The Iron Yard

I got a job from an employer that attended my Demoday. I learned so much about OOP, framewroks, and even some design. I learned a lot about myself.

Iron Yard staff continue to support me and check in with me a year out of from graduation. I get career guidance, help with code, and encouragment. Some use the "codeschool" moniker, some use "bootcamp", I felt it was like it was a bootcamp. I have heard people in the armed forces speak of the comradery and closeness they have with their peers. I feel that way about the people in my cohort and my instructor. It is a leap of faith, a huge financial and time commitment. Iron Yard staff are well aware of that and respect it.

I came to the Iron Yard after three years in I.T. help desk when I realised that it was not something I wanted to make a career of. The difference in proactively solving problems rather than always reacting is what drew me to a career in programing.

I found the Iron Yard a perfect fit with the full immersion and fast pace. The Instructors were amazing in their capacity breakdown complex concepts into manageable pieces. The career support, between the lectures preparing you for applying for jobs and the opportunity at demo day to present in front of local employers, was excellent. It helped me get my current job shortly after graduation. Where I have found that not only did I come out of the Iron Yard with knowledge about Rails but I also had the tools to continue to learn and grow as a developer.

After going the traditional, four year degree, work in a cubicle route, I found myself extremely dissatisfied with the daily grind that my life had become. I decided to make a change and after some soul searching and research, ended up enrolled at The Iron Yard.

It was the best decision I've ever made. Gavin, the backend instructor is not only hands down one of the smartest people I have ever met, but he is an amazing teacher and he really cares. I suffered a pretty intense injury while I was at The Iron Yard and Gavin was instrumental in helping me get through it. For that alone I will be forever grateful. 

I have stayed involved with The Iron Yard long after completing the program and have seen how they quickly respond to feedback and adjust the curriculum to align with the skills that employers are looking for. Everyone who works at The Iron Yard is passionate about what they do and focused on the success of the students.

Toni is tireless with her networking and her efforts to turn The Iron Yard into the pillar of the community that it has become (there are months where there are code/tech meetups there almost every day). She is a great resource for the job hunt after the program. I was working at my current job just over a month after finishing The Iron yard, despite it wrapping up just before the hoilday season- not typically the best time of year to be job hunting.

If you are looking at code schools The Iron Yard is definitely among the best. I would not be where I am today without them.

This was my second course at The Iron Yard and I thoroughly enjoyed both experiences.  I just finished with Front End Engineering to fill out my portfolio to become more a Full Stack Developer.  My Instructor taught me how to think more like a programmer and use languages/libraries as tools to get projects completed.  If you are thinking about changing careers or even improving your current developer status then The Iron Yard is for you!

 

 

I am a recent graduate of the Front-end Engineering program at The Iron Yard - Nashville.

I had an incredible experience this past summer during the 12 weeks of intense, but awesome, course-work at The Iron Yard. I came from a background in public relations and photography, and had never worked in the tech industry before. My experience with coding was limited to a few online tutorials I had been doing before deciding to go to school.

It was really remarkable to step into the classroom on the first day, along with my classmates, and go from zero to sixty in a matter of weeks. Not only did we learn to code, but we learned that learning how to learn is a truly valuable skill, and one that employers look for in developers.

There really aren’t words to describe how great the Nashville staff is. They were always so accessible during and after class any time we needed anything, and truly went above and beyond to prepare me and my classmates for the job-hunt after graduation.

I’m currently a few weeks into my first job as a developer at an agency in Nashville and couldn’t be more stoked to be working in the tech industry! If you’re wondering if investing in three months of full-time coding can truly help you change your life, the answer is yes. I did it, and you can, too.

First, let me say that I had an excellent experience with The Iron Yard. Gabe (Campus Director), Jeff (Back End Instructor), and Mike (Front End Instructor) were always available and did what they could to help me.

My cohort, 12 weeks in length, was focused on Java. We also took on JavaScript, JQuery, and Android. Java is dense, but it is mature. Answers to questions can be found with a simple Google search and this was encouraged in the later weeks of the course. I made sure to get everything I could out of the course. I showed up early, left late and to be honest, usually that was necessary. I have been through college and flight training, this course was harder than both.

The course started at 9 a.m. in which there were 3 hours of lecture, followed by 5 hours of lab time. During lab time we worked on that evening's assignement. There was an assignment almost every day and sometimes those assignements took us more than one night to complete. Every weekend there was a cumulative project and I personally felt this is where I learned to apply the concepts we learned during lecture. Jeff and Mike have vast knowledge bases and encourage you to speak up when you do not understand. Do it! Ask questions! But, they did not always give you the answer. They want you to try to figure things out for yourself, then ask. The course culminated in the final 3 weeks where we worked on our final projects. The final project is very challenging and the deadline made it stressful.

After graduating, the job hunt, for me, was not as bad as I thought it would be. I will be filling a Web Developer role for a large entertainment company, next week. Gabe helped me every step of the way. He helped me iron out my resume and introduced me to potential employers. In preparation for getting a job, we had very generous hiring partners that would come in and help us understand the roles we would fill, give us tips about constructing our resumes, and the instructors were available for mock interviews when we were job-ready.

Overall, I would recommend The Iron Yard to anyone who wants a straightforward, challenging, yet rewarding education in their pursuit of a career in web development. If you put in the work, you will improve, you will make friends, and you'll learn a lot about yourself.

I went to The Iron Yard Atlanta, Donwtown campus' Frontend Engineering course in February of 2016. I hadn't written a single line of code before, but I had looked around at majors at some of the local colleges and kept finding that I didn't want to put 4 years into a possiblity for a career. I heard about The Iron Yard and how it was 12 weeks of intense learning. I had always liked technology and know that I'm a quick learner so I checked it out. 

Within a month of hearing about the course I was enrolled, withing 3 weeks of starting I knew that this was the path for me. I ended up coming back as the campus' TA for the next two Frontend cohorts and recently landed a job in the cybersecurity field.

I more than tripled my earning potential in 3 months of education. The people, the environment, and the experience are like no other, and I wouldn't change it for anything. Check out the online prework courses to see if you think coding is something you might want to do. If so, get in touch with one of the wonderful staff members at the campus closest to you to get started!

I came to the Iron Yard after years in Customer Service when I realized that I wasn't interested in my current career's long term path. I'd always wanted to work with code professionally, but for some reason never thought I would be able to become a good developer. I attended a few of the crash courses (really recommend this!) and met with the instructors and campus director before deciding that a career move right now could be the best thing for me. I graduated from the 12 week Back End Engineering course about two months ago and have had excellent career support since. I'm getting ready to accept my first position as a junior .NET developer and I couldn't be happier with the whole experience at The Iron Yard.

I had a great experience at The Iron Yard. My instructor, Chris was passionate about teaching and seeing us become developers. I worked harder in the 12 weeks I was in The Iron Yard than I ever have before, but the end result was more than worth it.

That being said, this program is not for everyone. TIY doesn't require previous experience of any kind before you start the program, but I would tell anyone interested in enrolling to do as much self learning as you can before you start. I was doing online tutorials off and on for around two years before starting TIY, and was able to come in with a base knowledge that really helped me in the first couple of weeks. Checking out some tutorials before enrolling will also give you an idea if you actually like software development.

If you're interested in TIY I would strongly encourage you to talk to a graduate from the campus you would be attending. Ask them every question you can think of. I was able to talk with several graduates from Durham before I enrolled and their insight into the amount of work I needed to prepare for was invaluable. 

The Iron Yard is a big investment of both time and money, and it's an investment I'm so glad that I made. 

I went through The Iron Yard Columbia's User Interface Design program when it was web design and development.  The course prepared me for a new career in just a few months of hard effort.  Some benefits of the way The Iron Yard operates:

• The bootcamp style learning means you live, breath, eat, and sleep the coursework for 12 weeks.  Similiar to traveling to France to learn French, by immersing yourself in the course and community, you learn much more rapidly than you would if you kept your old job and took classes at night.
• The community is awesome - your classmates, instructers, and alumni are all rooting for you.  We all want you to succeed and will help you in any way we can.
• The community gives you contacts for finding jobs.  People hire people they know and like, so talk to your instructors, presenters, and any speakers that come through. 
• I can't speak for all of their instructors, but my instructor was amazing - he was exceptional with pacing.  He allowed questions but not too far off topic.  He was good at monitoring the class to see by our glazed eyes if we were missing something and excellent at analogies and explanations that made sense.  He was always available to help, but willing to let us struggle through things, too.  Even in small classrooms, there's a range of abilities and learning styles, but he was fantastic at moving things in a way that kept us from being bored.  I can't say enough good things about the instructor I had.
• They help you find a job.  They won't find a job FOR you - you still need to put in the work - but they have contacts in place, give feedback, recommendations, and assistance.

I found out about The Iron Yard and read a slogan, 'Life's too short for the wrong career', and it's very true.  Making the decision to quit my job for at least 3 months, pay for school, and find a new job after was very scary but amazingly well worth it.  Because of the huge salary bump, I paid off my school loan in less than a year.  

To get through it and get a job on the other side, you need to be dedicated and hardworking.  If you're lackadaisical, you might not get very far.  If you really need a career change and are willing to commit to working hard, The Iron Yard can prepare you very well.

I work for a Company in Troy, Michigan called MOTOR Information Systems as a product manager.  We are a data licensing company for the automotive aftermarket.  We have databases and applications that help mechanical and collision repair shops calculate the cost of repairs (part numbers, pricing, and labor times) and execute the repairs (repair procedures, specifications, wiring diagrams, etc.).  We are a subsidiary of Hearst Business Media.

Hearst is offering qualified employees an opportunity to either upgrade their skills or learn new skills in software engineering.  This new program kicked off in 2016 and is called SEED, for Software Engineering Education and Development.  Nine employees across six companies were selected to attend different boot camps across the country.  Are jobs were secure upon completion and we continued to receive our salary.

I was part of SEED Genesis.  The idea is to offer product managers or quality analysts an opportunity to learn software coding so they come back with fresh ideas, new and better ways to execute in their current roles, or have an opportunity to be a developer.  After the boot camp, we are all doing a six month internship with our development teams at the respective companies.

For me, the experience has been amazing.  I have worked alongside developers in many different roles over the past 20 years and have always wanted to learn to code.  As a lot of people know, it is hard to learn just from tutorials and in your spare time.  You hit roadblocks and don’t have an easy way to overcome them, and then you run out of spare time.  Having time to focus and an instructor to clarify the things you don’t understand is invaluable.  The staff at Iron Yard Detroit was really dedicated to all of the student’s success.  They had a team approach to both the teaching and the administration of the campus.

I returned to the workplace with a whole new set of skills and was well prepared for my internship.  The back-end engineering curriculum at Iron Yard is exactly in line with the technology stack we use at MOTOR.  When I opened some of our most complex applications to review code, there was not a lot of mystery.  It was evident that we covered a lot of ground in the 12 week program.  I can't wait to help shape the future of our company.

The one thing I would really tell anyone considering any boot camp is be prepared.  Learn what immersive is.  Do the pre-work, twice if necessary.  I literally put my life on hold for the 12 week program, usually working between 10-12 hours most week days, and a few hours on Saturday and Sunday.  Maybe others who are smarter than me won’t have to work as hard, but I did.  

 

I signed up for the Mobile Dev program at the Detroit Campus of The Iron Yard and enjoyed my time. My instructor took a practical approach in teaching both Swift and Objective-C, creating situations and examples to code into instead of teaching subjects with no narrative or relative experience to relate it to.

There were difficult moments in the 3-month course, but between one-on-one help from the instructor and working out problems with others in my cohort, I was able to break through mental blocks and complete each assignment at or above expectation.

In addition to coding, we held weekly meetings with the campus staff and instructors to talk about the business of coding; learning about managing stress, how to prepare for interviews, and what to expect from jobs and careers in coding.

The course finished with a demo day where The Iron Yard brought in a dozen local tech companies and each of us students presented final projects in front about 70 people. After presentations we had time for tech demos and small group chats with attendees and potential employers.

Overall, I consider this a worthwhile experience and has set me in the right direction towards beginning a new career in software development.

Doing the RoR class in Durham was one of the best decisions I've ever made. The course was taught by an incredible instructor who was very engaged and had a way of breaking down complex topics into an easily digestible format. I learned a ton from him and always tell anyone who asks that the instructor, Mason, was probably the best teacher I've ever had. 

Often times people ask if they can learn the material on their own, and you cerntainly can, however you'd be hard pressed to learn it as quickly and as thorougly as you can at TIY. Additionally, probably the greatest benefit in my opinion was having an experienced developer as our instructor so that we could learn from him how to "talk the talk." This made me seem a lot more competent in interviews because I sounded like an experienced developer. 

The Iron Yard was one of the best experiences of my life. I decided that I wanted to make programming my career, which is what eventually led me here. I believe the most important part is knowing that you actually like to program, or think of UI/Ux before you plunge into the Iron Yard. For me that part was easy, because I had been trying to teach myself for several years with no success.

The 12 week course is a speeding train that never slows down. You have to be discplined, take breaks, don't fall behind and stay motivated! Typically I got to the school at 7AM and did some self study until the 9AM lecture and I would leave around 7PM take a break for a couple of hours before finishing up the assignement. For my specific class - the assignments had several difficulty levels, everyone had to finish the base difficulty but there was always more to do! The important part is to always stay challenged and ask for help when needed. Before you know it, the 12 weeks will be over and you will be presenting your very own 'final project' that was built in 2 weeks and will be amazed at your own achievement.

After graduation comes the hardest part of this journey. Finding a job. Research your market! For example, Austin is extremely saturated with junior developers and there are 8 code schools that have more graduates every few months. The Iron Yard does a good job preparing you with resumes, cover letters, interview skills (technical and soft). However, you will have to do the legwork to actually search for the jobs, network in your city and apply!

If you are someone that is self driven, but needs a support structure that can propel you forward, The Iron Yard is for you! And the connections you make here will help you get to that next step of your life.

Over all my experience was good. There are a few things to remember:

Getting a job is hard. This is not a silver bullet to landing you a six figure salary in the first year. Expect high 40's low 50's for your starting salary for the Charleston area. I was fortunate enough to land a coding job within the first month, but most people took a bit longer. Expect 1-3 months before you get an offer. It takes time, effort, and a bit of luck. Job assistance is available, but there is only so much the staff can do. It really comes down to you.

Focus on your portfolio. It will be the most valuable thing when you leave. Pick 4 or 5 well done projects to feature, and that's it. Add readme's to your github repositories so others can understand what you are doing. 

Understand that coding is not easy. Yes, anyone can learn it, but not everyone can learn it well enough in 3 months to perform at a job. Work on some free beginner tutorials through treehouse.com or codecademy.com to see how you do and how much you really enjoy it. 

In the end, for me, the investment was worth it, but I made a considerable effort into making sure that it was a good fit. Make sure you do the same for yourself. 

I finished my Front End Developement (JS & Angular) cohort at the end of August 2016.  Without sounding mushy, I can honestly say that it was one of the best and most fullfilling experiences of my life.  The instructors and faculty at The Iron Yard in Atlanta made every effort to ensure that I was prepared to enter the tech scene.  I made lifelong friendships that I woulnd't trade for anything.  I can and do give it the highest recommendations for anyone looking to enter or advance in the tech industry.

I enjoyed the course. It was nice to have an intimate in-person classroom environment to learn. The Iron Yard Houston campus, is incredibly welcoming. The director and operations manager did a stellar job creating a productive, and fun campus community.

The instructor was talented an knowledgable. He knew not only course content, but understood the Houston technology space in a deep way, and customized the course for the Houston area. He also acknowledges how important the web is to new iOS developers and how blogging and getting yourself out in the developer community online is important.

The curriculum kept me interested and was fun, we had an Apple API focus everyday and had project related to that focus due by next class. I think this approach has an advantage on keeping students engaged and shows students the full capabilies of the iOS software development kit, but might not be actually preparing them for the realistic tasks they'll be doing at their jobs. 

(The topics I see that are missing are a deeper dive into UIKit, a framework that will be the most used in the jobs that students and a heavy emphasis on debugging, and hard to find bugs. Most junior developers will be resolving bugs in their job rather than architecting somthing new from scratch. I would also like to see the homework assignments relate to a single app that you build throughout the course, rather than small, seperate single-view projects everyday . One of the harder parts of development is literally navigating through a large code base. Forcing students to deal with the large amount of files and code in their project will give them a better understanding of Xcode along the way. This is especially important since Iron Yard students are competeing against Computer Science students. The advantage that The Iron yard can have is giving students very specific real world skills, rather than focusing on a overall picture of the programming space like a Computer Science degree.)

Having no coding experience before a coding bootcamp may work better for web developement, but for Mobile Engineering in iOS. Have basic programming knowledge in any programming language is a requirement, there is a steeper learning curve in iOS to make something that looks and feels functional, compared to making a functional website. Getting hit with basic programming knowledge, adaptable UI, learning in a more complicated coding environment like Xcode is a lot. So I would definitely encourage anyone considering to study basic programming before hand. I had about a year of experience before I took the course and that really helped my learning accelerate.

I was in Houston temporarily, hoping to get a job back in Austin, so my situation was a bit odd. But if I was planning to stay in Houston, the support giving in terms of getting employment after graduation was great. We were given a mock interviews, demo/graduation day was a great place to showcase work to lots of employers visiting The Iron Yard. Throughout the course, we were given advice and reminders about what stages we should be thinking about in the job hunting process. And the journey didn't end after graduation. The Iron Yard staff continued to help guide me in my job hunt.

Given that it was the first Mobile Engineering cohort, it felt like being at a disadvantage because the staff was less versed on what hiring a Junior iOS developer would look like. During demo day, there were less companies that were seeking junior mobile developers rather than web developers. The weekly speakers were mostly geared toward web development. And the visit to a web consulting company was geared towards web developers. I'm sure as Mobile Engineering cohorts go through this campus, the resources for them will only increase.

Overall I'm proud to be an Iron Yard grauduate. It was fast-paced learning, and I got a lot out of the program. If you want to acclerate your learning of iOS development as fast as possible, The Iron Yard is the place to go. There are many cheaper resources online, and it is possible to learn it yourself. But many people won't have the disipline to self learn outside of a school environment, and it will defintely take months if not years longer to learn the skills that you need to get a job. So, what are you waiting for? The clock is ticking, go sign up for The Iron Yard.!

 

 

I graduated from The Iron Yard's UI/UX course at the Columbia, SC location in 2015 and accepted a full-time position about 3 months after graduating. My experience with this course, and the Iron Yard was definitely a positive and correct step in my life. 

During those12 weeks, I went from 0 coding experience to learning html, css, javascript. The first couple of weeks focus on the fundementals to to give you a good foundations. In the following weeks, you build real-world projects and continue to cover more advance topics (JQuery/Sass). It is really impressive what can happen in such a short time.

The greatest benefit to me, you can create a whole new career path in a short amount of time. The initial money spent can easily be recouped once you land your first job.

After you graduate, you are apart of the Iron Yard Family. The instructors, directors have gone above and beyond to get you prepared and placed in your first job. 

Advice: Network Network Network before you graduate. Also, get your hands dirty and just keep building.