Coding Dojo

If that got your attention, then keep reading.

I had been a Web Developer working with HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL for sometime including server maintenance and everything in between. I wanted to get a solid foundation on OOP or Object Oriented Programming, and wanted to learn the most important stuff to be able to get up and running as quickly as possible. This is where Coding Dojo came into play. I had found that going to google and searching for tutorials were not working for me. With my busy work schedule (yes, I was still working full time as a developer), I had wasted a lot of effort and time trying to learn using this method.

After doing extensive research for online programming bootcamps, I found Coding Dojo was the only place that offered LAMP Stack in their program. Most bootcamps concentrated either just on MEAN Stack or Ruby on Rails, but my goals and the jobs within my region were mostly PHP/MySQL based and it was a no brainer to select Coding Dojo. In addition to LAMP Stack, they also offered MEAN as well as Ruby on Rails which was a bonus.

It’s no joke investing a significant amount of money in an online program, and you tend to rethink your decision. All that fear was laid to rest once the courses started. I found their courses were geared in a way that instructed students to the most important and useful information. All guess work on whether a topic was important or not was basically eliminated. The instructors also consult on real world projects in addition to teaching the students which meant that I was receiving relevant and current information including the latest industry standards.

Even the learning platform, payment systems, helpdesk systems are all built in-house by the very instructors that are teaching the course which increases the confidence that you are learning from the best. They had live support instructors online ready to help when working on assignments as well. The course work included written instructions, video instructions, quizzes and assignments. We also had weekly cohort group meetings in addition to one on one instructor reviews.

The instructor for my cohort was John Supsupin who went above and beyond to help everyone in the program. I have learned so much and wish to thank him for all the knowledge he has provided. Even after the official bootcamp ended, he offered help as and when needed which says a lot about the instructor as well as the bootcamp itself. They really want you to succeed. Couple of my cohorts are already in the coding dojo bootcamp finishing their residency and honing their craft while others are on their way to become fullstack engineers.

As for me, I have gained a newfound confidence in my career and it has opened the doors to endless opportunities. I wish Coding Dojo and John the best and good luck to all you future ninja’s!

I graduated from college in 2008 with a degree in Software Engineering, but my only experience with building websites was a freshman level HTML course in 2002. Needless to say, my skills were out of date and incompatible with today's job market. Being a software engineer with little knowledge of web-based programming is a sure way to limit your job options, as I discovered the hard way when I decided to leave my job as an SAP developer. The world is moving to the web. I knew this, and didn't want to be left behind, but breaking into the market seemed impossible. I couldn't get anyone to interview me because I had spent over six years as an SAP developer. I was pigeon-holed into SAP and didn't know how to get out.

This is when I found Coding Dojo. The Dojo gives you access to everything you need to learn web development. Most people just picture the learning materials when I say that, things like tutorials and lectures. You do get those things from the Dojo of course, but you also get an amazing support system. This was unlike what I had ever experienced in my previous education. The staff is enthusiastic and ready to help, but the interesting thing about the Dojo is the stress on teamwork, helping out fellow students, and coming to the answers yourself.

The overlap in cohorts is great because it encourages the new students to work with and learn from their predecessors. For each cohort, they build a community that feels relaxed and fun, yet still productive. This is an environment that's very conducive to learning for that reason. You are surrounded by people just like yourself, who are enthusiastic about learning to code and help keep you on track while having fun. This keeps you interested, which keeps you in the Dojo after hours, which keeps you learning.

I was surprised to learn that the Coding Dojo had alumni working in my home city of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. I was put in touch with these graduates early, and they helped me with advice and let me know when the company they worked for were hiring. I did not end up at their company because I already had a job before their next hiring cycle, two weeks after I had come home from the Dojo.

In summary, I recommend the Coding Dojo. I had the most exciting, fun, and unforgettable summer of my life, and brought my web development knowledge into modern times. Now I'm a working web developer, who was recently promoted from Jr to Associate. I can't argue with the results.

this is definately not for someone with no previous experience. if you are expecting to be taught, forget it, you are left up to your own devices watching online videos.

they let you sit there and struggle for "twenty minutes" which is not a bad thing, but when they do come around to help you after the twenty minutes, half of the time the instructor doesn't know whats going on , or they just brush you off. If you're not one of the gifted you can forget any type of assistance . they (staff and owner) gravitate towards the gifted already knowledgeable students and focus on them, leaving those struggling behind. We watched this occur over and over again, and even heard the owner making snide comments with one of the other students about the job prospects of the ones in our class that were struggling.

They offer no job placement assistance, NONE, unless you want to work at the dojo as an instructor (if they like you). they keep it all on the up and up by calling you a resident and having you stay for an extra few weeks so that they can technically say everything is kosher.

they have improved their platform for video instruction tremendously, and it better than what we had. that being said, if you are one that requires lectures and let me show you how to do it, we'll do it together and then you do it by yourself style of instruction, forget it.

Coding Dojo was really an amazing experience for me. Both the curriculum and the people were fantastic. Out of all the bootcamp options, I chose Coding Dojo because they do 3 stacks instead of strictly Rails. This gave me a chance to try a lot of different technologies and figure out which I like the best. Plus with doing PHP, MEAN stack, and Rails in such a short time, the best skill you're going to take away is how to learn and pickup new languages quickly. These languages may not be the hottest things in the future, but you'll be well equipped to pick up whatever is. I even got an internship as a Rails developer at a startup before the program ended (this is a rare case, but they had me prepped pretty well)

I came in with general technical aptitude but almost zero coding knowledge. Now I'm building functional interactive web apps in both PHP and Rails, I love Javascript and I'm learning more of it all the time, and I'm on the road to a new stable career. The intensity of the program was high, but the instructors are positive and calm and encouraging. I looked around me at other students with much more experience and saw them soaring, and I felt occasionally like a complete fraud. But Michael and Trey both kept turning my attention to the mountain I had just climbed. They said, "Time. Practice. Humility. Don't get down on yourself."

I think covering three stacks is brilliant, because you learn underlying concepts. The three stacks handle the same processes in different ways, so you see them clearly. The Dojo is building up its job hunting assistance, which will be a great addition. They also welcome alumni to come back for further practice and coaching and special classes. It's a very supportive place.

I'll cut to the chase. Within one week after graduating from CodingDojo's bootcamp program, I got hired on as a full-stack developer. I'd say 90% of my success is due to knowledge I gained at Coding Dojo.

Presenting yourself as a capable web developer is all that it takes to really find a good job in this industry. Right now, the demand for competent developers is so high that recruiters and hiring managers are actively reaching out to potential candidates. Don't worry about the hiring network. Coding Dojo will help you ramp up your resume and visibility that you'll be getting about 6 calls/emails a day from recruiters and hiring managers.

The biggest criticism I find about Coding Dojo's program is how self-paced it is. Coding Dojo provides the necessary tools you need to give you the right direction. They're not here to hold your hand throughout the process. If you really want to become an awesome developer, you have to have the drive within you. The process of learning something like programming can be so hard that it'll drive you crazy. But those that succeed are the ones that are able to make it past those obstacles.

I blogged every day of my bootcamp here: 
http://teds-coding-dojo-experience.blogspot.com/

Feel free to leave me a comment on my blog if you have any questions.

I recently finished the Coding Dojo boot camp. The best way I can describe the school is, it is really similar to a Japanese cram school. The teachers and staff are very knowledgeable about the information they are teaching. It took me about 3 weeks to a month after I graduated from the boot camp to get a job. Unlike many other boot camps, new students with zero knowledge can become full stack developers in the 3 months. Plus, they can learn multiple frameworks in that time and new technologies, such as, MEAN stack. Micheal Choi is very knowledgeable, and really found amazing ways to quickly and efficiently teach students what they need to know to thrive in the work environment. But this bootcamp is very much a "get out what you put in". If you don't try and struggle a bit, you aren't going to get what you want out of it. 

If you are looking to go from 0 to 100 in 3 months and KNOW the information, then this is the bootcamp you want. In my experience, Coding Dojo does not have affiliates with other companies. So you can't be promised a job. However, what you do get out of this bootcamp is a very nice portfolio to show you potential employers. Additionally, the teacher will help and show you how to sell yourself to companies. When i did start looking I was getting 5-6 calls a day for a few weeks with my new found knowledge.

Attending Coding Dojo was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Granted the boot camp was one of the hardest things I’ve ever gone through, I can confidently say that anyone can be successful in and after the boot camp as long as they put in the time and energy that Coding Dojo expects of its students. That being said, I came into Coding Dojo with zero coding background and, upon completion of the boot camp, I gained the knowledge required to build fully functioning applications.

Coding Dojo covers three full stacks (LAMP, MEAN, Ruby on Rails) as part of their course curriculum. A big portion of the curriculum is taught using the online learning platform that is improved regularly based on student feedback and also has new content added teaching the industries latest technologies. Coding Dojo has really mastered the way they introduce and teach the course material to their students. This is something I took for granted and quickly came to realize once I finished the boot camp and was required to learn a framework on my own without the help of the learning platform. What used to take me a couple days to learn and then create a viable application, using the learning platform, now took me a few weeks to learn on my own and that’s when I really appreciated how good of a job Coding Dojo had done to present course content in a way that any student, even those without a coding background, can understand.

Even with an outstanding program, Coding Dojo would not be what it is without its dedicated instructors. Starting from day one, you can tell how passionate the instructors are in the way they teach and you get a real sense that their main goal is to make sure you learn the material and succeed in this field. If a student seems to be struggling on a certain concept, you can bet to see instructors set aside extra time to make sure the student is caught up.

Never would I have believed that I could reinvent my career in only a couple months but it really is possible. It’s a great feeling to go into an interview and come out smiling, especially when you were expecting the worst, because you were able to answer most if not all the questions they asked and it’s because Coding Dojo has done such a great job in preparing their students for what‘s to come after the boot camp.

If you’re passionate about coding and want to take your skills to the next level, whether it’s to make a career change or for your own project on the side, I would highly recommend Coding Dojo because you will not get a more affordable education anywhere else especially at the caliber of education Coding Dojo provides.

Coding Dojo gave me the appropriate stepping stone to accelerate my career. I came to the Dojo with a computer engineering degree from a top university and almost 3 years of prior experience in the software industry. Needless to say, my engineering program provided very little hands-on coding experience. I needed to stay competitive by doing alot of self learning during my time in industry.

I joined the Dojo with an intent to reinvent my career, be able to code full stack applications in record time, to become more proficient at algorithms and to learn to build products for my startup. The Dojo truly provided an industry leading curriculum, allowing me to master three full stacks in a short time. What sets the Dojo apart is not only the comprehensive and outstanding curriculum, but the overall vibe and community of the learning environment. The Dojo cares about the well-being of its students, providing free food and occasional catered lunches. Weekly sports events also proved to enhance learning and efficiency overall. The people are great and very helpful and instructors and TAs are almost always available to help throughout the program. Instructors are sometimes seen still upgrading course content to ensure the courses are up to date with the latest industry practices. I would even go to say that the program offered at the Dojo is better than my Computer Engineering degree program, as I feel I would have been better prepared for the industry should I have attended the Dojo instead. The Dojo deserves to be accredited, and it is a shame that it is not.

I have recently graduated from CodingDojo a few weeks ago. It has been one of the toughest and most rewarding educational experiences of my life.

I came in with no previous coding knowledge. I would say that it is not for everyone. A person has to be prepared to work and come to class with a sense of humility and a positive attitude. The instructors have a deep understanding of not just the material taught at the dojo but of what it takes to build a successful team. You are not only given a relevant education to what is being used in the market place but you are also prepared for what you will need to know after the boot camp to get a job.

Yes there is no guarantee of a job but there is no guarantee of anything in life. The instructors have been there for me after the boot camp to continue to prep me for a job and continue my education.

I would recommend this for anyone who has an interest in programming, doesn't mind working long strenuous hours, and enjoys a challenge.

I'm not a fanboy, but attending Coding Dojo was one of the best educational moves I've ever made.

A few points of countering :

- The instructors are (currently) picked from the best of the previous class. This A) helps keep costs down and B) Helps to grow the course quickly. The instructors, by the way, are not noobs. They were individuals that have exceptional talent and even though they teach full time they are expected to continue learning advanced material and work on the infrastructure. They are juniors, but they are full blown developers.

- The reason the founder wasnt involved was because he was in Seattle setting up the second branch.

- The student to teacher ratio was only 12.5:1? Have you been in a public school? Sorry, unless you hire a private tutor you will not get better than that. Not even at some of the more established bootcamps.

- As far as paying for the course: They ask for a 2k non refundable deposit. On the first day of class you pay for the first half of the course. If you drop out or puss out, they refund it to you if you quit at a reasonable time. Half way through the course you pay the second half. Thats fair.

- Job placement: I got a job in about a month and a half after graduating. There were a good handful that had jobs immediately after graduating. Others took a while. On average, it takes about three months. The key is that YOU have to get out there and FIND A JOB! They (nor anyone for that matter) hands you a job on a silver platter. They are new and are still building their reputation and rapport. It takes time. Sorry if they didnt do all of your work for you.