Codeup

Choosing to go to Codeup was one of the best decisions I've ever made. They gave me the skills and confidence I needed to change careers. I went in knowing nothing about computer science in 2017, and since then I've been working as a full time software... Read More engineer. Not only did they teach me what I needed to know, but they also gave me the skills to continue educating myself afterwards. I would recommend Codeup to anyone looking to make a change in their career!

There are many other paths to enter into and be successful in software development, however attending Codeup played a huge part in my career path specifically. While I still had to contribute lots of hard work and commitment to my learning, Codeup's coursework... Read More and hands on instructors, coupled with their network of both alumni and hiring partnerships have played a critical role in my career progression. While attending Codeup you will be exposed and taught many industry desired skills and technologies, as well as prepared for the job market with resume and profile building and the soft skills to be successful. Since completion of Codeup I still go back to the curriculum for reference (or to study for an interview) when necessary, and most importantly still have the major benefit of the Codeup network whenever I am looking for new job opportunities. For any one looking into attending Codeup, I can with out a doubt in my mind recommend them. I have continued to benefit from my time at Codeup beyond the learning and throughout my career and that is something that makes them stand apart.

Codeup helped change my life for the better. I made a total career change into web development with no prior coding experience! They gave me the knowledge and tools needed for me to succeed. If you are looking to make a career change into web development,... Read More give Codeup a call!

I was fortunate enough to be a part of the first cohort in Dallas and I can't say enough great things about my experience! From the day I walked in and met Christian to the time I got my offer letter he worked incredibly hard to make sure we had what... Read More we needed to succeed. Our instructors, Fernando and Douglas were so patient, incredibly knowledgeable, and offered just enough support to guide us through hurdles but gave us the necessary room we needed to grow and be accountable for our own learning! I cannot leave out another gem, Dimitri, who was armed and ready to step in to remind you why you started the minute any self doubt created possible roadblocks along the road to success! Kenneth came along in the latter part of our bootcamp experience, and this guy is a total rockstar! Codeup was faced with moving us to a remote setting 3 weeks into class due to COVID. They were so compassionate with making sure we had adequate breaks to practice self care while learning at home. I don't know how they did it, but they did everything in their power to make sure it all went as planned and unhitched! The process is what you make of it and if you truly want it and are willing to put the work in to succeed, there is no doubt that Codeup is THE place to go if you are considering software development as a career!

I completed Codeup's Full Stack Web Development Course in June of 2019, entering the market as an entry level software developer. I would highly recommend attending a CS bootcamp over the self-taught route to gain access to instructor-led lectures, an... Read More extensive professional network and benefit from academic support and better job prospects.

Codeup, now known as a career accelerator, differentiates itself from the competition by providing a comprehensive instructor-led based course covering the Full-Stack (HTML, CSS, Javascript, MySQL, and Java/Java Boot) spanning 4.5 months as well as extensive professional career resources (resume, interview prep, and network growth), ensuring job placement for all of their students within a 6 months period post-graduation (Full-Tuition Refund otherwise). Most instructors at Codeup are highly competent, providing quality instruction. One advantage of being in downtown San Antonio while attending Codeup is access to San Antonio's growing tech community in the heart of downtown. Codeup provides all of its students with memberships to Geekdom (a workplace and startup incubator) where students take part in the many events happening in tech in SA.

I have a few cons worth mentioning. Codeup is the most expensive bootcamp I know of personally totaling $22,500. However, Codeup offers their students many scholarship opportunities and is one of the very few bootcamps that accepts the GI bill. For some, Codeup's 9-5 instructor led classes is too long/structured. And finally, Industry valued frameworks like Angular or React aren't taught at Codeup.

Finally, what I like best about Codeup is the challenge of delivering a comprehensive Full-Stack application to staff, friends, family, and recruiters the day of graduation after 2 and a half weeks of hard work on the capstone project. I cannot overstate the importance of completing TEAM projects throughout your Codeup or bootcamp experience. Recruiters love that!

TLDR – No brainer for veterans using the GI Bill or Vocational Rehab.

Personal Outcome – Hired with major tech organization.

Cohort Outcome – 23/28 Graduated, 21/23 placed within 8 weeks of graduation.

I told myself that I wouldn’t write a review until... Read More I was employed and working. I didn’t want “honeymoon haze” to have an effect of skewing my thoughts on the experience as a whole.

If you are reading this to decide if it’s worth your time or money, that depends on your personal financial situation. For a military veteran using the GI Bill or Vocational Rehab, it is absolutely worth every cent. Mostly because you’ll get paid to attend class and learn a skill worth having. If you’re paying out of pocket or through loans, that can be a much trickier proposition.

Do not be fooled by the ridiculous starting salaries advertised by other boot camps. Those amounts easily equate to the average of ~$55k San Antonio offers. The primary reason for this is cost of living adjustment. So, if you think you’re going to make $80-$100k fresh out of Codeup with no prior experience or college degree, think again. In fact, due to the enormous talent pool of qualified candidates and limited number of positions, not having a college degree (regardless of field) can really hurt you in the San Antonio market. You have much less in the way of bargaining and have to consider the idea of taking a much lower than desired salary just to get the coveted experience companies crave.

Engagement beyond graduation is more than you could ask for and also worth the investment. Follow-on cohorts may have a different experience, but my review is based off working with Stephen who was in charge of employer relations. On top of the volunteer opportunities, job fairs, workshops, and meetups, additional interviews were also coordinated by Stephen. He did everything in his power to find opportunities with employers. In total, I had 8 phone interviews and 5 in-person interviews. Out of the 5, I received offers from 2. I might’ve been able to secure an additional 2 offers, but my interviewing/negotiating skills were rusty and poorly researched (see above about salary expectations).

The instructors at Codeup are the main reason to choose a structured approach versus self-taught. Having access to someone intimately familiar with the curriculum whenever you need pays dividends when trying to grasp tricky concepts. The instructors almost make you believe they are wizards with special membership rings that give them coding powers. But with that being said, it is important to curb your expectations. The instructors are experts on the curriculum they teach and their individual expertise outside of the curriculum. This means that trying to test them with obscure coding challenges that have zero relevance to the real world is utterly pointless. This leads into the curriculum.

The curriculum is relatively up to date given the breakneck speed development moves. You will learn HTML, CSS, JS (ES5 and ES6), Java 8, Spring, MySQL, and a little bit of Bash. You will learn just enough of each of these to be dangerous, but not even close to mastery. You will find yourself asking why you’re using x framework, or y library, but the truth is, just do it. Development is complex enough as is, you don’t need to try to reinvent the wheel just to say that your project uses no libraries. As the projects get more difficult, no one gives a shit if you use jquery or lodash or bootstrap or whatever to make your project. As long as the final product is functional, feature complete, and relatively bug free, use whatever you can to save yourself time!

With all of that being said, manage your expectations. Special wizard rings are not issued upon graduation. You will spend 4 months learning many dialects of many languages. Equate that to learning French, German, Arabic, Spanish, and Japanese in 4 months. Your level of mastery will be reflected in much the same way. You will gravitate towards one more than the other, and become more proficient the more you use it. At the end of the day, Codeup was well worth it for me and several of my cohort mates would agree.

Codeup took me from complete coding beginner to developing full stack web apps in 4 months. The network of industry connections you gain access to through the instructors and owners is also invaluable. I was hired as a PHP developer within 3 weeks of... Read More graduating from the bootcamp. Highly recommended!

I decided on Codeup because it's less of a time and financial commitment than getting a traditional degree, but you still get the benefit of in-person instruction and 1-on-1 help that you don't get using online tutorials.

I completed the part time front-end... Read More bootcamp in July of 2015. While my experience in the part-time course probably differs greatly from the full-time course, the main pro was that the course focuses on professional skills, teaching new technologies and languages that are popular and in-demand. It's invaluable to interact with people working in the field to learn best practices, tricks and expectations once you are out working on your own.

However, a major con is that it's a lot of learning condensed into a very short amount of time, and there's a lot of pressure on the individual to keep pace. The "syllabus" has a schedule of "however long it takes to cover this topic," and I found that many in my class moved at very different paces. Another con is, because of the condensed timeframe, there's not a lot of time to practice each thing you learn. It's very much up to the individual how far into each topic they want to/are able to go. High levels of personal motivation and the willingness to persevere are a must.

The main con of attending this program, as with any other program of this type, is the condensed learning period. Learning to code is not easy (if it were, everyone would be doing it), and being pushed to learn so much within such a short period of time... Read More can be daunting. However, this brings me to the main pros of the class: the staff and support. At no time did I feel that the staff wasn't 100% dedicated to my success. Whether it was staying late to work with me, answering emails on the weekend or just taking the time to cover a concept several times, the instructors and support staff are there to make sure you succeed. It will be difficult, but you will live and in the end I'm sure you will find it a very rewarding experience. Whether you're changing careers or just trying to learn a valuable (and lucrative) new skillset, you can't really go wrong, especially when compared with the price of a full University Comp Science degree program.