Tech Elevator

Tech Elevator was the best risk I took. I was very skeptical at first. There have been so many for profit school scams that have left people broke. When I learned about Tech Elevator I did a lot of research. I was trying to find the disgruntled mutterings... Read More of a scam. I could not find it. The fact that Tech Elevator voluntarily reports to a third party watchdog agency that monitors for profit schools was instrumental in making me realize it's legit.

Unlike other boot camps that train you up in the latest fad Tech Elevator gives you a core education in languages that have been part of the tech industry for decades. They give you a taste of all the components of a web based program. Learning Front end, back end, databases, and javascript gives you the ability to be a confident coder with a wide variety of job prospects.

There are no catches with this education. You don't owe them a percentage of your salary, no one is forcing me to write this as a condition of graduation. I won't lie it's hard work. You get what you put in. If you follow the process do the work, not just the coding but the career prep too, you'll have a job by graduation.

The student to teacher ratio was about 13 to one. There were instructors available after class for one on one tutoring. The instructors are not graduates of the boot camp, they have had long successful careers in coding before choosing to pay it forward and train the next generation. The investment and compassion of the teachers and career counselors was apparent. They care deeply that their students succeed. Nothing I've had experience with in colleges and universities comes close to the kind of career counselling you get here.

As someone with a master's degree in music I didn't think going back to school to re-skill myself was possible. The length of the boot camp and the success of student job placement made it seem possible that I could improve my life. I've never been in the position to consider several job offers and pick a career I want. I'm excited to start my new job just weeks after graduation.

Short and simple, Tech Elevator starts slow, but then sprints through so much technical information, it can seem overwhelming. You will be drinking from the proverbial fire hose. That said, they cover a wide enough base to give you a strong start on your... Read More path to becoming a successful programmer.

What really sets TE apart is the Pathway Program where the Instructors do their best to prepare you for the real world job market and give you the help that you need to succeed in your job search.

Yep. Got chapters and everything. Pages held together by glue (At least I hope that's glue).

That was just a book review from an assignment! This program was great. Our instructors were personable and stayed almost as late as we did each day. The team's... Read More commitment to our success was obvious, both on the technical and behavioral skill sets. I can say that I have developed skills in all of the technologies they mentioned, aside from the Selenium Tool Suite, and I have tools they have provided to continue to develop my skills for fun ( Seriously, I mean fun!). As someone with no development experience beforehand, nearly all my unstructured time from Monday to Saturday was spent working with code. They call it a bootcamp for a reason. I was not able to hold a job in the meantime and the few people who were quit to focus on our material. I do recommend that all students do the same and focus on learning skills for their new career path.

Our cohort was a bit of an outlier, but I did have a job before finishing the program. Take that as you may, but you should attend Tech Elevator if you want to become a full stack web dev.

.NET!

The number one benefit is job placement (and prep for placement). Unparalleled in the industry from everything I have read, heard and seen.

Also, the homework is one of the real strengths of the program.

Finally, the teachers and staff are great.

This programming... Read More evolves and adapts quickly to the needs of employers. What someone learned a year ago in the program may be totally different from what students are learning now. Tech Elevator definitely is in touch with the heart beat of industry.

This program is very selective (less that 10% of applicants are admitted), so the quality of people in the program is amazing. I am sure many of my classmates will be friends for life (and perhaps co-workers for life too).

I am a little old-school, so I would have liked some printed material to take with me into my jobs to use as reference. A few more diagrams would have been nice as well, but these are minor issues compared to everything else.

You will not be disappointed with the results.

I'm just wrapping up my time at the Columbus Tech Elevator and I'm so grateful. This has been an amazing experience. I've learned so much and it's really stepped up my tech abilities. The instructors are fantastic and the curriculum is challenging, thorough,... Read More and very relevant. The job assistance (called the Pathway Program) really helped me transition from my previous career to where I'm off to, aiding in job searching and professional identity. It helped connect me with recruiters, tech acquisition managers, and others in the tech field. Tech Elevator ultimately helped to get me to my next job at an amazing company, which I was just offered and accepted.

Once you get to Tech Elevator you have to stop and look down to your fallen comrade (your past self), and say "It's over Anakin, I have the high ground!" And it's true. From day 1 to the last day of week 14, you will become a fullstack developer jedi... Read More knight that is equipped with the tools to become a master. They give you missions like calculating whether a squirrel cigar party was a success or not, or you know, making full on websites and web applications. The journey is real and worth it. I'm going to post my review from another website below this because it's applicable and explains how I feel accurately. Tech Elevator not only made me a full stack developer but it changed my life. My carreer was on a track to nothing beforehand, and now I'm a successful developer in the field. Class is long and class is hard, but when you put in 110% you get 200% back. The staff is present and invested in your success the entire journey. I can't explain how many people I've been recommending it to by word of mouth, it really is as great as they say. Which yeah totally sounds phishy right? But there is no greater joy for me than praising Tech Elevator every day. I preach it and I live it everyday. Through the course of 14 weeks you learn a bunch, but what you really learn in the long run is the patterns and ways of thinking. In the end you will be thinking like a developer and ready to learn newer and more advanced concepts. That is the most valuable part I would argue. Every single day I go into work and I'm confronted with new concepts and technologies, but Tech Elevator taught me to learn them, tackle them, appreciate them, and truly Tech Elevator fueled my hunger for knowledge. The Pathway program is another huge aspect of Tech Elevator. I don't think anyone would begin to think about Tech Elevator without thinking of the Pathway program. My Pathway staff was incredible, Jessica, thank you. You're walked through the do's and don't's of the IT world, what to expect, how to achieve it, and again back to those patterns, ways to continue to do so. If Tech Elevator had a 2nd course for advanced level concepts I'd be there in a minute because I know it would be worth my time. May the force be with you!

I started in video and digital media, a career that I loved, but I struggled to make ends meet. So I looked at other career options and found that I had some skill with computers and programming. I took a few programming classes at a community college,... Read More and during that time I heard about Tech Elevator through family. Since it seemed like a solid career path which had some synergy with my old path, I decided this was a great way to advance.
I decided to take the .Net track, because I am more familiar with Microsoft software and because I have some previous experience with C++, a predecessor to C#. This was extremely helpful in the early stages which focused on C#. In the later stages, which involved more specialized languages like SQL and CSS, I did not have this head start because I was not experienced with these languages. The instructors were extremely patient and helpful; never at any point did I feel that I was asking a stupid question or being inconvenient, and they were always available to help. And we really needed it sometimes. We were also able to ask for help on side projects, or to discuss things like interviews we’ve had.
The thing that really appealed to me with Tech Elevator was the Pathway program, the career prep side of the school. This was very important to me, considering that my previous career struggled because I didn’t know how to develop it. I would go so far as to say that if it weren’t for the Pathway program, I might not have wanted to go to Tech Elevator at all. And I was very impressed with the results. I feel like I learned more about career development in these 14 weeks than I have learned since I started undergrad in 2010. Interview practice was invaluable, since interviews are (for me at least) the hardest and least enjoyable part of the process. Resume and LinkedIn advice was also extremely helpful.
The Cleveland Campus was excellent, with a kitchen and study area, and the garage space for big meetings and presentations was perfect. The campus was very clean and conveniently located, with some good lunch options only a few blocks from campus (good for me because I sometimes forgot to pack lunch). We also continue to be welcome there after completion of the course, so we can continue to get help looking for jobs after completion of the course and even just for events like game night.
I got my first offer about eight weeks after graduation, an excellent role for a junior developer that I don’t think I would have landed without the help of Tech Elevator. The 14 weeks you will spend here are pretty intense, and you won’t have a lot of free time and certainly won’t be able to work a job at the same time. But if you need the kind of career boost that I got, you can’t go wrong here.

TL;DR

Overall great experience. It took alot of time, work, and money (I don't have $15, 500 in my couch cushions...), but it paid off (and now paying off that loan). I got a job offer one week before graduation and accepted it. I love what I'm doing and... Read More if you want some unsolicited advice scroll to the bottom.

MY BACKGROUND

When I saw I have no computer programming experience, I mean NONE. I didn't even do the HTML stuff to my Myspace page when I had one (RIP top five). I asked a computer programmer friend what language he recommended me trying out and he said to try JavaScript. That was in April. I started my bootcamp in May...#myexperience

I come from a television production background in Los Angeles. I was tired for working 12+ hour days and not really having a skill. Plumbers plumb, Electricians wire things, Builders build things, and I wanted a skill that had good pay, benefits, and offered interesting challenges.

I knew that my life was going to transition out of film and into something else. All I knew is I wanted to learn a language something like Mandarin, Russian, or Korean, something easy (joke). But instead of any of those languages, I found computer programming and Tech Elevator...

HOW I FOUND TECH ELEVATOR

I was listening to NPR and heard the ad for Tech Elevator and learning to code. ​

Nutshell: After reading their website and reviews here on course report, I took the test, scored well on the test, talked on the phone with Terry to schedule interview, filled out application, took another aptitude test, interview, got accepted. Woo!

I decided to go to an open house down in Detroit when I got to meet Anthony and Andrea and ask more questions and hear their spiel in person. I was so impressed that instead of starting in September like I had originally intended, I decided to be a guinea pig and move up my date to May the first iteration of the Detroit bootcamp. Cohort[0] forever!

STAFF

Margaret and Andy were my professors during the bootcamp and they are both phenomenal! They truly cared and took time to help me understand when I was struggling. And when I had to take two days off for a wedding in California and another day off because my aunt died, they helped me get back on my feet and catch pace again with the rest of the class.

Nicole and Jeff worked equally as hard on their end in the bakground to make sure they were finding businesses for matchmaking, finding speakers to come share their wisdom, and helping our resumes shine above the rest!

CURRICULUM

I appreciated the structure of the curriculum and the tools they used to keep a pulse on how we were doing. Everyday they knew how you were doing through a survey quiz thing.

We learned object-oriented programming using Java, PostgreSQL, Spring MVC, JavaScript, Vue.js, and CSS/HTML. Maybe you're reading that right now thinking, "Sh!t, I don't have a clue what any of that is?" Well, then you would've been me about five months ago. Lol. You'll learn it. It'll be hard, but by God you'll learn!

EQUIPMENT

The laptops they provided worked great. I definitely had to adjust to using a PC...They had great monitors there and system for showing coding on all the screen so we didn't have to rely on the whiteboard all the time.

FEEDBACK

I've read some other reviews on here saying they don't spend a lot of time on front end and I would agree. It does take a little bit of a back burner compared to the back end stuff, but I think with the timeframe they are working with, they do a great job.

Sometimes I had feedback to give, but no one or thing to entrust it to. It would be nice if they created an active email account for the different bootcamps where current students could submit feedback whether on assignments, structure, staff, or whatever they thought could be improved. That way instead of the feedback getting lost in classroom discussions, it could be received, pondered, and implemented.

Tech Elevator didn't realize when they started in Detroit how big Test Driven Development (TDD) was here so when it came time for interviews, we were mostly prepared for whiteboarding exercises and less of TDD stuff (though many of us took extra time outside of the classroom to prepare for this). If they haven't carved out a space for TDD in the curriculum, my feedback would be that they do so.

Career Pathway - this is the least sexy thing about bootcamp (no offense, Nicole). Who wants to stop working on their coding application to go to class to learn about how to format their resume? Unsexy, but necessary. However, I felt like the first two sessions of Career Pathways were really severe. We were getting mixed signals about how it was "optional", but "if you want a job, you'll come". If that's the case, then don't make it fake "optional", make it "mandatory". Just remember, it will make a difference and make sure you implement any feedback Nicole gives you on your resume. It will help!
WHERE I AM NOW

One week from graduation, I got a job offer from a great company. I'm currently training with them and I'm loving every minute of it. #sexyresume

Side note: I did a Java bootcamp, but got a C# job. I was worried about this at first even though they are both OOP, but my professors assured me it was super similar and they were right. It's not a bad transition at all!

UNSOLICITED ADVICE

//You get what you put into this program. Margaret and Andy can't solve your problems for you, but they can help guide you on the right path. You might have to get there early, you might have to stay late, and if you're like me you have to do both of those things.

//Don't. Be. Afraid. To. Ask. Questions. You are only hurting yourself if you don't raise your hand and admit you don't understand and ask if they could go over it again because chances are someone sitting next to you felt the same way, but they didn't have the guts to raise their hand. Be gutsy in admitting you don't know!

//Take a walk. When they give breaks, get out of that classroom and do a loop around TechTown. It helps.

//Help one another. There is not a single person who knows it all or has all the answers. The people on your right and left are going to be your family for the next 14 weeks and you'll need each other.

One instructor tried to rush through the material as fast as they could so they could go to lunch. The other instructor completely ignored the curriculum developed by TE which led to little cohesion between the book/curriculum and lecture materials. Instructors... Read More show lack of respect for students by repeatedly scheduling and then rescheduling meetings at the last minute. Instructors openly slandered previous workplaces and employees made it feel like an unprofessional environment, in addition to distracting students from trying to complete their assigned work. For the price you are paying, you should expect a higher level of professionalism.

I spent a few years thinking of going back to school, but didn't really know where to begin. Tech Elevator sorta fell in my lap, and I decided to bite the bullet and go. I could be happier with my results. The instructors where great, the curriculum was... Read More great, the people I learned with where great. I'm at a real loss for words describing just how genuinely happy I am with this decision, it was not an simple or easy task to learn everything in 14 weeks, but the payoff is more than worth it.