Software Guild

I come from a background in many different areas. The most recent being ministry. I had a 4 year degree in math and about a year of self-taught experience as I was beginning the Louisville Software Guild .NET/C# Bootcamp. I quickly exhausted all that I learned in my year of self-teaching within the first 3 weeks of the bootcamp. Not only did I learn how to code, but I also learned other concepts that are extremely important if you want to break into the field. Concepts like OOP, how to write clean code, testing, data structuring, MVC, and others. Between in-class work and home-work I put in, on average, 70 hours a week for the duration of the 12 weeks. I also drove an hour one way everyday to attend the in person bootcamp. I say that just in case someone else is thinking about taking the plunge but doesn't live in Louisville. It was difficult, but definitely doable. After the Guild it only took 2 weeks to be hired by a company in Louisville. I believe most of my class (maybe 90%) of them had already accepted/pending job offers by this point as well. 

The only negative thing I could say about my time with the Software Guild was that my .NET/C# professor was pretty terrible, but he's since moved on from the Software Guild. All the other staff is phenomenal though! 

Good program. I like how you can take both the .Net and Java classes when you take one for regular price. You get a lot of practical instruction on useful enterprise-level Java tools to immediately become marketable to employers. Sometimes the lectures got long and boring (I like it when the lecturer has his stuff all together and organized to instruct us, having to hunt and peck for the answers is very distracting). The instructors really do know a lot about the material and I'm glad I got to study under them. I just hope that I'm able to get a job now that I've come through their bootcamp. I've got some really cool programs in my portfolio.

I went to the Software Guild in 2014 when it was known as The Software Craftsmanship Guild, and this review will document my conclusions as a “graduate” who has been in the industry for three years now. 2014 was at the very beginning of the coding bootcamp bubble that has since developed. In short, my experience with the Software Guild was disappointing, and that disappointment has persisted and amplified as I have attempted to work in the software development industry. 

First, I found the Software Guild curriculum to be underdeveloped at best. It was very cookie cutter and essentially a weak clone of the curriculums developed by the original west coast camps (Hack Reactor etc.). In retrospect, I can confidently conclude that the instruction was abysmal. Anything of substance that I learned during my time at the Software Guild was due to my autodidactic tendencies. (pro tip: if you don’t have autodidactic tendencies…DO NOT go into software development. You really do have to be learning new material constantly) Without fail, my instructor (Eric Wise) would stop in the middle of lectures to answer business phone calls or meet with potential investors visiting the site. I found this incredibly disrespectful to the students who each paid $10,000 for the course. If this had occurred in the first week of the course, I would have demanded a refund on the spot, but unfortunately I was too deep into the program to quit. I realized halfway through the program that Eric Wise is an enthusiastic salesman and businessman, NOT an instructor. Finally, there was some woefully inadequate "career guidance" that consisted of the other founder (Jenny Zamberlan) ensuring that we would parrot the script of non-thinking yes men/women during our interviews with prospective employers. Most of my classmates were employed with 3-month contracts upon leaving the Guild. I sure hope the Software Guild does not count these short contracts in their employment statistics, but something tells me they sure do.

My experience after the boot camp ended has been equally disappointing. Anybody who is smart enough to be a legitimate software developer should understand some basic economics. Opportunities for developers are heavily influenced by the supply/demand curve, and the supply of "developers" is rapidly increasing due to increased CS degree enrollment and the glut of boot camp "graduates." Many employers now view boot camp graduates with deep suspicion. I have actually removed The Software Guild from my resume and all employment sites, as I feel that having a no name boot camp on my CV is actually harmful to my employment prospects. Also, the H1B threat is real. I thought it was a bunch of “took mah jerbs” tripe a few years ago, but I have since lost my job to a flock of Indians on H1B visas. You must understand that the types of software development jobs that are accessible to boot camp graduates are HEAVILY exposed to the risk of outsourcing and H1B abuse. With no CS degree and only 12 weeks of experience, you are a code monkey when you “graduate” from a boot camp, and this global economy has plenty of code monkeys who want your job more than you do.

In conclusion, if it's too good to be true...well, you know the rest. If you are serious about a substantive career as a technology professional, please heed my advice and earn a legitimate computer science degree from a well-known 4 year institution. You'll have a depth of knowledge that is orders of magnitude greater than a boot camp graduate. Anything that a boot camp can purportedly teach you in a few months can be learned on the side as you work towards your legitimate CS degree. 

The only good thing I have to say about my experience at The Software Guild was that some of my classmates were great people, and I am still in contact with some of them.

 

I took the bootcamp two years ago. The day went like this: The morning started with a standup meeting where everyone stood in a circle and each person stated what they did, are working on, and will work on. It was followed  by a short quiz on the PC about previous day's lecture and a short question/answer assignment. Then there was a lecture and some coding work along until lunchtime. After lunch we all worked on our coding warm ups.

The coding work along, that we were suppose to code along with the teacher, went a bit too fast for everyone to keep up comofortably. It was a rush to code what the teacher was coding; some got it and some didn't.

Those who moved into the Lofts (apartments they provide at a cost) teamed up and worked together while on the campus or in the apartment; they hung out together, ate lunch together, and worked together. Those who commuted from home were left on their own to work alone. So, it was one these commuting students who eventually were given the boot after 4 week evaluation.

After 4 weeks there is an evaluation, if they think you are good enough to complete the bootcamp then they let you stay and if they think you are not then they expel you. You will have finished the .NET material by then, and the next few weeks is covering the other full stack stuff (html, javascript), and then the project. 

The cost is $10k some of which can be refunded depending on when you drop out or are kicked out.

They had a guy who helps with finding a job. He was very unproffessional and wasted everyone's time. He was in the program before and dropped out but came back and got a job as an HR person to help graduates get a job (from what previous guild members said).

I am a recent graduate and had a WONDERFUL experience going through the Java Bootcamp at the SoftwareGuild school in Louisville, KY.  The instructors were professional, super intellegent, engaging, supportive and tough when they needed you to push your limits.  The course content was very applicable and I feel prepared me for the position I'm now working in.

The school staff was also very supportive and easy to work with.  I would highly recommend this school to anyone who is trully committed to emersing themselves in learning a fast paced environment geared toward learning in demand skills, fast!

 

 

I attended The Software Guild Java Bootcamp in Louisville, KY between February and April 2017.

The curriculum included full stack development, so to say we covered a lot of ground in a short time is an understatement.  Although I have an IT background, I was completely foreign to Java and many of the supporting technologies that we covered during the course.

The pace of the coursework was sometimes - adequately - described as drinking from a fire hose (or three), and it required adapting to an agile mindset that was willing to simply "follow the pattern" to finish the objective and have faith that the understanding will sink in later.  For me, this was especially challenging - after all, my future job prospect was dependent upon me *understanding* Java development - but, eventually, I made the adjustment, and found the guidance to be true.

Given this, I must credit the staff and instructors at The Software Guild.  I believe they made all the difference by showing genuine interest in our success and compassion during the challenging times.  

The Guild has a great curriculum that starts slow with the basics of programming and gradually moves faster between topics.  If you're familiar with programming then the first month will probably be a recap for you.  The instructors are helpful and insist on asking questions.  They have resources outside of the scheduled lessons for more detailed learning, so you can learn at your own pace.  Their facilities are excellent and equipped with everything you'd need to feel comfortable and prepared.  They have social activities where you can meet alumni and software developers.  And they're committed to helping you find employment once you're finished.

I was an apprentice in the Software Craftsmanship Guild's Fall 2013 Java Cohort. The Software Craftsmanship Guild was an excellent experience, and I highly recommend it.

I believe that I am the first of our cohort to review, so I'll share some stats. 7 started, 6 finished. Job seekers who weren't already affiliated with staffing firms all received jobs. 2 received full tuition reimbursement.

Like many of the apprentices who left reviews, I had no background in software development. I had been teaching in a private school in Beachwood, OH for five years and I was looking for a change. I had really wanted to enter the software space, but was having difficulty figuring out how to do it.

I tried to take advantage of online coursework, both free and paid, but they were all lacking. All of those courses could teach me the concepts, but they couldn't provide me with enough exercises to truly reach mastery. These courses could provide experienced and thoughtful instructors who could lecture, but that was about it. I wanted someone who I could interact with, ask questions to, review my work, and coach me. In the online courses, I was all by myself. Forget about instructors, I had no camaraderie. At the guild, I would be working with every member of the cohort as we tried to learn and use this new information. Lastly, the online courses are interested in providing you with information. I wanted to be mentored by experienced developers. I wanted to create a network with other (future) developers.

The Guild provided me with all of those things and more.

Eric Ward, our instructor was, and continues to be, a tremendous teacher and friend. He is at the cutting edge of his discipline and can still make any and all of these concepts accessible to the neophyte. He was supportive but pushed us to get better. He taught us concepts, best practices, and helped us get a feel for the new industry and what employers were looking for.

Eric Wise, although not with our cohort day to day, brought headhunters, career advisors, and other meaningful speakers to help navigate the job search and enrich our experience.

The other apprentices were absolutely fantastic. I am happy to say that over 12 short weeks I have made new friends, coworkers, and network contacts. I hope to stay in touch with them for a long time.

As fantastic as the program is, your success rests in your own hands. It is a lot of work. It can be overwhelming and intimidating at times. However, you can do it, and everyone there will do everything in their power to help you. But you have control your own destiny. You have to put in the time both during hours and after hours. You have to practice and repeat. You can't be bashful about asking for help. I know that I was shameless about doing so.

One last piece of advice: I used something called the "Two Week Rule." I realized that whenever we were learning something new that I would only completely understand it or feel completely comfortable with it after two weeks. By doing this I was able to limit the anxiety and overwhelming confusion of new concepts. If you can convince yourself that this is the case (and you do the requisite work) your life will be much easier (especially in the first four weeks).

Take this course. Be great!

This was an intense 12 week course that challenged me every step of the way.  I started the course with no coding background and felt like I was always trying to catch up to my peers.  In the end I completed the course and after a little de-stressing realize how much I really learned.  Upon landing a job as a software engineer, my solid background in Object Orientated Programming and C# became evident to me.

I would recommend this course to others who are willing to put aside their life for 12 weeks to learn the material so you can launch yourself into a new career. 

The Software Guild is a fast-paced coding boot camp and if you are not ready to give up 12 weeks of your life to learn a new craft and really put in the effort, then this is not for you. 

The Software Guild is not like traditional schooling where you can do the bear minimum, show up to class, and graduate. You must work every day on your skills during your time at the guild. The boot camp can be super stressful especially if you have not had prior experience. Although it is not required I would recommend getting familiar with a language before signing up. 

In 3 months, I went from knowing nothing about programming, to accepting a job as a developer. If you are dedicated to becoming a software developer The Software Guild is a great decision.

I finished the Guild in October 2016, and I don't think I could have a higher opinion of the program. In the three months I was there, I learned how to write a functional web application from scratch (a blog) which was more than enough for me to get a two very good job offers one week out of the guild. But let me begin at the beginning.

The three two weeks covered fundamentals of Object-Oriented Programming in Java and frankly, they were the toughest part of the course. At the time, I spent 70+ hours on Guild assigned work (but I want to emphasize, not more than that. I had plenty time to sleep). Fortunately, the first three weeks are the most intense! I guess they do that to see if you can get your brain to click when it comes to object oriented programming.

And some students will find that challenging, and two out of my cohort dropped out by week three. We had no one else drop out afterwards and then most of us were clocking about 60 hours weekly. Regarding what you will learn: Enough java for a junior dev job, Spring framework, HTML, CSS and Javascript (although, the fundamentals for these three are covered in the pre-course). You will also learn two other features of JavaScript, Ajax and jQuery which are essential for modern web development.

Once you edge towards the end of the program, the guild will have a job fair, which seems to provide about 60% - 70% of all the jobs. Currently, a big chunk of graduates are taken by one company, and I'll let the reader figure out what it is. However, I will say that the Guild is constantly expanding its network and is more attuned to the needs of employers needs than the two expensive private universities I have graduated from (yes, the guild has higher placement and better average salaries than they do [adjusting the salary for the living costs, since most grads end up in Cleveland/Akron area] and both rank in global 30 for employability).

Out of my cohort of 8 students, I believe there is one who is still seeking employment after 3 months. One found a job while still in the program, me and another student got a job after one week the program ended, and I think that three more guys who got jobs one month afterwards. One more guy got a job I'm not sure when, but started working in January.

Most of these were local. One person went to NJ and another to Columbus, so I guess I'm not qualified to say if being in the Guild will get you that stellar job somewhere else. From what I hear, it's more difficult but definitely doable.

I guess now's the time for the honor roll. What I said for the guild, goes double for my instructor Pat Toner. From day one, Pat has been able to be totally informal and completely acessible while remaining a professional. That's not easy to do, but he was open to answering stupid questions, or pretty much what have you, and he always managed to set us on the right track. Additionally, he'll give you honest answers about the job market as he has experienced it for the last 15 years. 

On a larger scale, the Erics (Wise and Ward) in charge are also deeply committed to a functional business model. After spending time at Guild, I fully believe that they want to make sure they teach you the real skills for the real world out there. Everything at the guild is oriented towards that.

Also, the staff always have time for the students. If you post a question one of the slack channels, it will be answered within minutes, granted it's not 10 pm or something.

Do yourself a favor, don't waste your money and most importantly YOUR TIME on this program. I will be reviewing online .Net program only. The in-person bootcamp might be good due to live interactions with the instructors and some accountability, but please STAY AWAY from the online program.  Here is why:

1) They will make you buy a $700 laptop for $1500 (Dell Latitude E5470). I’ve owned several PC’s and before the start of online cohort I asked one of the instructors, if I could save some money and use one of my existing machine for the course. He categorically said no, saying that “the Guild doesn’t want to support somebody else’s hardware”. I went ahead and purchased a $1500 laptop to find a mediocre machine with Community Edition Visual Studio on it, that I could have downloaded myself for free. Here I was with one more PC in my collection

2) Poor platform. The Software Guild claims that their instructors have had big experience developing for the enterprise, but the fact was that they couldn’t build their own decent educational platform. They use pre-build so-called “Moodle” platform, which lacked any functionality other than hosting pdf’s and videos. 

3) Pre-Work $1000. Absolutely not worth it.   It consists of very poorly written 2-3 page pdf’s. You will learn much more on platforms, such as codeacademy.com

4) They don’t keep promises. Before we started the program, we had an orientation session in which we were promised:

• to be checked by a mentor/TA every week. My mentor Randall Clapper never did.

• Flipped classroom Session every week

• One-on-One sessions with mentors that you can schedule in advance.

And guess what. By the middle of the program, we didn’t have any of those

5) Busy staff. Assignments and quizzes were checked a month after the submission due date, so you won’t get your code reviewed on time. I had my assignments and quizzes finally checked after I dropped out (month later).

6) Unorganized curriculum. This was pretty much the reason I dropped out of the program. I had to read other books and watch video tutorials to understand concepts, because of low quality reading material and confusing videos. Why the hell I have to pay money to the Guild, if they can’t teach me right. 

The bottom line is this. This program is not worth $10K. If you want to learn web development in online environment  and don’t risk your money doing that, check out launchschool.com ($200/month). Really quality education!  If you want to stick to .Net career path, buy good .Net books like Troelson's "Pro C#" and hire a mentor at codementor.io. It will be cheaper and more effective. If you have questions about this online program email me directly moisklad@yahoo.com and I will answer any questions, before you shell out $10K.

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Note from moderators: The following is consolidated from a separate review written on 1/30/2016.

Eric, you are in no position to verify me on this site. This is why there is a option here "Review Anonymously". I can prove to readers that I was indeed a student of the program by submitting documents that I still have or you can ask me any question related to online .Net program .Just let me know if I should do this. So please don't try to discredit my review, by doubting my enrollment with the Guild. Below are my comments to your answers.

• "Laptop Cost: Laptop purchases are no longer required.​" "...they were sold at-cost and did include a premium support package​...:

OK. Will you buy back my laptop then? Or at least refund me the "premium" part of it?  "a premium support package". Really? $700 laptop with premium support that cost another $800?

• "Poor Platform...Building our own system would take resources away from students ​..."

You guys charge $10,000 per student! It's your responsibility to find resourses to provide modern learning system for students, not the ancient one that you had when I was enrolled. You pride yourself to be enterpise level developers. Show students your skills by actually building something useful for students.

• "Pre-work $1,000: The Introduction to Web Development course is being updated and released as a free online course in 2017​"

Can I get my $1000 back? Seriously your material really really sucks and not worth even $20!

• "Our mentors, including Randall, are available every weekday via a program we call open office hours ​..."

Had sessions with Randall as well as a flipped classrom session with him. He was so bad at teaching, that nobody in class had any questions to him at the end of a flipped session. During my mentor sessions with him, I noticed that  he doesn't explain how and why things work, he just tells you what to type on a certain line. That is a bad teaching 

• "Flipped classroom weekly sessions were ended due to student survey feedback ​"

Nobody asked me about my opinion about flipped classroom sessions. I would've loved to have them. How did you survey student? Why I was never asked?

• "Our policy is to have assignments graded within 3 business days of submission​..."

So I guess both employees that did my code reviews did not do it on time. They were Phil W. and  Randall C. Knowing their names proves you that I was a student at the Guild. And it's your responsibility as a Chief Academic Officer​ to make sure they follow the rules. And I did request Operations manager to change mentor for me. Never happened.

• "Unorganized curriculum​. Our hundreds of successful alumni would disagree with this assessment​"

Of course, because all those alumni are in-person students, whose face-to-face experience with instuctors is completely different from the online students. .

​Guys, all Eric's promising words aside, bottom line is that their online program is not there yet for them  to charge $10,000. $1,000-$2,000 maybe at most. Their in-person bootcamp might be good due do live nature of classes and there is some accountability, because you can tell things to the face.  

I would suggest you to stay away from the Online .Net program until they guarantee 100% money back, no matter how late you request them . I strongly suggest you to contact at least 3 current students to ask them questions and don't believe if they say that students are not willing to be contacted. My mistake is that I contacted only 1 student and he was the one chosen by the Guild. Later that student dropped out himself. It just show how bad their online program is. 

As I said before, if you have qustions about the program or need an honest feedback on the staff at the Guild, feel free to contact me at moisklad@yahoo.com. Good luck!

I attended the Java cohort over this past summer. My instructor was Mr. Pat Toner. The classes were casual and comfortable. I was really impressed with Pat's patience. We gave weekly code reviews (often the code didn't work for everybody), we asked silly questions, we brought up various software issues for him to fix, and we did plenty of other annoying things. He was always encouraging and approachable.

As for the course, I had little programming experience so I don't have much to compare it to. I got a job outside of the network shortly after the course ended. I had several interviews and the course seems to  have covered many of the topics an interviewer would expect out of a jr. dev to know about. Certainly, you are going to have to put a lotta hours and expand on the topics covered in class hours outside of those times.

The staff that runs the job network is helpful and provide you with some useful tools and activities like mock interviews, and CV and linkedIn help. However, SG misleads propspective students in terms of the employer hiring event. If you go to their website, and if you ultiimately enroll in a cohort you might be getting into this with the impression that you'll have a shot with 100s of companies they are connected with. That's not really the case. About 5 showed up looking for Java devs and 5 for .NET. A good chunk of students landed jobs with these companies. But if it's not in NE Ohio or not exactly what your looking for you'll be outta luck.

Anyway, I'd reccomend attending SG. If you put in the time you can be successful there.

 

 

 

When someone tried to sell me on this idea that I could change my whole world in 12 weeks, I was quite skeptical. Long story short, this was the best career decision I ever made in my life. If I could go back, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

As for a little background, I had a lot of education before I showed up at the guild. The problem was that none of my previous degrees helped me land a job doing much more than performing menial tasks for more than $18,000 a year. Just for the record, these weren't degrees in underwater basket-weaving from Mom-and-Pop's Community College, either. Still, after spending so much money in student debt, I was skepitcal about throwing even more money at a vocational program. After a lot of consideration, I decided to bite the bullet and take a chance with the guild. By the 11th week, so many companies were making me offers that I couldn't keep up with all of them. In point of fact, my dream job back home as a front end developer couldn't afford me because I had so many better prospects doing full stack in another state. By week 11, I already secured a job paying more money then I ever thought I'd be making with full benefits, relocation, and education reimbursement. As I write this, I'm getting ready to move into the house I'm going to rent  -- located in the most affluent neighborhood anyone in my family has ever lived in.

What I would add is that I took the program very seriously, never missed a day, showed up around 6:30 every morning, I didn't really ever go out while I was there, and I'm not a stupid individual. That being said, I wasn't even the best developer in the class, but I worked very hard and managed to get a ton of job offers. If the goal is to get a tech job and you're willing to buckle down in one of the most difficult programs ever for 12 weeks, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. From my limited experience, the ones that didn't make it simply didn't put in the work or had some kind of attitude problem. At least when I was there, the standards to get into the program are so high that everybody who made it in is intelligent enough to succeed, so it really comes down to hard work.

I also kind of lucked out and got who I feel was the best instructor (Pat Toner), but I did keep in touch with all of the instructors to ask for help and stuff. Needless to say, I took advantage of pretty much every resource they gave me and it worked out fine for me.

Now that I think about it, as much as I'd like to complain about something so I don't sound like a group-think robot, there honestly isn't really much negative I can say about the program. They even screen everybody pretty well so there's seldom anyone on site with poor social skills (and that's saying quite a bit for a computer programming bootcamp). In fact, they even did personality assessments on your roommates to make the transition easier.

Just know if you're considering going that it's very hard and it takes a lot of discipline to suceed here. If you can pull it off, it really is what it's cracked up to be.

The syllabus was impressive, covering a full stack of well-known technologies. 

Coursework was largely group dependent. If your partner did not hold up their end of the assignment, your grade would suffer. The instructor was extremely poor in grading and giving feedback, even when requested. Not a single piece of code was graded for our second half of the cohort until a few days before the final was due.

The instructor did not complete the syllabus material, despite us having a few free days to do nothing towards the end of finals week. Even requested review sessions were not covered. When our concerns were voiced to the instructor, he became vindictive and left poor comments on our certificate.

If you are not willing to teach yourself most of the coursework, and cannot learn properly without feedback, I would not recommend this course to you.