I Joined Coding Dojo: Decision Process and Pre-Camp Thoughts
I recently registered for a Python full stack web dev bootcamp through Coding Dojo that runs 4 months (16 weeks) and is estimated to require 20 hours per week. The cohort starts May 4th 2020. I am going to be documenting my journey throughout the bootcamp to give insight into my experience. I know before I enrolled I was skeptical about whether it was worth the price. I created a table with various online bootcamps and some basic info you can check out below:
update: I posted a mid-point review after 120+ hours
FT = ‘full time’, PT = ‘part time’, FS = ‘full stack’
I ended up choosing Coding Dojo for a couple reasons:
- I did my undergrad (like 4 years ago) in informatics and we used Python — so wanted to stick with that language
- I am taking the summer semester off from my grad program — so wanted something that fit that timeline
- Wanted a decent deal ($$), feel like a lot of these bootcamps are pricey and was skeptical of the actual value (hint hint: GA)
So I signed up and filled out the initial questionnaire asking things like my experience and how many hours per week I planned to dedicate to the program. After I submitted that info I was sent an email with instructions on how to reserve my seat — which essentially means pay up, they give you $250 off if you do this within 5 days (nice marketing technique here)
I went ahead and signed up for the May 4th cohort, which fit nicely with my graduate program whose semester ends around the end of April. This gives me some time to run through the pre-bootcamp stuff which actually is a decent amount of reading/assignments. I’m glad Coding Dojo does this instead of just throwing us in the first week, this is a nice way to re-touch up on the basics and get acquainted with the Coding Dojo ‘Student Portal’, or whatever you wanna call it.
The Student Portal is where you access all the course content, it’s a personalized profile which also houses ‘Belts’ you earn. I’ll explain this Belt system in more detail later on.
I just signed up last week so I had a couple days to learn the system a bit and overall I like it. They lay everything out chronologically and estimate how long things are going to take so you can plan better. So far there was reading and an assignment which went over programming basics with JavaScript as the language. They said that the pre-bootcamp work takes about 30 hours so i’m trying to spread it out across the next 3 weeks before my cohort officially starts.
update: I posted a mid-point review after 120+ hours
if you have any specific questions about the bootcamp or have some insight to share shoot me a tweet @DomVacchiano.
I initially posted this on April 12, 2020 on Medium and my previous blog.