What coding bootcamp did I choose ? Part 2
My research for a coding bootcamp started end of March 2018 and it took me almost 2 months to finally decide to which one I was going to dedicate my soul and body.
In the area of Paris, the offering is wide and 2 months were not to much to decide.
I first started looking at adult education center. the program consists of 2 parts, the first part is theoretical and offers 2 months of lecture (150 to 200 hours).
The second part is practical. We use what we have learnt through a 6-month internship in a company. The formation to become front end Developer was around 7500€ .
Same scenario and price if I wanted to become Back-end developer.
I was not interested in this offer for several reasons.
First, it was expensive. The cost was exceeding the budget I had set.
Second, I would not have had the time to finish the program (2 months + 6 months). I was supposed to sell my house in September or october and move abroad. I only had 6 months in front of me.
And third, I had to find by myself a company that would agree to ""offer" a training.
Then I found another kind of formation that could answer my needs. The coding Bootcamp, full time version !!!
Many schools exist in Paris and most of them offer 2 months of course. The cost is around 6000€ and all of them promise to find a job very quick after the bootcamp.
So I selected 5 bootcamps I had found on google. All of them were offering a fullstack formation (front & back end).
I started looking for the reviews... I was not really advanced since the majority of the reviews left by the former students were overwhelming.
Each school was better than the other.
Next step was to compare the syllabus for each school. I already knew from different conversations that I had to look for React.js (see my article here) if I wanted to learn fast and integrate a company or start my own project.
Despite that information, there was always THAT bootcamp coming back in every forum I looked into. The Development program was based on Ruby on Rails and at that time the school was located in more than 20 cities around the world and everywhere, hundred of students happy with their experience.
So I scheduled an interview with someone from that school in order to get more information.
The meeting took place in a beautiful building in the earth of Paris. I saw there a lot of people working with their laptops, some were alons and others were working in groups but each one was very dedicated to what they were doing. It sounded promising.
Then the interview took place with one of the staff member.
To describe the conversation in a few words, lets say that I felt depressed once our little chat was over. I had no experience whatsoever in programming, I had no business project to develop and didn't know what I wanted to do after the bootcamp.
I felt like I was having a job interview and that I had no weapons to compete with other candidates and that I was not prepared enough for what I wanted to do.
Heeeey, wait a minute ?! Who is the costumer and who is spending 6000€ to learn something ?
Anyway, at the end of the meeting, I was offering the right to follow a course on codeacademy and finish the Ruby exercices within a deadline.
I cannot say I really enjoyed doing this course by myself without any help but I did finish the introduction to Ruby within the deadline.
It didn't matter because shortly after that I received a negative answer to my application.
There were too much students asking to follow this bootcamp.
Their final decision was difficult and despite the qualities of my profile there was no room for me.
I was then invited to apply for the same bootcamp in another country (the country I told them during the interview I was going to move to with my family).
One week after I scheduled a meeting with another school. This one was only present in Paris and Lyon and was offering a 100% bootcamp based on javascript language.
I studied the syllabus were I found that most of the program was based on React, Node and React Native.
Sounded good.
The school was based in a coworking space and surrounded by several companies working in the digital sector. I met the founder of this school and had a conversation with him. I was expecting the same scenario as with my first interview but it turned out that my feeling was the exact opposite once we finished the conversation.
Just to be clear here. I worked for 10 years in the automotive industry and most of my contacts were car sales men. I am quite familiar with sales pitch techniques.
Next episode to come ....
follow my adventures on https://www.liloweb.com
In the area of Paris, the offering is wide and 2 months were not to much to decide.
I first started looking at adult education center. the program consists of 2 parts, the first part is theoretical and offers 2 months of lecture (150 to 200 hours).
The second part is practical. We use what we have learnt through a 6-month internship in a company. The formation to become front end Developer was around 7500€ .
Same scenario and price if I wanted to become Back-end developer.
I was not interested in this offer for several reasons.
First, it was expensive. The cost was exceeding the budget I had set.
Second, I would not have had the time to finish the program (2 months + 6 months). I was supposed to sell my house in September or october and move abroad. I only had 6 months in front of me.
And third, I had to find by myself a company that would agree to ""offer" a training.
Then I found another kind of formation that could answer my needs. The coding Bootcamp, full time version !!!
Many schools exist in Paris and most of them offer 2 months of course. The cost is around 6000€ and all of them promise to find a job very quick after the bootcamp.
So I selected 5 bootcamps I had found on google. All of them were offering a fullstack formation (front & back end).
I started looking for the reviews... I was not really advanced since the majority of the reviews left by the former students were overwhelming.
Each school was better than the other.
Next step was to compare the syllabus for each school. I already knew from different conversations that I had to look for React.js (see my article here) if I wanted to learn fast and integrate a company or start my own project.
Despite that information, there was always THAT bootcamp coming back in every forum I looked into. The Development program was based on Ruby on Rails and at that time the school was located in more than 20 cities around the world and everywhere, hundred of students happy with their experience.
So I scheduled an interview with someone from that school in order to get more information.
The meeting took place in a beautiful building in the earth of Paris. I saw there a lot of people working with their laptops, some were alons and others were working in groups but each one was very dedicated to what they were doing. It sounded promising.
Then the interview took place with one of the staff member.
To describe the conversation in a few words, lets say that I felt depressed once our little chat was over. I had no experience whatsoever in programming, I had no business project to develop and didn't know what I wanted to do after the bootcamp.
I felt like I was having a job interview and that I had no weapons to compete with other candidates and that I was not prepared enough for what I wanted to do.
Heeeey, wait a minute ?! Who is the costumer and who is spending 6000€ to learn something ?
Anyway, at the end of the meeting, I was offering the right to follow a course on codeacademy and finish the Ruby exercices within a deadline.
I cannot say I really enjoyed doing this course by myself without any help but I did finish the introduction to Ruby within the deadline.
It didn't matter because shortly after that I received a negative answer to my application.
There were too much students asking to follow this bootcamp.
Their final decision was difficult and despite the qualities of my profile there was no room for me.
I was then invited to apply for the same bootcamp in another country (the country I told them during the interview I was going to move to with my family).
One week after I scheduled a meeting with another school. This one was only present in Paris and Lyon and was offering a 100% bootcamp based on javascript language.
I studied the syllabus were I found that most of the program was based on React, Node and React Native.
Sounded good.
The school was based in a coworking space and surrounded by several companies working in the digital sector. I met the founder of this school and had a conversation with him. I was expecting the same scenario as with my first interview but it turned out that my feeling was the exact opposite once we finished the conversation.
Just to be clear here. I worked for 10 years in the automotive industry and most of my contacts were car sales men. I am quite familiar with sales pitch techniques.
Next episode to come ....
follow my adventures on https://www.liloweb.com
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