UCR Extension Boot Camps

I can honestly say going to this bootcamp was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I had always wanted to pursue coding/programming, but college always made it seem like math was essential to the field. This prevented me from being able to pursue the CS degree I originally wanted. Because of this, I gave up on the idea. It wasn't till last year that I decided to look back into it, and I realized that math was never much of a requirement, at least in Software/Web Development. This prompted me to learn a little on my own, and eventually enroll in the bootcamp.

I've learned more in these past six months than I ever had before. I won't lie, it was hard. It was frustrating at times, I felt like giving up a couple times here and there, but if you stick with it, you will learn. The instructor and TA's were fantastic, and the fact that it is an in-person bootcamp meant I could talk to them, as well as my peers, face-to-face. This was invaluable to me, as working with others makes learning more fun, and easier, as you have real people to bounce ideas and solutions off of.

If you feel that this is a field you will truly enjoy and you like learning, I can't recommend this bootcamp enough.

Hello to everyone reading this! 👋 I came into this bootcamp with very minimal experience in programming I come from being a warehouse lead. I wanted a career change I’ve always been a tech person at heart, breaking things down and putting them back together. I wanted to take the risk and go into a bootcamp and being a local looked at all other options but ended up taking this one and I do not regret it. My instructors have been nothing but amazing! From the first day I felt the energy of the virtual room and took in the guidance he had for us, I have spent a lot of time learning this is not easy by any means. What I suggest is having an accountability partner so you can stay on track with your goals you do not want to fall behind. What I enjoyed is when things finally clicked! My instructor emphasized don't focus on the grades focus on the material make sure you understand it instead of chasing the grade and not understanding what you did. I am currently 3 months in and 3 months to go i definitely recommend this if you’re willing to put in the work and have a great experience here I’ve made friends here that will be my best buddies for years to come.

I came from a background with no tech experience when I started the boot camp, but by the end I gained a wealth of knowledge and experience about cyber security. The course was challenging has there were many hands-on activities and projects. The great part was the instructors had immense knowledge about the subjects that were taught and had amazing patience to guide us to complete said hands-on activities and projects! Even outside of class hours, we could reach out and they would gladly help us!  The information they presented was very organized and evolved from easy to difficult. The experience was great from beginning to end and I feel fully confident that I can do this outside of a school environment due to the hands-on projects!

I would like to give a shout-out to my instructors, Lewis, Rob, and Ynah! They made the class fun and engaging all the way to the end! I am grateful for their help, encouragement, and knowledge they imparted throughout the boot camp!

I was looking for a change in careers and I wanted to get back into computers. I talked with an old boss of mine that's in the IT field and he recommended this class to me. After looking it up I decided to give it a go. I had no experience with cybersecurity and I had little knowledge with computers. I took the gamble and enrolled in this class. It has been the best decision I've ever made. This course will challenge you and it will push you more than you've ever been pushed. The teachers and TA care for their students and put in the effort to help each and every student. Our instructor and TA's were amazing and I couldn't have asked for a better instructor or TA. I highly recommend this class if you're trying to change your career or further your knowledge in cybersecurity. You have to put in the hours outside of class and you must have free time to do so. You can't just walk into this class and do the bare minimum, it'll eat you alive if you do this. You get what you put into it, I suggest at least 20 hours a week outside of class. This class is really rewarding and worth every penny. I'm just beginning my journey into this field and I couldn't be more excited to see where it's going to take me.  

• How I decided to pursue this career path and what led me to apply to the Boot Camp

   I have been using the Hack The Box platform for two years and wanted to change careers to Cybersecurity after seeing what skills it took to be a hacker. Using code, port scanning techniques, exploits, and payloads, I have found something I love to do but did not have the skill set or education to get a job in cyber security.      So I started researching schools in Cybersecurity. I had many conversations and took approximately ten months' worth of investigative research to determine that the University of California Riverside's class was suitable for gaining the skills I needed to land a job.      I like the idea that the class was more hands-on and very diversified. Also, one of the significant factors that made me decide to attend the boot camp was what the Career Services department had to offer.      It was not just about learning the skill, but getting your resume and online media to be at the level of Employer Competitive. The Employer Competitive vernacular intrigued me and made the program more valuable than the others.     So I joined the class in April 2021 and graduated with a certificate in a Cybersecurity Boot Camp in October 2021.     

• Your experience with the boot camp and your favorite aspect of the program

       My favorite aspect of the class was transparency through the didactic alchemy of domains the professor and the two teaching assistants conveyed in class. The activities we performed in our assignments also made the class fun, like playing capture the flag activities and applying what we learned towards the three main projects.     Attending over 100 career services events through the boot camp has also helped me polish my online presence, brand statement, and resume while confidently interviewing. This part of the boot was an exceptional piece to help people mold themselves to the roles they were so deserving after obtaining their new skills.     The information the students had to learn was described metaphorically as drinking water through a fire hose. The information came fiercely and in complex notations.       Help was always there for those struggling with these new concepts, and if the students were not able to understand the day's lesson, the recorded lessons were available for further review and understanding.     

• Any advice you would give to other prospective students.

     The advice I would give the other students is that you get what you put into this program. It is a commitment, and if you are not willing or the timing is not correct, do not force trying to take this class.      I would also refrain from taking the class if you do not have more than 20 hours of outside class time to spend on the comprehension and completing of the assignments.      The class alone is worth the investment, but the Career Services professionalism and getting Employer Competitive puts the program over the top compared to other programs. If definitely recommend The University of California Riverside to gain the knowledge or refine the skills you need to become a Cyber Security professional.

Going into this coding bootcamp was great I had a short background in web development by using web resources like codecademy or freecodecamp so the 'fast paced' learning was a bit easier to digest. The assignments were fairly easy to comprehend aside from a few of the course materials which were either making the assumption certain environments were configured, or the coursework just wasn't written in a way that was understandable. 

I will say that I have learned a ton of things in regard to programming. The instructional staff were so helpful in learning these concepts by explaining in further detail of what to look for. This bootcamp does teach relevant programming subjects along with a few concepts that seem pretty random but at the end of the day, its just another skill set. 

Over all, I would recommend this camp as an intermediate course where you have an understanding of basic javascript concepts NOT as someone starting from scratch with zero knowledge on programming. Yes the first couple weeks of html/css can be fairly easy but once JavaScript comes up, the pacing gets pretty fast. 

I went into the Coding Boot Camp feeling a little skeptical. This was mostly because I was already in a career looking to transition to coding, but just didn't know where. I needed to take out a loan. There isn't a guarantee, like most things in life, with anything coming from this course. After completing the course, I have to say, I don't feel as anxious about taking it anymore. I learned so much over the 24-26 weeks of class. Instructors were amazing, TAs were amazing, and the curriculum felt relevant and up-to-date.  I should say that I went into this Boot Camp without any prior coding experience, which was really intimidating, but the professor and TAs really made the class accessible. I really would recommend this course to anyone looking for that push to transition careers. I hopefully will be able to come back here in a month or two with news that I am now a developer. 

This boot camp was awesome! I started from having zero knowledge of cyber security to being able to hack into systems and protect them. This class has so much to offer if you're willing to put in the work. If you're a hands on learner, then this course is for you. Starting from day 1, to the very last day you're doing everything hands on. Amazing instructor and TA's, all of them were extremely knowledgeable, patient, and willing to help. I'm a person that is nervous to ask a lot of questions but the class and instructors made it extremely comfortable for me to ask anything. Throughout the course, the entire staff is there to help with building your resume, LinkedIn, and help with interview skills. Before this I was working at fast food and being a barista but after completing the course, I was able to land a job as a Service Desk Analyst to begin my IT career. If you're looking to get into the cyber security field, I definitely recommend this boot camp!

This is a great program if you're looking to start into the security field.  Personally, I like to do alot of hands on and I am a visual learner more so than reading about it from a document or observing a bunch of slides.  There's that too in addition to an abundance of hands on lab work and exercizes. As a student you are provided with TA's that will assist you with any questions or obstacles you encounter and we had a great instructor who was very engaging and knowledgeable.  No questions or comment was too small or too big  I would send emails during off hours and still get a response.  Day one starts with Linux Administration and the last day you are literraly hacking into systems and doing a full presentation on the dedtails on how you did it.  You are required to do this over and over at which point you get pretty comforable with the presentation and hacking process. The support provided is incredible and I would absolutely recommend this to anyone curious about the security field. At first I didn't know if I made the right decision but now I know I did.  The entire staff was bar none second to none!

    I started off as a automotive technician looking to change careers. So I decided to attend a bootcamp so that I could acquire as much knowledge and as quickly as I could. As someone coming into the course with no experience in web development it took me some time to understand it, but I can say with the support that the instructor and TA's gave me I overcame a lot of the struggles I had in the beginning.  Since this is a bootcamp the material will be presented very quick. Be prepared to spend a lot of time reviewing the activities and make sure to ask a lot of questions if the content isn't clear. 
    Overall it was an amazing experience and to look back and realize how much I learned just by taking the course I can say I am thankful I took the leap. One thing I will add is that you get what you put in so make sure you put in your best effort the resources and help they provide will help you make it through.

I am a recent graduate of the CyberSecurity class. Even though I have approx 20yrs of experience it was amazing to see how much there was still to learn. We had a diverse class ranging from those new to IT to those will years of experience. The instructor always kept the class engaged in the topics and pushing us to think outside of the box, to think like an Ethical Hacker. The class starts off showing you the basics and gradually leads you down the rabbit hole of security. We explored forensics and incident response, to building and configuring security appliances. Before we knew it we were learning how to target systems as a penetration tester. If you are considering entering the CyberSecurity field, this is a great place to start. 

Besides having knowledgable instructors we had great TA's that not only provided help and guidance when needed but also made themselves available outside of class time.

This has been, without a doubt, one of the best decisions I've ever made. While simultaneously pursuing an undergrad degree in a field I was slowly losing interest in, I took a leap and decided to try and learn how to code and web development. In short, it reignited my passion for learning. The instructors were amazing, the people were friendly, and the material taught was practical and could always be used in a job-like setting. You learn the fundamentals for what employers are looking for and you build a network of like-minded people to help you tackle any struggles that come your way. Something that was stressed in my class was that who you know is as important as what you know. They made sure students were competitive to employers and were ready to join the workforce right after graduation. Of course, it wasn't a walk in the park, and there are no guarantees. There were sleepless nights and tons of hair-pulling trying to learn and understand how things work. To be honest, I still haven't figured it all out, but I'm still learning and trying to and that's what matters. If you have that inner drive to continuously improve and learn, then this boot camp is a great catalyst to accelerate your future; giving you sought after skills in an exponentially growing industry. Thanks to the people at this boot camp, I've gone from studying towards an English degree with no prior knowledge of coding and development to learning a new skill and eventually landing a job within less than a year.