Coding DojoReviews of codingdojo.com

My experience here was very positive. I had many hesitations before coming to coding dojo wondering if it was the right decision. As for my background I have a B.A. in business administration and had been working several years in a non tech environment. I had coded as a hobby but had very little experience and no education on it. I basically knew enough about coding to realize I liked it a lot and wanted to learn more. I had no idea if i could make a career out of it by going to a bootcamp. After extensive research I decided I would attend coding dojo in an attempt to switch careers and learn more. If you are wondering the same then please take this advice. You Get What You Put Into It! This is very important to understand. The program flies by and everyday matters. Make sure you can be committed to code, eat, and sleep for 4 months. Students who stayed late or came early got a lot more out than others. This program doesn't magically get you a job in the industry. Even after graduating you still have to work hard and keep learning in order to find work. If you only completed the course material it will not be enough. You need to build things of your own and keep learning more. Build side projects, a portfolio page, post to GitHub, contribute to open source projects,and buy a book on algorithms and do one everyday. For me the most important take away from this program is that I feel it truly helped me become a self-sufficient developer. I may not know everything about a certain topic, but I have the tools and knowledge to fill in the gaps myself. This has given me confidence in coding that I did not have beforehand. If you are looking to gain the skills to be a self-sufficient developer and have the time, energy, and passion to put into it then I recommend this program.

This is true for Coding Dojo more than anything else I've been a part of. The model of becoming an entry level developer in 14 weeks is highly ambitious but definitely attainable if you're 1) willing to put in the work, 2) have solid personal goals and 3) keep yourself accountable. Now the idea isn't after 14 weeks you'll know enough to get any job you want. But you should have enough experience under your belt in order to SELL YOURSELF to a future employer that you have the tenacity, aptitude for quick learning, and high work ethic on top of your hands on experience in a variety of different domains. Do I believe everyone can be a software developer? Sure. Do I believe everyone should be a software developer? Not at all. Too many people are attracted by the allure of a high paying job after 3 months of work. They aren't doing it because they like coding or because they like building things, they are doing it for the fast money. I'd say if that is you, be weary of your decisions as you may find yourself without the extra drive needed to get yourself past the finish line (finish line being landing a job not graduating Coding Dojo). If I were to take a guess the majority of the one-stars on here are a result of that kind of thinking. If you're looking for something easy or guaranteed, I'd say save your money and stick with whatever you're doing right now. However, if you're looking for a time efficient way of giving yourself access to new opportunities in the tech industry, Coding Dojo is a great structure to facilitate your own personal growth trajectory. Tips for any potential bootcamp attendees: 1) Learn your algorithms. Seriously. You will hear this again and again so you know it's the real deal. Since graduating, I've observed the #1 reason people aren't ready to start the job hunt process right away is lack of confidence with algorithms (and thus performance on technical interviews). The hour of algorithms every morning is a good base point, but not enough to get yourself to where you should be by the end. I recommend an extra 1-2 hours on top every day to dedicate to algorithms. 2) Start preparing your post-graduation job materials now. There's no need to wait until Career Week to start building your resume/portfolio/cover letters/LinkedIn/etc. This leads to having an overwhelming amount of work to do and only adds to the stress of looking for a job. Start cleaning up your LinkedIn and growing your network today, reworking your resume tomorrow, designing your portfolio next week and once graduation rolls around (which it will before you know it) you'll already have all the things prepared. Now all you have to do is polish it up and send it out. This gets you ahead of almost everyone else and sets you up for that much more success. 3) Create strong relationships and don't be afraid to use your network. Tell everyone what you're doing and let them know your plans for when you're done 3 months down the line. You don't know whose friend's dogsitter will have a brother that's looking for a new junior dev at their company. 4) Use other resources when you get stuck on something and even when you're not stuck. If the curriculum isn't clicking with you on a certain topic or you're not understanding the teacher's way of wording a concept, find answers in other places! When I encountered Object Oriented Design for the first time, I couldn't wrap my mind around it.. so I watched YouTube videos, a lot of them. And after the 15th one it clicked just because of a specific phrasing I heard for the first time. Coding Dojo's philosophy isn't about making you the best developer, but it is about making you self sufficient. How will you react when the inevitable happens and you don't know how to do something? This is the true test for any good developer and what employers really want to see (for a non-senior position at least).

Coding Dojo is an excellent learning environment for aspiring and eager web developers to pick up in-demand skills in the hopes of starting a brand new career. For those who are willing to commit the time and effort involved in learning new concepts and developing new talents, the rewards are well worth it. The instructors are readily available to help students in their learning process, primarily through empowering the students to think through a variety of solutions and devote time to research. For someone in a pivotal stage in their life seeking to start a new career in a lucrative job industry, I highly recommend Coding Dojo.

Coding is a difficult craft that takes years to master. I came into Coding Dojo with some experience programming, but had no experience with web development. If you have no prior experience and are expecting this program (or any three-month program) to completely prepare you for a career in web development, you may be disappointed, especially if you have dreams of working for one of the "Big Four" companies. Ultimately, it's up to you to take advantage of as many resources as possible in order to become a self-sufficient developer. Contrary to popular belief, junior software engineering positions are highly competitive and there are many people in the industry who look down on bootcamp grads. Before signing up for a this program, or any program, I would strongly suggest that you take advantage of some free resources, such as FreeCodeCamp, to see if coding is something that you enjoy and to decide if a bootcamp is the right fit. Many people are able to teach themselves using freely-available online resources/tutorials, but I personally enjoyed working in a community of like-minded people who were passionate about programming. I definitely learned more in three months than I had during three-years of self-study, and I'm very appreciative of the friends and professional contacts I've made at the bootcamp. When signing up for the program, the administrators stressed that the bootcamp would require 70+ hours of study. This is definitely the case, especially for students with little experience. Here are some of the strengths of Coding Dojo's model: Good instructors who care about student success Broad exposure to a variety of technology stacks Exposure to a front-end JavaScript framework (Angular) An introduction to SQL as well as NoSQL databases An introduction to some of the more common CS data structures and algorithms The program is relatively affordable when compared to other bootcamps. There are relatively few bootcamps that serve the San Jose area besides Coding Dojo. Here are some of the weaknesses of the bootcamp: Depth in different technologies is definitely sacrificed for breadth. Graduates from bootcamps that teach a single language will likely be able to create more advanced applications in the given stack. You will be learning how to implement relatively simple CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) applications. There are no entrance requirements for the course. This does tend to lead to a wide gap in skill levels among students in the cohort. Proficiency in algorithms is not as strongly stressed as learning the individual software stacks. In order to land a job (particularly in the backend) you will have to demonstrate strong proficiency in algorithms. My advice for those considering the bootcamp is to allocate at least 2-3 hours per day on algorithms while staying current on the BootCamp curriculum. In addition, I would recommend that while not coding you completely immerse yourself in the world of coding by reading blog posts, listening to podcasts, and reviewing documentation for popular frameworks/libraries. I graduated this week and will update this review after navigating the job-hunting process.

I went to the dojo to see how I like programming full-time, and to learn web development for my own satisfaction. Often times I feel things could have been better, but I stuck with their curriculum and I think was better for it. The same amount of tuition could have bought me the same amount of time in a private university, but I feel I've learnt quite a bit more. And the opportunity to work in teams and alongside my cohort mates is priceless. My last job required a certain amount of coding and I have a B.S. degree in math so nothing taught at the dojo was truly challenging but for the time constraint. I am a little disappointed that employers aren't lined up outside the dojo to hire new grads, but that's not quite realistic anyways.

Expensive, no job opportunities, only 1 instructor worth his salt and he left! Total waste.

Learned a lot of excellent skills, not just limited to programming and problem solving, but also resume-writing, communication, and independence. Also made great contacts and friends with the other students in my cohort, and with the instructors. Worth every cent I paid for it and more. Highly recommend.

Wasted so much time and money. I truly regret putting so much of my resources only to be left down, left behind and put so much of a burden on my life that affects me to this day. There are so many students that start attend to class (over 30) and realistically only a very small percentage of them will ever come close to landing a job. There is no standard of admission to the school and coding dojo will sell you on the hype and make to feel good about your first attendance during the first two weeks of basics because designed to be so easy when compared to the rest of the boot camp. That is when the cut off time begins for 100% refund then you become vested to take the rest of the boot camp. The plan of learning three stacks is the most flawed concept in the teaching industry because there simply is not enough time to get into a competent level in a one month period of time. There are classroom politics that play as well specifically in Coding Dojo due to the nature of the accepting anyone and having as much as 30 students in one class. It's very typical to that of a community college however far worse. Examples would include drama among peers like developing boyfriend/girlfriend relationships, having certain social cliques similar to that in high school. The environment is very distracting. So much false motivation is given with the whole motto of strength through struggle which sets 90% of the students to realize failure in the long-term future. During the attendance, reality starts to creep in that you have already invested so much time and money to realize that what you are learning is not enough to land a job to receive a return on investment. It is very common to see alumni come back to work on some Udemy lesson, not dojo content. It becomes a habit of going through the motions of making an attempt of trying to learn content for literally hours a day. A lot of the alumni even get off the suggestion that you should sleep on the couches there overnight because during your job search you will have a place to stay since you will not be able to afford a place to live because of the lack of a job. Seeing alumni fail on finding a job while mopping on a Udemy course on a daily is extremely demotivating as you attend a boot camp because you know that will be you soon. Honestly, just look at the strength of the Coding Dojo alumni. A very high percentage do not hold a job as a software developer and if they are employed, it will be unrelated.