Dev Bootcamp

Dev Bootcamp is the best thing I have experienced.  The instructors know their stuff and it is sooo surprising what programming you can do in 9 weeks.  Not only do they teach you Ruby on Rails and Javascript, but they teach you learn to learn a language quick and the idea of a web application.  They care about good practice of a programmer, as well as how to not burn yourself out!  They take care of your bodhy with yoga, and your mind by teaching you EQ.  Not only did this program improve me as a programmer, but it has improved me as a person.  

Attending DBC in NYC was hands-down one of the greatest decisions I've ever made. I came from a Psychology and Administrative background with absolutely no previous programming experience (with the exception of a few Codecademy tutorials). It was an all-around positive experience as I not only gained technical skills in relation to web development, but moreover, I learned "how to learn" in order to be able to teach myself new technologies, frameworks, etc. as a new developer. Instructors, staff and fellow cohort mates/alumni treated me with the utmost respect and kindness at all times, and were more than willing to help whenever I felt stuck, confused, or discouraged. They also all made it such a fun experience - I have never felt so comfortable around a group of people in such a short time span.

Unexpectedly, I learned way more about myself as a person and gained friends that I will have for life. Every person in my life has noticed a difference in my attitude and demeanor as I have become so much more excited, happy, and ready to take on this new chapter.

Over All Experience

Best learning environment I’ve ever been a part of. I wish more of education were taught in this model- hands on, lightly guided and fast paced. You get to apply what you learned quickly. The culture of dev boot camp promotes cameraderie among the students and instructors. It rewards curiosity, hard work and persistence. I met a wonderful and diverse group of people here. They were and continue to be inspiring (in the lease cliche way possible).

Instructors

Instructors are very knowledgable, approachable and helpful. They never give you the answer- just ask a lot of questions about your process and thinking which helps you figure it out. Many of the instructors brought in their years of industry experience and excitement for new technology. I would have liked to be pushed harder.

It concerns me slightly that they will employ graduates of the program who have not had much experience with dev work outside of Dev Bootcamp. While it is valuable to have the support of people who have first hand experience as a DBC student, I think that someone with more experience is better equipped to push students out of the DBC comfort zone since they know what outside of DBC looks like. When I pay $12,000 I want my teachers to be seasoned and have given their lectures more than once. That being said, I found that the students turned instructors were competent when it came to assisting with the hands on exercises. I know that other boot camps also employ their old students.

Curriculum

I think it is relevant to compare the curriculum of a bootcamp to a CS program, because that may be who you are competing with for a job. (but a lot of people out there are self taught or went to another bootcamp). Dev Bootcamp is strictly a Web Development shop. It is not a computer science degree or its equivalent. you do not learn mobile development. You learn Ruby, Javascript, and SQL (plus HTML and CSS). Except for SQL, These are all scripting languages. The great thing about this curriculum is that they give you all the components necessary to hack together a fully functioning website. Really, that’s all you need to get started in web development. And they write the curriculum to prove to you that you can make real things. You build StackOverflow and Craigslist as projects.

When you graduate, you are most likely going to be ready for a QA role or something on the front end. You probably won’t do much on the backend because companies prefer to hire candidates with Data Structures and Algorithms experience/course work for that. You do not learn Data Structures or Algorithms. You will know what an Array and Hash are- you will need to study anything else.

A really big part of DBC’s philosophy is to reveal your ignorance. Never be afraid of what you don’t know, pursue it. Ask questions. I like that philosophy.

Job Assistance

Helpful. VERY helpful. They went above and beyond what I had expected.

They aren’t going to apply for you- but they give you the tools you need. There is a 1 week course at the end that kick starts your job search. You have LinkedIn and Resume reviews, brush up your portfolio and learn to stalk the hell out of potential leads.

They also give great tips on how to keep organized and motivated. The motivated part is super important because job hunting burns you out. All their resources are available to you and you can walk up to anyone and ask if they would be comfortable giving you an email intro (maybe even a recommendation).

I have absolutely no regrets about my decision to walk away from my previous career, plunk down a ton of money, and take this giant risk.

I'm sure you've read all about the fast-pace and the short time-frame and the long days, so let me tell you about stuff you may not have read:
 

-You should be on board with Engineering Empathy. The people who got the most out of the program were the people who were willing to be open. Read up on it, ask questions about it, and ask yourself if you can engage in uncomfortable self-reflection and open discussions that will make you a better person and a better team member. If you're looking to focus on code and code alone, this probably isn't the place you will be happiest, and that's okay. I was drawn to DBC because of their emphasis on you as a whole person, not just as a programmer, but it's not for everyone.

-DBC accepts beginners - I was one of them - but the best thing you can do for yourself is to be as prepared as possible going into Phase 0. It was hard for me to get through Phase 0 and I didn't work during those first 9 weeks. Give yourself some runway and choose a start date that allows you enough time to really work through some tutorials and have a good foundation. The stronger you are going into Phase 0, the stronger you'll be going into Phase 1, and then you won't be spending precious mental energy trying to grasp the basics during fast-paced days - you can be reaching further into the curriculum.

-You're going to graduate with a lot of new skills, and you're going to need to keep working on them while you job hunt. Depending on how strong you are going into the program, you may feel confident enough when you graduate to go out and interview immediately. I gave myself some time after graduation to do a deeper dive into Rails and JavaScript now that I had the time to learn at a slower pace. Don't expect to graduate and land a job immediately - it happens, but it's more likely that it'll take 1-3 months, and during that time you need to be focusing on learning as well as applying for jobs.

-DBC is great at taking feedback, and the curriculum and overall experience is constantly changing. Get in touch with them and ask to speak to a recent alum rather than relying on internet searches. The phase 1 curriculum is a lot different than when I had it - I'm jealous of the students now. My only real criticism is that I wish we had even more exposure to JavaScript and algorithms, but that's based on my own experience and they've added more in since I graduated. There's a cool 'spike day' in Phase 3 when you get to pick any framework you want to practice with. All of these changes took place since I graduated in December 2014, so the staff is constantly working to improve the experience based on your feedback and their critical review of content.

-The Careers team is really awesome. No, they don't guarantee you jobs, but I would receive emails about job opportunities that companies had reached out to DBC to promote, and the job I have now is as a result of a referral from someone reaching out to the Careers team. DBC has relationships with "Employer Partners" but it seems to me that the majority of people getting jobs did so through their own searching vs those relationships. Shar'nee, the Career Coach, is really awesome about staying in touch, giving you advice, and helping you retool your resume and your approach to job hunting. Career Week itself is pretty invaluable for getting you started. Bonus: DBC is really welcoming of having alumni back in the space to work on projects and job hunting after graduation.

I would do it all again in a heartbeat. Good luck!

DBC gives you the skill that you need to succeed in the Tech industry.  There is an emphasis on Social Learning and self-discovery, you will not only learn how to program but, you will learn how to interact and adapt to your surroundings quickly.

Curriculum: Primarily Ruby, Rails, and some Javascript.  I think they are currently trying to change this, to be something more modern.  They do encourage you to look at anything that you find interesting.

Instructors:  The instructors are very knowledgeable and are always willing to lend a hand when needed. They also have a Coaches who are their daily to help you along your journey (they are invaluable)

Job Assistance:  They have a career coach on staff; their primary job is helping you find a job.

Overall Experience: I loved it, it was the best fit for my personality, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone!

If you're looking for a bootcamp, I would highly recommend DevBootcamp for a few reasons. I loved the focus on  empathetic engineering, pair program, best Object Oriented practices and TDD. They are constantly changing and adapting the program to make it better. If you do go to DBC, you'll have to be prepared to be adaptable yourself, because it's a pretty agile/ever-changing environment. Other than that it by far the best investment of you time and money for your Developer career.

If you're looking for a bootcamp, I would highly recommend DevBootcamp for a few reasons. I loved the focus on  empathetic engineering, pair program, best Object Oriented practices and TDD. They are constantly changing and adapting the program to make it better. If you do go to DBC, you'll have to be prepared to be adaptable yourself, because it's a pretty agile/ever-changing environment. Other than that it by far the best investment of you time and money for your Developer career.

Dev Bootcamp changed my life. I had previously worked in the finance and banking industry for seven years before I grew tired and needed a change. I am now gainfully employed as a junior developer in the Chicago area and am, for the first time in my life, happy with my job, where I work, and the people I work with.

Do not attend Dev Bootcamp unless you are willing to put in 100%. I believe that anyone who attends and gives it their all will get what they desire out of the program. The only people I know of who had unsatisfactory results (and they are few) were those who barely tried and complained the whole way through.

DBC is truly a life-changing experience. The staff has worked hard to develop a program that teaches technical skills and also emphasizes increasingly necessary "soft skills" like effective teamwork, feedback, and self-awareness. I chose to attend DBC over other bootcamps because it's been around the longest and I consider things like engineering empathy to be signs that a curriculum has evolved beyond the basics, and I was not disappointed.

In addition to getting a good start as a developer, I think I've also made some lifelong friends from DBC. The Chicago campus has a very friendly midwestern vibe and the atmosphere is extremely supportive rather than competitive. The kind of people that are attracted to this program are mostly smart and ambitious, but come from varied educational and professional backgrounds; I think this made it interesting to get to know everyone.

Curriculum

The curriculum is a very thorough overview of ruby and rails (i.e. explains the concepts in depth and teaches from the bottom up), but I think many people leave without a great understanding of more classical computer science concepts because they're not covered deeply and many may not have natural interest. I think DBC could do a better job of either teaching or recommending resources on topics like algorithms, managing computing resources, etc.

Instructors

I found everyone I worked with to be intelligent and helpful - particularly during final projects, the instructors all get very excited and were extremely willing to offer help in whatever field they had expertise. I think instructors can vary somewhat in how much they "coddle" their cohort - generally it seems people learn more when they have an instructor that emphasizes self-learning instead of providing answers quickly.

Job Assistance

The career team at DBC Chicago is stellar. They ran a week-long career counseling event after graduation to help us with our online presence and resumes. We also received helpful instructions and practice (not to mention great discussions) on how to best network to find opportunities. Beyond this week, the career team was committed to continuing to help graduates with interviews and deciding whether offers are good.

DBC not only teached you how to code, but also how to think, approach, and solve problems while communicating and working with team members as efficiently and pleastantly as possible. At the end of the day, software engineering is a team effort on many different levels.

Most importantly, in the world of computer science where things evolve and update constantly, the most valuable skill I picked up from DBC is how to learn quickly and have the confidence and the drive to accomplish tasks my rational mind thought were impossible. It's absolutely a very empowering experience that I'd highly recommend anyone to attend.