TurnToTech

If your self motivated, disciplined, and desire to learn mobile development turntotech can be a great experience for you to get your foot in the door of the app world. It's important to not be a shy introvert and ask the instructors for help as well as other students, that's the whole point of going to ttt because you can take code courses online at home. Making friends with fellow students and having people like you in general will help you at ttt and your career after. It seems like the people that get jobs are people who constantly make an effort to network and the people that sit in the stairs or corner by themselves have a harder time getting a job post bootcamp. I have been out of the bootcamp for a few months now looking for a job, be prepared to not have a job for a couple of months. 

For all prospective students - I urge you to read and focus on the negative reviews of any bootcamps. You need to understand that for every negative review there are a handful of unhappy students too scared to speak out - because they are still relying on that particular unsatisfying bootcamp to look for a job. This is not a blow towards any bootcamp. This is making it fair for the students to assess every factor. They are the ones investing thousands and thousands. They should not be mislead.

This is going to be quite lengthy, but it encompasses what I have observed over the years as a fairly old bootcamp grad.

Before you make any type of decision towards any coding bootcamp (not just TurnToTech), you must understand that you cannot "become" a programmer in 13 - 16 weeks. Let alone a good one. If that were possible, there wouldn't be such a demand for programmers. Bootcamps, no matter how much they do not enjoy admitting it, are essentially crash courses. In any crash course - you're going to have the overachievers, the normals, and the strugglers.

So how do code bootcamps solve this issue? There are two ways. The first is to have a challenging admissions interview - filter the prospectives students until only those who've had solid programming fundamentals and/or CS backgrounds remain. These students hold the highest promise for getting a job upon graduation in a few months. Few normals get in, and all the struggling individuals are declined.

The second way is to rely completely on the curriculum. The program needs to have a curriculum so thorough and complete that it can take a beginner and guide them through the learning curve. This is TurnToTech's method.

I am not going to berate the program, because I believe there were a host of important technologies covered in its curriculum. However, there are a host of things that TurnToTech could do better for its students - and these are things that were expressed by other negative reviews here.

• Proactive attitude from the staff. New students receive the most "unconditional" attention. This means they are checked on without asking for help. That's awesome. Amazing. However, older students are ignored completely. Okay, this is understandable. They have been in the program for a month or two now and thus require no checkup. Unfortunately, they are still novice coders. You need to have your instructors follow a standard, more time actively checking up on every student no matter the amount of time they have spent in the program. 
• The instructors need to be more involved than just walking around giving the occasional help. There should be more than one weekly talk. Cmon. The world of mobile development is huge, and you also have an entire curriculum there. Give talks about the curriculum, expand on the instructions that are already there. Give more workshops. Your students paid a lot to be there.
• The curriculum itself should have at least a small nod from instructors. Currently, the curriculum consists of students completely a set of instructions written on a PDF. When a student finishes that PDF - or unit, they wait for a code review. Code reviews are nice, but the criteria for passing a unit is low. As in, only code functionality required. There is no test for comprehension of that particular unit. A mini proficiency test should be required for moving on.
• Continuing on from the previous point, there are students who have struggled on the PDF trying to google concepts because there was no formal introduction to them. They might have tried reading documentation but were stuck due to inexperience. I've seen struggling students take naps in class, eat multiple take-outs, reply to emails and social media, and begin irrelevent conversations while at the bootcamp. I've also seen students who come in at 9am and leave at 5pm having made no progress at all. I feel like these types of scenarios can at least be reduced with instructors giving more attention to each and every student. Though, sometimes it can be hard with multiple students asking for help.

If you are considering any coding bootcamp, please read this first:

• First, make sure you have the self drive and grit to power through. No one graduates from a bootcamp and becomes a proficient developer in 13 - 16 weeks. No one. Even the instructors and founders know this. It is however, possible to graduate through incredible hard work, and come out as a novice level programmer who can potentially be mentored at a company and grow into a budding developer. Again, this is not everyone.
• Second of all, make space in your personal life. There is no time for a two week vacation to Vegas. There is no time for a few missed days for a festival, or a day skipped due to a movie, show, or friend get together. Being at TurnToTech is particularly challenging to stay on track, because they require you making a choice to commit, but they won't encourage you. That's why the only reply to the negative reviews has been "What you put in is what you get out". That statement should be the anthem for any bootcamp. You need to be there 5 - 6 days a week, 10 hours a day of coding, reading, project building, and problem solving. 
• Third, know your mindset coming in. Are you coming in to rush through the curriculum in the hopes of getting a job? Unfortunately, all bootcamps make sweet marketing promises but the reality is that a desirable bootcamp graduate is one that graduates above and beyond his/or her peers. They graduate with excellent knowledge of their craft and an impressive portfolio of apps. I've seen examples of "currriculum rushers" during the bootcamp, and those students are still jobless months and months after graduating. Don't rush. Be in a open mindset. Learn code for the sake of learning code. It's a beautiful thing. Don't rush it. Be passionate about your craft, and do initiate your own projects separate from the curriculum. 
• Finally, if you can - come in with the basics down. You'll excel faster than most students. Learn the basics of mobile programming and problem solving using sites like Code Academy, Code School, Project Euler, Coder Byte, and Code Wars. The more prepared you are coming in, the less time you spend struggling on the fundamentals - and the more time you have on personal projects.

If you do decide to join TurnToTech, I have several tips to get your money's worth:

Do not stay silent. No matter where you are in the curriculum. Force the instructors to come to you and explain topics you don't understand - because you don't, that's why you're here. You paid over 10k. Don't be shy. Even if you've Googled a topic or read some complex documentation, ask away. Aim to interact with instructors for a good amount of time every day, because they may not automatically check on you. Ask for code reviews. Ask for check ups. Ask. Ask. Ask.

Initiate pair programming. Go out of your way to ask another student to undertake a project with you. Git is easy when you are one person managing your own commits. Learn how to contribute to one project as a group without wiping out the project data.

Finally, and most important of all, focus on your Github. Yes, it is more important than your resume as a developer. Quality over quantity. Please do not upload ugly, unpolished, and uninspiring assignments from the curriculum on to your Github. I have seen this on many resumes and Githubs of current job seeking graduates from TurnToTech. No one cares if you've made a barebones app that can record video. That's great, so has a million other developers. Literally. The apps you showcase on your Github should all be polished, finalized projects that can be submitted to the App Store.

And on that note, submit to the App Store. Aim for two apps. You'll be ahead of nearly every other mobile bootcamp student. Easier said than done right? But you already knew this.

And please, for all that is good, do not state that you are a "Mobile Developer" at TurnToTech on your LinkedIn or any social media sites, which implies that you are working there as an instructor. I've pointed this out to several recruiters who say it is indeed strange. I don't know why current students are doing it, because it is not attractive at all. It is misleading to recruiters and companies, and they'll receive red flags from you. 

If you put in the hard work, the studying, and the hours committed to coding, debugging, and project building - you will create a rich learning experience. Abuse the help provided by the instructors. You are paying for it. Ask them everything and anything related to coding. Pick their brains, pick your own brains, and pick the brains of the students around you. Who knows, perhaps you'll also inspire other students who are less motivated to step it up. It's all up to you.

 

 

I finished Android full time course at TurnToTech in mid March. It took me approximately 4+ months to finish the course. I came to TurnToTech with very little computer science knowledge. I knew how to code and was familiar with Java but was nowhere close to being good enough to land a software engineer role.

I started the program by spending about 2 weeks just learning the basic computer science concepts and after that started learning Android. The curriculum was designed so I would learn individual components of Android one at a time and then finally try to put them together through a mid size project. There was a lot of freedom with how I spent my time and I made sure I only moved forward once I completely understood a concept. 

After finishing the curriculum, I spent some time on the internship project and soon landed a job. 

Job finding process was pretty straight forward, basically apply to as many places as you can. TurnToTech helped with putting me in contact with companies and recruiters they knew and they also hosted career fairs which helped build a network.

I am glad I chose to do this program and I think it really worked out for me in terms of what I wanted to do. Currently I am working for a company in Boston as a Software Engineer, mostly developing their Android app, soon to be published.

At the end of the day you get what you put in. The program is in place for you to learn and they have pretty experienced instructors to help you navigate through it. Additionally, there is just incredible amount of information and help available online as well. So as long as you are putting in the time to learn, you will see the results.

Hope this review was helpful.

Overall I had an incredible experience at TurnToTech.  Before joining an iOS bootcamp, I really shopped around for somewhere that would teach me Swift.  When I called, I talked to Teddy who immediately addressed my concerns and invited me in.  I met with him, Aditya, and Oren and they carefully answered all my in depth questions on Swift, the curriculum, and what I could expect. I was glad they gave the option of learning primarily either Objective C or Swift, and this put them apart from other bootcamps I looked at.

The project based curriculum is a great method.  You have to work very hard throughout your 4 months, reading documentation, going through sample projects, building your own projects, and interacting with the instructors.  I feel very comfortable after the time being able to create my own apps and projects.  Each project introduces new concepts gradually that all end up adding up to lots of knowledge.

I give the instructors top notch reviews.  They are a) incredibly knowledgeable  b) patient c) have a wide array of programming experience.  Whether my question was something simple like "Hey why doesn't this work", to in depth discussions of programming patterns or potential ways to host data on the cloud, they always had patient and thorough answers for me.

I come from a slightly different background than most, as I already co-founded a startup 2 years ago.  We are now looking to add apps to our products, so I wasn't looking for a job afterwards.  It definitely satisfied my needs to learning iOS development.

If you're looking to learn iOS development, I highly recommend this program.  Everyone is out for you to succeed and with hard work you'll walk away with an incredible amount of knowledge.  

 

If you have the commitment and passion to get into iOS development, I highly recommend considering Turn To Tech.  They offers lectures, structured projects spanning the entire iOS eco-system, part-time classes for Swift and a community of dedicated students - all whom have something to offer each other.  The instructors are knowledgeable and passionate about conveying the complexities of software engineering in a clear and concise manner.  If you are committed to learning iOS or Android, I recommend checking out the full-time course in particular.  I can honestly say that my duration here was essential to landing a job in tech.

I've spoken to a few potential TTT students and the most important thing that I make sure to tell them is that: The value you get out of TTT is entirely dependent on the commitment you make to it. Here's what I mean, if you study hard and take it seriously, and take advantage of every single resource that TTT provides, then you can get an amazing job afterwards. However, if you slack off and show up at 12pm everyday and treat it casually, you will find yourself with a mediocre education and limited job prospects. I make sure to say this to potential students because I have seen examples of both students. I've seen many students, including myself, spend 70+ hours a week studying, and get amazing jobs, some with 6 figure salaries. I also had friends who showed up in the afternoon and joked around and didn't take the course seriously, they remained unemployed for a long time, if not still unemployed.    Anyways, if you decide to take it seriously, it's a great program. There are no classes or batches where students have to learn at the same pace. You learn at your own pace. This type of learning is infinitely better than the 19th century style public education. The course consists of 12 projects that will ultimately serve as your portfolio. When you have questions for the instructor, they do not just give you the answer and walk away. Their teaching style is very Socratic. They will help lead you to the answer so that you can determine the answer for yourself. This is hugely important as a programmer for two reasons: 1) Defining and breaking down problems is the fundamental skill that all programmers use everyday. 2) I cannot ask my senior engineer at my current job for help everytime I have a question. I need to be able to come to the solution on my own.    tl;dr: TTT is a great course for people who are motivated and have self discipline. (Both skills needed to be a successfull software engineer.)