Devmountain

DevMountain is a great alternative for those who don't want to spend 4 years going to school before getting started in their career. The course is very intense for those who have no coding experience going in to it (like me). I would not recommend trying to do the emersive course while working. I needed all the time outside of class that I could get. DevMountain is a little more costly than some other bootcamp options I considered, but they seem to invest quite a lot into helping alumni get jobs. That is a very valuable asset to have, which is why I went with them even without taking advantage of the student housing. You will get out of DevMountain as much as you put in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t like giving bad reviews and this is not meant to put down DevMountain in any way, but I had a really hard time with this program and I seriously regret starting it. I tried to work 3 different part-time jobs and do this full time (twice), and even tried doing the evening courses after, but felt like I kept getting stuck after a few weeks of each retry. It’s difficult to support a family and do the immersive courses. Everyone else seemed to soar through the courses and it didn’t seem to come naturally to me like it did others. I’m still in a lot of debt with DevMountain that I don’t think I’ll be able to pay off anytime soon. I don’t want to blame anyone at DevMountain particularly because I felt like I lot of the instructors are nice people, they have a sincere desire to help you and a willingness to sit down with you. Despite this, I feel like some people (while they may be EXPERT coders) are not able to teach as well as they are able to code to help others learn.

The nice thing about DevMountain is the fun environment, the people you meet, the nice, fun instructors and the professionalism they maintain. Jeremy is a smart guy and I really enjoyed his lectures. They really will try to help you if you’re struggling, but for me personally, I still had a tough time even with help.

Before you join DevMountains immersive courses (and I wish someone had told me this) make sure of a few things:

1. Make sure that You can afford to NOT work for the full 12-week course. You MUST be able to focus completely on the courses!

2. Study as much code as you possibly can before you start. Make your LIFE about code!

3. You are responsible for your learning here. While you can get help if you’re confused, YOU need to make sure you are caught up on assignments and not fall behind. My work made that extremely difficult and burned me out.

4. Make sure you have a decent computer (windows or Mac are fine)

5. They cannot guarantee you a job. And you will have to start paying VERY expensive tuition fees once (and if) you graduate. I’m having to pay $400 a month even though I’m not graduated. 

Again, I won’t tell anyone to NOT go to DevMountain because they are awesome! But please keep these things in mind if you’re considering attending.

My review is not to put DevMountain down, but maybe it will give them some insight on how to help others in the future that did not succeed due to unusual circumstances like my own.

Do your research!

DevMountain was one of the greatest decisions that I ever made by far. I was interested in becoming a developer in early 2017 and began researching bootcamps in the area after seeing some advertisements. Ultimately I decided on DevMountain after visiting their campus in Dallas and met the team as well as some of the students. During my experience, they were EXTREMELY supportive of my every step and made sure that I was more than ready to continue on to each lesson. They never leave a student behind and if you are not doing well, they are there for you with plenty of options to make sure you reach your goal. This is why I am a successfully emplyoed Software Engineer for Beck Technology.

The first 10 weeks of my experience at Dev Mountain were a breeze.  It was hard work, but I really enjoyed it.  I loved the atmopshere, the teachers, and the entire experience as a whole.  I met so many amazing, kind, and wonderful people there.  Everyone was focused on learning as much as they could.

The last 3 weeks of school, I had a very negative experience, but there were good people working there that helped me through it.  They saw my frustration and asked me for feedback and eagerly listened to me.  The staff there really care about what they are doing.  They are always working on improving things, and they put their hearts into that school and it shows.  The negative experience I had there taught me the most, helped to prepare me for the future, and ultimately played a largely significant role in landing me a job.

Are you tired of your current job?

Do you wake up every day thinking "I wish things could change"? (that is the nice way of putting it)

DevMountain can change all of that for you.

Bottom line...  DevMountain gets it done.

Six months ago I left my teaching job in Japan to learn how to code computers, and now I have the best job I've ever had.  It's night and day.  I'm still in shock from the change and I feel so lucky.  I invested X sum of money in order to have a job in the tech industry, and DevMountain delivered in full.

On top of that, there was zero transition for me from school to job.  Everything that I was doing at DevMountain is exactly what I am doing now.  That is because the people at that school know the industry.  When I say that they will prepare you for a development job, I really mean it.  Walking in on my first day of work felt like DevMountain the sequel.  DevMountain 2: the search for more money.

DevMountain is not going to coddle you, hold your hand, and have some instant job lined up for you when you graduate.  They teach you how to do everything you need to get a job and then you have to do the work.  You have to put in the time.  You have to be determined to make it work.  If you are, and you put in the effort, DevMountain will get you where you want to be.  They fulfill their end of the deal for sure.

If you go there, just remember, you are not competing with anyone.  Ignore all the talk about how "that guy" or "that girl" is the greatest coder on the planet and scored 350 kabillion points on his or her test and now works for Google "Holy cow man!"  It is human nature to compete, and jockey for position and social-standing, and DevMountain can feel highly-competitive in that regard, but there is no need to feel any pressure to be "da best coder evar" because are plenty of jobs in this industry for people that have the motivation and drive to go after them.  If you don't believe me, just look at Linked-In or Glassdoor or whatever and see for yourself.  Just focus on your studies, do your best, never give up, and you will have a very high likeliness of succeeding.

If you want a job, then signup with DevMountain.  Most the people that I have stayed in touch with after school now have jobs in the industry.

If you are not serious about this, and you're willing to allow your dream of having a better life and a great career get crushed by carpet fungus or whatever, then don't even bother.  DevMountain is for serious people.  I have a highly severe allergy to dustmites and I'm a DevMountain grad.  If you are serious about this, you'll make it work, and DevMountain will be right there with you to help you through it.  They are highly accommodating.

Thank you for helping to change my life DevMountain.  I'm seriously grateful.  Every moment of energy you spent on teaching me and helping me I'm very appreciative.

I highly recommend this school to anyone that wants a job in the software industry.

Five stars all across the board.

DevMountain was exactly what I needed to take my coding skills to the next level. After only 13 weeks of attending I am now able to create full stack web applications. In addition to this, I have learned valuable skills for the web industry that include interviewing and planning techniques. At DevMountain I was able to learn primarily about ReactJS, NodeJS, and ExpressJS as well as HTML5, CSS, SASS/SCSS, Jest, AngularJS, and Postman. With these skills anyone can make their own web applications and will become a valuable asset to any web industry. I'm grateful for the experience I learned there as well as the wonderful help from instructors, mentors and staff. DevMountain is active in helping its students that have passed its course to landing jobs in the industry. In short, if you are looking to get into the industry in the most time efficient and productive manner look no further than DevMountain.

The instructors and mentors are all very knowledgeable and very helpful.  The 24/7 access to the Provo campus is invaluable, because it provides a place for you to work on both personal projects and group projects.  The course material is relevant and put together very well.  The weekly surveys that DevMountain has you fill out are not an item on their checklist, they do listen to their students and make timely adjustments according to survey data.  Although I didn't require housing while going to DevMountain, I was grateful that they provide free housing because it improves the general atmosphere of the classroom (people are able to focus on studying, not commuting).  As a final note their team that assists graduates with finding positions in the industry are excellent.  They have spent a remarkable amount of time with me after I have graduated and helped me find several new leads for employment.  My experience with DevMountain was very positive and I would recommend it to anyone who is willing to work hard to improve their life.

DevMountain put me on the right track to be successful in a field that I have been passionate about for the longest time.

I did a stint at University going to for a CS degree but I got 'lifed' pretty hard and had to drop out. After dragging my feet for awhile I decided to be done with just having a job and start an actual career doing what I wanted to do. I tried some online tutorials and courses but I just couldn't get into them as much as I needed to.

Enter DevMtn.

When you think of the term 'bootcamp' you might think of what you see in the movies: A drill sergeant yelling in your face about some little detail the soldier overlooked. Well I hate to break it to you, DevMountain is nothing like that. The instructors and mentors are nothing but encouraging and helpful.

The best part (in my opinion) about the way the curriculum is set up is that you are accountable for your own learning and success. You have to put in the extra work if you want to get everything out of the cohort you can. That might mean coming to class outside of the regular 9-5 hours. That might mean staying in on a saturday night when all of your friends are going out because you have no idea what a closure is yet (personal experience on that one).

Learning to become a developer isn't something that you can do by just getting talked at for 8 hours a day. You have to go out and build things and try things. DevMountain is set up to where every single day you will do a project (or two!), and each time you start a project it is build upon the conceptual foundation that was laid in previous days.

Would I reccomend DevMountain? Ten times over. There is nothing better than growing as a developer along side a group of others that are in your exact same shoes with instructors and mentors there to help you along the way.

I was very skeptical about bootcamps since you're not getting a certificate or anything to really prove your skills but after going through the program it completely changed my perspective about bootcamps! It was a little rough in the beginning because of the unorganization but I took a lot away from the program regardless. It definitely pushed me a lot, helped expand my network, and gave me the tools I needed to learn and think like a developer. Most everyone I've spoken to had wish they were more prepared before doing this program and you most definitely need to be at a certain level with javascript before doing a bootcamp. I would highly recommend doing a bootcamp once you're decent with javascript, until then you should just get better at it. You get as much as you put into the program, I would highly recommend this program! Also they include housing in their tuition which helps out A LOT since you live in the same building where you work/learn so no distractions or traffic! Everyone at the program is super friendly and very welcoming.

The program was great! I can not use any other descriptive words because great is the only thing that comes to mind. The course was great, the instructors were great, my time there was great.

I got to build several apps that all got increasingly complex over time. I also liked how I could ask any questions to the instructors or mentors or even students in the program if I was getting stuck on code and they would be as helpful as they could.

The mentoring afternoon hours were fun and super effective. We would learn about things that are outside the material because it was a customized mentor session, basically everyday. Speaking and asking the instructors any questions on your mind, even if you don't understand most of what happens, is such a great way to learn.

The group project is awesome because it allows you to apply all of what you learned and beyond as well as working in a team of 4-5 students to build it which gives sense on how web developers work in their daily lives.

I would recommend this program to other people who want to not only learn how to code, but how to become a true web developer.

Know that I had a great experience at DevMountain, so this is coming from someone who had a positively life changing experience and outcome.

Pretty much everything that you read up on DevMountain is true, and so your general expectations of the course will be met. But that is only if your expectation is met with hard work ethic. There were a few things that weren't what I expected going into the course. I would honestly say that some of these things are bootcamp expectations and not specifically just DevMountain expectations.

-Learn how to learn. Yes, I wish there were more one-on-one instruction (dont we all want a personal help buddy 24/7) but understand that coding is a primarily self-driven activity. The mentors are like TAs, and they are there to help you through your most pressing issues, but something I quickly realized was that I needed to learn how to learn. How to teach myself more than anything.

- Pair programming is hard. Sometimes you are paired with someone unlike you. Some who does things differently than the way of doing things. For example, someone who is outgoing, patient, and a fast coder, vs someone who is a slower programmer, and takes more time. This happened from time to time and it was frustrating.

- Fast learning and raw logical-thinking speed. People have different abilities and therefore catch on quicker than others. Just know some people get things right away, and others dont.

- There is no silver platter. What I have noticed is that there are some students who just don't want to put in work, studying, practice, and mastery to get to a point of being successful. There is no silver platter. I learned this on the second day of class when I saw people complaining about work they were asked to do.

- You will get frustrated. The frustration dragged me down mentally, and my attitude totally shifted on days when this happened. But I will say, I improved at my "teamwork" and collaborative abilities through the whole course. But if you're the kind of person who can weather these sorts of things and keep your head up, then good on ya. I think you are more built for a bootcamp.

-The tech culture suits some people and it doesn't suit others. My particular personality jived with it really well. I am very interested in tech. I have heard the tech culture being compared to the "TJ" type by myers-briggs classification.

- You will actually have a fun time. In general, from what I've observed, DevMountain students have an awesome time there. Socially, culturally, and within the education. It is a great environment. Though overworked and mentally drained, you will really bond closely with your fellow class mates and learn from each other.

Overall, DevMountain is definitely a fantastic choice for a bootcamp, and you can't go wrong with it. Hopefully, my assumptions and expectations that were off will be helpful for all future DevMountain students.

Pros:

Awesome facilities 

Experienced instructors who know how to teach

Got my money’s worth 

Cons:

I expected them to have more connections with businesses looking for designers. All of the interviews I got after the course were jobs I found and applied to on my own. 

Conclusion, you will learn a lot and are given the opportunity to challenge yourself. If you are expecting a job to be handed to you, you are wrong. I worked very hard in class and got my money’s worth. As far as job hunting, they help you polish your resume and portfolio, but they have no inside connections to provide for jobs. The only jobs they ever referred us to were jobs that could be searched for online and open to anyone.

Overall, I would recommend devMountain to anyone . It is one of the best boot camps available 

The curriculum was great and easy to follow, although the majority of the exercises were all "copy and paste and see if it works" types of projects.  Multiple times during our cohort, we either didn't have an instructor show up, or they had to text/call one of the cohort managers in order to cover.

The biggest kicker was the Demo Day that we were supposed to have at the end of the course—never happened.  A few months after we were originally scheduled to have our Demo Day, they finally had one with our cohort and another combined.  I, unfortunately, wasn't able to make it due to my daughter being born.  Honestly, it seemed like I paid a few thousand dollars to fork public repos on GitHub and have an instructor (most of the time) walk me through Codecademy but in a classroom setting.

Maybe the full-time cohorts are better than the part-time cohorts, but ours felt like an afterthought.

First and foremost, don't expect a job out of this course.  YOU have to EARN it.  And the learning doesn't end when the course does.  

I was in the after hours cohort, and time was limited.  There was simply not enough time in class to do everything you have to do to get the most out of it.  But, with effort, determination, and sacrifice, I was able to boost my career significantly.  

If you are serious about changing your career and are wiling to put the effort into it, then this program will help you get there.

In my experience in this class it is great for 2 types of students, those already working in tech, and those who are unemployed and can devote 10-12 hours a day to the coursework. Unfortunately I didn't fit either profile. I went into the class very computer literate (worked in graphic design for years), but was quickly lost and overwhelmed. The videos were usually 2-3 hours, couple that with full time employment, it didn't leave much time for actual coding. I finished the course completely lost. I spoke to the instuctors (who were great btw), and they advised me to keep working and learning. I attended class often during the next cohort, and continued working on my own. My hope was that I would be able to get to a point that I could "join" a group project with a future cohort. However the next class totally changed the cirriculum and I feel that is no longer an option without spending months learning another language. Without completing badging (which requires a group project) Dev Mountain will not give any job placement assistance. The mentors were awesome and very willing to offer assistance, however the cohorts start up as soon as one finishes, so they quickly become busy helping the current students.