Global Part-Time Remote Software Engineering Immersive

As of May 2024, the job market continues to present challenges for CS graduates, self-taught developers, and non-traditional engineers alike. It currently is more difficult for ANYONE to get hired right now, but that is a reflection of the current market and not necessarily on Codesmith. Thus, my review will reflect on the quality of Codesmith’s curriculum and my personal growth as a developer during and after completing their program. Background:I hold a B.S. in Management Information Systems. During Codesmith, I completed two software engineering-related internships, and graduated from University. Post-Codesmith, it took me six months to secure a new 6-figure job offer, with an additional three months before the start date, in a new graduate role. Curriculum:Codesmith has a really solid curriculum that is continually refined in response to student feedback. The program includes daily hack hours, and learning full-stack development in a way that equips students to easily adapt to new technologies. Regarding the content, the curriculum is really good and helped me to understand web development on a much deeper level.My only real critique here concerns the group projects. NOTE: This is not necessarily a fault of Codesmith, but more so a consequence of certain team dynamics. Some students may “fall through the cracks” and miss out on crucial learning opportunities if their team dynamic favors delivering impressive results over collaborative understanding of the codebase. Advice to Codesmith: Have instructors emphasize the educational purpose of early projects. The smaller projects are invaluable for mastering the core fundamentals. Students will have PLENTY of time to show off their coding chops for the OSP/Reinforcement, so really take advantage of solidifying the fundamentals before then. This gives everyone an opportunity to fail and learn on the core aspects such as frontend, backend, databases, testing, etc. After that, moving on and expanding on your knowledge becomes So. Much. Easier. Instructors:The quality of an instructor goes beyond industry experience; teaching, guiding, and mentoring are equally important. The Codesmith faculty, including Matt Severyn, Sam Arnold, and Erika C. Reynolds, along with a dedicated group of fellows, excel in these areas. They challenged our cohort by prompting us to find answers rather than providing them outright, and ensure comprehension of solutions they suggest. Their approachability and commitment to student growth significantly enhanced the learning experience. A special thanks to Erika for her excellent engineering book recommendations.Job Assistance:The support from Codesmith extends well beyond graduation. It includes regular check-ins, post-grad groups, access to an alumni Slack channel, and various Codesmith events. Career Support Engineers, often alumni, offer a range of resources such as resume and LinkedIn reviews, technical interview preparation, and job search strategies. The ongoing support from the Codesmith community has been invaluable, especially when the job search got grueling. The community is very wonderful and I find myself frequently going back to offer tips, ask advice, or just chat with alumni that weren’t even in my cohort! I’d love to shout out the many alumni that helped me since before starting the program to now, but there are just way too many to list. The community is truly one of, if not the, best part of this program.Overall Experience:For me, Codesmith has been an unparalleled learning environment. I can’t imagine getting where I am today with just self study. The program offered a structured path to learn full-stack development, and now my confidence has skyrocketed since graduation. I have a deep interest and ability to explore more in the field of Computer Science, and going through Codesmith was a catalyst for that change.

I'm just going to start here - attending Codesmith was one of the best and most life-changing decisions I have made so far. I decided on Codesmith amidst a sea of bootcamps because community is so important to me. I can learn anywhere, whether by myself or at another institution, or in any situation. But it isn't as easy to build or find a good community where the people are caring and supportive to each other, striving to better themselves and excited to live and grow. Codesmith's intent is to deliver the best possible experience in modern technology, to push your personal growth, and to create and foster an amazing community. And it delivers on all those aspects.The content was always well thought out and is updated as our technology continues to change. But the special kicker is that there is so much open ended room for discovery and growth. There is no spoon feeding - you have to work for your knowledge. And by doing that, it is more ingrained and powerful! And lets not leave out their hiring portion! There is a whole portion working on the resume, cover letter, speaking, and how to approach technical assessments and system design interviews. But then, after graduating, their career support is always there. 6 months later, a year later, you name it, they are there to assist! With all the assistance I just received a wonderful job offer, and the joy with all the Codesmith team was so authentic. They are in it for us for the long haul. And because of who they are, I am in it for the long haul too and will continue to support the company, students and alumni to the best of my ability.

I did the Part-time remote immersive program and graduated in March 2023. Overall, I am highly satisfied with my experience at Codesmith. The instructors are excellent, the content is challenging (you will learn the most relevant skills for the job search) and the community is fantastic. Codesmith puts a lot of time and effort into its students; you will have biweekly assessments to gauge your skill level and determine if your technical skills are keeping up with the curriculum. If you do fall behind, they will give you 1-1 private sessions to fill your gaps in technical understanding. The interview and resume support is also fantastic, and this support extends beyond graduation.That being said, Codesmith is just like any other educational program in that you get out of it what you put in. They don’t hand hold you or just give you answers - that doesn’t make you a better engineer. They teach you ways to problem solve. Expect to be challenged, work hard and you will see results.For those curious about outcomes, I got two offers - one at 165k/year and the other at 180k/year.

This is purely my opinion but I don't think there's a better program then Codesmith. Now maybe I'm biased because I just signed my job offer a month after graduating... However I also did heavy research into all my options including self studying and I chose wisely.Overall my experience was that the staff are empathetic and encouraging, the residents are smart and motivated. I think Codesmiths secret sauce is the strong strong strong community they develop. I am very invested in my cohortmates success and continue to stay involved after graduating. But of course as with anything do your research, find someone who graduated the program to talk to.

Going to Codesmith was one of the best decisions I have ever made! As I am writing this I just finished my first day as a software engineer making 3 times more than I have ever made! So I can tell you that Codesmith really does what they say it does.The tuition alone is worth it for Codesmith's hiring program. They help you hone a resume that you can be proud of! They teach you how to reach out and get interviews even in a horrible job market. And they provide continued support after you graduate. I did not come from a tech back ground either. I mostly worked in the service industry and government. The thing that impressed me most about Codesmith was that it wasn't designed to take you from zero to hero. You actually have to work hard to get in. They have a free program called CSX and weekly free trainings that will get you to a junior level skill set. Once you are in the program you hit the ground running and they start developing the skills that will take you to a mid to senior level engineer. You learn the stuff you really can't get from YouTube videos or medium articles. You work with other humans and develop technical and empathic communication skills. As you grow as an engineer the challenges get bigger and bigger. Then to cap it all off, you and a small team of engineers build a production level application that is designed to impress other engineers. I can guarantee that you will look back on your journey and be shocked at who you have become and what you can accomplish! It is not an easy program. It is not easy to get into Codesmith. You will work your ass off and you will hit a lot of blocks that you have to work through. But those challenges literally made me a better man and they made it so that I could handle the challenges of the job hunt and now the challenge of onboarding as a Senior Engineer (I don't know how it happened, I wasn't anywhere close to the smartest in my cohort, but I landed a Senior Fullstack Engineer roll - I am still in shock). I was in the part time program and it was a wonderfully fulfilling nine months that I will always cherish. I made life long friends. And honestly, it is the fact that it is not easy that makes Codesmith so valuable. I genuinely feel like this tuition was the best money I have EVER spent!

Codesmith is amazing in every way. The curriculum, the instructors, the job assistance and the community are all top notch. I had the opportunity to work with the smartest, most supportive and most hard working classmates. The curriculum and projects are definitely very challenging but it's so worth it. I felt every day I am getting pushed and maximizing my potential. I learned how to learn any new technology/framework super fast and I learned how to learn myself by reading docs and researching.The instructors and Engineering fellow are brilliant and very supportive. I did the fully remote 9 month part-time program but I always feel connected with everyone. They also have various social events for everybody to connect and know each other. The job assistance is great too. By graduation time we have our resume and other job search social profile fully prepared and ready to go. Codesmith also has a very powerful alumni network we can get access to. I signed an offer right before my program completes and will start my new job two weeks after graduation day. Thank you Codesmith!

Currently enrolled in their Part Time Remote Immersive (PTRI) course, so I can give my impressions so far for those interested in this new course.Overall Experience:Challenging, rewarding, and fun!  The coursework can be difficult and you will run into blocks (many times), but you get a ton of support when needed, even outside of class hours.  You will be trying to learn a ton of material in a short amount of time, and at times you may feel overwhelmed.  That said, even with personally setting aside an additional 1-2 hours each day for review or doing bonus exercises, it largely hasn't affected my other activities and schedule outside of class hours.  And the class has become its own little online community, where we learn from and support each other.  It's been both a highly rewarding and fun experience so far.Curriculum:Exactly what I was looking for to get into full stack development, not just in terms of course material but emphasis on engineering, problem solving, technical communication and pair programming.  You learn a new topic each week and dive deep under the hood with lectures and weekly exercises that can be really challenging.  There are some bonus exercises, hack hours, and hackathons that you will work on outside of class hours, but that has not impacted my other activities so far.  As I'm still only part way through the curriculum, I can't speak to the later sections of the course, including the solo and group projects.  But it seems the weekly learning and exercises is building us up to that point and will likely really test what we've learned and can apply in actual big projects.The weekly skill builders and unit exercises can be tough to get through, but you also pair up with another student (different each week) to work through them together and this has been a great experience, as you learn from each other and also work on fine-tuning your technical communication.  I find that learning from other students through this process has been just as invaluable as learning the actual course material from the instructors.Instructors:Enthusiastic, supportive and friendly!  The PTRI course is setup with a Lead Instructor, a Lead Technical Mentor, and two Fellows.  They have been great to interact with and learn from and are always available to help.  The amount of support you get is great.Job Assistance: n/a (haven't gotten to this portion of the class yet)

     I’m currently enrolled in the new Part Time Remote Immersive and even though it’s a new program, it delivers. It’s tough to give a full 360 degree picture because I’m still in the first leg of the journey, but so far, it’s exactly what I expected. I chose Codesmith because I didn’t want to be spoon-fed information and spit out the other side of an assembly line as a cookie cutter coder. I wanted to learn about being an engineer. That means working through blocks, learning how to learn, and applying concepts to new and unfamiliar problems. That’s what I do here.     I almost always feel behind, but I should. Who wouldn’t when you’re on boarding this much information this quickly. I think what constantly surprises me is how much more efficient, knowledgeable, and capable I’m becoming without even realizing it. I constantly have to remind myself that I’m doing things seemingly impossible to me a month ago. And I don’t feel like I’m missing anything doing it all remotely. They make sure you have iPads for virtual whiteboarding, GitHub and Slack are seamlessly integrated for sharing code and resources, and the team is smooth in its virtual classroom execution. I’ve even applied some of Codesmith’s virtual etiquette and teaching techniques to the meetings and trainings I conduct for work while we’re all stuck in quarantine. A typical week so far looks something like this:     Mon - Thurs -  3 hours of remote class which include introductory lectures on the week’s unit mixed with programming challenges that you’ll tackle both alone and with a partner via video conferencing, reinforcing and expanding on the topics presented. You’ll develop real problem solving knowledge in the subject matter with which you’re wrestling.      Saturdays - 6 hours of class reviewing the week’s material looking at an expert’s approach and the approaches of your classmates to learn from each other and implement other approaches to the challenges you faced.      That’s phase one. There’s a project phase and a hiring phase which I can’t speak to yet, but the order of operations here makes sense. Learn core material -> Exercise core material in real world settings -> Package all that knowledge and experience to get high paying jobs. The outcomes speak for themselves.     Everyone in my cohort is smart, knowledgeable, hardworking, and friendly, and while it’s easy to look at that and count myself so lucky to be working with such a great group of people, my hunch is that something about Codesmith’s interview process ensures that most cohorts have a similar makeup. And the instructors are the same. As much as they emphasize “work through the blocks” learning, I’ve never felt on my own. If I hit an unscalable wall trying to conquer a problem, the instructors are always right around the virtual corner to ask just the right questions to get me to start climbing on my own. That’s really all I have in terms of a review, this next bit is more personally important to me.     Because I remember how I felt when I was scraping the internet for reviews and wondering what to believe before hopping on this wild train, here’s my full disclosure statement. I was asked to throw a few words into a review because Codesmith doesn’t do a lot of advertising other than virtual word of mouth. In no way was the content of my review discussed or influenced by anything other than my experience. I wouldn’t have agreed to write it if it had been. So these words are mine and I’m not really someone who can say a thing I don’t believe. With that said, what I’m about to write next should be the biggest takeaway for anybody looking.     If was having a negative experience (which I’m not), and I did load this review with criticisms, I don’t think there’d be backlash from Codesmith. Even though I’m still in the program, I don’t think they’d reach out in anger or retaliation. I think they’d want to know how they could do better. The team at Codesmith is always looking for ways to better serve their residents even though it seems they already have it pretty much down to a science. That’s true on the curriculum level, the execution level, and the human level. I think that’s why they have the outcomes that they do. It’s a healthy, hardworking environment and, coming out of the program, it’s my bet that people carry that with them into their careers.

I stumbled upon the PTRI program while looking for a bootcamp and almost immediately fell in love with their block-driven approach and supportive community. I considered going to the on-site program in NYC, but like many people was not able to quit my job for months to do that. The PTRI program is not easy, but the 3 hours a night are doable even if you work full-time. The instructors and other staff are top-notch - super supportive, responsive, and they make you feel like you belong. The community is awesome, and Codesmith has been very successful at creating a tight-knit group, even though we're geographically far away from one another. So kudos to them! I haven't gotten to the hiring portion yet, so I can't speak to the efficacy of it personally, but they have great outcomes, so I'm not too worried about my prospects. Overall, if you are dedicated and hard working and want a challenge, I definitely recommend this program!