Tech Talent & Strategy

I just finished the part-time program with Tech Talent South last month and had a really positive experience. I was wanting to transition careers within the next year and thought that adding coding to my art/design background would allow me more options. Prior to attending Tech Talent South I had tried to teach myself coding and found it to be a frustrating process. I finally realized I needed a more supportive environment. The people at Tech Talent South are great. They are friendly and accessible. Betsy (co-founder) talked to me in-depth on the phone and through emails answering all my questions about the program. Richard (co-founder) also talked to me by phone/email and attended most of the classes and events. He checked up on the students constantly and was there to help each of us with anything that was needed. The level of support in this program is tremendous. The classes themselves were both fun and informative. Robby, the instructor, was really good at engaging the class in the difficult concepts. He was very patient and made sure to review often and to constantly assess where everyone was during the course.

The program is very fast-paced and you need to do the homework and/or additional tutorials in order to learn what you need to know. I did not receive a full-time job offer after the program, however, I was not looking for one at this time. I am under contract with my current employer for at least another year. There are plenty of opportunities to get internships and/or to meet with prospective employers. I did obtain a part-time internship with a really cool start-up. This should allow me to gain more experience for when I am ready to transition over to a design or programming position. Tech Talent South is still in contact with me even after the program ended and still provides support, etc. I definitely recommend this program if you are wanting to learn coding and become more familiar with the programming and/or start-up community.

The thing I learned most from this class is how to code. I thought it was a great introductory and quick way to pick up this skill. The lessons were great, and I loved how the projects helped apply the skills we learned. I also loved how the other classmates were all here to learn and the fact that the class does not focus on the grades but instead creates an environment to learn, practice, and make mistakes. However, one thing I wish the class did better on was to spend more of class working on practice problems rather than being lecture heavy. I think that the best way to get better at coding is just practice.

The biggest challenge I overcame at TTS was the fact that I had no prior coding experience or knowledge. I think that the class can sometimes move quickly and be hard for people that come in not knowing anything. I was fortunate enough to have a lot of time on my hand to spend extra hours practicing and studying. I think the homework and projects are great, but I do not think it is enough to truly grasp and understand all the concepts you learn.  

As I continued to take the TTS class and beef up my resume, I was constantly looking for job opportunities. Luckily, I was given an offer at a company called Infor. Infor is a global leader in business cloud software products for companies in industry-specific markets. Infor builds complete industry suites in the cloud and efficiently deploys technology that puts the user experience first, leverages data science, and integrates easily into existing systems. TTS allowed me to have the skills needed to be in an analyst position using things like excel and how to manipulate and look at data. My position as a Renewal Operation Analyst allows me to provide processing, support, and data maintenance for the Maintenance and Subscription Renewal Process.  The Renewal Operations Analyst will have daily use of the IDB (Installations Database), which houses the Maintenance & Support products, current maintenance dates, pricing, and all other data pertaining to renewal billing for all of Infor’s customers.

I want to thank TTS and this whole program for equipping me and training me with the skill necessary to be successful in a tech role. With this new position, I hope to continue to use the skills I gained through TTS and move into a management role. I want to go back to school and get my MBA and hopefully start my own tech business. I believe that tech is the future. I am very thankful I was able to learn and grow through a company like TTS. I will continue to remember this company and continue to tell my up-and-coming college graduates to look into TTS if they want to learn and pick up coding skills. 

I just want to warn anyone thinking about joining a Bootcamp, don't do it. There are better sources online (like Free Code Camp) that can help you learn by yourself, I really wish I knew better.
In short, I attended the Ruby Fullstack program in 2017 alongside with 8 more people from different backgrounds. How many of them got a job after the Bootcamp? None, how many still code? Very few, I saw someone who went to college for a CS degree, besides that, all of their Github repos look like cemetery. 
I work as a developer, but not thanks to the Bootcamp. I took the long road, understanding that time needed is relative because we all have different backgrounds, so instead of looking for a "coder in 3 months" deal, I thought of it in mastery approach, I got Colt Steele's Fullstack course on Udemy and did it slowly from start to finish, not moving until I really understood everything, I complemented what I learned with FCC, doing their challenges and getting projects in my portfolio. I followed different courses, took it one step at the time until I was ready to get a job (and I say get because once you are in there, there is much more to learn!).
My honest advice is for you to take the longer road, build yourself slowly but with very strong foundations, not in a rush but without stopping. I wish someone had told be this before spending all that money, that is why I felt the need to write this review even when this happened three years ago.

After leaving my job I wanted to pursue a career in Coding, to flesh-out my skills in the I.T. field. I came across their FULSTACK development Course.

I researched around and decided to take the 12 week course. The bootcamp was a great introduction to the Basics of programming in HTML, CSS, JAVAscript, JAVA, some awareness of Atlassian, Jira, Project Development, and Cloud.

It really sets you up to learn different programming languages and frameworks. I met a lot of great people during my time at TTS.

My instructor did awesome at explaining the lessons and you could tell he really cared about teaching the class.

The only thing I would have liked to see more of in the 12 week bootcamp is covering a more through approach to the relevant technologies and start each section with the introductory  "Lingo" aka learn the vocabulary, defintions, and associative examples that would be used in this context to really solidfy the acquisition of the "Knowledge Base" that would in turn Level up my Skillsets.

Also, some applicable job interview prep or solid assistance in getting my foot in the door would be welcoming. It is definitely not an easy course so be prepared to give it your all or else you might not get as much out of it as others who do.

 

Overall, I would definitely recommend taking some TTS classes to anyone who is trying to get into the field or just trying to learn something new.

Just mediocre. The instructors were surprisingly recent TTS grads, and had no teaching experience. They really struggled to match the levels of the students. Some of us were totally new and others had been programming for a bit on their own. The promise of 8 weeks and a lower price than alternatives seemed great, but in the end, 8 weeks just wasn't enough.

The curriculum was solid on what it covered, but didn't go into enough depth to really get us ready to work. Some people worked very hard in the class, and learned more, others didn't, and learned less. We did some company tours, but otherwise found the job assistnace lacking after we graduated, and months later, most of my class didn't seem to be working as developers. 

I really enjoyed my entire experience at Tech Talent South. Its bittersweet that today was the official last day. The daily lessons in learning how to code interesting applications/websites for users, homework assignments to increase our understanding of the topic, and daily networking opportunities gave me a real appreciation of what this bootcamp had to offer. I also enjoyed having guest speakers visit the coworking space and give a real world perspective in how coding has become a universal skill in every industry. The community manager and instructor were always here to help us out with random questions on any assignments we working on and also continued to encourage us to attend any other event that will help us be better front-end web developers. I'll definitely be thankful in applying these important lessons and skills throughout my career.

My instructor at Tech Talent South (Columbus) had never even worked as a programmer. A lot of the bugs we ran into, he couldn’t fix unless it was on his cheat sheet given to him by TTS. Great guy don’t get me wrong... just not enough experience to teach a class (a very expensive course at that).

VERY UNFORTUNATE that I didn’t do my research and trusted that my instructor would’ve been more qualified and experienced. Still have errors and bugs in most of the projects we worked on in class.

Such a shame :(