| | Lennie Cottrell | I am a 31-year-old former teacher who wanted to change careers for a variety of reasons, and I ended up going with The Tech Academy after a recommendation from a friend who successfully changed careers after attending the same bootcamp. I’m local to their main campus, but due to Covid I did the entire thing remotely.
Essentially, The Tech Academy was a good choice. I am successfully employed in the industry, and though I credit networking and soft skills to getting a job during covid, I wouldn’t be eligible for this job without The Tech Academy. I had some issues with their curriculum structure and I wish there had been more experience with certain technologies, but overall I feel like I have a solid foundation of programming concepts and I have the skills and knowledge to teach myself what I would need to know for a job.
I did the Overview of Software Development bootcamp full time, which is their most comprehensive bootcamp. It includes courses in CS fundamentals HTML, CSS, Javascript, SQL, Python, Project Management, C#, and Job Placement. Since I was changing careers, I wanted the broadest exposure to tech I could get to maximize my career options on the other side. It was definitely challenging, and definitely worth it.
Since it’s so broad, the bootcamp can really only scratch the surface of all of those languages, but as a recent graduate I feel like I could get by in any of them. I definitely still feel like a beginner, but that’s normal for a junior developer. I also feel confident that I can build a website from scratch, and I’m interested in doing some self-study to buff up my CSS skills beyond beginner-level. The Python and C# courses are especially engaging and include team projects where you work on Django and ASP.NET web apps, respectively.
The courses are a combination of reading/learning about terms and technologies, coding along with a video, doing short assignments, and a couple larger projects in each course. One of the projects is building your own portfolio website, which is nice since you’re learning the tech with project you will definitely use later. In my opinion, based on how I felt about each language at the end, the best course was the Python course and the worst course was the Javascript course.
I see people everywhere online talk about jQuery, Node.JS, and React, and these were barely touched on in the Javascript course - it seems like hardly anyone uses vanilla Javascript anymore. I basically feel like I need to start from scratch again with Javascript. It’s such a powerful language but I don’t think I got a good idea of how to use it outside of very basic web interactivity.
There were times when I was frustrated with the structure of some of the courses - I learn by doing, and especially the CSS and Javascript courses spent a little too much time with “code along with this video” while I needed more “Here’s a project, go do it”. There was a lot more of that in the Python and C# courses.
It’s worth mentioning that the team of instructors is amazing! They are super responsive, very patient, and always ready to help out whenever. If one of them doesn’t know an answer, it seems like they work together to make sure everyone’s questions are addressed. There was even a time when I asked a question about something that wasn’t required to move on, and they took the time to help me out anyway even though they didn’t need to.
I got a job before I needed their job placement resources, but I can tell that they put a lot of their energy into helping graduates find work. They promote their students being a part of a learning community by offering weekly round-table discussions and weekly tech-talks, and encouraging students to go to tech meetups to learn more and start networking.
Tl;dr though I had some minor qualms with their curriculum and course structure, their support system is excellent, I feel like I got a solid foundation of programming concepts, and I feel prepared to begin a career in tech.
Pros
-Solid fundamental training.
-A course about computer fundamentals which is worth knowing.
-Super helpful and responsive instructors.
-Flexible schedule.
Cons
-Expensive, but competitively priced with other highly ranked bootcamps.
-Only scratches the surface of popular tech like jQuery, React, and Node.JS
-I wish there had been more Javascript training. |
