NYC Onsite Software Engineering Immersive

Switching careers (or starting one) is scary. Switching into tech? Even scarier. The reality is that anyone can do it with enough determination and grit; however, most people lack the resources, fundamentals and community support to build the confidence needed to take the right step to changing their life. Codesmith is able to provide all of these things, but it does come at a cost. You will be challenged a lot and pushed to your limits, both mentally and emotionally. For three months, you'll find yourself sprinting head first into massive walls, but somehow still find yourself coming out on the other side (with bumps and bruises). This might seem a little crazy, but there's a method to this madness, and the method works. I know because I experienced it first hand and had the privilege of watching so many people struggle, grow and eventually turn their distant dreams into tangible realities, including myself. 

Go to Codesmith. Endure the suck and trust the process. You won't regret it. 

Enrolling in Codesmith last summer was a risk I was nervous about, but it has already paid off in so many ways. I received a job abroad with a competitive salary, and was actively interviewing in NYC for jobs over $130,000. I was in a career in which I felt stagnant and not mentally stimulated. I was always good at math and science growing up, but in college I found media/journalism and decided to give that a shot for 10 years. I loved it for a period but needed a change.

After doing tons of research, I had two finalists lined up. I'm sure I would have done well at the runner-up, but Codesmith stood out to me for a few reasons. The community is above all else. First, all the online reviews for Codesmith read differently than others, and I was very curious why -- there had to be something to it. Secondly: Just seeing people attend free Hard Parts lectures and seeing the bond beginning to form there was a big difference from other residencies. To that end, the personal touch goes from all levels. Something as small as receiving a handwritten card upon acceptance is something so easy that my other choice didn't do, but it's a great touch.

As for the curriculum: It can definitely kick your ass. It's a hard 13 weeks, but I went from 3 months of somewhat regular self-taught coding (along with a full-time job) to getting a full-time mid-level job in less than 2 months. While everyone will have their hard, frustrating days, yes. But your cohort will support you, and people learn way more than they think they are capable of. Similarly, the Codesmith staff does a great job at teaching and making sure everyone is doing OK.  I do wish that some of the topics could be more refined, but I know firsthand that those discussions are always ongoing and that the staff is very conscious of staying in-tune to the dev community.

I couldn't have asked for more than a program. I'm fortunate my cohort was filled with great people and staff that I continue to speak to. It's a big financial investment, yes. But if you know you want to dive into software engineering, do yourself a favor and look into Codesmith.

I just got an offer that I will be accepting as my first Software Engineer role outside of Codesmith and I'm still in shock at how things worked out the way it did! I was a student in the Software Engineering Immersive Program back in May-August and had the privilege of becoming a fellow from August-November.

Many people were sharing how the job search will be difficult around the time I end fellowship but I am here to say that if you put in the hard work, you can get a job regardless of the “best hiring” season. I am super thankful for the Codesmith community as I have made so many amazing life-long friends/engineers who are here to support me in my new journey, every step of the way. I can’t thank the staff enough for believing in me and giving me all the resources I need to succeed. Thank you Codesmith!

TLDR: Started researching how to improve my career in March and April 2019. Attended Codesmith from June to August. Currently writing/managing code in distributed systems handling over 20,000 concurrent requests a second, contributing server code for data worth millions. And I've made lifelong friends along the way.

Why Codesmith?: No other program puts so much emphasis on cultural fit. To attend Codesmith, you must show extreme empathy, willingness to dive deep into the unknown, and a compulsion for great technical communication with your partners, mentors, and teams. In every way, being surrounded by so many hand-picked, brilliant, empathetic, and driven engineers — many with absolutely no prior experience — will fundamentally change you for the better. And residents come from all walks of life. And every resident must not only excel in pair-programming formats and team settings, but they also must mentor others.

I will quote someone I personally mentored in the program, who handed me a note the night before graduation — “Just wanted to leave a little note of gratitude instead of word vomiting a bunch of stuff at you the night before you ‘left’ CS. I truly appreciated the energy you depicted. I felt as if you were cheering me on even before I got there. To be honest at first I was super intimidated by you but in the end that environment of challenge was exactly what I needed to push through for you showed me that no task was too daunting for me to accomplish. Thank you for your words of wisdom and for sharing your worldview. Thank you for being there for me & for telling me over and over (and over) again that the underdog can and will prevail.”

Hiring Support: Self-advocacy. We teach people how to push themselves for bigger and better things. In total, I never once applied for a single company in my entire job search — I took 56 interview requests from external and internal recruiters. The primary reason was that the projects and codebases I had worked on in CS had such bleeding edge tech stacks — gRPCs, Protobufs, Docker, Node, Webpack, RxJS, Concurrent React, Redux, Next.js, SQL, Mongo, AWS, etc., — that I fulfilled nearly every mark on req sheets for huge numbers of companies. As I took more interviews and phone screens, tech screens, take homes, and on-sites, there was always a tight knit community of alumni and staff that supported me through every rejection and hard knock. So that by the time I hit multiple offers, I had gained so much perspective and self-confidence that I was able to negotiate my salary to above $170k.

Community: I still hang out regularly with dozens of people I met through the program. It’s an amazing thing to have so many friends that all have six-figure salaries in the same field who I can lean on and who can lean on me for the rest of my life. I will forever be grateful for this place.

My time at Codesmith was an invaluable experience in my journey to becoming a software engineer. When I initially decided to switch careers, I knew I wanted to attend an immersive program in order to accelerate my progress. I did tons of research on the full time programs available to me in my area (NYC). Many seemed promising, but as I learned more about each program and attended their public events it became clear to me that Codesmith was one a different level. When I attended my first Hard Parts I was so impressed by the teaching style and the energy in the room. I felt like Codesmith was really a place where people went to hustle hard and change their lives. I applied to the immersive program and met more members of the Codesmith team and they were all supportive of me throughout the interview process. I was accepted to the immersive program and dived right into the curriculum with 23 other lovely humans as cohort mates. The curriculum is formatted such that residents are constantly learning and building with new technologies at a rapid pace and are always coding with a pair programming partner. I found pair programming to be highly beneficial to my learning process because not only did it help me refine my own technical communication but it also made me more effective at interpreting and deploying my partner’s technical ideas, which is an essential skill for any engineer in a production environment. Beyond the curriculum, Codesmith also stands out in terms of community. All of my cohort mates were people who went out of their way to help one another all the time. The warmth of the staff, teaching fellows, and my cohort mates throughout my time as a resident made working through long days for three months truly enjoyable and these relationships have persisted for me even after graduation. For anyone considering applying to a Codesmith program, my best advice is to attend an event on campus and talk to the people you meet there. The rest will speak for itself.

I wrote my first line of code in March 2019. I was offered a role as a Senior Software Engineer at a leading FinTech company in October 2019.
Some may say BS but it's hard to explain this to someone that hasn't gone through Codesmith's Immersive Software Engineering Program. To sum up the how the program works in a real life example, quoted by Phillip Troutman (executive instructor at NYC), "Here's a car, go build a carburetor."
How is that possible? That's where you become a mature engineer.
The amazing community and culture is just the cherry on top. If you want to change your life, try to get into Codesmith...if you can!

I attended Codesmith's software engineering immersive from July to October. I began to teach myself how to code over a year ago, and decided I needed to be surrounded by like-minded individuals who are eager to plan and build applications and tools.

I had been accepted to Flatiron, Fullstack Academy and Codesmith - it was an easy decision to go with Codesmith, as I got to meet so many prospective students and staff before the program even started, and felt like I could grow as an engineer. And there was a sense of community, whereas the other two lacked such structure.

This isn't for those looking to make a quick way into software engineering - the units are intense, you'll be learning a new technology every other day. Coming from a non-technical background, I had to work harder to make sure I wasn't falling behind on units. I would spend 9am till 9pm on campus and when I'd get home at around 10pm, I'd either review the units, read documentation, build test apps until 1am. This cycle continued on for three months, and yes it's definitely challenging!

More importantly, I got to meet so many wonderful people from diverse backgrounds, which contributed to forever-learning environment at Codesmith. The staff members are also super supportive, and when I was going through difficult periods while job searching, they were always there for me, pushing me to do better.

Codesmith's program definitely works, that it has shaped my mind in a way that I can read any docs, tackle problems on my own, and collaborate to provide optimal results.

The grind doesn't stop after graduating from the three-month program. With its excellent hiring support, I was constantly receiving feedback as well as mock interview rounds to prep me for real interviews. I came from no computer science degree, nor worked in tech (I did marketing prior) and still ended up with a six-figure salary offer within a month of graduating.

Each outcome varies, but it shows that if you put all your effort into the process and make the most of it, anything is possible.

I had an amazing time at Codesmith this summer and started my career as a software engineer a couple of weeks ago. I was very lucky to stumble upon Codesmith at one of the ‘Hard Parts’ meetups and immediately fell in love with their approach to learning javascript, fostering an open/inclusive community, and navigating the job market.

1) Learning Javascript the right way

Codesmith really emphasizes the importance of understanding how Javascript works under the hood. By the time you graduate, you will not only learn various frameworks such as React and Express to build applications but also have a fundamental grasp of how Javascript works that will allow you to pick up any other tools/framework in the future if need be. As the name suggests, Codesmith teaches you how to become mastery of code, giving you the ability to create anything with it. The best part is that you can attend one of Codesmith’s free offline/online meetups and see for yourself.

2) Fostering an open/inclusive community

Codesmith’s culture is something that I had not known before joining the program but has proven to be an integral part of the journey. The 12 weeks you will be spending at Codesmith is going to be harsh and you will be struggling. However, Codesmith does an awesome job of creating a supportive environment where everyone will be there for you when you need it the most. Once you are in the program, you become a part of the Codesmith family where everyone holds each other up and, more importantly, celebrates with you when you finally get that software engineering offer.

3) Navigating the job market

This is probably the most underrated part of the Codesmith curriculum. Codesmith constantly updates its curriculum to reflect feedbacks they get from the alumni network. It allows them to quickly respond to the current trend in the job market and tell you what works and what doesn’t. The greatest trick, however, is deeply ingrained into your day-to-day life at Codesmith. Communication skill is something that all employers are looking for in engineers and Codesmith makes sure that you have it by the time you graduate. In fact, you will be talking so much during pair-programming sessions and group projects that you will acquire it unconsciously.

Overall, I cannot recommend Codesmith enough if you are seriously thinking of becoming a software engineer!

I’m coming up on the one year anniversary since starting my journey with Codesmith in January 2019. And, looking back at this past year, the amount of personal growth and experience I’ve gained in such a short amount of time, is incomparable to anything else I’ve been able to achieve before. For several reasons.

*I will note that my experience at Codesmith is a bit different, I attended the immersive Codesmith Bootcamp and then joined the Codesmith NY staff for 3 months as an “engineering fellow”. An engineering fellow is essentially a mix between teacher’s assistant (TA) and engineer. I spent six months in full at Codesmith NY between my bootcamp residency and fellowship.

The bootcamp is difficult, exhausting, and relentless. Thank god it was, I wasn’t looking for a bootcamp that was easy, rejuvenating, and relaxed. However, as EVERYONE is mentioning, Codesmith is also fun! So, how does something that is difficult and relentless remain fun? The community. Codesmith has a strict policy against people with a superiority complex. I couldn’t imagine working at Codesmith (often for 14 hours+ a day) with people that I couldn’t sympathize/have fun with.

I am now a “real” software engineer and the outcome statistics are real. As I accepted one of the several six-figure offers I received, I knew that I would never experience the same level of commitment, passion, and companionship that I had witnessed and experienced within the Codesmith community anywhere else. Something special happens at Codesmith, I've been trying to figure out what that secret ingredient is for months, and I still can't put my finger on it. It's the perfect mix of acceptance, humility, and determination. 

Looking back a year later, I cannot believe how much I was able to accomplish with Codesmith. I’m so grateful to be more than financially stable now. And, I’m sure that if I went to one of the other bootcamps that I was accepted to, that I would have a job by now too. However, I’m 100% certain I wouldn’t have the ability to walk into my job and be fearless about learning a coding language that wasn’t part of Codesmith’s curriculum (Python). I’m certain that I wouldn’t have made long-lasting friendships that still exist five months after my bootcamp finished. I’m certain that my salary would be anywhere from 1/2 to 1/3 less than it currently is.

Read the other reviews if you’re still thinking about going to App Academy or Fullstack.

Short Version
Pros: AMAZING HIRING SUPPORT, solid curriculum, amazing people, friends to last a life time, challenging experience,
Cons: Beginning to outgrow their current space

Long Version
If your are anything like me you might be reading this review with a little bit of skepticism. Four months ago I was that person -- I was tentatively hopeful that Codesmith would be experience I need to radically change the direction of my life but was skeptical of the claims that they made. I was not a person who attended the Hards Parts series in their NYC classroom or even someone who joined in on the online class -- I discovered them through CSX (great free course by the way!). After working through about 60% of CSX I decided I was going to give Codesmith a shot. I applied, passed the cultural interview and attempted the technical interview. I failed my first attempt, but It was the catalyst I needed to take CS Prep, a three week online prep course. This course when way beyond the basics and ended with me building my first ever project from scratch!! It gave me the confidence to say I can do this. Right after CS Prep I did my second attempt at the Codesmith interview and passed -- little did I know what a difficult and fantastic journey this would be.

The Codesmith Immersive program was the difficult thirteen week I have ever had. LONG LONG days packed with lectures, coding challenges, and amazing conversations with my cohort-mates. Codesmith not only teaches you how to write code but also how to THINK about code. It teaches you the tools to approach any problem with a mindset that is determined to figure out the answers. Learning the toolkit of a fullstack developer (JavaScript, Node/Express, Databases, React/Redux) was just the beginning --- mixed into this first half of the program are daily coding exercises designed to promote understanding of algorithmic approaches, coding units which taught not only skills but more importantly TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION, code presentations and a Hackathon! 

In the second half of the Codesmith experience you work alongside a team to build a dev tool that is open sourced to the community at large. This is a daunting task but, obtainable because Codesmith has already taught you how to breakdown problems, find solutions and not give up. While building this tool you also begin an amazing hiring prep program which covers everything from how to apply to jobs (cover letters and double downs), create your resume (thanks Will!) but also how to negotiate (thanks Erik!). On top of all this work in the second half of the program you are expected to give a public talk on a tech topic! 

This brings me to the part that you have been waiting to read about. After one month on the job hunt I have secured my first ever role in software engineering. The hiring support that Codesmith offers is amazing -- there are people guiding and supporting you every step of the way. You can get support for everything: interview practice, resume reviews, cover letter help, double down help, technical tutoring, whiteboarding or even just a pep talk. When I first landed my job the offer was just a tiny bit lower than I was hoping for, I reached out to Erik and with his advice and support I was able to increase my offer!! In short, if you having doubts that bootcamp experience can work, trust me when I say Codesmith works! They understand what the industry is looking for in engineers and how to help you frame your journey to tech in a way that is honest, real and more importantly competent. I can not more highly rate this program and would encourage anyone who is considering Codesmith to go for it!

I remember reading these Course Report reviews for Codesmith several months ago when I was planning for a big career change in life. Needless to say, I was convinced to start Codesmith’s Software Engineering Immersive from the reviews — and indeed, it was life-changing as some here have echoed. I personally ~4x’d my salary (well past $150K+ a year) , so it was well worth it for me, not to mention the life-long friends and confidence in technical problem solving I’ve gained along the way. I’ve had the privilege of going to an Ivy League school and I would say, without a doubt, that my Codesmith experience was on par with it for my career and personal growth — if not even better.

A little bit about me: I’ve worked in tech doing a variety of roles from marketing to operations, but I had never really touched coding directly. I took a couple of programming classes, but never went much deeper than that. After I began learning some basic web design for my job, I become more interested in it. I had a great time learning on my own, but I knew in the back of my mind that it would be an uphill battle for me to become a “real” software engineer without more structured learning. I learned about Codesmith and JavaScript the Hard Parts and I was impressed by the core fundamentals they taught — things that even senior engineers have brushed over. I quit my job and then took a few months to prepare for the technical interview.

When I got there, I knew I had made the right choice. The curriculum is well-designed, covering the fundamentals of front-end and back-end development, and the staff is adding new subjects like AWS and machine learning frequently. In my cohort, we usually spent 9AM - 8PM taking lectures and doing the coding assignments. I recall many times where I stayed past 11PM, as many others have, but that was something that I enjoyed — going deep or freshening on some topics after the normal hours didn’t feel like work at all. Some subjects like databases could use an update, but Codesmith is working on addressing those issues and keeping the curriculum as up-to-date to reflect the technology that’s actually being used in the industry. I think the best part of the program is the production project that happens at the second half of the immersive. It’s an opportunity where you and a team of other residents create and launch a developer tool into the world. It’s 6 weeks of hard work, going from 0 to 100 on an exciting area of software engineering that interests you where you will gain real maturity as an engineer, something that I reckon other programs don’t offer (I heard that the capstone projects of other programs are what we at Codesmith do at the end of our 6-week junior portion — meaning we had another 6 weeks dedicated to create something meaningful in terms of software engineering.) 

Overall, the curriculum and production project definitely makes you job-ready by the end of the immersive. Although you may have to supplement on some topics that you didn’t get quite the first time, it’s only a matter of time before offers come in, especially in the relatively good job market in 2019 (so seize the chance now!) So you’re intellectually ready, but the job hunt is more than the knowledge you have. Another core skill is how to present your skills and other soft skills to signal that you are a hire-able dev, and indeed, Codesmith has a solid series of workshops just on hiring. There’s also hiring day, where companies come in to do speed-dating type interviews with Codesmith residents. It’s a good opportunity to get your feet wet with interviewing, and some people have gotten offers from hiring day. There’s usually a good number of companies attending hiring day, but most of my cohort mates found jobs through their own job applications or technical recruiters. Again, Codesmith does everything to set you up for success on the job market, but it’s up to you to hustle and double-down on the job hunt.

The best part of the immersive hands-down is the people you will meet, fellow engineers that you’ll be coding with. The instructors are great, but I would say I’ve done the most learning with my cohort mates. If I ever have a question, I’ll go up to someone and usually we’ll buckle down and Google our way into understanding a concept. Such a network of learning and support from your peers for a difficult technical subject is hard to replicate anywhere. Underrated as it may seem, this self-directed learning with others is a really great way to learn, and it’s something that you’ll have to continue doing on the job. It’s the people that make it vastly better than learning it all on your own — your cohort mates are a diverse set of people that Codesmith has vetted to create a tight-knit of students who are hungry to learn like you are. The people and the environment of support are really what sets Codesmith apart from other programs, if I’m able to compare. The community manager plans great events where you can take a break from coding and recover, from kickball on Venice Beach to the weekly Thursday night drinks. Plus, you also join a wide network of software engineers on the alumni Slack, some of whom work at places from Google to Tinder to exciting startups around the US. I’ve very grateful for the strong network of folks that I’ve gained throughout my Codesmith journey, and I still keep in touch with them today.

In terms of what I didn’t like about the program, I think Codesmith can do a bit better to refresh their curriculum as I’ve mentioned. But the industry is always changing and the most important skill is the meta skill of learning how to learn, which you can gain from the immersive.

After the program, I was able to find a senior level frontend role through the Codesmith network. I’m happy with my job and my accomplishments, and I don’t think I could have leveled up this rapidly without my experience at Codesmith. The best part is that I know that Codesmith and the Codesmith network will continue to provide support (in the form of new opportunities or technical interview prep, for example) for my next role, and the next one.

If you’re still deciding on pulling the trigger but you’re certain you want a challenging career in software development and have the grit to go through the peaks and valleys of learning the ropes of a whole new industry, then I recommend you get the ball rolling and begin the application process soon, whether that’s submitting your application, enrolling in CS Prep, or attending your very first JavaScript the Hard Parts workshop. Fast-forward 3-6 months, your life won’t be the same, not only because of a high-paying and rewarding software job, but also because of the network of equally dedicated engineers you’ll gain and the tools to continue learning and challenging yourself.

Before Codesmith I couldn't land an 80k salary junior level job, after finishing I was turning down multiple job offers to work for my dream job at Google. My offers’ base salaries were all 125k-150k, not to mention generous stocks and signing bonuses.

Codesmith stands apart from other programs - it uniquely is the only program out there that trains students to become mid-senior level engineers, not junior level engineers. I have chatted with many grads from other bootcamps at coffee shops, libraries, meetups, linkedin... and they struggle to land interviews for junior level positions and get next to no messages from recruiters. Contrast that to Codesmith students who land many interviews and get flooded by recruiters - for mid-senior level positions at that with (at the time of writing) median 117k salary.

I had no software job prior to Codesmith and no Computer Science degree - the vast majority of students in the program did not either. And for the students that did in fact have software job experience - let's just say they landed some pretty amazing positions ;) I feel extremely fortunate and lucky to have found Codesmith and it completely changed my career prospects. Not only is the program content brilliant, but the community and friends I have found through working hard 12 hour days and fixing bugs late at night has been life-changing. The staff, instructors, and fellows are some of the warmest and most diverse and memorable set of people you'll meet.

It takes courage and care for a program to train students with no prior software job with the goal of becoming a mid-senior level engineer rather than a junior level engineer. And this is in the same amount of time as other programs, that is, 3 months. The program is much better crafted than what I have learned other programs do. The projects you do at Codesmith that you showcase to future employers are better - you make developer tools solving original problems in web development performance, frameworks, scalability, and tooling. The resumes you make at Codesmith are better - the guidance is more complete and more nuanced. I have checked the linkedin profiles/resumes of some students of other bootcamps, and they are far weaker. The general knowledge you gain at Codesmith is better, and the students are more passionate too. They simply know more.

The outcomes I've seen at Codesmith are of course wonderful - everyone would like to start their software engineering career with a more stimulating job with greater responsibility and greater compensation, but how is it possible to land a mid-senior position straight out of a bootcamp? After all, most bootcamp grads struggle to find junior level positions, and online you can read many articles and watch many youtube videos where people talk about their post-bootcamp job struggles. I would suggest you do your research and look them up. You might think that sure, Codesmith might have a better curriculum, a better set of projects, and stronger post-program guidance, but it seems unlikely that merely some better things here and there would catapult students to confidently landing mid-senior positions. What is the secret sauce that makes this happen?

The answer is - paradoxically, it is easier to land a mid-senior role over a junior role!

Basically, it's tough to enter the job market as a junior developer because those positions are insanely oversaturated with applicants. Not only are you competing against recent grads in the U.S., you're competing with developers overseas who'd happily take a relatively low U.S. salary because they are earning much less. Junior jobs tend to provide you with much less responsibility and challenge, and potential for upward mobility.

Because Codesmith prepares you for a mid-senior level position, you are able to skip the hell of the junior dev job market. And for me, skipping that junior dev job market was a godsend. But to actually make it past recruiters and hiring managers and convince people that you are ready for a mid-senior level position, you need a dedicated set of projects (and the right projects, not weak versions of social media or dating apps as in most coding bootcamps), resume bullet points, a good prepared and rehearsed narrative/life story, and strong domain experience (knowledge of React and Node at a deep level informed through experience making apps). Because recruiters and hiring managers will look at your numerical number of years of experience and already be biased against you, you need everything you can get to overcome them perceiving you as inexperienced. Codesmith is excellent for preparing you for overcoming this hurdle.

You may very well save around 3 years of your life in your career progression by bypassing the junior level job market and entering a mid-senior position straight away.

However, it takes a lot to succeed in this program, and not everyone in this program succeeds. When most people I talk to ask me whether they would be capable enough to succeed in the program, they often ask whether they would be “smart” enough for the program. They are concerned that they don’t have the fast-thinking clever-manipulating genius-hacking brain speed to manage what’s going on. And this is a mistake. Everyone who passes the technical interview to get into the program has the raw smarts.

More important is your willingness to work hard and not check out at any stage of the program. You can’t check out during the first month of the program learning the precise fundamentals of JavaScript, React, Node, and full-stack web development. You have to bravely dive in when the going gets tough and tackle the above with enthusiasm and develop a genuine passion for how e.g. promises work and offer expressive power over traditional callbacks, or what’s the best way to structure a React-Redux application. You can’t check out when you are making the group projects - these are what you bring to prospective employers. You can’t check out when you are crafting your resume and practicing mock interviews, and you have to learn to present yourself confidently. You can’t check out when the program is over - apply to as many jobs as possible, go on interviews and confidently shake the interviewer’s hand, and study to fill in as much of your knowledge holes and gaps as you can (provided that study is not an excuse to not apply to jobs - you can’t just study before you apply). I sometimes feel that people use the “not smart” thing as an excuse to check out - you simply cannot check out.

Equally important is your resourcefulness. This is your ability and eagerness to look up information. When you get stuck, you need to be able to find a way through. You have to be good at looking up documentation online. You have to be good at reading Stack Overflow and understanding the core idea of the question/answer without mindlessly copy-pasting or hastily dismissing the content as irrelevant. You have to have the social courage to ask your classmates for help. You can’t afford to be afraid of “bothering them” and looking stupid. Often I have saved many precious hours by asking the right person a question that I would not have been able to figure out on my own. And yet conversely, you can’t be overly dependent on asking people for help. You need to be able to figure out the core of your day-to-day work on your own through your own problem-solving and resourcefulness. A good software engineer knows when to ask for help, and when to buckle down and carefully think through and research things.

The support for students is phenomenal. The staff offers so much personalized help during the program, and has a post-program job search support program. They directly email students one-on-one to schedule meetings to practice interviews and polish resumes. Your lead instructors will directly work with teams to decide on the best and most compelling senior project. Fellows do one-on-one tutoring sessions for students struggling with assessments, and give high-level guidance on senior projects. The staff is so passionate and puts so much time in. They genuinely care and love what they do.

At Codesmith, people regularly get offers from household name companies: Google, Amazon, Netflix,Ticketmaster, IBM, Hulu, Paypal, LInkedin, Snap, and others, not to mention a wide swath of early and late stage startups. I feel confident at my job at Google and am working at a great pace, and have come so far from being unable to land even a junior level position. Codesmith has made me more than prepared for a fulfilling software engineering career, and it wouldn’t be without the brilliant design of the program, the ingenious insight that it’s better to shoot for a mid-senior level position, and the dedication of the staff to helping students reach their goals.

Cannot recommend this place enough.  Felt more like a summer camp than school.  Was super challenging and learned about 1-2 year's worth of self-taught material in 3 months.  I had a very strong background in analytics prior to coming here and had applied to over 100 jobs with no success.  After the program was over, I received 2 very, very good offers within weeks after having applied to just a handful of jobs.  I am now working at my dream job, a job I would never have landed without this experience.

The people make this place- everyone is very nice and facilitates an amazing learning community.  Job assistance is top notch.

This is not a bootcamp- it's a life-changing engineering immersive.  If you love being challenged, being surrounded by some of the most talented people in the country, while having a good time doing it, come here.

In short, Codesmith will change your career and life. They have extraordinarily high-quality teaching, a curriculum that pushes you to truly become an engineer (and get hired as one!), and an incredibly warm and supportive culture.

Personally, I came to Codesmith NY in the summer of 2019. I’m a technology entrepreneur, but I had long since forgotten the web development I learned in college, so I decided to double-down with a bootcamp. After 3 months with Codesmith, I’m confident that I can build my first version of my next product, and that I have a strong foundation from which I can learn anything moving forward. Stepping back, here are just a few of the stellar things about Codesmith that stand out:

1) Extraordinary teachers. From the first time I stepped into Javascript: The Hard Parts, I was blown away by Codesmith’s teachers. They have an amazing ability to break down complex concepts and make them simple and easy to understand. Even more importantly, they are incredibly encouraging and teach you how to approach a problem, which empowers you with the skills to figure things out yourself.

2) Very thoughtful curriculum. Codesmith has done an amazing job of putting together lectures, exercises, projects, and hiring support (e.g., coaching, resume reviews, follow-ups) to push you at every step of the way. They certainly aren’t holding your hand, but that’s deliberate – you struggle and push through to improve your own learning, and there’s always support around the corner. I loved the challenge and variety.

3) Culture! I think Codesmith has the most positive, inclusive culture that I’ve ever experienced in my life. They really build an amazing community where everyone is insanely supportive of each other and you can really lean on and have fun with everyone. The community really makes it possible to have a blast while you’re working hard every day.

If you’re considering Codesmith, go for it! Codesmith has been a formative experience for me, and I can’t recommend it more highly. 

Statistics show that people are more likely to leave a review if the review is negative. This is not one of those cases. I recently graduated from Codesmith’s software engineering immersive program in NY. I can confidently say, it was one of the best experiences of my life. You get an unmatched curriculum and brilliant instructors.

What sets Codesmith apart from other coding schools is the community. It is uncommon to see people leave at 8:00 PM.  People stick around to work on algorithms, improve a project, pick up a new skill or just hang out and exchange jargon on new technologies.

Your job outcome is only the amount of effort you put in. My peers at Codesmith were hardworking people. They put in the hours (long hours) and helped one another in projects, interview prep and the job search. They are landing high $100k+ job offers because of their hard work and the supportive community.

If you would like to know if Codesmith is right for you, attend Javascript The Hard Parts sessions hosted by Codesmith online or in person. It’ll give you an idea of their teaching style and what the community is all about.

Codesmith is an exemplary program for a number of reasons - its curriculum is current and constantly refreshed, for instance, and its instructors are stellar. However the two things that I think really set this program apart for me are its community and its hiring program. Codesmith is one of the strongest, most supportive communities I've ever been a part of, and the staff go to every effort to make sure that those admitted to the program are going to contribute positively to that community. They are fiercely protective of it, and their efforts ensure that you don't mind that you're there 12+ hours per day working with the same people, because you're enjoying the company of those around you as much as the work itself. I would go home at the end of a long day, exhausted but excited to go back and do it again tomorrow. They always welcome alumni and provided a space for me to work when applying to jobs. That brings me to the hiring program, which is exhaustive and well thought out. I had no idea what the hiring process was going to be like, and it seemed daunting, but Codesmith broke it down and made it manageable. Their approach to applying for jobs is different than anything I'd encountered in the past, even at times it was counter-intuitive, but it works. Within a few weeks, I had two six figure offers, and there were others in my cohort with more than that. I'm very grateful to this program, its founders, instructors and staff for enabling me to change my life. 

If you're looking at bootcamps, I highly recommend checking out Codesmith. You can experience the teaching style and the community by going on Thursday nights to their Javascript the Hard Parts lectures. It's free and gives you a good tase of what to expect. 

If there's any room for improvement, it's only that they're growing a little too quickly. The space they're in is beautiful, but they've expanded so fast that it's a tight fit. 

I had an unblievable experience at this software engineering immersive. The staff, the people, and the community are what really separates codesmith from other traditional bootcamps. I would recommend being pretty solid on CS fundamentals before joining, as the curriculum is challenging and fast-paced. The first half of the program is geared towards the core technologies/curriculum while the second half is mainly project building and hiring workshop. Absolutely would recommend this to anybody looking to turn their lives around and get into SWE as a career! 

Just apply Codesmith. I’m a graduate from cohort 29. I guess many of you reading this review might have concerns. Maybe it’s not about 3 months of curriculum because anyone would’ve invested 3 months if they could become a decent software engineer within; I believe it must be the 18k tuition fee and some doubts that if it would work that way. However, results are just right at you. Almost every one of my family (cohort 29) and previous graduates are doing great in IT industry as a software engineer (can be easily found on LinkedIn). During 3 months, they taught me not only cutting-edge tech stacks (Javascript, React, and Redux), also how to think, speak, and behave like a software engineer. Everyday challenges made me develop my communicating and cooperating skills with my cohorts people. The system of Codesmith is just well-organized to help you in every single step to initiate your software engineer career such as how to write a professional resume and how to handle interviews with even negotiation skills. Now, I’m working as a full stack software engineer with full of satisfaction. Applying Codesmith was the best choice I’ve ever made in my life, and I would’ve definitely applied to Codesmith again if I go back. Don’t hesitate, be one of us.

Although I’ve never attended another bootcamp, based on my experience with talking to other friends that have attended other big name bootcamp (like App Academy), and by what I see the Codesmith staff do, I can confidently say Codesmith is likely one of the best if not the best program out there.First, I’ll talk about my thoughts on the curiculuum, life at CS, and the staff.The production project is what sets Codesmith and their graduates apart from other coding school graduates. Instead of creating a CRUD app, you spend 1 week as a group diving deep into various parts of the tech stack to learn at a deep level something that full time developers may not know much about. (Remember that the surface area of tech is very large and no one can be good at everything). As you research, your group will try to develop an application/library that helps with that particular technology. Once you start building and coding, you’ll get much more familiar about that piece of technology, which allows you to speak at a much deeper level and carry better conversations during your interview. If your team is interested in backend technology, your team might look into message brokers, such kakfa or rabbitmq, or look into new api technology, such as graphql. This is great because in your interview, you can now talk about that technology confidently because you spent a decent amount of your time learning and coding an open source project for it.In terms of landing your first dev job, the core curiculuum, which is done in the first half of the program, covers everything you need to know and more. The “and more” part is their unit on AWS, Docker, and Devops. I’m not sure if theres any other program that talks about devops.Life at CodesmithWhen your at Codesmith, you’ll be surrounded by people trying to achieve the same goal. At first, I thought that it was going to be super competitive since everyone is essentially competing for the same job. However, you quickly grow out of that mentality and everyone begins to help and teach each other what they know or learned from reading articles, etc. It’s much more effective for everyone in the cohort to help each other out because everyone will learn so much more and get there so much faster. A rising tide brings up all the boats.The staff is very helpful, is constantly working to improve their curiculuum, and just seems to do a lot of things well.In terms of improving their curiculuum, the devops/aws/docker unit is an example of how they consantly work to improve their curiculuum. Another example is that they will take feedback on the curiculuum and will act upon it and incorporate it into the lectures. No curiculuum at any bootcamp is perfect, however, if you decide to join Codesmith, I can guarantee you that your lectures and curiculuum will be better than when I went there.They were also able to coordinate community talks with very senior developers about their work at the Codesmith locations. A notable example is that they were able to get Felix Rieseberg, a senior staff software engineer and one of the founders of Electron to talk about Electron and also have a more private Q&A session with only codesmith students. Although people may overlook this bullet, since it really has nothing to do with whiteboarding, coding, etc, for my particular experience, it provided great insight for me into how an extremely senior developer thinks and talks about technology. This non-technical knowledge that you might learn just might give you an edge during an interview (remember that they are interviewing you for BOTH technical and non-technical aspects of the job)And of course the most important part is everyone that you meet during your stay at codesmith. The network and friends that you gain are invaluable to your success.

I attended the Bootcamp in 2019 and I cannot speak highly enough of my experience. The training I received was high quality and approachable. If I ever struggled with a subject my mentors or peers were always there to help me out. The projects you work on successfully enforce the core tech stack taught by Codesmith. Additionally, Codesmith's blend of projects and pair programming seamlessly work together to not only teach you the technology, but also teach you how to solve problems for your self. This bootbcamp does not spoon-feed you solutions. It forces you to struggle and meet your breaking point day in and day out. Beyond the technical instruction, the support staff are top-notch professionals. They make the sacrifice you make for enrolling in a bootcamp worth it. They are always there to answer any questions regarding tuition, scheduling, etc. But they also are instrumental in organizing the networking days, which were vital in my job-search process. I cannot speak highly enough of them. Finally, the best thing about Codesmith is the community. They work hard to make sure their students fit the culture of the program, which makes working with the people wonderful. I made life-long friends during this program and always looked forward to coming in every day.  At the end of the day, the Codesmith program works. It gets results. Codesmith's unique blend of community, technical training, and hiring support make it far superior to any other boot camp.