Techtonica

Techtonica was an awesome experience! While it was very challenging and sometimes I had major impostor syndrome, it is set up in a way to really help participants work through challenges and be successful. The staff is awesome and always make themselves available (even to graduates) to help or just chat. Other ways in which participants are supported is through mentors. I had two mentors and I learned so much from them. Other mentors are also available during program hours. In regard to the curriculum, at first I felt like things were overwhelming but eventually learned to trust the process, later things started making sense and falling into place. What I learned allowed for me to feel confident in creating many projects (one final project). Another thing I found extremely useful was all the interview prep. I feel like that really helped prepare me for final interviews and have a more realistic expectation for what interviewing in the real world is like. Overall, I am very grateful for this experience and finally being a software engineer!!!

I chose Techtonica because it met my needs and goals. It is a boot camp that puts women and nonbinary people at the forefront and supports diversity in the tech place and the fact that this boot camp is free and offers almost a guarantee for an internship at the end was a no-brainer for me to join. But do not think that the competition or the chance to get in is that easy either. You really do have to put in the work: fill in a short application, long application, complete some code curriculum, have two 3 hours pair programming sessions (it can be intimidating if you have never pair programmed before but they will explain how it works and it is pretty straightforward!), and a few interviews with Techtonica staff. Although it was intimidating as a beginner and self-taught coder for a few months prior to joining the program, if you make it through the interview, you are definitely more than capable than you think of completing the program. 
In terms of my time at Techtonica, I felt really supported by my cohort mates and staff there. The space felt safe, welcoming, and very involved in making sure people felt heard and feedback was always taken seriously. The general program format was projects due every week alongside learning new topics such as APIs, JSON, HTML and CSS, JavaScript, Express, React, Docker, and a bunch of front and backend concepts to prepare you to be a full-stack engineer. You also have a technical mentor that you get to meet with weekly and 1:1 with the technical manager for check-in like you would in a normal tech job. You also have mock interviews every week covering the material of the week you learned prior. On Wednesday, we had a soft skills day where we worked and focused more on the behavioral aspect of being in a work environment. I found the overall curriculum to be a general overview of full-stack concepts and knowledge we needed to know that gave everyone a breadth versus depth approach which I appreciated. 
I would highly recommend Techtonica to anyone who has been wanting to get into the Tech industry but has had a hard time jumping through gates and steps to get there. I believe Techtonica does a good job of holding your hand throughout the whole process of learning, getting your first tech job, and supporting you after you finish your internship. Just know if you want this, prepare to dedicate a lot of your time like any full-time job to it, really focus and be present if you are in this boot camp to make the most out of it!