Turing School of Software & Design

It's hard to put into words how much Turing changed my life. Honesty, I've postponed writing this review for two years, as I felt incapable of distilling the vast experience into ~1000 characters. I started Turing 10/1/18 and graduated 6/6/19. That was some time ago, and a lot has changed in the Turing program, ie Turing is now fully remote, while it was in-person, when I went... however one thing always remains constant, Turing is consistently integrating feedback and iterating on their lesson plans to improve the program. The staff even send out weekly feedback surveys, followup with the students, and noticeably integrate the feedback they receive.

To be clear, the Turing program was really good when I went, but legitimately, it keeps getting better and better. As an alumni, I now mentor current students, an each time I receive a new mentee, I'm consistently impressed with how robust and advanced the students are, earlier and earlier in the program.

Back when I was researching changing my career (my background is in retail and customer support), I looked into a handful of school, went to workshops at several of them, and spoke with alumni and teachers. Several things stood out to me;
- The teachers stay longer and are more technically advanced than many of the other boot camps
- Turing is a non-profit ie they're focused on investing in student growth, rather than maximizing the student population for profit.
- Turing has a much longer/stronger track record of success (including published statistics on the average graduation rate and time it takes to get the first job)

I found out about Turing through some friends whom are a couple. One of them went to Turing, while the other went to Galvanize ... their advice was, "look at all the other programs... but to go to Turing". Whenever I'm speaking with someone interested in taking the coding program leap... I now echo that same advice.

Upon entering Turing, I came to understand that the student/alumni network is extremely robust and active. For instance, from day one, I was assigned a mentor, and upon graduation I went to alumni happy hours in the Denver area every 7 weeks.

I've been on the job, for ~2 years now and was extremely well prepared for it. I did Turing's backend program, but actually got a full stack (front end and backend) job on a team with four other Turing grads. (It's definitely common for a company to hire one Turing grad and be so pleased that they decide they would like to hire more).

I couldn't be happier with my decision to:
1. Go to a coding program
2. Go to Turing specifically.

Turing 100% changed my life. Now, I work remotely, set my own hours, and have incredible flexibility. I'm very grateful.

Overall a great experience. The instructors were knowledgable, the curriculum was focused on current industry standards, and the community created was life-long. I have absolutely no doubt that the education and connections I have made through Turning will serve my career for my entire life. My experience was one of re-education and career change. I was in public service for years, and graduate school educated; but ultimately there was no room for growth and upward mobility. I loved the work, but the pay was paltry. For the price tag, the return on investment was incredible. After graduation I was employed as a software engineer at a start up, using a cutting edge tech stack, and doing exciting greenfield work in the data/media space. I've been employed now (at the same start up) for just over 18 months, and am loving it. The work is satisfying, the team is amazing, and knowledge that I'll have job security for as long as I want to work is amazing. Of course there were some small qualms with the program: the React/JS curriculum is a *tad* behind industry standards, and I wish the program was more like 12 months instead of 8. 8 is barely enough to get ur foot in the door (but obviously enough, since it worked for me.). But neither of those gripes would prevent me from encouraging others to join the Turing community.

So many reviews about things start out with "I was skeptical but....".  Well...  Well I was skeptical haha.  I was making 40k so spending 20k to gamble on this program was scary.  I did it, was lucky to have friends support me through it, and I made it.  Many days were spent coding/learning from 9am to 11pm.  But after the 7 months, I hit the job market aaaaand yeah it was hard finding a job.  It's true, not everyone out there wanted to hire a bootcamp person.  But I always felt supported by the Turing staff, and eventually got a job because of their internal alumni board.  It took 4 months of searching, but it worked out.  I'm making 80k now, and in a few years it'll be well in the six figures.  It was hard work, and this new job feels just the same amount of work, but I feel set up for success in a way I've never experienced before.  Oh and did I mention I met a few folks I consider now to be life-long friends?  I feel pretty lucky is all I'm saying.

I did not have a good experience at Turing. I went in with absolutely no experience in web development, and found the course to be extremely difficult with varying levels of instruction. There is a mandatory "pre-work" course that you have to pass to start the bootcamp - the instructors were excellent for this section and I was able to pass with no problem. Subjects covered in pre-work are Git, Github, the terminal, and some intro to Javascript. 
Once the actual program started, it was extremely fast paced, with lots of projects and exercises to do but not a lot of instruction on how to do them. In order to do the assignments and understand a lot of the classes, many students (myself included) watched a ton of YouTube coding tutorials. I also spent a lot of time pre-teaching myself the class (which they recommend doing) and with many of the instructors the class wasn't much more than reading through the lesson again, without any extra insight or instruction on the topic. 
There is also a poorly run career program that was a huge waste of time during the first few "mods" - students have to sit through a bored instructor reading through slides about how to put together a resume or sign up for some new job hunter app when what they should really be doing is practicing coding. For someone who was new to coding, but a fully grown adult with career experience, it was distracting and annoying to be sitting through classes about how to network when what would have been helpful is more classes about how use reduce. Oh, and by the way, they never did get around to actually teaching us how to use the reduce method.
The school pushes a liberal agenda, there are a few courses every mod to "gear up" on your knowledge about minorities/women in tech, white privilege etc.  This is not a bad thing in my opinion, but again it takes away from time that students could be practicing code or that the instructors could be teaching practical ways to solve coding problems. There is actually a question in the admission interview to gauge your political viewpoints - not sure what happens if you have more conservative beliefs. 
I was in the front-end program - the first mod is doing for loops and learning Classes in Javascript. There is one paired project and one group project, plus a few solo projects. The feedback for projects is incredibly varied, it really just depends on who is doing the grading.  There is also a ton of time spent in partner or group projects, and your time can easily get sucked up dealing with a chatty, lazy or needy partner since the partners are assigned randomly.  However, the grades you get on the projects seem to have no bearing on whether you continue on or not. Passing the final assessments is the only way to advance, but they aren't very clear on how they actually decide whether you passed the assessment or not. You can do really well on all the projects but if you fail the final assessment then they will not let you advance to the next mod. In my experience, especially in Mod 2, the final assessment difficultly is super varied and not a good indicator of a person's understanding of Javascript.  
My personal experience at Turing was that I did well in Mod 1, continued to do well on all the projects in Mod 2 but failed the final assessment and then had to repeat Mod 2. I found repeating to be a huge waste of my time and I withdrew from the program a little after halfway through the second time through Mod 2. There are plenty of people who have to repeat modules (you're allowed to repeat two modules but you can't repeat a module twice) but I didn't find the experience valuable.  The third mod would have been learning React and I think the last mod is collaborating with the back-end students for larger projects and focusing on the job search. Since I left halfway through I can't speak to the second half of the program, but I wish that there had been more focus on instructing students on problem solving and less on career/social issues. 

This is a great program! And let me tell you why...

1. The people. From the beginning you will notice that the people in this community are amazing! Instructors, faculty members and alum show a living embodiment of the care and compassion that sets Turing apart from other bootcamps. At Turing, you have the opportunity to try out the program in an event called Try Coding. Here you have instruction and introduction into the life of a Turing student before making the commitment to the program. What a great thing! There is time for questions from not only instructors, but also alumni. 

Then once you are in the program, the people in your cohort become your support system! I had the honor of having a great group of people that helped me along the way. We did all of our learning online, but I still feel a close bond to them! I know that we will continue to be friends well past our time at Turing.

The instructors are a great balance of knowledgeable and caring as well as, holding really high standards! I never felt like a question was too small. The instructors all seemed to enjoy questions and this created an environment that was so helpful and supportive. 

2. The curriculum. The curriculum is thoughtful and cohesive. It's like building a building. Start with a firm foundation of the basics, then build off of that. Not only does Turing give you a great technical education, but is also interested in giving you tools to find a job AND be a more empathetic employee once you do find a job. There is a whole Career Development team that helps you write resumes and cover letters, as well as, how to network and leverage your connections to help find a first job. I really appreciate from the beginning the emphasis put on thinking about how software developers can really impact the world around them. You aren't just writing code, you are impacting others... so, with that comes responsibility. Turing is really great about NOT forgetting that!

3. The legacy. As a bootcamp, Turing is a longer commitment of time, but its reputation is wonderful. Do yourself a favor and take advantage of the opportunity to be part of that legacy! This program doesn't just turn and burn their students. They are invested in the success of each person that becomes apart of the student body. You are WAY more than just a number on a spreadsheet somewhere. You are brave person, who decided to change the course of your life! You are seen like this by all the people at Turing!

So, even though it is demanding, it is well worth the work! What are you waiting for? Sign up for a Try Coding Event and see for yourself how Turing sets itself apart from any other bootcamp out there!

Turing was completely worth the risk and the expense, and one of the most meaningful experiences of my life.  I was in the Front-End program, but they taught the material so well that my skills ended up being pretty broadly applicable.  I have a purely Back-End job now at a B-corporation, and I feel like I get to do something I'm good at to make the world a better place.  The instructors are excellent, the class sizes are small, and it's easy to make friends with the other students in your cohort.

I started at Turing in June 2019. Financial services had been my career up to that point but I really felt like I had maximized my learning in that setting and wanted to solve problems on a larger scale. Just like you are doing now, I looked at reviews for Turing. I was immediately blown away by the positive response. Everyone spoke about the great community, the challenges, and their success stories. For me, I was most excited about the challenge and the opportunity to develop the “grit” Jeff described at our first group meeting. Turing gives you the choice of learning back end or front end, and I wish I had dived deeper into the differences because I think I would have chosen back end given the chance again. However The front end program gave me the opportunity to focus on JavaScript which is the most popular programming language, so I couldn’t go wrong. The program is split into four 6 week modules with the first 2 probably being the most difficult since you are ramping up from scratch. The support from your teammates, mentors, and upper level students is one of the keys at Turing..:all you have to do is ask.

Things to be ready for enrolling at Turing:
1) high pressure
2) little free time
3) small amount of direction which is the Turing way..you learn how to learn

Benefits ranked in my view
1) grit
2) friendships-the Turing community truly is amazing
3) a new career that so far has given me everything I hoped for-work/life balance, great teammates, and  fulfillment 

Turing took my life on a completely different course, and I could not be more grateful for the community, education, and experience. Not much else to say except I highly recommend it.

Turing, as a non-profit, is incredibly invested in their students. Their only currency is the reputation of their students, and so they work hard to make sure their students are well equipped to be successful on the job. I chose Turing because of it's commitment to inclusivity and the way that their work supports that mission. If you want to help make the tech industry more inclusive of all humans, Turing is the place for you.

It's been said before, but Turing will not just take your money, and push you through if you aren't ready. The fact that you need to demonstrate proficiency in order to move on to the next section of the curriculum is a huge strength of Turing. I believe this really sets you up to not just graduate but to get and hold a job.

Going to Turing is a serious decision. I would like to preface my review by saying that my experience in Turing was in some ways atypical because it took me longer and not everyone struggled as hard as I did. This is the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. The program took me a full year to complete. It’s hard for me to consolidate a year of my life into a short review but I will try to frame it with things I would have liked to know going into the program. 

The program is broken up into four, six-week modules. You can repeat any two modules one time. You can also do something called an audit while you’re in the program where you don’t pay for the module, you attend class but don’t have projects due. I repeated modules 1 & 2 and audited 3. You have to ask about them if you think you need to audit with in the first three weeks of a mod. Repeating mods lets you try the material again, but it’s hard when you have to adjust to a new cohort and adjustments to the curriculum are frequent. Even if you repeat a mod it will not be exactly the same.

Also, as someone who had never really coded before Turing, it was incredibly difficult to learn. I felt like my brain was getting hot-wired every day. I am a slower learner than some people and the incredibly fast pace of Turing was quite a challenge. One of my teachers told us in class that to be successful at Turing you need to be putting in around 70 hours a week. For the duration of Turing, it was my entire life. All of my highs came from my successes in school and my lows came from my failures. I didn’t see my friends or have a social life outside of school. I was on my laptop from the moment I woke up until before I went to bed. Turing enhanced my anxieties. The school now has a full-time counselor on site which I think is a great help. However, l recommend caution to people with learning difficulties and mental health issues as I saw those problems make otherwise bright students struggle harder or take them out of the program altogether. 

This program is also a financial commitment. 20,000 dollars was about my yearly income before I started Turing and I also paid another 5,000 to repeat courses. I did a Sallie Mae loan that I had to get a cosigner to take out. Repeating put more financial strain on my husband and I. I talked to Joanne, who recently left, about financial options and she was very kind and helpful. I ended up borrowing extra money from my parents and in-laws to make ends meet but I know that is a privilege that not everyone has. You have to consider how long you won’t have a job to help pay for living expenses including while you are in school and job hunting.

 I was fortunate enough to have the financial and emotional support of my family to get through. I also had an amazing mentor and I would recommend anyone who goes through the program to get a mentor. Ask about it; they have a list of former alumni who are available. All of the instructors I had at Turing were combinations of smart, tough and supportive. As someone who struggled, I found that keeping the lines of communication open while I was in their class was extremely important. I had frequent check-ins and meetings and I messaged them often about how I was doing. I also found it important to take poms (5 minute breaks every 25 minutes or so), eat meals, drink water and have a bedtime. This can be especially hard when it seems like a lot of your fellow students are talking about how late they stayed at school, how late they’d stayed up, how early they got up, when the last time they can remember eating or taking a break etc. It is essential that you take care of yourself during the program so you don’t crash and burn.

Graduating is not the end of your journey; you still have to job hunt. The school offers professional development while you're in school and job support after. The job support after graduation or “mod 5” consists of weekly check-ins with Kayt or another job mentor and Robyn who posts job opportunities and will refer you to companies she posts about. This process can take time. While a few lucky people got jobs before they were even done with school for a lot of people it is a multi-month process. For me, it was under three months but for others, it can be longer. The alumni network is invaluable and outreach is so important. 

There is no review I could write that could fully prepare anyone for the experience of being in Turing. It is hard, rewarding and like I’ve said, life-changing. For me this risk was high and the rewards were high. The results have been phenomenal, I have roughly tripled my annual income and I have an amazing job with supportive bosses. I would recommend this program with the caveat that it is not for everyone.

 

To say that Attending Turing was the best decision I ever made would be an understatement. Though I’ve just begun my career in tech, the juice was worth the squeeze, so to speak, just for the experience I had while actually attending the Turing School. I made friendships that will last the rest of my life and, perhaps more importantly, found the best version of myself amidst the stress and rigor that characterize this intensive program. I came from a completely non-technical academic background (BA in philosophy, Masters in Humanities) and former careers (small business owner, then public sector employee) so if I made it through Turing successfully, so can you! If this is any indication how much I loved this experience, I have a cohort(class) Turing tattoo, now. If you think you might like coding, sign up for a try coding session and give it a shot; it just might be the best decision you ever make. I know it was for me! 

I was originally scheduled to join the 1804 Cohort for the Front End Engineering program at Turing in April of 2018. Four days before I was supposed to start at Turing, out of nowhere, my employer at the time informed me that I would be unable to take the leave that I was anticipating to start at Turing as it put me in breach of contract. The staff at Turing was on a week-long leave and were not in the office. I reached out the following morning in a cold panic asking if it was too late to push back to the next cohort, and I was informed within minutes that it would be no problem. All I needed to do was call my lender who was handling my loan and sign a new contract with Turing and I was good-to-go.

I make a point of judging organizations by how well they react when things don't go according to plan, and the first time that happened at Turing, before I had even started attending, they were super-agile and able to adapt quickly to make things work for me. Massive respect to Joanne Liu and Erin Williams on this.

My experience at Turing was that it was probably the most difficult and intense thing I've done in my entire life. I attended from late June of 2018 until early January of 2019 as a part of the 1806 Front End Cohort. I regularly put in between 12 and 14 hours per-day, going from being a relative coding novice to completely confident in my job readiness as a front end engineer. I wrote, erased, and rewrote code challenges. I worked on projects during the daily bus ride from Thornton to Denver. I scrawled JavaScript on the shower door. I ate, drank, and slept it, and it was still really, really hard. If you are considering attending Turing, expect this level of commitment.

The instructors at Turing are world class. They were passionate, knowledgable, and 100%-dedicated to our success. They had just the right balance of guiding and letting us figure things out for ourselves. They stressed using resources like StackOverflow and really digging in and reading documentation. While the curriculum is not perfect, it is constantly under review and is being updated to both meet the evolving needs of the tech workplace and to change lesson/curriculum structure that can be improved.

By the end of the program, I could:

• Write semantic HTML and CSS with a strong understanding of industry standards for accessibility and responsive design
• Write JavaScript using ES5, 6, and 7 syntax and utilize array and object prototypes to manipulate data with confidence and ease
• Develop user interfaces using traditional HTML/CSS/JS file structure as well as with modern JavaScript frameworks such as React and Vue
• Use Redux and associated middleware like Thunk
• Build dedicated mobile applications in React Native
• Consume, manipulate, and display REST API data in my applications
• Build a REST API in Node utilizing Express and Knex
• Build, test, and deploy my own NPM packages
• Develop collaborative applications with small teams across the stack using pair programming and professional Git workflows including both merge and rebase
• Write unit test for both back end and front end applications using libraries and test suites like Mocha, Chai, Enzyme, and Jest

After graduation, it took me 53 days to find and accept a job offer. While my current position requires that I use a stack that I am not familiar with, I am finding that what I learned at Turing prepared me to adapt quickly on the job, to search for my own solutions first and ask for help second. I received my first paycheck yesterday, and it was double what I received as a fourteen-year veteran of public education as a music teacher. Turing literally changed the trajectory of my life. Attending was one of the best decisions I ever made.