Skill Distillery

I was never a student and got turned down for the November 2015 cohort.

I AM NOT HERE TO PROTEST MY REJECTION.  

I would like to simply provide feedback on the lack of professionalism shown by the admissions staff.  During the process, I was really more curious as to what my shortcomings were so I could develop them and re-apply, if able.  Throughout the process, multiple emails and phone calls went unanswered by Admissions Rep, even though she told me in-person that ALL applicants are given feedback, regardless or their acceptance or rejection.

After 3X emails to her, I had to physically visit the office to confront her for a simple explanation as to my status.  She immediately claimed she gave my application to the School DIrector for review and notification.  If this is true, he simply never followed up with me.  Why?  You'll have to ask him.

As of 1/4/16, I followed up to see if I could re-apply for the FEB 2016 cohort.  The School Director choose to email the next day claiming that the application process would not be revised until July and that I was unable to apply until then.  I see no fault in this, as the school is free to do what they choose.

However, i'm not OK with the fact that the School Director offered to answer any questions I had in his email, but has yet to reply to anything I asked about...i'm still waiting.

Overall, it appears that Skills Distillery is CHOOSING to treat people this way...and that's their prerogative...as long as they are willing to deal with the consequences:)

FYI...I did take both Learn by the Byte courses offered by the school on Udemy.com.  The online Instructor was excellent...and i'm sure he's probably even better in person.  

All thumbs down... do not attend... don't ask me why, Mr. Boyle has already told you why.

It pangs me to write this as I truly do appreciate and value the staff at Skill Distillery but unfortunatley when 9 months of my ("would-have-been-had-I stayed-til-the-end-and-not-left-half-way-through") GI Bill benefits are at stake, the exchange is idiotic. Mr. Boyle gives you the "why", I am here to confirm his sentiments. 

Perhaps as they evolve, assuming they figure out a way to do so given the fact that, last I checked, all but one student has left the third cohort, they will become a more appealing bootcamp. Until that day comes, I'm skeptical that it will. That said, stay away from Skill Distillery like its a rat with the plague. 

I want to reiterate, this pangs me immensely to write this as I did grow fond of the folks there but again at the end of the day when 16k is on the line, or 9 months of GI Bill benefits like it ultimately would have been for me, my god, do not toss the dice here. You'd have better luck taking a late night stroll through a back alley in Compton.

///Quick injection to note. The two lead instructors were more than professional. In no way does this review serve to paint an ill picture as to either their quality as individuals or developers/instructors. They were plagued with antiquated methodologies and dogma that kept them from actualizing as they could have had they, i guess "see the light" of optimal learning methodologies.///

Skill Distillery is a poorly planned and executed bootcamp that will take enormous amounts of both your time and money. A dangerous mix of incompetence and questionable integrity creates a learning environment that robs students of motivation and their money/VA benefits. Students have been exiting in droves after getting a glimpse into the inner workings of the school - my cohort started with 12 students, went down to 3, and is potentially losing more students before they finish. 

Despite advertising decades of experience, we were only their third cohort. The previous cohorts consisted of 5 and 8 students. Skill Distillery hired a couple students out of the previous cohorts, but beyond that they provide no examples or success stories regarding students getting employment. From what I gather, some students have gone back to their previous employment. They refuse to showcase previous cohorts projects, probably due to the fact that one TA described them as 'sucking.'

Simple concepts such as paired programming and integrating into the workforce were barely covered. They were shoehorned in at the last minute in a last ditch attempt at saving our class, but this futile attempt at reinvigorating the class failed spectacularly

Hours of lecture, consisting of material being read from books in a monotone, took up the vast majority of the days. Keyboard time was minimal, and consisted of editing, cutting and pasting code provided by the publishers of the texts. 

I and several other students spent hours and hours in meetings giving requested feedback to no avail. Previous cohorts were described as being unmotivated and/or of questionable talent. The lack of professionalism was a red flag, the refusal to showcase prevoius students final projects was a red flag, the disparaging remarks regarding previous students was a red flag, the terrible texts provided to us after the first few weeks were red flags, but perhaps the biggest red flag of all was the look of utter defeat on the faces of the students in the cohort ahead of us. Unfortunately, I managed to ignore all the warning signs for a while, due to my desire to make this program work. 

There was one shining part of that program, and that is the instructor who teaches the first quad covering Java. He is an amazing teacher. After that, the program falls apart. 

It is my opinion that anyother bootcamp in Colorado is superior. If you need to use your VA benefits, wait until other bootcamps get certified. Many are in the process of doing so right now. 

I have always wanted to be a developer, and I will not let the shenanigans at Skill Distillery deter me from that goal. I am attending another bootcamp in Colorado, and I will post a review once I complete it. 

It is my opinion that you should choose Skill Distillery only if you are long on time and money, short on wits, and wish to remain unemployed for as long as possible.  

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at my first and last name at gmail. Everything I have stated is factual and accurate - I have saved all emails, text messages, and slack messages in the event that I am questioned or attacked for providing honest reviews. 

Skill Distillery was, simply, the best decision I could have made while making a radical career change in my mid-30s.  The staff was enthusiastic and knowledgable, the curriculum was relevant and rigorous, and the quality of my fellow students was inspiring.  A year after graduating from this school I can say, without a doubt, that the training I received there is directly responsible for much of the success I've had in the time since.  I would highly recommend this course to all students, at all levels of ability, who are looking to work hard and make a positive change in their lives.

Prior to attending Skill Distillery I spent time as a musician, bus driver, and 6 years in the Navy.  When it was time to transition from active duty toward a new career, I was looking for training in computer programming that would be comprehensive enough to get a job but wouldn't take so long that it would take me out of the job market for an extended period.  I chose to go to SD because it seemed to offer both of these: the curriculum boasts an impressive list of technologies with an emphasis on Java and the training is only 19 weeks long.  Because they also took the GI bill, it made the program an obvious choice.

I arrived at the school with previous, self-taught experience.  The training I received at the school was way beyond what I could have done on my own, however.  I was challenged throughout the curriculum, as were the other students.  But, with that challenge came a lot of employable skills.  I left the school with an Oracle Java SE7 certification and a strong grasp of OOP/OOD, Java SE, Spring, SQL, Amazon Web Services, JavaScript, Angular, Agile methodologies, and more.  

After leaving the school I had four job interviews within one month of graduation and got four job offers.  Two of the job offers were for Java developer postions and two were for python ( a language we didn't even cover at the school).  Two of those jobs offered 6 figure starting salaries.  The job I chose put me in a very interesting and fullfilling role as a cyber security web application developer for a large bank usign python/django.  Within a few months I was a lead developer.  Many of my fellow developers have no idea that I have little on-the-job experience.  Because of the comprehensive training I received at the school and the experienced I gained rapidly developing projects, I fit in rather easily.

I would absolutely recommed this school to anyone who is serious about making a change into software development.  You will be challenged, for sure.  But, if you stick with the curriculum, you will be amazed at how much you can learn.  Because this school doesn't cut corners or offer only easily-learned technologies, you will be in a great position to show potential employers that you have what it takes to make a meaningful contribution to their team!

Steve, the main core Java programming instructor, is let's just say, emotional.  I can't even tell you how many times he has yelled at our class or threatened to kick someone out in front of the class, and in some cases succeeded much to the financial detriment of the student.   Do not take this course, if you get even a little behind they will force you to quit or fall back to a previous cohort. This used to be a very good environment, it's very disappointing now, it has become a culture of fear and is very hard to learn in.

Skill Distillery first caught my eye when I saw they accepted the GI Bill, and they happened to be close to home. I'd heard vaguely about coding bootcamps, and dismissed them without much thought, figuring they were all a scam somehow. But all of a sudden I had a relatively low risk option, and decided to check them out.

What I got was far beyond my expectations. I took about a year of computer science back in college, and this program blew through everything I knew in the first two weeks. It was challenging. Java is challenging. And adding in the full stack to build web applications with SQL, JDBC, JPA, JSPs, HTML, and CSS made me wonder if I could grasp it all. And then moving to JavaScript and building these apps using a whole other suite of technologies (Node.js, Express, jQuery, AJAX, Angular...) was like climbing to the top of a mountain only to realize I was only at the saddle. Looking back I can't believe how much I learned in 19 weeks.

I started looking for a job a little later than most, but started interviewing in the last week of school. In every interview I had I would describe what I had learned and the response was always "you worked with [fill in the blank] technologies? Well that's exactly what we do here." In some cases the employer could see areas where I could show them something new. All my interviews were favorable, and 10 days after I graduated I had an offer I couldn't refuse working with a great group of people. For the first time in my life I'm turning down job offers, and making more money than I ever would have imagined.