The 5 Most Overlooked Factors When Choosing a Coding Bootcamp

Need help choosing a bootcamp? If you’re considering attending a coding bootcamp, sites like SwitchUp and Course Report are good starting points to learn about your options. Many prospective students typically look at schools’ websites and read through student reviews, but you might be missing a few key considerations.

Before you make the investment, here are five things to consider when choosing a coding bootcamp to help you make the best decision:

1. Choose the environment that works best for you. Depending on your needs and situation, you may find an online bootcamp works better for your schedule, learning style or financial situation than an onsite program. Some schools, like Coding Dojo, offer both options. And if you’re considering in-person classes and want onsite instruction and mentorship, you’ll want to make sure the school of your choice has a location near you. Otherwise the costs of relocating to a brand new city may double or even triple your total expenses to complete the bootcamp. For example, in order to be even closer to students, Coding Dojo recently announced new campus openings in Orange County and Berkeley, CA, adding to its campus locations across the U.S.: Silicon Valley, Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Dallas and Chicago.
2. Consider quality of education. Not all bootcamps are created equal. Look for a bootcamp that’s received industry recognition and has strong reviews on sites like SwitchUp or other review sites. Organizations and publications like Training Industry, GeekWire, MIT and others provide third-party perspectives and rankings to help you make an informed choice. And don’t forget to seek out alumni perspectives to see what they thought and where they are today. Speaking of alumni…
3. Think three steps ahead. What happens after graduation? Like most students, you’ll probably need to get a job! When you’re looking at bootcamps, keep in mind that not all bootcamps offer career services, and if they do, make sure it’s an insightful program rather than the same old high–level career advice. Coding Dojo takes pride in the success of its career services team and alumni. Since 2012, Coding Dojo has helped individuals from a variety of backgrounds and skill levels transform into professional developers who go on to be hired by start-ups and world-class companies like Amazon, Apple, Expedia, Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase, DocuSign and Skytap. Coding Dojo recently interviewed one of its graduates to help you understand what to expect before, during and after enrolling with Coding Dojo, and his experience in finding a job. Coding Dojo helps prepare you for life after graduation. It offers dedicated career services resources, such as one-on-one sessions with a career advisor, open forums with industry leaders and comprehensive job-hunting workshops to help you network, get a foot in the door and land your dream job.
4. Get a taste of the teaching method to make sure it’s the right fit. Some coding schools offer intro workshops or online courses to give you a sneak peek at how they teach their curriculum. Coding Dojo created its Intro to Code Workshop to show aspiring developers that truly anyone can code. Workshops are held at your local Coding Dojo campus, where you will learn in a classroom environment—just like you would in the bootcamp. You’ll learn how to code a basic website and gain a solid understanding of how programming languages are actually used to build applications.
5. Ensure the curriculum aligns with your career goals. The languages, technologies and how you learn them can seriously impact your job prospects upon graduation. You don’t want to be stuck in a JavaScript-only coding school, when in fact you’re more interested in Python or Ruby. This is where Coding Dojo’s three full-stack curriculum excels. Coding Dojo is the only coding bootcamp in the world to teach three full technology stacks in a single 14-week program, and one of the highest rated coding bootcamps in the industry because of it. Students can choose to learn three out of six of the industry’s most in-demand web and mobile development languages that Coding Dojo teaches: Ruby on Rails, LAMP, MEAN, Python, .NET Core and Swift/iOS. Coding Dojo also maintains partnerships with employers and technology companies, which helps the instructors customize curriculum in a way that adequately prepares you – the student – for jobs. For example, Coding Dojo recently partnered with Amazon to create an in-person class, video series and hackathon to create new skills for Alexa, the voice service that powers Amazon Echo.

Let’s face it. A coding bootcamp is a serious life decision, and for many students it’s hard to differentiate one from another. No matter what you do, always do your research! Ideally, these five extra tips to consider were worthwhile and will help guide you to make the best decision possible about your future career.

Want to learn more about Coding Dojo and its three full-stack curriculum? Visit the website!