Vanderbilt University Boot Camps

Since entering the IT field as my second career, I had been struggling to find a path to pursue. After a couple of years of using free materials and tutorials, I decided to set my course on development and make the investment of participating in a structured boot camp. For me, the structure, in-person collaboration, and guidance from experienced developers were very appealing. The Vanderbilt University Coding Boot Camp proved to be the right decision. The instructors and TAs were very supportive and encouraging. The curriculum was challenging yet attainable, and the career services staff provided valuable insight into the hiring process and what recruiters and technical hiring managers are looking for.

My cohort, in particular, was extremely diverse in terms of age, ethnicity, background, and technical experience. Throughout the course, we learned, grew, and sometimes struggled together. Along the way, I ended up fostering some great relationships. In terms of the instruction, my teachers not only taught the provided curriculum with clarity and detail but also provided their personal anecdotes and interactions with the technology. On many occasions, my instructors would teach the class extra concepts and technologies if there was interest and if time allowed. Overall, I would highly recommend this program to anyone considering making a career change or wanting to plant themselves into the developer realm.

I am a single mom of a young daughter and I also have a full time job. I decided to join the boot camp because I wanted a career that I could be proud of and that would allow more flexibility in my schedule. 
During the boot camp, I had to grow parts of my brain that had never been used before. I had to work most nights and weekends, and sometimes I was exhausted. 
But on the flip side, I got to play with creative solutions, make “art” in my designs, and make new friends. I also learned a ton (zero to developer).
 Also, my instructor was amazing- so patient and helpful, and he went far and above his required time to push us through to the end. 
Most importantly,  I got to show myself and my daughter that you can do anything you set your mind to, and that hard work pays off. She and I both had to sacrifice during these 6 months, but it was worth it to show her what dedication looks like. 

I decided to pursue this career path because I wanted to make a career change and knew where I wanted to go but did not have the skills. I hold a Computer Science degree but the coding I learned in college years ago did not stick. After researching bootcamps I felt that there was an opportunity to better learn coding and make a career move. This was such a great experience! I learned new skills and feel that I can take them to the workforce and succeed. I enjoyed the challenges and projects as I felt they gave me a real opportunity to showcase what I learned each module. I would tell any prospective students that this will be a challenge but if you commit to it and devote time to the course you will succeed in it. 

I entered this program a beginner in the field of coding. I am a 47 year old pastor who was looking for something new. I hoped to gain skills to start a new career or to supplement the work that I already do in ministry. I am just past the halfway point in my course, and I have made a huge amount of progress toward those goals.
I chose the Vanderbilt program for several reasons. First, I am a graduate of Vanderbilt with a bachelor's degree in music and a master's degree in Divinity, so I have some loyalty to the school itself. I know what a good quality of education is available through Vandy.
Second, as a full-time pastor, I needed a course that had accessible hours of class. The camp I am in meets two nights a week in class and then  has a much larger portion of the class that I am able to complete on my own time. This takes planning, discipline, and persistence, and so far I have been able to keep up with everything while still working full-time.
It hasn't been easy, and I don't imagine the course would be easy even if it was all I had to do. The material is hard and for a beginner like me much of it is totally foreign. Every week is a new and previously unknown topic. I spend lots of time outside class going through lessons, digging through other Internet resources, and working on assignments.
Sometimes it is really frustrating, although over the course of the past several weeks I have learned to become more comfortable with not knowing everything. That's very different from my previous, more traditional education. This field is one where there is always something new to learn, and there are commonly unforeseen issues that stall completion of projects.
One of the best things about this course is the access I have to help when I hit a roadblock. I have a tutor assigned to me, I have access to the teaching assistants several times per week, and I have access to a 24/7 help system. One thing I had to learn early was not to be too prideful to use these resources. Much of my best learning in the class has been as I worked through trouble spots with these resource people.
The best advice for success I have is, give yourself some grace.  You aren't going to get it immediately, and that's OK. Every week is something brand new. Over time, however, you will be able to look back and be shocked at all the new skills you do have, even if they aren't completely solid yet. 
If you are looking for something new and you are willing to put in the time, this is a great way to learn these new skills.

My Journey to join Vanderbilt University Digital Marketing Boot Camp started with a nudge from an advertising I saw on Instagram and a desire to achieve something during a challenging year !! I read it several times and smiled as imagined myself becoming a digital marketer… Everything about the course description screamed my  name(LORETTA YOU GOTTA DO THIS!!) My current job had transitioned to contractual work due to Covid. I was finishing real estate school and desired a way to stand out with new digital marketing skills. 
Upon joining the class, I was extremely excited but nervous about being able to keep up with the other brilliant minds I began to meet from class. I immediately called the class support team available and asked one simple question…Do you think I can do this? I was bombarded with a YES, YOU CAN from Kate Rogers! My professor, Omar  and his assistant, Joey have poured hours into our class building my confidence with each topic we learn. My favorite has been learning to create “Audience Personas”!! It’s like discovering a hidden talent. Finding out this class is a career path has put a belief inside of me I haven’t felt in years!! As each topic was put together I began to see that I can do this!! I can become a full time or freelance digital marketer! I can help a business grow through all of these skills I’ve gained. 
If I can share some quick advice with anyone reading this I would say communicate your “pain points” early on with the support team and stay on task with due dates of assignments!!! You will find office hours, tutoring, and study groups to be your best resources. Reading the resources before class has also become a best practice of mine. Keep pushing and carve out some time for yourself to learn this new journey. You deserve this kind of joy. 

The Vanderbilt Cyber Security Boot Camp is one of the most engaging educational endeavors I've ever embarked on. From their incredibly knowledgeable staff to their excellent Career Services team, every step of the boot camp felt specifically tailored towards direct current industry best practices and applications. Through this boot camp, I was able to leverage my current IT knowledge and pivot that knowledge towards a securities focus. Several of my classmates who had no experience in IT at all also found a way to leverage their previous experience. The camp is for everyone, but don't let that convince you that it's not thorough. Its fast-paced environment means you're constantly wrangling with architectures, methods, and languages that you may have little to no understanding of, but I found this to be a welcome challenge as opposed to a hindrance. The balance of knowledge that is dispersed in class versus knowledge you're expected to accumulate on your own I feel is very representative of a real-word enterprise environment, setting their students up to excel in the workforce post-gradutation. Their Career Services team is there every step of the way to provide resources, feedback, and even one-on-one career coaching should you need/want it. Overall, I can't say enough good things about this program, and I would recommend it to anyone who's looking to get a strong foundational grasp on the world of cyber security and/or network administration.

I chose to join the digital marketing world to gain a better knowledge and understanding about the impact and influence social media, and other online platforms, has on our daily lives. For about 3 years now, I've been running social media accounts for several small businesses with an occasional email blast, and that's pretty much it. I know there is so much more to digital marketing than just Instagram and Facebook. So I joined Vanderbilt University's Digital Marketing Bootcamp to further my knowledge and really understand everything that goes into digital marketing itself. And boy is there a lot to know!

I love that this program is only 18 weeks long with 3 classes a week. During the week, class doesn't start until the evening so I have plenty of time to come home from work and get settled before. There is 1 class on Saturdays as well, but 3-4 hours on a Saturday is doable for 18 weeks. I also love that there are no quizzes or tests, and instead there is a homework every week and 2 big group projects. There are two very knowledgable TA's that sit through each class with you to jump in to answer questions or explain things more in-depth. They give great real life examples that really help you to understand the material further and apply it in real life situations. 

This bootcamp covers SO much material, but the corresponding homeworks and in-class activities are great in helping me to catch on pretty quickly. My advice to you would be to attend EVERY class. Because they cover so much during each class, you don't want to miss out on any valuable information. I found it helpful to take notes prior to class so that I could pay attention and listen while the instructor is speaking. I have already been able to apply some of what I've learned to real life situations; including confidently giving someone advice on best SEO practices for their website (which I knew absolutely nothing about before)! Overall, I would definitely recommend this class to anyone who is looking to explore the digital marketing world, or to just further their knowledge and understanding of digital marketing. 

I decided to pursue a career in Tech after many years in the service industry. When I learned about this coding bootcamp I signed up almost immediately and knew it would be a great investment for my future. My favorite aspect of the program is how much we covered in the 24 weeks, and the amount of support I had when running into issues and tackling a new learning curve. If you're thinking about joining this bootcamp, I say DO IT, but be prepared for long hours and lots of brain-bending learning, it is not for the faint of heart! I don't regret a single minute of it.

Learning how to code can be daunting. Where do I start? All of this content online is overwhelming. Coming from a background in retail these are the things I would ask myself when I was going the self-taught route. I tried to teach myself how to code for a few months and when something got hard or I didn't understand a topic I would constantly change up tutorials and never make any progress. Then I came across the Vanderbilt Bootcamp on a google ad and it piqued my interest. I read tons of reviews, forums,  and watched many videos trying to get insight into what a Bootcamp is like.  So I took a gamble and signed up. I can honestly say have no regrets about that decision. From the get-go, the Student success manager makes you feel welcome and keeps you well informed of the logistics of the program.  Everything is laid out for you.  You must put in the work in and outside of class. This program is great at starting you with the basics of programming and working in the full-stack. There is a lot of content in the world being utilized so they have to go over so many different techs that's why you must do your part and take it further outside of class. Don't sign up if you just want a certificate. Do sign up if you have a passion for this field and want to make a career change. The biggest difference "to me" with being self-taught and taking this course is the constant onslaught of homework and projects. The best way to learn how to code is to build projects!  This course kept me accountable week after week with implementing new technologies into projects with a due date. Having classmates struggle with me and succeed with me was also worth every dollar I spent. I feel our cohort who went through tornadoes and coronavirus obstacles have become life long friends. The instructors and the Teacher assistant's want to see you succeed in this program, and I continue to seek their advice now outside of graduation.  That is invaluable to me. So now after 6 months, I have no reservations about applying to a job with the title web-developer. I now feel confident in my abilities to begin a new life in this industry. I highly recommend this program if you have a true passion to learn how to code. 

This course lasted 6 months and was a firehose of information. If you can keep up with the rapid pace, you will learn the basics of HTML, CSS, Javascript/JQuery, Node, Express, SQL, MongoDB, Handlebars, React and programming fundamentals. There is not much in the way of in-depth instruction for each of these topics, but you will gain some small experience in each. By the end you will have a portfolio of web pages to display your newly gained skills. Teacher support is generally good with each class having an Instructor and 2 TAs. After graduation, career services are offered to help you with your resume, LinkedIn profile, interview coaching, etc.
 

The course was structured, pretty good lesson plan, a mental challenge and a coding workout.  Started good, engaging in the middle, but the last 3 to 5 weeks were very disappointing.  It was as if the curriculum director took personal time off with c#(c-sharp).  Students and instructors were both dog paddling in the deep end, barely covering anything useful.  This was really the only disappointment.  We still have one more lecture and final projects.

I would recommend the course to anyone interested in a career in application development.

Before this bootcamp, I was taking online video courses on the basics of front end web development and putting in around 10-15 hours a week, and getting some real skills that felt like I could actually take this hobby and make it a career. All of those hopes went down the drain when I saw what employers are asking, even of an entry level junior dev. 

I wanted to find a bootcamp that would enhance my front end skills and drag me out of my comfort zone and into the scary world of full stack development.

And boy was it uncomfortable. In the best way possible.

Looking back 6 months and seeing the breadth of knowledge that myself and my fellow developers have gained, I can say without hesitation that this bootcamp was the right decision for me. 

Despite the financial and employment hesitations I had before committing to this class, I am coming out on the other side confident that I have real marketable value and will be able to make a fun and fulfilling career out of web development. 

If you are considering this or any other bootcamp, know that for every hour I spent in class, I spent two or thee outside grinding on homework, projects and additional content. It is difficult to balance work, life, class and homework. It is frustrating at times. You will have doubts. But if development is something you can spend hours doing and still don't want to quit the next day, then take the dive. 

I'm so thankful that I did.

Shout outs to all of the teaching staff, both instructors and TAs. They led us through a difficult and jam packed course with a sense of humor and humility that kept us grounded.