I have been gathering information about a coding boot camp I recently found out about. It is associated with George Washington University in Arlington, VA/ DC area (about 45 mins - 1hr from where I live). They have a part-time and full-time program. They have a data vis boot as well. I think the core program is developed by a company named trilogy education services.
GWU is a great institution so I would have some access to that network even though its a non-credit cert program but I have some questions about Trilogy Education Services. Does anyone any experience with Trilogy or a Boot camp like the one at GWU which is associated with a Top-tier university but really run by a third-party tuition tracks with similar programs average.
Here’s what you can do. Go on LinkedIn and see if anyone listed this particular bootcamp as their education or experience, and ask them about their experiences. If you can, try finding people that completed bootcamp at different periods of time because some times these programs does go through some growing pain. Get first hand accounts of student outcomes since they don’t release such thing publicly.
It’s important to ask people that actually got jobs rather than just a blanket question on Twitter, Quora or Reddit or this forum, because people tend to only reply to open questions when they have negative things to say.
I went to a bootcamp that’s associated with lower tier universities, but my program didn’t require tuition. In exchange, I work at a lowered salary for the duration of a 2 year contract. The online reputation of the camp is a lot worse than this one, but further investigation revealed that some people had negative experience in the earlier iterations of the program, so they were the one leaving bad reviews. In depth research is important, especially if you sink additional money into it
About a year, maybe 2 years ago, I researched a program associated with the University of Texas, and it was offered in Houston about an hour from me. It was the same company as in your post. While researching online, I found almost entirely negative reviews about disorganization and lack of preparation. Also I filled out a “click here for more info” form, but I supplied my junk email and a secondary phone that I rarely use. I got a lot of phone calls and emails that went on for a few months. So while I have no real experience with the program, I decided from the facts above that it was not something for me.
I was looking at revature they havea program like you are talking about. You get minimum wage for 2 years except when you are on assignment that has pluses and minuses I guess like everything
Well, I was at Revature, so I can tell you a little more. There are also chances that your contract get bought out by a company entirely like me. My salary is below the average entry level software engineer, but I also don’t have a period of time where my wage is minimum wage except for during training. Other are on assignment more often than not if not for the entirety of their contract duration.
I can attest that they do have the networks to place you in the industry. The business partners are legit. Large consulting firms like Accenture and Infosys, companies like Walmart, Goldman Sachs, Aetna, Apple…Etc. They do have Strong incentive on placing you into work because that’s how they recoup cost rather asking for candidates to pay Tuition upfront, but the caveat is that it’s not necessarily as a developer. A few people in my batch end up doing DBA, Production Support, DevOps, and Testing. If your goal is to be a developer, this will get you in the industry, but you might have to find other ways to keep your skills sharp until you can find a way to move into development.
If you’re a nontraditional candidate and don’t mind moving to anywhere in the US and a reduced salary for 2 years. I’d recommend it. The training is industry sensitive, so they do teach you things that people will hire you for.
You can also look on CourseReport- don’t know if yours is listed there.
Caveat- seems mostly satisfied people who leave reviews there… some negative sprinkled through most schools/camps I researched on last year.
As for Revature… I felt a bit wary of that… considering I JUST finished a bootcamp. Plus I had heard/read that you really don’t have control over where you are assigned. I don’t mind relocating but I’d like to have some control lol.
If you are confident about your skills and abilities, I also recommend TripleByte, Hired and Indeed Prime, which will try to interview/ review your resume, match and/or coach you to opportunities existing within their network.
TripleByte I think I had interacted with before… ahh yes I did… in October 2016?! wow… They didn’t move forward (I literally bombed on whatever their coding challenges were) but thinking of trying again now that I have more under my belt (I hope). Hired- I may be familiar with… Indeed Prime? Hmm didn’t know they had a Prime option. I know signing up for and paying for additional features (like LinkedIn Premium) gives a leg up… but just don’t have the money. Any spare (!) money I may put toward a domain name and hosting service…
I’ve seen a few ads for triplebyte, but I haven’t done a lot of research into yet. I never heard of Hired or indeed prime (have heard of indeed of course but not the prime service).
I’ll have to look into all of that I mean I don’t mind relocating a a bit but I have a 3 year old and a stay at home mom-wife as well if I was going to relocate it would have to be soon in the 2 year window because I don’t want to move around a lot once my son gets established in school.
The good news is I live in the DC area so I think I have some commute/remote opttions. Seems like there is a lot of Tech work in Northern VA, DC Cenral MD/Baltiumore area. Even some startups of course there is Bethesda just to name one name and all the gov’t contractors but also smaller startups that are starting to bloom up in the DMV area. I’m lucky in that regard.
Fair warning on TripleByte-- the quizzes (Front End and General IT) I did fairly well on but omg… the coding exercises (for the Front End section- seems I can’t do the “General” or Mobile exercises)… never felt lower than I do right now after “doing” that- in other words 2 of the 4 I didn’t even finish or do. The other 2 I did do but total mess… and that was in a language I learned! (They do let you choose the language you want to do the coding exercises in). All of them are timed- unfortunately I don’t do well with “timed tests” for actual coding… written tests I do slightly better lol).
So bone up before you get into TripleBytes (I know the topics of all of the coding exercises but will not disclose here).
TripleByte is tough as nails. They not only expect you to code both algorithms and simple web app, but they also expect you to understand security features and system design (like how do I implement a rental car web app given a large dataset?).
They do give you a general study guide prior to the interview and a 2 week window, but boy, it is not something you can easily cram for, and I also have a feeling that they do that because the position they’re trying to fill are not really junior or entry level.
It’s excellent experience regardless, and they give you very earnest and useful feedbacks. Just make sure you are very prepared. The toughness is not unlike a highly selective company like Goldman Sachs interview.
I wondered about that after my last foray with TB. Having to code something in less than 3 minutes kills me though- no matter how much I practice… and that will probably hurt in the long run. I do and can code (well I hope ) but getting caught out when time runs out…yikes.
But- yes a worthwhile experience- good or bad.
(and yet I passed a JCL/DB2 written test handily in 25 minutes for an hour long time frame. Disclosure- 42 questions split evenly… and on info I hadn’t touched in a while & reviewed for 3 days)
) but getting caught out when time runs out…yikes.