DevLeague

 Dev League has helped to introduce opportunities that would have normally been out of reach for me.  I had no prior coding experience, and before Dev League, there was nowhere in the state that could give me the necessary experience and knowledge, in a relatively short time, that would allow me to enter the tech industry.  The great thing is that it did not matter where I came from, who I was, what I knew or who I knew.  All that mattered was that I wanted to learn.   I participated in the part-time course, and although class was three times a week, I would go to class mostly everyday to work on projects, and also worked on it in the evenings at home.  So if you really wanted to, you would be able to turn it into a full-time gig.  It was fast-paced, and we covered numerous topics.   At times, it did seem overwhelming.  It was definitely one of the most challenging things that I have done, but the training they gave us not only to code, but to learn how to solve issues has been invaluable.   Russel, Jason, Jon, Kelli, Ray and Tony are always supportive and available for any assistance we may need.  They are all well connected in the start-up community here and have introduced us to many different opportunities. It is evident that they are genuinely interested in our success, as even after completing the course, they continue to offer their guidance and expertise.     I would highly recommend Dev League for those who are serious about coding.

I was a member of the second cohort. We were a part-time program. Our cohort lasted 26 weeks. This format has many positive qualities and man not so wonderful qualities. If you are considering DevLeague my suggestion is to go for the full-time program. What you sacrifice in intermediate opportunity cost you will make up with experience and income on the back end. Maintaining a working schedule in addition to DevLeague's rigorous class and project schedule was a continual challenge. I would also add that this format does not allow participants to approach the number of classroom hours that the full-time program does so you end of getting less for your money in terms of hours of class time. But like anything you get what you put into it. The teachers were always available so you could easily make that up on your own time by going into the DevLeague space and hacking on a project and getting help. 

In terms of curriculum, it was very much project focused with lecture time kept to a minimum.  We focused almost exclusively on the javascript stack. We worked with every technology that is mentioned on the website. The variety of concepts, tools and applications that we used to build our projects were always leading edge and industry relevant. The curriculum directly translates into industry ready skills. Most importantly, however, you will learn that the tools are always changing and you will learn the process of continual learning. This is perhaps the underlying message of the program: never stop learning!

As far as support goes, the instructors were awesome and I view them as personal and professional mentors. They were extremely knowledgeable about the technologies. Most importantly they possess the patience and grace to work through even the most tedious of problems with a smile. Outside of class, DevLeague is an important part of the technology and startup ecosystem so you get to meet lots of interesting people doing a variety of things. My imagination of what was possible continued to expand through these interactions. This is important since the entire time you are wondering what the next step is. The team at DevLeague is always exposing you to people to help you answer this question. 

As far as outcomes go, I had 3 interviews lined up within one week of class completing. I only interviewed at one place and received a soft offer. However, since I planned to continue learning I declined the remaining interviews. I have no doubt that if I stayed in Hawaii or had returned to the mainland for work, regardless, there would be plenty of opportunity as a dev. Nevertheless, my plan is to attend a data science program and I can say that without DevLeague that would never have been possible. I can tell you that during the application process to this program, they were impressed that I was able to implement solutions to the problem in node.js. Most data science is done in python and r and they were surprised to see someone use the command line to curl api's and run algorithms through a node repl. I solved the problem slowly by trial and error working my way towards the solution by testing for what works and what does not work. I'd say it was a very good example of the way DevLeague helped me learn how to tinker my way to a solution by trying different approaches to see what works. This for me was a whole new way of thinking. 

DevLeague helped me certainly to develop industry ready skills. More importantly, they taught me how to reimagine my own learning process and the taught me to reimagine how I solve problems. This is what I take from the program. 

 

 

DevLeague was bought by Kingsland University which is a fly by night school.  I'm a graduate of DevLeague and im pissed because the old DevLeague was great and had a great rep in Hawaii and now Kingsland has messed up the brand. Look at all the reviews none are recent, go look at the Devleague site there is no syllabus it just leads to a form to contact them and setup a phone call. If you do setup a call ask them for a syllabus and ask who the teachers are ,what there background is, and what certifications do they have. 

I came into Dev League with absolutely no experience. In the beginning I always questioned myself if this was the right decision for me. I took that leap of faith and joined, and I never looked back. It was the best decision of my life. All the instructors were so helpful and patient with me, knowing that I came from no coding background. They made sure that I understood all the concepts and helped me through all my obstacles. I would reccomend anyone that is looking for change in their lives, join Dev League. You wont regret it!

I left the San Francisco Bay Area to learn to code at Dev League and it far exceeded any expectation I had of what a coding bootcamp could be.

At times it was incredibly arduous and you will feel like you won't be able to make it through, but the instructors are always helpful and the amazing community surrounding it immerses you into a world of programming .

I had very little coding experience before doing the challenge they provided, but I knew I made the right choice from the first day. Three months later and my choice has brought out a myriad of skills in me that I didn’t even realize I had! 

I live in Melbourne, and General Assembly is 5 minutes walk from my house. Yet I chose DevLeague. Here's why:

1. Instructor to Student Ratio

DevLeague has 2 full time teachers and 3 teaching assistants every day. My class had 8 students, so that's nearly a 1 : 2 teacher:student ratio.

2. Coverage of topics

DevLeague covers A LOT. It is a 6 day/week, 12 hours/day course. Topics included:

 - Front end: HTML, CSS, Sass, ReactJS, AngularJS

 - DOM

 - JQuery and Bootstrap were deliberately not covered to teach us how stronger fundamentals, i.e. how to do things the "hard way". The idea is that you should only use outside frameworks where necessary and to understand their limitations.

 - XMLHttpRequests (using APIs)

 - Server side: net, http and Express

 - Templating Engines: Jade, fs

 - Databases: SQL, postgreSQL, sequelize ORM, noSQL, mongoDB, mongoose, server side architecture

 - Authentication: Passport, Auth, OAuth

 - Writing tests for your code: Mocha, Chai, SuperTest

 - DevOps - like actual granular devops using command line on Digital Ocean, not just Heroku.

 - Well taught Language skills and best practices: Functional programming, including array iterators, call, bind, apply, callbacks, promises

- Revealing module pattern and OOP

- Security and encryption, SHA512, bcrypt

3. Ongoing support:

 - They actively email potential employers for you and help you review your CV.

 - They have a wide network of former students who are available to help you

 - It is still run by the owners of the business, not some multinational trying to churn students out at a profit