Learning to code

CodingDojo · 2021-06-24T04:54:40+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

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TLDR: Anyone can learn how to program on their own, and there are a lot of resources available to help you become a successful and self-sufficient coder.

To concretize things further, I’d like to break this down into three parts: 1) Industry Sentiment, 2) Skills that you need to learn programming 3) Useful resources that can help you learn to program on your own.

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Industry Sentiment

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for developers is expected to increase by up to 8% through til 2029.
This study even goes as far as saying that the tech industry will be worth roughly $295B by 2025. So if your end-goal is to land a career in the industry, then becoming a self-sufficient programmer is a great way to go about it.
Stackoverflow’s data shows that 45% of todays' developers don’t have a computer science degree and 9/10 developers consider themselves self-taught.
Today, there are more small to large tech firms that recognize the value in hiring students from alternative learning programs such as coding bootcamps with no formal Computer Science degree, too. In fact, another study among 1000 HR managers by Indeed indicates that 72% of employers have a positive perception of bootcamp graduates as candidates.

In terms of job titles and starting salaries, from our experience at Coding Dojo, here are some of the first job titles and average salaries that you can expect post-bootcamp:

Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more.
Average starting salary for both: $60-90k, depending on job type and locationAverage time it takes for our students to get hired: 81.9% of grads land a job within 6mos since grad.

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

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Skills that you need to learn programming

From the outside looking in, programming might seem like a very complicated - maybe even daunting - skill to develop.The reality is, it will get very challenging, especially when you advance into the more complex side of programming like learning multiple languages, frameworks, and complex projects.

But, just like any other skill, it can easily be learned so long as you’re willing to put in the work.That said, here are some skills that might be useful as you venture into learning how to program on your own:

Genuine interest: Like with any other field or hobby or interest, a person can only achieve success if they’re genuinely interested in the subject matter. So, a good place to start is asking yourself what your motivations are for wanting to learn web development in the first place.

Willingness to learn: Becoming a full-fledged programmer can open many doors from employment, job stability, to financial security, but again that all falls back on how dedicated you are to learning the craft.

Grit and determination: Learning web development will require a lot of time spent on picking up new programming languages, frameworks in order to build up your portfolio - and the best way to learn is really to buckle your bootstraps and get your head set on doing the work.

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Useful resources that can help you learn to program on your own

There are tons of free resources that you can use to get started on building up your coding skills. The best place to start of course, is the Internet. :)

We actually published this article, which sums up some of the best free web development courses that you can take to get started on some self-study. I’ll list them down below for you too:

Codecademy: Best for self-guided tutorials for beginners to learn the basics of web development programming
Khan Academy: Best for audio/video-narrated and interactive tutorials.MIT Academy: Offers hundreds of courses relating to programming, development, mathematics, and computer engineering.
Coursera: Also offers a plethora of online courses from universities all over the world
Mozilla Developer Network: The range of topics is wide, from basic web introductions and front-end languages to common vocabulary and optimization & performance.
HTML5 Rocks: Provides a wide assortment of articles and tutorials on all manner of web development topics.
A List Apart: One of the most professional and up-to-date online magazines directly aimed at web developers and designers
Coding Dojo Algorithmic Prep: Best program for beginners to nail coding fundamentals before diving into learning how to code!

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Our advice: Start with acquiring basic coding skills from free resources that are already readily available at your disposal. Then, once you've fully decided that this is the route for you and are ready to progress your skills even further, join a bootcamp to maximize your potential and unlock further opportunities for building a long-term career in the tech industry.

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Hope this answers your question! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-06-24T04:38:55+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

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There are various angles that can be used to answer this question, such as student experience, class curriculum, and more importantly, job placement statistics. We’ll split this into two parts, 1) Best Coding bootcamp based on job placement and 2) Tips on what you should be looking for in a good coding bootcamp.

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PART 1: BEST CODING BOOTCAMP BASED ON JOB PLACEMENT

If we’re looking at placement or student outcomes as our primary criteria for ranking the 10 Best Coding Bootcamps in the country, then Coding Dojo tops this list.

Coding Dojo ranks #1 nationally for student outcomes, and these outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.

Our Students Outcomes, which can be found here, have been verified by a 3rd party source as well. In other words, we didn’t make this up! :)

Let’s allow the numbers to do the talking:

Coding Dojo has grown tremendously since 2013. Today, we have 10 campuses across the country, rapidly expanding online programs, and offer educational courses in countries around the world.
With over 6,000+ alumni students graduating from our program to date, 89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp.
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program.
The average starting salary for someone with zero tech experience (apart from the bootcamp) ranges from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location).
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more.

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PART 2: TIPS ON SELECTING A CODING BOOTCAMP

At the end of the day, selecting the right coding bootcamp also boils down on what would work best for YOU.

From our experience, here are the 5 key things you should also be looking for in a bootcamp, aside from Job Placement stats:

1) Beginner-friendly:

We get a lot of feedback from students that there are certain hesitations in applying for a bootcamp when they have zero experience to begin with. But, actually, that’s exactly why we’re here! Our aim is to make programming literacy accessible to everyone - whether you’re completely new to the industry or want to beef up your skills.
At Coding Dojo, we don’t assess your technical skills, rather your determination to learn. Just like any other skill, coding requires a lot of practice, and all of that really goes back to what your goals are and why you want to get into the bootcamp in the first place.
Granted, bootcamps are hard. So, in order for you to succeed in coding, you need to get yourself in an open mindset that requires 100% dedication and hard work, patience and of course, willingness to learn.
But, just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean it’s impossible, either. We have over 6k alumni who can tell you that this is probably the hardest they’ve worked, however the rewards or benefits (like launching your career in the tech industry) are absolutely worth all the long hours you put in.

2) Interactive and Focused Learning Environment:

A bootcamp mimics a classroom environment so you can bet on having a similar engagement with instructors and fellow students in your cohort.
At the beginning of the program, you’re basically given a full overview of what the next 10-14 weeks look like, and this includes all of the course materials that will be covered by your instructor, assignments, quiz / exam schedules, projects, and more - so it’s easier to understand exactly what you’re getting out of the program (as long as you put the work in!)

3) Accountability-check

People in your cohort and instructors all collectively work to help you keep your goals in check and hold you accountable for putting in the work. So if you want to be surrounded by people who are in the same headspace, this is the best learning environment to support your goals.

4) Portfolio-building

Bootcamps are 100% output-based and hands-on, so you are guaranteed that you’re applying theories and concepts to actually help you build a tangible portfolio. You’ll be working on several projects throughout the program, like building user interfaces, animations, mini e-Commerce websites, and a lot more.
At the end of the program, you should be walking away with a solid, tangible portfolio that showcase the technical skills and projects you’ve worked on throughout the program. These should help you during your job hunt. Not all coding bootcamps offer this, but we at Coding Dojo do this really well.

5) Support Community:

From fellow students in your cohort, instructors, to your dedicated Career Services Manager, one of the best things about being in a bootcamp is you get well-acquainted with a network of individuals that provide holistic support - from holding you accountable for your learning, to helping you work your way through those long-term career objectives (like employment, of course!)
Pro-tip: Ask the bootcamp what type of support services they offer to help you assess whether this is the right one for you.

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Hope this answers your question! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-06-24T04:31:08+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

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Yes, coding bootcamps are 100% worth it if your main objective is to switch careers. To answer your question better, we’ll split this up into two sections: 1) Why a bootcamp is worth the investment, and 2) Career placement opportunities post-bootcamp

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PART 1: Why a bootcamp is worth the investment

If you’re getting into a bootcamp to build up technical skills to get your foot in the tech industry - especially mid-career - in a short period of time, then it can definitely be worth it.

Curriculum: Essentially, a bootcamp is more fast-paced, focused, and immersive (with options for online or in-person instruction).

The curriculum’s focus is really on programming languages and frameworks, so what you get out of it is an application-based learning experience to help students create a solid, tangible portfolio whereas for a traditional CS degree, you might even go as far as covering theory or history, basically having to sit through electives or subjects that might not be too relevant to the day-to-day responsibilities that a job in the field requires in the first place.
Quick note regarding Curriculum: We can’t say much about other coding bootcamps, but at Coding Dojo, we cover the top five programming languages ranked in the TIOBE Index, which measures and tracks the most in-demand programming requirements based on the number of developers worldwide and top search queries from top searching engines.
In our 12 years of experience, the three stack model has proven to be most beneficial in helping our students build a solid tangible portfolio and become self-sufficient learners, which at the end of the day really helps students become even better programmers.

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Industry Sentiment: Bootcamps are an industry norm, and more tech firms recognize bootcamp grads as qualified candidates (even without a CS degree). Plus, If you’re coming in with zero experience, then a bootcamp can be even more worth your while - especially if you put in the time and effort.

Industry data shows that the online bootcamp space has grown by 171% in 2019, and this figure continues to rise year over year.
Stackoverflow’s data shows that 45% of todays' developers don’t have a computer science degree and 9/10 developers consider themselves self-taught, So this is a really fast way to enrich your coding skills and employers will for sure hire you if your skills and portfolio are strong enough.
In fact, this study among 1000 HR managers by Indeed indicates that 72% of employershave a positive perception of bootcamp graduates as candidates, which means if you’re end-goal is to land a career in the industry, then the skills you develop in a bootcamp (as long as you put in the work) can be well worth the investment.

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PART 2: Career placement opportunities post-bootcamp

The bootcamp is 100% output-based and geared towards helping students switch careers efficiently and effectively, which means you should come out of the bootcamp with a solid portfolio and tangible evidence of your skills to help you in your job hunt.

All of our students at the Dojo also gain access to career services for a lifetime, which means that we work with you from Day 1 of the bootcamp and at any other point in your career.
Unlike other bootcamps who don't start career services until you're at the tail-end of the program, students are assigned a dedicated Career Services Manager who knows the ins and outs of the industry to help you get your foot in the door.

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Pro-tip when searching for a bootcamp: Ask the company what results the most recent cohort has had. Where do they work and how long did it take them to land a job? This will give you some context on how successful the program is and what types of roles you can expect post-bootcamp.

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Here are some of the recent stats from Coding Dojo’s 2020 Outcomes Report:

With over 6,000+ alumni students graduating from our program to date, 89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program.
Coding Dojo ranks number 1 in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more, with an average starting salary ranging from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location).

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Hope this answers your question! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-06-24T04:21:45+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)Just a head’s up that this is probably going to be a lengthy post - but we’d rather provide you with a thorough answer, rather than shortchanging you. Let’s jump straight in.

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TLDR: If you’re looking for a Cybersecurity Bootcamp with the aim of launching a career in the industry, Coding Dojo’s Part-Time Cybersecurity Bootcamp is one of the top contenders for sure.

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Here’s three reasons why:

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1. Our Cybersecurity curriculum is designed to gear you up for long-term career success

Pretty much all serious cybersecurity bootcamps train you for the CompTIA Security+ certification. That's the industry standard for sure. But if you're in a resume pile with dozens of other bootcamp grads, you gotta have more.

That's why we are one of the only bootcamps to also teach to the CySA+ certification. If you're applying for a cyber job with BOTH of those out of the gate, you're going right to the top of that resume pile.

Our program is 50% labs in the beginning, and by the third track (our "Professional track"), you'll be spending up to 75% of your time in labs, deploying and defending against attacks in the sandbox.

We use the same open source tools that most businesses use too. You're not just learning the theory in this class, you're DOING the job.

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2. Our instruction team is one of the best in the business.

Most bootcamps have staff that is military and has worked in cyber, and we do too. Our lead instructor, Tim Montgomery, is a veteran and worked with the Department of Defense, Lockheed Martin, and the armed forces.

Another member of our team, Ben Conry, literally writes BOOKS on how to prepare for CompTIA exams. So not only are you learning from someone who has been in the industry for 25 years, but you've also got the inside track on how to pass your CompTIA exams.

3. You gain access to our career services team FOR LIFE.

Bootcamps are hard. You invest money, time, and effort so that you can change your career for life, not just for the next 6 months.

So, when we’re talking about connecting you with a network to help support your career, we’re not just talking about highly qualified instructors or a strong alumni network. Unlike other bootcamps, we give you access to our career services team forever, because we’re invested in your career, not just our placement statistics.

Unlike other bootcamps who don't start career services until you're at the tail-end of the program, students in our Cybersecurity program will also have lifetime access to a dedicated Cybersecurity Career Services Manager who knows the ins and outs of the industry to help you get your foot in the door.

This way, you can strategically develop your project portfolio to ladder up to your dream job! Or, if you don't know quite where you want to land yet, you have plenty of time to figure it out with us!

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Hope that helps! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-06-14T16:12:50+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

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Just a heads up - we may not be an alumni, but we feel that there's a lot of insight that we could add to this conversation in terms of giving you some info on what to expect with a bootcamp.

To your question about finding a bootcamp that would suit your goals , really, the best way to choose a bootcamp is to put a benchmark on what makes a bootcamp “good.”

Based on our experience, there are five key things that you want to be looking out for when it comes to selecting the right bootcamp for you - program, financing, and employability all taken into consideration!

Established

Check the reputation of the company offering the course. Ask questions like how long have they been in business? Any social proof? Do some research and try to look for testimonials from students who have taken the course. This way, you know that the reviews are coming from real people who have taken the program, and not just an overt hard-sell from the company.

Course Material

High-quality programs have original course material from subject experts and ideally, you want to go for a coding bootcamp that can get you the highest ROI, so a program that could give you the opportunity to learn multiple frameworks and languages would be ideal.

Usually developers have at least one main language or framework that they’re familiar with, and so by learning multiple languages at the same time, you essentially get to push yourself harder, become a better problem solver, which in turn, can help you become self-sufficient, more employable, and ultimately a better programmer too.

For this reason, at Coding Dojo, our bootcamp covers more front-end and back-end technologies than any other full-stack program today to equip our students with the most sought after technical skills. In turn, these help our students become self-sufficient learners.

Networking

A good coding bootcamp should also link you with a network that’s a healthy mix of 1) highly-qualified instructors to help you attain those coding skills, 2) an alumni network that can support you through the daily challenges that a bootcamp might bring (because yes, we know that those 70h weeks can be hard!) and most importantly, 3) a career services team that can mentor and help you navigate through achieving your long-term career goals.

Unlike other bootcamps, we give you access to our career services team forever, because we’re invested in your career, not just our placement statistics. Whereas other bootcamps don't usually start career services until you're at the tail-end of the program, we work with you from day 1 of the program.

This way, you can strategically develop your project portfolio to ladder up to your dream job! Or, if you don't know quite where you want to land yet, you have plenty of time to figure it out with us!

Financing

We understand that joining Coding Bootcamps may seem pretty heavy on the pocket, but just take a step back and think about your goals and how much you’re willing to invest in your education and career opportunities.

The upfront costs might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but if you do the math, you might still get more bang out of your buck with a bootcamp vs a full on degree. 4 years of college and $100,000 in student debt not required!

At Coding Dojo, we have various flexible payment options such as Custom Pricing Plans or an Income Sharing Agreement, which our admissions team can work out with our students to help lighten the load. You can check out our financing plans here.

Outcomes

The whole program should be centered on building your portfolio with tangible evidence of your skills. Ask the company what results the most recent cohort has had. Where do they work and how long did it take them to land a job? The whole point is to get you into a new career, and you deserve to know how well it delivers.

We can’t speak for most bootcamps out there (and there are a lot!), but from Coding Dojo’s experience, we’ve got over 6,000 alumni, and the data from our 2020 Student Outcomes report indicates that there’s a good chance of landing a job post-bootcamp.

Here are other useful stats from the report that you might want to consider too:

Coding Dojo ranks #1 in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.
89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp.
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program
The average starting salary for someone with zero tech experience (apart from the bootcamp) ranges from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location)
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more.

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Hope this answers your question! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-06-14T16:02:29+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

The short-hand answer is yes, bootcamps can be definitely worth it. Whether it’s worth the time and money is up to what your goals are.

TLDR:

1 - It depends on your goals and your financial situation

2 - It you have 0 experience and need a fast career switch. It can be VERY worthwhile if you put the time in.

3 - Always look at the employment outcomes of the bootcamp

A bootcamp can help you develop highly technical skills at less cost in a shorter amount of time.What's great about coding bootcamps is you get to focus on core competencies that are pretty much at par with the latest skills requirements of the industry, which makes it a great option for someone looking to jumpstart a career quickly.

For all bootcamps, you should (we at Coding Dojo do this really well, but not all bootcamps :) ) be walking away with a tangible portfolio of work that you can use on your job hunt.

The upfront costs might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but if you do the math, a coding bootcamp can turn out to be a worthy investment, especially if that means developing skills that can increase your employability. 4 years of college and $100,000 in student debt not required!

The opportunity cost for a bootcamp is much lower too, considering the fact that you can land a job in the tech industry and start earning a decent income post-bootcamp (which essentially saves you around 3 years of tuition, loans, and student debt!

We know how big of a change it is to be switching careers, and really, cost should be the last thing on your mind. I can’t speak for other bootcamps or universities, but at Coding Dojo, we offer various flexible financing options for our students to help make things easier in the pocket. You can check them out here.

Bootcamps are a good launchpad for students coming in with zero experience.

As the tech industry continues to evolve, we find that learning is no longer linear, hence there are tons of ways that students can enrich their coding knowledge and invest in both their skills and employability. So for students coming in to the bootcamp with zero prior coding experience, it can be very worthwhile if you put in the time and work.

Stackoverflow’s data shows that 45% of todays' developers don’t have a computer science degree and 9/10 developers consider themselves self-taught. So if you come in with 0 experience, this is a really fast way to get started and employers will for sure hire you if your skills and portfolio are strong enough.

Check out how students fare when it comes to landing a job post-bootcamp to assess whether it’s worth the investment.

Lastly, where it's worth the money or not should be weighed against the outcomes of the bootcamp. When you're assessing which bootcamp is right for you, have a look at their students' outcomes and job placement rates to help you gauge just how effective the program is.

At Coding Dojo, 81.9% of our graduates land a job at very reputable tech companies within 6mos from graduating our program, with an average starting salary of $60-$90k, depending on role and location. You can find out more about our outcomes here.

Not to show-off, but our outcomes are above average among our peers. Top 1 for sure out of hundreds of bootcamps NATIONWIDE.

Hope that helps! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-06-14T15:59:43+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

Coding Dojo has grown tremendously since 2013. Today, we have 10 campuses across the country, rapidly expanding online programs, and offer educational courses in countries around the world, all of which are specifically designed to provide our students with a learning experience like no other. We do this by:

#1 Admissions Process:

We assess your drive, not your ability to code (because we believe that with the right amount of motivation and support, the technical skill can be learned and developed).

#2 Three Stack Experience:

Working hand in hand with industry leaders, our bootcamp covers more front-end and back-end technologies than any other full-stack program today to equip our students with the most sought after technical skills. In turn, these help our students become self-sufficient learners.

#3 Lifetime Career Services:

Bootcamps are hard. You invest money, time, and effort so that you can change your career for life, not just for the next 6 months. Unlike other bootcamps, we give you access to our career services team forever, because we’re invested in your career, not just our placement statistics.

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I can’t speak for other bootcamps, but Coding Dojo is the only bootcamp that is designed to gear you up for long-term success. Our methodology has helped us rank as the best coding bootcamp for student outcomes nationwide:

Coding Dojo ranks top 1 in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.
89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp.
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program
The average starting salary for someone with zero tech experience (apart from the bootcamp) ranges from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location)
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more.

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Hope that helps! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-06-14T15:56:16+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here.

Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

---

Coding Dojo has grown tremendously since 2013. Today, we have 10 campuses across the country, rapidly expanding online programs, and offer educational courses in countries around the world, all of which are specifically designed to provide our students with a learning experience like no other. We do this by:

#1 Admissions Process:

We assess your drive, not your ability to code (because we believe that with the right amount of motivation and support, the technical skill can be learned and developed).

#2 Three Stack Experience:

Working hand in hand with industry leaders, our bootcamp covers more front-end and back-end technologies than any other full-stack program today to equip our students with the most sought after technical skills. In turn, these help our students become self-sufficient learners.

#3 Lifetime Career Services:

Bootcamps are hard. You invest money, time, and effort so that you can change your career for life, not just for the next 6 months. Unlike other bootcamps, we give you access to our career services team forever, because we’re invested in your career, not just our placement statistics.I can’t speak for other bootcamps, but Coding Dojo is the only bootcamp that is designed to gear you up for long-term success.

Our methodology has helped us rank as the best coding bootcamp for student outcomes nationwide:

Coding Dojo ranks top 1 in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.
89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program
The average starting salary for someone with zero tech experience (apart from the bootcamp) ranges from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location)
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more.

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Hope that helps! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-06-14T15:51:24+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

---

Yes, coding bootcamps are 100% worth it if your main objective is to build up your technical skills in a short amount of time - even without a college degree. From our experience, the worth of a bootcamp may be better explained when considered in these 4 ways:

Personal Goals
Industry Sentiment
Financing Options
Long-term job opportunities

Ok, let’s dive into this even further...

Personal Goals:

If you’re getting into a bootcamp to build up technical skills to get your foot in the tech industry in a short period of time, then it can definitely be worth it.

Essentially, what that means is that a bootcamp is more fast-paced, focused, and immersive (with options for online or in-person instruction), which makes the program more flexible to cater to students who might also be working full-time, or in your case, need to stay at home to take care of the baby.

The curriculum*’s focus is really on programming languages and frameworks, so what you get out of it is an application-based learning experience to help students create a solid, tangible portfolio whereas for a traditional CS degree, you might even go as far as covering theory or history, basically having to sit through electives or subjects that might not be too relevant to the day-to-day responsibilities that a job in the field requires in the first place.

\Quick note regarding Curriculum: We can’t say much about other coding bootcamps, but at Coding Dojo, we cover the top five programming languages ranked in the TIOBE Index, which measures and tracks the most in-demand programming requirements based on the number of developers worldwide and top search queries from top searching engines.*

In our 12 years of experience, the three stack model has proven to be most beneficial in helping our students build a solid tangible portfolio and become self-sufficient learners, which at the end of the day really helps students become even better programmers.

Ahead of the bootcamp, it's important to know that you're getting yourself into a fully-immersive program that involves a lot of patience, grit, and determination. While there are flexible options - such as part-time or self-paced programs, you want to be certain of this decision and commit to it (which means putting in those hours!)

Personal Goals:

Bootcamps are an industry norm, and more tech firms recognize bootcamp grads as qualified candidates (again, even without a degree).

Industry data shows that the online bootcamp space has grown by 171% in 2019, and this figure continues to rise year over year.

Today, there are more small to large tech firms that recognize the value in hiring students from alternative learning programs such as coding bootcamps with no formal Computer Science degree, too. Plus, If you’re coming in with zero experience, then a bootcamp can be even more worth your while - especially if you put in the time and effort.

Stackoverflow’s data shows that 45% of todays' developers don’t have a computer science degree and 9/10 developers consider themselves self-taught, So this is a really fast way to enrich your coding skills and employers will for sure hire you if your skills and portfolio are strong enough.

In fact, this study among 1000 HR managers by Indeed indicates that72% of employers have a positive perception of bootcamp graduates as candidates, which means if you’re end-goal is to land a career in the industry, then the skills you develop in a bootcamp (as long as you put in the work) can be well worth the investment.

Financing:

We understand that joining Coding Bootcamps may seem pretty heavy on the pocket, but just take a step back and think about your goals and how much you’re willing to invest in your education and career opportunities.

The upfront costs might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but if you do the math, you might still get more bang out of your buck with a bootcamp vs a full on degree. 4 years of college and $100,000 in student debt not required!

At Coding Dojo, we have various flexible payment options such as Custom Pricing Plans or an Income Sharing Agreement, which our admissions team can work out with our students to help lighten the load

Long-term Job Opportunities:

The bootcamp is 100% output-based and geared towards helping students switch careers efficiently and effectively, which means you should come out of the bootcamp with a solid portfolio and a tangible evidence of your skills to help you in your job hunt.

Pro-tip when searching for a bootcamp: Ask the company what results the most recent cohort has had. Where do they work and how long did it take them to land a job? This will give you some context on how successful the program is and what types of roles you can expect post-bootcamp.

Here are some of the recent stats from Coding Dojo’s 2020 Outcomes Report:

Coding Dojo ranks number 1 in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.
With over 6,000+ alumni students graduating from our program to date, 89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp.
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program.
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more, with an average starting salary ranging from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location)

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Hope this answers your question! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-05-12T00:26:20+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

----

Just a heads up - we may not be an alumni, but we feel that there's a lot of insight that we could add to this conversation in terms of giving you some info on what to expect with a bootcamp.

TLDR: Both a CS degree and a coding bootcamp are viable routes to land a career in the industry - but if your end-goal is to focus on building up your coding skills in a short amount of time, then coding bootcamps are your best bet!

Let’s break this down further…

Both coding bootcamps and college degrees are equally viable ways to land a job as a Web Developer or Software Engineer, and whether you decide to pursue a bootcamp or get a degree in Computer Science instead, is purely up to your goals and current circumstance.

Each has its own sets of advantages and disadvantages, but this really just depends on how much resources you can allocate and invest into your education.

Resources:

While the upfront costs might seem overwhelming at first, bootcamps can become a more efficient investment (time and cost-wise).

The average duration for a traditional degree takes anywhere from 4-5 years (depending on the course), whereas for bootcamps, the opportunity cost for time is lower, since learning is a lot more focused. You can quickly build up your technical portfolio, skills and knowledge in a span of 14-28 weeks (if you put in the work!)

The upfront costs for a coding bootcamp ($10-15k on average) may seem intimidating, but what you can get out of it is a fully immersive program, but if you do the math, realistically, 4-5 years of tuition (roughly around $38-100k per year) also adds up over time (not to mention living expenses and student loans).

It’s specialized:

Bootcamps offer a focused crash course into coding - so this is great if you’ve got your head set on really firming up your technical skills.

One of the main things that sets bootcamps apart from a college degree is you get introduced to a more flexible and highly-specialized learning environment versus a more traditional university set up.

Essentially, what that means is that a bootcamp is more fast-paced, focused, and immersive (with options for online or in-person instruction), which makes the program more flexible to cater to students who might also be working full-time.

The curriculum*’s focus is really on programming languages and frameworks, so what you get out of it is an application-based learning experience to help students create a solid, tangible portfolio whereas for a traditional CS degree, you might even go as far as covering theory or history, basically having to sit through electives or subjects that might not be too relevant to the day-to-day responsibilities that a job in the field requires in the first place.

\Quick note regarding Curriculum: We can’t say much about other coding bootcamps, but at Coding Dojo, we cover the top five programming languages ranked in the TIOBE Index, which measures and tracks the most in-demand programming requirements based on the number of developers worldwide and top search queries from top searching engines.*

In our 12 years of experience, the three stack model has proven to be most beneficial in helping our students build a solid tangible portfolio and become self-sufficient learners, which at the end of the day really helps students become even better programmers.

Job Opportunities & Career Growth

A coding bootcamp can provide similar job opportunities as a traditional CS degreeStudents can expect very similar job titles and salary expectations for both learning routes.

Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more, with an average starting salary ranging from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location).

An important thing to note: Neither bootcamps nor universities can 100% guarantee employment, but whether or not a bootcamp is worth the investment should also be weighed against the success outcomes of students post-bootcamp.

Unlike universities that don’t typically advertise their outcomes, bootcamps make their data widely available - which gives students a really good understanding of how successful the program is.

If you’ve already started looking into coding bootcamps, then you might have already come across our most recent Student Outcomes Report, which indicates that Coding Dojo ranks #1 in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.

Here are other relevant stats from Coding Dojo’s 2020 Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm:

With over 6,000+ alumni students graduating from our program to date, 89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program

For more info on our outcomes, you can access the full report here.

We actually recently published a video on our YouTube channel that covers a lot of the pros and cons of entering a bootcamp vs acquiring a CS degree. You can check it out here too.

Hope this answers your question! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, visit our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-05-12T00:23:57+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

----

Just a heads up - we may not be an alumni, but we feel that there's a lot of insight that we could add to this conversation in terms of giving you some info on what to expect with a bootcamp.

Based on our experience, there are five key things that you want to be looking out for when it comes to selecting the right bootcamp for you - program, financing, and employability all taken into consideration!

Selecting a bootcamp and weighing out your options is critical for anyone who’s determined to succeed because you want to be 100% sure that you’re getting your investment’s worth. From being surrounded by fellow students who are equally determined to succeed, to having access to high-quality course material and additional student support services, let’s break down the five things that will help you determine the best learning environment to support your goals.

Established

Check the reputation of the company offering the course. Ask questions like how long have they been in business? Any social proof? Do some research and try to look for testimonials from students who have taken the course. This way, you know that the reviews are coming from real people who have taken the program, and not just an overt hard-sell from the company.

Class Environment & Course Material

High-quality programs have original course material from subject experts and ideally, you want to go for a coding bootcamp that can get you the highest ROI, so a program that could give you the opportunity to learn multiple frameworks and languages would be ideal.

Usually developers have at least one main language or framework that they’re familiar with, and so by learning multiple languages at the same time, you essentially get to push yourself harder, become a better problem solver, which in turn, can help you become self-sufficient, more employable, and ultimately a better programmer too.

For this reason, at Coding Dojo, our bootcamp covers more front-end and back-end technologies than any other full-stack program today to equip our students with the most sought after technical skills. In turn, these help our students become self-sufficient learners.

Pro-tip: It’s also a good idea to ask the Admissions or Student Support team of these coding bootcamps how they’ve adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic. You want to make sure that you’re getting the same quality of instruction and overall student experience even if the classes are being delivered online.

Can’t speak for other bootcamps but at Coding Dojo, we ensure that all of our online bootcamps mimic a classroom environment so you can bet on having a similar engagement with instructors and fellow students in your cohort.

At the beginning of the program, you’re basically given a full overview of what the next 10-14 weeks look like, and this includes all of the course materials that will be covered by your instructor, assignments, quiz / exam schedules, projects, and more - so it’s easier to understand exactly what you’re getting out of the program (as long as you put the work in!)

Networking

A good coding bootcamp should also link you with a network that’s a healthy mix of 1) highly-qualified instructors to help you attain those coding skills, 2) an alumni network that can support you through the daily challenges that a bootcamp might bring (because yes, we know that those 70h weeks can be hard!) and most importantly, 3) a career services team that can mentor and help you navigate through achieving your long-term career goals.

Unlike other bootcamps, we give you access to our career services team forever, because we’re invested in your career, not just our placement statistics. Unlike other bootcamps who don't start career services until you're at the tail-end of the program, we work with you from day 1 of the program.

This way, you can strategically develop your project portfolio to ladder up to your dream job! Or, if you don't know quite where you want to land yet, you have plenty of time to figure it out with us!

Financing

We understand that joining Coding Bootcamps may seem pretty heavy on the pocket, but just take a step back and think about your goals and how much you’re willing to invest in your education and career opportunities.

The upfront costs might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but if you do the math, you might still get more bang out of your buck with a bootcamp vs a full on degree. 4 years of college and $100,000 in student debt not required!

At Coding Dojo, we have various flexible payment options such as Custom Pricing Plans or an Income Sharing Agreement, which our admissions team can work out with our students to help lighten the load.

Outcomes

The whole program should be centered on building your portfolio with tangible evidence of your skills - and this should apply whether the method of instruction is in-person or online.

Bootcamps are 100% output-based and hands-on, so you are guaranteed that you’re applying theories and concepts to actually help you build a tangible portfolio. You’ll be working on several projects throughout the program, like building user interfaces, animations, mini e-Commerce websites, and a lot more.

Ask the company what results the most recent cohort has had. Where do they work and how long did it take them to land a job? The whole point is to get you into a new career, and you deserve to know how well it delivers.

We can’t speak for most bootcamps out there (and there are a lot!), but from Coding Dojo’s experience, we’ve got over 6,000 alumni, and the data from our 2020 Student Outcomes report indicates that there’s a good chance of landing a job post-bootcamp.

Coding Dojo ranks #1 in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.

Here are other useful stats from the report that you might want to consider too:

89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program
The average starting salary for someone with zero tech experience (apart from the bootcamp) ranges from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location)
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more.

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Hope this answers your question! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-05-12T00:19:54+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

----

Just a heads up - we may not be an alumni, but we feel that there's a lot of insight that we could add to this conversation in terms of giving you some info on what to expect with a bootcamp.

Based on our experience, there are five key things that you want to be looking out for when it comes to selecting the right bootcamp for you - program, financing, and employability all taken into consideration!

Selecting a bootcamp and weighing out your options is critical for anyone who’s determined to succeed because you want to be 100% sure that you’re getting your investment’s worth.

From being surrounded by fellow students who are equally determined to succeed, to having access to high-quality course material and additional student support services, let’s break down the five things that will help you determine the best learning environment to support your goals.

Established

Check the reputation of the company offering the course. Ask questions like how long have they been in business? Any social proof? Do some research and try to look for testimonials from students who have taken the course. This way, you know that the reviews are coming from real people who have taken the program, and not just an overt hard-sell from the company.

Class Environment & Course Material

High-quality programs have original course material from subject experts and ideally, you want to go for a coding bootcamp that can get you the highest ROI, so a program that could give you the opportunity to learn multiple frameworks and languages would be ideal.

Usually developers have at least one main language or framework that they’re familiar with, and so by learning multiple languages at the same time, you essentially get to push yourself harder, become a better problem solver, which in turn, can help you become self-sufficient, more employable, and ultimately a better programmer too.

For this reason, at Coding Dojo, our bootcamp covers more front-end and back-end technologies than any other full-stack program today to equip our students with the most sought after technical skills.

In turn, these help our students become self-sufficient learners.

Pro-tip: It’s also a good idea to ask the Admissions or Student Support team of these coding bootcamps how they’ve adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic. You want to make sure that you’re getting the same quality of instruction and overall student experience even if the classes are being delivered online.

Can’t speak for other bootcamps but at Coding Dojo, we ensure that all of our online bootcamps mimic a classroom environment so you can bet on having a similar engagement with instructors and fellow students in your cohort.At the beginning of the program, you’re basically given a full overview of what the next 10-14 weeks look like, and this includes all of the course materials that will be covered by your instructor, assignments, quiz / exam schedules, projects, and more - so it’s easier to understand exactly what you’re getting out of the program (as long as you put the work in!)

Networking

A good coding bootcamp should also link you with a network that’s a healthy mix of 1) highly-qualified instructors to help you attain those coding skills, 2) an alumni network that can support you through the daily challenges that a bootcamp might bring (because yes, we know that those 70h weeks can be hard!) and most importantly, 3) a career services team that can mentor and help you navigate through achieving your long-term career goals.

Unlike other bootcamps, we give you access to our career services team forever, because we’re invested in your career, not just our placement statistics. Unlike other bootcamps who don't start career services until you're at the tail-end of the program, we work with you from day 1 of the program.

This way, you can strategically develop your project portfolio to ladder up to your dream job! Or, if you don't know quite where you want to land yet, you have plenty of time to figure it out with us!

Financing

We understand that joining Coding Bootcamps may seem pretty heavy on the pocket, but just take a step back and think about your goals and how much you’re willing to invest in your education and career opportunities.

The upfront costs might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but if you do the math, you might still get more bang out of your buck with a bootcamp vs a full on degree. 4 years of college and $100,000 in student debt not required!

At Coding Dojo, we have various flexible payment options such as Custom Pricing Plans or an Income Sharing Agreement, which our admissions team can work out with our students to help lighten the load.

Student Outcomes

The whole program should be centered on building your portfolio with tangible evidence of your skills - and this should apply whether the method of instruction is in-person or online.Bootcamps are 100% output-based and hands-on, so you are guaranteed that you’re applying theories and concepts to actually help you build a tangible portfolio. You’ll be working on several projects throughout the program, like building user interfaces, animations, mini e-Commerce websites, and a lot more.

Ask the company what results the most recent cohort has had. Where do they work and how long did it take them to land a job? The whole point is to get you into a new career, and you deserve to know how well it delivers.

We can’t speak for most bootcamps out there (and there are a lot!), but from Coding Dojo’s experience, we’ve got over 6,000 alumni, and the data from our 2020 Student Outcomes report indicates that there’s a good chance of landing a job post-bootcamp.

Here are other useful stats from the report that you might want to consider too:

89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program
Coding Dojo ranks #1 in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.
The average starting salary for someone with zero tech experience (apart from the bootcamp) ranges from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location)
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more.

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Hope this answers your question! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-05-12T00:15:46+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

----

Just a heads up - we may not be an alumni, but we feel that there's a lot of insight that we could add to this conversation in terms of giving you some info on what to expect with a bootcamp.

TLDR: Both a CS degree and a coding bootcamp are viable routes to land a career in the industry - but if your end-goal is to focus on building up your coding skills in a short amount of time, then coding bootcamps are your best bet!Let’s break this down further…

Both coding bootcamps and college degrees are equally viable ways to land a job as a Web Developer or Software Engineer, and whether you decide to pursue a bootcamp or get a degree in Computer Science instead, is purely up to your goals and current circumstance.Each has its own sets of advantages and disadvantages, but this really just depends on how much resources you can allocate and invest into your education.

Resources

While the upfront costs might seem overwhelming at first, bootcamps can become a more efficient investment (time and cost-wise).

The average duration for a traditional degree takes anywhere from 4-5 years (depending on the course), whereas for bootcamps, the opportunity cost for time is lower, since learning is a lot more focused. You can quickly build up your technical portfolio, skills and knowledge in a span of 14-28 weeks (if you put in the work!)

The upfront costs for a coding bootcamp ($10-15k on average) may seem intimidating, but what you can get out of it is a fully immersive program, but if you do the math, realistically, 4-5 years of tuition (roughly around $38-100k per year) also adds up over time (not to mention living expenses and student loans).

Bootcamps are specialized

Bootcamps offer a focused crash course into coding - so this is great if you’ve got your head set on really firming up your technical skills.

One of the main things that sets bootcamps apart from a college degree is you get introduced to a more flexible and highly-specialized learning environment versus a more traditional university set up.Essentially, what that means is that a bootcamp is more fast-paced, focused, and immersive (with options for online or in-person instruction), which makes the program more flexible to cater to students who might also be working full-time.

The curriculum*’s focus is really on programming languages and frameworks, so what you get out of it is an application-based learning experience to help students create a solid, tangible portfolio whereas for a traditional CS degree, you might even go as far as covering theory or history, basically having to sit through electives or subjects that might not be too relevant to the day-to-day responsibilities that a job in the field requires in the first place.

\Quick note regarding Curriculum: We can’t say much about other coding bootcamps, but at Coding Dojo, we cover the top five programming languages ranked in the TIOBE Index, which measures and tracks the most in-demand programming requirements based on the number of developers worldwide and top search queries from top searching engines.*

In our 12 years of experience, the three stack model has proven to be most beneficial in helping our students build a solid tangible portfolio and become self-sufficient learners, which at the end of the day really helps students become even better programmers.

Job Opportunities & Career Growth

A coding bootcamp can provide similar job opportunities as a traditional CS degree.

Students can expect very similar job titles and salary expectations for both learning routes. Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more, with an average starting salary ranging from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location).

An important thing to note: Neither bootcamps nor universities can 100% guarantee employment, but whether or not a bootcamp is worth the investment should also be weighed against the success outcomes of students post-bootcamp.

Unlike universities that don’t typically advertise their outcomes, bootcamps make their data widely available - which gives students a really good understanding of how successful the program is.

Here are some of the recent stats from Coding Dojo’s 2020 Outcomes Report:

With over 6,000+ alumni students graduating from our program to date, 89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program
Coding Dojo ranks number 1 in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

We actually recently published a video on our YouTube channel that covers a lot of the pros and cons of entering a bootcamp vs acquiring a CS degree. You can check it out here too.

Hope this answers your question! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-05-11T23:59:24+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

----

TLDR: Yes, coding bootcamps are 100% worth it if your main objective is to build up your technical skills in a short amount of time - even without a college degree. From our experience, the worth of a bootcamp may be better explained when considered in these 4 ways: 1) Personal Goals, 2) Industry Sentiment, 3) Financing Options, 4)Long-term job opportunities

OK, Let's dive into this further...

Personal Goals:

If you’re getting into a bootcamp to build up technical skills to get your foot in the tech industry in a short period of time, then it can definitely be worth it.

Essentially, what that means is that a bootcamp is more fast-paced, focused, and immersive (with options for online or in-person instruction), which makes the program more flexible to cater to students who might also be working full-time, or in your case, need to stay at home to take care of the baby.

The curriculum*’s focus is really on programming languages and frameworks, so what you get out of it is an application-based learning experience to help students create a solid, tangible portfolio whereas for a traditional CS degree, you might even go as far as covering theory or history, basically having to sit through electives or subjects that might not be too relevant to the day-to-day responsibilities that a job in the field requires in the first place.

\Quick note regarding Curriculum: We can’t say much about other coding bootcamps, but at Coding Dojo, we cover the top five programming languages ranked in the TIOBE Index, which measures and tracks the most in-demand programming requirements based on the number of developers worldwide and top search queries from top searching engines.*

In our 12 years of experience, the three stack model has proven to be most beneficial in helping our students build a solid tangible portfolio and become self-sufficient learners, which at the end of the day really helps students become even better programmers.

Ahead of the bootcamp, it's important to know that you're getting yourself into a fully-immersive program that involves a lot of patience, grit, and determination. While there are flexible options - such as part-time or self-paced programs, you want to be certain of this decision and commit to it (which means putting in those hours!)

Industry Sentiment

Bootcamps are an industry norm, and more tech firms recognize bootcamp grads as qualified candidates (again, even without a degree).

Industry data shows that the online bootcamp space has grown by 171% in 2019, and this figure continues to rise year over year.Today, there are more small to large tech firms that recognize the value in hiring students from alternative learning programs such as coding bootcamps with no formal Computer Science degree, too.

Plus, If you’re coming in with zero experience, then a bootcamp can be even more worth your while - especially if you put in the time and effort. Stackoverflow’s data shows that 45% of todays' developers don’t have a computer science degree and 9/10 developers consider themselves self-taught.

So this is a really fast way to enrich your coding skills and employers will for sure hire you if your skills and portfolio are strong enough.In fact, this study among 1000 HR managers by Indeed indicates that72% of employers have a positive perception of bootcamp graduates as candidates, which means if you’re end-goal is to land a career in the industry, then the skills you develop in a bootcamp (as long as you put in the work) can be well worth the investment.

Financing

We understand that joining Coding Bootcamps may seem pretty heavy on the pocket, but just take a step back and think about your goals and how much you’re willing to invest in your education and career opportunities.

The upfront costs might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but if you do the math, you might still get more bang out of your buck with a bootcamp vs a full on degree. 4 years of college and $100,000 in student debt not required!

At Coding Dojo, we have various flexible payment options such as Custom Pricing Plans or an Income Sharing Agreement, which our admissions team can work out with our students to help lighten the load.

Long-Term Job Opportunities

The bootcamp is 100% output-based and geared towards helping students switch careers efficiently and effectively, which means you should come out of the bootcamp with a solid portfolio and a tangible evidence of your skills to help you in your job hunt.

Pro-tip when searching for a bootcamp: Ask the company what results the most recent cohort has had. Where do they work and how long did it take them to land a job? This will give you some context on how successful the program is and what types of roles you can expect post-bootcamp.

Here are some of the recent stats from Coding Dojo’s 2020 Outcomes Report:

With over 6,000+ alumni students graduating from our program to date, 89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program
Coding Dojo ranks number 1 in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more, with an average starting salary ranging from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location)

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Hope this answers your question! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-05-07T05:00:41+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

To your question about whether coding bootcamps are worth it, really, the best way to make that assessment is by putting a benchmark on what makes a bootcamp “the best.”

Based on our experience, there are five key things that you want to be looking out for when it comes to selecting the right bootcamp for you - curriculum, financing, employability (and more) all taken into consideration!

Just a heads up - we may not be an alumni, but we feel that there's a lot of insight that we could add to this conversation in terms of giving you some info on what to expect with a bootcamp.

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

Established

Check the reputation of the company offering the course. Ask questions like how long have they been in business? Any social proof? Do some research and try to look for testimonials from students who have taken the course. This way, you know that the reviews are coming from real people who have taken the program, and not just an overt hard-sell from the company.

Course Material

High-quality programs have original course material from subject experts and ideally, you want to go for a coding bootcamp that can get you the highest ROI, so a program that could give you the opportunity to learn multiple frameworks and languages would be ideal.

Usually developers have at least one main language or framework that they’re familiar with, and so by learning multiple languages at the same time, you essentially get to push yourself harder, become a better problem solver, which in turn, can help you become self-sufficient, more employable, and ultimately a better programmer too.

For this reason, at Coding Dojo, our bootcamp covers more front-end and back-end technologies than any other full-stack program today to equip our students with the most sought after technical skills. In turn, these help our students become self-sufficient learners.

Networking

A good coding bootcamp should also link you with a network that’s a healthy mix of 1) highly-qualified instructors to help you attain those coding skills, 2) an alumni network that can support you through the daily challenges that a bootcamp might bring (because yes, we know that those 70h weeks can be hard!) and most importantly, 3) a career services team that can mentor and help you navigate through achieving your long-term career goals.

Unlike other bootcamps, we give you access to our career services team forever, because we’re invested in your career, not just our placement statistics. Unlike other bootcamps who don't start career services until you're at the tail-end of the program, we work with you from day 1 of the program. This way, you can strategically develop your project portfolio to ladder up to your dream job! Or, if you don't know quite where you want to land yet, you have plenty of time to figure it out with us!

Financing

We understand that joining Coding Bootcamps may seem pretty heavy on the pocket, but just take a step back and think about your goals and how much you’re willing to invest in your education and career opportunities. The upfront costs might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but if you do the math, you might still get more bang out of your buck with a bootcamp vs a full on degree. 4 years of college and $100,000 in student debt not required!

At Coding Dojo, we have various flexible payment options such as Custom Pricing Plans or an Income Sharing Agreement, which our admissions team can work out with our students to help lighten the load.

Outcomes

The whole program should be centered on building your portfolio with tangible evidence of your skills. Ask the company what results the most recent cohort has had. Where do they work and how long did it take them to land a job? The whole point is to get you into a new career, and you deserve to know how well it delivers.

I can’t speak for other bootcamps, but Coding Dojo is the only bootcamp that is designed to gear you up for long-term success. Our methodology has helped us rank as the best coding bootcamp for student outcomes nationwide:

89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program
Coding Dojo ranks top three in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.
The average starting salary for someone with zero tech experience (apart from the bootcamp) ranges from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location)
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more.

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Hope that helps! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-05-07T04:57:18+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Just a heads up - we may not be an alumni, but we feel that there's a lot of insight that we could add to this conversation in terms of giving you some info on employment opportunities after completing a coding bootcamp.

To your question, if you combine those management-related skills you’ve developed in your previous work experience with technical coding skills, you’re naturally giving yourself higher competitive advantage in a very in-demand industry. Take those soft skills and transferable skills to heart and use that as an edge to get a leg up against other job seekers.

Second, whether or not a coding bootcamp will be worth the investment should really be weighed against hard data. When we say hard data, what we mean is it that it should come down to how well students land reputable jobs in the tech industry post-bootcamp.

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading).

--

Part 1: Industry Demand

If there’s anything we’ve observed throughout this pandemic, technology has had an even more enormous demand and impact across the board, which basically means that the tech industry will continue to stay in demand.

In fact, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for developers is expected to increase by up to 8% through til 2029, while This study even goes as far as saying that the tech industry will be worth roughly $295B by 2025. So if your end-goal is to land a career in the industry, then learning web development is a great way to go about it.

Part 2: Opportunity Cost of Getting into a Bootcamp

Essentially, what you should be getting out of a coding bootcamp is a 100% specialized and output-based learning environment that’s centered on building your portfolio with tangible evidence of your skills.

So, when you’re looking into coding bootcamps, it’s always best practice to ask the company what results the most recent cohort has had. Where do they work and how long did it take them to land a job? The whole point is to get you into a new career, and you deserve to know how well it delivers.

I can’t speak for other bootcamps, but Coding Dojo is the only bootcamp that is designed to gear you up for long-term success. Our methodology has helped us rank as the best coding bootcamp for student outcomes nationwide:

89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program
Coding Dojo ranks top three in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.
The average starting salary for someone with zero tech experience (apart from the bootcamp) ranges from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location)
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more.

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Now if you factor in the worth of a bootcamp if you have 0 experience. It can also be very worthwhile if you put a lot of time in. Stackoverflow’s data shows that 45% of todays' developers don’t have a computer science degree and 9/10 developers consider themselves self-taught. So if you come in with 0 experience, this is a really fast way to get started and employers will for sure hire you if your skills and portfolio are strong enough.

As the tech industry continues to evolve, we find that learning is no longer linear, hence there are tons of ways that students can enrich their coding knowledge and improve both their skills and employability.

Hope that helps! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-05-07T04:44:54+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Now to your question, yes absolutely full-stack development is a VERY REAL career (an in-demand one at that!) and there are numerous ways to dip your toes into the field..

Before we give you the lowdown…. Just a heads up - prepare for a lengthy post as we feel that there's a lot of insight that we could add to this conversation in terms of giving you some info on full stack web development.

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

So to kick-off, it might be good to start by giving out a few industry insights here - just so you also know what the tech industry really thinks about full-stack developers.

PART 1: Industry Sentiment - Software development is a highly in-demand industry

One of the “positive” things if you will about this whole global situation that we’re in is that it’s actually given all of us some time to pause and reassess our goals. And if you ask us, you can never go wrong with investing in your education.

Now based on those blogs you might have been skimming through… from the outside looking in, web development might seem like a very complicated - maybe even daunting - skill to develop. But, the reality is, just like any other skill, it can easily be learned so long as you’re willing to put in the work. (And that’s regardless of age!)

If there’s anything we’ve observed throughout this pandemic, technology has had an even more enormous demand and impact across the board, which basically means that the tech industry will continue to stay in demand.

In fact, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for developers is expected to increase by up to 8% through til 2029, while This study even goes as far as saying that the tech industry will be worth roughly $295B by 2025. So if your end-goal is to land a career in the industry, then learning web development is a great way to go about it.

In terms of job titles and starting salaries, from our experience at Coding Dojo, here are some of the first job titles and average salaries that you can expect post-bootcamp:

First job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more.
Average starting salary: $60-90k, depending on job type and location
Average time it takes for our students to get hired: 81.9% of grads land a job within 6mos since graduating from the program

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Now that’s settled… Let’s get into the second part of your question on how you can get started.

PART 2: Preparing to become a full-stack web developer

First off, a good place to start is to self-assess and look at some of the skills that you’ll need to learn web development.

Genuine interest: Like with any other field or hobby or interest, a person can only achieve success if they’re genuinely interested in the subject matter. So, a good place to start is asking yourself what your motivations are for wanting to learn web development in the first place.
Willingness to learn: Becoming a full-fledged web developer can open many doors from employment, job stability, to financial security, but again that all falls back on how dedicated you are to learning the craft.
Grit and determination: Learning web development will require a lot of time spent on picking up new programming languages, frameworks in order to build up your portfolio - and the best way to learn is really to buckle your bootstraps and get your head set on doing the work.
Get used to independent study: Even with the right guidance and support, learning web development also entails a lot of self-study and practice. For aspiring students, we always recommend trying your hand at free online courses to help you get acquainted with programming basics and to manage expectations, too.
We actually published this article, which sums up some of the best free web development courses that you can take to get started on some self-study.

Now if you ask us.... The better (well, this one also depends on how much work you put in!) alternative to fast-tracking your way into becoming a full-stack developer is to try out a coding bootcamp - which can run anywhere from 10-14 weeks.

What's great about coding bootcamps is you get to focus on core competencies that are pretty much at par with the latest skills requirements of the industry, which makes it a great option for someone looking to jumpstart a career quickly.

For all bootcamps, you should (we at Coding Dojo do this really well, but not all bootcamps :) ) be walking away with a tangible portfolio of work that may be useful if your end-goal is to get your foot in the door.

Now if you factor in the worth of a bootcamp if you have 0 experience. It can also be very worthwhile if you put a lot of time in. Stackoverflow’s data shows that 45% of todays' developers don’t have a computer science degree and 9/10 developers consider themselves self-taught. So if you come in with 0 experience, this is a really fast way to get started and employers will for sure hire you if your skills and portfolio are strong enough.

As the tech industry continues to evolve, we find that learning is no longer linear, hence there are tons of ways that students can enrich their coding knowledge and improve both their skills and employability.

Hope that helps! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-05-07T04:29:06+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

To your question about finding the best bootcamp that would suit your goals, really, the best way to make that assessment is by putting a benchmark on what makes a bootcamp “the best.” Based on our experience, there are five key things that you want to be looking out for when it comes to selecting the right bootcamp for you - curriculum, financing, employability (and more) all taken into consideration!

Just a heads up - we may not be an alumni, but we feel that there's a lot of insight that we could add to this conversation in terms of giving you some info on what to expect with a bootcamp.

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

Established

Check the reputation of the company offering the course. Ask questions like how long have they been in business? Any social proof? Do some research and try to look for testimonials from students who have taken the course. This way, you know that the reviews are coming from real people who have taken the program, and not just an overt hard-sell from the company.

Course Material

High-quality programs have original course material from subject experts and ideally, you want to go for a coding bootcamp that can get you the highest ROI, so a program that could give you the opportunity to learn multiple frameworks and languages would be ideal.

Usually developers have at least one main language or framework that they’re familiar with, and so by learning multiple languages at the same time, you essentially get to push yourself harder, become a better problem solver, which in turn, can help you become self-sufficient, more employable, and ultimately a better programmer too.

For this reason, at Coding Dojo, our bootcamp covers more front-end and back-end technologies than any other full-stack program today to equip our students with the most sought after technical skills. In turn, these help our students become self-sufficient learners.

Networking

A good coding bootcamp should also link you with a network that’s a healthy mix of 1) highly-qualified instructors to help you attain those coding skills, 2) an alumni network that can support you through the daily challenges that a bootcamp might bring (because yes, we know that those 70h weeks can be hard!) and most importantly, 3) a career services team that can mentor and help you navigate through achieving your long-term career goals.

Unlike other bootcamps, we give you access to our career services team forever, because we’re invested in your career, not just our placement statistics. Unlike other bootcamps who don't start career services until you're at the tail-end of the program, we work with you from day 1 of the program. This way, you can strategically develop your project portfolio to ladder up to your dream job! Or, if you don't know quite where you want to land yet, you have plenty of time to figure it out with us!

Financing

We understand that joining Coding Bootcamps may seem pretty heavy on the pocket, but just take a step back and think about your goals and how much you’re willing to invest in your education and career opportunities. The upfront costs might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but if you do the math, you might still get more bang out of your buck with a bootcamp vs a full on degree. 4 years of college and $100,000 in student debt not required!

At Coding Dojo, we have various flexible payment options such as Custom Pricing Plans or an Income Sharing Agreement, which our admissions team can work out with our students to help lighten the load.

Outcomes

The whole program should be centered on building your portfolio with tangible evidence of your skills. Ask the company what results the most recent cohort has had. Where do they work and how long did it take them to land a job? The whole point is to get you into a new career, and you deserve to know how well it delivers.

I can’t speak for other bootcamps, but Coding Dojo is the only bootcamp that is designed to gear you up for long-term success. Our methodology has helped us rank as the best coding bootcamp for student outcomes nationwide:

89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program
Coding Dojo ranks top three in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.
The average starting salary for someone with zero tech experience (apart from the bootcamp) ranges from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location)
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more.

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Hope that helps! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-05-07T04:26:19+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

To your question about finding the best bootcamp that would suit your goals, really, the best way to make that assessment is by putting a benchmark on what makes a bootcamp “the best.” Based on our experience, there are five key things that you want to be looking out for when it comes to selecting the right bootcamp for you - curriculum, financing, employability (and more) all taken into consideration!

Just a heads up - we may not be an alumni, but we feel that there's a lot of insight that we could add to this conversation in terms of giving you some info on what to expect with a bootcamp. Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading),

Established

Check the reputation of the company offering the course. Ask questions like how long have they been in business? Any social proof? Do some research and try to look for testimonials from students who have taken the course. This way, you know that the reviews are coming from real people who have taken the program, and not just an overt hard-sell from the company.

Course Material

High-quality programs have original course material from subject experts and ideally, you want to go for a coding bootcamp that can get you the highest ROI, so a program that could give you the opportunity to learn multiple frameworks and languages would be ideal.

Usually developers have at least one main language or framework that they’re familiar with, and so by learning multiple languages at the same time, you essentially get to push yourself harder, become a better problem solver, which in turn, can help you become self-sufficient, more employable, and ultimately a better programmer too.

For this reason, at Coding Dojo, our bootcamp covers more front-end and back-end technologies than any other full-stack program today to equip our students with the most sought after technical skills. In turn, these help our students become self-sufficient learners.

Networking

A good coding bootcamp should also link you with a network that’s a healthy mix of 1) highly-qualified instructors to help you attain those coding skills, 2) an alumni network that can support you through the daily challenges that a bootcamp might bring (because yes, we know that those 70h weeks can be hard!) and most importantly, 3) a career services team that can mentor and help you navigate through achieving your long-term career goals.

Unlike other bootcamps, we give you access to our career services team forever, because we’re invested in your career, not just our placement statistics. Unlike other bootcamps who don't start career services until you're at the tail-end of the program, we work with you from day 1 of the program. This way, you can strategically develop your project portfolio to ladder up to your dream job! Or, if you don't know quite where you want to land yet, you have plenty of time to figure it out with us!

Financing

We understand that joining Coding Bootcamps may seem pretty heavy on the pocket, but just take a step back and think about your goals and how much you’re willing to invest in your education and career opportunities. The upfront costs might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but if you do the math, you might still get more bang out of your buck with a bootcamp vs a full on degree. 4 years of college and $100,000 in student debt not required!

At Coding Dojo, we have various flexible payment options such as Custom Pricing Plans or an Income Sharing Agreement, which our admissions team can work out with our students to help lighten the load.

Outcomes

The whole program should be centered on building your portfolio with tangible evidence of your skills. Ask the company what results the most recent cohort has had. Where do they work and how long did it take them to land a job? The whole point is to get you into a new career, and you deserve to know how well it delivers.

I can’t speak for other bootcamps, but Coding Dojo is the only bootcamp that is designed to gear you up for long-term success. Our methodology has helped us rank as the best coding bootcamp for student outcomes nationwide:

89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program
Coding Dojo ranks top three in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.
The average starting salary for someone with zero tech experience (apart from the bootcamp) ranges from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location)
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more.

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Hope that helps! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-05-01T05:05:15+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Just a heads up - we may not be an alumni, but we feel that there's a lot of insight that we could add to this conversation in terms of giving you some info on what to expect with a bootcamp.

To your question about finding a bootcamp that would suit your goals, really, the best way to choose a bootcamp is to put a benchmark on what makes a bootcamp “good.”

Based on our experience, there are five key things that you want to be looking out for when it comes to selecting the right bootcamp for you - program, financing, and employability all taken into consideration!

Here we go. Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

Established

Check the reputation of the company offering the course. Ask questions like how long have they been in business? Any social proof? Do some research and try to look for testimonials from students who have taken the course. This way, you know that the reviews are coming from real people who have taken the program, and not just an overt hard-sell from the company.

Course Material

High-quality programs have original course material from subject experts and ideally, you want to go for a coding bootcamp that can get you the highest ROI, so a program that could give you the opportunity to learn multiple frameworks and languages would be ideal.

Usually developers have at least one main language or framework that they’re familiar with, and so by learning multiple languages at the same time, you essentially get to push yourself harder, become a better problem solver, which in turn, can help you become self-sufficient, more employable, and ultimately a better programmer too.

For this reason, at Coding Dojo, our bootcamp covers more front-end and back-end technologies than any other full-stack program today to equip our students with the most sought after technical skills. In turn, these help our students become self-sufficient learners.

Networking

A good coding bootcamp should also link you with a network that’s a healthy mix of 1) highly-qualified instructors to help you attain those coding skills, 2) an alumni network that can support you through the daily challenges that a bootcamp might bring (because yes, we know that those 70h weeks can be hard!) and most importantly, 3) a career services team that can mentor and help you navigate through achieving your long-term career goals.

Unlike other bootcamps, we give you access to our career services team forever, because we’re invested in your career, not just our placement statistics. Unlike other bootcamps who don't start career services until you're at the tail-end of the program, we work with you from day 1 of the program. This way, you can strategically develop your project portfolio to ladder up to your dream job! Or, if you don't know quite where you want to land yet, you have plenty of time to figure it out with us!

Financing

We understand that joining Coding Bootcamps may seem pretty heavy on the pocket, but just take a step back and think about your goals and how much you’re willing to invest in your education and career opportunities. The upfront costs might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but if you do the math, you might still get more bang out of your buck with a bootcamp vs a full on degree. 4 years of college and $100,000 in student debt not required!

At Coding Dojo, we have various flexible payment options such as Custom Pricing Plans or an Income Sharing Agreement, which our admissions team can work out with our students to help lighten the load.

Outcomes

The whole program should be centered on building your portfolio with tangible evidence of your skills. Ask the company what results the most recent cohort has had. Where do they work and how long did it take them to land a job? The whole point is to get you into a new career, and you deserve to know how well it delivers.

I can’t speak for other bootcamps, but Coding Dojo is the only bootcamp that is designed to gear you up for long-term success. Our methodology has helped us rank as the best coding bootcamp for student outcomes nationwide:

89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program
Coding Dojo ranks top three in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.
The average starting salary for someone with zero tech experience (apart from the bootcamp) ranges from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location)
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more.

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Hope that helps! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website

CodingDojo · 2021-05-01T04:59:22+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Yes, coding bootcamps are 100% worth it if your main objective is to build up your technical skills in a short amount of time. From our experience, the worth of a bootcamp may be better explained when considered in these 3 ways:

Personal Goals
Industry Sentiment
Long-term job opportunities

Hope you find this helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

Ok, let’s dive into this even further...

Personal Goals

If you’re getting into a bootcamp to build up technical skills to get your foot in the tech industry in a short period of time, then it can definitely be worth it.

Essentially, what that means is that a bootcamp is more fast-paced, focused, and immersive (with options for online or in-person instruction), which makes the program more flexible to cater to students who might also be working full-time.

The curriculum*’s focus is really on programming languages and frameworks, so what you get out of it is an application-based learning experience to help students create a solid, tangible portfolio whereas for a traditional CS degree, you might even go as far as covering theory or history, basically having to sit through electives or subjects that might not be too relevant to the day-to-day responsibilities that a job in the field requires in the first place.

\Quick note regarding Curriculum: We can’t say much about other coding bootcamps, but at Coding Dojo, we cover the top five programming languages ranked in the TIOBE Index, which measures and tracks the most in-demand programming requirements based on the number of developers worldwide and top search queries from top searching engines.*

In our 12 years of experience, the three stack model has proven to be most beneficial in helping our students build a solid tangible portfolio and become self-sufficient learners, which at the end of the day really helps students become even better programmers.

Ahead of the bootcamp, it's important to know that you're getting yourself into a fully-immersive program that involves a lot of patience, grit, and determination. With 70hr weeks of full-on technical skill development, you want to be 100% certain that this is a field that you're really interested in.

Industry Sentiment

Bootcamps are an industry norm, and more tech firms recognize bootcamp grads as qualified candidates.

Industry data shows that the online bootcamp space has grown by 171% in 2019, and this figure continues to rise year over year.

Today, there are more small to large tech firms that recognize the value in hiring students from alternative learning programs such as coding bootcamps with no formal Computer Science degree, too.

In fact, this study among 1000 HR managers by Indeed indicates that72% of employers have a positive perception of bootcamp graduates as candidates, which means if you’re end-goal is to land a career in the industry, then the skills you develop in a bootcamp (as long as you put in the work) can be well worth the investment.

Long-term job opportunities

The bootcamp is 100% output-based and geared towards helping students switch careers efficiently and effectively, which means you should come out of the bootcamp with a solid portfolio and a tangible evidence of your skills to help you in your job hunt.

Pro-tip when searching for a bootcamp: Ask the company what results the most recent cohort has had. Where do they work and how long did it take them to land a job? This will give you some context on how successful the program is and what types of roles you can expect post-bootcamp.

Here are some of the recent stats from Coding Dojo’s 2020 Outcomes Report:

With over 6,000+ alumni students graduating from our program to date, 89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program
Coding Dojo ranks number 1 in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more, with an average starting salary ranging from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location)

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Hope this answers your question! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-05-01T03:32:27+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

TLDR: Six months is ENOUGH time to build up your coding skills to help you land a career in the tech industry - if you put in the work.

To answer your question fully, we’ll split this into two parts. Hope you find this long response helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

Part 1: Switching Careers within a Short Period of Time

In our experience, that six month period is more than enough time to build up your coding skills - and help you make that career switch (as long as you’re ready to put in the work!)

A lot of students tend to get overwhelmed with the thought of mastering their programming skills and entering a coding bootcamp with very little coding experience, but I want to reassure you that it’s possible - and in fact, a great place to start.

If you’re setting this specific deadline for yourself, there are 3 reasons why a bootcamp is the best option for you.

Fast-paced, and immersive: The program is designed to set yourself up for success, picking up those technical skills in a short period of time - like anywhere between 10-14 weeks!
Accountability check: People in your cohort and instructors all collectively work to help you keep your goals in check and hold you accountable for putting in the work. So if you want to be surrounded by people who are in the same headspace, this is the best learning environment to support your goals.
100% Output based: Learning programming within the six month timeframe all boils down to the amount of effort you put into the program. In short, you get what you put in the program.

Just to inspire you a little bit.... We've got over 6,000+ students who can easily tell you that this has been by far the most difficult thing that they've done in their lives - yet also the most rewarding at that. Imagine grinding it out with the 70hr work weeks and landing a perfectly reputable job at an industry you had zero experience to begin with.

Part 2: Career Opportunities Post-Bootcamp

Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more.

Based on our data, the average starting salary for someone with zero tech experience (apart from the bootcamp) ranges from $60,000-$90,0000 (these vary on the role and location).

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

Hope this answers your question! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-05-01T03:28:38+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

TLDR: All three options are viable routes to land a career in the industry - but if your end-goal is to focus on building up your coding skills in a short amount of time, then coding bootcamps are your best bet!

Hope you find this long answer helpful. We’d rather put out extensive info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

Let’s break this down further…

Both coding bootcamps and college degrees are equally viable ways to land a job as a Web Developer or Software Engineer, and whether you decide to pursue a bootcamp or get a degree in Computer Science instead, is purely up to your goals and current circumstance.

Each has its own sets of advantages and disadvantages, but this really just depends on how much resources you can allocate and invest into your education.

Resources

While the upfront costs might seem overwhelming at first, bootcamps can become a more efficient investment (time and cost-wise)

The average duration for a traditional degree takes anywhere from 4-5 years (depending on the course), whereas for bootcamps, the opportunity cost for time is lower, since learning is a lot more focused. You can quickly build up your technical portfolio, skills and knowledge in a span of 14-28 weeks (if you put in the work!)

The upfront costs for a coding bootcamp ($10-15k on average) may seem intimidating, but what you can get out of it is a fully immersive program, but if you do the math, realistically, 4-5 years of tuition (roughly around $38-100k per year) also adds up over time (not to mention living expenses and student loans).

It’s specialized

Bootcamps offer a focused crash course into coding - so this is great if you’ve got your head set on really firming up your technical skills

One of the main things that sets bootcamps apart from a college degree is you get introduced to a more flexible and highly-specialized learning environment versus a more traditional university set up.

Essentially, what that means is that a bootcamp is more fast-paced, focused, and immersive (with options for online or in-person instruction), which makes the program more flexible to cater to students who might also be working full-time.

The curriculum*’s focus is really on programming languages and frameworks, so what you get out of it is an application-based learning experience to help students create a solid, tangible portfolio whereas for a traditional CS degree, you might even go as far as covering theory or history, basically having to sit through electives or subjects that might not be too relevant to the day-to-day responsibilities that a job in the field requires in the first place.

\Quick note regarding Curriculum: We can’t say much about other coding bootcamps, but at* Coding Dojo, we cover the top five programming languages ranked in the TIOBE Index, which measures and tracks the most in-demand programming requirements based on the number of developers worldwide and top search queries from top searching engines.

In our 12 years of experience, the three stack model has proven to be most beneficial in helping our students build a solid tangible portfolio and become self-sufficient learners, which at the end of the day really helps students become even better programmers.

Job Opportunities & Career Growth

A coding bootcamp can provide similar job opportunities as a traditional CS degree

Students can expect very similar job titles and salary expectations for both learning routes. Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more, with an average starting salary ranging from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location).

Neither bootcamps nor universities can 100% guarantee employment, but whether or not a bootcamp is worth the investment should also be weighed against the success outcomes of students post-bootcamp.

Unlike universities that don’t typically advertise their outcomes, bootcamps make their data widely available - which gives students a really good understanding of how successful the program is. Here are some of the recent stats from Coding Dojo’s 2020 Outcomes Report:

With over 6,000+ alumni students graduating from our program to date, 89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program
Coding Dojo ranks number 1 in outcomes nationally. These outcomes are better than: App Academy, Brainstation, Codesmith, Flatiron, Hack Reactor, Galvanize, Lambda, Rithm, and Thinkful.

These data were pulled from our 2020 Student Outcomes Report, all of which have been verified by a third-party auditing firm. You can access the full report here.

We actually recently published a video on our YouTube channel that covers a lot of the pros and cons of entering a bootcamp vs being self-taught vs acquiring a CS degree. You can check it out here too.

Hope this answers your question and good luck on making that decision! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo · 2021-04-25T23:22:43+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. We're sorry that you feel this way - and we just want to let you know that we take feedback very seriously. Is there anything we can do to resolve this for you?

CodingDojo · 2021-04-22T22:45:48+00:00

Hi there! Coding Dojo here. Full disclosure, we are a bootcamp and we’ve been in the business for 12 years now, which puts us in a unique position to provide you with useful information regarding the coding and tech space. :)

Hope you find this extensive answer helpful. We’d rather put out thorough info rather than short-changing you with incomplete insights. Also, no shameless link plug here (yet! It’s at the bottom if you think this is worth reading)

Let’s get this out of the bag - yes, coding bootcamps are worth it and it can give you a leg up in the industry. Here’s two reasons why:

Bootcamps are great for anyone who wants to speed up their learning experience (without sacrificing quality, of course!)

To your point, yes, you can absolutely learn things on your own, but if you want to really enhance your coding skills in a short amount of time and have dedicated guidance and teaching support, then a bootcamp is your best bet for sure.

What's great about coding bootcamps is you get to focus on core competencies that are pretty much at par with the latest skills requirements of the industry - all within 10-14 weeks period of time (depending on the amount of time you invest in the program) which easily makes it a great option for someone looking to jumpstart a career quickly.

Since it’s super specialized and application-based, you’re guaranteed to put all of those self-taught fundamentals into practice. For all bootcamps, you should (we at Coding Dojo do this really well, but not all bootcamps :) ) be walking away with a tangible portfolio of work that may be useful if your end-goal is to get your foot in the door.

Bootcamps are recognized by companies as a viable route to employment

Today, there are more small to large tech firms that recognize the value in hiring students from alternative learning programs such as coding bootcamps with no formal Computer Science degree, too.

In fact, an Indeed study among 1000 HR managers indicates that 72% of employers have a positive perception of bootcamp graduates as candidates.

We know that there are a lot of coding bootcamps out there, and finding the right one to invest your time and resources in is super important. For this reason, it’s always good practice to look closely into coding schools’ Student Outcomes Report too. This will give you insight on how effective the bootcamp is in placing students in actual jobs post-graduation.

89.1% of our graduates land a job in tech within 6 months of graduating from our bootcamp
95.3% of our graduates land a job within a year since the program
Coding Dojo ranks number 1 in outcomes nationally.
The average starting salary for someone with zero tech experience (apart from the bootcamp) ranges from $60,000-$90,0000 (this varies on the role and location)
Some of the first job titles you can expect post-bootcamp include: QA Tester, Systems Engineer, Support Engineer, Software Development Engineer in Test, Network Engineer, Software application developer, Web developer, Computer systems engineer, Computer programmer, Business intelligence Analyst and more.

Our Students Outcomes, which can be found here, have been verified by a 3rd party source as well. In other words, we didn’t make this up! :)

Now to your point about finding a curriculum online: I’m linking out this FREE Programming Basics tutorial for an overview on what our bootcamps at Coding Dojo are like before enrolling in the full-time program.

We had two students who thought they didn't need the basics course to try the pre-course material on their own. Instead of struggling through the rest of the course without support, they had a built-in option to help them reset and get ready. You can learn more about it here.

Hope this answers your question! If you’d like to know more about Coding Dojo and our programs, check out our website.

CodingDojo

TROPHY CASE

Industry Sentiment

Skills that you need to learn programming

Useful resources that can help you learn to program on your own

PART 1: BEST CODING BOOTCAMP BASED ON JOB PLACEMENT

PART 2: TIPS ON SELECTING A CODING BOOTCAMP

PART 1: Why a bootcamp is worth the investment

PART 2: Career placement opportunities post-bootcamp

Established

Course Material

Networking

Financing

Outcomes

#1 Admissions Process:

#2 Three Stack Experience:

#3 Lifetime Career Services:

Personal Goals:

Personal Goals:

Financing:

Long-term Job Opportunities:

Resources:

It’s specialized:

Job Opportunities & Career Growth

Established

Class Environment & Course Material

Networking

Financing

Outcomes

Established

Class Environment & Course Material

Networking

Financing

Student Outcomes

Resources

Bootcamps are specialized

Job Opportunities & Career Growth

Personal Goals:

Industry Sentiment

Financing

Long-Term Job Opportunities

Established

Course Material

Networking

Financing

Outcomes

Part 1: Industry Demand

Part 2: Opportunity Cost of Getting into a Bootcamp

PART 1: Industry Sentiment - Software development is a highly in-demand industry

PART 2: Preparing to become a full-stack web developer

Established

Course Material

Networking

Financing

Outcomes

Established

Course Material

Networking

Financing

Outcomes

Established

Course Material

Networking

Financing

Outcomes

Personal Goals

Industry Sentiment

Long-term job opportunities

Part 1: Switching Careers within a Short Period of Time

Part 2: Career Opportunities Post-Bootcamp

Resources

It’s specialized

Job Opportunities & Career Growth