Coding DojoReviews of codingdojo.com

It's a pretty good experience for a non-traditional "classroom." If you like more structure, then this is not the program for you, but if you like learning from the comfort of your own home, this could be perfect for you. The instructors (for this course) are knowledgeable and answer questions politely and quickly. That's a huge plus when is trying to learn. Pricing for the full programs is expensive and classes are fast paced, so I'd vet instructors as well as teaching style very closely before buying in. Also, I would come fully prepared to the full programs. I'd already have a good, broad basis in HTML & JavaScript. I'd also practice algorithms beyond their free platform.

I like the concept of coding dojo, learning with many students from different fields who has passion about coding and many awesome instructors. But I don’t know why does coding dojo allow instructors work on their personal projects or spend time hacking other websites during school hours. We paid nearly 10k to learn and learning 3 stacks within 3 months is very tough for starters. I remember at the night before final exam, the instructor barely finished the course and most of the students were still half way through. He was rushing to leave early and a student tried to “encourage” him to demonstrate codes on exam-review since the final exam is next day morning but he told the student don’t “brown nose” him. He gave first exam that was not covered by the review .... it may be just happened on this particular instructor but as an instructor he should be humble and try to encourage students more. and not try to fail students on the exam. And we all know 3 stacks program is way too rush, then maybe should consider redesign a program that is more suitable.

I went in thinking there would be these big high-res displays and found out we had these old 720p monitors and some of them didn't have the cords to connect to your computer. I thought there would be more of an assistance when learning a type of thing but instead, most of the lessons were a lecture for an hour, which was nice, followed by multiple hours of just sitting and trying to figure it out. The best part was the algorithms during the morning, I thought that was the best way to learn as you were doing the same task with other people so if you did get stuck you could get past that roadblock easily and learn the thinking process behind why you were stuck. Working in the field is very just "Do you work, and have it done on time" and so I get they needed to convey that to a point but at the same time, this is the teaching part where people are fresh into this and need help to learn and I think there wasn't enough "hand-holding" to put it lightly. I met some cool people and overall had a good time but this was not what I thought it would be based on the marketing, and not what I felt warranted the price I paid.

Expensive for what you actually receive. A big selling point for me was the Career Services and their "Hiring Partners", however what this amounted to was a week of resume review, roleplay, and that particular counselors views on how to get hired. They didn't share any postings for the "hiring partners" until pressed about it repeatedly, and what the posting they shared were general open postings, that anyone could see and know about, nothing exclusive, or 'partner' about it. I did gain coding knowledge, but only really in the realm of Web Development, which was never really clear until well into the course. So if you are looking to go into a different field than Web Dev, you are going to have a big pivot to make after this course. Overall I feel very "meh" about the time and money I spent here, which could have been spent on my mortgage or certifications that actually mean something in the IT field, make no mistake employers don't really care about your certification from Coding Dojo, its more in the realm of "oh thats nice". So be sure to do you due diligence before forking over $10k. If this was something more like the CompTIA certifications that the IT Industry values and takes as a mark of ability, then the cost would be justified. Last thing is the building they currently use in Dallas, Founders Square, the building management seems to actively despise the students presence, you will not be able to park in their building and all the parking around there is either close and expensive, or cheap and a walk, so hope for good weather if/while you attend.

I have noticed that some of the instructors play favorites with students. They pick out the smart ones and do nothing to break the coteries that develop around those students. I would have preferred they break those up and mix them with struggling students so that we are all on same page. Some instructors are in class for 20 or so minutes during the self-code hours and then disappear for the rest of the evening and we have no one to turn to if we struggle with the day's assignment. There is/was NO feedback on how our code is when we upload to the website. I think a lot of teachers assume that we are proficient in coding when signing up when in reality many of the students started coding very recently. One think I hated about the class was one instructor going: you guys will be earning 100K a year easily! That kind of sets up false expectations! A career is a ladder to be climbed before reaching money like that.

Coding Dojo worked out well for me, as I secured a full time job as a software engineer within 2 months of graduating and after 6 months got a 25K a year raise to move to a much more fun developer job. That being said, I also have a BSIT in software engineering and years of experience in very low level tech jobs. Most of the other students I met while I was there had a very difficult time finding work and gave up after 6 months to a year of trying. Another issue I realized after entering the workforce is that doing the same assignments in 3 different stacks only gives the most minimal knowledge of the MVC structure. It would be more valuable to learn how to apply Oauth to the 2nd and 3rd stack as that is more likely to be similar to what you do in the real world. After the first stack, I think going over industry standard packages and technologies would be valuable in helping students find work afterwards. Still very happy I went, and I think if changes are implemented then many more students would successfully find work after graduating.

When there is an issue with your product and you offer a refund or some kind of compensation for not delivering as promised, you compensate everyone and not just the people who complain the loudest. You try to make things right with your customers.

Learned a lot but still don’t seem to be prepared for the job market. We didn’t learn enough to really stand out in the job market.