Redwood Code Academy

If it wasn't for the instructors, my review would be lower. 

I'm not usually one to write a review, but due to current revelations of others and their disappointing reviews of Redwood Code Academy, I feel that I need to join them by writing my own to inform future students. 

At the time I started looking into joining a coding bootcamp, RCA was under different ownership. The information listed on the website was of the previous ownership's tract record and accolades, and it was the reason I chose RCA. Under the new ownership, RCA doesn't have the reputation or abilities it is trying to portray by keeping old information (including the testimonials) on the website and in the 2019 Syllabus. 

Weeks 1 - 6 was too much information for the time allotted and it wasn't even the same as listed in the Syllabus when I signed up.

Weeks 7 - 12 was a course created for a high-school AP class which we didn't fully complete by the end of week 12. It was suggested that we finish the lesson on our own. Our "hack-a-thon" was a joke due to the last-minute addition of AWS (Amazon Web Services). We had one-hour of AWS instruction the day prior to the hack-a-thon event.

Week 13 (job assistance week), this is where RCA fell short. We prepared our resumes as promised, but after that, help was non-existent. I had no in-person technical interview practice, no mock phone interview practice, no strong network of alumni and industry veterans ready to assist and support, and I met with one local recruiter who didn't work with the supporting employers listed on the website. In addition, the companies the recruiter did work with didn't have positions or paid internships available for newly graduated students. Finally, there were, and still, no regularly scheduled meetups and events to help graduates network with each other and hiring managers.

Overall, my biggest complaint with RCA is the lack of "TRUE" job support. If you want an unpaid internship offer rather than a true job placement, there were some. Plus, if you were lucky with the unpaid internship, you might get hired at minimum wage. 

The takeaway for this review is... DON'T waste your money with RCA and find a bootcamp that cares more about your outcome than their income. Because a good review is worth more than bad hustler.

If you find yourself frustrated with your self-learning journey in programming (i.e. progressing slower than you'd like, not having all the answers to your question), then Redwood is definitely for you. Their full stack developer bootcamp is very thorough in preparing you for a junior web developer position. What you get out of the program is all dependent on what you put in, but Redwood definitely provides the resources for you to push yourself. Paul Epps is an amazing instructor and Senior Dev with 20+ years of experience. He can answer any questions regarding programming or the career path, and makes himself available before class to walk you through any topics you are struggling with. Karim also works full time to help you in your job search full time, providing feedback on every step of the process and helping you find leads wherever they are. The TA also put in a lot of extra hours to ensure no one fell behind the rest of the class. 

I thought the job search would take months, but it took me two weeks of job hunting to land my first dev job under the tutelage of Redwood (It sounds ludicrous but somehow it happened). You definitely need to devote yourself to the program if you want to get the results you're expecting, but Redwood gives you an abundance of opportunities to grow as a developer. 

Before attending Redwood, I visited various coding bootcamps in the OC area. Instantly, I felt Redwood was the right fit because from day one, I never felt like a number or just another student. Redwood was also the only program in the area that offered a C# / .NET back end curriculum and allowed me to learn the complete full stack throughout the program instead of choosing between front or back end halfway through the program. Before choosing Redwood I reached out to alumni and was very happy with their outcomes and feedback which also set Redwood apart from other schools.

When inquiring about the school, I was happy that I met with the program director, Karim, instead of being presented with a sales pitch in a room full of people. He met with me one on one which I appreciated. He took the time to thoroughly discuss the program and listen to my goals. He made me feel like he cared about my future and whether I was ready or not. He made sure I wanted to join a bootcamp for the right reasons and that I had enough understanding of basic Javascript, HTML, and CSS to do well in the program. He also addressed all my concerns and fears of quitting my job to start Redwood's program and my anxiety about successfully finding a job after the program was finished.

My instructors were AMAZING! Each of them had a unique style of teaching that allowed me to learn so many languages in such a quick time. If I ever felt lost or unsure they were willing to give me extra lessons and spend time with me after class to make sure I was absorbing new concepts. Most importantly, they cared about my success. Their success was my success and they were willing to give as much advice and mentorship to help give me the confidence I needed to finish the program.

The program and the job hunt both require hard work and persistence. Because of the support of the Redwood staff, I successfully completed the program and within a month of my job search began receiving job offers.  I now work as a web developer and couldn't be happier with my decision.

Overall I am grateful that I placed my career in the right hands. I am confident if you give Redwood a chance and believe in yourself, work hard and make the sacrifice, you will be successful.

Thank you Redwood!!!

The Full Stack Immersion course was difficult, but the more work you put in & out of school the more you get out of it. If you need the extra help they have after hours which helped me greatly, cause that's where you get 1on1 help. I went in right after highschool with little to no knowledge of JavaScript and I came out with a knowledge of Full Stack Development in 3 months. There's also a week 13 (optional, but highly recomended) and it's all about job prep. e.g. mock interviews, resume review, and job searching, but remember YOU also have to put in the work of job searching. The campus was bigger than I expected; two classrooms, spacious break room, and a sequoia room(which is like a quiet room for anyone to use). Overall I had a great time at Redwood all the staffs and students vibed greatly.

I attended Redwood Code Academy in the Summer-Fall of 2018. I also graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a Computer Science degree, and had some previous Software Engineering experience. I had always wondered if I needed to attend a bootcamp to further myself in my career, and was extremely conflicted when deciding whether I should attend one or not. I hope this review will be helpful for those who are also wondering whether they need the help of a bootcamp or not.

To start, the bootcamp is VERY intensive. There is a lot of material to learn, and there is little time to digest all of it. Each day, we would start with either lab review, or a whiteboarding session. Then we would go into the lesson for the day, do a couple exercises pertaining to the lesson, and then move into doing the lab for the rest of the day. On most days, it would be difficult to finish the lab, and I would have to finish at home. In addition, if there were any difficult parts, I would spend the night coding more trying to fully digest what we learned. It’s very important to note, you get what you put in. If you don't put in the effort, you will most likely fall behind, and this is coming from someone with experience. I would not suggest attending if you give up easily, refuse to ask for help, or do not want to put in the extra effort to fully understand the material.  

Now, I would like to first address the negatives of the course.

• C#/.NET section: I was very disappointed by the second half of the bootcamp for C#/.NET. I had expected more from a bootcamp that claims they are specialized in the .NET framework. In comparison to the earlier JavaScript half, the lessons were not clearly planned beforehand. Harrison would have to debug issues that appeared during lessons. Other students and I had lots of confusion and issues on the labs because the lessons did not fully prepare us, and even other instructors weren’t well equipped to help with this section as well and would have to do a lot of research to help us. In comparison to the well-structured JavaScript first half, the second half was rushed and there wasn’t enough concept reinforcement. I had really wanted to learn more in this section, but core C# concepts (object oriented programming) were brushed over quickly, and there wasn’t practice to learn them.
• Curriculum: Not everything that was promised was went over to where I feel job-level comfortable. I had hoped to learn more about Agile/Scrum methodologies, Cloud Development, and Firebase.  They were either not mentioned, quickly brushed over online resources, or not given proper practice with.
• Job/Interview Preparation: Another section where I do not feel professionally prepared for the real world. Data structures/algorithms were quickly went over and we were told to learn the others on our own time. Resume review was lacking. I received a few lines of feedback from Redwood, but when I asked someone in the industry, they would give me paragraphs of feedback. We were only given one 30-minute mock interview with quick feedback. Yes, it gave me a sense how an interview would go, but I do not feel any more prepared to ace the interview than when I first started the bootcamp. I had also expected better connections or a chance to meet with hiring managers, but instead we only had the chance to meet with recruiters for a day, and most job postings were links to online job postings. Proper GitHub READMEs were also something hiring managers wanted to see, but this was something I had to learn on my own.
• Externship: The part I was looking forward to the most was being able to work together and connect with a working professional in the industry. Even though the project was intense and I learned a lot working on it, there was little feedback on our design, and zero feedback on our code. I had hoped to work closer with the client, but that was limited to just one meeting halfway through the project, and one more time at the final demo.

Now, the positives:

• The instructors: The two lead instructors - Taylor and Patrick - were fantastic and truly made my time at Redwood enjoyable. They spent countless hours helping my classmates and I and have been incredible resources this entire cohort. I have learned a lot from them and I cannot thank them enough for all the hard work and dedication they have put into teaching us. When I asked a question, they would make sure I fully understood what they were saying, and if they didn’t know the answer to something, they would look into it and make sure to get back to me. There were also additional office hours that taught supplementary material or to help with current material that was extremely helpful as well.
• Javascript Section: The Javascript/React/Node lessons and labs have been fantastic. Lessons were structured very well and the labs helped us further understand what we learned that day. Previously I thought Javascript was my worst language, but now it is one of my best and most enjoyed language.
• The classmates: Some people may think programmers are unsocial, but everyone in this cohort was amazing and friendly. Everyone knew they were here to make a change for themselves and everyone worked their hardest to work towards a new beginning. Everyone would work together and no one refused to helping another.
• Environment: The environment was very clean, there was plenty of parking around the office building, and there was a fridge and microwave for lunches. In addition, there was a ping pong table, chess set, and poker set that you could use to de-stress or to help process information.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed my time at Redwood. Unfortunately, the second half and job assistance part I came for were lacking, and can use a lot of improvement. I definitely feel more confident in my ability to program and I have projects I can display, but I wish I could have the same confidence for tackling interviews and landing that post-graduation job.

I hope you have found my review helpful!

I attended Redwood Code Academy Summer of 2017. I was always interested in development and technology, before I found Redwood I worked a bunch of minimum wage jobs that were not fulfilling. I got fed up so I decided to better myself. I found Redwood and took there tour and Harrison was great at explaining what you will get out of the course. During my time there I learned different technologies that are on demand in the market. I enjoyed the courses and gained a strong foundation in which i can excel in the field. A month after graduating I was able to land a job at Santa Monica, CA for a software company called CallFire. 
 

Here is my linked in if you have any questions.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-canlas-57445813b/

I looked long and hard for a web development bootcamp in Southern California and I am so glad that I chose Redwood Code Academy's Full Stack Immersion Program. 

My favorite part about Redwood is the teachers. Harrison, Taylor and Patrick are extremely knowledgeable about complex topics in web development, yet completely understanding and encouraging to students who are learning them for the first time. They provide a ton of support for students who struggle with the material without holding their hands, ensuring that everyone grasps it on their own terms. It is abundantly clear that the instructors truly care about the success of each student, and will go out of their way to help them when they need it. 

Each day starts with a brief warm up period, which gives students the opportunity to practice writing and studying Javascript functions before the daily lecture where a major web development topic is taught and explained. After lecture, the rest of the day is dedicated to a lab where students take previously learned topics and actually code something. The daily labs given during this bootcamp are challenging, yet realistic, requiring students to leave their comfort zones and to apply everything that they were taught to complete them. 

If you are looking for a constructive and engaging environment to jumpstart your web development career, then Redwood Code Academy is for you. I would highly recommend for anyone who is serious about becoming a full stack developer

I attended Redwood Code Academy (RCA) in April 2017 and I am currently working as part of the Xamarin Team at Microsoft. 

Harrison who is the lead professor and the Founder of the academy has invested so much in making RCA the best Coding Bootcamp in the OC. Harrison and his staff care about the student's success in and out of the program. All the instructors are very knowledgeable in the technologies they teach and work hard in making sure that you understand everything they show you.

After I completed the program, Harrison helped me every stepped of the way until I found my dream job! I really felt that RCA went above and beyond by helping me prepare for every interview I attended.

I would recommend Redwood Code Academy to anyone who is serious about becoming a software engineer and are looking into making a life-changing career.

I want to start this review by stating that bootcamp, as a whole, may not be for everyone. Every day that you are attending bootcamp, you are making a commitment to yourself to put your best foot forward and become a better asset in the job market. When you read coding bootcamp reviews, they are usually all positive. People talking about how they were successful and how they landed their dream job. It sounds like a miracle! Who wouldn't want to have the opportunity of job security and a high paying salary? However, the truth of the matter is, coding bootcamp will not provide that for everyone. It will provide that for the people who show up daily and do the grind. The hours are long and you need to have self-discipline. At Redwood, they do their best to create a stress free environment by having ping-pong tournaments and class parties after class on occasion. They don't do this to distract their students, they do this to help us all out. We spend the day staring at a computer screen, working our butts of to get things done. When I was attending the bootcamp, I had no life outside of it. My dreams started to contain code, I started telling coding jokes! It invaded every facet of my life. And I loved it. I wrote things down that I didn't understand and I researched them when I got home. During the project weeks, I went home and worked on the code til the wee hours of the morning. It was fun to learn and I loved every day of the bootcamp! 

With all that said, this bootcamp is not a free hand-out. You can't expect to pay the money and have Redwood get you a job if you aren't willing to work for that job. If you are willing to work for it, Redwood is there for you. I never missed a day, I showed up on time, I asked questions and I put my everything into the bootcamp. At every turn, Harrison, Karim, Taylor and Zach were there to support me. They were all so supportive in their own ways. Some days I would come in and be so stressed out from a late night and Karim would be there with a joke to cheer me up. Any time that I was freaking out that I wouldn't get a job, Harrison would be there to pick me up with positive reinforcement. Zach and Taylor were always in the classroom during our daily labs, helping all of us with our problems and finding those pesky little syntax errors. 

Another thing to take into consideration when choosing this bootcamp is that you are entering a bootcamp that is small in size, relatively new and owned and operated by the lead-instructor. It isn't some huge corporate bootcamp that has been around for ages. But that it what I loved most. When I finally decided to take the plunge and start a bootcamp, I started looking around in the Orange-County area. Redwood was the only bootcamp that sent me a personalized email. When I went into Redwood for the first time, the first person that I spoke to was Karim. He greeted me at the door with a huge smile and a warm welcome. I spoke with Harrison as well, but briefly since the cohort before me was currently in session. Like I said before, Harrison is doing a lot. I have so much respect for what he does. But it's important to remember that people can't be in multiple places at once. I think one of the main reasons for my success at the bootcamp is that I used the staff for the things they were there for. I never fully relied on one staff member for my success. There is a reason that the people that work there are there and if you do end up going here, use them! They are all so nice and they all really do care. They wouldn't be working with all of us and our craziness if they didn't. 

When it came time to find a job, Redwood had my back. Harrison brought out some people that he knows from the industry to prepare us for what people in the market are looking for. They never sugar-coated the fact that the job hunt would be a grind. It really was. In the beginning, I was filling out job applications for hours a day. About 15 a day. It was exhausting, and I wasn't getting a call from anyone except recruiters. Harrison told us, never turn down an opportunity. So I answered every email and every call. I signed up for every job site I could think of. I took phone interviews from every company, leaving my opinions out. Within about 2 months, I was accepting a job offer.

I wouldn't be here without Redwood, Harrison and the rest of the staff. I will always have gratitude for the opportunity they provided me. It is an opportunity that I would relive if I could. There was so much learning, growing and fun had at Redwood! Thank you.

 

Redwood Code Academy is an amazing coding school. Before I enrolled in May 2018, I also was looking at the General Assembly in Santa Monica. I went to both school meetings and started considering the pros and cons of both schools. I finally ended up choosing Redwood even though it was much further away for me as live in Torrance. The reason why I choose Redwood is that they seemed to really care about their students and were genuinely looking to help them learn how to code. I am glad I choose Redwood and here is why. I came from a real estate and sales background so I had no technical knowledge at all. The first three days at Redwood told me I definitely needed more help with understanding the concepts. So I went to the advisor's office his name is Karim and I told him I was struggling and I needed help. Karim right the way went to talk to the owner of the school named Harrison who then scheduled extra tutoring for me and other students an hour before class and another hour after class. With me getting more help I started learning more. Then again a month later I realized I was still having a hard time with JavaScript functions so I went back to Karim who talked to Harrison again and this is when I understood that this school really wanted me to succeed and was not just about taking my money. What Harrison did is he created an additional two and half hour during the first portion of the morning class to give students like me more tutoring. Patrick and Taylor who were both our instructors in class and our tutors took turns every morning to give us more practice exercises with JavaScript functions and concepts to help us understand it better. I am so happy now because of this caring nature of the staffs at Redwood I was able to learn to code and I can safely say that I am a full-Stack web developer. I am looking forward to graduating in August and starting to apply for jobs. I know that I have been thought well at Redwood and they prepared me for the job I will be doing. I had several conversations with senior web developers outside of the school and when I share with them the technologies we are learning a lot of them would tell me "I don't even know how to do that" and this made me feel good about the skills I learned here at Redwood. If you are looking to enrolment to a coding program I highly recommend Redwood Code Academy. I am grateful to Redwood for teaching me so much and not giving up on me. Mamma Fnu

Before going into Redwood Code Academy I had very little computer science knowledge, had taken a course or two at a local community college.I had learned a lot more at redwood than I did in a full semester. The atmosphere is great, instructors were very supportive. If you had trouble with the material being reviewed they were more than willing the help you out every step of the way. If you ever find yourself stuck on certain material dont be afraid to ask for help, thats what they are there for. Always continue to learn. 5/5 Would recommend. Some quick advice for anyone looking to join, review the prework assigned and put in some hours after class.