Concordia Bootcamps

The instructors and admin staff at decode are really great. They offer support from start to the end on every aspect of learning, job search and even more. They have an approach based on learning by doing and if you put the effort into it, it will pay off. Ziad the lead instructor is a great teacher capable of diving in details but also explaining from a high level perspective. Kevin the admin has an incredible networking experience and will make you employable in a couple of meetings! Overall great experience!

I would not recommend DecodeMTL bootcamp to just anyone. Their approach is not for an absolute beginner or for just anyone. Coding is generally not that easy. You need to at least have some experience in coding before you attend thier bootcamp. Moreover, It is a lot of money to pay for a bootcamp. So it is best to spend your money on a really good bootcamp.

I understand that we need to code and complete the workshops during the bootcamp by ourselves. The teacher, Ziad, is smart but I doubt if he really wants to share all his knowledge with us. We asked him to share with us suggested solutions to only one workshop (not even every workshop) so that we could do it in our own times, because during the bootcamp he only asked us to do only one project in that specific workshop. Plus it would also be good to learn how he would code, approach or do it. He did not give us the suggested solutions. Instead in that workshop you will see some pieces of information about other courses of DecodeMTL related to that workshop.

I felt that DecodeMTL would only spend more time on certain students who have potential. Not all students received the same treatment. I felt that Ziad does not care much if a few or some students may be left behind during the bootcamp.

My experience at decodemtl was extremely great! I would strongly recommend it to anyone who would like to pursuit their career as a web developer. Please don't worry if you are non-tech background, as long as you are determined and desciplined, you will benefit a lot from this course. I'm really happy that I made a perfect choice to attend this bootcamp. Here are the reasons that I love this bootcamp:

1. Class size - Small class size allows the instructor to give intructions to each student as well as answer almost all the questions from every student. 

2. Reachable resources - The structure of the bootcamp is that in the morning is the lecture and afternoon is the workshop, which is an excellent opportunity for you to practice. There are 2 TAs there for you to ask questions whenever you need until 9pm. I really love the way they answer questions, they won't give you an answer directly, they actually guide you step by step and lead you to the right track. It is a great way of teaching cause they teach you how to think as a developer. And the TA is always there for everyone in the class.

3. Nice environment and atmosphere - Although it seems to be a very intensive course, the atmosphere and study environment is really relaxed and great. The main instructor Ziad is super helpful and he really knows his stuff very well. Kevin and Zoe are super helpful as well, they are always there to help whenever you need. It really feels like a family.

4. Final demo - Final demo is one of the amazing parts of the bootcamp. By the end of the bootcamp, you will get a final project, it'll be done as group. On the last day of the bootcamp, each group will present their project in the lobby. By then, decodemtl really makes a lot of effort inviting tech recruiters and companies coming to see our demo. It is a great opportunity for all the students to present themselves and talk with those who are interested in hiring developers.

5. Resume & Linkedin session - At around the 5th week of the bootcamp, Kevin will come to every student one by one and spend time with each student to go through their Linkedin profile, What's more, by the end of the bootcamp, Kevin helps every student to optimize their resume line by line, his great patience impresses me a lot, and this is a huge asset of this bootcamp.

6. Mockup interview - This is another great part of the bootcamp. Before you start your job searching process, decodemtl organizes mockup interviews, which allow you to get a general idea of how tech interviews will look like and be more confident and less nervous during the real interview.

So if you decide to join the bootcamp, I also have following advises:

1. Study the prep course decodemtl prepares for you carefully. The prep course is great and it allows you to have a basic knowledge of what you are going to learn during the bootcamp.

2. Personally, I would recommend going into the bootcamp with as much JavaScript knowledge as possible, this will help a lot with the learning curve and will allow you to understand the concepts more deeply and faster.

3. Please make sure to put 200% energy into the course. Especially the workshop, please make sure to finish each workshop, it doesn't matter if you finish slower than others, it's not a competition, and it's never a waste of time to do it the 2nd, 3rd or 4th time just for a review.

The 8 weeks was such a great experience and I've learned a lot more than I expected and I'm a lot more better than I was 8 weeks ago. But for sure, I'll keep learning :)

Wish you all the best and good luck :)

Joy

The screening process to recruit students for the bootcamp was pretty simple; nothing to ensure that you would be able to follow the lessons and understand them during the bootcamp. DecodeMTL has prep course for you to do before the bootcamp starts. However, there is no requirement that you need to finish it. I felt that DecodeMTL needs to have enough students for each bootcamp in order to cover costs. I only did about half of the prep course and had never done any coding before in the past. Therefore I checked with both Kevin and Ziad to make sure if it was still ok to join or if I should wait. I was confirmed that there should not be any problem. However, during the bootcamp Ziad would not explain the basics much but would rather go very quickly. So I tried to ask, but when I asked, he seemed to be annoyed by my simple questions sometimes.

At the end of the bootcamp on the demo day, there were some tech companies who came to see our presentations. Ziad would only introduce to them the students who did well during the bootcamp, but not those who were not up to his standard.

My experience at decodeMTL was excellent.

With their help and guidance I was able to land a junior position after working ten years in construction. It was not a golden ticket to a new job though. I worked really hard, and under their coaching everything worked out well. Even 9 months after taking the course, they have been able to assist me further. Ziad and his assistants have a knack for teaching and Kevin is great with his carreer related help. They are all good honest people and make an amazing team.

As for others complaining about 'not being given the answers', that's not the goal of the course. I always felt that Ziad wants us to understand the principles and core concepts first, and the results of specific exercises are not the most important. Our long-term success depends on our fundemental understanding of whats going on in the code. I definatly left the course feeling that I had a great foundation of knowledge and networking to make my career change work out well. Mission accomplished!

Doing interviews again 9 months after the bootcamp, I've had interviewers comment that even university graduates weren't able to pass their technical challenges but I was able to! 

Be advised that these comments are based on my personal experience so please apply accordingly.

In one sentence, I really enjoyed my experience at DecodeMTL and it was wonderful to be taught by Ziad and the teaching assistants there. It gave me exactly what i wanted: to find a job as web developer.

My background: MSc degree in Business strategic consultancy from France with few years of business development experience with tech startups; Immigrated to Montreal Canada one year ago; started a biz dev job here but very unhappy about it; coded about 6 months inconsistenly before joining DecodeMTL.

What I like about DecodeMTL:

1) The craziness of it: You are surrounded by like-minded people who were equally determined to get into the industry. That created a very motivating ambiance which drove me (naturally a person easy to be distracted) to focus and give my 100%;

2)  and also 1) Good teacher. Ziad is amazing and he continued helping me patiently after I graduated. He has his way of leading me to think in problem solving process. The other teaching assistants - Mathieu, Harris, etc. are also important part of my learning journey and they still help me now too! 

3) It was a lot to learn and not very easy to digest everything I went through everyday. But I expeceted myself to learn anyways so that did not bother me. DecodeMTL connected the dots I had when I was learning coding on my own and gave me a solid base to start with in order to become a competent responsable developer. 

My personal friendly advice in general :) :  Be sure with what you are getting into as a career! It's a lot of continuous effort and constant battle with unknown! After doing enough thinking and you still want to get into the field, DecodeMTL would be a good choice!

This course exceeded all my expectations. Ziad is amazing, the mentors are fantastic, and the TA's are very helpful.

I really like that even though I am a graduate, I can still reach out to Ziad and Kevin, or anyone really, about any concerns and questions about jobs, or tech problems and bugs that I come across. The DecodeMTL Slack community is popping! Everyone helps each other, even if we we're not all in the same cohort. I think this is the best part, the post-bootcamp support. You're not thrown into the deep end alone, someone will always be there to help you out.

That goes without saying that, they don't call it a bootcamp for nothing. Be prepared to arrive early and stay late. You'll be spending most of your time at the school, which isn't a bad thing as WeWork is an awesome place to learn, very comfortable, great location, and awesome decor. I actually much preferred working there, then at home. Being in a great atmosphere and surrounded by hard-working people and tech companies, is very motivating.

If you cannot give 100% of your time to the course, don't do it. Clear your schedule for those 8 weeks, or else you will not benefit from this course. If you miss 1 day or even a half a day, thats the equivalent of missing a couple weeks in any regular school which spread their course to a couple hours a week over a few months.

Yes, you will have a lot of prep work to do, but it's so worth it. You need to have a passion for this job. It's a lot of problem-solving, logic, creativity, and patience.

The more energy you will put into this course, the better outcome you will have. The more work you put in, the easier it will be to find a job.

I got a job and started working for a start-up one week post-bootcamp. There is a huge demand for web developers out there, so if you have the passion and drive to learn more, finding a job will be a breeze.

Don't expect to be a genius like Ziad when it's all said and done, that will take millions of years to get to his level. But once you graduate and find a job, you will then be paid to learn, and it's all up hill from there!

I highly recommend this course for everyone. It's a tech world out there after all. Every company needs some sort of web presence, or web app, which means they need us! 

P.S. The cupcakes are pretty great too.

I have a degree related to computer science. I think the course curriculum of this bootcamp is good, but still needs some improvements to also emphasize on certain important things that students will need to use at work. The main instructor is very smart however he still needs to learn how to explain stuff to those who don't have background in the field. When already in the bootcamp, sometimes it was hard to reach him in the afternoon to ask questions about the workshops as he would not respond to your messages at times. 

The main instructor helped me get a job after graduation. However I have a degree related to this from a good university, so it would not be that difficult for DecodeMTL to present me to the employers. DecodeMTL will help you in term of job assistance if you are good enough. Some of my classmates at the same cohort, who are just average, did not get the same help. The job assistance here is not that great. About half of the people in my cohort still could not find a job yet. 

DecodeMTL is not bad if you have background, experiences or are well-prepared for the bootcamp. DecodeMTL CANNOT get you job ready in 8 weeks like what they said. It requires a lot of prep work before the bootcamp. For people in my cohort who had no background in the field and wanted to change their career who were successful and found jobs after the bootcamp, they did the prep course for several months prior to joining the bootcamp, or took another course with Decode before. So you can imagine if DecodeMTL can really get you ready as web developer in 8 weeks or not. 

When searching for a bootcamp I was given advice to find one that focused on JavaScript. DecodeMTL immediately jumped out as being a great option since they are a JavaScript bootcamp while many others on focused on ruby on rails. After speaking to over 10 previous students who all had positive things to say I knew this was the right option for me.

After completing the bootcamp I have absolutely to no regrets about joining. The main instructor Ziad is a god. He is everything you want in a teacher. Even though his knowledge is so advanced, he always finds a way to deliver the information to you in a way that makes sense even for a beginner. He is a someone who really feels joy from seeing his students succeed which makes him fun to be around. If I had to give him a rating it would be a solid 10/10.

If you are looking for a bootcamp to join I strongly suggest that you checkout DecodeMTL. If you don't believe me just contact any of their Alumni and I am positive that they will give you the same advice.

If you do decide the join my advice is to make sure you do as much prep work as possible. When you are at the bootcamp things move fast and everyone learns at different speeds. Going in with a solid understanding of JavaScript will help you to better understand the more complicated parts of the bootcamp.

Good luck!

Before I launch into a spirited review of DecodeMTL, a bit of context on myself will help reveal some important variables.  First off, I come from by no means a CS background. Far from it, I have a Bachelors in Urban Planning and worked for several years as an infantry soldier.

Why this bears mention is that one of the most common fears about this industry is that it will be utterly beyond those without some sort of pre-existing CS experience.  That is absolutely not true.  Web development is far more accessible than you might think, but there are certainly things to ponder before you take the leap at a bootcamp...

I think the biggest question someone reading this wants answered: is DecodeMTL a legit bootcamp and will it get me an entry position as a Dev?  Yes and yes; its a kickass bootcamp and I landed a job within two weeks.  But there's more to it than that. 

In my opinion, there is a way to experience this bootcamp to get the most out of it.  These are your checks in the box to complete before day 1...

1.  You've decided to do this for a reason.  Its 6k.  Its only 2 months.  Do a soul search and make sure that this is what you want and you are ready to work your ass.  The days are long and the info is fast and furious.  You will need to dedicate 200% of your attention to this course in order to succeed, which brings me to my next point..

2.  Prepare yourself.  Yes there is a prep course and it does a good job of getting you ready, but if you want my advice, do as much damn Javascript as you can beforehand. If you are like me and you have 0 programming experience, I highly recommend https://www.udemy.com/understand-javascript/.  If you get through even the first third of this course before you start, you will be arriving in a great place and everything will make way more sense.  You will be far less likely to fall behind as you will have a better grasp on the critical fundamentals of programming in JS.

3. Don't expect the moon.  DecodeMTL does what it claims to do and it does it well, but they cannot snap their fingers and turn you into Dan Abramov.  This is merely the beginning of a career-long journey.  It will be hard and frustrating but extremely rewarding.  Dig deep and prepare yourself for this grind, only time and practice can make you a great coder.  Have the patience to make mistakes and get lost.  The right attitude will do wonders.

Everyone that attends this course will have the opportunity to emerge as competent, entry-level developers.  The cirriculum is constantly updated to stay relevant (big emphasis on React here) and by the end you will have written some code that you probably couldn't imagine before hand.  Some will squander this course by not abiding by the aforementioned points, but that doesn't have to be you.

The final day - demo day - will be the real shocker if you're someone like me.  What surprised me is the sheer interest and attention (and propositions) you will receive from recruiters, employers and investors who will actually line up to speak with you.  If you've done your research you'll know that the industry is always hungry for devs, and now I've seen it first hand.  You will not want for job opportunities, its just up to you to pursue them.

Great course.

Well paced with lots of instruction, helpful tips and guides to keep you up to speed. To get the most out of the course you will need to be able to put aside a sizeable chunk of hours each week to complete the exercises and projects.

Lucas is a great instructor and is very knowlegable. He clearly loves what he does and puts great effort in to answering everyones questions whether during class time or on the group chat.

If you take this course you will be able start with no knowledge and go and build responsive well written websites by the end.