Turing School of Software & Design

If you haven't yet familiarized yourself with NESTA, you should. The point of the organization was to set standards for coding bootcamps that the students may be protected. While bootcamps weren't required to participate, Turing volunteered. They had 1 year to comply to a public audit and failed to do so. Turing's founder, Jeff, later published their own "audit" in order to "maintain transparency." Their internal "audit", however, hand-picked (and intentionally failed to contact those who had a poor experience) less than 70% of their total students, with a few red herrings amidst in order to show that their placement rates are much higher than they actually are. 

Placement rates are also a bit of a misnomer in judging a camps success as you must graduate to even participate in the statistic. Alarmingly, Turing boasts a graduation rate of only 71% as stated by the Internation Business Times. Even that may be high based on what I personally witness and heard there in the basement. 

Jeff personally stated that it was his mission to "lower graduation rates" as he feels that a more difficult program makes it that much more prestigious. However, this essentially means you're graded on a curve, so unless you're in the top 50% (and students here are both amazing and bright - easily the best part of the experience) you may be out of luck out of the gate. 

They say you can enter without any prior programming knowledge, but in all reality the majority of students possess multiple years of programming experience so it's up to you to catch up while you're putting in the 80 hour weeks. While not impossible, it's made even more difficult with Turing's indoctrination days. 20% of your scheduled time here won't even be focused on coding at all, but instead listening to Jeff and others read highly controversial material that you either agree with or get singled out for "opportunities for improvement..." Seldom, if ever, were any contructive dialogues fostered. Rather, you accept Jeff's opinions as truth or you'll be forced out. 

Also, the teacher to student ratio at Turing is the worst of any bootcamp of comparable length or less. Despite its "non-profit" claims, they are likely making significantly higher returns than their counterparts. This is due to overbooking of cohorts, relying on students to teach one another rather than be instructed, and the opaque statistics of those that repeat. *Spoiler Alert* an extremely significant portion of students repeat and do so at cost, meaning the 17,500 turns into the same 22,000 you'd pay for a superior program - gSchool. 

A woman that repeated Turing's first module twice, but wasn't receiving support, is now excelling at gSchool and on pace to graduate this year. 

In short, Jeff may be a smooth talker, but he's a self-described sociopath. I would recommend having an in-depth conversation with him personally before even considering attendance. He's more than happy to take your money, but if you'd like to have an actual conversation there won't be time. 

And lastly, their governing body, the Department of Private Occupational Schools, is less than helpful if appealed to. They will take just long enough with their "investigation" that the statute of limitations to file a discrimination complaint will lapse and you will have successfully spent a significant sum in order to line Jeff's pockets. 

Not to be entirely negative, the students and community are truly incredible (though the same can be said of every bootcamp I've visited). Most of the staff are solid individuals, but I don't believe they have enough say in how the school is run. It's all too clear that it's Jeff's way or the highway. Despite his former claim of superiority over gSchool based on not hiring their own immediate graduates, there are several on staff now. 

You will learn quite a bit, but on you're on your own for the most part. The biggest take-away is that there's no safety net. You are at the mercy of a monster. Many will be fine, but think of your future and carefully examine what you hear. The "truth" is subjective, so enter at your own risk. 

Updated on 12/12/2016:

It’s been a bit over a year at this point since I attended Turing, but I still regularly keep in touch with many of the people I spent those dark months with. Some suggested I just leave well enough alone and others pointed out that as a cult works - with one negative review, a dozen or so fabricated ones will arise letting the world know just how delicious the Kool-Aid is. Still others may suggest that I’m “indefatigable” - a word used by a woman I’ve never met in my life when Jeff lit the fire in their internal Slack channel to smear my name and alter the story of how I left. I thought it funny as I can’t imagine she’s had ten thousand dollars stolen from her in her lifetime, but I could be wrong. If it were so, is indefatigable the right word? Maybe bitter… I’ll give you bitter, but “indefatigable” has such a ring to it. Although it is a bit rude; I’m not sure it coincides with Turing’s mission of “inclusion.” 

After some internal debate, what made me decide to write was the fact that just about every week on LinkedIn I’m viewed by either a current Turing student or a member of their community. Possibly just out of curiosity: “Who’s this monster that somehow made it to Turing and then said mean things about Jeff!?” Others perhaps to read an article that I authored: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/social-justice-terrorism-drew-conly?trk=prof-post detailing how Jeff essentially stole money from me under the guise of an education and with the age-old ‘bait and switch.’ Apparently the article made it at least to one of his “gear-ups” under the false description of dialogue. It was inaccurately presented without any defense on the side he chose to attack, which fits perfectly within his indoctrination methods. They were told if they ‘found it boring’ they could go on to another activity. I suppose Jeff has stolen enough money through his con that it’s become downright ‘boring’ for him now… 

If you’d like to try his con, the steps to follow weren’t extraordinarily difficult to follow at least. You see, like any con - you need an angle; Turing’s? Particularly clever since you can’t beat it. Artificially introduce 3 categories of humans: Victim, Ally, Oppressor. If you make it into the cult, you’re placed into either the victim or ally category by virtue of their approval. The victim category is any and all marginalized folks specifically within the tech community and any other would-be recipients of micro aggressions. The ally category is, of course, a white person that realizes you can’t just stand on the sidelines. You blindly accept all claims that the evil whites are the oppressors (despite likely being white and possibly even having been oppressed yourself). And you must - this part is key - agree with all ‘anecdotal proof’ presented by Turing that slights and mean words significantly affect every victim on the planet despite evidence to the contrary. *side note - if you don’t know what a micro aggression is (spoiler alert - made up word by the alt-left to further ingrain division and render an individual in the oppressor category defenseless against baseless accusations) you may want to skip Turing altogether. It is a trigger-warning, safe-space haven. I hear they don’t allow meat at their BBQ’s for fear of offending vegans (seriously though).

In any case. Provided your social, economic, and political views mirror those of Jeff Cashmore’s for at least the duration you attend the program, you’re savvy. You stay in your respective victim or ally construct. Unfortunately this can’t be don’t quietly; a mere head nod simply won’t suffice - Jeff Cashmore, the dictatorial cult leader, demands compliance. Perhaps it’s in the form of some Slack chatter checking someone’s privilege (berating someone who’s at least white so they can’t claim discrimination). Perhaps it will be as rebuttal to a brutally honest, albeit trigger-warning-indiscriminate review. Or perhaps it will be to enlist the next cohort of alt-left drones that (a lot. Not 90%, but probably a solid 60%+) become damn decent software developers and thus elevate to another level of influence within society - that we may all be for censorship, safe spaces, and checking privilege Amen. Or perhaps there will be a wildcard request - but what the leader wants, the leader gets - lest you be excommunicated, shunned, and …. you guessed it - thrown into the ‘oppressor’ category.

The beauty of this con is as follows: The con artist (Jeff Cashmore) gets to pretend that he’s doing right by the world (however left that may be). He remains insulated by dozens, if not hundreds of his followers, as an ‘ally’ - nay - savior - while any dissension among the ranks is met with potentially life-altering ‘punishment,’ which is completely “justified,” as the recipient will have been labeled an ‘oppressor’ (no punishment is too severe for an ‘oppressor’). Righteous. Where do I sign? Looks like it’s a bit steeper than when I attended, but for the low, low price of 25-30k (*plus living expenses, rent, food, car payment, and all other income related items foregone during the better part of a year*) it now includes a safe-space room that’s been allocated!

But why so much; you may be asking yourself; when the supposed same was accomplished for 17,500 when they initially started out. Well, being that they’re a “non-profit,” the extra cash will of course go to growth. That is, of course, after Cashmore’s ~ $200,000 annual salary is covered. (Based on collective math and the tax returns that they must legally make public). And with attrition up, both through their selective weeding out (roundin’ up the white fellas for hurtin’ feelins’ an’ such) and sheer frustration on the parts of those that thought they were signing up for a software development program instead of world-view reassignment, the bottom line need-be considered. Yes, yes - even in a non-profit <sarcasm> that’s really here for the betterment of all. </sarcasm> 

Here’s the deal. Since it’s quite apparent that folks from Turing & the community are still interested in viewing my profile, bashing me on Slack, and somehow thinking that Jeff’s not a complete pos, here’s some irrefutable facts that I’d happily back up with evidence: 

    - It’s been over a year since my dispute with Turing and I have NEVER been given specific complaints or accusers, the only explanation being that I was a ‘cultural leader.’ (I retain all related communication exchanges)

    - At one point it was Jeff’s mission to increase the failure/dropout rate of Turing (some 2 dozen members of my cohort as well as multiple bootcamp owners/leaders in the greater         Denver area can attest to that fact)

    - Turing has sent numerous Nondisclosure Agreements to individuals they’ve excommunicated hoping to prevent litigation (I retain copies of such, though I was not offered one as Jeff had already stolen my money & gotten away with it)

    - Multiple instances of students & alumni being kicked off of internal communication tools for having a different opinion than Jeff and his false narrative (Turing may say being offensive, but     as the screenshots would show that’s not the case. And censorship is censorship)

    - Jeff has attributed his desire to get into the ‘bootcamp’ business (make no never mind it’s a business) to there being, “too many white dudes in tech” (Only an issue for the rational humans that realize racism goes both ways I know… )
    - Turing as a software development school outsources the design and upkeep of their own website (Right there at the bottom right - there’s also the hard-coded, wildly inaccurate placement statistics on the front page. Jeff has disputed this in the past by provided an “audit,” which was performed “internally” (code-word for made up) What!? I can literally name off the top of my head enough individuals that left the program willingly or otherwise to make these statistics fail to be true) Also, can I let the IRS know that I’ll “audit myself” if such a time ever comes… ?  

    - Right on their website, between the pictures and background video I can point out multiple individuals that were either kicked out or quit Turing based directly on Jeff’s inability         to foster a dialogue (I will not list names without expressed consent, but it would be impossible for Jeff to even challenge this point)

    - The Department of Private Occupational Schools, in my case at least, took long enough with their “investigation” that the statute of limitations for a discrimination complaint had lapsed leaving me without a course of action with the exception of hiring an attorney, which is difficult when you’ve just been robbed (date stamps from my initial complaint to their final decision)

    - The literature (propaganda) provided in their weekly indoctrination sessions are severely biased & often inaccurate. They refuse to update or acknowledge academically             reviewed articles that don’t fit their narrative (again between email exchange and screenshots I provided plenty of dialogue to be had, but my input was unceremoniously dismissed)

    - Jeff creates an environment that passive aggressively harasses anyone he deems an ‘oppressor,’ which he does so on occasion as arbitrarily as you’d choose your outfit in the         morning. (Again, I won’t ‘put anyone on blast,’ but I am happy to make introductions for a potential attendee to no less than 20 individuals that would give you an honest review. Not this fictional garbage on course report that’s more or less required if Turing is going to help you find a job. Again - Jeff directly disputes this, my evidence here isn’t quite as strong, but multiple individuals have confirmed to me that the positive reviews are incentivized) 

    - Based solely on a claim, with literally zero evidence, Jeff accused a member of Turing (at the time) of drugging another student. It didn’t happen and that’s been cleared up now, but this is how quickly the school will overreact if someone in a “protected class” tells Jeff to “check someone’s privilege” (berate the white guy). 

    - Upon reading previous reviews, slack screenshots, my own correspondence with Jeff & the school it's painfully evident that Jeff is elusive when it comes to dialogue. If you're white and claim you're being attacked, it's because you're "uncomfortable having your privilege checked." If you wanted to spend $20k on learning software development and choose not to attend a gear-up it's "because it made you uncomfortable (they're supposed to be after all - when is indoctrination a comfortable process?)". If you don't like his choice of articles (from the late 80's or 3 decades ago for those who are counting) it's because you "don't appreciate muliculturalism" (even if you present more compelling evidence: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-rise-of-victimhood-culture/404794/) And on and on the story goes. If your opinion or position coincides with his narrative and that of the victimhood culture we've been cursed with, you will be in his favor. If you dissent... you will pay dearly. (Again, dozens of stories - YOU are paying them, but if you don't join the cult side of the school you simply cannot be successful there. After I'd been handed down my punishment and made it clear that I would not comply, all instructors became too busy to help. Even after presenting my case and Jeff agreed that there was not an accusation, but rather he thought of me as a 'cultural leader' he wouldn't even apologize for lying. Or the amount of stress that was incurred. Or any of it. Why would he need to? I am -unfortunatelyt- white after all) And as a preemptive dismassal of what will be an extremely weak argument - Jeff claimed that that the duress I was arbitrarily placed under was akin to the duress caused by micro agressions, which validates his cult jargon. Nonsense. Jeff abused his power & authority to discriminate and oppress based on my race and my gender. He argues that because I am white and male that discrimination/oppression is not possible. He is wrong. 

The aura of condescension can be felt dripping from the walls of the dungeon that is Turing. The school is lead by someone who looks like a smug, self-righteous Guy Fieri that reduces everyone that walks through the door to a gender, a color, and a sexual identity. All of this he accomplishes “as an ally” so it’s really for your own betterment and there isn’t an option (y’know, like learning software development which you paid Jeff around 20K to teach you…). For those who belong to a marginalized class, but choose not to play the victim…  you’ll somehow end up in a surprise 4th category - “Ally of oppressor” - take that curveball mf!!
Rooms inside of Turing are filled either with whispers for fear the fuhrer overhears and disagrees or by boorish droll which is praised at Turing. Liberal elitists patting themselves on the back for eating vegan or Paleo, training for a half-marathon, doing crossfit, or ‘totally understanding and empathizing with the struggle of another.’ (I realize none of these things read poorly - nor are they. It’s when they’re obviously so disingenuous and contrived that they illicit the eye rolls and tongue-in-cheek congratulations that are required to remain an ‘ally’)

Y’know it’s funny. On one hand, we have a privileged, wealthy white male that pays himself closer to a quarter of a million dollars a year than not. And in the other we have a socioeconomically challenged white male that’s never taken a handout nor been offered one. Could hardly rub two nickels together when he opted to change careers and better himself. Little did he know that there was “a greater opportunity to learn” - the long con. Watching a wealthy scumbag steal his money right from under his nose. And then he gets made out to be the demon. And Jeff Cashmore gets to play Robin Hood. The irony is suffocating. 

If you’ve struggled in your life: lost friends or family members, grew up poor or impoverished, if you’ve seen someone take their own life, struggled with depression, gone through the battle against cancer or some other disease whether personally or through osmosis, if you’ve worked 12 hour days 7 days a week, if you’ve had a hard time making ends meet, slept in your car, or if you’ve otherwise had what a rational human being would NOT describe as a privileged life, then you better pray to whichever God you pray to that you’re not white. Or none of it will matter to Jeff Cashmore and the Turing community. 

Jeff’s cult has a boilerplate list of definitions and if you’re white, you’re privileged. Period. And whatever race, gender, or sexual preference you are, at Turing - that’s ALL you are. For the con to work you have to fit into a category and there are just 3. Your initial placement into the category is based solely on race, gender, and/or sexual preference. End of story.  

Jeff doesn’t take the time to get to know people prior to their acceptance, attendance, etc. As long as your check clears and you can solve a few LSAT games, you’re in. When I got to “face my accusations (again - none specific, it was actually just an informative meeting of the punishment I’d be receiving without any actual accusations mentioned or evidence of any wrong doing at all) I hadn’t actually spoken with Jeff for more than 5 minutes personally. But somehow, he’d decided that the ‘accusations’ were enough and that I’d be disciplined accordingly (oops - I meant ‘opportunity to learn’ instead of discipline. If you’ve seen Clockwork Orange you’d understand). Only, there never were any accusations. There weren’t any accusers. There was Jeff. And there was Jeff’s narrative. And there was Jeff’s con. 

Jeff, you’re a thief. The right thing to do would be to offer back the “tuition” you stole from me and anyone else you’ve pulled this scam with.

Turing is the best coding school. Period. I started Turing with zero experience and graduated with 4 job offers. 

You don't need technical skills to go to Turing. But you do have to want it.

Jeff and the staff will push you past where you previously thought you could go — intellectually and emotionally. They will act as your harshest critics and your most enthusiastic cheerleaders.

You will have moments of pure joy, and periods of agonizing doubt. You will learn to recognize the rhythm of Turing: excitement, fear, stress, doubt and, finally, triumph. 

Learning to code is hard. Turing is harder. It's up to you to put in the work. But if you do, you will have joined a community of talented, enthusiastic and empathetic developers who will push you to be your best self and have your back if you fall short. 

The decision whether or not to attend a software development school can be a turning point in one's life. I'm glad I found Turing and took the plunge. Looking back and weighing the pros and cons, it was a no brainer.

The last year has been the most trying, exhaustive, and terrifying year of my life. I started the program in December of 2014 and finished in June 2015. Attending the Turing School strained or outright ruined relationships, disconnected me from my hobbies, and left me with little to no time on my hands. I pulled about a dozen all-nighters and found myself working 16 hour days most of the week. I spent a lot of money on unhealthy food to fuel myself both physically and emotionally. I gained about 20 pounds (which I have now lost wooo!). I racked up a dozen parking tickets in downtown Denver. I commuted about 142 hours which was mostly being stuck in traffic on the highway.

I pushed myself unnecessarily. No one needed me to dive so deep and strech myself thin. I could have succeeded at the Turing School, as the great majority of the student body does, without ever staying up all night, but that is how I work under pressure. The Turing School allowed me that: to work and thrive how I best work and thrive.

Sure, they demand a lot of everyone, but thanks to my supportive wife and family, I had the opportunity to demand even more of myself and I took it. It paid off. While it was the most stressful, difficult time in my life, it was also hands down the most rewarding thing I have done. Ever. I have met great people who I am lucky to call my friend, I have created things I never would have thought myself capable of, and, most importantly, I found the validation for my hard work and personality that I needed.

In the rest of these reviews, you're going to read a lot of great things about Turing. And the thing is... they're all true. I LOVE Turing and am incredibly happy and grateful that Turing was my introduction into programming. The school also played a big part in my getting my first job. But you don't need to read another glowing review that sounds a lot like the others. So, I am going to skip the positive stuff and go straight to one of its weaknesses. ​

Learning to program is hard, so hard in fact that Turing attracts people with programming experience who want to level up. The range of experience can be as simple as taking a few online Code Academy courses to having actually been a professional programmer. While Turing does a good job of getting all students to a similarly high level of proficiency, it doesn't do a good job of setting expectations for how much experience students really have and how much students lean on that experience. It doesn’t help that most of these students are not forthcoming about their experience level. Now, I understand why some students may not want to admit that they've been programming for a couple years or that they attended another coding school. No one wants to be judged, especially by peers with whom they're about to spend the next +7 months. Having to admit that there are gaps in one's abilities is not exactly my strong suit either. But the problem still exists. ​

And this problem can be detrimental for two reasons:

1) If the instructors don't know who has previous programming experience, then they don't know how effective their teaching/curriculum really is. As a result, topics can be covered faster than they really should be. It can lead instructors to misjudge who needs what help and why. ​

2) The lack of awareness by a newbie student can cripple their ability to learn, as well as their eventual love of programming. When students with no previous experience believe that everyone is also starting at zero, it can create an environment where they begin to doubt their own abilities. This is especially true when it seems that their peers are excelling and/or understanding concepts effortlessly. Their inner dialogue usually falls along the following: "We all started knowing nothing, but this person next to me, he/she gets it. Why don’t I get it? I must not be that smart. Maybe I shouldn't be here. Maybe programming is not for me."

It’s easy to think this person doesn't have the mental fortitude to overcome challenges and that programming really isn't for them. But I caution you against such thinking for 2 reasons:

1) Turing is an intellectually, emotionally and physically challenging +7 months. Jeff Casimir prides himself on making sure that you get your money’s worth. He and his team are going to push you harder than you think you can be pushed.​​

2) Because Turing is a fast paced, high pressure environment, it can cause people to behave with less compassion than they normally would. I've seen a high performing student say that the reason some classmates were underperforming was because of their lack of effort. Now, if you’re a student who has no programming experience, is struggling with the material, puts in 14-18 hours/day, 7 days/week, and hear this, you know effort is not your problem. Naturally, you compare yourself to this classmate and think your problem must be one of mental capacity. Well, what if I told you this high performing student was a professional programmer prior to Turing, but didn’t make that fact publicly known. On another occasion I worked on a 3-person project where one of the members shamed the other member for being slow and incompetent to the point where the third member quit Turing 3 days into a 7-day project. It wouldn’t be until months later that it came to light that this person doing the shaming had attended two General Assembly courses before Turing. The student that quit, quit because she was operating under the assumption all three of us had started Turing not knowing any programming. She thought she wasn’t smart enough. In fact she was smart enough. She just didn’t know she was comparing apples and oranges.

It may seem like I am being overly critical of these students. That's not my intent. These two students are some of the most stand-up people at Turing and one I consider to be a very close friend. They just had momentary lapses in being their best self. But these momentary lapses in courtesy had outsized impacts on other people’s experience and their confidence to code. 

​​Some things to keep in mind if you’re a student without programming experience, know that some students are going to know more code than they say they do. Be kind to yourself. Don’t judge yourself too harshly. Learning to code isn’t only for the few chosen ones. It takes time.

If you are a student and you notice this happening, let the instructors know. We students (regardless of experience level) need to be periodically reminded “not to judge our insides with someone else’s outsides.” In fast paced, high-achieving environments competitiveness becomes common-place. But that shouldn’t translate into students feeling like they’re playing a zero sum game, resulting in only winners and losers.​

This is not everyone’s experience. But it is some people’s experience, enough that I thought it was important to highlight. I hope this review was informative and useful for you. Ultimately, my goal is to point out areas of human behavior that the Turing experience lends itself to. My hope is that making you aware of these challenges will go a long way in improving the Turing experience for everyone. 

TL;DR

I chose to go to Turing because it was recommended to me as the best and toughest. I got exactly what I expected. I was challenged everyday and was able to land a job I love right out of the school.

Longer Version:

I spent a fair amount of time looking into programs of different lengths and price. After reading reviews I kept seeing positive reviews about Turing (previously GSchool, and before that Hungry Academy). I wasn't interested in a get rich quick situation, I wanted to go somewhere that I would build a foundation for a career. I spoke with previous graduates of the program (they atteneded when it was GSchool) and they had nothing but amazing things to say about Jeff and the curriculum.

The school was everytihng I expected and hoped it would be, and more. It lived up to the hype. Sometimes you meet your hero in real life and they're tools. Sometimes you meet your hero and they're exactly what you'd hoped they'd be. Turing was the latter. The 7 months I spent in that basement were some of the best of my life. The teaching staff are extremely talented and knowledgable and relatable. I count them as my friends. The other students are hungry, driven, and extremely smart. Some of the best people I know I met at Turing.

I would highly recommend this program. With Turing you get what you expected going in. THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE.

After completing a 9 week Ruby on Rails school back in 2013, I was fortunate enough to gain experience through freelance web development for a startup. During those 2 years I learned a lot about building a startup but my web development skills eroded because I focused more on the front-end and ux. The startup idea, like most, didn't gain enough traction to continue and I was left in a position of "now what?" I learned that I did not want to continue down a path of marketing website but wanted to continue building ideas. I was a carpenter for over 17 years and had chosen to change careers back in 2013. I was grateful for my first coding school because it took me from someone who really knew zero about web development to someone who could build basic ideas in code. The school accomplished its goal and allowed me to build MVPs but I was not 'professional grade.'  

So I went back to the Michael Hartl tutorial to update my skills and during the process, I received a progress email stating that if I enjoyed the tutorial, you should consider Turing School of Software and Design. So, I clicked on the link and read about the curriculum. I was impressed, so like most prospective students, I read reviews on Course Report. I live in Chicago and have many local choices for coding schools but Turing was different. It was longer, focused on fundamentals and the skills that I knew the market was demanding. I had already done the MVP thing, I was looking for full-stack, professional web developer with a focus on testing. Testing was the key selling point for me because that is the differentiator.

I talked it over with my wife and she was in. We budgeted $70k for the whole process, tuition, computer and living costs for 2 households 1500 miles apart and limited income. I moved to Denver by myself and lived in my camper for 6 months to keep my costs as low as possible. My family would come to visit on the first intermission and then I flew home on the next 2 intermissions. It was emotionally difficult to be away from my wife and 3 kids but we all grew from the experience. The key to success was leaving my family behind because there was no guilt of not being around for normal life. I was gone and 100% focus on what I was at Turing to do, level up and get a job.

The Experience

Turing did not undersell the difficulty of the program. I caught the bus at 6:50am M-F and the 9:40pm in the evening to come home, rinse and repeat. Class was from  9-4pm with a 1 hr lunch and a minimum of 4 hrs of work every evening and at least 16 hrs of homework on the weekend. If there wasn't a project that you were working on, then you were practicing your skills from the previous week. There wasn't enough time to get homesick. Your cohort member were your new best friends and you stuck together in an effort to help each other out and get everyone to pass together. Teamwork and collaboration are key to success at Turing. You can not do it alone and think that you will be successful. You will lean on each other to push through code and life challenges. I am a veteran and completed the toughest leadership school the Army has and I would put Turing on par with that experience. Both are a total suck fest but on different levels. Both are emotionally draining but Ranger School is more physical while Turing pushes you mentally as would be expected.

It was not all roses at Turing. I could not afford to repeat a module not only because of the cost but also because it would mean another 7 weeks away from my family. The pressure to succeed was huge and I hit some stumbling blocks along the way but my fellow classmates and the Turing community was always prepared to step up and help me get a core concept or offer insight as to better understand the concepts. The biggest con of the whole experience was the "Gear Up" sessions. Gear Ups consist of a short reading about a controversial topic, a moment of self-reflection and small group discussion before we reconvened as a school. There was a Gear Up that broke our cohort emotionally and we never fully recovered in my opinion. We were forever divided and it really soured the Turing experience. Turing is an emotional rollercoaster through the rigors of the curriculum but to then push students who happen to be generally very progressive with provocatively charged readings is too much. People are drained physically from all nighters, mentally exhausted from the learning and emotionally edgy from the process so tempers can flair and Turing needs to me more aware about the state of its students. Forcing people to read articles about concepts or choices that we as students did not create adds fuel to the fires that already exist. For our cohort it was broke the gel and camaraderie that had developed and hung a dark cloud on the rest of my experience, so much so that I became hyper-focused on securing a job before graduation so that I could get out of there.

I am 40 and my wife and I were prepared for the pay cut that I would be taking. I applied to 4 places and based on my previous web development/startup/life experience I made it to 4 phone interviews, 3 code challenges and secured a position only 2 weeks into Module 4. Turing had given me the technical code skills to get looks from all of the companies. My Github had the variety of skills that employers where looking for and I had the experience from Turing. Turing knows the types of projects that employers are looking for and even after only 3 modules, I had enough to become hirable. I am grateful for the experience and was even happier to get back to my family and making an income again over a month ahead of schedule.

If you are serious about making a career shift or leveling up basic web development skills, Turing is the place. You will gain the skills you need to be successful and everyone at Turing from the staff, alumni and current students are behind you to succeed. Not everyone succeeds. People don't pass, some quit and others like me level up and hit the market as soon as possible. Turing is a 24/7 commitment to succeed and you will build friendships that will change your life. The Gear Up  add-on to the web development curriculum is my only gripe, but I would be remiss if I say that I didn't learn anything from them. With Gear Ups, timing is everything.

Invest in yourself at Turing and you will not be sorry. Turing changed my career path and it can change yours too!

Attending Turing was the best decision I've ever made and really changed my life for the better. To start, I'll just say it was the most challenging and rewarding experience, but equally strenuous. It isn't for everyone and I'll explain further down in the review. I did graduate and didn't have to repeat any modules. I'm now employed as a full-time software developer for an amazing company. 

My original chosen profession was journalism (I was a newspaper reporter and tech blogger) since I always had a hard time deciding what I wanted to do and writing was something I was good at. Three years into my career as a newspaper reporter, I hated my career, it wasn't very fulfilling and it felt like a dead end job. I started taking classes at the local Penn State campus, so I learned C++, Java, PHP, HTML and CSS. Although that was the case, it didn't feel like it was enough. I was learning too slowly and learning things that were outdated. It was also very expensive going back for a second degree. 

In May 2014, my girlfriend and I moved to Boulder, CO, and while there I found out about the Ruby meetup group and started attending. There I found out about bootcamp style training programs and was eventually admitted to Turing. When I started in Feb. 2015, I thought I would have an advantage since I had taken college coding classes before, I only had an advantage for a few weeks since after that everyone was on the same playing field. While I struggled toward the end of module 1, I eventually picked up and excelled in other modules, particularly the last ones where we were building apps that could be used by real people. That is common for Turing students, to have strengths in different parts of the program. 

One amazing thing about Turing is that you will go through it with an awesome group of people from all different background. These people will become some of your best friends. Since you are all going through it together... the ups, the downs, you will form tight bonds and friendships that will last a lifetime. Without the support from my fellow classmates in my cohort, I might not have made it through the program. We were almost like our own little family where nobody could be left behind and if someone was struggling, we tried to help get them up to speed so they could move on with the rest of us. 

While I had success, it didn't come without its problems. I was exhaused. Turing at times feels like you are sprinting for 7 months straight. You're always learning, always studying. At the end of a six week module, I was drained and couldn't wait for a week off, which wasn't really a complete break since there was always intermission week assignments. My relationship with my girlfriend also suffered since instead of being able to spend time with her, I was spending just about all of my time studying. She did stick with me and I promised her it would all be worth it once the seven months were over. And that was true.

When I graduated in August, I didn't have a job but I was able to get many initial interivews and sometimes second interivews. Interviewing was not my strong suit, especially since I had imposter syndrome, you do feel it after becoming a developer in 7 short months, which feel like an eternity at times. Turing did prepare me though and was really helpful as far as giving advice on my resume/cover letters and helping with speaking with improv classes. Within the first three months, really a month and a half, I had a job. I started as a temporary employee in October, but was offered full-time right before Thanksgiving in November. There was no way I could have known this at the time, but my company wasn't the best environment for a junior developer. Things eventually became really stressful as I became the only full-time developer, but I was prepared to tackle problems. I was able to juggle projects for multiple clients and learn how to complete new tasks everyday.

I was at that job for almost 5 months and just started a new full-time job in February, where I'm at an amazing company with all the mentorship I need, great benefits and I get to work from home. Better yet is that my company is based in West Palm Beach, FL, and flew me down to work in the office for the first week. 

Turing also now has me doing things that I never thought I'd be doing like public speaking. I now regularly attend the local Ruby and JavaScript (particularly EmberJS) meetups and participate in them. I've given two talks at the Ember meetup so far and led a workshop at Rocky Mountain Ruby, the Boulder Ruby conference in September. 

The bottom line is that Turing is one of the hardest thing you will ever do. It will challenge you mentally and take you to the point where you think you will break. It will also affect all other aspects of your life, but they know most students can take the stress and they are the ones who will succeed in the program. These students will also become the most successful developers in the real world. Turing prepared me to tackle any problem and not only learn how to code, but also how to learn and teach myself to solve a problem. Before I started Turing, I was working a job where I wasn't happy and really would never be able to afford things like a house or to raise a family. I now work full-time as a developer for a company I love, from the comfort of my home and the seven strenuous months translated to me also more than doubling my highest ever salary as a journalist. We now have the life we dreamed about. 

I’ll start off by saying Turing is a very strenuous, demanding, ambitious, admirable, absolutely exhausting program. I was pushed from day one and on more than one occasion, had the thought of taking a module off or leaving the program completely. It definitely beats you into the ground, but it has equipped me for my new career in ways I’m still realizing. 

Prior to Turing, I was a nurse for several years, no real technical background and, long story short, was looking to change careers. I went with Turing for two main reasons, one being the length of the program, the other was how education driven it was. I personally felt that what I needed/wanted to learn, in order to make a successful career change, was not going to be in an 8, 10, 12-week course… They had the cirriculum and length to get me to where I needed to be.

Looking into past/current experiences of the instructors at Turing, I decided that Turing met the education expectations that I had. I’ve had a lot of frustrating experiences where the instructor had a lot of knowledge about the topic, but none about teaching; how to translate that material to students, get them to relate, twist it in a way so it sinks in for them, etc. I you may know a lot, but unless you can teach me, you're useless.

I will say that my biggest frustration with the program was the small to large changes that were made in-between modules. Normally, it’s a glorious thing when staff takes in student criticism of how the previous 6 weeks went, discuss, actually implement the necessary changes, and make the next module better than the previous. And it is a great thing! For me though, I felt like I was in an experiment, I began to have the mentality of “Will this stick or just change next module? Should I bother to really learn this?” and honestly, started having thoughts of whether they really knew what they were doing. I put a lot of time and money into them, I don’t want to have doubts!

But now that I have been in my new career for several months, Turing has really equipped me. There’s definitely some stuff that I’ll need to relearn or re-familiarize myself with; there were times where the pace at which Turing taught a topic, was personally too fast for it to really stick, but I learned the fundamentals at the time and I now have the time and that foundation to build off of.

An instructor once told me that Turing makes it extremely difficult so that when you reach your real world programming job, it’s THAT much easier for you. True. So very true.

Before coming to Turing, I was a middle school teacher and led wilderness trips. I was ready for something new, and had been trying to teach myself to code for awhile before applying to Turing. I loved what I was learning, but knew I just wasn't going to get very far trying to teach myself AND work full-time. Even though I've always been into problem solving, logic, and technology, I never thought about making programming a career until I realized there were so many different directions I could head in with this type of experience. I looked into a few different schools, and was most interested in Turing because of the great things I heard about the instructors and the community. I was sold from the application process. Applying to Turing is a bit of a time consuming task, and I appreciated that it really made me think about my goals, what I bring to a community, and what I wanted out of the program. Turing lived up to my high expectations and then some. I can't imagine a better community and a better group of instructors. In the final months at Turing, I felt supported in my job search, and just started a remote position as an apprentice developer. I can't believe how much I learned in 7 months, and I'm excited to keep learning. 

Post-Turing, here are my big takeaways:

• The instructors are incredibly helpful and supportive. Most of them are able to strike a great balance between challenging you to push through a problem and offering a helping hand. They are there for you, and believe in Turing. They're not just there because they're programmers... I felt like they were teachers first, and have each student's best interests at heart.
• I learned as much about myself as I did about programming... how I work, how I deal with challenges, and how I can be a better community member and team member.
• It is probably one of the hardest things you'll ever do, but it's worth it.
• Be ready for the long game. Try and find some balance in your life, and take care of yourself.
• Everyone is there for each other. You will be blown away by the amount of other students (working just as hard as you) who are ready to spend hours helping you out.

Like mostly everyone I had a great experience at Turing, and I highly recommend it for everyone. I won't repeat what all the other reviews have said because I agree with it all - the good and the bad. 

I wanted to write this review for parents. I went through Turing with two young kids, an 18-month old and a 3 year old (at the time), and I got through it. It was definitely a huge transition for me since prior to Turing, I was always with my kids. I worked from home, but my kids also stayed home with me. So going from that to feeling like I rarely saw them was hard. And when I say I rarely saw them, I saw them every night for at least a few hours and was with them most of the time on the weekends unless we had a group project. I never felt like I had to choose my school over my family. I just got really awesome at time management. While it is different and a huge adjustment, my classmates/group partners understood that I had other responsibilities and we would adjust our group schedules to make it work if needed. Most of the time, I think that parents are able to balance school/life better than others because we are forced to go home and take care of our family too. 

So if you are a parent, and are thinking about Turing, just do it. It's the best thing you will ever do for yourself and your family. The community is great, and I don't think you will find another school with as many students, instructors, mentors, and alum that care about you. If you ever want to chat, email me or I will meet you for coffee. smacnicholas@gmail.com

Prior to coming to Turning I had worked in education for 14 years. Since my last job was coordinating a 1 student 1 computer roll out for a school district, I had lots of experience testing and evaluating educational software but none with actual coding.  

I did a good deal of research on different coding schools, my previous educational experience guiding my evaluative lense.  What really attracted me to Turing was the fact that the director, Jeff Casimir, has a background in education and training, as well as in software engineering.  This was important to me and I didn’t find it at a lot of the other schools I visited/talked to.  So, I decided to take the leap and became part of the second cohort to attend Turing.  
 

The time I spent at Turing was a blur.  The workload is demanding.  I have a family and my wife works so balancing family responsibilities and school was a challenge.  Despite these constraints, I still found it possible to be successful at Turing.  The staff was very helpful and accommodating.  

I found the curriculum and pedagogy at Turing to have strong and weak points.  For me, direct instruction doesn’t work all that well. So, the fact that this is a significant part of the instructional time was a little frustrating. However, I find project based learning very effective, which is an even larger part of the Turing program.  A lot of our time was spent working in groups to create software.  This is what you do as a dev, so it was great practice!  As others have said, Turing has great feedback loops in place and is constantly making changes to improve, so their instructional program probably looks completely different now.  

The outcome for me couldn’t have been better.  Before I had completed Turing, I had received two job offers.  The great part was that they were both for remote jobs which was what I wanted.  I ended up with an awesome job working for a start up.  The CTO was one of my mentors at Turing!  

If you want to learn how to program, I can't imagine a better place than Turing. In short, it is an amazing program, run by amazing people.

Teachers

I can't say enough good things about the staff at Turing – led by the one and only Jeff Casimir. Jeff has put together an incredible team of instructors, all of whom are very smart and caring people. They are not just talented programmers – they are very talented and dedicated teachers. They are all willing to do whatever it takes to share their knowledge and will stop whatever they're doing to help you improve your skills and succeed. Not only that, but the instructors are all really cool individuals who you will count as your friends – they are inspiring people.

Environment

The environment is intense, in the very best way. It feels like some kind of mix between a dojo and a monastery – people are serious. It's immersive by design – you spend as much energy as you can learning to code – and there isn't much time for anything else. Expectations are set high. There is always a lot of material to cover in a short amount of time. You need to put in your very strongest and best efforts, and sustain them over the full course. You feel well spent – and it's a great feeling, knowing that you're committed and giving it your all. 

Students

When going through a set of experiences as intense as Turing, you form a lot of new connections with your fellow students. Turing attracts an inspiring group of people, from all kinds of backgrounds, with different skill-sets and styles. Not everyone learns at the same pace, and that's ok. You do whatever you can to help someone – and likewise you can count on your friends to be there to help you. Very simply, it's fun to bond with people while learning something new – it feels good and it's inspiring to see each other's lightbulbs turn on. You will count these people as friends for life.

Improvements

While I hope it's clear that I love Turing and everyone involved, I do think there is some room for improvement. In general, I wish the program had room for a more individualized approach and timeline for each student. If you fall behind, for one reason or another (don't get sick), it can be difficult to catch back up to your cohort, even with extra help from your friends and instructors. Things move quickly, and there isn't much room for error. If you do get behind, you might need to repeat one of the modules – so be prepared that you might need to spend another 6 weeks, or more. I wish that the schedule could allow people to brush up on smaller chunks of knowledge, rather than having to repeat an entire 6-week module. The repetition never hurts, as far as learning – but it's not always easy to come up with the extra time and money. As for the specific subject matter, I wish we had spent more time with JavaScript – but that's just my preference. Overall, I must say that Turing does a really great job of listening to everyone's feedback and improving the system as quickly as possible. You can trust that the staff is doing everything they can to provide the best instruction available.

I hope I've convinced you of how impressed I am with Turing, its program, and its people. I hope you sign up as soon as you can, and join the rest of us who consider it a life-changing experience.