| | An Huynh | Female, late 20s, UT at Austin Coding Bootcamp, 6-month part-time program.
Searched for jobs for three months. Over 180 applications filled (not counting those "one-click-apply" job offers on linkedIn...)
Found a 3- month internship (worked for free), and worked as a part-time TA for the UTCB before working full-time.
Received three official offers, and accepted a job exactly five weeks after graduating.
Pros:
Great instructional staff. Shoutout to Josh Madewell, Stephanie Denny, Jedd Fenner.
Super thorough curriculum with a dash of comp-sci builds a fantastic foundation to ground trainings you learn on the job later.
Got the great University of Texas at Austin name on your resume.
One-on-one time with staff in person, online-video, and via slack.
Weekly webinars gave one hour trainings on new technologies as well as interviewed devs, and previous students which boosted moral.
Cons:
UTCB isn't totally run by UT, its run by Trilogy under UT's consent of usage rights.
I experienced high changes in TA staff, and employment specialist staff.
Had to go out of my way and ask for career advice from TAs and teachers to receive support that the employment counselor could not give. Plus, instructors where the dev engineers so they actually had inside knowledge when the counselors weren't really devs.
All-in-all:
Two thumbs up if you are a go-getting person that is really interested in learning or very motivated to change your career.
This program provides you with all the necessary on-the-job trainings, access to the latest technologies, a thorough curriculum, and great instructional staff. If you are the type that would put your tuition to use like i was (stay late after class, coming in early, making TAs and teachers to work with you one-on-one, and a networking-monster) then this program can become much more then just a certificate but become a life-long network of friends, mentors, and lead to new perspectives. The world is your oyster, and so is this program. If you can show up, shut up and code, then great. If not...then get your head straight first and come prepared to learn and network. Everyone I came into contact experienced hitting a wall, or having a melt-down (as did i...) but once you get over that, things start getting easier...so if you hang in there you WILL do phenomenal. Good luck to you and your career endeavors. |
