The Best St. Louis Coding Bootcamps Of 2024

I attended and graduated from the 24 week Cybersecurity Cohort.  The program gets it right, and it is probably better than some of the degree programs I had looked into through the local universities.  I am in an IT group on Facebook and a lot of the members stated that the curriculum they get through their degree programs doesn't prepare them because they don't extensively get to participate in hands on labs.  The instructors are real world experienced individuals at Claim Academy, and are very knowledgeable.  They are truly invested in the success of the students.  I have recommended the program to so many of my friends.

From the moment I started at SavvyCoders Fullstack Bootcamp, I knew I was embarking on a life-changing journey. The curriculum is incredibly well-structured, providing a comprehensive understanding of both frontend and backend development. The instructors are knowledgeable and genuinely invested in the success of each student, always available to provide support and guidance.

The hands-on approach to learning meant that I was able to work on real-world projects, which not only enhanced my understanding but also gave me a portfolio to showcase to potential employers. The collaborative environment fostered by the bootcamp encouraged teamwork and networking, which is invaluable in the tech industry.

I give my full endorsement to the Washington University Full Stack Development Boot Camp. My only regret is not taking advantage of it sooner, and if you're reading this, hopefully you won't wait as long as I did.

I spent 15 years in my first career, a full-time Middle School English teacher, but despite the time and commitment I was putting into my job, I rarely felt like my compensation matched the effort I put in to my job, but teaching was such a specialized field and when I thought about leaving, I always assumed I would need to spend lots of time and money if I ever wanted to change careers, so I habitually talked myself out of it. Finally, my wife and I reached a point where we realized that we would need some expensive medical help to expand our family through IVF and no teaching jobs where we were located in St. Louis offered insurance coverage for those procedures...I needed a change of career to a field that would support me and my family through this need, and that's what finally pushed me into looking for a change. After interviewing and researching multiple options, I ultimately settled on the Full Stack Coding Bootcamp through Washington University- St. Louis, and boy am I glad I did.

The program appealed to me in a wide-variety of ways. The most convincing aspect of this boot camp was absolutely the program's unique appeal to old-school and new-school methods of thought alike. In a six-month intensive boot camp, I would be exposed to the most up-to-date and groundbreaking technology and languages (sometimes these can go out of date/style during a 4-6 year degree path) while also having the prestige that a well-regarded University like WashU provided in the eyes of more traditional hiring entities. In reviewing upwards of 15 programs, this was a unique combination that was truly only offered by one place.

When the program began, I was worried because so many of the members of my cohort were younger or had done coursework to prep them for this class while I was coming in totally fresh. I quickly learned that the program adapts to fit the unique needs and personalities of the members within it. I cannot say enough kind things about my teacher, Tom, and my TA, Matt, both of whom took the time after their own full-time day jobs in the tech field to give us experienced, competent, flexible, and confident guidance throughout our course. More importantly, as a teacher in my "past life", I was impressed with the instructional style the program offered. The teacher and TA would provide instruction and demonstration of a skill, and then, in a breakout room with one or more peers, I would work through a coding activity with my peers that required the skill just reviewed as a class. This format gave me the support needed on activities that I found particularly difficult as well as the freedom to learn hands-on and "figure it out" when going through the activities with my classmates. Even if my classmates and I couldn't figure something out, our teacher and TA were constantly floating from breakout room to breakout room to ensure support was provided to those who needed it when they needed it.

I also really loved the challenges and group projects. With each weekly challenge, I found myself building full stack applications that could do things I only dreamed about designing before this program. The inclusion of three major group projects similarly allowed me to learn what it would be like to work collaboratively on a development project and truly prepared me for my career. More than that, I got an opportunity to work closely with a lot of people from different backgrounds than my own, many of whom have become valuable resources and close confidants during the boot camp process.

Halfway through my boot camp journey, I began applying to jobs and sending out my resume thanks in part to encouragement from my teacher and TA, who told me it was never too early to start getting technical interview experience. I was lucky to get a couple of interviews and actually got offered a job as a Site Reliability Engineer at Mastercard while my boot camp was still going on! Suddenly, I was making twice what I made as a teacher, working a hybrid position that gave me more time at home, and getting the necessary insurance coverage I needed so my wife and I could grow our family. I was making my dreams come true, and this boot camp had so much to do with that.

I am fully satisfied with my experience, and rather than pivoting away from boot camp and focusing on my new job, I've made the decision to commit myself fully to doing both for the remainder of the boot camp because of how valuable I found the content of the course leading up to my eventual hiring. Advice that I would offer to those considering this program is to do whatever it takes to get yourself enrolled. Make the leap of faith, block out the time in your life, let your support system know you're going to need them pushing you and keeping you motivated for the next half year and SIGN UP. For those who have already taken the leap, my advice would be that you get out what you put into this program, so don't try to skate by and work through the program with as little interaction with your instructors and peers as possible. The people who thrived in my cohort were the ones who talked during breakout sessions, who asked questions when reviewing concepts, who showed up to office hours before and after class each night, and who took advantage of the numerous resources offered by the program's strong support structure. I'll say it again (and a million times if one more person out there hears me): this program helped my change my life and that of my family. I am eternally grateful and can't say enough good things about it.

I started LC101 in October 2018 and was placed in an apprenticeship as a full stack developer on the last day of September, 2019. After the 6 month apprenticeship I was hired as a full stack developer.

LC101 met 3 hours, 2 days per week for 6 months but required 15 hours or more work outside of class to keep up with the workload. After LC101 I attended Liftoff, a 2 month LaunchCode program to get you ready for interviews, help with building a portfolio and a resume. After Liftoff, I was accepted into the apprenticeship program. LaunchCode got me 2 interviews and on the second, I was hired as a LaunchCode contractor. At the end of 6 months, I was hired as a software developer.

I think that the main takeaway is that this program works but you have to be ready to put in the work if you want results.

My choice of Beetroot Academy can be considered a combination of external factors and a comparison of conditions with courses from other schools that I considered. And as it can be understood, this comparison was in favor of Beetroot Academy. But let's go through it all step by step.
At first, I chose another school, but I encountered a bad sales manager who initially promised to meet me regarding the cost of the course, as at that time I couldn't afford to pay for the course in one payment. And then he even suggested taking a loan to pay for the course. Since the characteristics of IT courses concern only the teacher, the program, and the final results, and sales managers are not related to this, I will skip the name of the school.

So when this option fell through, I started looking further, and I preferred Beetroot Academy precisely over Projector due to the following factors:

Moments that I liked on the course:

Moments that I didn't like on the course:

I can say that the course completely met my expectations, even despite minor negative moments. As a result, I implemented the final project of this kind: a Telegram bot, to which I connected artificial intelligence (open-source LLM) and implemented the ability to communicate with it (ask questions and get answers) exclusively using voice messages.

Centriq Cybersecurity boot camp will teach you how to build and configure virtual machines, analyze security protocols, device security and management. You will use real life scenarios to complete projects. The school will work with you from anywhere to ensure you achieve your dream career in IT. I will recommend Centriq to anyone who is starting with little or no knowledge in IT.