Coder Camps

I came to Coder camps with zero previous programming experience, and after camp was over I feel confident in my programming skills. The instructors are amazing, and willing to help you with any problem or question you have. Coder camps is just like any other educational institution, you get out what you put in. Instead of leaving at 5 and going about the rest of my day, I stayed till 7 or 8 and then would go back to the apartment with other students and study and practice until atleast 12 every night.

I also had the opportunity to meet some really amazing people, that I still keep in touch with. I learned a lot from these people, and we all helped each other out on every project.

If you are someone who is on the fence about attending, I say go for it. just remember, you need to work hard and study, not just go to class and hang out after if you want to succeed.

I was skeptical that the online experience would live up to the in person reputation, but it turned out to be the best online education experience ever.  I have a BS that I earned from University of Pheonix online and I found that experience to be lack luster.

The real difference here was that the teachers and TAs are in the online session with you all day, every day.  You don't have class, then come back at a different time. They are there to walk you through every phase of the education process, step by step. ( Nick, you are legend, my man! )

Even though I had been a student in CS before coming to camp, this really solidified things for me and made me understand what it really means to be a great programmer.  So glad that I chose to take Coder Camps online, in spite of my bad experience with other online educational programs.

I was really down on my luck and couldn't find a job.  I had taken some computer classes in college, but then couldn't get the money together to finish, so I didn't think there were going to be options available to me so that I could become a programmer.

That's when I called and spoke with Coder Camps.  I told them about my story and how I was ready to change my life.  They listened.  In fact, the owner waved my down payment and extended my deferral just to make things easier on me.  It turned out that I didn't need it though, because I got hired with the City of Austin on the day that I graduated.

Jeremy and Nick were amazing instructors and there were never fewer than 5 TAs at any time.  I always felt that I had help when I needed it.

I have told all of my friends and family about this amazing place and I hope that they go too.

I hate to say anything bad about the school because it's on my resume, but I really hope that people don't spend their life savings at Coder Camps. If money is not an object AND you can only study in Houston AND are only interested in learning the .NET stack, then this might be the place for you. Otherwise, there are better places with a culture of excellence and where quality education (not profit) are the top priority with helping students gain employment as a close second.

The star instructors (Andrew and Alex) are no longer with the school. I believe the owner's 20-year-old nephew is now an instructor (no, he does not have professional programming experience). There is no employment assistance or interview training available.

I went to Coder Camps in May 2014 thru July 2014. It was one of the best learning experiences I have had to date. It was there that I not just learned to program, but I became a programmer. They teach you great skills that will help you learn any programming language or concept, not just specific ones they use. I would recommend anyone to Coder Camps that has a passion for coding, and wanting to accelerate or jumpstart their career. I had been coding for 9 months before I went,  and learned more in the first week than I did the prior nine months. Coder Camps is definitely a great program. Its totally worth it.

I attended Coder Camps last year. In my opinion it had a very fearful atmosphere where you didn't want to ask questions and didn't want to make a bad impression on the owner, lest he made a snap judgment about you. He also has you agree to never be affiliated with another bootcamp or competitor in the future, so it's Coder Camps or bust.

Be critical of their website, these phrases are quoted from the original site: --"You don't pay until you get hired" : Your credit card is charged after 90 days of completing camp regardless of whether you have a job yet.

--"Hire Percentage 100% within 90 days" : The 100% hiring rate is only true if it doesn't count anyone who got kicked out, removed, or not "qualified" to graduate. The owner can/will change your graduation status at any time after camp - so I must post anonymously. I don't know the actual graduation rate.

--"Average Graduate Annual Earnings $70k+" : This statistic doesn't include a median or mode, so who knows if this number is skewed. My experience didn't match this stat, but I could be wrong. The only thing I can figure is that later classes have done better, or many students don't count towards the average.

--Hiring day and hiring partners did not come through to help me find a job.

--I received no technical interview training / very little preparation for interviews. --I was taught by a real developer, but I know at least one of the teachers now was one of my classmates.

--There are no statistics available from Coder Camps that show success over a longer time following camp Students I studied with struggled along with me, and we tried to make the best of a bad situation. I got 3 weeks out of 9 total of active training, most were half days. Things may be better now, but the rest of the time there was very little help. It was up to us to seek help from the owner or an employee. It was up to us to work on a group project with little guidance, and a personal project, also with little help. The students helped each other learn the most in the end.

Look here for other experiences that aren't buried: Victor Hugo's answer to Coder Camps: What is the Coder Camps Web Development program in Houston, TX like?: http://qr.ae/K78U4 How I got kicked out of Codercamps: http://sprky.co/2014/05/14/cod...

Overall, Coder Camps was not what I expected. You may not have the same experience there. You can learn a lot of programming on your own. Don't be naive, ask a lot of questions before you come, and think twice before making such a large financial commitment to such a new bootcamp.

Where to begin...

Instructor quality is grossly exaggerated by admissions officers. As stated in other reviews, they literally employ other bootcamp graduatues that no only severely lack coding skills, but also lack the ability to teach. Additionally, Coder camps, has had difficulty retaining instructors for the duration of even one FULL cohort class. This speaks volumes about not only the instructors themselves, but the management that employs them. GARBAGE. 

The curriculum was so hilariously disorganized and haphazardly put together, that it was difficult not to feel sorry for the person who decided to put it together. From a chonological perspective, the curriculum was completely off base with how a beginner coder should be learning material. Additionally, half of the content was poorly written and grammatically incorrect. It's impossible that, whoever designed this curriculum, was not high as a kite while he/she assembled the course material. GARBAGE

Job Assistance? There was literally none. If you wanted, you could email some lady and have her peruse your linkedin and get some half-witted response that consisted of no substance. The Phoenix location in particular has literally done no networking with local businesses to establish relationships that their students could potentially use as job leads. Not a single person I know has recieved a job coming out of the Phoenix location. GARBAGE

CHALLENGE TIME: CODER CAMPS - I hope you respond to this post because I challenge you to release hiring statistics for your Phoenix cohorts. You advertise 90% hiring rates with average salaries of 70k. If you provide data that even remotely supports these claims (as several other bootcamps do) I will gladly delete this post. But you can't. LIES

Conclusively, Coder camps is a short term money scheme who's primary purpose is to scam a few hundred people of 12k dollars. Once people in the community catch on to this sheisty "bootcamp" they will no longer receive applicants. 

There's a reason they can't fill classroom sizes past 8 students, which is pathetic considering they will literally enroll any mongoloid that happens to wander into that building.  Coder camps doesn't care about it's students, so save your money and check out the plethora of other bootcamps that actually deliver on their claims. There are several opening very soon in the valley and many that you can attend remotely as well.