Epicodus

Epicodus is not a sink or swim program. They don't expect you to have a background in coding. They do expect you to wake your brain up and put it to work! And along the way, they can help you actually understand how to be a coder, a student, a mentor, and a member of the tech community. 

I started in January 2015 with one (traditional style) intro class and one unix class under my belt, and no computer to do extra research or projects(I had to borrow one to do my preliminary work). I quit my job as a property manager and dove right in. (Due to the nature of my job at the time, this means I also lost my housing. That's right, I did epicodus as a homeless person. A very resourceful, couch-surfing, house-sitting homeless person) 

Epicodus has a seriously humble, pragmatic, well-spoken and politically conscious leader. Epicodus is truly queer and trans friendly and Michael is on the front lines of bringing and keeping women in tech. I am not a person of color, so I can't speak to the experience of folks that are, but basically, the code of conduct pretty much says that rude jerks will not be tolerated, (I am paraphrasing there...) and Michael means it. If you are feeling excluded or picked on, tell Michael and he will end it.

Pair programming daily is a part of the deal - and that can get really tedious really quickly. Not everybody matches up personality wise, BUT it also means you have an opportunity to see so many different points of view and work with all kinds of different ideas. (HINT: Always partner with someone new! It's very comforting to pair with folks you work well with, but you will learn more from the diversity of switching it up as often as possible.) Luckily, they also give you a break on Fridays to just focus on processing what you've learned all week.

They throw dozens of different technologies at you throughout the course... Scary right? Why don't they just teach you one language, like Javascript, in depth, so you can feel confident about knowing it well when you are done? The Answer - Because you would be completely useless in most tech companies.

The company I work for now, has no less than 20 different (and often changing) technologies that I touch every single day. If I was unable to adapt to the pace at which things change - I never would have gotten the job in the first place. I impressed my current boss during my internship by taking on a project they expected to be done in 2 weeks. I did it in 2 days. They extended my internship to give me a taste of a department I didn't have any experience in, and I had 4 projects to complete in 4 weeks. I did 3 of the 4 inside of 2 weeks, plus, 7 other side projects that happened to come up. My job offer was in by the end of the 3rd week. All because this program kept us hopping from project to project and tech to tech. I got used to being adaptable, thorough, focused, and communicative. Those skills, and a serious passion for programming, is all an employer needs from a junior developer. 

Finally, I appreciate that Epicodus really really wants you to get a job when you are done - and they do everything in their power to make it happen. They reach out to the community and they let folks know that the pipeline problem would be a thing of the past - if they hired folks out of bootcamps. (HINT: We actually have more relevant coding experience than folks coming out of PSU with CS degrees. Subjective, I know, but it was a senior dev I know that said it. That doesn't include folks who make it through the PSU internship program. We are not that far behind those folks either though.)

They make the internship thing happen for 60 people at a time. They host meetups. They bring in speakers from the community. They even brought me back as a speaker to talk about the internship process! They keep us engaged even after the program ends.

I recommend this program to all of my friends, and I will happily, personally speak to anyone interested the program. I am a fan, obviously, but if you have concerns, I will be perfectly honest about the struggle side of things. Nothing this good comes without a price, and mine was a few moments of mental and emotional exhaustion (which had a LOT to do with outside factors -which of course everyone has at some point and should reasonably prepare for) 

You can find me on linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/karvari- if you would like to chat about it.

Epicodus is one of the single best decisions I have ever made. My new career is more day-to-day enjoyable, more rewarding, the environment more relaxed, and yes, the pay is better, too. Meanwhile, I still regularly get together with my classmates, a remarkable network of friends. To understand just how wildly successful Epicodus is at what it does, there are a number of things you need to know, things that I personally found helped me.

Without their deferred payment option (pay $200 up front, the rest after the class is done), I simply could not have attended Epicodus. While the intellectual diversity of the class is something Epicodus intentionally aims for, it's the follow-through of things like deferred payment that actually make it possible for the school to cast a wider net and allow more people to attend. The pre-class work online gave me specific, actionable goals so that I would know I'd be ready for Epicodus. Before that, I'd been going it alone, having more trouble figuring out what to learn than actually learning it. 

Epicodus takes advantage of a "flipped classroom," where your homework is to watch a class lecture/introduction to new material, and your classwork is the actual coding, right there where you can check in with instructors and other classmates. Pair programming helps accelerate everyone's learning. On my very first day I paired with someone who understood the command line and took the time to teach me; I was soon passing that information along to others. Ideas and discoveries ripple through the class as the environment allows for an easy dialogue. And this is where the diversity of the class really adds something special, a magic that I can't very well describe here. Where else can a writer and an MBA pop over to ask the meeting planner and mechanic how they solved that code challenge? Growth mindset is something you'll hear about a LOT at Epicodus. Taking a cue from the growing body of research that talent is more of an illusion than we realize, Epicodus has the attitude right to help you fight through the frustration of tough days (which everyone will have when learning something new). The best part for me personally was that the instructors have taken this to heart; when they come to help you with a problem, they're not really concerned about getting you an answer for That Problem. Instead, they use the problem as an example to help you figure out HOW to figure things out. They are constantly adapting/evolving. You'll have weekly one-on-one check-ins with instructors, and they're actually listening. The Epicodus team is constantly revising the curriculum to improve the experience, so each new class benefits from the one before. Some of those changes can be immediate; our class began to have more two-day projects during our Rails unit due to my and others' feedback that we wanted to dig deeper into some of our projects. 

The internships offer direct, immediate experience as the final quarter of the class. (Mine led directly to my job!) Epicodus is constantly growing its web of connections within the Portland coding community, and this means they constantly have a number of partners who take interns, come to job fairs, speak at events, and co-host other events. There's a team dedicated to helping place students into both internships and, afterwards, help them on the job hunt. In an industry where job openings for senior developers are sitting unfilled because there simply aren't enough experienced people, Epicodus is helping companies figure out that they're going to have to grow their own...and providing a number of us a leg up as we step in and say, "We're new, but we're ready to learn." Quite simply, Epicodus was a remarkable, positive experience, and it set me up for my current success, and more.

I knew very little of the programming world before I attended Epicodus. In fact, I knew nothing at all. 
I was a poker dealer in Montana for 10 years and realized that my career path had no future. I have a child and I own a house so I needed something more secure for my family. I was soon scouring the internet for code schools that would be affordable and worth it to spend that much time away from home. I came across http://bookertrex.tumblr.com/ and I was convinced after reading her blog about her experience with Epicodus. Next thing I know I'm standing in front of 64 other kids that all shared the same goal... All I can say is that it's very difficult coming from no programming background. Difficult, but doable. Try hard to keep up with the day to day projects, absolutely do the homework every night and no matter how you feel or if things aren't making sense, just keep at it and it will click at some point. Stay positive and and have fun and you should have no troubles. Oh and sleep sometimes too. 

I will always consider my time at Epicodus to have been a key turning-point in my life. I drove alone in Winter across the country, from Baltimore, Maryland to Portland, Oregon, because Epicodus was one of the few schools who had a payment deferment program for students who couldn't afford to pay upfront, which I really needed in order to even be able to attend. I actually couldn't even afford the gas money to get there; I'm blessed to have generous friends who sponsored my trip on GoFundMe. Web development and art are two subjects I'd always been interested in, but also considered myself not good enough, or smart enough, or privileged enough to pursue 'seriously', and limited myself to just doing work with them as a hobby.

I worried constantly that I still would never be good enough, even after I was accepted and started the program at Epicodus. Thankfully, I was quickly overwhelmed by how welcoming and engaging Michael, the director, and the rest of the staff and teachers were. They took a very positive, progressive approach, and strongly discouraged any negative talk - including negative self-talk. I have PTSD, severe anxiety, and morbid depression, and I'm endlessly grateful for the positive, empathetic, and inclusive support that the educators at Epicodus provided to me. Sometimes the stress and anxiety would get overwhelming and trigger migraines, but the classes are set up in such a way that you can access everything online, and Michael and my teachers were very understanding and flexible in allowing me to work from home when I had especially challenging days.

The classwork and program itself was excellent. Michael takes great pains to listen to and respond to student feedback, and refine parts of the program to make them more effective. Everything for class is conducted online and organized into units that build on one another, and the materials include video lectures, video and text tutorials, and links to outside resources, which is especially great if you want to revisit certain things or get ill. Videos are also transcribed, which I especially appreciated. I'm hard of hearing and having a textual reference to refer to when I missed something was fantastic.

In the end, I of course didn't need to worry about whether I'd ever be good enough. Before I even finished the program, I had secured a job back home in Maryland, working as a web designer. I didn't even do the internship portion of the program at Epicodus - I just went straight to full-time, with-benefits work. I'm so grateful that Epicodus was able to give me the training, preparation, and above all, the self-confidence I needed to finally begin a career that I'm happy to go to everyday.

I got it into my head that I wanted to learn computer programming and so I set out to learn it on my own. This proved to be wildly difficult as I had next to no direction at all in what to learn or how to learn it. After quite a bit of time doing this, Epicodus showed up on my radar, and I am really happy that it did! The format of the class, learning by doing, was a huge attraction for me when deciding on which coding school to go to. The idea of learning day by day with a partner (pair programming) was also a really great sounding idea, and it turned out to be quite a lot of fun, too! 

You will mentally taxed learning the concepts and sometimes you will feel like you just don't get it, yet. Press on! Many of the concepts will become clearer and clearer to you as time goes on. You are not alone and there is nothing wrong with you. Reach out to the staff and your fellow students, and you will do just fine. A month will pass, and you will look back at previous projects, laughing to yourself that it seemed difficult at the time. That feels great! You will make friends and encourage each other through learning, the camaraderie of the students is a really awesome social experience :)

More than just learning how to program, Epicodus placed a very strong emphasis on landing your first job in the industry. After they place you in a five week internship as part of the curriculum, the awesome staff  also provide leads on companies wanting to hire new grads, job interview techniques, as well as info on the local tech communities. By taking advantage of these resources, I was able to quickly get hired at a really great company downtown with a great dev team. Highly recommended!

I attended Epicodus last summer. I had very little coding experience. The first day of class I felt completely overwhelmed with the amount of information. It is now a year after I began attending Epicodus and I have had a full time salary tech job for three months. Epicodus was a quick way to get the skills necessary to get a job as a developer. One difficult thing about it is the student to teacher ratio. When I attended I think there were 60 students and 2 instructors. This meant that you didn't get a lot of one on one time with instructors. However every day you pair with another student. Some days my partner was more advanced, some days less, some days we were about even. If you want to learn the skills you can learn a lot from other students in the program.

Working as a developer is a culture and I think it just takes some time to get used to the culture and decide if you want to be a part of it or not. As a developer you spend a ridiculous amount of time in front of a computer. My first exposure to this was with Epicodus where you are in front of the computer at least 7 hours a day 5 days a week. There are meetups every week, different languages and frameworks that people use and are involved with etc. I didn't start doing well in interviews until I became interested in coding and the whole culture. I have found that it is not really just a job. I think I would have had an easier time in Epicodus and my internship if I was already excited about and committed to being a part of the culture. So what I'm saying is that Epicodus is a great program. I learned a lot, but I would recommend studying how to make websites, write code etc. on your own for a while before attending.

Also, they will put in a lot of work to help you find a job. They worked with me for months after the course was over, making introductions, helping me set up interviews. I really appreciated that, and overall I thought it was a great program.

I had a great experience with Epicodus. I moved from out of town to attend the program and it provided a great environment for making new friends. The teachers were very helpful and always pushed students to ask meaningful questions. This formulation developed thought patterns that allowed us to grow as students from helpless to empowered. Cooperation and communication are core values of Epicodus, and the pair programming reinforces these fundamental programming skills. I can’t imagine diving into programming any other way than with a partner. Having a partner allows you to learn how to talk about programming and it also keeps you focused because you are accountable to your partner and less likely to goof off. Pairing with a different student each day diversifies your communication skills even more. These by products of pair programming were vital to the success of the program, and I wholeheartedly back Epicodus as a proponent of the method.

The space itself was very nice. Bright, high ceilings, everyone in one big room chattering about programming. It gave me energy to work everyday.

The program is also very focused on helping students get placed in internships with companies on the Portland area. They bring in a bunch of companies and you get to interview with a couple of them that you found interesting. After the internship phase ends, they continue support by helping you reach out to companies looking for jr devs.

Anyone looking to get into web development, this is the code school for you.  

I worked for 7 years as a meeting planner. I had a good job with good pay, but knew it wasn't the right fit for me in the long run. I knew I wanted to go back to school for awhile, but the thought of going to class for a few years and spending loads of money for some sort of new degree was in no way appealing. Fortunately I found the Epicodus program. No one talking at you from the front of the room (yay!) - instead you are living the life of a programmer from day one, which in itself is the biggest lesson one needs to learn when starting this line of work. The growth mindset that Epicodus helps preach has helped influence multiple aspects of my life and I am grateful to have been (and still am) surrounded by the support and positive/healthy attitude from everyone affiliated with the program. The class goes by fast and moves quickly through content, and it can be mentally and physically taxing. Knowing I was doing this for myself and my future definitely helped me through, and it helped develop a frame of mind that one needs on the job. You can only learn so much in 5 months, so being able to prove your ability and mentality to learn on the job is a huge aspect that I was able to take away from this experience. 

I signed up for Epicodus because I wanted to transition out of marketing roles at venture-backed startups into a more technical role. 

I got just what I wanted at Epicodus. 

The classroom environment was collaborative, and each day we worked in pairs solving difficult coding challenges. Our reading and video homework was completed at night or over the weekend, so we could spend valuable classroom time coding. 

At the end of the class, I was contacted by an engineering-focused development shop, DevelopmentNow, for an internship opportunity. Together with two of my classmates, we worked on a Backbone.js mobile responsive client project, and we were all hired by the end of the second sprint. I was really excited to be an employed junior developer just a few weeks after class ended. 

I learned more that just coding skills at Epicodus. I learned how to work on a project with multiple developers with git flow. I also learned how to make scope adjustments in projects and what the tradeoffs really would be - considering we only had a day or two to work on each project. 

I'm also super impressed with the school's dedication to student diversity. As a women in tech, I really care about companies and schools  like Epicodus that fully embrace minority student outreach in the tech industry. 

I would recommend this school to any self-motivated person who wants to change careers with a little help from a community of fellow learners. 

Epicodus helped me transition to a new career and offered me month of hands on experience in web development.  They are always upgrading their curriculum and are passionate about providing the best education possible.  Studying at Epicodus was one of the best decisions I've ever made and I would recommend it to anyone.

Epicodus offered more than any other bootcamp out there. In fact, their job-search support is nearly worth the price of admission alone.

What made Epicodus an extremely worthwhile course in my mind?
1. Time: You spend hundreds of hours coding over the duration of the class, with other people, building actual working (for the most part) apps.

2. Content: You are exposed to a variety of programming tools, and considering the timeframe, get a rather solid foundation to continue learning once school ends.

3. The internship: The last month of Epicodus is spent at an actual company, getting a sense of programming in the “real world.” The interview process for these also helps take some of the edge off for your first tech job interview.

4. The people: The staff was great and I met a ton of smart, interesting people throughout the course.

5. Career support: Post-Epicodus, we (graduates) had amazing support from the staff as we searched for real work. The plus for job-seekers: Programming talent is in short supply and high demand. Some found jobs quicker than others, but we were in regular contact with the Outreach Coordinators at Epicodus, as they passed along job leads, interview and cover letter/resume prep, and general moral support. The luxury of being able to work on code projects while they did a lot of the job search for us, was priceless.

Of course, not everything was spot on. Figuring out how to pace yourself to keep up and retain knowledge is a real challenge. During our class, they were still figuring out best practices for running Epicodus, but constantly asked for, and often implemented, student feedback. I would have liked to have had some actual group lectures/teaching to introduce new concepts.

Last, I think it’s really important to know what you want to get out of a code school like this and what your goals are after it ends, before deciding to attend. Epicodus’ application process did a good job of giving you a sense of whether you have enough patience for, and interest in coding. The rest is up to you.

Overall, I would recommend Epicodus. It opened up a lot of opportunities and gave me a great foundation to continue building my skills.

About 6 months before my first day of class I decided I wanted to learn programming, but I wasn’t comfortable or disciplined enough to learn it on my own. Epicodus was so much more than I expected it would be - not only did I receive skills that advanced me far more quickly than I thought was possible when it came to learning to program, I made friends and gained a network of great people who will be with me in the industry for my entire career. I cannot recommend it highly enough. As a woman in tech, I found the environment supportive but not patronizing - in fact I felt more included there than I have felt anywhere else. I strongly encourage anyone who is ready for a life change to sign up for Epicodus.

I love my Epicodus family (shout out to the Winter 2015 Ruby cohort). I am extremely happy with what Epicodus provided me. If you are considering attending a code school, I think you would be hard-pressed to find a better value anywhere else in the US. Epicodus gave me a leg up on a career change into web development, taught me how to tackle difficult coding problems, and showed me that I am capable of teaching myself new languages and frameworks. In the Portland area (and perhaps beyond) Epicodus has a reputation of graduating successful developers that follow best practices and pick things up quickly.  This is not by accident. The staff is caring and from the top down everyone wants to give you what you need to succeed as a developer, including staff dedicated to facilitating your initial job hunt once you’ve graduated. Emphasis is on pair programming, which translates into the ability to work with people from different backgrounds, to contribute as part of a team, and to explain what your code is doing. It also results in the class partially teaching itself (as novel techniques disseminate through the classroom with each new pairing). I came into the program with a small amount of experience programming in other languages, but not a lot of confidence in my abilities. As with any code school, your personal motivation to become a developer is the most important ingredient. Having a computer background helps, but I also saw fellow students who came in with little or no background excel through hard work. The pace at Epicodus was reasonable, the night homework was generally 15 - 90 min. I have zero regrets about my decision to attend and I am optimistic and excited about the opportunities now available to me as an Epicodus graduate.

I consider Epicodus to be one of my most influential life experiences of the past decade. The phenomenal curriculum, stellar teaching staff and hands-on approach to learning gave me a solid foundational understanding of programming that I continue to build on.  I use this knowledge constantly in my current capacity as a Technology Consultant; supporting clients in finding and using the most appropriate apps/technology for their needs and abilities. 

Epicodus catapulted my understanding of programming and boosted my confidence in problem solving.  But the icing on the cake was how well I was taken care of after the program was over.  Michael Kaiser-Nyman, President of the school, contacted me on a regular basis to support me in finding work.  He gave me feedback on my resume and cover letters, and was my cheerleader through many interviews.  Once I started working, he still sent me an email every few months just to follow up and see how things were going.  This sort of care is so uncommon, and I really appreciated how supportive it was (and continues to be).

It is not magical, but it is worth it. Pair programming is a fantastic experience. I do not think any complete noob can became job ready in 9-15 weeks. Epicodus is a great start. Affordable and well structured. There is a lot of places for improvement, but they are continuously worked on. The material is online, you can look at it. Epicodus is one of the few transparent bootcamps. You can actually make an educated decision, whether it is for you or not.

Here are the facts about my time at Epicodus:

1.  I got a job as a consultant at a Ruby on Rails shop within a week of graduating and has opened the door to a career.

2.  This was by far the most I ever enjoyed a class of any kind.  I could not wait to wake up get to class and start coding.

3.  I made a bunch of great friends.

If you were to ask me if Epicodus was worth it I would answer that it is a no brainer.  Absolutly worth every minute and dollar I spent.

I was in the Summer 2014 session(Javascript, Ruby, Rails).  I moved to Portland from Southern California to attend Epicodus.  My only experience in programming was the pre-course work that we had to do for the class before Day 1, and maybe fiddling around with pre-made Myspace & Tumblr layouts way back when.  I'll be honest, I definitely felt that not having any experience made it especially hard because it's difficult not to compare yourself to the ones who are moving at a quicker pace, especially during that first month.

About the school:  

It's a 4 month long immersive program, with the 4th month being an internship at a local company.  Class was 5 days a week, 9am-5pm (there would often be students who were there outside of class hours to work as well).  Once a week, they would bring in a guest speaker to talk to us about the industry, as well as answer our questions and give us an opportunity to network.  

Once internship time rolled around, we all had a few weeks to go over the list of companies available to us.  We chose our top 10 to interview with.  Out of the 10, Epicodus worked their matchmaking-magic and set students up to interview with 5 of the 10 they chose.  The week and a half of interviews was stressfull as heck.  It was the week students became sharks in order to get their top choice (just kidding).  After interview week, students made another 'top 3' list out of the companies they interviewed with, and the companies also ranked their top candidates.  Then Epicodus worked their matchmaking-magic again and boom, success, most of us(if not all) ended up with companies that we were happy with and had a great experience at.  

Not only was Epicodus there to help us gain programming experience out in the real world, but we had a whole week of interview practice, something that colleges may offer but don't always push you to do.  Best of all, a good number of Epicodus students were hired on full-time at the companies they interned at.  For those who weren't,  after the 4-month session came to a close, the Epicodus coordinators continued to work hard at networking and reaching out to companies in order to find employment for their alumni.  They kept in contact with us, encouraging us to keep our github active, and not to give up on applying to jobs.  They would also bring in recruiters every so often to give us mock interviews.  It is no joke how much Epicodus cares about its students.

A year ago, I was working at a boutique PR firm, making minimum wage.  Today I'm making games, something I never thought I would be doing in this lifetime.

I attended Epicodus a little over a year ago and had austerely minimal experience with coding beforehand. What I did have was a desire to learn and problem solve.

With a lack of experience came some nervousness, but that faded away after sharing my enthusiasm with Michael in our initial phone interview. What I had experienced over the phone came to fruition in class as well: what matters most is having the ambition to take the time to fully understand something and figure out how to make it better. Michael teaches you the "how" and "why" of coding. The class as a whole encourages how to teach yourself!

That's the beauty of Epicodus - you're immersed in a learning environment where no one knows everything no matter how long they've been coding! Everyone is learning all the time constantly having new ideas, creating and figuring out many ways to solve many a problem. While I took the Ruby/JS course, the point of an immersive coding class was executed in full at Epicodus. The objective isn't merely to learn as much as possible about the languages covered (however, that's awesome too), but to go beyond that and understand the building blocks of web development, regardless of the language.

Michael has a knack for spreading the excitement and fun in web development because he's a developer at heart. That's what makes him such a great teacher: always striving to make things better. Be it code, be it Epicodus itself.

Long story short, I recommend it :)

The reason I chose Epicodus over other programs is the founder Michael. He is truly a wonderful person. He crafted the program with the intention to help as many people as possible. All course materials are freely available online and that alone speaks to his genuine passion to teach anyone to code.  I would highly recommend this program to anyone dissatisfied with his or her career prospects. The Epicodus sponsored one-month internship is why I am currently employed and being paid to learn iOS development.  

I came into Epicodus, physically, with nothing.
However, I did come with a passion for coding and a desire to learn. It quickly turned into the best experience I could possibly have.
It is exemplary in teaching you the skills needed. This is shown even moreso in how Michael has continued to offer cohorts for students that fall into disciples other than the typical RoR and JS setup. He truly wants to play it to what the market needs and is best for the students.

My class was very successful. Everyone has done well afterwards, and I'm doing amazing in my career and keep growing. And Epicodus doesn't only just teach you how to code. Michael is completely dedicated to virtues like diversity, lack of discimination and sexism, and other matters of that nature and it shows. It is the most friendly, inviting room in PDX and I believe it will be that way a long while.