Coding Dojo

I enrolled in Coding Dojo after graduating with a Computer Science degree but feelling like I lacked some practical experience. I definitely noticed that in college a lot of the coding was done in a vacuum: the professor would setup a nice space in the code and tell you to fill it in with code relevant to the class curriculum. While the algorithms and fundamentals I picked up are definitely still relevant, coding isn't that clean cut as apply x algorithm we learned in class today, there's always going to be open ended questions on how to solve a particular problem and definitely documentation reading.

Different coding boot camps or schools will promote things like how they're teaching the latest and greatest framework, but it's rarely the important part. The most important thing is that they build students that can problem solve without hand holding and build strong fundamentals; there's always going to be another new shiny framework.

In that sense, I think Coding Dojo did some parts right while I was there: they started each day with algorithms and white boards, first thing in the morning. Not only are these similar to the style of questions you'd get in a job interview, but they sharpen how you think when coding in general, which is what the job interview is trying to assess. Some students started skipping algorithms in the morning, but this is the perfect environment to take advantage of: solving agorithms in groups and being able to see other ways of thinking.

In a sense that choice of skipping or not is the answer to whether your experience at Coding Dojo will be worth it or not. Coding Dojo provides the student with the tools and environment to succeed: Instructors willing to help, peers to bounce ideas off of, and training of fundamentals. It's up to the student to put in the effort to make the experience.

I was in a position that you, the reader, are likely in right now. The details obviously may differ, but a career transition/change is no simple feat. I'll give some short backstory then describe my experience at Coding Dojo. 

I worked as a consultant for the pharmaceutical industry for a year and a half. I couldn't stand that job and my girlfriend was already traveling/living in Australia, so I left to travel/serve tables/volunteer for almost a year and a half. Upon returning, I realized I had not-so-subtly choked my career trajectory within a few inches of its life. I'd had a very brief (one intro course) experience with coding in school (I studied an engineering discipline), and had always known that software development was a great path to pursue. I decided to look into bootcamps. 

For me, the bootcamp I wanted to enroll in needed to meet two criteria. 1: It had to be reputable, and 2: It had to be a short distance from my apartment. Coding Dojo met both, and its approach was interesting–teach three full technology stacks, where most bootcamps teach one. I figured the breadth of knowledge might put me at an advantage over other candidates come the job hunt. I started in March of 2018. 

A bit about my experience: The Coding Dojo curriculum moves extremely quickly. It's not easy. If you take it seriously and put in the work to keep up, you will finish the program surprised with your capabilities. I left the bootcamp feeling two things. 1: Initimidated by the world I had thrown myself into, yet, 2: Strangely confident in my ability to learn. The instructors are helpful without handing you answers, and there's a ping pong table. Pluses all around. 

Two months after finishing the program, I was hired as a software engineer. My company specializes in Internet of Things/Alexa business solutions via the AWS (Amazon Web Services) platform. We also do a good amount of machine learning/edge computing. Day to day, I'm a backend engineer. I use Python and Node (both taught at the Dojo) and discuss high level architecture for projects, which was also stressed during my time at the bootcamp. 

There are definitely many great choices when it comes to bootcamps. In my experience, Coding Dojo is one of them. 

I did an onsite Coding Dojo program about a year ago and got a job offer a week after graduation. It was a very intense three months where I was putting in 14-16 hours of studying 7 days a week. I was able to complete a couple of projects before graduation which made me stand out to employers. 

At Coding Dojo they prepare you to be a self-sufficient developer, so you do not need someone's constant attention (important once you get hired). The material is really curated and encourages students to do the research and find answers to their questions online (which is what you will be mainly doing when have some questions on the job) They go over the best ways to search for answers online and troubleshoot the issues. Coding Dojo also practices the "20-minute rule" where you do your own research for 20 minutes and if can't find an answer, only then ask the instructor for help.

I encourage you to do thorough job market research before going into any coding school to see if the stacks offered at that school align with those in demand in your market. The beauty of Coding Dojo is that they cover three most in-demand stacks, which drastically improves the chances of getting a job. 

Also, when it comes to coding- you must think of it more than just a job, in my opinion, in order to be a successful software developer, coding also has to be your hobby. 

Last but not least, perk of Coding Dojo is that you get the lifetime career services support. So when you are looking to move companies or just need some career advice, Career Services Manager is always there for you.

I would again emphasize the time commitment for the duration of the program. Coding Dojo has all of the necessary tools for you to become a successful full-stack developer, and you are encouraged to use them, BUT if you just expect to put in less than 8-10 hours a day it will be much harder for you to land an offer you will be (or should be) happy with.

Before attending courses with Coding Dojo, I was in office management for 25+ years and the only coding background I had was HTML and CSS. For years, I had been interested in becoming a developer, but didn't know which route to take so I called a friend who manages a software engineering team in San Jose, CA. He gave me the contact info for Coding Dojo and told me he had heard really good reviews about them from his colleagues.   All of the instructors I had were fantastic and the courses were well laid out. The web fundamentals class was a breeze because of my previous knowledge of front end languages, but I really struggled with the back end stuff. I would recommend having some sort of basic foundation/understanding of Python and/or Javascript beforehand. If I had at least that much, I believe the experience would've been less stressful for me.   I am still working in an office managemenet role. However, because of dual knowledge of office management and coding, I was hired by a tech company to work remotely handling all of the back office administration, as well as helping some of the dev work. After my first year, I was offered a position as a full-time developer.   P.S. My company has hired two other Coding Dojo alumni over the past two years ;)

While Coding Dojo doesn’t teach every aspect, it gives you a good solid foundation  in web development AND the ability to be a efficient developer that gives you the ability to learn outside of the platform. Other words more advance depth concepts can be obtain from docs with easy understanding. The technology is always changing so rapidly that it’s a must to learn the foundations and to have the ability to know how to keep up with the changes. So don’t expect to come to the boot camp and complete it and that’s the end of the road for training. You still need to keep learning after you complete the boot camp which gives you the knowledge to do so! The only pitfall I found was there are some technology stacks / topics not really covered. Such as docker. AWS in depth. Firebase. Severless approach, graphql and some others. While the topics aren’t a must. It’s something that you will most likely run into one way or another. 

I joined the dojo at 18 and I went to college for a year... Not for me. I wanted to learn to code for the longest time and I just really didn't know where to start because I didn't have any peers that could tell me where to start. I went to the one in burbank and was early every single day for the first month which is how they spilt up the languages they teach you by months. After a very short first week of front end dev I learned python as my first language with Django. I didn't get to make a project in any stack as the school finds passing your test more important then creating a project yourself. If I could go back I would have not done the test at all and just focused on personal projects during that time. My next 2 language were ruby on rails (ruby) and mean (JavaScript). My experience with ruby was plesent even though I didn't really care for the language and still don't but the teacher was very smart and wrote the online ruby part of the platform which was nice (thank eduardo 🥚). My Mean experience was not good and I would like to give the teacher a little credit he tried but boy is it a lot to learn in 1 month, I believe it was the fault of the curriculum, as M. E. A. N stand for mongo(your nosql database), Express(request handling library) , Angular(A front-end extremely heavy framework) , and Node(JavaScript on the server). I believe one person passed the test for mean out of the 30 in my cohort... Honestly it was disappointing especially since we did algorithms every morning before coding with would be actually really helpful but then you'd have a 10 min break and then go into an hour long lecture. If the lecture was first and then algorithms back to back so people would have more time to code I think that would be better. But back to mean, after I left the dojo with my strength in python I felt like I had to learn JavaScript so I decided to learn react which would have been 10000% easier to learn if they taught it at the dojo instead of angular. But I had to learn react on my own. You won't get to learn Java or any language unless the teachers currently working there teach it. I still haven't gotten a job yet after a year but that's because I want one in js react or python. The best thing that you will learn from the dojo is how to be self motivated and sufficient. The most important thing to me was the exposure to this world that I had always wanted to dive into but never had the know how where to start. I don't know how some of the people around me made it as long as they did, some of them were over 30 and had like families because if you want to learn and get your work don't I was there from 7am to 8pm or later every day.

I worked in the architecture field for 3 years before realizing it was not for me. After doing some research online about the different programs in my area, I ultimately decided on Coding Dojo due to the distance to my home and the variance of languages provided. 

I got what I put into the program. You must be willing to put in extra hours and time on top of the curriculum. Learning 3 different languages is very good to have a wide variety of skillsets, but that also means that you may not have the depth that single language bootcamp grads will have. Putting in extra work after hours and learning the language you want to focus in deeper was something that is absolutely needed to get a job in this field. The instructors were very helpful in these steps and helped explain concepts and was always ready to help research questions with you. 

I started a backend engineer job working in Node.js about a month and half ago and its a great start as I have joined a supportive team.

I came from an administrative background, ready for a change.  I wasn't feeling challenged and knew that entering the technology industry was going to set me up for a good career path, since technology is only continuing to grow!

What I learned at Coding Dojo was, first and foremost, I am capable of accomplishing even more than I expected. I think a huge part of the decision needs to come from an understanding of yourself. I know that I am the type of person who can read and learn, while taking extensive notes, but I also need to be able to talk through some problems with other people. Often, I understand the concept, but need to process how I understand it, only to find maybe I have a small disconnect or lack of knowledge about syntax or something. All that to say that this was the basis of my decision to participate in the immersive program vs. the self-paced online program. 

I also really enjoyed the variety that Coding Dojo offered. Several bootcamps only learn one stack or one side of development, and I wanted to learn the bigger picture. While I don't believe that we were able to go as deep into some of the concepts, such as scalability and how that relates to enterprise-size applications we would work with at a company, I do believe that I had a very valuable experience that set me up to be able to take on new roles and succeed. They talk about this day one, and I would encourage anyone to take it to heart. Don't be afraid to ask questions. You are only hurting yourself if you decide to be prideful and 'tough it out'. Also, in the real world, time means money and if you're wasting time on something that could easily be resolved by pair-programming or asking a peer, then you're simply being selfish.

Now, I work for a large oil & gas company who also has divisions in minerals globally. They are undergoing a digitial transformation, so my role was created as a hybrid to not only be involved in writing code for applications, but really help to bring the Agile and Scrum mindsets to the organization and help manage how that affects and enhances Operations overall. It's been challenging and there is a LOT to learn, but as someone who wanted to have a versatile role, I am happy. It all started with overcoming the fear of failure and taking the risk to do the bootcamp in the first place.

I recently completed the online program through Coding Dojo. Prior to that, I was 3 years out of college, working as a Construction Manager in the DC Metro area. I enrolled in the program because I wanted to find a more flexible job and also I believed coding would be a more fulfilling career for me. I couldn't afford going back to college full time and wanted to make a career transition as soon as possible, so I decided an online bootcamp would be the best fit for me. I selected Coding Dojo over other options because of their presence in the DC area and name recognition with tech companies here. I also thought the course material was up-to-date and the cost was much more affordable than other programs.  

The first 3 months of Coding Dojo's online program, I kept my full time job. I worked during the day and learned to code by nights and weekends. It was extremely difficult! You must be ready to dedicate a LOT of time to learning and mastering these subjects. For the second half of the online program, I quit my job to be able to spend more time on the program. After completing the program, it took me 3 months and applying to nearly 100 jobs, but I finally found my perfect dream job. I'm currently working as a Junior Developer for a government agency. My commute is shorter, my pay is higher, and I also have greater job flexibility. Coding Dojo's career assistance was excellent and I felt incredibly prepared to apply and interview for technical positions.

My biggest advice to anyone considering any coding bootcamp... If you treat the courses and assignments as a hobby, you will not succeed in technical interviews. Bootcamps can not force you to learn the material or force companies to hire their grads. You need to be excited about coding and self-motivated to constantly continue learning. That being said, Coding Dojo's curriculum was excellent and I felt extremely prepared to enter the workforce. 

Before I joined the program, I knew very little about pogramming but I knew the basic of creating static website using HTML, CSS. Then, I learned Coding Dojo provides onsite web programming bootcamp. At the time I joined, Python stack, MEAN stack, and Java Spring stack offered in my area. The program was very intense and comprised only 14 weeks. The students are expected to be all out since day one. I and my fellow cohorts spent 10-12 hours in the class plus extra an hour or two at home to read materials for tomorrow class. Every day we started from 9.00am with whiteboard algorithm challenge. Each students were challenged to solve the algorithm problems. I learned alot at this module, although only 1-2 hour a day. Then before lunch, instructor will give us a guide line for goal of the day including the assignments. We, then; had to complete and submit the assignments by the end of the day. We just followed the guideline provided on the website. All reading materials, video courses and assignments are online. Onsite instructors are very little in helping the students, because the program are designed to push students to be able to solve their own problem with very little help from instructors. Students are encouraged to solve the problems by searching simillar situation on google. It's normal we left the class by 9 pm everyday, sometimes I and my fellow students had to finish the assignments on weekend as well.

The stack courses are the foundation to create web app, so I had to enhance my knowledge by reading more articles on google and wathcing the related lectures on youtube or udemy. The step by step module in learning web framework programming are very clear and very good in adopting MVC practice. Overall experience, I am very satisfied with the program.

 

Long story short, I had almost ZERO background on computer coding. I had no idea on terms used, the way it all worked, how to approach it, and what it would mean for my future if I were to pursue it. I had been recommended to check the school out from a friend of mine who spoke very highly of it. I ended up commiting to the online program, and now, MANY moons later, I am completed with the online courses, and am extremely excited about my future. I learned a lot about myself, the computer coding industry, and how absolutely wonderful the world of computer engineering can be. The options and powers of it are almost limitless, and knowing that I can take what I have learned and apply it to the world we live in in a very healthy and positive manner is all I could ever want AND more. I highly recommend this course to anyone who is new to the field (as I was prior to joining), or to any seasoned engineers who are looking to round themselves out on the other subjects. The instructors were all wonderful and very helpful. The courses made sense and pushed you to challenge yourself. The end result of it was inspirational.

I was a service technician at Fry's Electronics before, newly graduated CS/IT student from the Philippines.

I decided to go to Coding Dojo because a job hunt for a software developer here in the Bay Area is hard and I hardly know the stacks that are popular here, that being said Coding Dojo provided all of this.

I decided to join Coding Dojo because it'll give me good lessons on whats popular here, the algorithms/data structures that weren't thought where I came from and the good discipline to be a successful software dev.

I got out all the basics I need in the stacks I've chose, and specially improved my algorithms and data structure knowledge to the point that I am confident that I am qualified for a job here at Bay area.

I am now a Software Engineer at Facebook.

I attended the Coding Dojo location in San Jose, CA in late 2016. Before I joined, I was working in biomedical research, but was finding it hard to get a job in my field in the Bay Area. A lot of the jobs I was applying for required programming skills, so I decided to start trying to teach myself. After a few months of Javascript and Python, I was really enjoying learning and decided to take a leap, and enroll in a bootcamp to learn how to code properly and actually build apps.

I looked around at a few different bootcamps in my area, and finally settled on Coding Dojo. It sounded like it had the most varied program, and also taught you important skills like algorithms that some other bootcamps seemed to skip. They also seemed to offer the most value for money, as the fees were slightly lower than some of the other bootcamps (especially ones up in San Francisco), and they offered scholarships that contributed towards the cost of tuition which was a big bonus.

Coding Dojo proved to be an invaluable 4 months of programming tuition for me. I met some great people there; got to work with other junior programmers, gaining experience of working as part of a team; took part in hackathons and learned multiple languages and frameworks, which ultimately sparked my passion for Javascript and front-end development. Even 9am algorithms every morning, which seemed like torture, have helped me a huge amount! Not just in job interviews and phone screens, but also for figuring out how to implement logic in my code.

Not only that, but the staff and TAs there are also super supportive. They're friendly and approachable, and there's always someone around to chat to if you need advice. They always encourage you to think around a problem in different ways, help you to work through your code when you're stuck or debugging, and continue to provide job support and resources well after graduating the bootcamp. 

The only small criticism I have is that (at the time I was there) they didn't teach React as part of the Javascript course, despite its huge popularity right now. However, it was offered as a supplemental course that you could learn in your own time, but maybe teaching it alongside or even instead of Angular would be more useful for people hoping to go into front-end work! The React course that they did provide was useful for me as a starting point to teach myself React though, so definitely don't let that put you off.

I've now been in a programming job at a startup for 18 months, working in React (Javascript) and web design. I know without a doubt that I never would have got here teaching myself, and that Coding Dojo was invaluable in that regard. They figure out different ways to teach you that help to make the lessons stick, and I'm a better programmer now for having attended this bootcamp.

Background in finances and slowly picked up skills and tools in more technical roles. Picked up various skills and interests as I started leveraging scripting languages to process data, visualizing data with reports. After working with financial data exclusively, finally decided to take time off to attend a coding bootcamp to learn the basics of programming and development. Overall, awesome experience learning how a technical person thinks and solve problems in an ever changing technology landscape.

Pros: 
- Friendly staff
- Algorithms every morning, good practice to prepare for technical interviews
- Learning multiple technology stacks (Python, Java, MEAN)

Cons: 
- The "self sufficient developer" aspect of the curriculum can be improved upon
- Lots of "games" based projects

I have to thank Coding Dojo for helping me get to where I am now. I left UCLA with a degree in Psychobiology and uncertainty of where I was going. Eventually I wanted to try programming and found Coding Dojo. I learned so much in my 6 month bootcamp and was able to get a ton of career guidance! I have never received a brush off even after graduating from the program and am proud to say they helped me land my first Software Engineering position with their guidance and patience. I highly recommend this bootcamp!

Coding bootcamps in general are a fantastic opportunity for anyone who wants to learn how to code quickly. But that is exactly what they are, an opportunity. If you decide to invest the money then you must invest the time, the good news is that if you do invest the time, the cost of the bootcamp is very much worth it. Knowing what I know now, I would have paid double what I paid to attend the Dojo. It is normal for bootcamps to tell you that for the duration of the boot camp, usually in the 12-14 week timespan, you need to put your personal life on hold, and after having attended Coding Dojo I can tell you it is a must. I spent over 80 hours a week for 14 weeks and I got a ton out of it. Your success is very much predicated on the idea of 'full immersion'. Just like with learning a foreign language, the best way to do it is to speak only that language for a few months and all of a sudden, after a few months, you will find yourself thinking in that language, saying things and expressing ideas you didn't know you were able to. It is the same with coding. I had zero coding ability before attending the bootcamp, and for the first 10+ weeks I felt like it wasn’t ‘clicking’ and I was worried I had made a huge mistake, but all of sudden everything fell into place. That doesn’t mean that everything became easy, but I was no longer afraid of not getting it, I knew that I had the experience and tools to learn what I needed to learn with or without the help of the Coding Dojo platform.

Much of this can be done at any bootcamp, as long as you put in the effort. But with Coding Dojo there are some key differences that I was not aware of their value until after I completed the course and was working in the industry. Far and away the thing that has helped me the most is learning multiple tech stacks during the 14 weeks. During the course I started to see the value when I was able to compare and contrast between languages, frameworks etc. and it helped to solidify some of the principles and ideas which was great. Where the multiple stacks really helped was in my first job after the bootcamp. Very quickly I was able to take on tasks and learn things for my project because I had experience with it from the Dojo, and I was not intimidated because I knew that everything I had taken on up to that point I had been able to learn and implement. If I had only learned one language or framework at a bootcamp it would have been far more intimidating to me to take on aspects of the project I didn't already have experience with.

I don’t know how common it is for bootcamps to teach algorithms but I know that some do not and at the Dojo we did morning algorithms every day. It was absolutely invaluable for several reasons. For one, it teaches you general concepts that are applicable any time you are writing code and really helps to get you in the mindset for the days learning as well as continually training your brain to think a different way. Secondly, they are done in groups and that is a very under appreciated part of algos and the day to day work; learning to communicate your ideas to others as well as being able to absorb concepts from your peers. There is a stereotype of coders who sit in a dark room and get everything done by themselves… That is not likely to be you or anyone you know because is almost doesn’t exist in a professional setting. Most of my job is communicating whether it’s implementation details, reporting on errors/bugs, stand ups etc.

Another thing that the Dojo does well is to train their instructors the right way. They are there as patient (VERY patient) guides to exposed you to the material through the platform via the algorithm book, and the coding principles and assignments you do every day. Bar none, the absolute most valuable aspect of their instruction is that they allow you to fail. Coding, just like anything else, is learned mostly through failure. Sometimes you will think they are being unhelpful, but when I look back at the times I was struggling and frustrated and they wouldn’t give me more information, it was because they knew I had the pieces to solve the problem and that if I didn’t solve it on my own I wouldn’t grasp the concept. You must remember, the instructors are there for support, not to give you answers. More often than not it is far better for you to work with a peer to solve the problem, both you and your peer will learn more from this method, it oftentimes won’t feel like it in the moment, but I promise it is the best way to learn the material. Lastly, the instructors will try to help you to keep a positive attitude, but at the end of the day it is your responsibility, nothing will be a more help to you than doing whatever you need to do to stay positive especially when you are the most frustrated. Take a nap, drink some coffee, eat a snack, go for a walk… just do whatever you need to do to keep spirits high.

From day one Coding Dojo makes it clear they will not get you a job. That is your responsibility. But the career services team does well with getting you exposure to companies, getting your resume and linkedin looking great, and teaching you how to network effectively. There is a ‘career week’ at the end that is very helpful in getting you into interview mode. Also, your career services advisor is available the entire time you are at the Dojo. It is hard not to focus on the getting a job after, but while you are there you should put your head down and work on only the material and worry about getting a job after.

Lastly, life after the Dojo. Both the career services team and community managers do a great job of putting on events consistently to catch up with other alumni, network with companies and keep in touch with the community. I haven’t been able to attend as many of the events as I would like, but I get to everyone I can. I also went back to talk to the current students as an Alumni, they do this often throughout the course so that you can meet Alumni and hear their story, which is very helpful for seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and keeping your spirits high while you grind through and learn as much as you can.

A quick note to those worried about what language/framework is “best” to learn at a coding boot camp: It. Does. Not. Matter. If you just want to learn to code, attend the Dojo. I learned Python, Javascript and Ruby along with several frameworks. After I left, they replace Ruby with Java which I think was a great move. But what matters is that you learn how to learn, you realize that you can start working with any language or framework very quickly and if you find one you prefer you can do a deep dive and spend years learning the specifics of one tech stack. Coding Dojo will teach you everything you need to know to have to ability to start learning any technology you want to

As a recent college graduate in Mathematics, I knew I wanted a job in tech but didn't have the experience or know how to get a job so I joined Coding Dojo. I feel the curriculum really prepared me for a job as a developer. I was hired by a consulting company after the Bootcamp and during the training, I found that I knew as much if not more than most of the people there with CS degrees. Coding Dojo is a great resource and the best priced compared to other online coding bootcamps. I highly recommend this program for people with a degree that are trying to break into tech