Nashville Software School

I wrote my first line of code September 15th 2016 and was hired for my first software development job June 10th 2017 and I owe it to NSS. I chose Nashville Software School over other schools for several reasons. #1 because it is non-profit, #2  because it is a 6 month full-time program, and #3 its good reputation around town. That was enough to convince me, but what really pushed me to want to be a part of this school was my interview with John Wark. As a prospective student I was impressed with how much time he took with me to get to know me and my story. He is very thorough and that is reflected in the community that makes NSS including the staff, teachers, and students. That said, he is very clear that NSS is an experiment and there are no guarantees. There is nothing magical about the learning process. NSS gave me a space and A LOT of help on hand to accelerate what would have taken me years to learn on my own. I wouldn't have become who I am without the program. A typical day you can expect to be at NSS from 9-4pm with an hour lunch break. You are encouraged to fully immerse yourself in the tech community for networking, etc but I would say dont worry as much about attending those events if it takes away from your study time. I usually went to a meetup/user group once a week and met a  lot of cool people but my job now did not come from any of those extra experiences. What is the daily experience? Expect a lot of group work and self study, which turns out to mock my real world role as a working junior developer. Its not for everybody, but if you are ready for a career change and willing to make sacrifices to focus on this goal, I recommend. 

I don’t think I could overstate the value of my time at NSS. I was a paralegal for 10 years and had no coding background or exposure to the tech world. I left the program feeling confident in my coding skills and having already accepted an offer with a starting salary nearly 60% higher than my previous job. I think NSS’s real competitive edge is 1) their wide network of employers who regularly hire from their programs and 2) the fact that they are a nonprofit. They really want you to succeed and get a great job, and they will do everything in their power to help you do it. Also, they want to do it as cheaply as possible, which is not the case with any other bootcamps I’ve seen. Great instructional teams, great career training, and great networking opportunities. This is a career launching program. Best decision of my life. 

I attended the full-time day cohort and graduated 6 months ago and my life is definitely better. Some can say I am biased because I am on the staff page, but I am only there because I volunteer my time at the school. If the school did not provide me with a great experience, I would not be volunteering my time. I do it because I believe in their vision of the community.
It is a very fast-paced learning environment. You will work as groups and by yourself and be amazed at what you can create. They are always adjusting and tweaking their programs to offer students the best development tools and skills.
It is true the school does not guarantee a job, but they do have a career development team that is very hands-on and very involved. The team will help you put a resume together., evaluate your personal website, help with your linked in profile, help you build your network, organize meet and greets with developers and employers, mock interviews and make recommendations and offer guidance to name a few things that they do. 
As a non-profit, the school is very vested in producing solid junior developers and helping them get employed. They want to prepare you for your new career, not maximizing profits. 

When you interview at NSS, they aren't shy about telling you that the boot camp will be one of the most difficult and rewarding things you've ever done. They're absolutely correct and fully committed to helping you succeed. 

I recently graduated from Cohort 28, a Full Time Full Stack Web Dev bootcamp with a focus on Python/Django. I just landed my first full time position as a developer within two weeks of graduation. As a student, you are challenged while being fully supported by a staff of professional developers and previous graduates of the program. My favorite aspect of the school was how much the responsibility of my education was up to me. There is no assigned homework, but you have numerous resources and exercises to brush up your skills. Lab time each week allowed me the freedom to work on what I was struggling with or what excited me personally.

My classmates were amazing, friendly, and a priceless resource during my time at NSS. What's great about a vocational program like this is that the people in attendance have chosen to commit to this process and everyone is driven toward succeeding which helps all boats rise. I've made lifelong friends and colleagues along the way to a brand new fruitful career. 

The teaching staff is experienced, human and relatable. There is no fear of being left behind in a wave of students as one on one time with instructors or advisors is extremely accessible and encouraged. Being encouraged to fail and experiment courageously was a breath of fresh air to my perfectionist self. The career development is outstanding. By joining NSS, you are immediately becoming part of an incomparable network of developers, employers, and alumni that gives you an extraordinary edge in your job search. Not to mention that the curriculum is constantly being updated to match market needs, giving students the most up to date skills.

My life has been changed for the better and I couldn't have asked for a better growth environment. 

I recently graduated from Cohort 23 of NSS, which was a full-stack JavaScript course (Node.JS back-end). I really enjoyed my time there and feel confident in my abilities. I graduated on May 18th, and had a job offer on May 25th (which I took and had a salary that was average for NSS graduates, between $55k-58k starting). 

The school is longer than most. Six months was a perfect amount of time to fit in extra learning, and do a great deal of group projects and personal capstones. The group projects are structured like regular work environments with sprints, code reviews, and retros afterwards. They don't touch on HTML/CSS for more than a few days in the beginning, so it is imperative that you do the pre-work (which is the Front-End Web Developer course on Treehouse, along with a few code-along books). 

The teachers there can be hit/miss..though the "miss" portion are still pretty good and you can always talk to the other teachers or junior instructors/teacher assistants throughout the course, so you aren't tied to just one point of contact. The alumni is very active in the school so you also have a great network of colleagues to ask questions to, or just grab coffee with, to network and get more opportunities. 

The career development is great as well. They are constantly posting job opportunities for us, and they review your resume and LinkedIn profile to make sure it all looks up to standard with the local software developers. I found my job through the Demo Day at the end (when you graduate, you show off your capstone projects and anything else you've worked on, and potential employers go through like a science fair and see everyone's stuff). There are many ways to network in and outside of school, and the career development department is always there to provide more. 

I was able to attend on their "opportunity scholarship", which was a great deal. If you have the ability to apply for the scholarship I certainly recommend you do so. They try to give that scholarship to 1/2 of the class when possible. 

Nashville Software School was a terrific experience; you're taught marketable skills that you can take anywhere. The teachers are fantastic (I had Brenda for the front-end and Steve for the Python/Django portion) and so are the teacher's assistants (former students themselves).

It's challenging and you'll need to prepare yourself to fail... a lot. With the failure comes terrific achievement _IF_ you apply yourself. By the end of the course, I learned how to build web applications I never thought possible.

NSS is old enough that they've developed, and apparently continue to refine, a winning formula. Their program has evolved to the needs of the students and the job market. You're not taught the bleeding edge, but you're not learning Cobalt either. Expect both individual and group projects plus "final challenges" that demonstrate you've learned the concepts taught in each section of the course.

For those enrolled and who have yet to start, I would recommend that you ask plenty of questions if you do not understand a concept. The teachers are always willing to help and it's better to ask too many then to fall behind. In addition to the teachers, NSS does a good job of screening candidates and I found that the overwhelming majority of people were willing to help each other where needed and there's definitely a "we're all in this together" vibe.

Near the end of the cohort, many people began to stress about finding a career after graduation and it can be difficult. It's about luck, networking, and applying oneself. If I had one negative about the program, I would say it's pertaining to the 'job hunting/assistance' portion of the program.

That's not necessarily NSS' fault as the Nashville market may be saturated for Junior Developers. A positive is the Demo Day on the last day of the program. It's the student's time to shine and demonstrate their capabilities to prospective employers, several may be fortunate enough to end the day with a job offer (I did).

All in all, I would highly recommend NSS. It's six months (most programs are three) and it's enough time to get you comfortable for a Developer position. Come prepared ready to work, push yourself and you'll succeed. Well worth the cost of the program.

P.S. Do the pre-work.

Nashville Software School has been really good to me. The instructors are all very knowlegeable and willing to help whenever there's a question. The school provided opportunities to meet employers throughout the 6 month program. I walked in with 15 year old coding experience that wasn't really relevant and walked out knowing how to build a RESTful api, create modern single-page-applications with the Angularjs framework and a blackbelt in google-fu. They've even employeed me as a teaching assistant while I'm looking for work as a software developer.

After ten years teaching in public schools, I was ready for a change. I had taken all of the online coding courses I could find, but I still didn't feel like I had the skills to enter the workforce as a developer. NSS was my answer. I graduated from NSS in December 2015/ January 2016 and was hired to stay as a junior instructor. As a student in 2015, I would rate my experience 4/5. I learned invaluable lessons about coding, teamwork, and problem solving, but the school was still experiencing some growing pains and lacked organization. Throughout the time I stayed at NSS as a junior instructor, I saw the school consistently strive to improve on every level. While I was there, new staff was hired to assist with job search and placement, the school moved into a beautiful new space, and the curriculum underwent some major improvements as well as almost-daily incremental improvements. I am currently in a full time development job, and feel absolutely prepared for my tasks here. I will echo several other reviews and say that attending a bootcamp is not easy. It requires a lot of work, but Nashville Software School does a fantastic job of helping students through the process. My daughter was one year old when I attended NSS, and while challenging,  it was certainly possible for me to complete my classwork and keep up with NSS curriculum and parenting duties at home. I'm basing my current 5 star review on how the school currently opperates.

Prior to attending Nashville Software School, I worked several odds and ends jobs to pay the bills. With only a high school education, just thinking about applying to jobs I was under qualified for left me feeling overwhelmed.

After a recommendation from a close friend, I applied to NSS. I cannot say how amazingly grateful I am for that choice. While I had no programming experience other than a few hours of tutorials and the course pre-work, the bootcamp was definitely the most rewardingly difficult experience of my life.

Some of the most important lessons learned as an apprentice software developer were that minimal effort or copying code would not make you a programmer. These courses will help students master communication and teamwork with group projects while using a version control system, as well as everything from building a simple website from scratch to a full-stack application.

NSS teaches the fundamentals of software with the aide of carefully curated curriculums, the staff, and fellow students. Simply put, succeeding means hours of trial and error, and most importantly the positive attitude to keep on going.

I finished the 6 month bootcamp and a month later started as a Teacher’s Assistant with an upcoming cohort at NSS. During this time as a TA, I gained a new appreciation for the instruction staff’s immense effort they put into every student, lesson plan and graduate. The career team devotes time to ensure each student has a professional resume and portfolio, and provides information about networking events / hosts networking and mentor meet-ups at NSS.

I am currently a full-stack developer at a local tech startup, and can say without the skills I learned, I would not be the developer I am today. If you are thinking of enrolling, and are willing to commit to serious dedication, this course is for you.