Burlington Code Academy

I completed the BCA Web Development Bootcamp Summer 2019. This full-time 12-week course is a ferocious program that I found invaluable. Our course was taught by the renowned, Joshua Burke (a fellow alumni of Northern Vermont University) who was fantastic... Read More and very personable. Joshua cares deeply about each students progress sincerely -- something that cannot be taught. I felt as though I could contact him day or night and he would promptly get back to me. The teacher's assistants were also top notch and brought their own ideas and different teaching methods/styles/explanations which at times helped many concepts sink in on a deeper level. The next piece of this Bootcamp puzzle was their attention to setting up students with every possible opportunity to land a great job. We had an in house career counselor that helped us develop resumes and help with mock interviews. Then there were the Lunch & Learns: a chance to meet and connect with the local tech community. I thought this was brilliant. I had no idea there was so many tech companies right here in Vermont! These L&L gave students the chance to learn all the options for jobs in the area and also make personal connections --- crucial in my opinion, to get hired locally. Lastly, there was the capstone project which was a project where students work in small teams partnering with a company, non-profit, or organization to complete a task that has been requested by the company. This is such an important project and it culminates at the close of the course by presenting each team's project in front of the local tech community. Nerve racking (lol) and incredibly gratifying. You, in a way, are pitching yourself to companies (Hey! Hire me!) by showing how you worked as a team and applied the skills you learned during BCA Bootcamp. Important: I was a full time musician that had done odd jobs for years and now I make a great wage working at Dealer.com here in Burlington. Medical, Dental, PTO, other benefits --- things I am truly super grateful for. Benny and Alex (the "founding fathers" haha) are also two superb human beings. If you meet them once, you will never forget their professionalism and caring nature. Highly recommend. That is all. Sign up today y'all!

I just graduated from the UX design bootcamp at Burlington Code Academy, and it’s incredible to think how much I’ve learned over the course of this program. I came into this with an English degree, some administrative experience, and virtually no knowledge... Read More of UX, and now I feel confident as I begin my job search as a UX designer. Rick Machanic, the teacher of the program, is amazing. As someone who has been in the field of UX for over 20 years and started his own successful design agency, he brought invaluable insight into the mind of a hiring manager and a vast knowledge of the UX process. He always went above and beyond for us, whether that meant offering mock interviews or giving detailed feedback on our work. We also had Collin Hadley, our incredible TA, who constantly pushed us and inspired us. He hosted evening workshops to teach us more about Figma, the design software that we used, and other UX topics. The best part of this program was the 9-week capstone project, which allowed us to work on a real project with a real client. We worked in teams of 4 to redesign our clients’ websites, culminating in a capstone presentation of the full process. This experience was invaluable because it forced us to figure things out as we went along (with helpful guidance from Rick and Collin, of course!). It gave us experience in every step of the design process, from research to mockups, and exponentially increased our skills in Figma. It also provided great practice for soft skills like teamwork, presenting, and working together remotely; while I was a bit nervous about the remote aspect at first, I ended up really enjoying it, and it was a great way to explore different online collaborative tools like Invision. On top of the capstone project, we also had daily lessons, worked on our personal websites, and redesigned an app. Every Thursday, we had a Lunch and Learn speaker who talked to us about their experiences in the field and answered our questions. We also gained access to a network of BCA alumni. We were only the second cohort of this program, so there’s still some room for improvement in terms of the structure of the course, but BCA constantly asked for our feedback so that each new cohort will be even better than the one before it. I learned so much in such a short amount of time and I’m so, so grateful to BCA for giving me this opportunity to enter this exciting and growing field. Before this, I felt so stuck in my career path, but now I have so many more opportunities and I can’t wait to start applying.

I have nothing but good things to say about my experience at BCA. It can be overwhelming to learn so much in a short amount of time, but the staff at BCA are willing to help any time. Everyone that works there is invested in your success regardless of... Read More their job title. I also thought that the course was structured well. It's definitely difficult at times, but as long as you're willing to put in the effort and aren't afraid to ask for help, you'll do just fine. Lastly, BCA has a ton of hiring partners that they'll happily connect you with. The support they give to help you find a job is great. I highly recommend BCA to anyone looking to learn React, JavaScript, and more!

I just completed BCA's first UX Design Bootcamp. It was an amazing experience. If you're in an appropriate time zone, you can take this bootcamp remotely. I wasn't anywhere near Burlington and I still felt connected. Their biggest strength is that the... Read More UX program is taught by Rick Machanic, who has decades of experience in this field. He owned his own web agency so he offers much more than the typical bootcamp teacher. BCA is great about gathering feedback and I'm sure they're going to improve the Bootcamp based on my program's initial feedback. They're going to solidify some of the prework, Figma lessons, and have more consistent labs that span the length of the Bootcamp. One of the highlights of the course was our capstone. They work with real clients so your portfolio has real-world experience before you're even done. Another shining star is Etienne Morris, the career coach that BCA uses. They place a high emphasis on finding a job and networking throughout your time there. The TA, Mateo Cohen, brings more experience from a visual design perspective. His feedback and design critiques were super useful and he's still helping our class out despite the Bootcamp being finished. All in all, you should definitely go to BCA if you want to become a UX Designer. I entered having only enthusiasm and left with a ton of new skills!

As a career changer, jumping into a course like this was a bit scary, and definitely a huge risk. Quitting my job, dropping a decent sum of money, and not working for three months is a big ask when you have kids, but the folks over at BCA were always... Read More there to help, and figure out ways to make it happen. They have been incredibly supportive of me from the beginning, and even now, two weeks out of the course being over they are still working with everyone to find jobs, continue learning, or just chat if the need presents itself. The course was fast paced, challenging, and loaded with information. I really enjoyed the projects we covered, and I felt like they solidified a lot of the concepts we were learning in the course. This was especially apparent with the capstone project. Being able to work with real world clients on real problems was huge, and gave me a solid footing when jumping into this new career path. I can't express how happy I am that I took this course, and would recommend it over and over again!

I entered their bootcamp without much of any knowledge of coding. Decided I needed to change my career. The course goes at a fast pace and covers everything needed to become a full stack developer and the staff is always available to help. So far they've... Read More been really helpful in looking for employment too.

12-week course in full-stack development (JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Express, React, MongoDB and Firebase). 9am-5pm five days a week with 8 weekend projects plus a month-long capstone project that addresses specific needs of real groups in the community.... Read More
BCA provides an excellent foundation in JavaScript and web development, with plenty of practice in front-end and back-end design. While there is no coding prerequisite for the course, it is very rigorous and BCA highly recommends taking some time to get familiar with the three main languages they teach before joining the course. The weekend projects really help solidify the material covered, and the lengthy capstone projects, which are real projects submitted by local organizations, pull everything together in meaningful and unpredictable ways.
The instructors and support staff are outstanding: clear, detailed, and always available to assist.
There are weekly career workshops and exposure to local hiring partners, plus one-on-one career and resume counselling with a brilliant, caring mind in the field. The demo day at the end of the course brings in hiring partners as well as other area development organizations to see the capstone presentations and get better acquainted with each of the student teams.
The coding foundation they provide is thorough and meaningful, but is only part of what BCA offers: their goal is to grow the local talent pool and make the community aware of how developers can help to enrich and expand the way businesses and organizations operate. BCA is about developing coders who are an integral part of the community.

I came into this program having "self taught" JS to myself. I'd used online tutorials and books but didn't have a lot of confidence in the things I was doing. This course helped me harness the confidence that I was able to do it. The course was very good... Read More for me as I'd already had some knowledge, and it helped to make what I'd learned into an actual foundation that I could build on. Between the time I started the course and the time I'd finished, I'd started working on a project with a few friends and at this point have built a fully functional API for a front end app!

The positivity and welcoming nature of BCA is unrivaled.
If you need help with anything, these folks would go our their way to help you. That is invaluable.

I really appreciated the positive atmosphere at Burlington Code Academy. We were encouraged to have fun, support one other, take breaks, and experiment and grow in our own way.

The instructors we had were top notch and came with lots of real-world experience... Read More as coders and coding teachers. And with the small class size, they were very accessible, so I was able to ask questions whenever I felt confused or just wanted to learn more.

The projects they designed for us were fun and challenging. Getting to work with other students through pair programming, peer code reviews, and the longer-term capstone project taught me so much because my eyes were constantly being opened to new ways of approaching a problem. It was also helpful in the job search to already have working full-stack applications in my portfolio.

I like the course’s emphasis on Agile development principles because so many companies use Agile. It made my transition to a new job in software easier because the Agile process felt familiar from my time at Burlington Code Academy.

The skills I gained at Burlington Code Academy allowed me to break into the field of web development and work every day at a job that I enjoy.

It was about this time last year when I first heard about the Burlington Code Academy (BCA). After making the decision to leave an industry and career that wasn’t for me, I signed up for the part time class that BCA offers. I then continued on to take... Read More the web dev bootcamp, that following summer. And to cut to the chase, I graduated from BCA’s program in late August 2019 and landed a full time salaried position at a local web development agency less than a month later. A job I wouldn’t have been qualified for, just 8 months prior. What Burlington Code Academy Does Well: - Exceptional Instructors and TA’s who are willing to go the extra mile. - The founders of the school are both highly motivated to see you succeed and will also go the extra mile to see that happen. - Giving students a strong foundational understanding of coding. - Classes are well structured with Lectures, Labs, and Projects. - Listening and responding to student input. - The courses teach relevant technologies that are being used by today’s tech companies. - Connecting you with local employers and tech leaders. - The Capstone Project and final presentation were great real-world experiences. What Burlington Code Academy Could Improve Upon: - Prior to class beginning, communicating the commitment that is necessary to succeed. - As a class going over higher-level solutions to projects and labs. Exposure to advanced solutions helped me improve my problem solving skills. - At the end of the bootcamp more time should be spent on coding and less on the tangential material that is meant to broaden our horizons. I enjoyed it, but with the condensed schedule it ate into too much capstone project time. - More movie nights ;) All in all, Burlington Code Academy delivered on their promise to teach me how to code, and enable me to change career paths, in a very short time. It was quite the undertaking and requires a full commitment from you as the student. However, if you put your head down and focus, BCA will lead you to success. I owe them a big thank you wouldn’t be where I am without them.