Redwood Code Academy

I came into Redwood with a very limited background in comp sci and software development and as of 3 days ago, I've successfully completed 12 weeks of their full-stack development bootcamp. The huge amount of material we were able to get through was very well laid out and taught by Harrison and their instructors. The lessons themselves were very helpful to get an introduction to all the moving pieces that are involved in web development and I believe I have a strong foundation to start my career in software development. 

For future cohorts, I recommend focusing on the JavaScript prework and always put in time outside of class to dive deeper into programming. Redwood does an excellent job of providing a foundation of coding knowledge but there's always more to know and more to practice.

TL;DR -- 5 stars. Would recommend!

As of three days ago, I completed Redwood Code Academy's full-stack immersion program. While it may be premature to say it was the best career choice I've ever made, it has the potential to be. I cannot be more excited to embark on a new career and take the skills I've learned and apply them. Harrison, Billy, Taylor, and Karim were integral parts in my acquiring the foundational knowledge and best practices that will help me succeed in the field of software development. Each had their own area of expertise and it was evident in their lessons. Equally as important, all were more than willing to help me through my bootcamp journey even before and after class. Coming from a background in education, the lessons were well adapted to multiple learning styles and engaged students individually, in pairs, and small groups, which was a plus. If you are looking for a school in Southern California, I would highly recommend Redwood.

If you're looking to go into the field of coding and you're thinking about going through a bootcamp, Redwood Code Academy should be at the top of your list. Learning to code will be one of the most difficult things you ever do. Making sure you pick the right bootcamp is crucial. Redwood Code Academy offers amazing instructors who genuinely care about you succeeding. Check your attitude at the door, and Redwood will make sure you get everything you need to become a full stack developer with highly sought after skills. Good luck. "The name doesn't matter, it's hotdog." - Billy Pruden

Redwood is the code school to go to! 

I have a little bit of a unique experience because I have previously completed the course at Orange Count Code School and worked for a year and a half as a front end developer. 

Redwood has exceeded my expectations as a code school. We learned far more technologies than I thought was even possible to learn in 12 weeks. The teaching and support here is incredible and the teachers really care if you understand what you’re learning. 

I think it is a huge privilege to graduate knowing the C#/.NET stack and the MEAN stack. Yes, the programming concepts are the same but you have a larger skill set for the job market and you are able to figure out if one strikes a greater passion in you than another. Personally, I got a job using C# but my passion is the MEAN stack and I was able to figure that out here. 

Bottom line if I had to choose all over, I would have come to Redwood in the first place because the teachers are outstanding and I really felt comfortable asking questions here. 

Redwood has proved to me that they are efficient as a school and as a business. The staff maintains a great balance exhibiting professional and personable manners. I was never treated in any condescending way, as I had been at a previous coding bootcamp. The course is streamlined to guarantee every student picks up the languages at the same pace, build applications accordingly as individuals and as a group. Assistance is available at any time, after class and even when you're at home. 

I greatly respect the efforts Redwood's staff has put in, to ensure the students are crafted into full stack developers, and would invite anyone curious - to spend a day here to get a feel for what a typical day is like. Watching the staff work with all different kinds of students who learn differently, have different personalities and behaviors that shape them into their own kind of developer, it's fascinating to see how fast they all can move and handle such a variety of people. Every student's frustration and challenges were always taken care of. The E in Redwood could go for exceptional or efficient, either works well. Redwood has a community that is evident with previous students and professional developers coming in as guests speakers, who are able to use the environment as a mini work space or to just hang out and visit.

A very good friend of mine in my cohort had actually become employed halfway, week 8, (this is not to say you will be employed early on), he accepted the employment and Harrison was personally helping him with in-depth learning in a particular language, guiding him with problems and making his transition out of our bootcamp smoothly into his new full-time salaried job! This bootcamp does not guarantee its' students a job, but job assistance is most certainly available and is put in place. For anyone who is worried about job placement, at any coding bootcamp you go to - it's always going to be up to you to do the hours of searching, applying, interviewing and putting yourself out there. Redwood does provide the environment, time and effort being put into us to ensure we are maximizing our productivity of job search. 

As a business too, they genuinely care about how they're doing, if they're meeting the students' expectations. We have one on one's that check in on how the student's are doing, how they're feeling so far and what kind of feedback they have if any - this happens every few weeks. I have never read any coding bootcamp reviews about the schools' staff and Founder, taking the time to check in on student's personally and making sure that both sides are happy. They promise a specific cirriculum, and they delivered accordingly. 

 

 

 

 

When I was 18, I thought I knew exactly what I wanted do, had my entire life planned out to the very last detail, and put in countless hours to get to where I wanted to be. After graduating from UC Irvine, I received an amazing offer at an established company that provided me with many opportunities. Although everything was falling into place, I began to feel a great sense of emptiness. I was very fortunate have an extremely patient supervisor that provided me with the resources to succeed, however, I knew that this was not path that I wanted to continue on.

Despite the countless moments of conflict, I was assigned the task of redesigning the company website which I eventually took on the role as a Project Manager for this project. I used Adobe Illustrator to create wireframes  of the look we were aiming for and also worked with the developer to determine the best user interface for our customers. Althought it was not an easy process, it was extremely rewarding to be able to be a part of creating something that our users enjoy using! This was the most enjoyable project that I had the opportunity of working on and this was also when I began thinking how could actually make this a career. 

After much consideration, I decided that it was time to redefine my goals and move on. I knew for a fact that I wanted to be in an environment where the learning opportunities are dynamic and continuous. I looked further into Software Development and found the field to be absolutely fascinating! I then left my job to pursue a career in Software Engineering, which was extremely intimidating as it is a field that I had absolutely no background knowledge in.

In the first couple weeks of the program, I felt extremely overwhelmed and was extremely uncertain if this was the right path for me. As time progressed, however, I can't believe that I've found myself falling more in love with programming with each passing day. It's definitely not all rainbows and butterflies as the instructors at Redwood constantly push us with new challenges each and every day. They won't give you the solution to the problem, but they do an amazing job at guiding you get to the solution on your own. Their curriculum and approach to teaching definitely prepares their students to succeed in the workforce.

Although I find myself constantly challenged each and everyday, it's been an extremely rewarding journey thus far. Whether it's something big or small, we are literally creating something everyday - Whether it's building a game, creating a website, or collaborating with other developers to make a app! Redwood has countless resources to help you succeed so all you have to do is just ask and they'll be there to guide you in the right direction. 

Whether you want to leave a job that you're unhappy at, change careers, learn a new skill, or whatever your heart desires - I challenge you to take control of YOUR life and just DO it. It took me a year and a half to muster up the courage to make this transition, but I've never been happier and I wish the same for all of you!

 

I was nervous about taking a risk of attending a full-time bootcamp, but since I've gone through it, I am confident I made the right choice. They helped guide me through a few steep learning curves that would have taken me much longer to get through on my own. This applies to both the languages themselves and the tools used to make it all work. There have been some concepts that seem overwhelming, but Harrison and Billy are very knowledgable and break it down into smaller bits that are easier to digest. Having done my research before attending a bootcamp a common piece of advice I read about was that you get out of it what you put in, if you're willing to put in the work, Redwood will definitely go more than halfway to get you to your goals. I highly recommend Redwood to anyone that is serious about learning to code.

 I was just like anyone else at the beginning of the course. I had a lot of hope that this was not going to be a bust or waste of time and I'm so happy that 9 weeks later I feel I'm doing things I used to watch other techies do and wonder if I'd actually get to learning it in my lifetime. Now I'm mad I just did not do this a long time ago Harrison and Billy really have an excellent way of teaching so that you get the meat of it all.

  I checked out a couple of other boot camps before and they were cool but they did not cover any mobile or app development mainly just javascript. I wanted flexibility in my future career path so I really appreciate  Redwood Code Academy giving me multiple paths to choose from and instructors that really code for a living.  

 Harrison and billy are a beast when it comes to knowledge and experience in the field and I'm so happy I came here because I know for a fact it very rare that instructors have such a deep pool of knowledge to draw from. I feel very confident on interviewing for the job I want due to the fact your teacher could pretty much hire all the people that would be trying to hire you. Harrisons Bio doesn't come close to what you learn about him in person and Billy is always there to back you up when hit that wall.

 Jobs Jobs Jobs That's what you want to know about well in the mean time I'm trying to get everyone I know in here for the fact I already have three job offers halfway through the course. The need for developers is not dying it's growing as we head into this new technological era so once I started just telling people what I was studying for people were giving me there business cards offering pay that is 50% more than what I currently make at my lame 9-5 job ummm can you say complete life change.

 I have a daughter coming around April first and at the beginning of this year I was stressed out on how I'm going to pay for everything so i can be a great dad considering I have not been back to school in 20 years, to be able and pick this up and start a new life is beyond words to me.

  I personally feel that this is the time to get into a boot camp and save yourself for 4 years of debt. If you go to college it would take 4 years to get what we get in 3 months at Redwood but main difference is we use the technology when it's hot, school you will be going back to  BootCamp to learn what's up to date. If you don't have the luxury of time and free rent, food and people just flat out paying all of your bills this is the place to be, and if you do, it's still the place to be lol. Redwood Code Academy did not change my life it literally saved it to think I was going to procrastinate and take a later class, id just be further away from the success that I'm enjoying today and the class is just 4 weeks to go.

 

Is it tuff yes its a challenge you will hit that brick wall but the teachers are here to pull you up and they always do. My advice is to never give up stay hungry and time will fly so many people waste so much time in 3 months you are literally a different person and personally I'm basking in the new me.

 

10/10 Life Changer

I'm leaving this review in support of my fellow alumni who has experienced the same situation as myself.  I began attending RCA in May of 2019 with a determination to make a career change. RCA seemed and sounded promising at the time, primarily because of the promised job support and the job network that is posted on their site. The instructors were great people and I don't blame them at all. I felt like the course itself is spread too thin and the instructors weren't able to teach everything that was in the coursework efficiently. The lack of depth of coursework left me and others feeling unprepared to join the workforce. The primary issue is that I did not receive job support and certainly did not feel that RCA had the industry connections they claimed to have. I finished the school in August and I am still unemployed (still learning and working on refining my new craft all the while). All that was conducted, was a basic resume review, but there were no deep dives into technical interview preps. RCA has not connected me to other companies for work unless you count an unpaid internship as a connection. Any connections or job opportunities were primarily researched and conducted by myself which I understand is also part of the process but I still expected help to kickstart myself. This review again, is not to spite the school but to put to light the real issues that are plaguing the school and preventing it from producing successful developers. As much as I believe that RCA has potential, it has very blatant and serious problems that it must address. I would not attend this school if I was an aspiring developer and would try to look elsewhere. I also realized a majority of the previous reviews were under the management of a different owner and it appears the current owner uses outdated placement numbers as his own.  It's been a very disappointing experience for me and now I face extreme financial hardship due to trusting Redwood. I agree with my fellow alumni, this is going to be hard to write but it's great that I can unite with students from fellow cohorts and bring out some truths about Redwood that people need to know when considering RCA as a potential boot camp they'd like to attend. Please don't just ask to speak to the people who got jobs, ask to speak to the people who did not. Redwood gives emails to the FEW students who got jobs but do not mention those who did not. I will be happy to share my email and contact me if you have any questions. I will give you the honest truth. So in closing, I do not recommend attending Redwood in its current state.

**PLEASE READ I CAN BE CONTACTED TO VERIFY-CONTACT INFO BELOW**

I would like to preface this by saying I am not a spiteful person. If I were I would have made this review months ago (January) when it all began. I had given the owner of this school plenty of time to respond to my loan cancellation request but I no longer have a choice but to leave a review now that it is nearing April.

I had went onto the school community channel for support and to voice my dissapointment and I was instantly banned by the owner after sharing my experience and sharing info that if anyone else had a bad experience to contact me so I can share an organization called BPPE.CA.GOV  My post was immediately deleted but to my surprise I was messaged by several students who voiced that they were disappointed with the school as well.  None of which found jobs but sadly you will never hear from them or their experience.  I do not enjoy the fact that I have to write this but this school needs to be exposed so that the owner immediatly stops taking advantage of aspiring developers who do not know what they are getting themselves into.  The owner finally reached out to me but I am not happy that it took this to get a response out of him.  Please do not dismiss my review as I remind you I do not enjoy that this is what it has come to.  I attempted to find a solution at lower levels from several attempts to contact the owner and then using the community platform for support.  But now this is my last resort.

To the owner of Redwood I am prepared for a calculated rehearsed response to make me appear the one who is wrong when all I wanted was your assistance. But now I am facing financial hardship due to your concious decision to avoid me.  I don't appreciate that you are NOW responding to me after being exposed and students who are now encouraged to share their experience have emerged.  FYI I purpsoley avoided your phone call and text just now as I would like document this moving foward. You can email me your solution to the email provided below.

Anyone reading this please do not judge this review until we can connect. Please contact me directly at SGAZOR@GMAIL.COM. Unlinke Redwood I have nothing to hide and now have the support of students that attended Redwood.  Thank you to those that reached out. I genuinely feel upset about having to write this.

Stay safe amid this Covid-19 pandemic.

Peace and Love.

Hello World, I'm Brian. 

I went to this "coding bootcamp" from Mar-Jul 2017. 

Harrison Spain, Billy Pruden, and Taylor Thomas misled, and misinformed me about their experience and qualifications to teach code, and scammed and defrauded me out of $12,500.

A LOT of students paid thousands of dollars to this "coding bootcamp" in 2016 and 2017 got scammed and defrauded by Harrison Spain (Redwood founder) because he frankly lied in a very elegant manner.

Playing A LOT of ping-pong, eating cheap pizza and junk food, getting cheap apparel with the stupid poorly designed "Redwood" logo, having my candy bar stolen and eaten without my consent, and spending OVER $12k for nothing is NOT what I signed up for. This is what happened to me at this place. I'm NOT making this up!

He claims that jQuery and Angular.js were "modern" javascript libraries and frameworks (they are NOT!!) These are NOT ES6 (ECMAScript2015) javascript libraries/frameworks, in fact, they are pre-ES6 (legacies). The curriculum was completely overpriced elegantly package garbage!

Coding-along = copying code from the projector screen while the instructor talks and types in front of the room, while you type out the code on your own computer screen, is NOT the way to teach someone how to code!

Until this day he has NOT provided FACTUAL PROOF of his claims and statistics when it comes to student outcomes and curriculum success. 

The Redwood founder has NO Github account to validate his "coding skills" for the "supposedly" 15 years of experience he claims to possess.

He has hired "former students" as TA's and given them the titles of "experienced developers", which is a complete lie.

Harrison doesn't have the experience to teach code, this is why he had to hire an "experienced" developer to take over his school as of right now in 2019. If he did this from the start in 2016, then he would NOT have any kind of problems and I would NOT have to write about this at all.

The "job support" was microscopically non-existence and the path to a developer job was NOT clearly given (applying to all dev positions disregarding junior-senior positions is NOT good job advice and direction)

Harrison has bragged that he was interviewed over 500 developers throughout his years in the tech industry, but when I ask him what they would ask me in an interview, he couldn't even give me ONE question or advice. He says, "you never know what they will ask you." This type of nonsense useless advice is NOT worth OVER $12k!

This "coding bootcamp" was operating unregulated by the Department of Consumer Affairs Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education from Oct 2016-Jul 2018, therefore any sort of fine or legal punishment against Harrison Spain, his associates, and most important his school, is non-applicable = meaning "Us" students from 2016 to 2017 got RIPPED OFF! The only way to get justice from what Harrison did is to take legal action against him and his school, which would cost thousands and thousands of dollars to facilitate.

There are A LOT of online coding programs that are better and more affordable as of right now in 2019!

Avoid this coding bootcamp. Avoid this place. And don't go here!

 

 

HERES THE TRUTH ("You" refers to Harrison Spain/Redwood Code Academy):

• You were NOT accredited by the BPPE while I attended your school.
• You didn't teach modern javascript - jQuery (library 2006) and Angular.js (framework 2010) are not modern javascript (ECMAScript2015 aka ES6) libraries and frameworks. (I can prove this).
• NONE of your students in the part-time front end developer night classes have NEVER gotten a job as a front end developer because you were not teaching coding properly to supplement those skillsets.
• The MAJORITY of your students from 2016-2017 could not get a job as a developer, whether front end developer and especially full-stack developer because you weren't teaching enough to substantiate those skillsets.
• You, Harrison, have NEVER made a single phone call or initiated a slack conversation to find out whether or not I had secured a developer position after attending your overpriced, deceptive, fraud school.
• You NEVER looked over my LinkedIn.
• You NEVER helped me write my resume or cover letter (I had to take a resume writing course after Redwood).
• You NEVER looked over my GitHub account and didn't teach me how to use GitHub the way that professional developers use GitHub in the workplace and workforce.
• After attending Redwood and ending in July 2017, over six months later, you told me to apply to every developer position out there, even though I was NOT qualified for any of those jobs because you didn't teach the right stuff to qualify for those positions.
• I expressed and complained to you and Taylor, and you accuse me of threats because I spoke up to a White Man; you didn't want to help me at all and you didn't care at all.
• You hire your past students (Taylor Thomas) as TA's to cut cost in hiring an actually experienced developer.
• You hired another developer with 25 years of experience (more than you) because your "experience" was insufficient and inadequate.
• You created fictitious reviews for your school online (I have proof!!!).
• You exaggerated and lied about your experience and qualifications (you did NOT win multiple hackathons)
• You have NO GitHub account to validate and show your claims as an experienced developer (where are you web applications that you've built in your 15 years of experience?).
• You told me that my projects were good enough to get a job (they are not).
• You provide NO substantial and factual proof to validate any of your claims.
• You blame me for not being able to get a job because I got pissed off at you and spoke up to you.
• At face value, most importantly, you are a deceptive, and calculating liar!
• You and your lawyer, Raeesabbas Mohamed at RM WARNER LAW (8283 N. Hayden Rd.  Ste. 229 Scottsdale, AZ 85258) are pathetic and sick individuals that make-up non-sense and untruth claims in your demand letter against me and tried to entrap me and extort me.

THIS IS WHY I HAD TO REPORT YOU AND WHY YOU WERE INVESTIGATED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS BUREAU FOR PRIVATE POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION (BPPE) IN DEC 2018.

 

 

READ THIS:

https://bit.ly/2VuIJ48

Had a great experience attending Redwood. Initially I was trying to teach myself but could not progress at the speed I wanted to go. So I took the plunge and attended Redwood. The instructors were great. Harrison, Taylor and Zack were on hand to guide us to find solutions when needed. The format was perfect in terms of learning the material. Lessons with the daily and weekly labs, followed by a few projects. It was a wonderful learning environment. Harrison and Taylor did excellent jobs presenting the material in a way that was easy for me to ingest. I was able to get a job a couple of months after the bootcamp ended. Should you decided to join, definitely commit and put in the effort since the time goes by quickly.