Epicodus

I would not be where I am now if it was not for Epicodus. Prior to Epicodus, I worked as a support developer as a startup and I always felt lost and suffered from imposter syndrome. Epicodus helped me to develop the right mindset to to become a problem solver, and not just a developer who remembers things. I learned to recognize patterns across many technologies which allowed me to familiarize myself with the unfamiliar with confidence and speed. That alone is huge in the world of software development. On top of that Epicodus covers a huge bredth of knowledge. My only complaint would be some of the later Javascript curriculum which covered Ember.js which you just don't encounter that much. I know that Epicodus plans alleviate these minor problems in the future though as they are pushing more Angular and React which are much more prominent in the industry. I now work as a UI Engineer at a large company and though I do not know everything going into this job, I know I can pick it up much more quickly and confidently due to Epicodus. I give Epicodus my full recommendation.

Epicodus changed my life. 

I started my professional life out as a Firefighter EMT in Bellingham WA. I couldn't finish college due to a health problem that required a lot of time and a lot of money to fix. So public Service was the best option for me since I couldn't afford to finish my degree without accruing immense amount of debt....or so I thought. 

After being injured and not able to fulfill the duties of my current job I latched onto writing code one day and never stopped. Eventually I started researching code schools and I discovered Epicodus. I had a phone interview with Debbie and she a warmly accepted me into the Java/Android March 2016 cohort and I headed to Portland.

 My experience at Epicodus was great. The teachers are hard working and busy but most of them are always there to help when needed. However, please make no mistake about how much of a challenge this school is. You will be learning code 50 - 70 hours a week for about 27 weeks. A strong third, if not close to half of my cohort(many of whom became close friends) had to leave the school for various reasons throughout the program. This is nothing short of a "bootcamp" and you should treat it as one. Coming in with the right attitude is everything. Probably one of the biggest pieces of advice I can offer is once you finish the courses you must treat the job hunt just like any other course. Everyday send out as many quality applications and cover letters as you can. If you are like me and don't have any credible certs, degrees or past work experience in the software industry, your hurdle is a little bit higher than everyone else and being persistent is everything.

The good news is that if you are tough, don't make excuses and work hard every single day you can make it through. After about 2.5 months of job hunting and interviewing I landed a position at New Relic working as a Java Support Engineer and I couldn't be happier. 

Bottomline, I wouldn't be in the position I am today if it wasn't for this school. You too can find success through Epicodus as long as you work hard and stay focussed. 

Epicodus is a mixed bag.  It delivers on its promise to get you from no coding experience to being a coder.  That said, your job prospects and general educational experience really depend a lot on your general aptitude for coding, your experience going in, and the route that you choose to go (front vs back end).  Here is some advice that I hope will be helpful to you...

The coding mindset

Make no mistake - you WILL be a coder at the end of this program.  Your knowledge will be limited in many ways, but you will indeed have the "coding mindset" that Epicodus focuses on - namely that you will have the aptitude to have an easier time learning new languages and understanding web dev concepts.

Instruction

One would expect to be instructed when one pays to go to a school, right?  This is missing at Epicodus.  Instructors are largely unavailable - day to day, they are not a presence unless you are having an issue, and you must put a "ticket" in to see them in that case.  You get a weekly code review, but it is short, and doesn't make up for the lack of instruction the other 39.5 hours each week.  Also, most instructors have no education training at all, and there is a difference between knowing how to do something and knowing how to teach it.  

Pair Programming

So who DO you learn from?  Pretty much up to you and your daily "pair" student partner, utilizing the online lessons that you follow each day.  Pair programming is a cool idea in essence, but has some serious problems.  If you can find a partner who is similar in level, approach, speed, learning style, and personality, it can be very useful, as you can really help each other through challenges and problems.  The down side is that with the lack of instruction, you are basically learning from your partners, and they are just students like you, and almost nobody has any education background.  It would seem that finding a coder better than you would be really helpful in learning, but in reality, those students are the worst teachers.  They are either such naturals at it that they can't get on your level when they try to explain, or they are snooty and condescending, and basically annoyed with anyone not on their level.

Curriculum

The quality depends upon the class.  The modules for CSS and Design classes were easy to follow, with a good pace, and really great videos and articles.  The intro curriculum was awful - the section on JavaScript goes from zero to 100 and can leave a beginner's head reeling.  It's like being a beginning swimmer, dipping a toe in the water, and the suddenly you're trying to swim in the middle of the Pacific.  

Internship

I found this to be the best part about Epicodus.  Getting some professional experience at the end of school was great - I learned a lot about client/coder relations, which greatly affects how you approach a project and what pressure there is (or isn't).  Getting the idea of a workflow and how a pro team works was extremely beneficial.  

Be careful which path you choose

In speaking with professionals, other Epicodus grads, and in my own experience, I've discovered that if you want a good paying job fairly quickly after graduating, it's a whole lot better to go the back end route.  The front end market is super-saturated in Portland, and the farther you align with the design side of things, the harder it is to find entry-level jobs.  Nearly all UI/UX design jobs were asking for 5+ years of professional experience, for instance.  I'd suggest that if you go the front end track and wanna maximize your chance for a nice-paying gig, concentrate on JavaScript.  I really wish that I had known about this before starting at Epicodus.

In the end

I wouldn't have the job (SEO Specialist) that I currently have without Epicodus.  A year ago, I would have had no chance whatsoever to get any tech job, and now, that is an option for me, which improves my future career options.  I enjoy Sass, and love Sketch, and have fun with my hobby projects.  I've been very disappointed by the lack of decent paying jobs for my design-oriented interests, and I felt that I could have learned a lot more if I had some better instruction.  But, despite the many issues that I believe Epicodus has, I still have come out with a new job skill, and a new job.  I feel that I paid too much for it, but I did get a fast education in how to do web development and design.  

While the curriculum I saw (May-Dec 2016) seems a little dated, there's no real problem with this. The real value of Epicodus is learning to communicate well with other creative thinkers and to solve problems in teams. It is an amazing school for building this skill.

My path through Epicodus started with the Ruby track and then I switched to the Design track. I feel unusually qualified to compare these two series of courses.

1. They both teach fundamentals of Github, HTML5, jQuery, Gulp, Angular2, Ember
2. Ruby track uses Capybara, not Cucumber, and introduces Sinatra before Rails (which I personally find maddening but your results will vary-- no one I've met beyond dev junkies knows what Sinatra is)
3. Design track offers a different curriculum that barely focuses on algorithms, data types, etc and instead teaches InVision to create functional prototypes without code; also teaches Sketch (which is a cleaner, easier-to-learn Adobe Photoshop)

Because of this emphasis on prototyping and improving the user experience, I graduated with a better grasp of the frontend than full stack world. If you want this result, you can definitely learn tons of Sass and Bootstrap and Sketch on your own... the Epicodus curriculum is 100% free online, so purchsae Sketch and subscribe to InVision and you're ready to blast off. The school may still provide a 50% discounts on Sketch, however, so contact Debbie at Epicodus to confirm this and any of what I'm writing here.

The pair programming ethic felt amazing while in the Ruby track, because learning challenging new concepts with a colleague is helpful. Yet once I changed over and was asked to co-Design the frontend projects, it didn't seem as effective, and often felt needlessly frustrating. Again, your results will vary.

Life-changing experience, if you're ready to work for it. The skills I'm starting to build are deeply satisfying and I am very grateful to this program. Also, this seems the best value for an onsite code camp right now. Try their lessons remotely for free, then work through a few with a friend in person, and if you are even slightly engaged then don't hesitate to apply!

Because if you do apply and gradute you won't regret it. I'm in the midst of my first junior dev job hunt, and Epicodus staff check in weekly to provide tips and have already helped me network quite a bit. Everything here is 5-star except the choice of Ember instead of React, but feel free to brag about how you learned a more difficult framework in bootcamp just so that you could teach yourself React faster. ^_~

I also posting this same review on Switchup - I had a great time at Epicodus. I was always interested in programming and web development and decided I'd give learning it a shot. My instructor was great - very knowledgeable and supportive, and an all around pleasant guy. I really liked my classmates as well. I spent a lot of time studying, and made sure my time in class was productive and focused. I received a job offer upon completing the program, as well as an offer to be an intern for a company with the idea of becoming permanent after 3 months. As some of the other reviews say, I think if you are ready to put in a good amount of work and study (and be sure to pair with people, even if you don't really want to every day!), you'll get a well-balanced and valuable background in entry-level web development from Epicodus. The tone at the top seems to be supportive and encouraging, and that shines through with all of the staff that I've interacted with.

That's because you get what you put in. It doesn't matter if the bootcamp is $5K, $10K, or $15K; if you don't put effort into it then you won't succeed, period. Epicodus and probably many other bootcamps will provide you the environment and fundamentals in programming, but the rest is up to you. Don't expect to get a job so easily if you only spend 40hrs a week coding. Epicodus doesn't make promises; rather, it creates opportunities for students to get into coding habits, connect you with peers, prepare you with sufficient coding skills (based on your effort), and allows you to have a taste of real world experience through internships at an affordable price.

- Instructors: I liked all of my instructors even if not everyone are senior developers. When my partners and I are stuck on specific problems, our instructors would go over our errors step by step just like they are another coding partner. Even if they know what the problem is, they'll still ask us questions until we answer the problem ourselves, which I do appreciate. They don't just help with coding errors, but they also give advice on how to handle situations where you and your partner might not be on the same wavelength. In other words (honest words), you will not like to work with some of your classmates, but they'll still help you out when you need help. I would like to thank Leroi, Summer, Diane, and Michael for being awesome instructors during my time at Epicodus. 

-Code Reviews: I'm ok with the weekly code reviews. They don't ask too much from the students, but I always go above and beyond for most of my reviews. It's always good to do more than what is being asked, and that is what Epicodus wants its students to do.

- Curriculum: It's understandable that the curriculum is what it is because of code deprications. There will always be newer codes, methods, and efficient ways of programming. However, I do think the curriculum should always be a top priority at Epicodus, which it might be, but it didn't feel it. The Design course could use some improvements from when I left. The design tasks for weekly reviews, I think, should be more complex or more strict. That would help me build a stronger portfolio. In the JavaScript course, we had three days to work on Angular 2 and two weeks of Ember JS. I prefer a more balanced schedule because I like Angular more.

-Job Assistance/Internships: I think communication between the staffs are clear and comprehensive. The internship, for me, was ok. It's not the best, nor do I feel like it's worth $1000 because it's a one person startup, but it's good experience in a way. I would recommend trying to find an internship on your own before going for the internship course because you know who you'll be interning for. At Epicodus, you'll be matched with 1 out of about 3 or 4 places, which could be awesome or not depending on where you are matched with. After my internship, I studied by myself at home for two months then applied to several places and landed a job. So I guess I didn't rely much on the assistance part. They offered to do weekly checkins, but I was lazy on my part.

Overall, if you have the motivation or looking for more motivation, then you should try Epicodus. Don't take Epicodus if you're the type of person who doesn't want to commit to doing extra coding work outside of the classroom. Again, you will only land a job if you put effort into it.

I went into epicodus because I was curious. They introduced me to programming and I was instantly hooked. You start with the basics of learning a markup language (HTML) and applying basic styles with CSS. You will gloss over a lot of fundamentals of programming like how to make a for loop, or basic debugging techniques. You will get to know a little bit about everything. 

The rest is up to you. You need to study on your own time. You need to make programming your whole life while you are at Epicodus and the only person holding you accountable is yourself. Because Epicodus covers a little bit of everything, you need to take the time a learn a lot about one thing. As an example, they'll teach you basics on JavaScript, but to really harness the full power of JavaScript you're going to need to study a lot. 

Don't expect to work while attending epicodus as this is a 40 hour a week program. If you have the talent, you can do contract work while attending Epicodus to help pay for classes. 

The coding challenges they have every friday are too easy. I left many of them feeling like they were not pushing me hard enough to learn more and just passing me because they could. I would have liked a more strict coding challenges that would have pushed us to the limits. 

The course material was great, however, there was frequently errors in the material. This is ok though, as it will help you identify bugs. 

Through epicodus, I was able to land a job at a creative agency and I am finally doing fulfilling work. I do not regret Epicodus at all as they provided an environment for me to learn something new, work with others, and help me achieve my goals. If you are dedicated and are willing to spend many hours outside of this program studying, you will succeed. The work you put in will reflect how soon you obtain a job after the program.

The Good: Great location, excellent offices, workstations and workspace. Very good lesson plans, helpful instructors.

The Lowdown: There are no teachers per se. You pair program which lends itself to learning or teaching other students. Also the classes are large so you can wander around and look for students who can help you. There are instructors you can ask for help, that you request for assistance. The internship program, although unpaid, was very good in my experience, but some students had a not-so-postive experience. 

A good amount of my evening and weekend time was spent learning on my own. After the internship i conitinued to learn on my own.

Overall: You get what you pay for. Epicodus is a great place to meet people who will become your peers and friends. Its a great place to go to focus on learning and how to learn and be in s structered environment. They are not going to hold your hand though. If you don't understand the material, fall behind, are lazy, dont show up to classes, thats on you. If you work hard and can work indepently its a great place, with excellent speakers, helpful instructors, and a top notch support staff.

About a year ago, I felt like I was at a point in my life where I could change careers. I had been in education for over a decade and wasn't really enjoying it anymore. I had a friend who changed careers to become a successful software developer, and she talked me in to at least looking into a career change myself.

I initially chose Epicodus for three big reasons: First, tuition was payable on a course by course basis. I was coming from a humanities background with no coding knowledge, and odds were good that, a week or two in, I'd discover that it just wasn't for me. If that were the case, I'd only be out a grand, rather than the $8000 - $12,000 the competition was charging. 

Second, they promised career support and job assistance for a year following graduation. They claimed that I wasn't going to be pushed out into the street. 

Third, they promised an internship. 

They didn't let me down in any case. On the education side, it was tough, but fair. I had teachers kick my ass when it needed kicking, but it never felt unfair or out of line. I never felt coddled, and when I could have done better, I was told as much. As a former teacher, I really appreciated the candor, and I firmly believe it made me a better programmer. 

Coursework was constantly in development, because it was constantly improving. As technologies changed, curriculum was altered to keep up. If a lesson was flawed, broken, or poorly written, we could leave feedback and it was often changed by the end of the day. 

We worked in pairs all day, every day, and it was great. I made good friends, but more importantly, I learned to both write and edit code on the fly. I had to communicate with a partner eight hours a day, and our success was often directly tied to how well we could adapt to each other. 

The internship is the only place where your milage may vary. My cohort was a really big one, beginning a few months before the expansion, and in the end, there just weren't enough internships out there. I knew about ten people who didn't get an internship, got paired with a company they reviewed poorly, or whose internship just closed down on them a week in. In each of these cases, Epicodus refunded the students' money in full or offered to get them an internship in the next cohort. It was a bummer that these students got the short end, but Epicodus did what was right, something I feel you don't see many places. 

I had a great experience in my internship, and again, our cohort was unique. I hear that things are a lot better now, that cohorts are kept more managable and that our experience was a learning experience for the company. 

Finally, regarding job support, I was contacted every single week by the job placement team. They checked up on me, kept me honest, and frequently asked if I needed help crafting a cover letter or offered suggestions for my LinkedIn. 

It's not perfect, but I've never been to a school that was. For my money (All $5000 of it), it was a great experience, and it took me from knowing about nothing about programming in January to being paid to program software in September.