Codesmith

I'll keep it short since I can't say much more than the other reviewers have already said:

Codesmith was the right decision for me. I graduated with a Math/CS degree and was unsure about whether any of these coiding programs would be useful for me, but I eventually decided on attending Codesmith and I'm so glad I did! The vibe and energy from the people there was always positive, always friendly, and always collaborative. I was free to ask for help and work with others on what I had trouble with and at the same time other could always come to me with their questions as well. And that was important because the program was dense and without that kind of community, I couldn't learned what I did, and I wouldn't have been able to built what I did. It felt like we were all in this together and trying to raise each other up to become the best engineers possible.

My experience in the program was incredibly valuable and I would choose to do it again in a heartbeat!

When I joined Codesmith, I was a cs grad trying to reach for roles that are typically not possible to attain by people who are fresh out of college. I wanted to have the skills and the confidence to be taken seriously when applying for positions that aren't just entry level software engineering roles. I am passionate about engineering and knew that I could do better than performing mindless bug fixes and task/maintanence level engineering. I wanted to build new systems and apply cutting edge technology to real world applications.

The community aspect of Codesmith is one of the biggest contributors to the success of all the students that go through the program. You will be surrounded by highly motivated people and learn how to work in teams, mentor others, and work through difficult and interesting challenges together (just like in a real world environment!). AND you make a bunch of really cool friends throughout the program and beyond!

I have to say Codesmith helped me attain all the things I wanted in my career as a Software Engineer. The skills they teach allows you to be able to reach for higher roles solving actually interesting problems as well as have people take you more seriously as an engineer. You get to learn how to learn, how to design solid systems by building, pick up popularly used technologies, and create real projects. There are also various levels of soft skills that you will inadvertently pick up as well as lots of tools for doing well in interviews. 

Coming out of Codesmith, in the interview process, I felt that I was taken more seriously than before. Interviewers got excited when I talked about the projects that I created at CodeSmith, especially the senior project that we built as a team (a realtime subscription system for GraphQL before it was even implemented officially in the GraphQL specification and before Apollo released such functionality!). Most of the offers I recieved after the program were well within and above the range of salaries offered to most Codesmith students.

One year later, I am confident in saying that I was able to apply pretty much everything I learned at Codesmith to excel and make a solid impact here at the company I currently work at. I have been an integral part of designing and creating several new backend systems, migrating our backend to microservices, developing an in house branded UI Component library using all the latest and greatest React tooling, and building lots of new features in our product.

Was it worth it? Hell yeah it was worth it! and it was LOADS of fun! It is important that you take this time to work hard and make the most of the experience. It's not magic where you just go through the program and you come out it being able to be treated like a senior engineer. Work hard, get sleep, eat well, read lots, and dive deep into the topics that you learn (and the topics you don't learn!). If you take the time to make the most out of your Codesmith experience, you will come out of it surprising EVERYONE you talk to. I was really inspired by the growth of all my peers at Codesmith who came from non-technical backgrounds. They worked hard, grew to be excellent engineers, and many of them are making waves at the places the landed afterwards. 

Enrolling in Codesmith is one of the best investments I’ve made. I had some tech experience, but wanted to make a hard turn into software development. I didn’t want to spend a year in self-study or take a junior position where I wasn’t challenged to grow beyond my limits. This program challenged my limits everyday for three months and grew my knowledge and skill to the level I needed to pursue and make that hard turn into software development.

I came to Codesmith after several stints of personal projects and self-study. A night of self-study might have included me crouching over a computer in my living room for a few hours trying to get a web server to accept requests while pretending to watch the Bachelor with my girlfriend. The first successful response would lead to an audible, “Yes!,“ at which point I’d feel a sense of a accomplishment, shut the laptop as if it were an interruption to normal life, and get back to the Bachelor (don’t judge). Stack overflow articles and trial/error would have given me a concept of what was going on under the hood, but a lot of the learning actually comes after hacking together a solution. For three months Codesmith takes over your life. There are no interruptions to learning how to code - getting to the audible ‘Yes!’ becomes the first step of solving a problem instead of the last. Instead of closing the laptop, you take it with you to the classroom and start connecting the dots of why it worked like it did and digging deeper into the underlying architecture so the next project you’re focused on optimization as opposed to just getting something working.

The program is structured from a day-to-day perspective but retains a loose and agile feel to it - include its immersive aspect and you’re forced to make the program your own. Instead of simply experiencing a curriculum, you become part of the curriculum - on any given day you can be the student, the teacher, or even the intangible glue that holds your cohort together in times of stress. Looking back at the experience, this was incredibly motivating and helped drive everyone to keep their endurance and tenacity at the crazy levels needed to conquer each day’s/week’s goals. The Codesmith staff also did a great job of bringing the experience of many previous cohorts to bear in helping students navigate problem areas.

I’ll end the review like I started it - Codesmith is a great investment in yourself. That said, it’s not for the faint of heart. This investment is not only tuition and time but also the energy and dedication put into it. The program gives you all the tools and support to succeed - and really pushes you to make the most out of it. If you have a natural curiosity and urge to learn and legitimately give it 110%, you’ll grow enormously.

I did a lot of searching in socal for good bootcamps, and ultimately settled on Codesmith because of how many overwhelmingly positives reviews I found, and the high quality of Javascript the hard parts.

Initially, I was pretty skeptical - how could I learn the skills required to change careers in only a few months? Two weeks after my cohort finished, I had signed a  six figure job offer, and within my first week I felt confident about the code I contributed to the team. 

At Codesmith, you're surrounded by highly motivated people, and that environment encourages growth, exploration, and learning. You'll quickly become used to the minimum 12 hour days, but also find yourself frequently working even longer. The curriculum is modern, and is frequently being updated to cover the latest frameworks and libraries.

The Codesmith team works very hard to motivate and encourage you to work as hard as you can. This is especially true during the project phase, when they set strict stanardards for building a high quality open source project. To me, this is one of the key areas that makes Codesmith stand out from the rest- it encourages you to go deep into unique programming concepts and features, giving you the confidence to speak to these in depth during interviews.

Additionally, the team also works very hard with everyone to help you build a great resume to make you stand out, prepares you for the tech interview process, and at negotiating your best offer.

My one complaint, is that (in my opinion) some of the material is not taught well. This was especially frustrating for me after going from a series of very high quality lectures to some very poor ones- however, you quickly discover the real learning is not from the instructors or the lecture material, but from learning how to learn on your own and in the small groups you work in.

A large portion of Codesmith is focused around pair programming, which really teaches you visualize a problem before you blindly start coding. Technical communication is a term you will hear a lot, and after a few weeks into the program you will become very good and articulating your strategies. Through pair programming, you are exposed to lots of different ideas from your partners, which further expands the way you think about the problem you're facing.

If you are thinking about making the jump - be sure to seriously consider Codesmith. Yes, it's expensive, but for almost everyone it pays for itself within one year. I would recommend Codesmith to anyone I know looking to make the switch. Codesmith was one of the funnest and most productive three months of my life, and all of these reviews of it being a "life changing" experience are completely accurate.

I'm going to assume you've read some of the other reviews, and you know about Codesmith's curriculumn (<3 React), it's fantastic culture (I miss Thursday drinks), and it's inclusive community. I'll focus on my journey.

My story with Codesmith is the same as many graduates from the program. I came into the program with just enough Javascript skills to be dangerous, but my experience, confidence, and general knowledge of web development felt entirely lacking to propel me into a new software engineering career. Even while I was enrolled, the success stories of recent graduates always seemed too good to be true, and I struggled to see how my reality could possibly line up with the one I was being told. At Codesmith, this is called "imposter syndrome", and it seems to happen to nearly everyone.

Spoilers: Codesmith transformed my life too. Today, I find myself thriving at a  job that felt beyond my reach only a year ago. Software development can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but my experience at Codesmith helped me learn to approach every challenge as a learning opportunity to dive deeper into how things work instead of just patch them together to get them to work. Codesmith is not a traditional learning environment where you are fed all of the information you need to learn and your only job is to absorb and regurgitate it. In order to thrive there, you need to be willing to dive into the deep end, struggle a lot, and learn how to overcome many obstacles on your own. On the flip side, if you dedicate yourself wholly to the process for 3 months, it can change your life.

There are tons of coding bootcamps, but only a small percentage of those schools have the potential to substantially accelerate your career. Codesmith is, without a doubt, in this latter category, and I'd be shocked if there's another coding school as effective as Codesmith.

Had I relied on self-study, it would have taken me at least another year to get to the position I'm in today (and I'm a relatively studious/disciplined person). The Codesmith community and resources are invaluable, and these things just can't be replicated by studying on your own. I'm extremely happy with my decision to attend Codesmith.

Me, before: Technical, non-software-engineering role at a software company. Engineering (non-CS) MS and BS from UCLA (Go Bruins). Very very little JS web dev experience.

Me, now: Software Engineer in LA. Making 67% more than I was before. Doing lots of JS web dev and kicking ass.

Thoughts: Codesmith is an amzing way to get 1000+ hours of guided, designed, supported time learning a useful, in-demand set of skills to get hired as a software engineer. It's super fun, too.

I think Codesmith's effectiveness is shown in my hiring experience. We set up profiles for platforms like AngelList near the end of the program and I got a handful of outreach messages from companies nearly immediately. Two turned into interviews, one into an onsite and an senior dev offer before I even graduated. I spent the three weeks after graduation ~50% applying to jobs and ~50% interviewing/preparing for interviews, getting 5 offers in that time. Every onsite interview I had turned into an offer. I accepted one within a month of graduating.

I think part of my success comes from my technical background and fancy degrees (I didn't put Codesmith on my resume), but I wasn't having many results from these kind of companies in my immediately-previous job search. Codesmith set me up with the skills, confidence, polish and support that made the hiring process actually kind of fun.

I will keep this short, as there are many other reviews talking about the curriculum in depth and the amazing resources that Codesmith provides. My review will be about what I gained the most during my time there.

Codesmith is a valuable investment in yourself and your future. During Codesmith, I genuinely learned how to learn and now I am confident that I will excel at any software postition that I enter. My background is in Civil Engineering and I previously coded in Java, but I had never experienced this level of intense learning until now. 

Codesmith got the philosophy right and you are surrounded by people who are asking in-depth questions about the most interesting emerging technologies. A small group of students, engaged instructors, and projects that challenge you to think critically... this is what all school should be like!! 

I did get a great job at a startup working on the technologies that I love (React), but what I really got was a new mindset on software that will take me far. Shout-out to the Codesmith staff, keep it up!

TL; DR;

Codesmith will be tough to get in to and tough to complete! You will be a mid-to-senior level software engineer by the time you graduate with a production-level project on your resume. The Codesmith team will go above and beyond to provide the highest quality education and help you find an amazing job with an amazing salary. The hours will be long, but the people you will spend your days with are amazing, both personally and professionally.

Acceptance

Acceptance to Codesmith is an educational journey in itself. You must already have some solid foundational programming knowledge just to make it through the interview process. The acceptance rate is lower than that of most Ivy Leagues (~4%). I attended a bootcamp long before I found Codesmith, which puts me in the rare position to be able to draw from actual experience in order to compare Codesmith to other programs. Looking back, I realize that all the knowledge I gained from that bootcamp really only prepared me to be eligible to interview with Codesmith. In addition to the substantive Codesmith interview, there is also a cultural interview. This ensures that the people you spend the next 3.5 months with are people that will facilitate your success as much as the staff and curriculum will.

Curriculum

The curriculum that I experienced in my previous bootcamp provided me with a great coding foundation that made me a great junior developer; however, the knowledge that I acquired there was not sufficient to elevate me to the skill level necessary to join the highly competitive work force as a mid-to-senior level software engineer.

Codesmith residents are held to an extraordinarily high standard of technical excellence and communication. The curriculum is extremely challenging and vigorous. We learned the essentials of computer science (algorithms, design patterns, big O notation), as well as the latest technologies such as React and Redux. As challenging as the coursework is, however, you are not on your own. The one-on-one support from the resident fellows is incredible (think TAs, but they care a lot more). Each person on the staff at Codesmith does everything within their power to ensure success during and after the program.

During the second half of the program, we build production-level projects in small teams. These projects are the best projects coming out of immersive programs in both caliber and quality. Production projects from Codesmith have been acknowledged by the inventor of Redux, Dan Abramov (React Monocle), featured at the Google I/O developer conference (web-dsp) and, on more than one occasion, drawn enormous interest from the React community. My own team's project, Reactide, was the #1 trending app on Github and gained over 5,000 Github stars in the first week of its release. None of these projects were promoted in any significant way; they have all stood on their own merit and ingenuity.

Day to day

An average day at Codesmith consisted of a daily coding challenge, multiple lectures, a lot of pairing, more lectures, and the occasional game of nerf war! What surprised me most about Codesmith was the time commitment required to complete the program. At a minimum, we were there for about 10-14 hours per day, 6 days per week, which is far greater than the time commitment required at a traditional bootcamp. The extra time adds up to at least 2-3 weeks more than you will get anywhere else. The days passed rather quickly, however, given the high expectations and quantity of work required of each of us each day. As I said before: this program isn't for those on the fence about their engineering career!

Classmates

My cohort was a really fun, hardworking, collaborative and supportive cast of characters. Completing a program consisting of over 1,000 hours together created a strong bond between us as a group. To this day, we continue to help and support one another by answering coding questions, giving one another job leads, or just solving interesting challenges together. We even go camping as a group, now and again.

Outcomes

Finding a job, no matter how substantively prepared you are, can be an arduous undertaking. During the last few weeks at Codesmith, there is a lot of focus on preparing for job interviews (including rigorous mock interviews and white-boarding), perfecting your resume, and developing job hunt strategies. This support does not stop when the program ends (as is the case with traditional bootcamps). After completing my previous bootcamp, I was grossly unprepared for the job hunt with absolutely no support from the staff after graduation. This is absolutely not the case at Codesmith. If anything, support in the job hunt increases post-graduation. Staff from Codesmith continued to help me research jobs, prepare for interviews, and keep my coding skills sharp long after graduation day. They even helped me negotiate my salary when I received my first offer. Codesmith students routinely receive offers right out of Codesmith that are $100,000 or more, which is anywhere from 1.5 to 2 times what you will receive as a junior developer coming out of other immersive programs. I can attest to both numbers from experience as my current salary is literally double the salary I was offered after my other bootcamp. 

Conclusion

Not long after I graduated from Codesmith, I landed my dream job. I'm a software engineer (with a highly competitive salary) in New York City, building software to help cities and organizations provide coordinated public services for veterans, families, and low-income individuals.

If you are able to be accepted to Codesmith, go! Do not hesitate! It will be the best decision you can make for your career. 

When I applied I just wanted more practice with JavaScript. As a pleasant surprise it was way more comprehensive and rigorious than I expected. I learned more in 4 weeks than I did on my own in 2 years. I have tried online videos and personal projects but to no avail. We learned about the language itself not just how to code in JavaScript. It was really insightful and now I code more thoughtfully. Once I was done with the course I understood JavaScript so much better. I learned a lot of tips and tricks to make my code more efficient and easier for other web developers to read. Although I had experience programming I still was challenged and learned from others in the class. I learned how to leverage the knowledge of others and how to solidify what I learned. Overall I recommend this course to anyone that is interested in becoming a better web developer. I learned way more than JavaScript. 

Before joining Codesmith, I was really hesitant as to whether joining a coding program was really worthwhile, or all hype. After going to my first JavaScript The Hard Parts, I was pleasantly welcomed by the Codesmith community. People were super nice and socialable and shared their wonderful experiences with me. That's when I knew this was the place for me. 

At Codesmith, sure you'll learn full-stack JavaScript, but what really makes Codesmith special is the community built around it. They truly care about your success and will help you any way possible. The support doesn't stop when you graduate, they continue to check up on you to make sure you are doing what you need to. If things don't look right or don't seem to be working, they continue to work with you until it does. 

It's not easy, and you won't be spoonfed knowlege, but if you are willing to put in the work, you won't regret choosing Codesmith.