Full Stack Java Software Developer Immersive

Claim Academy gave me the tools to began my full stack java development journey and made me feel confident pursuing a career in software development. Nife was an exceptional instructor and was able to explain complex terms in ways we could easily understand. Eric, campus director, and Cristina, student success, were always willing to help with networking and searching for a job. I would have never been able to learn what I did at Claim Academy if I would have continued doing online courses.

 During my time at Claim Academy, quite a few things went wrong.  At first I blamed the pandemic, but by graduation it was clear that the school was also at fault due to poor management.  Here are some things I encountered:    1. This was supposed to be an in-person course.  I specifically chose it for this reason because I learn better in person. Due to events below, it was only in-person for the first 3.5 weeks. The remainder of instruction was nothing but zoom meetings.  This was a minor irritation compared to the rest.  2. Our original teacher put in his resignation 1 week in, so we got a new teacher (zoom meetings only) at 3.5 weeks. Our new teacher DID NOT continue the curriculum from 3.5 weeks... he started teaching like it was the beginning of week 5!!!  He skipped 1.5 weeks of curriculum and said he'd "touch back on that" as we went along.  This left us learning about Spring MVC without knowing a single bit of HTML or CSS.  We had barely finished the basics.  Also, he didn't stop when we asked questions.  He plowed right through like no one spoke.  We were actually advised to watch the videos later so we could pause when we needed to.  Honestly, I don't know why that teacher is even still employed since they know he is not a quality teacher.  Intelligence does not equal teaching ability.  3. When the new teacher started, our scheduled meeting times abruptly shifted from 1pm-4pm to 4pm-7pm. Several in-person students, including myself, continued to use the school's building during class time for the stable internet and a dedicated place to concentrate.  As it turns out, however, the office staff leaves at about 530-6 every night.  So anyone who decided to stay late was left alone in a fully glass fronted building where they pre-lock the door (i.e. if you go out, you can't get back in).  It's not like we could drive home in the middle of a lecture when the office staff left.  Eventually I was the last person coming to the building.  Since I'm a 5'4" 125 pound woman, I wasn't exactly comfortable sitting by myself in a giant fishbowl in downtown St. Louis for hours, so after two days of that I went home to finish the rest of the course.  4. This new teacher was also a temporary teacher.  He was only scheduled to teach us for 2 weeks until our permanent teacher started.  The only reason any of us survived those two weeks was because of a single mentor!  I won't drop names, but anyone from my cohort knows who I mean.  He took it upon himself to hold a 3 hour zoom session EVERY DAY for those two week.  He single handedly taught us HTML, CSS, and filled in all the gaps from week 3 & 4.  He went above and beyond his 'mentor' capacity and without him, many of us would not have made it.  If you're reading this: Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your extra time!!!  5.  We ALL complained!  The program the school uses asked students every week: "Can you rate your class experience this week on a scale of 1-5".  During those 2 weeks, reviews dropped from 4-5 stars to solid 1 star.  Everyone rated the class poorly and complained to administration, but nothing was ever done to fix the situation! We were simply expected to ride it out and do our best while the temporary teacher taught whatever he felt like for 2 weeks and never bothered answering questions.  6.  During the later weeks of class, we started attending company spotlights and alumni interviews, which is all fine.  However, we usually weren't told about these events until 1-2 hours before they happened.  To put this in perspective, we completed 3 different individual projects during this class, including a full stack capstone, as well as at least 3 group projects.  Being pulled away from a programming session with practically no notice is extremely disruptive.  It also seemed very unnecessary.  Either the office staff constantly planned events at the very last moment, or they didn't bother alerting the actual students until the last moment.  Both of which constitute poor planning.  Also, these events would often interrupt our scheduled class time (being held at 430-5pm). I understand the importance of these events, but our actual programming instruction should be our #1 priority.  7. However, the best example of a clerical error/utter failure of planning was the fact that when they created the event for our capstone Demo Day presentations... they didn't bother to set the notifications to include the very students scheduled to present their projects OR send us a link to the updated schedule. Our third teacher was great!  He backtracked, he answered questions, and was a brilliant teacher.  As I said, the mentor was also amazing.  Everyone was very friendly. I did learn quite a bit of programming and I did produce a full stack project at the end.  I just graduated, so I can't speak for the job assistance, but it's looking good so far.  My experience with Claim Academy is only worth 2 stars because of the things I explained above; however, it wouldn't take much for them to improve. Most importantly, a better organized events coordinator that is capable of giving at least a 24 hour notification for events and considers student priorities while scheduling.  I'm sure other cohorts have a better time, but the one I was in did not have a quality experience. 

This program is not for the faint of heart.  It will challenge you in ways that only a coding bootcamp of this caliber can provide.  My final takeaway for this program is that it is what you make of it (as with anything, really).  Provided that you attend all the lectures, engage with your mentors, and lean on your group, you will walk away from this as a newly-minted software developer.The instructors and mentors are top-notch and demonstrate a great degree of patience for students at every level of proficiency.  Denish was an expert at teaching core Java fundamentals, eventually handing it off to Lamar who ramped it up into Spring and React territory.  Our student mentor, Brandon, supported us every step of the way, clarifying concepts offline and building students up to the level of competency to ensure that nobody gets left behind.Outside of lecture, communications were a little rough at times often with little prior notice for alumni nights and other mandatory sessions.  These sessions were invaluable as one makes steps into a career, however navigating the Basecamp platform and gaining visibility of these calendar invites were hit-and-miss, and as a result I missed out on a few.Should you decide to embark on this journey, be ready for a few sleepless nights, many lows, and many highs.  The final capstone presentation amongst your peers is a rare treat.  You will feel on Cloud Nine by the end of it, provided that you stay engaged and accept nothing short of success.  The remedy to bouts of imposter syndrome and self-doubt is to simply push through and ask questions.As a final note: I kept my day job throughout the entire bootcamp, albeit dropped down to part-time.  In hindsight, while I made it work, I DO NOT recommend going this route.  It's probably best to block off 3 months for total immersion. 

awesome bootcamp, the final month was really challenging but in the end with the help of mentors and peers I was able to graduate. Highly recommend if you can assist in person

Learned JAVA and some React.  I had previously attended Digitalcrafts ATL, and it is hard not to compare.  Unfortunately Claim doesn't come close to Digitalcrafts in terms of quality.  Our instructors(we went through 3) at Claim seemed to be part time while at Digitalcrafts they were full time.  We spent about 3 hours a day actually with the professor in a zoom call, any other communication was on Basecamp (and it was horrible).  As students we made our own zoom calls with each other to work together.  Digitalcrafts on the other hand had a zoom call up for most of the day and the instructor was available along with at least two TAs all day and many times into the late evening.  Overall, I think Claim has alot of potential, but they need to really take suggestions well and be able and willing to improve.

I believe Claim Academy is a great opportunity for anyone looking to challenge themselves with learning a new skill and possibly a new career path.  From an administrative standpoint, Travis Wyrick and Matthew Hook were excellent in helping me find out about the VETTEC program to pay for the course.  Training wise Denish Otieno and Lamar Myles were as good as it gets to help new students understand such complex material.  They were always helpful and wanted students to learn.  Also, your fellow classmates were very helpful in helping you understand problems you are having trouble with.  If you put in the work it is incredible what you will receive from this program.

Claim had great instructors and the mentor I had, Brandon, was willing to give up his weekends just to help us progress. 

Claim does an excellent job of providing the students with excellent lecturers who will challenge you to go above and beyond what you believe you are capable of. The work will be grueling and strenuous but you will come out of the experience better for it.

Claim Academy was amazing for helping me understand and implement Java Full-Stack Web Development. I learned several software packages that I now have on my resume. I had help with writing a professional looking technical resume designed specifically for getting work in the web development industry. The instructors were incredibly helpful and even allowed me extra time when "real-life" reared its ugly head. Being a disabled vet with PTSD, this course allowed me to work where I feel safest... at home.

Change is not easy for anyone. But for those who have the courage to push themselves for three months, Claim Academy will channel your persistent efforts toward a positive career change. As a Full Stack Java Boot Camp graduate, I experienced this guided change firsthand. Denish Otieno skillfully and patiently taught us core Java for the first three weeks, with clever examples and labs to push us to experience the important concepts and nuances of the Java language. After this, the instructors built on this foundation with frameworks and tool sets which allowed us to tie our Java data models to persistent databases, control the flow of information here with responsive and data-driven web front ends. This was done with nightly classes and several practical projects which pushed us just a bit beyond what what we knew when the project was assigned, giving us goals on which to focus.While it remained fast-paced, Alex Duncan and the instructors were on hand to guide us to finding and fixing our errors, teaching us how to solve problems while pushing us to embrace new methods necessary for a full stack developer to succeed in the industry. Alex in particular, tenaciously tackled every bug we brought him and with utmost patience showed us how to move forward.With our unexpectedly large group, it was difficult to get detailed feedback on our project code, since most of the mentoring time was used for guided troubleshooting.If you stick with the curriculum, you will be made ready to tackle technical challenges, present a polished resume, interview well, and make that career change/bump Claim Academy claims. The more you put into it, the more drastic and marketable your change will be.

Claim Academy’s strength is surely the staff. The Java instructors are accomplished, industry leaders who ensure we’re learning the right things. They often go above and beyond the call of duty. Kenn Juma’s generous guidance, for example, helped me complete a project I was really proud of. My mentor, Alex Duncan, was such a huge resource and had a knack for making new concepts click. I graduated into a tough job market, but staff members like Lynn Kuhlmann and Olivia Bury were invaluable advocates for me getting the chance to present as a candidate for key positions. In the end, I landed a dream opportunity. Claim was instrumental in getting me there. 

Challenging but rewarding program for those looking to enter the software developer field. Excellent staff invested in  your success!

 Awesome!  Claim Academy teaches students many new skills along with the basic programming.  By the time you are finished, you will have gained so much knowledge, you will not believe it.  At the end, you will be able to create a full stack a web application that has “real world” applications. Depending on which course you choose, you will probably also learn, Java, JavaScript, HTML5/CSS, Spring Framework, Bootstrap, Node.js, MySQL, Testing, Maven, GitHub, Visual Studio Code, React, Hibernate, Junit, MVC framework, XML, JSP, JSTL, Servlets, Eclipse, Soap and Restful Techniques, Debugging, Agile Methodology, presentation skills, and interview prep.  Phew!  I know, but you will be able to do it, from all the knowledge you will have learned here.  Plus, the interaction with classmates and mentors, along with the support and career assistance of the staff is terrific! 

3 months of stress, hard work, frustration, then understanding and amazement upon learning and doing. Be prepared to work hard. Overall, it’s worth it. But don’t expect it to be handed to you. It’s 12 weeks of self sacrifice and dedication, so only attend if you’re willing to do just that.  I can not say enough good about Lamar, Praneeth, and Hiram. They are excellent teaching instructors who really know their stuff. To this day, I can still message Lamar with a question and he will respond. That kind of dedication can’t be overlooked.  The overall structure of the program, however, does need some restructuring. For my cohort, we had one single mentor who also had to spread his time between the C# class, as well as the class that was a few weeks ahead of us. I recommend Claim hire specific mentors, one for Java, one for C#, one for the 9-12 week capstone period. Without this, it makes the course a lot of teaching yourself for the first six hours until the instructor arrives. This does make you become more self reliant on learning, and though appreciated, when you consider a lot of people are quitting their jobs to attend this program, not to mention paying a substantial amount, I personally would have appreciated more time learning with a physical person.  I did feel the curriculum was a little outdated. That’s not to say you don’t learn a lot. But I do feel some parts were ultimately unneeded. We learned a lot that seemed to be the “harder” way to do things or that were outdated, and I ended up feeling like the time could have been better spent on other topics or learning a little more about a previous topic.  The best advice I can give to anyone is to start early. I attended the cohort in February, and in December I was teaching myself HTML5, CSS, and JS so I hopefully wouldn’t fall behind once the class started. That allowed me the luxury of studying on other parts that I didn’t feel as strong in while others were learning these during I believe our 5th week. It ultimately led me to become a better programmer by taking initiative on my own.  I feel the best thing Claim does lies in their access to business partners. This was ultimately my reasoning for attending Claim as I wanted more ways to advertise myself. My cohort had the unluckiness of taking place during the Covid-19 outbreak and that did make the program more stressful than it would have been otherwise. Normally a question could be asked and the instructor could walk to your desk and solve it in a minute. With an online program, you had to share your screen, scroll through all your code to find the issue, then fix it, which would turn small bugs into 10 minute long problems and if multiple individuals had bugs, you can see how this could take up 30 minutes to an hour of class time. Claim did take initiative and I appreciated the way they handled the situation, but I would be lying if I didn’t say it wasn’t stressful and what solely resulted in the reasoning for my 3 star overall experience. I believe had the world issue not have occurred, this would be an easy 4 star experience.3 weeks have passed and no one has received a job at this time from my 10 member cohort, but the world is just now starting to get back to normal and I would like to update this review once that time comes. It was just an unfortunate situation for those attending at this time, so be sure to do extra research and don't let my situation persuade you. Most individuals will never experience a bootcamp in this fashion and that should be duly noted here.

A great place to learn to code!Hands-on learning and industry standard instruction. Actual programming experience instead of useless theory and time wasting filler classes.Full time immersive program is 9 hours a day and a huge commitment.  Staff is always helpful and willing to do what it takes to help you if you need it.  It takes a good amount of self control and dedication but if you work hard and push yourself you can really learn a lot about what it takes to be a Full Stack Developer!The building was always clean and a heroic effort was made to sanitize the whole building every day. When we were forced to move to a mostly virtual format due to the St. Louis County requirements they still kept the building open and provide help even while following the guidelines.Getting grads employed seems to be HIGH on their list and Ola and the team seem to work hard to prepare us for interviews and line up potential employers.

It was a great experience, great instructors, great management. You get what you put in.If you want to learn to code in 12 weeks, it is a school worth looking into.

Great course, great instructors, had some difficulties with the apartment managers and St. Louis in general, but great course. Worth it if you apply yourself and want to learn.

12 weeks of frustration, discovery, anxiety, and growth. Be prepared for a violent education with ups and downs galore. No one in our cohort was hired before the end of the course, but the time of year that you take the course has a definite impact on that. I believe that the most valuable thing that claim offers is the access to, and support of their business partners. I believe that their visiting alumni nights are important for student moral and to keep them working hard. The places I would like to see Claim improve would be: Teaching staff and structure.We were a cohort of 12 and we were given a single mentor to help our group and the second cohort in the first 6 hours of the day, soo that's nearly 20 people and one mentor... this did not leave nearly enough availability to "depend" on your mentor. Making a lot of what I paid for learning to teach myself on youtube or other avenues... now I by no means think this was a bad thing, as that is a very important step in "Thinking like a Developer", but I feel like I'm paying to be mentored, so it should be available at least more than it currently is. (Please get more teaching staff like Praneeth, Hiram, and Lamaar!)Also, the structure could use some help... there was a lot of misinformation during my recruitment and enrollment that was not fun... and what they want to be 3 hours of peer to peer and 3 hours of solo work, really just became an "open office" for 6 hours a day...My overall experience has been positive, but I had to risk a lot to be here so I am also highly critical. I get the impression that if the job leads I have now don't work out, I will continue to have the support of Claim staff to help me in my search, and that is worth a lot.

Graduated 02/14/20

Claim academy has fantastic instructors, especially Lamar who made our education fun and was always willing to help us individually. We learned a massive tech stack over 3 months. I had done some learning on my own prior to Claim but always seemed to hit a wall where I struggled to know what to do next. The things I learned at Claim academy helped me to move beyond that and feel I am ready for a job as a developer. I am currently still searching for a job and am still using Claims resources to do so. Once I manage to secure a position I would update my review to 5 stars across the board.