UNC Charlotte Boot Camps

This program provides excellent, constantly updated curriculum. In a profession where skill demand changes quickly, this can not be understated. But more importantly, the course teaches you how to think like a developer. I've found that this profession is more of a lifestyle and the learning does not end at graduation.

The instructors are professionals with many years of real-world development experience. They can tell you exactly how the skills they are teaching will be useful in the marketplace. Their insights into things like interview skills & questions as well as the dynamics of working with other developers are invaluable. The advice and support the TA's provided was always very helpful. While not required, my TA would often answer messages quickly outside of class and office hours.

Perhaps the most difficult thing for new developers to do is sell themselves. That’s where Career Services steps-in. While optional, Career Services offers occasional sessions (once or twice per month) to help students with resume development, interview prep, online presence review, etc. These were typically held before class on Saturday. If you complete these assignments, Career Services will actively help with your job search upon graduation. This is a huge benefit because they are well connected with local recruiters and businesses.  

The course is not easy. It is not a magic coding pill that will create a new career out of thin air. It will be stressful and very frustrating at times. But the results will more than make up for the challenges. If you attend the classes AND career sessions, complete the homework assignments (15+ hours per week… try to do the more challenging options) and build a structure to continually learn and grow after graduation, opportunities WILL present themselves.

I was interested in a change of direction for my career, had some previous coding experience, and knew that the internet is just a series of tubes. Before applying, I considered online courses but was more interested in the advantages of being part of an in person group dedicated to the same goal - it was amazing the growth in skill and confidence of the entire cohort! The support was great, from the TAs to Career Services and Student Success. The instructors clearly care about the students and have a passion for the craft. Guiding a group of 25-50 people of diverse backgrounds is not easy and a curriculum that listens to market trends may have to adjust on the fly. Sometimes the road is bumpy. The program is challenging and fast paced, but rewarding if you’re willing and able to commit the time and effort.

The Coding Boot Camp at UNCC taught me many of the fundamentals of Web Development in a short 6 months. The program was tough at times, and easy at other times. Through the skills I learned during both the technical curriculum, as well as the offerred career curriculum, I was able to procure a position about a month after graduating the course, with having absolutely no coding knowledge prior to signing up. The instructor was amazing, and a great developer with a sense of humor and passion for teaching that really helped during the tougher sections of the class.

The course itself had a few hiccups (my class was the first of its kind at UNCC), but the staff seem dedicated to observing students and listening to feedback in order to smooth out bumps over time. Most assignments have an easy or hard version to help students pace themselves. There was also always someone available to help, whether it was over a dedicated chat system with the peers and instructors, or during office hours before and after class.

My class had a variety of backgrounds and ages; there were folks already in the field trying to sharpen their skills, and beginners like me trying to find a new career. There were 3 main projects in the course that were done in groups, where we chose our own path and subject of the project, based around a set of guidelines and required technologies set forth by the instructor. We were assigned groups for the first two projects, I think based on apparent skill level and/or our individual preferences for front- or back-end (make it pretty, or make it function, basically). The last project was much more loose on whether we worked in groups, or who we paired with if we did, and was much more of a final real-world showcase of what we had all spent so much time learning. Together they built an impressive start for our portfolios.

Please avoid this bootcamp. As I'm sure most of you reading this post have found elsewhere throughout the web, that the UNC at Charlotte "Coding Bootcamp" actually has no affiliation whatsoever with the actual UNCC, other than paying them a portion of their revenue as a means to utilize the schools name & image. The actual company of this bootcamp is "Trilogy Education" or "2u", and a simple google search of either of the 2's "coding bootcamps" will give you a rough overview of how reprehensible of a company it is.

Their "Pre-Screening"
This is honestly this most comical portion of the process. The constant phone calls/emails/ and sales pitches this company does alone is a red flag. Upon your application, you are given a simple "assessment" with the difficulty level of a middle school math quiz, and are congratulated on your acceptance moments later. Is it virtually impossible for you to "fail" the assessment. It's simply a cover up to project the assumption that spots in the cohort are scarce. When they are in fact not, at all.

Price
Price wise the bootcamp is on the cheaper end. As it should be. After the first week of the bootcamp, there is a no refund policy & you are entitled to pay the entire amount regardless if you complete it or not. Grading in the bootcamp is relatively simple, the "grading system" & "graders" make it nearly impossible for you to fail an assignment (or the "bootcamp") unless little to absolutely no effort was put into the assignment.

Content
The content is basic front end & back end technologies with you only spending a couple days on each tech. Nothing you go over is thoroughly reviewed, and is mostly just skimmed over. Some of the technologies taught are extremely outdated and not handy in todays age of tech. A more desirable & modern skill of React is only briefly covered, in a total of 2-3 days, towards the end of the bootcamp.

There was one seminar with a career services representative towards the end of the bootcamp, but it was only a stunt to butter us up as we neared the completion of the camp. Most, if not all, if what was preached to us during that meeting, turned out to be extremely exaggerated expectations on how they would cater to our needs throughout our job search, in which I describe below.

"Career Services"/Post-Bootcamp
Post-Bootcamp Trilogy/2u's career services are absolutely horrible. They are "unable" to help you with your job search until you are "employer ready" which is only after you have gone back and forth with your career advisor, multiple times, on edits to you resume, GitHub, and portfolio. With response back times as long as an entire week/s, the entire system is honestly no help. Throughout this time, you will be emailed "job recommendations" for positions you have no business applying for. Everything from Senior Java Developer roles (Java isn't even taught in the course...), Data Engineering roles, and so on, will be sent to your email multiple times throughout the week.

Personal thoughts
Throughout my cohort, around 20/25 people were enrolled. around 5-10 failed or dropped the course, and out of the remaining 15/20, only 5 were able to land full time positions. Keep in mind this company does not publicize its job placement percentages publicly...

All in all, if you simply want a fast-pasted overview of a certain group of technologies, then this bootcamp should suffice. However, if you are looking for a bootcamp that actually offers you viable opportunity to begin your career change into the tech field, then I would search elsewhere for a more reputable bootcamp. Again if you don't trust my words, a simple google search on the company should corroborate everything stated here. Save your time & go else where.

Your mileage may vary, but here's my take:

You're starry eyed, you hate your job and this is the way out...I get it. Take a breath and try to do some research so you can to get an idea of what you're getting yourself into. This is a field that requires a commitment to coding for as long as you want to be a professional developer-- always trying new things and always learning. This is a bootcamp that will have you doing homework, and projects in addition to self-study and class-time...in addition to anything else you have going on in your life.

This bootcamp will lay the foundation for your career and expose you to things you never knew you could do, but it and any other bootcamp can not guarantee you a job. With that said, I felt it was money well spent for me. I'm currently employed as a developer,  doing a job that I enjoy very much. As a member of the first cohort, I made friends in the course that I'm still in touch with and I really felt that the bootcamp was all about the students. I loved my instructors, I loved my TA's and the support from career services and student success were on point. There was one point in the course where I just felt I couldn't do it. I had it pretty bad...whatever "it" was. It was nice that I could open up and talk to the people in the bootcamp to help me through it. I was even given a rubber duck at no additional charge by a man named Steve.(this duck may have been a temporary promotion). I still keep that rubber duck on my desk at work, it's an important reminder for me. The campus is in the city so you'll either have to find metered parking or buy a parking pass. We had students from all ages and backgrounds and everyone had their ups and downs, but I would say that everyone left with a new set of skills that they could use at their current job, new job, or in their personal life. If you have a full-time job during the part-time program it is possible, but challenging. Anticipate the bootcamp taking up a chunk of your life for 6 months. I wonder how much more I would have learned in college if the education system was structured this way! Go for it, this is a good one!