the spot - or talk to other students / instructors about ideas. Google it. Maximize your time actually working and learning during project week, and try to have an MVP complete to show off during the week-end graduations. Treat it like a sprint. It will help in the long run. 

If you found this tip helpful, give it a like. If you are really considering Coding Dojo and want to learn more, hit me up on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/dkearns11/ or twitter @TheKearnol and I'd be happy to talk more about my experience. I can also help you save $500 bucks on your admission fee by making a referral ( I benefit from it too, so don't be shy). 

Thanks for reading, and happy coding!