Tech Elevator

...and I still consider attending Tech Elevator's coding bootcamp as one of my life's most impactful decisions.  It allowed me to transition from an unhappy career in restaurants to a more balanced and engaging one in software, and it happened mere weeks before the world went on lock-down and every kitchen I’d ever cooked in closed for good!
The bottom line is that the work is challenging, the instructors are excellent, the career advice is indispensable, and if you apply yourself and basically just follow their suggestions in earnest you will almost certainly get hired upon (or before) graduation.  And that's the whole point- the curriculum is designed to give you a solid foundation to build from, and the Pathway program gets your foot in the door with an employer.  From there it's up to you where you want to go with your career.  
After graduation I spent a little time writing features for a java-based framework before being accidentally thrust into the DevOps world.  I find the work I do now to be very rewarding.  And although little of what I touch day-to-day was covered specifically in the curriculum at Tech Elevator, the foundational knowledge we were given is universal.  And most importantly I (re)learned how to learn there.  Picking up new tools, frameworks, and languages is still very hard, but I don’t find the firehose of knowledge quite as daunting anymore.  None of this would have happened without the help of my incredible instructors and Pathway directors at Tech Elevator!

Tech Elevator was a great experience that legitimately changed my path in life. I couldn't realistically afford to go back to college and hated working in the service industry. I went in with an associate's degree in a completely unrelated field and got a job within a month of graduating. It is up to you how far you will go once you graduate. You have to listen to your pathway instructors as well as your technical instructors, as technical ability will only take you so far. You will have to study and put in a lot of effort to succeed, but it is only three months, and it will pay off in the long run. 
The pathway program seems to really put Tech Elevator above other coding bootcamps. Preparing you with mock interviews and what to expect once you enter the workforce was extremely valuable. If you are willing to dedicate yourself to something for 3 months, to quit your job, and to deal with some stress, you will come out of the other side with a job. It is not a quick and easy way to make money, but it was certainly easier than wallowing in career purgatory. I'd also say that it isn't the most incredibly difficult thing in the world either, as long as you are not completely ignorant when it comes to technology and have some understanding of what programming entails before diving in. Personally, I studied JavaScript everyday for a month, doing practice problems on various websites before starting the program. It put me ahead of the game and made things much easier. I suggest you do the same.

From the onboarding process all the way through graduation, overall, I had an incredible experience with Tech Elevator, more specifically, Tech Elevator Pittsburgh! After a couple of years of feeling stuck at a dead-end in retail management, I had decided to go back to school for a second Bachelor's in Computer Science when some friends in the Tech industry came alongside me and suggested a Software Bootcamp. I approached the thought of a Bootcamp with a healthy amount of skepticism but after doing a ton of research and interacting with the Tech Elevator staff, going to a BootCamp, Tech Elevator, in particular, was a no-brainer. I talked with Computer Science graduates and Bootcamp graduates and everyone seemed to be in support of the Bootcamp route.  After going through the program, I can't recommend it enough! You will certainly get out what you put into your experience there, and if you really put your head down and hustle hard every day you will have a bright future ahead of you coming out. The network of hiring partners Tech Elevator has access to, and connects you with as a student, is reason enough to choose TE, but the Pathway team does an incredible job of helping prepare you to put your best foot forward going into the hiring process, while the instructors prepare you on the technical aspects! I went from a skeptic working retail to someone with several opportunities at my fingertips and was thankful and fortunate to have accepted an offer from one of those opportunities before I even graduated! They take their jobs very seriously at Tech Elevator, the reputation of their graduates is very highly regarded, and they work extra hard to keep up with relevant technologies by keeping a finger on what employers in their hiring network need. It's an incredible way to get into tech and I could not recommend a better Bootcamp!

Last year, after a few conversations with Amber Brantley and Caitie Zajko, I applied to Tech Elevator. I did it because I felt they could help me get hired as a software developer. I got admitted and in July, one month before graduation, I already had a job offer with the company I wanted to work for.

I think that Tech Elevator has a great program. They have excellent instructors who have been technical leads and know how teams work in companies. My instructor was Rich Seeds. He covered not only what was part of the curriculum. He taught us the little tricks that will not appear in a manual or an online course and that you only get with experience.  Yoah Morahg, the other instructor, was always equally available when we had questions. 

The pathway program is the career portion of the program and it is equally important for the students. I think it made me take a deep look at myself, which in turn made it easier for me to have career conversations. The program was led by Aly Brine and the campus director, Caitie Zajko. For me this was particularly important. They had a lot of activities. People from different companies come to visit and you can ask questions to IT directors, Vice Presidents, recruiters.

I think that they also take great care in selecting students and I really like the people that I met. Actually, I am still in touch with some of them and feel that we will be friends for life.

Another thing that impressed me was that you feel that they all really care for you and that they want you to be successful.

I enjoyed my experience and it was very valuable to me. I was very happy that I attended Tech Elevator and think it was one of the best decisions I ever took.

The curriculum is amazing, especially the tutorial they made for different topics. The instructors are very supportive, they will help you even after working hours, and during the weekend just make sure you get what you need to be successful.  If you are like me, English is your second language make sure to prepare before the class start, read the student book, and Google concept before class, and ask questions if you don't understand either because of language or the concept itself. The first two or three weeks are very difficult but keep confident and stick with the program and you will get through it. 

I am very glad that I made a decision to join TechElevator, it was probably one of the best things, where I could invest my time and the money! What I loved about the school the most is that everything was very organized, the instructors were very professional. In addition to that, they are always there to explain additional questions, etc., and the material that was given to us was up to date.
I love the culture here and all the Pathway Directors are super awesome. 

The program itself has coding and career development. 

As for the program, it is very fast-paced, in a good way. That is the way that I like to learn, so I was able to adapt easily. It's what you would expect from a regular class. The difference, I think, is the staff. Anybody is there to teach you and help you with the current material. They also will take the time to help you as much as they can to make sure you understand the material, even outside of regular class hours. 

Career development involves helping you make an efficient resume, interviewing, and as well as a LinkedIn profile. They want to help make your resume look as good as possible for your future job post graduation, but also to help further down the line as well! When it comes to interviewing, they help with both HR-style interviews and coding interviews.

 If you want to step into the IT field but do not know where to start - Tech Elevator Bootcamp is the best place to reach!


  

I entered TE with no formal IT/Computer Science background - in fact I switched paths from Health Sciences (Occupational Therapy). I was quite anxious at first - venturing into a new field and the possibility of finding employment at the end of the program. They told us from the start to "trust the process" - and while at times it was challenging and I had my doubts in the end I completed the 14 weeks, 4 interviews and 1 offer from a large financial company in my city. You really do have to "trust the process" and by no means is this an easy 14 weeks. The Staff are incredible and very knowledgeable and will take the time to help you... however you must spend time outside class to study (reviewing, group study, etc.) as the modules move very fast and it is a lot of information to take in. It was worth it

The program at Tech Elevator as well as the staff is the best in the business. Switching careers can be an overwhelming and daunting move but the Tech Elevator team understands this and does a great job of setting you up for success. On top of the incredible curriculum and instructors, TE provides a Pathway program that walks you through every step needed to find a job once the program is done. If you are considering a career change to software development, I couldn’t recommend Tech Elevator enough.  

Pros-Connections - 
Your network is the most valuable part of your career.  Coming to tech elevator gives you exactly that.  You'll have 15-18 classmates you get to know over 3 months which means you'll now know people at about 12 different tech companies when you graduate. 
You'll also have access to instructions who have wide tech networks and connections. 
And a number of companies will be scheduled to come meet with you without you lifting a finger.  

-Pathway - 
Pathway will give you the much needed training and PRACTICE to prepare for your interviews, as well as many other peripheral facets of making yourself marketable. I don't know about you, but I'm 100x better at things the 2nd or 3rd time I do it.  So Pathway gets you to that point before its the real thing. 

-Level Up - 
I came in as a pretty strong programmer thanks to an extensive project I had gotten myself into.  But tech elevator was still able to add to areas I only had hackish ability in.  Which was all of module 2 (api and programmatically accessing a database) and module 3 (front end design). 
However, the point of this is to say Tech Elevator will take whatever level you are on and increase it. 

If you come in with zero skills, you will come out employable. 
If you come in with previous skills, you will come out desirable. 

Cons These don't even really need to be mentioned, but if you're reading reviews you want to weigh the cons right!? So here ya go. 

-Slow at First-
At times the class moved incredibly slow because in a virtual setting, if 6 students had an error, that means the teacher would have to go through them individually, allowing them to share a screen one after the other and fix each issue one by one.  This stopped happening as much as the course went on, but in the beginning there were a couple days where a 3 hour lecture turned into a 5 hour lecture. 

-Unique Situation-
The following will be unique to our cohort, but I'm nitpicking so I'll list it here.  Our main instructor had to leave for a month, so our backup instructor took over during that time.  He is smart, experienced, and a good communicator, but was admittedly not an expert in the subject he was covering.  I felt the level of understanding I gained through his lectures was not as high as it would have been had the original instructor taught it.   There's nothing wrong with filling in the gaps by learning on your own, but you're hoping to avoid that when paying for instruction. 
AdviceYou will be successful if you can either A) Actually program B) Formulate your thoughts in conversational communication
If you turn out to be good at programming, this course will come relatively easy to you, and you’ll be ahead of 90% of your classmates. Alternatively if you are a decent communicator, you will easily land an entry level job as people will assume you know enough and can train you the rest of the way. 
If you are both, sign up now because you are currently in the wrong career. 
How do you find out if you can actually program?  Try it.  For me learning on my own did not work, but taking a Tri-C class did.  After getting down the basics I was able to just continually add on and learn new things as I created personal programming projects.  
How do you find out if you’re a good communicator?  Have you ever held a job where you had customer interaction and had to represent the company well?   Then you have good enough communication skills.

TLDR
Tech Elevator works.  You will be well prepared to land your first job in a new career. 

Hello! You must be here 'coz you're looking into multiple bootcamps in order to make your decision. Let me tell you my story and experience. I was in the same place as you. I came across so many bootcamps and was confused looking at their websites and the promises they were making. In the end I came to Tech Elevator to pursue full stack web development. Reasons, you ask?

Cirr report
Tech Elevator is open with their outcome. You can see the ACTUAL results via cirr.org website. When I first found about it, I spent a good amount of time looking at the outcome in their every campus which honestly was very optimistic.

Pathway Program
They have their unique pathway program which is basically another name for 'career development'. There you'll be taught about all the ins and outs of job search - resume building, LinkedIn profile, mock interviews, building confidence and all good things. All the pathway sessions are mandatory and these are equally important as learning how to code.

Amazing instructors, staff and alumni
Tech Elevator hunts for the best of teachers and staff for their team who are there to help you any time-any day of the week. Their alumni were amazingly helpful. I personally reached out to so many of them - from my Tech Elevator application to job search. They were super supportive.

Conclusion
Tech Elevator is a great opportunity. Of course it's termed 'drinking through the fire hose' accurately, but if you have the will to do best and dedication to be a software developer, you will indeed be one! Reach out to me or any of us if you need any sort of help regarding our TE journey. There's so much praises for the founders and staff from the bottom of my heart. Tech Elevator really elevated my career for good.