Turing School of Software & Design

I had been working as a technology coördinator/person-who-handles-everything-that-plugs-in-and-teaches-classes-on-the-side for seven years prior to enrolling at Turing. Unfortunately nothing I had done previously transferred to programming and I started with basically nothing.

The program was rigorous. All those water analogies (drinking from the fire hose, being thrown into the deep end, &c.) accurately described my experiences, especially at first. As the program progressed though, so did my understanding and looking back week by week, my progress was real and impressed me.

Turing's strongest and weakest points are the same: self-reflection. Sometimes the staff can seem obstinate, assuming that any troubles students are having are the student's own and holding the curriculum above reproach. I had a very difficult time with this coming from an education background. On a grander scale, the staff are committed to turning out the best alumni in the world. That goal is lofty and they take it very seriously. Add in a non-trivial social justice mission, and you can see that the staff are holding themselves to at least as high a standard as they do the students. This can lead to a greater good mentality that can be difficult for individual students while beneficial to the community.

I was lucky to have a job the night before graduating, and I'm still there, a little over a year later. The first few months were very difficult as I had to get up to speed with topics and skills I had not learned at Turing, but my colleagues were helpful and understanding. Now I work as a peer with senior developers and have interesting side projects in the open source community.

 

Turning my career around was a scary and difficult process, but one that I am glad to have undertaken. Turing was not easy, but I left prepared to do meaningful work that I continue to enjoy.

I'm going to keep this quick - you really get a sense that the staff aren't almighty overlords but just people like you, which is great to know that they've been in similar positions to you as a student, prospective or otherwise. Turing also strongly believes that you need to be aware of social issues in the tech industry and beyond, and while I agree they way this gets presented can be intimidating. All in all though it is an excellent program that deserves your consideration even if you're not already in Colorado or Denver.

I originally went to university for a traditional 4-year degree in Computer Science. I dropped out after 2 years because I was ultimately paying to teach myself the technology I was interested in. I worked in IT for years prior to and proceeding my time at school. I had multiple internships and freelance gigs as a developer. Not once during all that time did I feel confident in what I was doing. 

Then I attended Turing. 

Turing completely altered the way I approach problems. It gave me the confidence to say, “I don’t know the answer, but I can figure it out.” They helped me develop not only a mindset for programming, but also the soft skills necessary for the real world. 

The curriculum pushes you to your limits, fills you to capacity with new knowledge. You will be physically exhausted from the overload of new information. The instructors challenge you to be better than those before you. You’re pushed by your peers. You’re constantly pushed, but at the same time given the support to go beyond. 

A lot of students find their breaking point. You learn when to stop and go for a walk. You learn to think clearly under stress. You learn to navigate the turmoil of collaborative engineering. It can be a shit show at times, but it’s in tune with the business world. 

Much like traditional schooling, a major selling point is the network. Turing’s network is incredibly valuable, despite being relatively young. 

I don’t have much to say regarding the downsides of Turing. They do weekly check-ins with each cohort and 1-on-1s with each student weekly, so they’re constantly gathering constructive feedback. They constantly iterate on their lesson plans and work on whatever flaws are uncovered. Jeff has somewhat of an inflated ego, but he’s conscious of it and the worst it brings is hearing the same stories a few times over. 

Ultimately, you’re paying for an opportunity to create a better life for yourself. They will give you ample resources to do so. Don’t naively go into this thinking you’ll be handed all the answers or that Turing owes you a job at the end. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. 

Before attending Turing I was a 7th grade math teacher with no programming experience. Turing's extremely high academic expectations and strong support from faculty, mentors and fellow students helped me go from knowing nothing to feeling like a very competitive candidate for Jr. Web Developer positions.

Turing requires you to commit yourself completely to emmersing yourself in learning as much as you can, as quickly as you can. I would say that on average I worked 60-70 hours each week.

I became employed as a full-stack software developer one week after graduation at an education technoology startup using a Rails stack. I couldn't be happier with me decision to attend Turing.

I am currently enrolled in Turing School of Software and Design. The school is broken into 6 week sections called modules. I am in Module 3 of the program and I would like to share my experience thus far.

The entire course is made up of 4 modules with a week of recovery in between each one. You can look up the general focus of each module online at Turing.io, so I wont focus on that.

My experience at Turing has been nothing short of amazing. I strongly feel that it is among the best schools available at this time. Of course, you can go to any school and succeed. you could also go to an amazing school and not succeed. i can say that Turing has been the most challenging thing that I have ever done. I am constantly challenged in technical areas and even personal areas.

Jeff Casimir is leading the students to a new career and a happier life. I see it all the time. I see students complete Turing and get jobs that are amazing! I believe it is due to the fact that Turing focuses on both technical and soft skill preparation. There are plenty of events and communal efforts to improve each and every student during there time at Turing. For example, Turing brings in specialists as often as they can to help us with learning the in -and-outs of coding and job preparation. But more importantly, Turing puts an equal amount of resources into improving things such as soft-skills, interview skills, commnunication and co-operation, and even public-speaking skills.

If you are considering Turing, I would urge you to prepare yourself to be challeged in every aspect. I will admit that turing pushes students very hard. Every new batch of students (cohort) is doing increasingly more diffucult assignments. It's really amazing to see new students come into school and start taking on challenges that I didn't even get to do. They are raising the bar every chance they get an expect top performance from the students.

There are definetely times at Turing when you might think that it is complete madness. That's OK. Just be ready for it. Organization and time management is really important under such tough conditions and will serve you well. 

I know that I am rambling.  I did not fill in the rating for "Job Assistance" just yet as I am still very much enrolled in School and have yet to start my Job Search. But I know that Turing will give me the foundation to enter the industry as a competent and able Jr Developer. 

 

If you have additional questions, you can feel free to check out my Github Profile: https://github.com/adamki

 

 

I came to Turing keenly interested in programming but unsure how to approach translating that into a career.  I had done some online tutorials and classes but was never able to truly immerse myself into the world of software development.  This is where Turing came in.  For seven months you eat, sleep, and breathe programming.  You are surrounded by classmates, staff, and mentors who support you in learning new skills but also integrate you into the developer community.  

Turing students’ track records speak for themselves and reflect the quality of the program. However, as one previous reviewer mentioned, there is NO Magic in learning how to code.  I know that my cohort-mates and I put in hours upon hours everyday to get to where we got in seven months.  Turing is not a part-time program, you really have to be all in.  Having said that, I found the curriculum to be very practical and relevant to the real world.  The greatest skill I got out of Turing was learning how to learn programming.  I came from a background in health sciences where memorizing information was key to success in school.  In programming, practical problem solving is key. After 3 months, I was able to take on learning new concepts on my own. Seven months is seven months, you can only be taught by staff only so much.  Having developed the skill to teach myself what I was interested in was AWESOME and that alone made the program worth it for me.

I do want to address a misconception that some people (including myself) had about the job hunt.  On the internet I read a ton about the vast shortage of developers we have and Turing’s amazing job placement rate.  In my mind, I built up this image of employers lining up fighting to hire us.  In reality, YOU have to do whatever it takes to prove to employers that YOU have it.  This means it is YOUR responsibility to network, prepare for technical interviews, and job hunt.  Turing does have resources and connections that help you make initial contact with potential employers, but the onus is on YOU to deliver.  Turing provides you the necessary skillset to be successful in the job hunt but do not expect a job waiting for you, YOU got to go get it.    

I would highly recommend Turing to people who are looking to jump into the software development world and break into the workforce as soon as possible.  Just remember, this is not a replacement to a CS degree so there are going to be knowledge gaps but those can always be addressed on your own time.  It is awesome to go to work everyday knowing that you are doing what you love while making a solid living doing so.  Thank you Turing for helping me get there.

I attended Turing School, which is way longer than most 'bootcamps' (Turing instructors don't really take a liking to the bootcamp label). 40+ hour workweeks over four 6-week modules.

  I found their model very effective, especially for being one of the earlier cohorts (so were essentially test dummies). In my experience, it was awesome to be taken from the basics and scale up. The program's length allows for a perfect mix of fast-paced learning without sacrificing for comprehensiveness, leaving less knowledge gaps you'll inevitably have from only 9-12 weeks.    The teachers are all great; most of them have both teaching and development experience (but all have one of the two). There's always 4 concurrent cohorts running, so you have the benefits of learning with people who're at, below, or above your skill level. They do a great job keeping you enriched and focused with weekly lightning talks, electives, after school classes/clubs/podcasts and talks from visiting developers in the industry.   My issue was more with CS theory (there was a data structures & algorithms class after school), front-end development, and JavaScript coverage in the curriculum. They've antied up on teaching heavier CS theory in Module 1 with newer cohorts and I'm confident Steve (JS teacher) has worked on incorporating more JS after our cohort's feedback.   I can advocate for Turing as a strong program for anyone who wants to become a great developer. 

I had zero programming knowledge before learning from Jeff Casimir & the instructors who now operate Turing school of software & design.

There is no magic in learning to program. You truly get out what you put in, and these people will simply give you the skills you need to teach yourself once you graduate. It was a lifechanging experience that empowered me with the ability to build amazing tools with code. I love solving and automating businesses' problems with code and encourage anyone on the fence about the Turing program to jump in head first.

A short ( & mildly embarrasing) video I made of the program & my compatriates. Don't be confused that this is about gSchool. There was a silly branding switchup after my cohort and I highly reccomend Turing and Jeff Casimir's team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXSIGtwsGEM

I had little to no experience programming, coming into Turing and wanted to give programming a try after having exhausted myself in different industries and  never being satisfied with how stale and unchallenging the work came to be after a bit. I am a creative and logical individual. I enjoy being challenged constantly but also need to satisfy my creative needs, and programming has allowed me to satisfy both of those needs. That being said, I am now working for Visa using the skills that Turing has equipped me with. Not only do I feel prepared and ready to take on the challenges at my job, but I also have forged relationships with my peers and mentors that I have met and worked with while at Turing. To me, this is the most important part of what I gained during my 7 month adventure. Not to mention, the support and time that the staff puts in, in order to prepare us for post-graduation cannot be measured with words. I am so grateful and blessed to have been taught by such wonderful and hard-working teachers. I definitely recommend Turing if you're looking into a career in software development.

I had very little experience with programming when I decided it was something I wanted to pursue full time. I did extensive research as to which program would be the best fit for me, and when I heard about Turing it became immediately obvious that that was the school. 

The length of the program and the quality of the instructors make this program the best one out there. We had time to dig into the basics, which is an area that is often neglected by people trying to jumpstart their coding careers. Having the time to work with both Ruby and JavaScript before working with frameworks of any sort has been a huge help for me out in the working world, because by doing this and grasping the concepts I've been able to smoothly transition into a job that has me writing a language I've never used before. 

I definitely recommend Turing to anyone that is serious about pursuing programming.

Here's a little background on myself - I majored in English and spent several years trying to get into a relevant job. When I finally landed one, copywriting for non-profits, I found it really boring and repetitive. The agency I worked for needed someone to code mobile responsive emails, so I began teaching myself the ways of HTML and CSS and found it far more interesting than the other parts of my job. I began taking every online course I could find, but those could only take me so far.

I began looking at bootcamps. My husband was really skeptical. He's a software developer himself and his opinion is that most bootcamps are just VC's trying to make a profit with very little value added. He also didn't believe you could learn much in 12 weeks. He was sold on Turing due to its length and nonprofit status. Also, the job guarantee. 

Everyone talks about how much work it is. It's more work than a 40 hour/week job but the semester in college when I had 18 credit hours and was working 30 hours a week was much tougher. If you've ever balanced two jobs and/or a job and school, you'll be fine. If you get overwhelmed and stressed out easily, this may not be for you.

I had really incredible classmates who I enjoyed working with. The curriculum was well thought out and they are constantly iterating on it so it continuously improves. The instructors are all really, really good at teaching. It's not an easy subject to communicate, but they do an excellent job of breaking problems down and teaching you how to approach challenges.

As far as finding a job goes, I finished a week ago and have had two job offers. (In case you were wondering, I was not top of my class, I'm pretty solidly in the middle.) Neither of those offers were from jobs I applied for. One came out of a Turing sponsored job fair, and another through a connection from the director. I start work tomorrow. 

I came to Turing to change the course of my professional career. After completing an undergraduate degree in engineering I worked as an engineer for 8 years, however, that time was primarily spent in management positions. I had the opportunity to work on some amazing technical challenges with great teams of people, but wanted to get back to more hands on work akin to what I did as an undergraduate student. So, in late 2014 I left my job to attend Turing. It has been the best decision of my professional career. 

I will freely admit this program is not for the faint of heart. I end up writing code and working on school projects between 60-70 hours per week. There are lots and lots of late nights and I work through most weekends on school projects as well. However, it is not work that I begrudgingly do. I love it and get consumed with completing the projects and solving problems. If you want a change of pace from your current career and are interested in software development Turing is the place for you!