Coding House

I was in last ever coding house cohort. It's too bad coding house went belly up. Because it could have really help change a lot of people's lives. It changed mine, I received a job offer before the cohort had ended. I take home roughly $12,000 a month, idk what that is a year, I'm not that good at math. I work my butt off though, overtime and everything. But it's completely up to you on your success. I believe true success from these bootcamps come to people who prepare like their life depended on it. If you prepare before the cohort very well, as in very well I mean go above and beyond the requirements they tell you what you need to know. If you do it right, your experience during will be much more enjoyable and the speed you excel at will be far beyond what you thought was possible for yourself. It's honestly an insane experience to sleep, eat, and breath code. It's all you think it about, and also dream about. I'm not some code nerd, that looks up every function for every library. But I'm not a afraid to test things out, see what it's capable of. That's all it really comes down to, your ability to understand why or why not something works the way it does. It's nice to join a bootcamp because it gives you direction if you aren't completely sure on how to learn yourself. Honestly, the most valuable part of Coding House, I believe is the ability to work with people(awesome people) learning the same things you are. Analyzing the different ways your classmates do things is absolutely crucial in getting better. That being said, coding house was an amazing environment to learn and I wouldn't have gone to Hack Reactor or any of those other camps, which I had the choice. But the live-in situation is truly an amazing concept. I believe anyone that had a "bad" experience at coding house did not "prepare" enough. I'm not saying it's easy, but preparation makes it easier.

Since graduating codinghouse I have realized what a promising career I am in for... e-trade offered me 103k + great benefits, ponopto offered me 40-45 an hour to start which i sort of put on the backburner until I found out more about e-trade... I pretty much focused all of my attention on e-trade for the last 5-6 weeks, building applications for them, having interviews, making presentations.....basically everything I could do to have them create a position for me.... You once told us about the guy who called you every day until you gave him a position....I decided to be that guy...and it paid off...So I know you are a man who appreciates the long shot and the dedication/execution of a vision that is valuable for both sides..... and I know it can be worth while for both sides and worth a try.... this being said, I'd like to make a bold but reasonable offer that could contain great intrinsic value for both of us: PROPOSITION: What I'd like to offer coding house is 70 hours per month of my time as a part time developer/instructor for the rate of 23 an hour plus a bed (see proposition details at the end of the email).....This is well below my worth, BUT it still could be worth it.... INTERESTED? HERE'S WHAT IT COULD LOOK LIKE: This could include 16-20+ hours per month of teaching an advanced node/advanced angular/d3.js data stack that I pitched you before (pending a test teaching session to see how your class responds to my teaching)...I have been teaching a lot of Javascript since I've been in Seattle and have found that I really love it and am pretty good at it! We both know I am not a great communicator in interviews, but when I am teaching Javascript, my nervousness really disappears quickly and I am able to teach with great passion and enthusiasm, and have a great sense of when students need clarification or want to move faster, a lot of this spills over from my experiences as an options trading coach.... I could really help fill in a lot of the gaps you guys may have anywhere in your staff! I could prepare an extremely rich d3/data science curriculum, and trust me, people LOVE D3 when they learn it..... it is an extremely satisfying library to learn that takes years to master, but really sucks you in... ask Patrick or AJ!!!...But this would be a great thing to do 2-3 saturdays per cohort, as 8 hours of d3 work really zips by and is EXTREMELY FUN when taught right, and would be the perfect, yet valuable change of pace for 2-3 saturdays per cohort! The remaining 54-50 hours of my time per month could be spent doing whatever intense, high quality dev-work or instruction you need done (about 13-14 hours worth per week which would be very manageable for me)...I can work on apps, data visualizations, anything you can dream of!....Imagine if you had a high quality floater/developer to do whatever you need done over the next year as you scale! One that you would be getting at almost 1/3 salary! Now that sounds like a deal!! :) HOW YOU GET MY SERVICES/KNOWLEDGE/DRIVE FOR 23 AN HOUR: I would love to arrange a 1 year contract with 2 weeks off (where I work 5 hours during those weeks still), where I work for you for ~23.80 an hour/70 hours per month/ 12 months......in exchange for us being even on my tuition (I owe you guys slightly over 12k at this point), 8000 cash up front (under the table hopefully), and a free bunk-bed for the next year.. I know this is extremely bold, and you may laugh and say HECK NO...but it's worth a shot, I thought maybe you could find value in a really solid developer for 23 or so an hour, on deck for the next year....I could really use the cash and instructor title on my resume... I also know you will do the math...and when you do, you will see that at 70 hours per month, we are talking about 840 man-hours over the year, which even at 35 an hour, would cost you just under 30k..... I'm offering this for 8000 cash up front and ~12.3k in tuition....So all in all you would be getting me for around 23.80 an hour all said in done (20,000 / 840 devhours)... Anyways, let me know if you could be interested in a conversation...I know you are a man who likes interesting proposition.. I think a good first place to start would be putting me in front of a class for a saturday a few weeks from now...If halfway through the day, you can tell they hate it, pull me, if they like it, let me finish the day... and at the end of the day, if d3 isn't one of their favorite things about Javascript, don't offer me a contract.... but if at the end of the day they love d3 and understand javascript in a much deeper manner, perhaps you should consider the proposition! Thanks for reading this and considering!

First off, let's get one thing out of the way - we all knew something was off when we first joined. When we joined, there was a big absence of the senior cohort (Coding House's program was advertised as using "phase 2" students to mentor "phase 1" students. But all of the students in the phase ahead of us packed up their bags and left, with the exception of 1. We knew it had to do with their disatisfaction with the program and their frustrations with owner Nick James and teacher C.N., but it was definitely a weird vibe from the get go. We tried to figure out what was going on, because basically we were seeing a lot of problems  - the lead instructor (and only instructor after the main instructor left abruptly) didn't know much reactjs at all, and seemed very defensive and argumentative with students asking good questions. 

Then an eviction note was posted on the door and we realized that a full month ago, Coding House had been ordered to vacate the premises by the landlord it was renting from or the HOA in pleasanton. We felt like we were living illegally in an environment where we had to hide. We couldn't have cars at Coding House and we had to keep blinds closed and sign an agreement essentially saying we wouldn't venture outside more than necessary, and we'd not use the neighborhood facilities like parks, bike paths, and so on. 

It was weird, but look, I came here to code. I could give a damn about all that, I just wanted to know the truth and make sure that I wasn't going to be out 18k dollars because the program got shut down halfway through. So I talked to Nick James and that's where the real problems started. He was very condescending, dismissive, and was saying things I knew were untrue, as I had been doing research online. This is my main beef with coding house - the lies and condescending treatment of adults who paid for your product. 

Then it gets worse. We find out that Coding House has been mandated to shut down since 2015 by the CA government. We call the BPPE (bureau for postsecondary education) and they confirm that Coding House was ordered to cease and desist all activity and refund current and past students. 

When I talked to Nick about this, his answer was they were pending approval. Which is again a lie - they were denied approval and ordered to shut down. They had a responsibility to inform current and prospective students, and they did not inform us. I tell him this and he adds "pending approval to operate" to a tiny font in the legalese under "terms of service", a small hidden button on the CH website. That seems really dishonest - if you read the judgment against Coding House and the CA law regarding BPPE denial to operate, Coding House is required by law to inform students if they are A) pending approval and B) denied approval and C) appealing a denial. So even if Nick James is argument is "yeah we were denied approval to operate but we are allowed to appeal, so we technically can still operate for the time being" - he is required to tell students (current and would-be students) that CH is not approved to operate at present time. Not "pending approval" because they aren't pending approval, they are denied. They appealed the denial, and were rejected and told to disconnect their phone lines, refund students, and cease all forms of operation.

I guess they can appeal these citations and basically elongate the process further, but it's clear that they are operating illegally and thus we are paying our money into an illegal operation. 

I am a pretty reasonable person - I wanted to like CH. I made more sacrifices than a lot of people to be here. This is not a commitment I took lightly. I chose CH and that choice meant not doing any of the 10 other legit, approved bootcamps with solid, proven instructors. 

Which brings me to gripe #2. After a few weeks, the instruction kind of... fell off. It was clear we reached the end of the rope of what lead instructor C.N. knows. And I mean, honestly, I don't blame him, he's a nice guy, he's just a fairly recent (less than 1 year) grad of CH himself. I don't think you need to be a CS professor or a facebook engineer to teach people react, javascript, mongodb etc etc... but you at least need experience that doesn't come straight from the same institution. In fact, all of the instruction comes FROM CH-BRED PEOPLE. 

Instuctor 1 and 2 (2 left abruptly and has not been replaced, apparently 2 had a lot of student complaints) were both liberal arts background people who instructed directly after Coding House graduation. AKA no field experience. 

TA 1 and 2... both CH students who stayed on after graduation because they couldn't find a job and CH offered them housing in exchange for a 50 hr work week. TA #1 just left abruptly this week too. I don't blame the TAs, I mean, look, I consider myself a strong coder, but I sure as hell wouldn't say I'm qualified to teach MERN stack after FOURTEEN WEEKS experience. This whole thing just seems cheap, like Coding House doesnt want to pay to hire talented, non-CH grad instructors. It's weirdly incestuous - the teachers are basically students themselves, living in the house and drinking / smoking weed too, and again, I am not a prude and I don't really give a shit, but when you're charging 18-22k, I want to see experts. Professionals who show up to class on time, who have worked in the tech industry, who focus on educating us rather than being our "bro" or "pal". 

Something very fishy is going on here. It's not right how the TAs are treated (paid no wage, but given cramped housing quarters in exchange for 50 hrs a week). These guys paid for CH and incurred a debt, and now they can't get jobs because of the program had all kinds of problems (read the BPPE articles), and so now CH is saying "pay your debt by working for us and if we have a falling out, we evict you and charge you." That isn't healthy. 

 

Something fishy is going on with their legality and their residence - if you do the research, you'll see they've been kicked out by city and by individual landlords for continuously running their business in residential areas without permits. 

They are not informing students about their denied approval to operate, even when they have been clearly mandated to by CA law. 

Nick James talks around these issues and pretends to be friendly and care about your experience at CH, but as soon as you start asking questions, he's talking about how you might not be a culture fit for CH and maybe he'll have to draw up the exit paperwork. And should you share any of this information with other students, you'll be in violation of the clauses in your contract and could face legal action. 

All in all though, I really am not a stickler for rules. I could forgive all this and give them a 4 or so if they just had GOOD INSTRUCTORS. I paid 18k, and I'm going to only get 1 student-instructor and 1 lead instructor with under 1 year experience teaching any kind of coding, and less than 3 months experience with React?

Really?

I want to see the silver lining here, and I guess that silver lining here is that I made great friends here. Bullshit does kind of bind you all together. But the truth is, this program is honestly scaring me. I don't really feel comfortable in the house - the police have shown up twice this cohort and it's just a tense, uncomfortable environment. People are dropping left and right - including instructor and TA - and it's just not working for me.

 

I'm looking through linkedin and I see hordes of people with CH on their resume, and very, very few who were ever employed in any kind of web dev capacity. And then I look online and I see the Bureau proved that CH was fabricating it's "95% of our graduates find jobs" statistics by a huge magnitude. CH was proven to be fabricating many of the "this is where our graduates work" companies. 

The more you look, the more smoke and mirrors you see. 

I wish I could say this recent cohort was better than previous cohorts and that it looked like some of the problems outlined in earlier reviews had been corrected. Unfortunately, they haven't. 

I do not want to tell anyone what to do. I am risking legal action by posting this and I know Nick James has a history of trying to sue and legally stifle any students who post about CH in a critical light. I do however believe that nothing is more important than letting people make an educated choice about their decisions. If you read all of these reviews and read the citations by the CA government, read all 24 counts of denial in this statement.... and you STILL want to attend Coding House, do it. Best of luck to you and I honestly hope you succeed. I want CH to improve and be a better program - I just think that it's an issue of informed consent. When you sign all the legalese chaining you to Coding House, you deserve to know the real, growing problems with the program. 

 

 http://www.bppe.ca.gov/enforcement/actions/cit_1617026.pdf

 

Pending administrative hearing and Statement of Issues:

http://www.bppe.ca.gov/enforcement/actions/cit-1000841_110416.pdf

 

 

 

These documents capture real reviews of Coding House, courtesy of the 

 BUREAU FOR PRIVATE POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION STATE OF CALIFORNIA  

Fined $50k for operating illegally, and forced to refund students money.  http://www.bppe.ca.gov/enforcement/actions/cit_1617026.pdf

 

Pending administrative hearing:

http://www.bppe.ca.gov/enforcement/actions/cit-1000841_110416.pdf

Fingers crossed this place is shutdown for good.

Pros:

- Classmates where amazing and I love them. A great bond is created.

- Great monitors.

Cons:

- Lies about curriculum, lies about instructors experience (great guys).

- People get charged different amounts for education, unethical.

- No job assistance, no partnerships (all lies).

- Everyone feels cheated.

- Cramped space

- Lack of communication.

- Physical threats by members of the staff, I even saved the email he sent the next day.

Someone made a staff member ("Mario") upset by leaving a note, with a silly message. Mario proceed to threaten each student and left the house. Another staff member ("Sarah") defended him in an email, he wrote this email the next day:

My apologies for Sarah’s email yesterday. I don’t recall  asking her to write it. Although I appreciate her support I don’t need a girl’s help to defend myself.   So, since you had the gall to write that note and I am so pissed-off by it. Help me channel my anger and frustration.    I’m inviting you to come forward and identify yourself. Let’s duke it out away from coding house—there’s a soccer field on Mission Blvd  where we can do this  (next to Mission San Jose HS)   Of course Im only challenging the men here.   Full body contact, no hitting from the neck up.   Please don’t chicken out. Im a small,  5’4, 130 lbs.    Im waiting for your reply.    A screenshot of the email => http://imgur.com/a/PCt2r   What happened next? No apologies, no sanctions for threating the students. Mario just kept on working. This is completetly unacceptable. 

I attended Coding House in February 2016 and can confirm everything Nicolas D states in his review below. Illegal housing operation, amateur instruction from lead instructors with less than 1 year (or even 6 months) with the frameworks being taught... everything in that review is sadly true. I took months of work as well as a scholarship to a real top grade bootcamp after Coding House to land a job - Coding House is basically a 20k cost program that offers instructors less qualified than the "C" tier bootcamps like General Assembly. Look at the linkedin of CH instructors and the instructors of ANY other bootcamp if you don't believe me. I felt confident going in because I had spoken to Samer Buna, a very strong instructor with solid experience, as part of my technical interview process. What Coding House didn't tell us was that he had left mid cohort and instead our lead instructor was going to be a "student-instructor" with zero teaching experience. 

This has been a major setback and the bottom line is that I did not receive what I paid for. When trying to address concerns with CEO Nick James, our cohort was drowned in legalese and attempts to silence students from reviewing the program online. 

Illegal Contracts
Given issues like these, you may wonder why there aren't more negative reviews of Coding House online, or why most people who do leave bad reviews do so anonymously. I believe it's because many of the contracts people sign with Coding House have a non-disparagement clause in them, which states that the student is prohibited from writing negative reviews. My contract doesn't have one, but I know several students who left early and had to sign such a contract in order to get a partial or complete refund. Nick has also threatened to sue people who wrote negative reviews in the past, including this one.

The problem is that non-disparagement clauses are illegal in the state of California according to Civil Code 1670.8 (popularly known as the "Yelp Bill"). The law specifies penalties of $2,500 for the first offense, $5,000 for additional offenses, and $10,000 for willful, intentional, or reckless violations—meaning a class-action suit could get very expensive for Coding House.

Customers have the right to describe negative experiences without being penalized. Coding House's attempts to shut down criticism through intimidation are not only illegal, but also unethical.

I don't want to dissuade anyone from getting into web development. I wasted a very sizable sum of money and time on Coding House, and after doing a better bootcamp - I won't name names, but I will advise you to READ REVIEWS EXHAUSTIVELY online - it really becomes apparent how poor Coding House's instruction. I could get over the legality of the housing, the cramped quarters, the dishonesty, the misleading marketing, the frankly rude behavior of CH staff etc if they just had the decency to offer good instruction. Sadly, they do not. I can confirm that Nicolas D's review barely even scratches the surface. 

PS - if you do want to attend Coding House, I strongly suggest at least messaging past students on linkedin and hearing real feedback. Much of the reviews posted online are traded for discounts or by student TAs who are given housing and food in exchange for teaching - so there's a clear vested interest. Seek out REAL opinions on Coding House if you wish to attend. 

 

As a recently graduated student, I'd say my experience has been neutral with Coding House. It's a space where you can learn and will be left to your own devices a lot of the time, and while the instructors are nice, I wouldn't say they are experts by any stretch of the imagination. The living situation was pretty cramped and definitely had some issues, but I will give CH an overall satisfactory rating because they did provide a house, and I did spend a lot of time coding. 

While no program is perfect, and Coding House certainly has many areas in which it can improve, I found the program to be decent. Instruction during the first seven weeks was enthusiastic, but delivered by a teacher with very limited coding experience, particularly with React.js. Instruction during the second half of the program is scarce, and the majority of the day will be spent basically living in the house and coding either on your own or with your team members. I recommend this program, but with reservations - do your research and dig deep to make sure that you are a good fit for the program. 

Scammy.

I graduated from CH this year. Most of what Anonymous said on 3/12/2016 is true. Not a single person teaching or running this program has worked a single day in the industry. All the partnerships they claim to have mean nothing more than they shook the hand of someone at a tech meetup. 

In my cohort, we had one on-site visit and three tech professionals come do workshops. We also had a Computer Science major talk to us, mostly consisting of him asking the instructors "What are you teaching these people?" when we couldn't answer his questions.

There is no head hunter, no job training, nothing is taught about production (only developing). Even Perrin Clarke (who wrote the article at the bottom here) had to quit CH after working 4 weeks without pay. This place is run being run into the ground by lawsuits and the food, cirriculum, and even housing are going down in quality as a result. They lie about most things, including how many seats are available for cohorts on their website. The slimy CEO will do what it takes to get his money. I owe this place thousands now and have very little to show for it. Please look elsewhere.