MAIN DILEMMA I enrolled into the October 2020 Full Stack Immersive Bootcamp, I think my experience at DigitalCrafts (DC) is a unique one, given that the original instructor was let go due to his inability to adapt to his students' needs. To elaborate, it is a given that bootcamps are fast-paced but instructors should also be wary of how their students are doing, because if the students are not understanding the fundamentals of what it being taught then regardless of how fast-paced the bootcamp is, the students will always be left behind. This is a 'skill' that the instructor needs to have, especially in the the world of programming since everything is built off of one another. I took the time to mention this because DC made the executive decision to let the original instructor go and my bootcamp was replaced with another instructor, this new instructor was amazing. He took things a little bit slower and ensured that the students had a good understanding of concepts before moving on. He also took the time to review concepts when necessary and created resources / examples that demonstrated some of the complex concepts that we learned. I will say that I am a quick learner and that there are times where lecture was a little slow for me but this new instructor made assignments for those who were further along when he could. This was an okay experience since his attention would be divided but he still did his best to be there for all of the students. Finally, this transition from the original instructor to the new one changed the momentum greatly. Ultimately it was for the best but it wasn't a smooth transition especially when it happened towards the middle of the bootcamp. How do you make this transition smooth when concepts taught pre-new instructor were still hazy and we still had a schedule to adhere to? Well, to be fair, I don't think you can. The final capstone (graduation) day remained unchanged so we had to forgo some concepts and learn these concepts at an optional timeframe post-graduation. CURRICULUM I think the curriculum is a good one since it includes a lot of the popular technologies in today's industry but I think that the front-end development side of the curriculum could use more work. While I'm not exactly sure how this experience would differ with the new instructor, (at the time, my bootcamp was taught front-end technology by the original instructor), I still believe there is room for improvement. For starters, I think that SASS (or Sass) should be taught at DC, it is essentially CSS but a lot more to offer. Why do I bring up this up? Well when comparing other technologies with their relative field I felt like DC would not meet the standards of someone who would want to specifically go into front-end development. I understand that it is a 'Full Stack' web development bootcamp but the front-end development aspect was glossed over. Furthermore, other libraries and frameworks such as Bootstrap were introduced but the original instructor did not really go into detail with how to use such frameworks. You would think that they might make your life easier but depending on what you want to do, it actually might mess everything up. Many of my classmates tried to use Bootstrap but then ended up with fighting with it more than coding. Like I mentioned earlier, during this time it was pre-new instructor, so I'm not exactly sure the difference it would have with the new instructor from the beginning because at its very core, the curriculum was not enough for front-end development specifically in CSS / SASS. I had to learn new technologies outside of the curriculum and that is tremendously difficult given that lecture was about 40 hours / week but that doesn't include time spent studying the concepts and assignments outside of lecture. Another concept that I felt like was lacking was algorithms, this is a concept that is inevitable, any developer will be met with a technical interview and then there it is, algorithms. My bootcamp barely touched them. I'm not sure if they were even supposed to be apart of the curriculum or not but with that being said, we touched them for a moment and never turned back. It's disappointing because now when I am taking the time to learn it, I think it's important to understand the many data structures and algorithms that there are and how to use them to help solve issues when it comes to code readability, time and space complexity. It felt like the advice from DC was to just go onto LeetCode and do problems until something magically clicked for you versus, understanding what is the best method to solve the solution via data structures and algorithms. Overall I think that the curriculum was good for any new developer who wants to get a good foundation of what they should know and how to continue to grow post-bootcamp. But to be honest, you could do the same with a Udemy course, however you do have access to instructors and DIRs (teacher assistants) who can help you. I think that is the main perk of DC, that you have experienced developers that you can interact with and to help you to start thinking programmatically. FINAL THOUGHTS In conclusion, would I recommend DC? To be honest, I would. Because like I said, in the beginning, my experience at DC is unique, it may not be the same for someone else. I met a lot of people from all over the world who shared the same passion as mine, and that is exciting! Everything that occurred during my bootcamp was unfortunate but DC did everything that they could to handle it in the best way possible and that's all you could really ask for. I made meaningful connections with other developers, the instructors and DIRs. We are a community that I'm proud to be a part of. I will say that if you are considering DC, please be prepared, do the pre-work that they sent out or take an introductory Udemy course. Also there is a lot of free resources (YouTube) that you could watch that will help you get acquainted with some of the concepts that DC will cover. Look over the syllabus and start exposing yourself to these concepts. This will only help further your mastery. If you are serious about a career change or this passion: what you put it is what you get out of it, and you cannot expect DC to do the work for you, it is ALL YOU. With that being said, I do believe that DC can help jump start your career in the right direction. | 