Techtonica

I was in my last year of undergraduate studies and was dreading my degree. I enjoyed learning and loved what I was studying, but I knew I could not sustain a life doing so. When I stumbled across Techtonica solely by chance, it was an absolute gamechanger.... Read More Techtonica had checked all the boxes: - free, with the option of a stipend when need is demonstrated - 6-month extensive remote bootcamp with a 6-month internship after - exclusive to women and non-binary individuals - actively worked towards making cohorts more diverse and inclusive - assigned a mentor - was my chance to make my first step into tech! As I am approaching the end of my time in the bootcamp portion of the program, I am realizing how prepared and well-equipped I am for the new journey ahead of me BECAUSE of Techtonica. The staff have been nothing but supportive, welcoming, and accommodating. The cherry on top was definitely being able to find such a wonderful community in my fellow cohort members.

Techtonica has changed my life. I applied for the program looking for guidance and support in my journey of learning to code and getting a job in tech. There are so many resources available online, and I felt overwhelmed because I wasn't sure what to... Read More learn next. That's when I decided to look for a bootcamp. I discovered Techtonica via word of mouth and decided to apply. The application process is really thorough and a great pre-cursor for what the program is like. The curriculum is non-traditional. There are no lectures or grades, which I and all of my cohort mates appreciated. The staff at Techtonica encourage participants to learn in the way that works best for them. Yes, I learned how to become a full stack web developer with Techtonica, but the greatest skill I was taught was how to learn hard subjects quickly. And for that reason, I encourage others to apply.

I had an amazing time at Techtonica. Techtonica really cares about its cohort members and made sure that I am doing well. Getting feedbacks regularly really helped me to keep track of my progress and provided me with goals I needed to work on. Working... Read More in a collaborative environment helped me to improve my team-building, communicating skills. It's a safe space to begin your Tech journey. Everyone is so friendly and professional. It becomes overwhelming at times, but having meditation sessions really helped me to put my mind at ease. Just trust the process.

Techtonica never stopped giving from the pre-applicant phase study groups to the full PERN stack to the soft skills necessary to thrive in the tech environment. While there are occasionally outdated items in the curriculum, there's a never-ending set... Read More of resources and group of mentors ready to help and updates are always getting made as issues are found. Competition to get in was brisk, but I found they accepted a nice mix of skill-levels and personalities for what turned out to be a very balanced cohort. I couldn't have asked for a more generous situation as one of my parents had a terrible stroke early in the program and they actively worked to help me still make it through the program and never penalized me financially for the additional absences necessary in my situation. I personally know people who have applied multiple times and got in, and other people that applied once and got in. The decisions are carefully made and it's obvious how much they apply that care in all areas. I'd like to see more curriculum added around neurodivegency and disability in the workplace, and I believe that feedback will be taken into consideration because feedback works in both directions at Techtonica. I highly recommend this program.

My time with Techtonica was a good experience overall. If you are a women or non-binary individual I can not think of another program with the benefits at the same level as Techtonica. You get six months to learn and understand what it means to work in... Read More the tech industry. You will need to be self reliant as this program is not like a normal / traditional higher education environment. There are no daily lectures and you will required to find the best way for you to grasp and understand the material. There are resources provided to assist with questions and tech help though so you are not left completely in the dark. If you have the chance to apply I would as this program can change the trajectory of your career and life for the better in the long run. (Location: Remote)

Techtonica was a difficult but amazing journey. You learn A LOT because Techtonica not only teaches you a full stack (PERN: Postgres, Express, React and Nodejs) but you also learn how to work in a tech environment by learning how to communicate, learning... Read More how to ask for help effectively, how to give/take feedbacks, how to pair program, how agile development works, how to destress, how to overcome imposter syndrome and etc. Theres so much to learn and do which makes it hard but Techtonica knows this, that is why each participant is given their own mentor for support and why there are hundreds of volunteers able to help in a Slack channel when you're stuck and specially why everyone is taught to help each out. The curriculum is solid and the pace is just right and the support after finding a placement is amazing, I hope everyone gets the opportunity to take the same journey I did!

Techtonica was an awesome experience! While it was very challenging and sometimes I had major impostor syndrome, it is set up in a way to really help participants work through challenges and be successful. The staff is awesome and always make themselves... Read More available to help or just chat. Other ways in which participants are supported is through mentors. I had two and I learned so much from them. Other mentors are also available during program hours. In regards to the curriculum, at first I felt like things were overwhelming but eventually learned to trust the process, later things started making sense and falling into place. What I learned allowed for me to feel confident in creating many projects (one final project). Another thing I found extremely useful was all the interview prep. I feel like that really helped prepare me for final interviews and have a more realistic expectation for what interviewing in the real world is like. Overall, I am very grateful for this experience and finally being a software engineer!!!

Being a part of Techtonica has changed my life. I gave up coding 2 years ago because I wasn't making any progress and then last year in 2021 I decided to give it another chance and came across Techtonica. I now have built full-stack apps within 6 months,... Read More thats how amazing it is. I feel confident in my ability to keep learning, their curriculum is well paced. It is fast, challenging but very doable and there is A LOT of support including a mentor assigned to you and others who volunteer their time! It's a mix of independent work and pair programming as is experienced in the real world of tech, there is a lot of collaboration. Besides a lot of technical skills developed here, I gained SO much value from all of the soft skills taught to us and the guest speakers (there are plenty!). I really enjoyed this experience because not only do I have financial stability now, lots of foundational technical skills ,I have overcome a lifelong feeling of imposter syndrome, I feel comfortable advocating for myself, the list can go on. If you put in the work here, you will succeed and come out a better version of yourself and with a great internship at the end. They care a lot about their participants, actively listen and really provide a safe space during this challenge because coding is hard but very rewarding and fun!

This program is intense but beautiful. I went in expecting to of course learn Javascript, but came out with so much more. We learned the PERN stack, how to collaborate with others, how to work with github, the terminal being ur friend and not your foe,... Read More but also how to set boundaries, advocate for yourself, and how to give feedback in a professional setting that translates beautifully into every day life. There was also no shortage of guest speakers that did a great job at showing the diversity in the industry job wise. Just so much. The curriculum was solid but with the amount of time we have for the program, u can only spend so much time on each concept. You are able to put things into practice right away though which helps it stick

I chose Techtonica because it met my needs and goals. It is a boot camp that puts women and nonbinary people at the forefront and supports diversity in the tech place and the fact that this boot camp is free and offers almost a guarantee for an internship... Read More at the end was a no-brainer for me to join. But do not think that the competition or the chance to get in is that easy either. You really do have to put in the work: fill in a short application, long application, complete some code curriculum, have two 3 hours pair programming sessions (it can be intimidating if you have never pair programmed before but they will explain how it works and it is pretty straightforward!), and a few interviews with Techtonica staff. Although it was intimidating as a beginner and self-taught coder for a few months prior to joining the program, if you make it through the interview, you are definitely more than capable than you think of completing the program. In terms of my time at Techtonica, I felt really supported by my cohort mates and staff there. The space felt safe, welcoming, and very involved in making sure people felt heard and feedback was always taken seriously. The general program format was projects due every week alongside learning new topics such as APIs, JSON, HTML and CSS, JavaScript, Express, React, Docker, and a bunch of front and backend concepts to prepare you to be a full-stack engineer. You also have a technical mentor that you get to meet with weekly and 1:1 with the technical manager for check-in like you would in a normal tech job. You also have mock interviews every week covering the material of the week you learned prior. On Wednesday, we had a soft skills day where we worked and focused more on the behavioral aspect of being in a work environment. I found the overall curriculum to be a general overview of full-stack concepts and knowledge we needed to know that gave everyone a breadth versus depth approach which I appreciated. I would highly recommend Techtonica to anyone who has been wanting to get into the Tech industry but has had a hard time jumping through gates and steps to get there. I believe Techtonica does a good job of holding your hand throughout the whole process of learning, getting your first tech job, and supporting you after you finish your internship. Just know if you want this, prepare to dedicate a lot of your time like any full-time job to it, really focus and be present if you are in this boot camp to make the most out of it!