For those seeking to upgrade their skill set or pivot into a new career as a software developer, business analyst, or quality assurance specialist, Tech Elevator (TE) is a solid investment. If you had told me three months ago that I would end up working as an IT consultant for Fortune 1000 companies, I would have called your bluff…and yet here I am today! The company’s CEO, Mr. Anthony Hughes, likens the 14-week course to an “inflection point” for many of its students, and I think his description is accurate. Truthfully, I don’t think I will grasp the total significance of my decision to enroll in the boot camp for several years to come.

Why Tech Elevator?

Dedicated, Experienced Instructors – I was in the C#/.NET class, which originally wasn’t my first choice. However, I am now very glad I decided to join that group because sometimes your instructor can make or break your experience, and Josh Tucholski is one of the best instructors that I’ve ever had, period. He’s patient and humble with a good sense of humor and a passion for seeing students succeed. He’s also a vegetarian and long-distance runner, which makes him cool in my book. :D You can tell that he puts in way more than a 40- or 50-hour week just because he cares. He arrives at the building early every day and alternates between teaching, interviewing new students and faculty, developing the curriculum, assisting students and other instructors, and meeting with students one-on-one for check-in sessions. If you check the time of his emails and messages, some of them read 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. When I went to the open house and spoke with him, I could envision myself learning under him. I highly recommend going to an open house if you can just to interact with the instructors and ask them questions about what you’ll be learning.

I also had the privilege of working with Craig, an instructor available to help students individually and in small groups. Craig explains concepts very well and is an invaluable resource for those trying to master OOP. He is also a secret sketch artist and makes beautiful wire frames for our capstone projects.

Full-Stack Curriculum – I had never built a dynamic web application before the class, but I now have a better understanding of how the many components of a website fit together in the context of the browser-server relationship. I left the course excited for how I could apply my new skills and develop projects. It would have taken me many, many months to get to that point on my own.

Good Location – parking is free, and the lot is gated. I always felt safe. You receive a key fob that lets you open and close the gate and get in the building 24/7. There are several other companies in the building, which made the environment more fun. Across the hallway we had a window into a lab where technicians experimented with fruit flies and mixed chemicals with pipettes.

Talented, Kind, and Interesting Classmates – In our cohort alone, we had a magician, a PeaceCorps worker, a farmer, a high school valedictorian, an English teacher, an EPA worker, and a yoga teacher. I enjoyed getting to know everyone and hope to stay in touch after the program. There was no drama, competition, or mean-spiritedness in our .NET class; everyone got along well and frequently took breaks to talk over lunch, walk outside to food spots, or play ping pong.

Consistent Career Development Practice – At times I became frustrated because it was challenging to balance both the Pathway (career development) and class sides of the program, but I gained a lot of useful practice with behavioral and technical interviews. TE staff members practice interviewing with students, but also bring in professionals to conduct mock one-on-one interviews and provide detailed feedback. The Employer Matchmaking session, which is essentially speed-dating with eight or nine different companies over a two-day period to determine if both parties want to move ahead in the interview process, also helped me to become comfortable interviewing through its sheer repetition.

Varied Employer Network – Most of the prominent software companies and IT shops are in TE’s network, from financial services and insurance to healthcare to custom apps and consulting. Students have opportunities to network with representatives throughout the course of the program and receive assistance if they are interested in a company outside the network.

Strong Program Outcomes – In our cohort alone, I can count at least ten people including myself (we had around 25-30 people total) who had jobs before the end of the program. At the open houses, program representatives say there is a 98 percent job placement rate so many days after graduation. I was impressed when I heard that number and based on how many people have been hired already, I am hopeful that our cohort will match that statistic.

Tips for Success​

• Really go in with some practice under your belt; you will get much more out of the course and be able to scaffold your learning better. I recommend taking Udacity’s “Introduction to Computer Science” course (Python) with Dave Evans from UVA or any other MOOC that has structured assignments and a blog community that discusses answers to questions. While you experiment with different courses, see if you like coding and can imagine yourself doing it for several hours at a time every day. If you enjoy puzzle-solving and creativity, you probably will! :)
• Have one or more side projects that you can discuss with employers. Every time an employer came to visit us, they talked about the importance of standing out and showing your passion with projects. You also learn a lot by doing side projects.
• You’ll also get more out of the Pathway (career prep) side of the program if you help the staff help you and have a list of companies you might want to apply for and what roles you might want to pursue. This doesn’t have to be set in stone, but a working list is helpful. Also, if you want to work outside of Ohio, move to apply quickly because once the Employer Matchmaking session hits, application timelines move extremely quickly—sometimes you may receive an offer within the span of a week.

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While browsing course reports earlier this year, I struggled to determine whether I was ready to invest my time and money in a boot camp and if so, how to go about selecting one. Here is a little window into my decision-making process and how I landed at Tech Elevator, in case that might be helpful to anyone:

Choosing a Coding Boot Camp

Why choose a coding boot camp compared to other forms of education like online certificates, associates programs, or second bachelor degrees? I started with "learn-to-code" websites originally, but eventually I decided to opt for an in-person experience because I knew I could accelerate my learning through:

(1) Access to experienced mentors who provide feedback, guidance, and instruction on “what you don’t know you don’t know”

(2) Larger and more complex assignments and projects

(3) A community of peers with whom I could share ideas and encouragement

(4) Total immersion

From there, I had to choose between a formal degree program and the boot camp model. I eventually settled on the latter for financial reasons. If you actually compare the total number of credit hours at a university with the total number of hours of class instruction and career support at a boot camp, you get a lot more “bang for your buck” with the boot camp. Furthermore, even though boot camps have a high flat cost, securing jobs through them can be easier because they specialize in building employment networks and are incentivized to help students find jobs in order to maintain their employment outcomes. As a consequence, you may be able to pay off your debts more quickly than going through a university.

My last step was to find the boot camp that best met my needs. I didn’t want to relocate for the program, so I looked only in the greater Cleveland area. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND doing research on different options available and asking as many questions as you can when speaking with representatives. One boot camp I investigated seemed very disorganized. Different recruiters contacted me and didn’t seem to communicate with each other or follow up with my messages. The recruiters also couldn’t tell me who the lead instructor of the course was, what employers were in their network, or what their program outcomes were. It was only through persistent questioning that I learned that I would be applying for the camp’s inaugural class. I backpedaled on that option and ultimately chose to apply for TE because it had established a solid reputation in the community, was open about its employer network and program outcomes, and had a transparent and rigorous application process (a sign of high-quality, in my view).

Assessing Your Interest and Readiness for the Boot Camp

Unlike other boot camps with part-time options, TE only offers full-time, intensive study. Lectures take place from 9 a.m. to noon with a mid-morning break, and then following lunch, students are expected to work on their afternoon programming assignments from 1-4:30 p.m. Career preparation events take place either over the 12-1 lunch hour or in the evening after class and have included activities like networking with recruiters and employers, formatting LinkedIn profiles and resumes, answering behavioral and technical interview questions, and participating in panel discussions with school alumni or industry professionals. (Besides the mandatory career preparation events, you have the flexibility to determine when to take your lunch break and whether you need to leave early on any given day.)

How did I gauge my level of interest and readiness for the course? Normally, I’m the type of person who agonizes over making any sort of life decision—especially one that is time-consuming and costly. Eventually, however, you have to come to the place where you feel comfortable making a calculated risk. I came to TE after graduating in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in Religion and spending 2.5 years at a nonprofit teaching GED, financial literacy, and life skills courses for youth facing barriers to employment. While the work was enjoyable and very meaningful, I found myself delving more and more into programming and computer science through books, Udacity courses, and side projects during the evenings and weekends. I had an itch to further develop my programming skills and grow professionally, but I was hesitant to make the time and financial commitment. I was finally able to escape my decision paralysis and apply for the program after:

• Attending an Open House. Seriously, doing so makes the idea of attending the school much more concrete. The C#/.NET instructor, Java instructor, CEO, and Pathway program representatives are usually there, and you’ll have the ability to interact with them, ask questions, tour the facility, and listen to presentations about the curriculum. If you are able to go, I highly recommend it.
• Considering the Purpose of the “Defining Decade.” This tip is for fellow twentysomethings, who also, coincidentally, represented the majority of the students in the program when I attended. Although there is undoubtedly substantial opportunity for growth and change beyond one’s twenties, I agree with clinical psychologist Meg Jay’s argument that actions taken during this decade can set our long-term trajectory in terms of income, health and family. It is easier to take risks now when you have fewer obligations and expectations made of you, and the payoff could be enormous.
• Rethinking the "Career as Identity" Philosophy. A graduate student once advised me to approach my career more like a scientist and less like a lover seeking her soul mate. Rather than trying to find the “perfect job” or “perfect next step,” he recommended that I run quick, iterative tests to determine what I liked and didn’t like and then adjust accordingly. Today I feel much more empowered to try new things by simply reframing my thoughts from “What am I born/meant to do?” to “What would I like to try next that would be enjoyable and important to me?” Reframing your thoughts like this is also helpful when bumping into industry stereotypes about who is “technical” and who is not. Don’t believe that just because you don’t match popular depictions of tech workers—if you don’t have a CS degree, are female, a minority, etc—that you don’t “belong” somehow. There are many people succeeding, and more companies are realizing that such stereotypes are a problem, as was recently illustrated by the firing at Google.
• Researching the Occupational Outlook for Software Developers. Programming is ubiquitous. During the program, you’ll hear time and again that “every company is a technology company.” With the skill set you begin building in TE, you can eventually hold a technical role in virtually any industry—from healthcare to finance to manufacturing to higher education—and move anywhere you want to for work. That flexibility and freedom was appealing to me.