Find Coding Bootcamps Near Me

There’s a lot of opportunity out there for those looking for a career change and investing in themselves . Thousands of career office workers across the country want to take advantage of spending less time commuting. But unlike previous generations, the modern career switcher isn’t eager to dive back into large amounts of debt. Rather than take out six-figure loans in hopes that an expensive master’s degree will pay off, more and more people are looking towards coding boot camps. The numbers are impressive: Course Report projects that coding bootcamp enrollment went up a remarkable 39% in 2020.

There’s plenty of reasons why it’s an attractive proposition. Over the next ten years, software developer positions are projected to grow to meet the high demand driven primarily by tech companies, legacy corporations who fell behind in digital (or are afraid they will), and startups who are building out the next big unicorn. Salaries reflect that level of demand and the difficulty for HR teams to find a good software engineer. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that software developers are expected to be in demand to the tune of 22% percent while the median salary of a software developer continues to tick up to $116,000.

You’re likely researching bootcamps because you’re looking to switch careers by learning, practicing, and applying an evergreen skill. You’re not alone. Though perhaps the biggest question in the first stage of a coding bootcamp search needs answering first: “What do I need to know about an immersive bootcamp and where do I find them?”

What to Know Before Applying to A Coding Bootcamp

It’s important to understand the risks and rewards of attending an intensive coding school in general. Before you read through this section, take a mental inventory of your personal goals and events (which includes the goals of your partner and family), the value of your money and your time, and what success looks after you become a coding bootcamp grad.

Calculate the full investment and reward of a coding bootcamp. This is worth repeating again: The cost of a coding bootcamp is more than money. It’s time. Before enrolling, think about what you want the next 6-12 months to look like, and some of the planning you may want to consider:

• Strategizing and planning your career change
• Determining which avenue you want to pursue (Most boot camps provide data science, software development, cyber security, or UI/UX course options)
• Carving out quality minutes for yourself while enrolled in a rigorous but exciting full-time coding bootcamp
• Allotting space in your schedule for homework and networking with your cohort
• Applying for jobs once you’re a bootcamp grad

In our conversations with software engineers, web developers, and data science professionals in the field, people underestimate the time needed to be successful. If you’re only factoring in the cost of attending a bootcamp without knowing the amount of hours you’re dedicating in and out of the classroom, you aren’t close to being able to make a decision.

Structured learning environments with other students. Holding yourself accountable is difficult for many learners in a distracting world. Not only are you carving out your own programming curriculum, but you also don’t have other programming students motivating you when faced with a difficult problem set or holding you accountable.

Costs are less than a four-year degree program. Many aspiring software engineers look at cost and testimonials (word-of-mouth referrals from boot camp grads) as a key reason for why they’re choosing a coding bootcamp. No surprise here. On average, a six-month coding bootcamp can be completed eight times faster and cost far less than a four-year computer science bachelor’s degree. However, this makes choosing a reputable online coding bootcamp mission critical, as their university degree counterparts are “vetted and accredited” each year.

Programming bootcamp alumni network. Alumni networks are always great resources to tap into, but as you advance in your career less and less people take advantage of them. We see the strengths and weaknesses of alumni networks in coding bootcamps similar to any other alumni network: Your individual ability to network will be key to making it work for you. Many coding bootcamps advertise big alumni numbers to entice applicants, but your ability to develop relationships with other students in an online coding bootcamp is fundamental.

Flexibility of learning in a full and part-time bootcamp curriculum. Coding bootcamps offer learning flexibility for two reasons. First, everyone learns differently. This is true regardless of whether the subject is liberal arts or logic-driven subjects like coding, data science, or database management. Second, your individual circumstance plays a substantial role in deciding whether to choose a full-time coding bootcamp or keep a full-time job while you complete a part-time coding bootcamp at a reduced pace.

Prerequisites for Attending a Coding Bootcamp

The most reputable coding bootcamps ensure their students can handle the coursework before applying. But beyond the studying HTML,CSS, and Javascript basics, there are a few prerequisites we recommend for the aspiring web developer.

Commitment. Coding boot camps require a level of commitment that goes hand-in-hand with your journey into becoming a developer. It helps to have a bootcamp that requires a prep course that’s either self directed or a bit more structured to get the fundamentals of HTML, CSS and the JavaScript and back-end scripting languages like PHP. Self-directed learning can be challenging if you're a person who works better in an environment where there's a little more structure. This is a great first test of your commitment to yourself and to the applications and fundamentals of coding bootcamp. Fortunately, many coding boot camps offer free preparation modules to ensure that their students are well equipped to handle the problems, datasets, and coding languages that are thrown at them for the next 13 weeks.

HackReactor, for example, offers software engineering prep programs prior to the start of the software engineering immersive that they run. They typically offer two pathways: one that's free and self directed, and one that's premium -- structuring you so you set aside dedicated hours for brushing up on your coding fundamentals.. Your application to the coding bootcamp will typically include some JavaScript multiple choice where basic fundamentals are tested. If you can’t complete it successfully, they’ll recommend you continue practicing before you enroll.

Curiosity. The most successful professionals - web developer or otherwise - are those who demonstrate curiosity and the ability to complete problems that are very challenging for them up front. They have an itch to solve challenging coding problems in both conventional and unconventional ways, and they’re not satisfied with completing one set.

If you've already prepared and passed your preliminary HTML, CSS and JavaScript entrance exam - great! The most curious (and serious) bootcamp students aren’t satisfied there. They want to learn the fundamentals of jQuery so they can learn faster when the coursework starts.

Being curious about coding should lead you to places on the web where you'll be able to practice and refine your basic and advanced fundamentals even before the boot camp starts. Subscribing to YouTube channels like LearnCode.academy and Adam Khoury may help answer some questions that the preparation courses for the coding boot camps didn’t cover as strongly.

How to Find a Coding Bootcamp Near You

In most areas of the country, finding a coding bootcamp isn’t hard. As demand for the software engineer role increases and companies place less emphasis on recruiting students with a formal computer science background, bootcamps are popping up in nearly every major city in the United States.

After thoroughly researching the skill you want to develop, the reputation of the coding school closest to your home, what type of software developer you want to be, and what programming language will help you get there, you may realize that your dream coding school isn’t in your city or town.

If you think you found the perfect bootcamp in that scenario, there are some variables to weigh before moving to a new city for an on-ground bootcamp.

Living and learning in a new city can be an ideal move if your coding bootcamp isn’t within commuting distance of your home. Let's say you wanted to study web development at Coding Dojo, but you live in New York, Chicago, or LA. Coding Dojo has in-person campuses in Washington state, Idaho, Chicago, and a couple of locations in California. If you live on the coasts, it’s probably rare to pack up the moving van to head to a place like Boise, Idaho, but attending a coding school with the intent of boosting your long-term value is a great excuse to (temporarily or permanently) relocate. Another great excuse? Boise Idaho was voted the number one place to live in 2019 by city ratings’s website, Livability. (Yes, Boise.)

But depending on your personality, sometimes it's hard to get up and move to a new city without a real network beyond present and future bootcamp graduates. Some people would feel naturally apprehensive about uprooting themselves temporarily or permanently and relocating to an unfamiliar place while spending most of their day studying to be a software engineer. (Even a place as apparently amazing as Boise.) This could be a harder sell for you and your family and that's natural. It can be lonely without a network of friends in a place, even if you are building relationships with your cohort of future software developers.

Staying in the same city is also an option. If you're fortunate enough to be in or adjacent to the blue chip cities in the U.S., these larger American cities offer a wealth of options for an in-person immersive bootcamp. Cities like New York have at least ten programs where you can hone your skill and develop expertise in a programming language.

Luckily, there’s also third-option that’s increasingly becoming available from most of the programs: the fully online coding bootcamp. If you decide that an online coding bootcamp is the best decision, we’re seeing these programs thrive as offices, schools, and coworking spaces remain closed. Here are some of the advantages of an online coding bootcamp:

The answer to in-person lockdowns was online learning. In-person coding courses were more affected by societal disruptions than remote learning. Minimizing exposure to the pandemic while completing, for example, a full-stack programming curriculum was a key benefit for those who enrolled last year. Regardless of how quickly we get back, it brought the online bootcamp firmly into the mainstream which should continue over the next ten years.

Flexibility. Once the world returns to a pre-pandemic normal, our new ways of living and working won’t be going away. Online bootcamps allow the flexibility to learn full-stack web development, cyber security, and data science from a coffee shop. As the world eventually opens back up, an online coding bootcamp provides students with flexible learning options, and easy retrieval of curriculum review and course material.

Wrapping Up

Finding a coding bootcamp near you and your family isn't hard, but picking the right one for your future involves some research. If you're going to invest time and money into applying to an immersive bootcamp, spend nine hours a day learning coding language and then pick the right network of coding bootcamp graduates, it makes sense to spend time making the decision. Click to fill out our questionnaire and get matched with the coding school that's right for you.