Claim Academy

I have learned way more then what I knew when I first came. I have learned to set up a database and learned how to use MVC with it!
The Staff there worked with me one on one everyday until I understood what they where talking about. I love how they explain... Read More the work to me in
a way that I could do it!

I have received many phone calls and emails from recruiters setting me up for interviews. I can't wait for where this experience is going to lead me.
I have had mock interviews and I had a chance to present my project in front of employers, that was created when I attended the class. I learned how
to create a Capstone Project.

If I had the funding I would attend the Java Class, but I am already good with what I have already learned.

After working for several years in the public sector, I was wanting to make a career change and get into programming. By the time I started at Claim, I had completed a few low-level CS courses online and done a little bit of self study, and I had no idea... Read More what else I needed to know in order to be employable in the field.

Claim has a number of different instructors, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and they rotate during the bootcamp. If your cohort is lucky enough to have Lamar and/or Vinod, I can say that they are worth every dollar that Claim pays them. Sahara (the Java mentor) is fantastic as well, although she is also one of the C# instructors, so sometimes we had to share her with the C# cohort which wasn't ideal. There was one instructor who I did not think was very good, but last I heard, Claim was planning to revamp his part of the curriculum so his teaching methods may improve in future sessions. Overall, the instructors are very accomodating and helpful if you tell them what you are having trouble with.

Claim does a really good job of bringing in the higher-ups from some of the St. Louis-based companies to speak to students throughout the bootcamp. During my cohort, we had Express Scripts, Microsoft, and Daugherty come talk to us. Even if those companies aren't able to come to your demo day, Claim often has special application links that you can use to apply there.

Demo days can be hit or miss, depending on which companies decide to show up, so I wouldn't recommend relying solely upon the demo day for job prospects. There have been some demo days where graduates are offered jobs on the spot, but that was not my cohort's experience. About a month before graduation, I started applying places on my own and working with recruiters, so I was lucky enough to have two offers in hand by the time I presented at demo day.

My biggest complaint about Claim is that I feel like we could have learned even more. While the program is said to be a "full-stack" program, I think it highly favors the back end. Not necessarily a huge issue, I just don't think it's super accurate to call it a full-stack program if you spend maybe a week total on the front end. My cohort never had a Saturday session, and I think that if all of the instruction time was fully-utilized, it would have been possible to fit more Angular 2 in there. So just be aware, if learning a JavaScript framework is important to you, you'll need to do a lot of self study in order to do that.

At the end of the day, I still learned a ton of stuff during my time at Claim Academy and I don't think I'd be where I am today without having attended. This bootcamp has the potential to change your life if you work really hard.

Claim Academy is good for networking with recruiters in the STL area who might be able to place you in a job after 12 weeks of coding practice. Of the three instructors who worked with my cohort, two are very passionate and informed. A third left a lot... Read More to be desired and ultimately was removed from our cohort.

I came to CA hoping to learn as much as possible according to the slightly exaggerated syllabus they offer, and already had a job lined up afterwards. I quickly realized that their core ranking is job placement (they boast 95% but wouldn't provide documentation to prove it) and that their emphasis wasn't on providing solid resources. Everyone seemed really strapped for time. Our mentor was the other cohort's instructor and by midway through the summer was teaching a second class too, our time with her, though valuable, was limited.

I have to emphasize how much those two instructors are passionate about what they do. I have reservations about the transparency and execution of the program, and ultimately for someone interested in learning more than finding a job I would not recommend the program. For someone interested more in finding a job than learning, it could be a valuable, yet expensive, recruitment source.

As someone with very little coding experience, Claim Academy was a great way to get a jump start in the IT field. My instructors, Lamar and Sahara, were extremely knowledgeable in Java, but were also effective in teaching us to program and build applications... Read More using Full Stack technology. 

Through the concepts that I learned at Claim Academy, I was able to apply what I had learned, and by the end of the program had developed a complete a real-world business solutions application. 

Claim's career advisor, Travis, also provided terrific career counseling and assistance throughout the program. He was always available, and very passionate about finding the right placements for each candidate.  

If there were to suggest any improvements, it would be to provide additional mentorship support, as sometimes instructors seemed be stretched by the task of providing mentorship to all members of our class. In some cases, mentor support was not available due to instructors teaching other Cohort classes, which were concurrent to our mentorship sessions.

Overall, I'm satisfied with my experience at Claim, and am excited to take what I have learned as I embark upon a new IT career!   

I really enjoyed my time here at claim academy. Within the three months of me being here i feel like i really learned a lot about coding the mindset to get into it. i really enjoyed the one on one attention i got from all the the instructors! Thank you!... Read More

I was part of the April 2017 Java class. Class was hard and sometimes unorganized, but I did learn a lot. You need to be willing to put in the work for this course to help you. I finished in July and am currently seeking employment as a Java developer.... Read More I feel like the teachers know their stuff but struggle at times to get through to some of the students. They switch teachers on you half way through the course and I don't think that helps the situation either. Still, I do feel like the teachers and student teachers try their best to help the students as much as they can. Thank you for all your help!

I loved the time I had at Claim Academy. I was challenged every day and was constantly pushed every minute, but I wouldn't change the experience for anything. All of the teachers and student mentors were incredibly patient (which is what I feared would... Read More NOT be the case prior to attending).

I learned a lot and I am greatly appreciative for the experience that I had.

Claim Academy is an intensive, full-time, java development class in St.Louis, MO. Over twelve weeks, you'll learn all the skills needed to begin a career as a software developer. Through hands-on projects, i was trained to build modern Java applications.... Read More Programming experience isn't required; you will need lots of tenacity and a passion for building cool stuff. Claim Academy has a network of companies that employee its graduates. I landed a job as a software developer on my graduation day at Claim Academy.

Claim Academy is the mother of Software BootCamps in the United States of America.

I became a .net C# software developer in Claim Academy in only 3 months. I got a really good experience with good teachers where they spend a lot of time with you making sure that you understand . Claim Academy has a network of companies that employee... Read More its graduates. I really recommend C Academy.