Software Development (Flex, Online)

A year ago I was driving for Uber and selling things on eBay to support my growing family. My plan was to become a software engineer but the obstacles were enormous. I had no college credits, no coding experience, and no time to waste.

Choosing a coding boot camp was a big decision. I finally went with DigitalCrafts as they offered a cutting-edge curriculum and had great reviews. My first day in class I looked around the room. It was full of smart, committed people who were eager to learn. The energy of the students and staff was palpable. I knew I had made the right choice.


The next four months were intense. The pace was fast and a couple times I felt overwhelmed, but each weekend I found myself impatient for Monday. I spent happy hours coding, collaborating on projects and playing ping pong. I had many conversations with the entrepreneurs and developers who shared Atlanta Tech Village. Weeks after graduation, one of the entrepreneurs hired me to build a React web app. This allowed me to hone my skills as I continued applying for a permanent position. 

Three months later, my job search is complete. This morning I accepted a Software Engineer position at an amazing company. Thanks to DigitalCrafts, my future and the future of my family is looking up.

I am grateful to the many friends I made on this adventure: my teacher, Jonathan Martin, the founders and staff at DigitalCrafts, my fellow classmates, the students from earlier and later cohorts, and every senior engineer who kindly shared their tips and experience.

I attended DigitalCrafts' Sept 2018 - Jan 2019 Full-stack Immersive cohort in Atlanta, and it was the best career decision I could have made. After 20+ years in the telecom vendor industry, I was hungry for a career change. I dabbled for a couple of years with numerous online resources (edX, Coursera, Udemy, FreeCodeCamp, etc) but finally recognized I needed to attend a bootcamp with a strong, full-stack curriculum if I was going to feel confident enough to change jobs.

After researching several Atlanta-area in-person camps, as well as a few online options, I settled on DigitalCrafts because:

the cost was reasonable compared to other in-person options,
the Atlanta Tech Village (ATV) location was amazing and right in the heart of one of Atlanta's booming tech districts,
the staff was incredibly friendly and helpful,
the reviews from former students, as well as what I could see in their LinkedIn and GitHub accounts, were amazing, and
the full-stack curriculum was heavily focused on JavaScript, and included very current topics such as React and AWS

All of these reasons proved to be true, and I never regretted my decision to attend. Being 47 years old, I was nervous that I would not fit in with the other students, most of whom were in their 20s and early 30s, but that was never an issue. There is a real sense of community, both inside the classroom, and throughout the ATV facility which is also home to many tech start-up companies. At the free lunch ATV provides on Fridays, you can sit with your fellow students, or grab a seat with a stranger and listen to them practice their elevator pitch for their startup (and maybe even get a job offer).

The reviews here are full of compliments about the instructors, and I whole-heartedly agree, so I won't repeat how amazing they are. DigitalCrafts does an excellent job finding experienced and knowledgeable people who know how to teach to serve as their instructors. Each cohort has a lead instructor and one or two teaching assistants and they all go above and beyond, frequently staying well after class and providing regular office hours to offer any extra help as needed. You not only learn how to be a full stack developer (with HTML, CSS, JS, and React on the front end, and Node, Express, PostgreSQL on the backend), but you also learn the important skill of deploying what you build on AWS cloud servers, which comes in handy when you want to quickly show an interviewer what you have created.

Lastly, the career services at DC exceeded my expectations. They stop short of guaranteeing you a job, but they do everything possible to put you in a position to succeed in your job search. There are frequent sessions where the importance of resumes, portfolios, GitHub, and LinkedIn are discussed, and the DC career services team works with you to build and improve each of them. Interviewing advice is offered regularly and you get to do a mock interview to practice your interview skills. We took a class trip to the office of a local web dev shop to see firsthand how their developers work in an agile team environment, and there were several guest speakers who came in later in the cohort to talk about job search and career advice for new developers. This all paid off for me (and several other classmates) as I had a successful interview, which led to a job offer during the final week of my cohort.

I am now enjoying the one week break from the end of my cohort to my first day at work as I start my new career as a software developer. I will be forever grateful to DigitalCrafts for helping to make that possible.

DigitalCrafts is absolutely amazing. We mostly focus on the MERN stack here (with Postgresql as our main database over MongoDB), but we're really taught how to learn as a developer, instead of just learning a specific stack. Many people did their full-stack projects in different stacks (I did mine in Python/Django) because we knew the overall structure of how frontend and backend works.

The career services is amazing. They identify what you're interested in, and they help find opportunities for you. I got a phone interview from a company that I hadn't previously looked at because the career services team sent my resume to them based on my interests. So they're very invested in your professional success.

Also it's right in the Atlanta Tech Village, which is full of startup companies. Some people in my cohort were offered jobs with people right here in the building, so the location is a huge plus.

10/10 would recommend for anyone SERIOUS about diving into software development. (If you're only trying this to make more money, there isn't any bootcamp that will help you. It's about your drive too).

Before enrolling in this bootcampe, I was trying to decide if I wanted to pursue the law or pursue programming.  The law was calling, but I didn't want the risk of $150,000 in debt with no guarentee of a job in the end.  I figured that the things I liked (logical thinking within a clear rule set) would be present in programming, and the risk was comparatively low.

Turns out that I love programming more than I thought I could.  The instructors at Digital Crafts are top notch.  The curriculum has some lecture everyday, but the real value comes from the hands on projects and having access to such experienced and brilliant minds to help you through.  In addition to the lead instructors, there are 1-2 "Developers in Residences" (DIR) who act as T.A.s to make sure you don't get stuck.  They don't hold your hand, but rather show you how to think through your problems.

I was a DIR after my cohort ended, and while the pay was terrible (whatever you are thinking, think lower), but if you can get the position after, I highly recommend it.  It gives you continued access to the instructors and further develops your ability to communicate about code.  Also, debugging code (paticularly beginner code that can have some "interesting" patterns) is great preperation for jumping into a code base once you achieve your first full-time position.. 

As far a results, I am now a full-time software engineer with great benefits.  Also, while my workplace doesn't require me to work long hours, I find myself doing so anyways because coding is inherently fun.

Recent graduate from Houston digitalcrafts

I am a former teacher and was looking to attend a coding bootcamp. I did some research of the available classes in Houston and found that DigitalCrafts had high ratings and success stories. I now know why they have such high ratings! I had Veronica as a teacher and it was an absolute blast. I didn't realize software development could be so fun!

This class is most definitely challenging, but it's rewarding. If you are thinking about signing up, do it. You won't be disappointed. Take the pre-work very seriously and be ready to work hard and overcome many challenges!

Earlier this year I decided to quit my job and attend the Full Stack Immersive Program at DigitalCrafts. I had no prior coding experience, so I was definitely nervous about understanding the material and keeping up with the pace. 

The four months were definitely a roller coaster ride. There were days that I would quickly grasp concepts and then there were days where I struggled to put code on the screen. And as easy as it was to second guess my decision on those days that I struggled, I saw my struggles as a sign that I was learning and challenging myself. I wouldn't be gaining anything if everything was easy. Learning fundamentals is stressed throughout the course instead of introducing the easier shortcuts right away. The curriculum is robust, so you get exposure to different areas of full stack development. The projects are awesome because they allow you to go through sprint-like scenarios that you may encounter in a job setting. The projects also allow you to own the project from beginning to end. You are coming up with the project idea, then you design and develop your project, and then you are able to deploy it for the world to see! The project weeks were easily the most exciting parts of this course!

I truly enjoyed my time at DigitalCrafts. There is a reason why they are rated so highly. The staff was always supportive and there to help in any way they could. Our instructor, Jonathan, was so passionate about helping our class not only learn to code, but to code well. He emphasized the better and more conventional ways to do things and he encouraged us to avoid improper use of code. Jonathan had over a decade of experience but he was able to break down concepts and clearly explain them so that those of us with no coding background could understand. I feel well-prepared for my career change and I could not be happier with my experience! I definitely recommend this program to anyone looking to make the leap into web development!

DigitalCrafts has an amazing team that will help you achieve your goals. They create a fun, hardworking learning environment and teach very useful technologies.

I could not have been happier with my experience at DigitalCrafts. Prior to attending this bootcamp, I was working as a Paralegal and trying to learn to code on the side. I knew that in order to make the career change, I wanted something full-time and in person to really ramp up my learning. That limited my search to bootcamps in Atlanta. In that regard, everything I had heard really pushed me towards DigitalCrafts. I based my decision on reviews, personal testimonials from DC alumni in my network, and overall just a good deal of online research. As many people will tell you - you really do get out of this what you put into it. If you have the time and the money to devote to this, and you are ready to put your all into it - then I highly recommend attending DigitalCraft's Full-Time Immersive program. 

Some specific details of what in particular I really appreciated about the course are below:

1. Group Projects - this was huge and something that I feel really gave me a lot to talk about in interviews. We had 4 big projects throughout the 16 week program. In each one, you have to come up with something unique for your group to work on, plan out the work flow, and then actually execute everything in about 1 week. You start learning to solve problems that may not have been directly discussed in lecture, communicate effectively in a group, and constantly adjust your product to fit what you have the time and capability to accomplish.

2. The Instructor - My instructor was a very good speaker, and someone that excelled in breaking technical concepts down into something people with very little experience or background knowledge can understand. There is a huge difference in learning by randomly googling, versus learning from someone that really focuses on best practices and figuring out the most efficient, logical, and readable way to accomplish something. I can not say enough great things about Jonathan.

When you enter the ATV location - where DigitalCrafts is located, you feel an eagerness budding. It has a fresh, well managed, and holistic feeling to it. By holistic, I mean ATV has a fully stocked kitchen, nap rooms, a gym, networking events, free (limited) monthly massages and open spaces attend to all of a member's needs. DigitalCrafts itself has a very holistic approach to a coding school: the paradigm of career - knowledge - support are captured well. Their teacher's assistants (referred to as developers in residence, or DIR for short) weave between students desks, to make themselves available for any student that is stuck, or needs clarification. The program director has a permanent presence at DigitalCrafts, and is incredibly accesible for all your concerns.

The career week gives ample time to focus on what the school emphasizes for gaining employment: writing a resume (with a full grade and broken down review) linkedin account, portfolio website, and interview etiquette - including this week is a mock interview. Also for the duration of the course, there are job related skills that are worked into the curriculum: the use of git (github in particular) for collaboration, pair-programming, agile-style stand-ups, test-driven development, AWS and deployment.

I researched bootcamps for a several years before choosing DigitalCrafts, and with its CIRR report (see below for more detail), comparatively high amount of instruction hours, raving reviews, and offer of  in-demand programming languages taught in their curriculum, I chose DigitalCrafts.

The curriculum is comprehensive and most current for fullstack development. A student begins at DigitalCrafts learning command line (useful for any developer in debugging, running servers, accessing files/directories), then quickly moves onto Python, a robust back-end language that is used as an introduction to programming language syntax that can be translated to the languages later used in the curriculum. Then you begin what you spend the remainder of the course on: JavaScript and all of its many forms (frontend, backend (Node), React, Redux).There are projects interlaced throughout the program, that give a student the opportunity to demonstrate their prowess of what they have just learned. Along with projects, there are in-class exercises that have specific requirements and that as a class, you progress through the steps together that add complexity to that exercise, or application.  Don't confuse this with a starter kit, or a code along. It's neither, it's a bit of demonstration and instruction, with class time to execute that feature. This is where the beauty of coding lies: stumbling and error messages are where you’ll build up your repertoire in debugging abilities. These debugging abilities give you insight on the fundamentals of how that programming language works. I encourage you to embrace the struggle long enough to precisely understand where your problem exists and then ask for help from your instructor or DIRs.

The instructor I had was wonderfully meticulous, and taught us best practice in coding protocol. He redirected those of us who drifted off-road of the best practice coding, with grace and patience. His methodology of teaching was to cause a lot of active learning, a proponent of existing in a constant level of struggle to facilitate learning. What this meant is the program wasn’t easy, but my curiosity couldn’t have been more piqued by what I was being exposed to. He provided enough background information to let independent coding commence, but not enough to avoid subsisting in that level of struggle that the instructor favored.

This course brings with it a kinship to the classmates you struggled along side of during the 4 month long course, which for me wasn’t recognizable until the last few days together.

Speaking of the other classmates, I’ve witnessed classmates earn jobs before the graduation of our cohort, securing salaries that the report on Council on Integrity in Results Reporting lures you into the program with. The promise of a job isn’t a lie, but it is a result of networking and job applications. On their slack channel, DigitalCrafts (DC) publishes almost on a daily basis job prospects that you either apply directly to, or submit your resume to DC’s career counselor for consideration.

This experience has felt like is has been life-altering, but that’s also dependent on my commitment to continue with a forward momentum into this industry - by studying, active networking, and consistency in submitting job applications.

I have no regrets, and encourage you to do an on-line web development course to assess your true interest. If your interest persists after the on-line course, sign up for DigitalCrafts bootcamp.

My approach to learning coding was originally to learn content through online platforms like Coursera and Udemy while practicing on freeCodeCamp.  I spent about half a year at it, and learned quite a bit, but I hit a point where I knew that to keep myself motivated I would need to find a classroom setting where I would have a structured environment to learn.

My background is that I have always been strong in math.  I took an AP Computer Science course over 15 years ago and did well in that, but pursued Psychology in college and taught elementary school for six years before deciding to pursue coding again.

I gained a lot out of DigitalCrafts.  The curriculum is fast-paced and even the material that I thought I had already learned was presented in a new light.  I learned to think critically about not just how to program, but how to program well - what design patterns were elegant and what patterns should be avoided due to inefficiency or likelihood to cause bugs.  The curriculum was geared towards developing a strong foundation of skills and then challenging students to figure out the more advanced tooling in teams.

The team projects were both difficult and enlightening.  Working in groups, we learned both how to use tools to manage project collaboration, something you just don't learn on your own, and explored techniques and technologies that were not directly taught in class.  In a field where new technologies are being developed all the time, developers must adapt and be ready to learn and implement them to stay relevant in the field.

We built full-stack applications with multiple features, having to set up database tables, backend routes, and front-end dynamic interfaces for each feature.  This incremental development across the stack reinforced the skills learned in class.  In addition, we built what we wanted to build, so we repeated implementations of technologies on intrinsically motivating projects, while learning new things required for each additional feature.  I cannot think of a better way to learn.

The instructor was personable, dynamic, and interesting.  The class environment was supportive and positive.  The staff was full of friendly, helpful people.

I highly recommend this program.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with my experience over the past four months at Digital Crafts. That said, I wish had more coding experience prior to enrolling. I was completely new to coding at the start of the course and sometimes it was hard for me to keep up with the rest of the class. If you're considering doing Digital Crafts, I would highly recommend spening at least a few months learning on your own before enrolling, and not just HTML and CSS, get comfortable with JavaScript too! I definitely learned a lot of the past 4 months, but the most successful students in my cohort had spent a lot of time learning on their own before the class started.

Almost all class excercises are done from scratch, starter code isn't provided. This is a better way to learn, but for beginners sometimes it can feel like you have nowhere to even begin. 

I don't yet have a job, but I have no reason not to be optimistic about my job search. 

Before the actual review of the bootcamp itself, let's establish some setting: DigitalCrafts is located on the 4th floor of the Atlanta Tech Village, a beautiful building, collaborative space, and tech hub in downtown Buckhead. It has lots of windows with great views of the city and a big flatscreen in front of the elevators on the first floor that tells you, every five minutes, in glorious high-definition capital letters, to HUSTLE. You will meet some VERY interesting people here if you're open and willing to do that. Now let's get to my educational experience in the full-stack immersive program: because of DigitalCrafts, I am now fully prepared to work as a software engineer. Every single day in Johnathan's classroom was a worthy challenge and a very cool experience, and the level of required focus brought on a personal cognitive shift. I don't just know how to code now, I'm a more open and direct communicator and a more rigorous thinker. I feel totally prepared for the real and virtual world of software engineering, and perhaps more importantly, I'm having real conversations with the people who can make that happen.

About five months ago, I made the craziest decision of my life: to quit my full-time job, move states, and join DigitalCrafts, with no background in technology. Now that I'm finished and looking back, I can confidently say it was the best decision I've ever made. Everyone at DigitalCrafts, from the students, staff, and instructors created the best, most optimized environment for learning. DigitalCrafts gave me access to tons of resources, from resume and portfolio guidance, mock interviews, and 480 hours of instruction, but by far the best thing they ever gave me was the empowerment to learn and try new things, things I was always too scared to try. The projects and knowledge I've learned through this bootcamp will undoubtedly allow me to bring value to any future workplace, and the relationships I've built with my fellow students will last a lifetime. I can't recommend DigitalCrafts enough, and if you're on the fence: Just do it. Take the leap. DigitalCrafts will do everything in their power to ensure your success. 

I dropped my last job as an electrical engineer to learn full-stack web development at DigitalCrafts.  I can say that it was absolutely worth every penny.  I had Veronica as my instructor and she made coding super fun and enjoyable.  The environment is extremely conducive to learning and you will learn a LOT in 4 months.  At times it can be very stressful, so it really helps when you have an instructor that goes out of their way to help students succeed. 

DigitalCrafts cares very much about imbuing their students with the tools to make it in the world of software.  If you're at all serious about getting into web development, DigitalCrafts is a no-brainer, especially for those in the Houston area.  Overall I would rate 5/5, would recommend to a friend.  Work hard and take their curriculum seriously and you will come out with a solid foundation for launching a fruitful career in web development.

When I decided to make a change of career to Software Developer I was a little afraid I was gonna be really lost because I had no coding experience, but after doing a little research I found Digital Crafts, which had really great reviews and everyone said the program was amazing, so I decided to do it. Today I'm so happy I found it and I'm so happy with my decision to do it because it really is one of the best experiences in my life.

The amount of things you learn in four months is crazy (good crazy). It takes a lot of commitment, work and dedication to learn everything but everyone is so helpful and always willing to help you with everything. The instructors are amazing, the program is amazing, all the digitalCrafts team are amazing and friendly, so for everyone who is thinking about going for a change and are not so sure to just go for it because you have no experience or very little experience, my advice to you is to just go for it and go with digitalCrafts, you will not regret it and personally, i'm really impressed about where I am now, and where I was four months ago.

PS: The pre-work is really helpful to not be lost the first days if you're really new to coding; and if you're not its a good practice, so do it. :) 

Before attending DigitalCrafts, I was learning and coding in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and not sure what step I should take to start being able to develop professional websites for startups and corporations. I found that DigitalCrafts had great reviews and decided to join and don't regret it in the slightest! Although DigitalCrafts starts off with basic fundamentals and is very beginner-friendly, most students seemed like they were at an equal skill level once we started backend technologies. For our final projects, many startups and agencies within the office building came in to pitch ideas and let us work directly with them to gain experence working with businesses/clients.

Veronica was an amazing instructor and was always able to teach complicated topics in a simple, understandable way, and the TAs were always there to help students with whatever problems we would face during our projects and homework. Veronica always made sure all of us were understanding what we were studying and made it fun. One of the TAs(James) even came to the school on a Saturday to help me and two others on issues we were facing on our projects and stayed till 8:30pm coding with us and making sure we understood the concepts we were struggling with.

I would definitely recommend DigitalCrafts for both begineers and CS majors and suggest to future students to do as much of the prework as possible so that once you're in class, you can spend more time trying to understand the more complex topics rather than struggling with the basics.

Great experience, and worth it. Great environment, and very helpful faculty.

I had a great learning experience at Digital Crafts .The curriculum is definitely intense and requires hours of work after class every day, but I'm amazed at how much I've learned in just a few short weeks! I had an amazing instructor.He was really supportive and helpful.

After several years yearning for a career change, I decided to take the bootcamp route to formalize my interest in programming. During my research, I noted that DigitalCrafts' name and reputation stood out from the rest of Houston programs. DigitalCrafts' fully immersive class provides not only the foundation, but the blueprint for a successful career in the tech world.

Now, it is indeed a challenging 16 weeks. The curriculum packs a lot of work (projects, assignments, extra-curricular learning, etc)  in such a short time. However, the resources to succeed are there. Attentive instructors and TAs, as well as the resources from the DigitalCraft wide network of alumni and current students. In addition to the actual material covered, the staff, including the Campus Director, provide insightful and constructive job-seeking feedback, as well as thorough presentations to make sure that the students are well prepared to tackle the job market.

I could not be happier with my decision to enroll as I see myself light-years away from where I was 5 months ago.