Tech Elevator

You can't put a price on bettering yourself... but if you have to: It's whatever amount Tech Elevator is charging for tuition. Taking control of my future through TE was well worth the time and money. It was the best decision I could have made.

I specifically... Read More attended the Cleveland campus in the midst of the pandemic, when we were forced to transition to full remote learning, and even in the midst of that madness the TE experience was smooth and controlled. The instructors and staff are phenomenal and will bend over backwards to help you succeed. I can't give enough thanks to these people, they've changed the course of my professional life forever.

Tech Elevator is worth every penny. I came to this with a very unusual background (I was a university lecturer and a freelance writer) and was worried that I wouldn't be cut out for it because I'd been away from math for so long. I couldn't have been... Read More more wrong. The level of instruction is incredible, and the support I got from the instructors helped me overcome some of my early fears about whether or not I could handle the work. The professional development is equally important, perhaps moreso, and it did not disappoint. I had more instruction and support in a summer at Tech Elevator than I had in all of college and graduate school combined. Yes, it's a fair amount of work: you will be run pretty ragged for fourteen weeks. Yes, it's scary to transition from what you know to what you don't, especially when you're always taking in a lot of new information. Yes, it's not a small amount of money, and that's an important consideration. But I also grew a lot as a person by tackling the unknown, and when it was all over, I got a job in a new career I'm happy with. If you're unhappy with your current career track and this work sounds interesting to you, it's worth taking the plunge. Can't recommend this outfit strongly enough.

Throughout this course, I learned everything I would need to know for a role in software development. The program gave me the technical skills to be able to confidently take on a role with an employer, as well as the networking skills to branch out and... Read More find opportunities I would have never found before. I would recommend that anyone looking to get into tech researches Tech Elevator and signs up. The curriculum is fantastic, and the staff are great people who do whatever they can to help you look for a job upon graduating.

I came to tech elevator to immerse myself in coding, over the 14 week program I honestly can say that I feel confident in what I've learned from my Instructors and the success that the Pathway Directors have set me up for in my job placement. I would... Read More absolutely recommend Tech Elevator to anyone in the Greater Cincinnati area or on their remote courses as well.

Tech Elevator is an awesome program! They fit a whole lot in to 14 weeks but are there with you every step of the way to make sure you succeed. The teachers are great and I feel like they have done quite a good job transitioning to online-only learning... Read More throughout the pandemic. 100% recommended!

Career Differences
Yes, going to Tech Elevator is absolutely one of the best things you can do for your career. A year ago I moved to Philly and I was applying for writing jobs with salaries around $30-45k. Most were closer to $30k, similar to the $28k... Read More I was making before moving here. Exactly one week after graduation, I accepted an offer at a global company tripling what I was making before from a company I met at matchmaking. Aside from finally being able to afford paying off college debt, I actually do something for a living that I love. I'm nine weeks into my job as a software engineer and the relaxed environment still baffles me, especially compared to previous positions where I spent all day on the phone. I mean, I'm able to listen to music or an audiobook while I work; I always have help when I need it; I'm encouraged to spend time at work learning new things outside of my day-to-day responsibilities (like using Pluralsight); there are so many opportunities to attend random events that I'm interested in throughout the week (PRIDE meetups, AI meetups, etc); and I could go on and on. I started virtually, of course, but when asking others about the office culture, I was told my team takes ping-pong breaks, works on puzzles together, brings in food for each other (all pre-covid). Comparing it to a traditional office job... it's still hard to wrap my head around. I enjoy working and coding for hours because my employer wants employees to be happy at work - who knew enjoying going to work was a thing?

The People
Some of my best friends were made at Tech Elevator, starting from week one. Throughout the program, there are many pair programming assignments, and you always work with someone new, so it's easy to get to know everyone. With assignments that can take hours and capstone projects that take days, you really become close friends with people. I know things are virtual right now, but the in-person campus was my favorite thing. There were so many nights where I went on a mini-lockdown with friends, staying up very late trying to finish assignments, playing games, enjoying food the staff would bring in for us, etc. My cohort did things like going out to lunch, grabbing drinks, going to karaoke, going to a museum, playing games together, etc etc etc. As for the staff - they were absolutely wonderful. The instructors were extremely accessible, especially when we went virtual halfway through the program. They both had a lot of experience in the field and were such great teachers overall. I gathered other students for a group project (highly recommend doing a group project if you want to stand out to employers!) and they spent hours and hours helping us with it, even though it was completely outside of the curriculum.

The Career / Pathway Program
One of the reasons I chose TE over other bootcamps was how impressive the career services were in the reviews and statistics I read. Other bootcamps in Philly mentioned career prep help, but I can't imagine it was anything even close to what TE offers, especially after reading reviews on Reddit about Philly bootcamps. Imagine having someone push you for 2-3 days out of every week to get yourself together and prepare for a job, starting from day one. I remember thinking, "Why are we starting so early? We have nothing to prepare with??" Yeah, it was necessary to start that early. The coursework picks up so quickly and 14 weeks seems like a lot of time to prepare for a job, but you need that long if you want to prepare the right way. I remember giving my first elevator pitch for an employer visit or talk and my social anxiety was the worst. I almost forgot my name. The idea of matchmaking later on in the program--meeting a handful of employers in only two days--was terrifying, but when it came time for that, I felt really prepared and confident in my abilities and hey, it worked! Those rounds of mock behavioral and tech interviews, the resume reviews, the elevator pitch practice sessions, the employer advice events--I mean, we had everything we needed to succeed. Even with those, Caitie, the pathway director, was absolutely one of the biggest reasons I was able to land a job within a week of graduation. She makes sure you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, and that you're doing it right. She's obviously an expert in what she does, and I knew when I met her for my Tech Elevator interview that she is truly in this position because it makes her happy. I still keep in touch with her occasionally :) Despite the economy completely crashing and most employers closing their hiring doors, at Tech Elevator... it almost seemed to not make a difference. Some employers backed out of matchmaking, yet most (all? I haven't checked in with other students lately...) found jobs fairly quickly, most through the companies we met through the program.

Coursework
I'm still wondering how I was able to learn so much, so quickly, AND be qualified for a software engineer position with only 14 weeks' worth of experience. A lot of my computer science friends from college who graduated around the same time as the bootcamp ended are still searching for jobs, and they have years of experience over me. In talking to my coworkers, it seems like the ability to learn so quickly is more attractive in a candidate than how much you know. Of course, you still have to put in the work to show them how much you can learn in a short time. The first few weeks were spent learning basic programming principles and intro to java stuff--the need-to-know material. Seriously though, make sure you're reviewing these basic concepts every week because you there's a 100% chance they will come up in an interview. We moved on to some database stuff, which was pretty interesting and necessary to learn if you move to a full-stack position. After that, we moved onto servers and web stuff. Ah, the good stuff. My one critique, now that I'm out and about in the real world, is that what we learned at the time was fairly outdated compared to working applications. It was a weird transition going from Spring MVC to regular Spring Boot. The course also teaches Vue.js, which I also learned isn't as popular. I don't think I saw it in more than one job posting. Despite learning tools that weren't directly applicable to a lot of jobs, I still learned the fundamentals of how databases and web frameworks work. Plus, interviewers were genuinely interested in hearing about technologies they've never used, which contributed to a nice conversation. Regardless, as I mentioned, what's more important is that you're able to learn the given material and apply it, because that's what's going to happen on the job anyway.

Going Remote for Covid-19
Honestly, going remote was a very smooth transition. The first few days were kind of weird to adjust to, but that was mostly because it was so sudden. I think it was a Sunday afternoon when I got an email that said we're going remote the following day? IIRC the staff found out pretty last minute too, but even with that, I really enjoyed virtual classrooms. It was much easier to pair program when you're screen sharing, and it's easier to work together from home/remotely when you don't have to worry about catching a trolley or train on time etc. The difference in learning environments was mainly that our instructor had to screen share instead of writing on a whiteboard, but the quality of teaching/learning didn’t change.

Compared to Other Philly Bootcamps
I didn't look too heavily into other bootcamps--maybe three or four--but I noticed many of them aggressively try to sell you into their program. They seemed to care more about making money off of their students, rather than educating them. With Tech Elevator, they only accept students who they think will do well in the program. They want to make sure you have what it takes. After comparing curriculums between a few local bootcamps with the help of my friends who are software engineers, Tech Elevator definitely outranks the others in that realm. I will note that Tech Elevator did not once reach out to me by phone or email with promotional material, unlike the daily phone calls and emails I received from other bootcamps. Anyway, it's clear Tech Elevator doesn't have to have a sales department to push people to apply and spend thousands of dollars. Students don't need to be pushed to apply to Tech Elevator; it's the clear choice.

Conclusion
If you like coding, and want to do what you love for a living, then do this. The curriculum gives you the knowledge you need to impress employers on your skills, but the Pathway Program is designed to help you tackle your individual professional weaknesses and highlight your strengths. If you put in the work, you will succeed.

Before Tech Elevator I was a chemist with absolutely no knowledge in coding. The science industry wasn't what I thought it was going to be after graduating college so I was looking for a career change and software development caught my interest. In the... Read More 14 weeks I spent at Tech Elevator I learned how to do front end and back end development, gained enough knowledge to know how to create my own website and did so, made a bunch of friends, laughed a lot, worked really hard and got a job before the bootcamp ended through Tech Elevator's pathway program (even in the midst of the COVID madness). I am so happy with how my experience went. I have an awesome job that I get excited about now and a whole career ahead of me.

Overall a great experience. I made lifelong friends, not just in other students but in the staff members as well. The instructors are incredibly knowledgable and amazing at sharing that knowledge. A job is not guaranteed once you graduate but they have... Read More some of the best placement numbers around. I obtained my current position through the matchmaking process, which is probably the distinguishing factor for Tech Elevator versus other bootcamps and very valuable as a new member of the tech field. I highly suggest the .NET course; John Fulton is hands down the best teacher I've ever had the honor of learning from and Matt Eland is on his way to be of the same caliber. I went from never looking at a single line of code to being a functional full stack developer in the span of a few months. It was exactly what I was looking for in a career change.

As a creative person, I always thought that computer programming was way too analytical to be a career option for me. But I went to an event hosted by Tech Elevator in which they showed me how I could utilize my creative genius to create beautiful websites!... Read More
I took the test and signed up for the Spring Cohort. I had several months to hash over my decision... "Did I do the right thing?" "Was the risk going to pay off in the end?" I went through with it and I am so glad I did!
The instructors are out-of-this-world amazing! The curriculum is incredible. But the best for me were all the amazing people I met that I now call my friends. The pathway program is the best and within a month of graduating I was able to land the most amazing job I have had in my life!
If you are concerned whether or not it is worth the risk, I can assure you, it is more than worth it! I don't regret a single thing and have already recommended it to a friend who is currently in the program and loving it. Even with Covid-19, they work with you and help you become the best you could be. Thank you Tech Elevator!

So if you're like me, prior to signing up for Tech Elevator (TE), you're reading every review you can find about TE because it sounds like a program you want to do but you're a bit terrified of the price tag. I assure you that if you are willing to put... Read More in the work and time required (and are aware that learning to code isn't easy!!!), you will be very glad you chose TE.

I went through TE's C#/.NET cohort starting in January 2020 and graduating in mid April... right when it sounded like a terrible idea to be looking for a job due to the coronavirus situation. I was worried the job market would not be friendly to those of us with no work experience in the field, but I was contacted by a recruiter from a company that was looking for junior developers and already had many TE grads on staff and I ended up getting a job offer from that very company just a few weeks later.

The staff at TE is incredible. The instructors are all extremely well versed in the curriculum and are dedicated to helping you get through the material. Do not be afraid to ask for help. In addition to technical instruction, you will spend some of your time with the Pathway program. Don't dismiss the importance of pathway. This is the part that focuses on the job search and you should take it every bit as serious as the tech skills side. Even the elevator pitch, take it seriously.

The curriculum is all very relevant and the exercises, pair programming assignments, and capstone projects are very well designed to challenge you and make sure you understand the materials. Do not fall behind. It is called a bootcamp for a reason. Do your homework and the daily reading.
Take this seriously and you'll have a new set of very valuable skills, new friends for life, and be in my position where you are eager to encourage people to take the leap.