Full-Time Java Coding Bootcamp - Remote

Tech Elevator is a wonderful experience with great people as I’m sure you will hear. But I want to emphasize that it is a great investment. As a former high school science teacher, I was able to double my salary thanks to TE. Risks can be scary, but this one is low risk high reward.

I did a lot of research before enrolling in a bootcamp and I think Tech Elevator is a great choice because of the languages taught and the career help. The bootcamp is very hard and intense but the other students were great to work with and we did a lot of pairs programming which I was skeptical of at first and ended up really enjoying the process. They have matchmaking days with some employers hiring entry-level tech jobs (like development, QA, and tech support roles). A few people from my cohort got jobs through this and TE's career people do a good job of trying to get you connections to help you find a job. I found the job search very difficult and it took me 4 months to find a job once I finished the bootcamp. But it varied for a lot of people in my cohort, some landed a job right away. The instructors were amazing. They all had about 10 years or more of industry experience and were great to work with. You could set up meetings with them to practice for technical interviews or discuss side projects. Overall, my experience at Tech Elevator was very positive and I would recommend it to anyone trying to break into the dev world. 

Signing up for Tech Elevator was a huge leap of faith. It was a scary commitment and a lot of effort. However, with the amazing support of everyone at TE, the days inched by until I accepted a full time offer on our very last day.The instructors were both very knowledgeable and encouraging. They took the time to explain concepts and assignments in detail, always emphasizing to not be afraid of asking questions which is an absolute must in the industry. They genuinely care for the growth of the students, even setting time aside for optional sessions to dive deeper into certain topics. Everyone at TE was exceptional, I never left an interaction feeling disappointed or under supported.I signed up for the Full-Time remote Java course and looking back, I believe TE made a great decision on the cadence and order of their curriculum. The initial process involved a short online assessment, followed by an interview. The process was simple and seamless, no issues. Upon acceptance, about two weeks prior to the first day, we were given a number of introductory assignments (variables, conditionals, loops, etc.). Once in full swing, the days consisted of class time during the first half of the day followed by coursework and other events on the second half. If I recall correctly, main topic segments included Java/OOP, database, and front-end in that order. Often times, those new to programming are introduced with basic front-end topics like HTML and CSS. While simpler and still important, it's misleading as they don't capture the reality students are stepping into. I appreciate TE jumping straight into Java and programming logic, as it gives a better view of the abstractness and complexity developers deal with day to day. A very important part of the TE curriculum is the Pathway program. Absolutely take it seriously, practice what's taught repeatedly, and do everything being asked even if it's optional. At the end of the course comes Matchmaking day, arguably the most important event. It's the day where students will have first round interviews with a number of different companies. When it comes to first time applicants, landing first rounds is the most difficult part. It's not unheard of to only hear back from one out of a hundred cold applications. Being able to pick a few companies for first rounds is an opportunity that should not be taken lightly, even by those with plenty of interview experience. The pace is brisk and there is a lot to cover. It's also important to not get complacent and think doing the minimum to graduate is enough. The more you can hone your technical and interview skills, the more likely you'll reach your goal. And at the end of the day, students will get out what they put in. On your own time, besides reviewing and digging deeper into the topics covered, it would be helpful to regularly commit to coding exercises from LeetCode/HackerRank. While they seem like brain-teasers, being comfortable working with those assessments will help when interviewing with companies that use that style of technical screening.Overall, I had a very positive experience from Tech Elevator. Yes there is only so much you can learn in a span of a few months, the course is not some miracle pill. It will take a lot of effort on the students' part, but I can honestly say students will receive what they put in. Everything I've learned from TE has been applied regularly in my day to day and the curriculum sets a solid foundation for new developers to further build upon. If I had to, I would certainly do it all over again and with Tech Elevator.

Tech Elevator opened the door to new opportunities by teaching me the code, and more importantly the skills to continue learning and growing. With the skills I developed during my time at Tech Elevator, I was able to jump into a new career with confidence, ask the right questions to help me learn a new language, and quickly become a participating member of a team. 

Tech Elevator worked for me! I even landed a job at a global technology company before finishing the 14-week program! The curriculum is solid, well organized, and taught in a way that really helped me absorb and retain the information, even at the accelerated pace it was being provided. There are a couple of topics I would have liked to go more in-depth on, but Tech Elevator does a wonderful job of teaching you to "learn how to learn", so diving into those areas is much less daunting than before.The instructors are all amazing, knowledgeable, supportive, and fun people. They are all passionate about their students' success and go out of their way to ensure you understand the material and have all your questions answered. There is also a fantastic group of academic fellows that are always around to help on those long homework sessions or just to chat for a bit and decompress.The same goes for the Pathway Program folks who do a stellar job preparing you for the job search with resume/LinkedIn reviews, practice interviewing, discussions about job search strategy, and plenty of opportunities to network and connect with current industry developers, recruiters, and TE alumni.Meeting and working with all the other students was a joy and I have made some great friends along the way. Attending Tech Elevator was easily one of the best decisions I could have made for my career!

My time at Tech Elevator was life changing, and I mean that in every aspect possible. I joined Tech Elevator after graduating in the middle of Covid with a Business degree and no job. I was unsure at where my life was going to go at that point, and I decided to take the challenge and go after this opportunity. I would like to emphasize that this was the greatest decision that I made. Not only did I find the passion for what I want to do with the rest of my life, but I also met some incredible people along the way. My instructors, Margaret Green and Andy Chong helped me learn so much in the world of software engineering! They also helped me grow as a learner and person and were so supportive along the way. They were excellent teachers and mentors, that supported us all so much through the good times, and also the times when I struggled. Peggy Kachevas and Laura Coffee, our pathway instructors, put us in such a good position to land a career in tech. They helped me navigate the interview process, both technical and non-technical, and gave me the keys to success in my interviews! They also helped us with Resumes that would stick out, LinkedIn Profiles, and helped us during the matchmaking process to potential employers. Rita Stall, the National Live Remote director, was the first person I talked to before being joining Tech Elevator. She gave me such a good insight into the program and she's the one who gave me a chance to join the program and for that I am so grateful. She was also instrumental in guiding our careers with resumes, social media profiles, and interview prep. All of the people I mentioned above were so helpful and supportive of the new transition I made. I would not be where I am without them, and everyone else involved in the tech elevator program, and for that I am eternally grateful. I have highly recommended this program to my friends who are also looking to transition into to tech, and I would say the same thing to anybody else. This program will you give you the technical skills to land a job in tech, and also the ability to navigate the career transition through resume workshops and interview prep. They also will give you connection to potential employers and you will land an interview to a few of these employers towards the end of the program. That is actually how I got my first job! There was an employer who came to tech elevator and interviewed me, I was able to land another interview and the rest is history! Finally, you will also be able to meet so many great people in your cohort and keep in contact with them. I'm always amazed to see what my cohort is doing and what they all have accomplished since graduating. This program changed my life, and I would not be where I am today without it. This has BY FAR been the best decision I have ever made. If you're reading this, I highly recommend you take the big step and join Tech Elevator. I promise you; it will be worth it!

I have so much good to say about Tech Elevator, and a handful of things I wish had been done differently. I'm going to share my thoughts on, 1) TE staff and support, 2) curriculum, 3) the Pathway program (career prep/counseling), and 4) the overall purpose of a short-term boot camp and how I feel TE stacks up against that.First, I want to express just how amazing all of the TE staff is. I truly felt that everyone at TE was both competent to teach the material and genuinely wanted me to succeed. On many occasions, staff members met with me personally to go over concepts I was struggling with, or work through interview and job application anxieties. In my experience, the only time you will ever be lacking assistance is when you don't ask for it. My instructors and Pathway program directors (career counselors) were amazing and I will forever be grateful for the time and energy they devoted to us, students. I believe the staff support is the best thing TE has going for it, and is the program's biggest draw.Second, the catch-22 of transitioning to software development is that it is hard to know what curriculum to follow when you have little or no prior exposure to the tech world. I assumed that any tech stack a legitimate boot camp was promoting would prepare me for the current job marketplace. In retrospect, I wish I had been more thoughtful about that decision. Here's what TE does a good job at:
You will have the fundamentals of object-oriented programming (OOP) drilled into you, and this will give you a solid foundation from which to build a great coding skillset regardless of tech stack.
TE does a good job of grounding you in Java, which is great if you want to work in Java. Having more exposure to other languages now as a working developer I have learned that Java is a very verbose language, meaning you have to write a lot of boilerplate code that is handled for you in other languages. This is not a bad thing, just something to consider. Java is still one of the leading languages in terms of available jobs, and in fact, landed me my first job. So I shouldn't complain, right? (I'm personally hoping to move away from Java going forward.)
You will have a decent understanding of SQL (relational databases, very marketable), API's (accessing data from a server, specifically with the Spring framework, also marketable), and a high-level understanding of how full-stack applications work.
The sense of community and connection TE achieves in a remote environment is truly awesome. It does not entirely happen on its own though. I know I had a better experience in this regard than some in part because I reached out to my assigned study group on Slack immediately once we were assigned, and began setting up study sessions from week one. Now, I consider all of those people friends.

Here's what I did not think TE did a good job at:

Front-end development in general.
As preparation before your TE boot camp begins they will have you do some Free Code Camp courses on JavaScript, which I think they're expecting will set you up to cover JavaScript in the third and final module of the boot camp in just about a week. Not to make too big a deal out of this, but literally, everyone I spoke with in my cohort felt underprepared to jump into the Vue framework after this week. A solid foundation in Vanilla JavaScript (that's the term for plain old JavaScript) is essential to learn any JavaScript framework, and we did not have that. My caveat to this is that the best learning happens when you get your hands into the code and start using it, but it makes for a very stressful final capstone project as you feel like you still don't understand Vue when you have to use it to build a front-end UI from scratch.
A note on Vue: I understand TE's reasoning for teaching Vue is that it is easier to teach and learn than other JavaScript frameworks (see Angular and React), from which point you can more easily learn other frameworks. However, in my experience, and by all of the job numbers I've seen, Vue is the least marketable JS framework of the three mentioned, with React being the most marketable, followed by Angular, and then by a large margin Vue.
If you're interested in front-end development (building out the UIs that people will interact with) I would consider looking elsewhere.

Third, the Pathway program. The one-on-one instruction and career counseling I received, along with mock interviews with TE staff and outside professionals were incredible! The curriculum on the online textbook was good, and the two-to-three times a week hour-long zoom classes covering that material were, honestly, a big distraction from what I felt I really needed to focus on, the coding. Often times these sessions felt like a total recap of what I had already read in the textbook. Probably half of the employer showcases felt like they were from companies that wanted to take advantage of young devs, or regionally specific, which as someone with a family unwilling to relocate was a complete waste of time. However, the other half had some truly stellar companies that I would be excited to work for. The problem is none of them offered me a job... :P Overall, I think the pathway program should refocus its attention on one-on-one development sessions, and cut a lot of the fat.Fourth and finally, I believe the ultimate purpose of a boot camp should be to make their students the most prepared, and marketable they can be in the time frame they have. As mentioned, my two biggest qualms with the TE program were the unnecessary Pathway program events that got in the way of my studying and learning the technical skills (making me prepared), and the poorly implemented front-end development module (making me marketable). If TE could figure out how to cram more JavaScript into the 14-week schedule, and then teach either the Angular, or preferably React framework on top of that I would consider it a five-star program. As is, they're not doing a bad job. In fact, I landed my first dev internship a week to the day after graduating. Others in my cohort landed jobs upon graduation, and still, others landed jobs a month, two, three, or six after graduating. There seems to be some randomness as to who lands a job when, regardless of preparedness and marketability. Ultimately, you just have to take that first step of learning to code. For me, it was Tech Elevator, and it worked out in the timeframe I needed it to. For that I am grateful. This program is expensive, though, and I recognize that I could have taken other steps that may or may not have made me more prepared or marketable for less money. It's impossible to know for sure. I believe you would do well to choose TE, but there are other great programs out there. Do your research and take that step. It's so worth it!

When I started at Tech Elevator, I did not know what to expect. However I knew I would be challenged.  Not only was I challenged with coding, but I was challenged mentally to see how I could push myself through a rigorous program for 14 weeks. I was able to to do this not only from the support of the students who were also in the program with me, but from the support from the staff. Whether it be the Pathway team, the instructors, I never ever felt alone when struggling. Tech Elevator was certainly life changing. I met amazing people whom I still stay in touch with. I was able to break into tech which I wasn’t able to do before I joined Tech Elevator. But most importantly, I was successful in completely a bootcamp in which had me learn a couple years of coding into 14 weeks. I highly recommend Tech Elevator. I even miss the bootcamp sometimes!  

Tech Elevator was a big step to helping me transition into a career in tech. Previously I dabbled in some basic web development but I knew I wanted to get more serious about it. I researched coding bootcamps and Tech Elevator was recommended almost everywhere I went. Between their reputation on different forums and from the statistics of previous graduates in the CIRR, Council on Integrity in Results Reporting, I went through the process to enroll and take the bootcamp. It gave me a great foundation and prepared me for interviewing. This in turn helped me land my first dev job where I am loving what I do. 

Coding partIt was very effective cohort and instructors were always willing to answer my question and help me out. Job SupportEndless help and support. I was being supported in various way from A to Z.  

Not only did Tech Elevator teach me the skills to join a great profession but it gave me confidence in my everyday life. The pathway program helped me with speaking to people when before I was really shy. The instructors were very supportive and helpful which made learning at a fast pace much easier. Tech Elevator was the best decision I’ve ever made when it comes to my career.

Tech Elevator was amazing, I will try to outline my experience in hopes that it will help future students make a choice:The Bootcamp is mainly split up in 2 parts, Pathway and Coding.The pathway part is led by a group of talented pathway directors that help you fix your Resume and your linkedin profile as well as provide you with a space to practice your behavioral interview skills. You will come out of the pathway knowing how to present yourself, be confident talking about your newly acquired skills , and how to land and ace your interviews.The directors also work hard to set up two matchmaking days where they will have a group of hiring companies matched with students depending on student's interests/choice or suitability with location/relocation/remote requests. If you have not landed a job offer by the time the camp ends, you will have the full support of this team and the network of Tech elevator Alumni to fall back on for resources and referrals.The Coding part is structured in a way to make things simple at the start and then build on top of those first principal knowledge. The instructors are extremely talented and versed in the education material. They will take the time to stop class and make sure that everyone is up to speed and that no question goes unanswered.You will start the first week with setting up laptops (provided by Tech Elevator) and jump straight into Java or C# depending on what your choice is, the main focus will be learning how to code using OOP (object oriented programming) techniques.Next part will be learning about SQL and how to manipulate data, and for the 3rd part you will learn Javascript (VUE).For every part there is a milestone project were you are paired up with another student to work and test your skills. The third and final project is a combination of everything you learned, you will be responsible for creating the Front-end , Back-end and everything in between.I consider myself lucky to have chosen Tech Elevator for my switch from Civil engineering into Software development. If you are thinking about changing industries or you've just had this curiosity to learn how to code, Tech Elevator is worthy of your consideration. 

In 14 weeks Tech Elevator managed to change my life! They gave me the technical skills I needed to land my first Software Engineer job (1 week after graduation). This bootcamp pushes you academically but it is set up where you have all the support you need from both staff and students. If you are considering enrolling JUST DO IT! You will not regret it. 

During the early months of the pandemic I came to a crossroad of continuing down my existing path or making a career change. I can say without a doubt that attending TE has changed my life in more ways than just professionally. I joined TE with limited knowledge about software development, however the instructors and pathway directors guided all of us through the program and assisted in finding jobs (which is ultimately the goal right?). They provided us with the tools, the knowledge, and opportunities to succeed. If you're reading this you're likely looking for experience/feedback and I can tell you that I did my fair share of researching many bootcamps, had many conversations with other bootcamps and none of them passed an initial call for me, that is until I spoke with the knowledgeable intake folks at TE. Join one of their panels for an opportunity to ask personalized questions and see if it's right for you, who knows, maybe you'll see me on there!

If I just think about what I was and what I am now - it seems like a dream to me. And the boat of that real-life dream is Tech Elevator. It helped me to reach my goal. It just not only taught me coding but built me for the coding world. Starting from building my resume, Linkedin profile, mock interview, and whiteboard session to lot and lots of motivational words make my landing in the coding world very smooth. I already referred lots of students to Tech Elevator and will do it again and again. Love you Tech Elevator NLR.

I loved my time at Tech Elevator. The teachers were knowledgeable and the other students were an amazing support network. While the work was hard I enjoyed the process and was able to get a job lined up before the course even ended. 100% recommend for anyone who wants to learn coding.

When I started looking into coding boot-camps, Tech Elevator rose to the top of my list due to their belief in transparency regarding graduation and placement rates. Jumping into a boot-camp is a large time investment and costs a lot. For me, this meant quitting my job to focus on the content, and taking a large financial risk. Not for one second did I ever regret it!My time at Tech Elevator was difficult, but the knowledge and experience I gained was certainly worth it. From day 1, everyone really made the effort to make the students comfortable. The concepts you will learn at TE are difficult, but the staff was there every step of the way, and always made sure help was available if needed. The staff and teachers really do seem to care about you as an individual, and want to see you succeed. I never felt like just a number that they wanted to add to their success rate statistics. Everyone was invested in us actually succeeding.I will say that even though TE does give you lessons, you will still need to invest some time into outside of the classroom. Programming is simply too broad to learn everything in 14 weeks. They will tell you this upfront as well, and it is true. The teaching definitely provides structure while you are trying to learn, but you will need to look some things up on your own.Speaking more to the Pathway program, which prepares you for the job hunt and interviews, I felt this side was very important as well. While attending, it may feel like a side note to the actual programming lessons, but it is just as important! You can know everything related to programming, but if you can't interview you won't find yourself employed. I would highly advise to take this part of the program just as seriously as the technical side. The pathway program instructors are all wonderful people, and they really do go above and beyond to help you in the job hunt!Overall, I am very happy with my time at Tech Elevator, and I whole-heartedly recommend it if you are trying to break into the tech field and need some structure to your learning. One week after graduating, I received a job offer and I am starting on my developer journey!

I entered Tech Elevator having been a high school music teacher for 5 years. I had no coding experience except for a free Java basics course I took online a few months prior to enrolling to see if I enjoyed coding. Within two months of graduating, I've been hired as a software developer.The curriculum is comprehensive and fast-paced as a result. It is likely that not everything will stick right away the first time, but as long as you are paying attention, actively participating, and working to understand the concepts, you will have a great foundation of skills when you graduate. Their online "book" of coding concepts is an incredibly handy resource and is written in a way to make even complex concepts approachable and understandable.From a technical side, all of the instructors I interacted with were both very knowledgeable and very supportive. They are very understanding that this information will be brand new to most of the students.The career-focused part of the program is also full of knowledgeable and supportive professionals that will work with you and support you throughout your job search.Tech Elevator takes what they do seriously. Since I graduated, I have been receiving their support. It's not a silver bullet--how quickly you find a job after graduating from the program is influenced by many factors beyond anyone's control--but the knowledge, skills, resources, and network that Tech Elevator gives you will certainly make your search much, much easier.I'm still shocked that I was able to make this career change as quickly as I did. I spent 4 years studying Music Education. It felt like changing careers would be incredibly time consuming, but Tech Elevator made it possible.

Tech Elevator was an amazing experience that changed the course of my professional career. I came into the program with little idea of what I wanted to do going forward with my life, and I left with direction and the skills to become a professional in the tech field.

As someone working in healthcare with no recent experience in software development, it seemed like an insurmountable task to transfer my soft skills learned over a career in pharmacy to a job working in technology. Tech Elevator's incredibly supportive staff not only taught me the skills needed to start a new career in technology, but they were also alongside me every step of the way to get a job. As a student, you will be required to put in the hours and the work necessary to succeed but Tech Elevator will make sure you reach your goal if you do.Skills learned:Java (IntelliJ IDE, Spring Boot)JavaScript (Visual Studio Code)HTMLCSSPostgreSQL (Postman, dbVisualizer, RESTful API)Vue.jsGitAgile Methodology