Great career services and a lot of knowledge to be had.
I took the online part-time Python full-stack course at Coding Dojo, and just graduated last week. I had a great learning experience through their portal and with the help of the instructors. I originally took the course to learn python for scripting in audio/visual control applications for customization. I looked around at other boot camps and settled on Coding Dojo because of their pricing, and their live teaching; many of the other camps simply gave you access to their learning portal. I had some experience with code academy, so the first few weeks of html and css were more or less review and expanding on what I knew. Michael Taylor was an amazing asset through and bumps or misunderstandings I had throughout this part of the course. Once we hit python, I had some trouble switching gears so quickly, but again, Michael was available to help where the lines weren't connecting. We then spent a month on Python and Django, getting exposure to the back-end programming. This is where things started to click more for me. All the free online courses I'd taken were solidified in my mind during this month I really liked the one on one meetings, where I could compile a list of things to discuss, and then go through my list with the instructor. Their Mattermost channel also had TAs available much of the time, if I ran into anything in the moment. Drew and Matthew were great at pushing me to understand the issue instead of just giving me the answer. When we got to the last month, focusing on Projects and Algorithms, we switched instructors to Matthew, who was also very helpful. The change of mind going from one language to another was the hardest part. We did a solo webpage project and a group one in the span of 5 weeks, which made me learn a lot of new techniques, including Bootstrap and Bulma. I think the most valuable thing I learned through this whole thing, is how to learn in this field. Much of the content can be learned from the programming languages documentation, and this camp allowed me to be in a position to understand how to do that, and what the gears of a website look like and do. Even though I tried to get at least 20 hours a week in of studying and practicing, I got closer to 15 most weeks, which was enough to get me to pass, but now I'm going to go over all the optional material and reinforce everything I've learned. They give you access to the portal for another 6 months after graduating. Their career services have been great so far in getting my resume up to snuff, going through the possible pitfalls in the interview process, and the mentality to apply and succeed in this field. Duy has and is continuing to be a great help in helping me transition into this new chapter for me. He's already started sending us job posts and is quick to answer any questions I've had. The only cons were that, I came across a couple areas in the curriculum that weren't super up to date, but I know they were updating things while my camp was going on, so hopefully that's fixed. I also wish you had access to the platform for longer after graduation, since the price for the course is pretty high, but I'll get as much as I can out of these remaining months that I have access. I feel like you definitely need to be a proactive learner to get the most out of this program. Having the Coding Dojo team there to guide and answer questions along the way were extremely helpful.
By Michael P.