| | Jillian | “Coding House” is not a deceptive title, Coding House is a house. An actual house. Actually it’s two houses. The first half of the program takes place in “CH1”, which reminds me of the house from the Brady Bunch, but with a different staircase. Besides the stairs, the other noticeable difference between the Brady’s house and CH1 is the “classroom” where the living room should be. I’m using quotes because the classroom is not a lecture hall or a computer lab. It’s a living room. There is a stage-like platform at one end and a dozen rows of monitor-laden tables that face the stage. I can honestly say though, I gained more useful knowledge in that living room in four months than I did in four years inside the classrooms at my college (but I got a degree in Environmental Studies… from a liberal arts college so…).
The instructor, Cade, is as vivacious and hilarious as he is knowledgeable. I loved his teaching style… It was improvisational lecturing. Cade does not have structured lessons, but rather he tailors each class to the cohort he is teaching.
You will spend most of your time in the ‘classroom’, but there is also a ‘dining room’ and kitchen downstairs and there are bedrooms upstairs. When I first saw the bedrooms, jam-packed with bunk beds, my immediate reaction was “This is going to suck!”, but surprisingly it didn’t… By the second night, I was too exhausted to care where I was sleeping… the only thing that does suck about the living situation is that there aren’t enough bathrooms at CH1, but if you learn to love showering on your lunch break or at night, you’ll be fine.
Besides the learning the other great thing about Coding House is the community that develops there. The intensity of the program and close quarters, create an environment where people just seem to naturally want to help and bond with one another. Everyone was more than willing to take the time to look at my code and see if they could help anytime I was stuck— and I was always excited to return the favor for anyone else whenever I could… There is just a good vibe in that house.
CH2, where the second part of the program takes place is a more modern house. There is a little more space in the bedrooms and there are more bathrooms. Instead of having a central classroom there are two rooms with work stations. The second half of the program focuses on large scale group projects. You will work just as hard during the second half of the program, but you will get a lot more freedom on what you are working on. You will also be a code mentor to the new cohort that is in CH1. It may sound like this is just part of Nick’s brilliant business, plan —paying him to work for him… and it is a genius business plan, but mentoring is also very helpful to the education process. When you leave coding house, you’ll need to be able to articulate what you’ve learned during job interviews etc, so explaining things to the new Cohort is a great way to solidify and articulate what you’ve learned. Plus, you can also request to mentor on days when there is a lecture that you may not have fully gotten the first time through.
I finished Coding house a fews week ago and I think they really did set me up with all the skills and advice I’ll need to find myself a job. I plan to continue to polish the apps I made and attend meetups and workshops, so I continue to develop my skills even further but I do feel confident that if I keep after it, I will land a job as a web developer. I think coding house was definitely worth the investment. |
