Skill Distillery

Skill distillery is excellent. I felt I was taking a huge risk attending this program as many bootcamps receive polarizing reviews. I can’t speak to the quality of other bootcamps, but skill distillery did such a good job I have a hard time imagining... Read More other bootcamps doing any better.

I am not natural to coding, and I had no prior experience. If your situation is similar, the pace of the course will more than likely expose frustrations. But, stick with it and and you will be rewarded!

Speaking for myself, as one of the slower individuals in the course, I was still able to get through some tough technical interviews and received several offers from empoyers seeking an entry level Java developer. So, believe me, you will gain the skills necessary to find a job and be successful in the world of software development from the course taightbar skill distillery.

Finally, the instructors are extremely enthusiastic and care about the success of the students. This to me is vitally important in a course like this, and the instructors at skill distillery were great. You will not be disappointed!

I recommend skill distillery in the strongest of terms.

For those hesitant to enter into a boot camp, I understand. I had concerns about my age, my ability to learn a new skill, not graduating with a bachelor’s in computer science, the possible stigma of being a boot camp graduate by employers/companies, and... Read More the duration of my job hunt.

A little about me: I was in the military for 8+ years (non-IT related field), 30+ years old, with a bachelor’s degree in social science. Prior to completing Skill Distillery, I left the military during the summer of 2016 to pursue a second undergrad in computer science at a university located in Maryland. After a semester, I couldn’t fathom another 3 ½ years as I would be 33-34 years old by the time I graduated. Looking for an alternative solution, I started looking around for boot camps though it took me six-months to finally take the plunge and apply to a boot camp.

I chose Skill Distillery because it was located in Colorado, approved by the VA so I could use my GI Bill, and taught Java. After completing their technical assessments (online multiple-choice logic test and a virtual Skype-like face-to-face logic test), I found out I made it and was ecstatic.

The first month was grueling as we focused primarily on Java basics. The first two-weeks of the course, in my opinion, was equivalent to my one semester of Java during my undergrad. Take the pre-work (homework prior to entering Skill Distillery) seriously. I was lucky to have a semester of Java, but as I mentioned before, the semester of Java at my previous university only helped me for the first two weeks of the course.

About a month into the course, the instructors prepare you to take the Oracle Java SE 8 Programmer exam. Majority of my classmates who decided to take the exam passed, to include myself (I mention this because of my initial fear of not being able to learn a technical skill and to quell anyone’s doubts about themselves because if I can do it, you can). Reasons why you wouldn’t want to take the test: one, the cost (~$250) and two, you did not do as well as you wanted to on the six to eight mock exams given prior to the Oracle Java exam.

The months will go by quickly and you will get what you put into it. If you have any questions about a new concept, Skill Distillery’s amazing instructors will give you their undivided attention and make sure you understand it. During the weekends, you will have a weekend project (except for two or three weekends). When you have a weekend project, Skill Distillery will have a TA available to answer your questions during a Saturday or Sunday, in Skill Distillery's classroom, to assist you in your project.

Since graduating the program on the 20th of November, about three-weeks of actively searching for a job, I had a few offers (I mention this as my proof that Skill Distillery will provide you with the skills to show employers that you are junior level material).

I could go on and on and shower Skill Distillery with compliments. It is worth your time if you’re interested in becoming a software developer.

If I had one suggestion, it would be for the program to focus a few more hours on the job preparation and hunt (resume, cover letters, more interview questions, technical questions, and behavioral questions). At the same time, Google’s search box, Skill Distillery’s alumni network, its staff and instructors, and the actual interview process will help you become more comfortable with the job search and give you a better idea of what employers expect from a junior level developer.

Though, to defend Skill Distillery and my comment about the program incorporating a few more hours of job preparation, I want to mention that Skill Distillery does a great job in taking input from students. Throughout the program, at least twice, the founder, Bruce, came into our classroom to ask us for our thoughts to improve the program. The program and instructors continually change their curriculum to meet technical needs of employers and to improve their students’ overall experience. I have a really good feeling with Skill Distillery’s recent staff hire and dedicated time to enhance their curriculum during the month of December 2017 that the program will improve for the betterment of future students.

To give you an idea of how long it took to me to find a job (a prior concern of mine), my experience from the time I started my job search to an actual offer took about three weeks. The process was 1) talk to a recruiter and explain why I was a good fit, 2) conduct an online assessment and/or technical interview over the phone or Skype, 3) complete an on-site interview, and 4) wait to hear back and/or provide additional references.

Some of my classmates found jobs sooner or later. I want to note that I graduated towards the end of the fiscal year (Nov 20) so there was less emphasis on hiring and more emphasis on closing out a company's budget (from what I was told or maybe it was to ease my concerns during my job hunt). Either way, I mention this for future applicants to consider. It’s still possible to find a job during the end of the year, but it may be tougher.

To sum up the program, it’s worth your time and will give you the skills you need to be successful. At the end of the program, you will have your own personal website, a portfolio of projects on Github, a network of peers, alumni, and instructors/staff to reach out to and connect with, and the knowledge to become a junior level software developer.

I wish you the best in your search for a boot camp!

Skill Distillery gave us all of the knowledge needed to get started in the software development industry in 16 weeks. Through a combination of hands on practice and lecture, we worked our way from core concepts and basic syntax to developing full stack... Read More web applications. They don't just teach you enough to make applications from a standard blueprint. Instead, the instructors work to convey an understanding of all of the parts involved so that you can stretch and grow your skills. At the time that I attended, they didn't do a lot to support people finding jobs after graduation, but my understanding is that they've improved in that area.

I was an electrical engineer who was looking for a career change. I was skeptical about boot camp but skill distillery has changed my mind.

The staffs are friendly and the course is challenging. As long as you are eager to learn and interested in programming... Read More you will do well.

First half you will learn Java and get ready to take in lots and lots of information. Personally I though this was the most important and basic part of the class. The instructors are always excited and ready to ask your questions. Always try to come up with questions.

For the second half, we learn front end and in between . It is fun and the instructors make it easy to understand the technologies.

I do recommend skill distillery and I think it is an awesome course as long as you are motivated and excited in programming.

I will start off with saying when I first started my journey at the Skill Distillery, I was skeptical and wary. I had done a lot of research before hand and there were arguments for both sides. I am not skeptical anymore. From Day 1 to Graduation Day,... Read More I have had nothing but the best experience.

On to the instructors. From Steve to Rob to Andrew and to Kris, I have to say that the Skill Distillery has the best instructors hands down. I have taken a Java course at a college located in Denver (not naming any names) and the experience was dreadful. Steve taught what I had learned in a semester in two weeks and I was able to retain it all. I would like to take the time now to address the anonymous complaint against Steve by saying that it not only pure nonsense but 100% unfounded. There is no instructor who is more invested in the well being and success of his students than Steve. He is hilarious, kind, passionate and he can be stern when he needs to be. Take from me, I have gotten called out for being on Facebook or dozing in class but never once did I think it was inappropriate or like I was being attacked. Steve is the best Java/Spring guru and you will learn valuable information from him. Rob is the terminal wizard. Actually Rob is pretty much a wizard at everything and I learned a lot from picking his brain. Kris and Andrew were our instructors for the latter half of the course. They tagged team what I thought was the most cahllenging subjects which were Angular JS and JS. The way they engaged the students and conveyed the subjects was perfect. Last but not least, I don't think any of the students in my cohort including myself would have succeeded so well if it wasn't for the help of Aaron the TA. Aaron was always there to help you and help put the technigal aspects into layman terms. I could go on and on but the TL:DR of it all is the instructors at the Skill Distillery are phenomenal.

All the knowledge and all the material we covered was staggering. It was challenging to say the least. I will say that you can make it through this course if you put forth 100% effort. That being said this course is not for everyone. I believe I came in every weekend for a minimum of 5 hours to finish projects or to have study groups. I came in early and stayed late every single day. I don't think I would have done as well had I not. We covered Java in four weeks and we got pretty far into the advanced subjects. After that we dove into the OCP prep. That alone solidified a lot fo what we had learned throughout the previous weeks. After that we covered Spring and some front end topics. From there we moved to JavaScript and then to Angular JS. I have interviewed with a few companies and done multiple coding challenges while on my job search. Everything we learned was covered in the interviews and challenges. In a nut shell the knowledge gained from this course will eventually lead you to getting a career in Software Development. Almost 90% of my cohort has landed jobs including myself so I can attest that this place works!

In closing, the Skill Distillery was the best decision I have ever made. It is in my opinion the best Dev Bootcamp out there because it teaches Java for which there are tons of job opportunities for. The instructors are also the best ones out there in my opinion. Cole, the director, works tirelessly to work with students as well as local companies to open up job opportunites. He is the reason I was able to land a job with a well known contracting company. The material taught here will open doors for you as long as you put in the effort. Skill Distillery has a lot to offer and if I were you, I would not hesitate to sign up!

Sincerely,

Dennis

P.S.: If you have any questions feel free to hit me up at dennis.carrasquillo@gmail.com

I'm a veteran who has prior professional experience (not coding related at all) in the corporate world. My prospects were quickly turning into a dead end and I had a family to support. I knew programming was the way of the future but I didn't have the... Read More time to dedicate to getting a four year CS degree. If coding boot camps like Skill Distillery didn't exist, I would have been a slave to a less than optimal job outlook.

Skill Distillery has given me the tools I need to successfully break into the software engineering/development market. If you have a clearance you will have an immense number of job opportunities. Those who do not have clearances have plenty of opportunities as well. The market is booming! However, I won't sugar coat it. The process to get hired for positions that don't require clearances will require more of a dog and pony show (white boards, live-coding, homework code problem-solving tests, technical question grilling, in-person culture fit interviews) when interviewing with prospective employers.

Now, let's get back to the boot camp. Before you actually get to the boot camp, make sure you go through the pre-work. Attempt to understand as many of the concepts in Java as you can prior to the first day of class.

The boot camp is NOT easy and you should not underestimate it. You WILL be challenged. The instructors are highly qualified and truly care about teaching as well as ensuring that the students progress if they encounter any road blocks. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Even if you think you're asking a dumb question, you're investing time and money to be there. Make sure you do everything you can to understand concepts that are troubling you.

Ultimately, do your best to stay light-hearted while your committing yourself to the intense learning process. It will be hard, but it will also be very rewarding. This is one of the few professions where you can build something from scratch that can be useful and solve real-world problems. Skill Distillery has all of the resources you need to succeed in this field if you're willing to put in the work.

Skill Distillery is the place to join to prepare you to start your dream career as a Software Developer. Before I joined, I researched the various bootcamps available and Skill Distillery stood out for their commitment to effective education and successful... Read More career placement.

I joined the school in January, 2017 and graduated in May, 2017. My experience has been life changing. Skill Distillery has a fantastic team of instructors who are highly experienced in what they teach and very passionate about software development and seeing their students succeed.

During the 4 months of the program, I have learned a solid and effective software development skill-set and developed a portfolio of over 7 applications that showcase the value I could provide to future employees.

Close to graduation, the staff prepared us for our job search with various tips. And following exactly what they recommended and leveraging what I learned in the program, I got and accepted an offer as a full stack software engineer after just 1 month from graduation.

Skill Distillery is a great place to learn and prepare for a great career as a software developer. Join and don't look back.

I usually don't leave reviews but I would hate someone to not truly consider this bootcamp. Hands down best money I have spent towards education and my career. I looked into this program because they had one of the more difficult programs (They actually... Read More taught difficult concepts that would make you very competitive, as opposed to bootcamps that teach "whatever is easy to learn") HUGE PLUS - they are military friendly.

The Program/ Material -
The program is intense and never leaves you feeling unchallenged. I went into this program already having a degree and some coding experience under my belt. I spent a full year coding in college and during the first 3 weeks here I was already covering things they university had not yet covered. This course is designed to make you grow and become a very hirable software developer. If you want a more complete education out of your bootcamp as well as learn a programming language that's usually taught in universities, this is the place for you. This program cuts out a lot of the unnecessary bits of traditional school. You get to doing what you paid for from day one. No time is wasted.

The Staff -
By far the most thoughtful, educated and patient staff I have witnessed in an educational setting. It's clear that the staff genuinely cares about how the students are digesting the material and will go to great lengths to break things down to make sure you are getting the material. The class sizes are small so you are never waiting long. Often times, staff are standing by waiting to help.

The School / Location -
Skill Distillery is in a quiet part of town right outside of the Denver Metro Area. This is a huge plus when it comes to being a comfortable environment. There is a cafeteria on-site as well as fridges and snacks. These small things come into play when considering the stress of the overall program. it all helps!

Not only did this program make me a better programer by an immeasurable amount, it has propelled me into the software world and I have not looked back. I hold conversations with those who have been in the industry for years without losing a step. This program knows what they are doing and they will get you there (If you're willing to buckle down and do the work!)

After completing this program, I landed a great job with a great company and I haven't loved a job this much! Highly recommend this program if you are on the fence about bootcamps. Skill Distillery is worth it's weight and then some!

When I was searching for bootcamps in summer 2016 there were only two programs in the nation that accepted the GI Bill, so I can’t really say that my choice of Skill Distillery was based on extensive research. That being said, and knowing what I know... Read More now about the industry, I consider myself extremely fortunate to have attended this school.

Some things you should know:

1) Skill Distillery is, to my knowledge, the only bootcamp that teaches the Java programming language. This is a very important fact. Java is a completely different beast than Javascript (which most bootcamps teach, and which you will also learn here). Knowing Java automatically puts you into reach of many thousands of jobs that most bootcamp graduates will never have a shot at. (If you’re new to this, do an Indeed search for the keywords “Java Developer”). If your primary interest is designing nice-looking websites, then there are certainly better programs out there; however, if you’re looking to get your hands dirty learning full stack Java development, well, that’s where the money’s at, and to my knowledge there’s only one show in town that’ll get you up to speed in such a short amount of time.

2) Skill Distillery is best suited for transitioning professionals. To my knowledge they are selectively looking for people who already have awesome resumes. You’ll be in class primarily with people who have college degrees and/or security clearances, and probably years of experience in their respective fields. I don’t want to scare people away from applying, but you should know that the quality and talent of your fellow students here will be off the charts. Not to worry though—there’s no competition, grading, or class ranking here. Everything is pass or fail, and the instructors are amazingly generous with their time, often staying after hours or coming in on weekends to ensure the success of every student. At least half of the projects are team efforts, as well.

3) Skill Distillery’s educational program can be neatly divided into two very distinct halves, each with its own very unique teaching style:

The first half (taught by Rob and Steve) is a very rigorous and formal course learning back-end (server-side) technology. You’ll cover Java in 4 weeks, and will then spend a week studying for the "Oracle Certified Java SE 8 Programmer” certification. Taking the test is optional and will cost you an extra $245, however, the instructors will provide you with plenty of study materials, practice exams, and feedback to help you make that decision. For reference I think about half of our class earned the certificate, which makes a pretty stellar bullet point on your resume! After this you’ll move on to SQL databases and the Spring framework. If you weren’t overwhelmed already, this is where it really started to feel for me like jumping into the deep end of a pool with no swimming experience, but after enough repetition you WILL start to get it, I promise. You’ll build your first CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) applications and deploy them to your very own AWS server.

The second half (taught by Kris and Andrew) starts around this point, and the contrast in both the course content and teaching styles is a little startling, but it works. Up until this point there was pretty much only one ‘right’ way to do things—you learned by repetition, and if you did something wrong (such as forgetting a semicolon or a bracket) your program broke in an obvious way. Now you get into some big and powerful front-end technologies: Javascript, JQuery, and Angular. With these languages there always seems to be a dozen ‘right’ ways to do something, and hundred more ‘wrong’ solutions that can break your website in weird and puzzling ways. For this reason, you’ll get a lot less formal code review in this portion of the course. Kris and Andrew are always available (and very, very helpful!) for the many moments where you’re stuck on how to implement a feature, or trying to find an elusive bug in your application, but if your project works they’re probably not going to give you feedback on how you implemented it. Don’t get me wrong, the instruction is still invariably excellent, but due to the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ nature of front-end programming, it’s a little easier to get lost during this portion.

4) Skill Distillery provides decent, but not great, interview preparation and job hunt support. This is the single biggest change that I would recommend for the program, and I would highly recommend than any potential applicant develop their own plan to begin studying for interviews early on in the program. For reference, our interview prep consisted of being handed a copy of “Cracking the Coding Interview” on the Monday of our final week, and having a few short lectures and whiteboard problem-solving sessions throughout that week. I’m sure this will be enough for some job interviews, but I’d really like to see 10 minutes per day reserved for whiteboard practice starting as early as week 2. My advice for prospective students is to create an account on HackerRank and make it a personal goal to solve one problem a day for the entire 4 months. As far as job hunting goes, although the school does not guarantee employment, Cole (the school director) is very enthusiastic about finding placement for students, and has a pretty impressive list of contacts. The potential downside is that many of these contacts are specifically in the Denver area or else are for students with security clearances.

5) Skill Distillery really cares about its graduates. By attending this program you automatically become part of a small but growing network of alumni who have positions in various companies and corporations around the state and the nation. Cole does his best to stay in contact with his graduates as well as following up with their employers for feedback. I know that several companies have been so impressed with their hires from this program that they have gone on to hire more students, and I suspect this phenomenon will only grow. Additionally, alumni are frequently invited back to the school to give talks about their interview experiences, which makes for a very nice networking opportunity.

In conclusion, choosing Skill Distillery has been the best decision of my life. I graduated less than a week ago and have had a half-dozen callbacks and two formal interviews so far, both of which I think went very well. I don’t have a job yet but I’m feeling confident I have the skills I need to succeed in the software industry.

(My background: Former Navy Officer with 10 years of military experience. 4-year technical degree. A fair bit of amateur coding experience plus a couple of college courses in Computer Science.)

Skill Distillery is one of the best educational courses I've ever taken.

The content and the execution are both excellent. Maybe these things were lacking in previous cohorts, but at this point it is very polished and is a great learning environment.... Read More My cohort is only a month out from graduation and about half are already employed in full time Java developer roles.

What makes Skill Distillery great?

1. The instructors (and admin):

Always someone available. Whether you're having trouble with a concept, or you want some overall wisdom for a particular design decision you're trying to make, they are there and can help you keep moving forward. One of the most valuable things was understanding their debugging process. If I was stuck on something for way too long, they could come over and not just show me the error, but show me how they would find the error. This led to many "Aha moments" for me.
They all have different teaching styles and skillsets, and this is good. For me this kept lectures engaging and allowed me to learn from different angles.
The admin-side was great as well. They were always there for personal help or even just to hang out and relax the brain for a minute.
2. The environment/structure

You are absolutely immersed in all things code for 50+ hours a week with daily assignments and weekly projects. The combination of reading, listening, and learning about code followed by actually writing your own code from a blank editor really helps cement the concepts learned.
Everything you learn early in the course you continue to use throughout. So even if you don't fully understand something, you're going to keep using it until it finally clicks in your head. That is the coolest moment.
The overall energy and focus in the course is intense and part of what makes it great. Of course this isn't forced on you, but you're there with 10+ other people who have dedicated the next few months to living, breathing, dreaming code. This comes with its exhausting moments but it's totally worth it.
Studying for (and passing in my case!) the OCA exam. This is kind of a pain in the butt in the moment because you just want to make stuff! But it really does help you learn some of the weird, less intuitive parts of Java, which you then end up remembering when you're writing some method that doesn't behave how you thought it would, and you're able to much more quickly understand and fix it. About half of our cohort passed the exam, and most were pretty close. Being able to learn a topic that is typically studied for 6+ months, and pass or even come close to passing in 8 or so days we had, is pretty cool in itself.
3. Learning Java

If you can learn Java in <3 months, you can learn JavaScript in <3 weeks. This is exactly what we did. The strictness and verbosity of Java does make it harder to initially understand, but once we got it, understanding JS came fairly quickly. This carry-over was further demonstrated when my team was able to throw together and debug a Python script for use in one of our projects in about 10 minutes.
4. Classmates and alumni

I sincerely enjoyed meeting and working with everyone in class. I consider them friends and hope to keep in touch and see how we all continue to grow as developers. The alumni network has already proven valuable for me as I'm getting in front of hiring managers thanks to alumni referrals.

I highly recommend attending this coding bootcamp. It was very worth it and I am highly grateful I got to attend! I haven't found a job yet but I'm confident I will, and I'll update this when I do.