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Overall a great experience. The instructors were knowledgable, the curriculum was focused on current industry standards, and the community created was life-long. I have absolutely no doubt that the education and connections I have made through Turning will serve my career for my entire life. My experience was one of re-education and career change. I was in public service for years, and graduate school educated; but ultimately there was no room for growth and upward mobility. I loved the work, but the pay was paltry. For the price tag, the return on investment was incredible. After graduation I was employed as a software engineer at a start up, using a cutting edge tech stack, and doing exciting greenfield work in the data/media space. I've been employed now (at the same start up) for just over 18 months, and am loving it. The work is satisfying, the team is amazing, and knowledge that I'll have job security for as long as I want to work is amazing. Of course there were some small qualms with the program: the React/JS curriculum is a *tad* behind industry standards, and I wish the program was more like 12 months instead of 8. 8 is barely enough to get ur foot in the door (but obviously enough, since it worked for me.). But neither of those gripes would prevent me from encouraging others to join the Turing community.

TL;DR your experience is what you make it :D I came to Turing after 7 years as an elementary educator with minimal programming knowledge and no technical experience. I started the front-end engineering program in January 2020. Turing also offers a back-end engineering program. I attended one module in person before the school switched to a fully remote model. I chose Turing because of the strong in-person community, length of the program, as well as their mission to foster inclusion and diversity in tech. I witnessed the community go online due to the pandemic. Turing instructors and staff adapted to remote learning gracefully and graciously through it all. I was grateful to be immersed in a learning community during that time of isolation, global stress and trauma. The curriculum is broken into four six-week modules with 1-week intermissions between each module aka mod. Mod 0 is prework that you must pass to start. Students are able to repeat up to two modules but not the same module twice. I did not repeat any modules. There is no shame in repeating and many of my classmates who repeated had a stronger foundation for their first jobs upon graduation. Modules 1 to 3 are front-end or back-end focused and Module 4 brings both programs together to collaborate on a full-stack project. It is project-based learning, meaning you learn by figuring out how to build things. Knowing how to learn, problem-solve, communicate and work with others are critical skills for the field. You will graduate with an impressive portfolio of projects and hopefully strong collaboration skills. Turing has some sessions on privilege, power, and ethical issues in the tech industry but I would like to see these important topics delved deeper into. I completed modules 2 to 4 remotely which worked well for me. I appreciated getting back commute time to take care of myself which supported my learning. Remote work skills are valuable in the tech industry even if you end up in a hybrid or in-person role. The curriculum also includes professional development for getting your first job. After graduation, mod 5 provides job-seeking support, meaning you have to put in the work but people are there to help. I graduated in August 2020 and was privileged to be able to take an extended job search that included some downtime. I enjoyed getting involved in Women Who Code and mentoring current Turing students during my search. I felt supported by the team throughout and was hired for my first full-time role in June 2021. You can continue to get support from the school and alumni network for your second job and beyond. Having a growth mindset is critical to success. Learning anything new comes with some discomfort and struggle. If you decide to attend Turing or any coding bootcamp, know your why and remember it when things are hard. You will always be learning and problem solving as a software developer so get used to it now. Trust in the learning process and practice self-care. Do your best and you will succeed.