Coding Dojo

After learning to code on my own, I decided to invest in a bootcamp for the structure and community. Coding Dojo is a big investment, but it was actually less costly than other bootcamps around the area. It’s also one of the few located in South Bay.    The curriculum is great — you learn three full stacks (other bootcamps focus on one). The benefit of this is that you start to see common patterns in each stack. The learning platform goes over the basics of each stack, along with assignments to complete as you progress. Once you’re done with the program, you’ll have time to fill in any gaps in your knowledge. Another benefit to Coding Dojo is you’re always welcome back to use the space. There’s a designated section for alumni and there are usually plenty of seats available.    Most of what you’ll learn will come from the platform, Google, and debugging with your cohortmates. In my opinion this is more effective than lectures because you learn how to teach yourself new concepts which makes you a better developer in the long run 🙂 It teaches you to become a self sufficient developer.    Career services is run by professional career coaches over the course of a week. You also get a one-on-one meeting with them to go over your resume in depth.    I’d recommend Coding Dojo to anyone looking to get their start in web development.  

I have learned various programming languages before I attended this program. However, I have not learned anything about the frameworks that the languages until I took this program. Thanks to Coding Dojo, I have a very in-depth knowledge about Python, Java, Javascript, and the frameworks that use these languages, including Flask, Django, Spring Boot, Node, Express, etc.. 

If you are eager to learn about computer programming and how they are used in various frameworks, then Coding Dojo is the right program for you. The program is pretty intense and fast-paced, however, since you have to complete multiple assignments everyday. Fortunately, the program has plenty of people who can help you. I have made some friends in the dojo who managed to get me through the hardest assignments and clarify things I did not know. I really appreciate their help and the people who have helped me get through the program. I hope the others will have a fun time like I did as well. 

As the title says, the course was fantastic and most of my instructors were great. However, I was told by my instructors that they would still be accessible and happy to answer any questions once we grauated the program. It's been about a month since I've graduated and I've reached out to all 4 of my instructors, several times, for a quick question or to work through some bugs and 1 got back to me and then didn't respond after that. It just seems strange and unprofessional that it hasn't been even a month and they go from helping you daily, to non-existent and impossible to get in contact with once you walk out that door on your graduation date. 

The most important thing to keep in mind is that what you get out of the program is completely dependent on what you put in. The material you cover will help establish a strong base for exploring a software development career in Python, RoRs or MEAN, but you are going to have to put in the work, in terms of dedicated time spent on learning and solving algorithms (whiteboarding). I am not referring to some group think process, but a 1 on 1 interview practice on the whiteboard, including behavioral, logic and programming questions. Especially, in the BayArea (Silicon Valley) it is a very competitive job market for software developers. Unless you want to compete and challenge yourself to improve every day there is slim to no chance of you landing a Junior Development job straight out of the boot camp. Keep in mind some students have an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, and some have a Masters in Computer Science or some other Engineering background. If you are open to relocation outside of the BayArea you will find more opportunities where the barrier to entry is a lot lower.

In order to be successful, in the boot camp, you need to dedicate yourself to mastering the material because what you cover are the appetizers of the Software Industry. There are a ton more things to learn and master. Unless you enjoy learning something new every day and challenging yourself, do not join the boot camp. If you enjoy solving problems, fixing software programs to find out why they are not working (debugging) then join the boot camp. Posting your solutions to the programming exercises you find from the boot camp will not be enough to land a job. You will need to be creative in terms of the projects you do to include in your portfolio. Just as in any other high school, or college, teachers do have their favorite students. However, if teachers see that you are putting in the time and the effort they will make more effort to help you. However, if you leave early and come late this is a red flag for them, and they will talk to you to find out why you are not attending morning algorithms. Invest in a good pair of noise canceling over the ear headphones as at times the Dojo can be loud with people playing table tennis, a meet up happening or open house.

Career Services is helpful in the fact it gives you perspective on all the things you need to consider in order to be ready to find a new job including Resume writing, Portfolio building, and Networking. Besides the resume, networking will be your most important tool in order to land a new job opportunity. I heard from students who applied to 300+ jobs online and had less than a 10% response rate. Talk to people while you are in the dojo, attend MeetUps at the dojo, exchange contact information. You will need to overcome the fear of being rejected. Rejection is a common part of life for most of us, but for those who have not experienced it before, it can be a bitter pill to swallow. Failing fast, and not taking rejections personally is an extremely important asset when trying to land your first development opportunity. Apply to many companies, to keep the pipeline of job applications flowing. Smaller companies will tend to get back to you faster than larger companies but that is not always the case. So take control of what is in your power. Apply strategically, and talk to your neighbor, family members, friends, and ex-colleagues. Let people know that you are doing this coding boot camp so by the time you graduate some of them might willing to help share a job lead or pass on your resume to someone in their network. I wish you the best in this challenging journey. Believe in yourself, and don't give up!

I went to the Coding Dojo after leaving a job in software sales. I took a few clases in college near the end of my major, and was always interested in coding and mobile web development. 

The reason I selected the coding dojo was their offering of full stack development, being new to the field I reasoned that this would allow me to explore/learn different roles at once and from there I could decide where to specialize.

If you're worried about credibility I will just say this, the program is a legit track to break into the IT field, the learning platform is very good, better than anything you will find online and comparable to a college course, but with a more steamlined syllabus.

The standard on-site curriculum includes a 2 week intro, followed by instruction in 3 full web stacks. Each stack is taught over a period of 3-4 weeks. The first two present components of full stack web development and the third ties all of them together. The fourth week is for review or a 1 week sprint project, which can be an invaluable addition to your portfolio and an awesome learning experience in and of itself. 

The instructors are great people, very patient, helpful and very accomodating. I would definitely recommend the on-site program vs. online, because based on my experience when you are stuck as a new developer a little assistance goes a long way.

I would recommend this program, it will be a ton of work, for the most part you should expect to be coding 8-12 hrs a day 6-7 days a week. The good part is that the environment at their Chicago location is really awesome. A great loft space to work in, nice people, free snacks, and places nearby if you need to take a break, grab a coffee, etc. 

Career support is good, but it will require almost the same amount of work as the program. I've seen some people get jobs weeks within graduation and others are still looking months later, but from what I observed it's largely a matter of personal choices, expectations and even a little burnout. But If you are ready to work hard, Coding Dojo will definitely help you land a job. 

Good luck!

 

My experience at the Dojo was an interesting one. I had very little coding experience before starting and I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. I realized that the ads and the brochures weren't lying when they said that you might have to spend 70+ hours a week at this bootcamp. I found my self immersed in the work that I was doing and I realized that I was learning more than I ever believed I was capable of learning. About a month after the bootcamp was over I was offered a position at a startup. The bootcamp experience is hard but it's well worth it if you're willing to put in the work that's necessary to be successful. 

Before going into this program. I had done research with different coding bootcamps and this seemed like a good fit based on reviews, location, and instructors. Although I didn't complete this boot camp, I can tell you why I dropped out. Having no previous experience with coding, I felt like I was expected to know how to do algorithms without learning the concept of it. The main instructor during the first week was not helpful and I felt as if he had no patience for students who did not know certain topics. It wasn't  just algorithms, it was also topics. I was struggling and so were other students I spoke with and we felt like we had little understanding of topics that were given but we were expected to move on to the next topic very quickly. Any beginners signing up, please be cautious of this school, it's only good for people with previous coding experience not said in their website. Remember it's still a business that wants a profit. 

I think that Coding Dojo is on the right track for immersing new students into software development, but I'm hard pressed to recommend the school. There are a few things that they do well, while it feels that most everything else falls into a category of "irrelevant". The communication from instructors is very poor and the course material is a mixed back of inconsistent qualty (either quite decent or very poor).

I've found that Coding Dojo has done well has to do with enrollment and preparation to start the courses. When contacted directly, I've found that the admissions staff are quick to respond and are very helpful. There are a few videos and reading materials presented to ensure that you're of the right mindset to engage in the material. You are expected to go through a preparatory course to ensure that you can at least follow the logic of what's happening in a basic program. You're provided exercises in the pre-camp work to ensure that you understand the new knowledge.

And that's really the extent of it. Currently, Coding Dojo rellies on Slack to handle student/teacher communication. For the uninitiated, Slack is effectively a GUI chat channels, like you might see on IRC or a Skype room. You're expected to ask questions about assignments of your fellow students here before going to the professor. While I agree with this logic, the end result is that communication is very chaotically presented. If you're not sitting at your desk watching the channels, you could easily lose your space. This also means "good luck" if you're a little behind schedule on your assignments.

Another result of Coding Dojo's almost exclusive reliance on Slack instructors are otherwise unresponsive. I think that I've had maybe one productive conversation with a instructor. Beyond that one conversation, I've barely warrented a response from them. I had once gone 48 hours without a response from an instructor to inform him that I'm struggling in a piece of course content that appeared broken. I only received a response because I contacted a member fo the admissions staff and asked him to intervene.

In both circumstances where I've e-mailed instructors, the best that I’ve received was a canned response that could be summerized as “I’ve never seen this problem before, and I’m sorry that you’re frustrated.”

I'll readily admit that I have successfully acquired some new skills, but it’s been a difficult journey. There are a few courses in which concepts felt poorly organized and presented, in which I've had to invest a disproportionate amount reviewing so I could organize my notes to facilitate my comprehension of new concepts. There courses that are poorly presented have a heavy reliance on informal, sometimes ambiguious use of the English language and implied assumption of shared context. That is to say that it can sometimes feel like the course’s progression follows like this: “I’m discussing points B and C now, after which I’ll make reference to point A. Here’s point E. Remember where I buried a passing reference to point D at the start of the course?”

The in-course lectures feel like the usually feel an outline, but are generally unscripted. If the lectures were complimentary to the reading material, this would be fine. Having to transcribe material from an audio format to a text structure for later reference is tedious, frustrating, and inconductive of a learning environment. Their instructors are developers by trade, not instructors. While they are effective at developing assignments and material, their ability to communicate new concepts is in some very dire need of improvement.

As the content is all web-based, it’s not uncommon to receive random (forced) surveys about something that they believe is relevant to what you’re doing – regardless of being at a point to accurately answer their questions. “You’re taking a survey NOW on how your job search is going – even though you’re only half way through our course and you haven’t talked to any of our career advisors.”

So, to summarize, I do not recommend Coding Dojo. You will not be receiving your money’s worth from this school.