Codesmith

Currently enrolled in their Part Time Remote Immersive (PTRI) course, so I can give my impressions so far for those interested in this new course.

Overall Experience:
Challenging, rewarding, and fun! The coursework can be difficult and you will run into... Read More blocks (many times), but you get a ton of support when needed, even outside of class hours. You will be trying to learn a ton of material in a short amount of time, and at times you may feel overwhelmed. That said, even with personally setting aside an additional 1-2 hours each day for review or doing bonus exercises, it largely hasn't affected my other activities and schedule outside of class hours. And the class has become its own little online community, where we learn from and support each other. It's been both a highly rewarding and fun experience so far.

Curriculum:
Exactly what I was looking for to get into full stack development, not just in terms of course material but emphasis on engineering, problem solving, technical communication and pair programming. You learn a new topic each week and dive deep under the hood with lectures and weekly exercises that can be really challenging. There are some bonus exercises, hack hours, and hackathons that you will work on outside of class hours, but that has not impacted my other activities so far. As I'm still only part way through the curriculum, I can't speak to the later sections of the course, including the solo and group projects. But it seems the weekly learning and exercises is building us up to that point and will likely really test what we've learned and can apply in actual big projects.

The weekly skill builders and unit exercises can be tough to get through, but you also pair up with another student (different each week) to work through them together and this has been a great experience, as you learn from each other and also work on fine-tuning your technical communication. I find that learning from other students through this process has been just as invaluable as learning the actual course material from the instructors.

Instructors:
Enthusiastic, supportive and friendly! The PTRI course is setup with a Lead Instructor, a Lead Technical Mentor, and two Fellows. They have been great to interact with and learn from and are always available to help. The amount of support you get is great.

Job Assistance: n/a (haven't gotten to this portion of the class yet)

I’m currently enrolled in the new Part Time Remote Immersive and even though it’s a new program, it delivers. It’s tough to give a full 360 degree picture because I’m still in the first leg of the journey, but so far, it’s exactly what I expected. I chose... Read More Codesmith because I didn’t want to be spoon-fed information and spit out the other side of an assembly line as a cookie cutter coder. I wanted to learn about being an engineer. That means working through blocks, learning how to learn, and applying concepts to new and unfamiliar problems. That’s what I do here.

I almost always feel behind, but I should. Who wouldn’t when you’re on boarding this much information this quickly. I think what constantly surprises me is how much more efficient, knowledgeable, and capable I’m becoming without even realizing it. I constantly have to remind myself that I’m doing things seemingly impossible to me a month ago. And I don’t feel like I’m missing anything doing it all remotely. They make sure you have iPads for virtual whiteboarding, GitHub and Slack are seamlessly integrated for sharing code and resources, and the team is smooth in its virtual classroom execution. I’ve even applied some of Codesmith’s virtual etiquette and teaching techniques to the meetings and trainings I conduct for work while we’re all stuck in quarantine.

A typical week so far looks something like this:

Mon - Thurs - 3 hours of remote class which include introductory lectures on the week’s unit mixed with programming challenges that you’ll tackle both alone and with a partner via video conferencing, reinforcing and expanding on the topics presented. You’ll develop real problem solving knowledge in the subject matter with which you’re wrestling.

Saturdays - 6 hours of class reviewing the week’s material looking at an expert’s approach and the approaches of your classmates to learn from each other and implement other approaches to the challenges you faced.

That’s phase one. There’s a project phase and a hiring phase which I can’t speak to yet (despite this online form forcing me to pick a rating for Job Support -- I went with what I expect to be true), but the order of operations here makes sense. Learn core material -> Exercise core material in real world settings -> Package all that knowledge and experience to get high paying jobs. The outcomes speak for themselves.

Everyone in my cohort is smart, knowledgeable, hardworking, and friendly, and while it’s easy to look at that and count myself so lucky to be working with such a great group of people, my hunch is that something about Codesmith’s interview process ensures that most cohorts have a similar makeup. And the instructors are the same. As much as they emphasize “work through the blocks” learning, I’ve never felt on my own. If I hit an unscalable wall trying to conquer a problem, the instructors are always right around the virtual corner to ask just the right questions to get me to start climbing on my own. That’s really all I have in terms of a review, this next bit is more personally important to me.

Because I remember how I felt when I was scraping the internet for reviews and wondering what to believe before hopping on this wild train, here’s my full disclosure statement. I was asked to throw a few words into a review because Codesmith doesn’t do a lot of advertising other than virtual word of mouth. In no way was the content of my review discussed or influenced by anything other than my experience. I wouldn’t have agreed to write it if it had been. So these words are mine and I’m not really someone who can say a thing I don’t believe. With that said, what I’m about to write next should be the biggest takeaway for anybody looking.

If was having a negative experience (which I’m not), and I did load this review with criticisms, I don’t think there’d be backlash from Codesmith. Even though I’m still in the program, I don’t think they’d reach out in anger or retaliation. I think they’d want to know how they could do better. The team at Codesmith is always looking for ways to better serve their residents even though it seems they already have it pretty much down to a science. That’s true on the curriculum level, the execution level, and the human level. I think that’s why they have the outcomes that they do. It’s a healthy, hardworking environment and, coming out of the program, it’s my bet that people carry that with them into their careers.

I have been attending Codesmith's open-house events, " Javascript The Hard Parts"and through this had begun Codesmith's CSX online learning tool/platform for JS, which I highly recommend. I have also entered in some of Codesmith's challenge competitions... Read More where I won 100% free tuition into their CS Prep course(which, btw, you can roll over the tuition into Codesmith's Software Engineering Immersive Program!). I am so grateful that I found this school. I have looked into many coding bootcamps and in my humble opinion, Codesmith is by far, one of ,if not the BEST coding bootcamps out there. They really dive into the "inner-workings" of Javascript so you gain a deep understanding of the language and how it works "under the hood/behind the scenes". You also gain a deeper understanding of "why" Javascript behaves the way it does!!! You also learn CS fundamentals, programming concepts, pair-programming, coding challenges, debugging, final team-project, etc. The CS Prep course is a fantastic stepping-stone to the full-time immersive cohort. I am so glad I took CS Prep and can't recommend it enough!!!! A big shout out to our instructor, David who did an amazing job!!!! He is patient and really takes the time to explain concepts that you might be struggling with-always making sure everyone is on the same page & included. He explains everything in such a way where it is easy to understand. One thing that really stands out at Codesmith is their total respect for each other and there is always someone to assist you when you are stuck!!! Their slack community is awesome as well !!!!!
Thank you Codesmith team !!! :-)

I stumbled upon the PTRI program while looking for a bootcamp and almost immediately fell in love with their block-driven approach and supportive community. I considered going to the on-site program in NYC, but like many people was not able to quit my... Read More job for months to do that.

The PTRI program is not easy, but the 3 hours a night are doable even if you work full-time. The instructors and other staff are top-notch - super supportive, responsive, and they make you feel like you belong.

The community is awesome, and Codesmith has been very successful at creating a tight-knit group, even though we're geographically far away from one another. So kudos to them!

I haven't gotten to the hiring portion yet, so I can't speak to the efficacy of it personally, but they have great outcomes, so I'm not too worried about my prospects.

Overall, if you are dedicated and hard working and want a challenge, I definitely recommend this program!

Codesmiths CS Prep program was helpful in giving me the exposure that I needed in order to help me understand the things that I had to improve on to become a better me. The best part of CSPrep was the group project. It was amazing building something from... Read More scratch and applying all the things that we learned in CS Prep in order to create a project that we were able to share with our CS Prep Cohort. If someone told me a few months ago that I would be able to complete something from scratch by coding it out, I would've never believed them, which is why I highly recommend everyone do CS Prep.

I came upon Codesmith during my months-long search for the most suitable bootcamp in NYC. What impressed me about CS, right off the bat at their open house, was the detail and clarity of their curriculum. While they also have the numbers to show for it,... Read More their presentation alone really painted a solidly structured picture of how students will learn during their 12-week intensive. I decided to take the JS for Beginners online course partially because I wanted a solid foundation to JavaScript, and learn better by interaction, but also because I wanted to get a sense of how Codesmith teaches: its language, its approach, etc.

I had a tremendously rewarding learning experience with JS for Beginners. Our instructor, Michelle, was patient, communicative, and receptive to our questions. The best part, in my opinion, was the amount of technical communication the short prep course taught me. It gave me a morsel of confidence to speak my code, literally, and feel comfortable with the syntax. This is a fantastic opportunity for those wanting to begin their coding journey. I cannot recommend JS For Beginners enough.

I just got an offer that I will be accepting as my first Software Engineer role outside of Codesmith and I'm still in shock at how things worked out the way it did! I was a student in the Software Engineering Immersive Program back in May-August and had... Read More the privilege of becoming a fellow from August-November.

Many people were sharing how the job search will be difficult around the time I end fellowship but I am here to say that if you put in the hard work, you can get a job regardless of the “best hiring” season. I am super thankful for the Codesmith community as I have made so many amazing life-long friends/engineers who are here to support me in my new journey, every step of the way. I can’t thank the staff enough for believing in me and giving me all the resources I need to succeed. Thank you Codesmith!

I graduated with a degree in Graphic Design but I felt unprepared for actually finding work/ furthering a career in Design in a meaningful and stable way. For that and several other reasons I decided give programming a go. I enrolled into two other programming... Read More schools before attending Codesmith (Call me nuts). Here are somethings I have to say...

1- Codesmith is one of a kind.
I don't think there are any other programs out there that can help an individual improve themselves and their careers at such a high caliber. In terms of Codesmith as an educational entity, I learned more valuable and practical things here than I did in most of my undergrad. In comparison to the programming schools I attended prior, Codesmith felt more like a Graduate/Masters Program. Which leads to the next point....

2- It's not easy (Seriously... its not).
When I initially saw the active hours of Mon-Sat 9am-8pm I thought about the commitment I was getting into. In total you may spend +1300 hours at Codesmith. You have to be serious about this. You will be introduced to CS/ Full-Stack concepts at an unnatural rate that will be juuust uncomfortable enough that you will feel challenged throughout the program. But you aren't expected to know everything. The thing to understand is your peers are there to learn too. No one is perfect. You just need to make sure that if you do decide to enroll into Codesmith, you go in with an open mind and are serious about learning. The Codesmith community will only cultivate you and let you grow as an engineer. This is something that Codesmith does quite well.

3- The Codesmith Bag of Goodies
Codesmith equips its students with things that I noticed others schools didn't. Some examples:

a) Being a student at the New York Campus has a likeness to working at a start up company. Both classes (Juniors and Seniors) share the same space. There is no "Classroom code along" and only a small portion of your day is devoted to lecture. Most of your time will be spent pair programming/ working at engineering problems. On top of that, your senior portion will have you working in close proximity with other engineers where you can practice things such as working in an AGILE environment, GitHub workflow, Brainstorming/Building an application from the ground up as a team. These start up elements can help grads both form opinions about these concepts AND adjust to environments of the start up companies that want to hire them.

b) Codesmith's hiring portion is on point. Your credibility as an engineer will be boosted by Codesmith's teaching style regarding your resume writing, self advocacy, proper salary negotiation and job searching techniques. I learned a great deal in this phase of the program.

c) The curriculum is well thought out. You are given things that will help you build a strong resume. Aside from the great amount of technologies you touch and your smaller projects, the production project you build over the course of several weeks is great experience. This larger scale project will get you though enough engineering challenges to allow you to formulate a mature engineering narrative that will help you when on the job search. And don't even get me started on the tech talk.

4- I am thankful
I'm someone who has struggled quite a bit with programming. But after devoting less than a year to focus on studies I am now working as an engineer with a salary that is 4x greater than I've ever earned before. So for that I am thankful.

There are a lot of things to consider about bootcamps, but one thing that can't be challenged about Codesmith is results. Less than six months ago I was working in SEO - yes, that's kind of web development but not as much as I'd like it to be when I'm... Read More on a job interview. As of last week I was hired into a mid-level engineering role. I have a BA in journalism with a concentration in Cinema Studies - yes, really - and a year of studying JS and other languages to my name. I owe my current position to the course at Codesmith.

There are cons to the program, as there are with anything that takes up 70+ hours of your week for 13 straight weeks. It's stressful and has a throw-you-in-the-deep-end mentality, but it works. Maybe that level of stress and commitment isn't' for you, that's something to consider, but it is also what leads to a most people landing mid-level positions. Some grads even get senior level roles, though those are rare without some kind of direct tech background prior to the course.

Pros:
The hiring program at the end is outstanding - they work with you until you finish negotiating
The course teaches students how to figure things out on their own
The community is incredibly supportive, both with work and emotionally
They create a fun environment to unwind with Thursday night drinks, ping pong tournaments, and relay races

Cons:
The people teaching the courses are sometimes recent grades - they know their stuff but it would be helpful to have a larger staff of experienced engineers. To be clear, there are experienced engineers on staff, it's just not everyone
The schedule is grueling. There is a good argument that this is what makes the course so effective, but there can be a mentality that working all night is the best way to show work ethic. For some, it reduces productivity and has other negative effects.
Some of the courses need to be updated for bugs. Only one caused a problem for my group, and it has likely been resolved, but it put a big delay on work.

The pros out weigh the cons, it's as simple as that. I think they are easy to overlook considering the outcomes and that no program will be perfect. If you want to work very hard to fast-track yourself into a role as an engineer, likely passing over entry-level, this is the course for you. I have recommend it to friends and family who are considering career changes. It has been an amazing experience.

Would highly recommend checking out their free courses in NYC, LA, and online. I went to several before joining and experienced engineers go to them along with people just getting into it. Get a feel for it for yourself.

Five years ago, I quit my job to go to a (different) web dev bootcamp. It got me my first developer job, but that experience doesn't compare to what I got out of Codesmith. Several years and two jobs later I found myself unable to find my next opportunity.... Read More I was over-qualified for Jr roles and under-qualified for Sr ones because even after my on the job experience, my actual core programming knowledge base was sorely lacking.
Codesmith changed that and I couldn't be more grateful. After three VERY difficult months I found myself in a VERY different place - I was more confident, had recent cutting edge projects under my belt, and finally felt deserving of a Senior title. Newly empowered I ventured back into the job market that just months earlier had been rejecting me repeatedly.
Codesmith kept supporting me with constant advice, and encouragement and now I have the job I've always wanted. To top it off, my salary is 81% higher than it was at my last job. I can't recommend this program highly enough.