Rutgers Bootcamps

It's been five months since I graduated and I've only had two job interviews with barely any assistance from the career center. The recruiting team over promises and under delivers stating that they have "career partners" on their website when those individuals hired could not be found on LinkedIn and we did not have contact with anyone from Deloitte, Lockheed Martin, Bank of America, etc. 

When you're first starting, it's exciting and challenging. There are high hopes for learning all of these new skills that employers are looking for and you're on the leading edge of that. While the instructors were able to convey the information to the best of their ability, it was almost as if they forgot how to be a beginner again learning all of these tools and frameworks for the first time. 

I've applied to over 150 positions and have barely heard a thing. I did everything I could to keep my GitHub updated and later ended up burning out. The career center had no resources to assist me to fortify my skills and that just ended up putting a sour taste in my mouth.

I would truly suggest going to a school that's closer to NYC or an online boot camp that doesn't make you pay up front. 

I attended with almost no coding experience. Going in I was very optimistic about achieving a career change and was willing to put in the work to do so. I found myself quickly overwhelmed by a work load that I was not being trained to meet properly. I have now graduated almost a year ago and in retrospect it was the single largest waste of time and money I have ever spent. The career services were virtually nonexistent. The instructors, though nice, would not adequately help students with no prior experience. The group projects were a joke. I achieved and learned virtually nothing and worst of all spent a lot of money on nothing.

I attended the somerset campus and I'm writing this review a month after class has ended.

Course 

First off, I reccommend attending FreeCodeCamp.com during the duration of this course to get the most out of it. This 6 month course will quickly go through the fundementals of programming to the moderately complex web development frameworks, development environments, package management, version control, quality control, database management and many other important programming tools. Since the tech industry is a very fast paced world a 4 year degree in computer science could mean nothing, by the time you get out you may have a steady foundation but with older programming languages or using outdated technology. Many languages don't last long and will phase out within a year or even less. This type of program avoids this problem by teaching you cutting edge languages in a short amount of time while also brushing over the fundementals. However, there is a catch. If you don't put in a minimum of 20 hours a week at home then all you will know how to do is create basic projects. This is a problem because in the work force they will want you to create applications that may have not been made before or require more complex knowledge. If all you know is how to build one type of app then your kind of screwed here. Also, many big companies do not want anyone without a 4 year degree because you are a risk. It is easy to find a tutorial online and follow it using the basic knowledge you gain from this class, stick it in your portfolio and luck your way through an interview and they know this. You may find yourself fired when they see you googling everything they ask you to do. If you put the time in and build a strong foundation along with the knowledge to build sturdy applications you will benefit fully from this course and land some great projects or even a job.

Classrom Experience

This course was treated as if it was a college classroom with a similar grading system and strict attendance rules. You will not end up working for IBM by just taking this course with the minimum effort. That goes for college or anything you do in life as well though so this should be obvious.

To be honest this is meant to be either:

• a course you take after you graduate with a related degree to catch up on the most current programming languages and practices
• a course you take when your currently working in the field using obsolete languages and need to transition into a more modern form of programming to avoid being made obsolete
• a course you use to build your foundation for starting a freelance career to build applications and websites for people so you can google in peace while you keep learning
• a course to bring your application idea to life and take that chance at becoming very wealthy if your lucky enough to have an excellent idea at the right time

Personal Experience

I worked full time during the course with an intention of transitioning careers from IT to web development so my workload was full but I was still able to put in the extra time after class. I didn't have a great classroom experience at this course though. I have a medical condition that makes it difficult for me to socialize. Normally this isn't a problem but I felt very ostracized here. The TAs and teacher were standoffish and rude with an exception of some good days scattered throughout. The instructor also didn't come off as well educated most of the time and fumbled through a lot of the course material. Google was my true teacher. However, I did hear good things about other instructors so maybe I just didn't get lucky here.

Job Assistance

The career advisors are still sending me opportunites and were very helpful before, during and after the course. They can be slow with responding during the course but that should be expected since theres like 3 of them and so many students. 

Conclusion

Most people won't have the same struggle I had with the students, instructor and TAs so I'll end with this: If you know the basics of computer programming plus willing to put in the time and effort outside of class then you will benefit from this course while possibly landing yourself a decent job and the $10K cost is a good deal for what they give you. For what it's worth, I currently work full time. I'm very happy with the outcome despite the classroom experience.

SUMMERY

This is a great course for meeting like-minded students interested in web development and building a strong foundation. If you’re main goal is to get set up with a job (by the bootcamp) after course completion, you will be disappointed.  

THE GOOD

The instructors and TAs are knowledgeable and willing to help you when you get stuck

The instructors & career services will give you advice on how to make yourself marketable, make an appealing portfolio, and how to answer common interview questions.

THE BAD

You will need at least 20+ hours of outside work per week to understand the material as you go through the course. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but they tell you that you will only need 10 hours per week. That is simply untrue, even for the brightest students.

Hiring partners are virtually non-existent. Despite what they will keep telling you, there is not a large group of employers waiting to hire you when you finish.

Career services has input on the curriculum. This sounds like a good idea until they try to teach you three programming languages in 10 hours of class time and expect you to be confident enough to put it on your resume.

THE UGLY

The instructor we had might be the most unprofessional individual I have ever met. He told us he was there because he got fired from his previous job and it was obvious why.

The curriculum director and those assisting him have little regard for the quality of the material they push out.

The post bootcamp job assistance was atrocious. The 

Would I do it again?

no

Have more questions?

See this reddit thread for a Q&A from an alumni.

I graduated from Rutgers Coding Bootcamp a while ago and have settled into my new life as a junior developer for a few months now.    As a woman changing careers, I knew the experience would be a big change for me.  I also had to work full time during this course.

Both the instructors and my classmates were great; offering support both during and after class. It really made a difference on those days I needed a few extra pointers.  At first, I was a bit overwhelmed to be honest. The work load is high and some people in my class had strong coding experience. But, I  kept my focus throughout the class and believed it could be done.

So,  it took a while for me to get comfortable with the material and pace. Be prepared to spend many hours outside of class studying, reviewing and learning on your own.  

I'd love to say I got a job the week after class. It didn't happen.  It took me almost 6 weeks. Like anything in life, to get the help you need; you need to be proactive. I kept calling and emailing the support team; asking for advice and help throughout my job search.

I also kept working on my projects; developing them further.  This really turned out to make a big difference in finding a job. To that end, I really need to give a shortout to my instructor. Amazing person; even if I felt I probably was annoying at times; he always provided support and great coding advice.

I was lucky to find a great job with a tech startup that also leveraged upon my previous career experience. 

I'd recommend RCB to anyone. But,  be prepared to invest the time and energy required for success; just like anything in life.

Do yourself a favor and do some research before agreeing to enroll in this program. I graduated about two weeeks ago and only recently found spot-on reviews from students who went through the program before I did. From the beginning, it's shameless lying and overall indecency from the student success department. The instructors were great but it is absolutely embarrassing how manipulated I was looking back, especially by the student success manager who never replied to any of my concerns or messages. 

If you're interested in this program and find this post, I implore you to do your research before agreeing to anything especially not some measly $500 'scholarship'