Software Development Online Part-Time Accelerated

Coding Dojo provides you with the tools to go from 0 to qualified Full Stack Developer; PERIOD. I am not going to bore you with the details as many here have gone into details about their own experience. Yes, I invested 60+ hours per week. Yes, the material was highly challenging. Click here if you want that story. Two important points to highlight that blew me away:

At the conclusion of the program, I was able to attend the career readiness week at the DC location, which was within a reasonable drive for me. This comprehensive program prepared me for the rigors of the actual job hunt. It made a huge difference in confidently approaching the job marketplace.
When I logged into the platform a few months after completing the program a decent amount of material was completely different. I cannot emphasize how important this is as they are updating the content to ensure bootcampers are learning skills and tools that are being used professionally. Compare that to some CS programs at colleges that haven’t changed their curriculum in more than 5 years and you see why that is a big deal. Many employers are seeing the value and versatility of hiring people that attended a solid coding bootcamp such as Coding Dojo.

Please keep in mind that you will not know everything when you complete the bootcamp AND THAT IS OKAY. Coding Dojo gets you to the front door of the job marketplace and prepares you to be an effective Junior Full Stack Developer. Employers are looking for (and hiring) Coding Dojo graduates. I had my first offer within 3 weeks of completing the bootcamp. My experience is not abnormal for those that put in the work. You 100% get out of it what you put into it. I would recommend investing time learning some programming basics before coming to Coding Dojo. No need to spend thousands of dollars to find out that you hate it. If you truly want to get a solid foundation and start a new career as a full stack developer then invest in yourself and attend Coding Dojo.

I think that Coding Dojo is on the right track for immersing new students into software development, but I'm hard pressed to recommend the school. There are a few things that they do well, while it feels that most everything else falls into a category of "irrelevant". The communication from instructors is very poor and the course material is a mixed back of inconsistent qualty (either quite decent or very poor).

I've found that Coding Dojo has done well has to do with enrollment and preparation to start the courses. When contacted directly, I've found that the admissions staff are quick to respond and are very helpful. There are a few videos and reading materials presented to ensure that you're of the right mindset to engage in the material. You are expected to go through a preparatory course to ensure that you can at least follow the logic of what's happening in a basic program. You're provided exercises in the pre-camp work to ensure that you understand the new knowledge.

And that's really the extent of it. Currently, Coding Dojo rellies on Slack to handle student/teacher communication. For the uninitiated, Slack is effectively a GUI chat channels, like you might see on IRC or a Skype room. You're expected to ask questions about assignments of your fellow students here before going to the professor. While I agree with this logic, the end result is that communication is very chaotically presented. If you're not sitting at your desk watching the channels, you could easily lose your space. This also means "good luck" if you're a little behind schedule on your assignments.

Another result of Coding Dojo's almost exclusive reliance on Slack instructors are otherwise unresponsive. I think that I've had maybe one productive conversation with a instructor. Beyond that one conversation, I've barely warrented a response from them. I had once gone 48 hours without a response from an instructor to inform him that I'm struggling in a piece of course content that appeared broken. I only received a response because I contacted a member fo the admissions staff and asked him to intervene.

In both circumstances where I've e-mailed instructors, the best that I’ve received was a canned response that could be summerized as “I’ve never seen this problem before, and I’m sorry that you’re frustrated.”

I'll readily admit that I have successfully acquired some new skills, but it’s been a difficult journey. There are a few courses in which concepts felt poorly organized and presented, in which I've had to invest a disproportionate amount reviewing so I could organize my notes to facilitate my comprehension of new concepts. There courses that are poorly presented have a heavy reliance on informal, sometimes ambiguious use of the English language and implied assumption of shared context. That is to say that it can sometimes feel like the course’s progression follows like this: “I’m discussing points B and C now, after which I’ll make reference to point A. Here’s point E. Remember where I buried a passing reference to point D at the start of the course?”

The in-course lectures feel like the usually feel an outline, but are generally unscripted. If the lectures were complimentary to the reading material, this would be fine. Having to transcribe material from an audio format to a text structure for later reference is tedious, frustrating, and inconductive of a learning environment. Their instructors are developers by trade, not instructors. While they are effective at developing assignments and material, their ability to communicate new concepts is in some very dire need of improvement.

As the content is all web-based, it’s not uncommon to receive random (forced) surveys about something that they believe is relevant to what you’re doing – regardless of being at a point to accurately answer their questions. “You’re taking a survey NOW on how your job search is going – even though you’re only half way through our course and you haven’t talked to any of our career advisors.”

So, to summarize, I do not recommend Coding Dojo. You will not be receiving your money’s worth from this school.