Montana Code School

At the time that I found the Montana Code School, I was looking for a total career change. The code school allowed me to totally submerge myself into web development, without the commitment of returning to a 2 or 4 year program. You are taught the leading industry technologies, along with Agile and Lean programming methodologies.    

I successfully learned the essential fundamentals of program development to propel me into the technology sector. This program assists it's students with career placement post graduation via their network of local employers; as well as, providing the proper tools to set yourself up for success with career counseling services.

You also have ample opportunities to attend local networking socials & technology related events in your community. I would highly recommend this course for anyone looking to try something new and challenging.  Be ready to learn, it will be coming at you fast! 

Within 30 days of graduating from Montana Code School, I landed a job working locally in Bozeman on the website of a national retailer.

Montana Code School prepped me for real-life experience in the job market.  When I interviewed, the Lead Developer was impressed with my knowledge of the full stack stating, "I surprised you understand what goes into end-to-end of web development.  I've known people with 5 years experience that do not have a wholistic understanding of web architecture."

MCS was tough, there is no way around that. There will be days that are frustrating, but once the concept "clicks" and you get to see your work come to fruitition it is extremely rewarding.  Working in a project-based, collaborative, fully immersive environment not only accelerated the learning curve, but truly made it possible to hit the ground running post-graduation.

If you are looking for a way to jump into a web development career, this is the place to do it!

This 3-month immersive code school was a perfect fit for me.  I had been introduced to coding and programming in my previous job, but really wanted a full-stack experience and education - without going back to the University for 2 years - to take to my next employer.

In the first week you build a complete end-to-end app, and the depth and breadth of what you learn and build continues to grow from there.  The learning style is different from traditional schooling, in that you are exposed to a ton of new information at a rapid pace.  It can be overwhelming at first, but because that information keeps coming at you, you really do absorb and integrate it in a short period of time.  I was quite surprise - and pleased - with what I had learned by the half-way point.

It is also a program where you get out of it, what you put into it.  The more persistent you are, and can keep yourself motivated and trying, even when it gets tough, the better you will do and the more you will learn.  The instructors were awesome about wearing the counseling hats when needed, to keep us from lingering on the cliffs of dispair for very long.  They did an outstanding job on both the technical and human front.

I would not recommend the school to students looking to get into a coding career; at least not one in Missoula. Job promises were implied, but upon graduating and looking for work, there are few to no jobs in Missoula and they do not seem interested in hiring Code School graduates. The community is really letting down all the students that have put in hundreds of hours of studying and coding, yet the employers response is portrayed as 'we aren't good enough'. If the community wants to grow and prosper and be on the cutting edge of web-development, then the local businesses need to step-up and support the Code School- its teachers, its students, and its leaders. The students graduating from the code school are by far the brightest minds I've ever met, and are so motivated and pumped up to make a difference in our community through our new careers. Only to be let down by our community and made to feel like it was all just a waste of time, energy, and hopes for a good future doing what we love. The Missoula Chamber of Commerce needs to look into ways to increase support for the students coming out of the school because they kick a$$!! For example: Two of eight students found work from our cohort, and we were all very intelligent and all very intrinsically motivated to produce quality work and we all dreamed of working for a great company in Missoula. But, no job, $8,000 tuition plus mandatory Macbook for $3,000. It was not a good investment, yet... The jobs are plentiful out there, it just seems like no one in Missoula wants to hire Code School students. It is a shame the economic development committee has not addressed this need to support the people who place support in them. Pretty sure I'd like that $11,000 back right about now. Time for Missoula as a community of business members to step up and support its future leaders and Coders who care so much about the future. I hope the jobs come soon as we were pretty let down after graduation.

My experience at Montana Code School was extremely poor. Our cohort was a mess from the beginning and the prospect of a career in the field afterwards is further fueled by their skewed numbers. The school claims a 90%+ job placement rate for graduates, which is false. The 90% doesn’t relate to job placement in the tech industry, but rather any job afterwards. I could flip patties at McDonalds and be considered part of that number.

Furthermore the school has weak connections in the Bozeman area. I am friends with multiple people in the tech field in Bozeman including the owner of Zoot, the founder of Wisetail, and multiple others. Most people in the field consider graduates of the program a gamble and will hire based on potential; not knowledge acquired through Montana Code School. Bozeman has the fastest growing tech community in the state and MTCS places maybe one or two students per cohort in these positions.

Moving on. Specific to my cohort being a mess- we had an initial teacher who lasted a week. The guy had extreme social anxiety and eventually bowed out due to his cat becoming ill. It’s as if they did one Skype call and gave him the job based on that. His replacement was a pompous MIT CS graduate who travelled each week from Missoula. The teacher/cofounder was put up in a hotel and was always irritable due to housing, the situation, etc. He was less than helpful to those who needed it the most, gravitating always to those who had previous programming experience. The TA tried their best but was so green, she often confused us with her own lack of understanding.

Unfortunately I am not the only one with this experience, and if that were the case I wouldn’t be posting a negative review. All but one of my classmates had a similar experience to mine. Other graduates that I have talked to from different cohorts have all reverberated similar experiences and none have found jobs in the field.

Montana Code School should’ve refunded our cohort for the completely botched session, but instead they were happy to take the money and leave us to flounder. Based on all the feedback I have taken in from other cohorts this is about par to the course. It is for this reason that I am posting this review and taking class action against the school.

I hope this review can help others see the fraud that MTCS is. Most, if not all, the reviews on this website are from staff members of the school. My suggestion would be to choose a code school like Fullstack, or any others that can provide you a better career coming out. 

This school talks a big game but delivers nada.  Spent close to $7,000 and 3 full months with promises of assistance in finding and being hired for a well paying job.  Again, nada.  Do the math.  average 10 people per class, three classes a session, these people are racking in the bucks with no accountability.  I am still looking for that "well paying job" that was promised.  Have spoken with a number of students from my class as well as prior classes.  No jobs.  Keep looking.  This isn't the coding school you want.  

I absolutely enjoyed every moment of Montana Code School. Both instructors were great. I loved learning coding but I also enjoyed learning agile methodology and software development practices. It's a great well rounded curriculum.  My cohort was great. Everyone helped each other out--instructors were very much willing to spend extra time with the students. From my experience, what you put into it is what you get out of it.

Regarding job assistance, the school has an in depth network with companies and people are very happy to make those connections for you. I would highly recommend this school!