Concordia Bootcamps

My experience at decodeMTL was excellent.

With their help and guidance I was able to land a junior position after working ten years in construction. It was not a golden ticket to a new job though. I worked really hard, and under their coaching everything worked out well. Even 9 months after taking the course, they have been able to assist me further. Ziad and his assistants have a knack for teaching and Kevin is great with his carreer related help. They are all good honest people and make an amazing team.

As for others complaining about 'not being given the answers', that's not the goal of the course. I always felt that Ziad wants us to understand the principles and core concepts first, and the results of specific exercises are not the most important. Our long-term success depends on our fundemental understanding of whats going on in the code. I definatly left the course feeling that I had a great foundation of knowledge and networking to make my career change work out well. Mission accomplished!

Doing interviews again 9 months after the bootcamp, I've had interviewers comment that even university graduates weren't able to pass their technical challenges but I was able to! 

Be advised that these comments are based on my personal experience so please apply accordingly.

In one sentence, I really enjoyed my experience at DecodeMTL and it was wonderful to be taught by Ziad and the teaching assistants there. It gave me exactly what i wanted: to find a job as web developer.

My background: MSc degree in Business strategic consultancy from France with few years of business development experience with tech startups; Immigrated to Montreal Canada one year ago; started a biz dev job here but very unhappy about it; coded about 6 months inconsistenly before joining DecodeMTL.

What I like about DecodeMTL:

1) The craziness of it: You are surrounded by like-minded people who were equally determined to get into the industry. That created a very motivating ambiance which drove me (naturally a person easy to be distracted) to focus and give my 100%;

2)  and also 1) Good teacher. Ziad is amazing and he continued helping me patiently after I graduated. He has his way of leading me to think in problem solving process. The other teaching assistants - Mathieu, Harris, etc. are also important part of my learning journey and they still help me now too! 

3) It was a lot to learn and not very easy to digest everything I went through everyday. But I expeceted myself to learn anyways so that did not bother me. DecodeMTL connected the dots I had when I was learning coding on my own and gave me a solid base to start with in order to become a competent responsable developer. 

My personal friendly advice in general :) :  Be sure with what you are getting into as a career! It's a lot of continuous effort and constant battle with unknown! After doing enough thinking and you still want to get into the field, DecodeMTL would be a good choice!

This course exceeded all my expectations. Ziad is amazing, the mentors are fantastic, and the TA's are very helpful.

I really like that even though I am a graduate, I can still reach out to Ziad and Kevin, or anyone really, about any concerns and questions about jobs, or tech problems and bugs that I come across. The DecodeMTL Slack community is popping! Everyone helps each other, even if we we're not all in the same cohort. I think this is the best part, the post-bootcamp support. You're not thrown into the deep end alone, someone will always be there to help you out.

That goes without saying that, they don't call it a bootcamp for nothing. Be prepared to arrive early and stay late. You'll be spending most of your time at the school, which isn't a bad thing as WeWork is an awesome place to learn, very comfortable, great location, and awesome decor. I actually much preferred working there, then at home. Being in a great atmosphere and surrounded by hard-working people and tech companies, is very motivating.

If you cannot give 100% of your time to the course, don't do it. Clear your schedule for those 8 weeks, or else you will not benefit from this course. If you miss 1 day or even a half a day, thats the equivalent of missing a couple weeks in any regular school which spread their course to a couple hours a week over a few months.

Yes, you will have a lot of prep work to do, but it's so worth it. You need to have a passion for this job. It's a lot of problem-solving, logic, creativity, and patience.

The more energy you will put into this course, the better outcome you will have. The more work you put in, the easier it will be to find a job.

I got a job and started working for a start-up one week post-bootcamp. There is a huge demand for web developers out there, so if you have the passion and drive to learn more, finding a job will be a breeze.

Don't expect to be a genius like Ziad when it's all said and done, that will take millions of years to get to his level. But once you graduate and find a job, you will then be paid to learn, and it's all up hill from there!

I highly recommend this course for everyone. It's a tech world out there after all. Every company needs some sort of web presence, or web app, which means they need us! 

P.S. The cupcakes are pretty great too.

I have a degree related to computer science. I think the course curriculum of this bootcamp is good, but still needs some improvements to also emphasize on certain important things that students will need to use at work. The main instructor is very smart however he still needs to learn how to explain stuff to those who don't have background in the field. When already in the bootcamp, sometimes it was hard to reach him in the afternoon to ask questions about the workshops as he would not respond to your messages at times. 

The main instructor helped me get a job after graduation. However I have a degree related to this from a good university, so it would not be that difficult for DecodeMTL to present me to the employers. DecodeMTL will help you in term of job assistance if you are good enough. Some of my classmates at the same cohort, who are just average, did not get the same help. The job assistance here is not that great. About half of the people in my cohort still could not find a job yet. 

DecodeMTL is not bad if you have background, experiences or are well-prepared for the bootcamp. DecodeMTL CANNOT get you job ready in 8 weeks like what they said. It requires a lot of prep work before the bootcamp. For people in my cohort who had no background in the field and wanted to change their career who were successful and found jobs after the bootcamp, they did the prep course for several months prior to joining the bootcamp, or took another course with Decode before. So you can imagine if DecodeMTL can really get you ready as web developer in 8 weeks or not. 

When searching for a bootcamp I was given advice to find one that focused on JavaScript. DecodeMTL immediately jumped out as being a great option since they are a JavaScript bootcamp while many others on focused on ruby on rails. After speaking to over 10 previous students who all had positive things to say I knew this was the right option for me.

After completing the bootcamp I have absolutely to no regrets about joining. The main instructor Ziad is a god. He is everything you want in a teacher. Even though his knowledge is so advanced, he always finds a way to deliver the information to you in a way that makes sense even for a beginner. He is a someone who really feels joy from seeing his students succeed which makes him fun to be around. If I had to give him a rating it would be a solid 10/10.

If you are looking for a bootcamp to join I strongly suggest that you checkout DecodeMTL. If you don't believe me just contact any of their Alumni and I am positive that they will give you the same advice.

If you do decide the join my advice is to make sure you do as much prep work as possible. When you are at the bootcamp things move fast and everyone learns at different speeds. Going in with a solid understanding of JavaScript will help you to better understand the more complicated parts of the bootcamp.

Good luck!

Before I launch into a spirited review of DecodeMTL, a bit of context on myself will help reveal some important variables.  First off, I come from by no means a CS background. Far from it, I have a Bachelors in Urban Planning and worked for several years as an infantry soldier.

Why this bears mention is that one of the most common fears about this industry is that it will be utterly beyond those without some sort of pre-existing CS experience.  That is absolutely not true.  Web development is far more accessible than you might think, but there are certainly things to ponder before you take the leap at a bootcamp...

I think the biggest question someone reading this wants answered: is DecodeMTL a legit bootcamp and will it get me an entry position as a Dev?  Yes and yes; its a kickass bootcamp and I landed a job within two weeks.  But there's more to it than that. 

In my opinion, there is a way to experience this bootcamp to get the most out of it.  These are your checks in the box to complete before day 1...

1.  You've decided to do this for a reason.  Its 6k.  Its only 2 months.  Do a soul search and make sure that this is what you want and you are ready to work your ass.  The days are long and the info is fast and furious.  You will need to dedicate 200% of your attention to this course in order to succeed, which brings me to my next point..

2.  Prepare yourself.  Yes there is a prep course and it does a good job of getting you ready, but if you want my advice, do as much damn Javascript as you can beforehand. If you are like me and you have 0 programming experience, I highly recommend https://www.udemy.com/understand-javascript/.  If you get through even the first third of this course before you start, you will be arriving in a great place and everything will make way more sense.  You will be far less likely to fall behind as you will have a better grasp on the critical fundamentals of programming in JS.

3. Don't expect the moon.  DecodeMTL does what it claims to do and it does it well, but they cannot snap their fingers and turn you into Dan Abramov.  This is merely the beginning of a career-long journey.  It will be hard and frustrating but extremely rewarding.  Dig deep and prepare yourself for this grind, only time and practice can make you a great coder.  Have the patience to make mistakes and get lost.  The right attitude will do wonders.

Everyone that attends this course will have the opportunity to emerge as competent, entry-level developers.  The cirriculum is constantly updated to stay relevant (big emphasis on React here) and by the end you will have written some code that you probably couldn't imagine before hand.  Some will squander this course by not abiding by the aforementioned points, but that doesn't have to be you.

The final day - demo day - will be the real shocker if you're someone like me.  What surprised me is the sheer interest and attention (and propositions) you will receive from recruiters, employers and investors who will actually line up to speak with you.  If you've done your research you'll know that the industry is always hungry for devs, and now I've seen it first hand.  You will not want for job opportunities, its just up to you to pursue them.

Great course.

Well paced with lots of instruction, helpful tips and guides to keep you up to speed. To get the most out of the course you will need to be able to put aside a sizeable chunk of hours each week to complete the exercises and projects.

Lucas is a great instructor and is very knowlegable. He clearly loves what he does and puts great effort in to answering everyones questions whether during class time or on the group chat.

If you take this course you will be able start with no knowledge and go and build responsive well written websites by the end.

I started the course without any idea about HTML or CSS. The pace of the course is quite good. The course starts explaining the basic concepts and builds into more complicated ideas by exercises, code-alongs, and homework.

Lucas was a great instructor and was available to answer our questions. The class room and lounge are very nice!

I recommend for someone looking to have an introduction to Web Design; to take this course, especially if you need to interact directly with an instructor! 

I was initally skeptical that I would be able to get hired with only 8 weeks of training and I wondered how much I could actually learn in such little time before I decided to attend the full-time bootcamp. I was especially skeptical because programming was a big career change for me, having previously worked in social services, which required years of formal training. I ended up finding work within a week of finishing Decode and am extremely happy with the job I landed. Our demo day provided an amazing opportunity to present our final projects to a room full of people looking to hire, which led to several interviews for me and a job offer.

Overall, I would say that Decode is what you make of it. I would definitely recommend Decode to anyone who can really commit to clearing their schedule for the course period to ensure they don't fall behind in class. The pace is fast and they pack a lot into the course so, again, it's what you make it. But Ziad is an amazing instructor and was able to explain concepts in a way that even us newbs could understand. The cost was worth it to have a strict schedule that I had to stay on track with, to have the TAs help whenever I got completely stuck on a workshop, and to have the opportunity to present to a room of hiring managers. 

I would definitely recommend taking the full-time course at DecodeMTL. Obviously it is impossible to learn everything about web development in two months, however the course gives you a solid foundation and teaches relevant technologies. You graduate with the skills to enter the work field as a Junior Dev.

Ziad, the instructor, is passionate about what he does and is great at explaining the material in a clear, understandable way. Codrin, the TA, is amazing. He is always available, 7 days a week, well past course hours to mentor the students and ensure that everyone fully grasps all the concepts. 

Being located in WeWork is a bonus: close to the metro and downtown, unlimited coffee/tea/beer, networking events all the time, etc.

I found a job just a few weeks after the program with a competitive salary (close to $60,000) and nice benefits. I have also recieved quite a few offers just from recruiters viewing my LinkedIn or GitHub profiles. 

Overall, DecodeMTL was an amazing experience and I highly recommend taking the full-time immersive course.

Decode MTL is an amazing place.
1. TEACHING
Do not underestimate it because it is not on campus. Our teacher(Lucas) taught at Concordia before. He is not only an professional programmer but a inspiring teacher!! I do respect his passion for teaching and coding.

This special learning experience is very influential to me.

2. ENVIRONMENT FOR ENTREPRENEUR
I am a student in Concordia and my major is more related to business. I find DecodeMTL can give me an awesome opportunity to meet different people. Many of my classmates already worked in the IT industry, having work experience in coding. It is a very impressive experience to talk and learn from them too.

I would highly recommend taking a web development course at DecodeMTL.

The prof communicates the material in a clear and articulate manner despite the complexity of the subject at hand. The notes are extremely well formatted (I am old school and need notes to be able to digest material efficiently).

The teacher (Lucas) and TA (Codrin) are accessible and super patient as well as generous with their time and knowledge!

The space at WeWork is rather pleasant too. I must say, it gave me the yearning to become an entrepreneur!

Originally I thought that should I ever really love coding (which is precisely what ended up happening.....to the point where its all I dream about anymore!!!), the plan was to use the completion of this course as a stepping stone before applying to get into the Computer Science program at University however I learned that the that the curriculum in most colleges (certainly here in Montreal) are many years behind and therefore wouldn't allow for one to graduate with enough practical knowledge hence I look forward to taking another course at DecodeMTL in the future.

I've been part of the first Full-time cohort, and I'm still amazed at how much I learned and became employable in only 8 weeks. I've been learning Web Development on my own three or four monthes prior to the Bootcamp , and did not even cover half of all the content we saw.

They have a solid experience from working in the industry and know the standarts and the skills that must be learned. I've been hired 2 weeks ago, and I am using a lot of what they showed us on a daily basis.

If you're looking for a career mave as I was, I definitely recommend it, as long as you're not afraid (and more important, that you love) to code, code, and then code overnight.

I am one of the first cohort's graduates (September-October 2015).

I had an amazing experience with DecodeMTL. The course is well designed and even if my brain had some hard time here and there, everything went pretty smoothly. The lead instructor Ziad Saab has a genuine sense for teaching.
 
The course is really intensive but this is what makes the environment so dynamic. As we were only twelve students, the atmosphere was somehow like a family and we are actually all sad the course is over now. This went really too fast!

I am still struck by how much I was able to learn in 8 weeks. Being at the right place, with the right people, make a huge difference. And DecodeMTL was exactly what I needed to succeed my career change.

DecodeMTL’s program has exceeded all my expectations. And in the end, I am very grateful to Ziad and Kevin for leading me where I am now. I had close to zero web knowledge, 8 weeks later, I feel like everything is possible.