Actualize

I have been working in accounting and finance for 6 years and always wanted to learn how to code. I reviewed all of the many options online for both part and full-time courses, and came down to 2, one full time, and Actualize, which is part time. The fact that this program is part time, and as immersive as it is, is crazy. The amount of skills and concepts I learned within the first month alone were worth the price of admission, but the entire course has given me a very measurable value that I can bring new skills with me to my current role, and now I have the ability to expand outside of what I currently do. Peter Jang is a genius, if you are lucky enough to have him as your instructor, you will gain not only an incredible knowledge base in code, but you will learn from one of the best in the business, and he teaches you/ talks to you as an equal, not as someone above you, which he very much is. I would reccommend this course to anyone who wants/ needs to learn how to code, and can't take a full-time program.

Actualize boasts that it’s a part-time bootcamp with an apprenticeship. It is part time, but compared to other part-time bootcamps, the curriculum is light. It’s hard work, if you’re working full time. A lot of students quit their jobs, or are working part-time. There aren’t any tests, and no one gets kicked out, which is nice. The apprenticeship is misleading. It’s also part-time, and isn’t very well run. Some of the projects are iffy and are never actually used, the team leads only have a few years experience and receive no direction, and the product owner is part-time and shared amongst all teams. Morale ends up very low, because you’re with other graduates and you compare who got jobs and who didn’t, how long it takes to get a job, how hard it is to get that first job, and how low the starting salaries are. And that’s the apprenticeship. So I wouldn’t consider the apprenticeship as a differentiator from other bootcamps. The job assistance isn’t very helpful. 

After researching and speaking with a few different bootcamps I decided to enroll at Actualize because of the way they were set up and because of what they offer. The classes were conducted online via zoom chat, which to be honest, was a bit disappointing to me when I first found out. However, even after the first class I realized that I would not be missing out on anything that I might have gained from an in-person-type class.

I found the structure of the classes very helpful.. the lead instructor and the TA's were very intentional in what they taught and how they taught it. It wasn't just about heavy loading us with a bunch of material, but the instructors made sure to explain why something was important and how it was applicable in other instances. Also, in situations where we might've been confused or had questions, rather than simply giving us direct answers, they would coach us in problem solving for ourselves. In my opinion, the best thing that Actualize does is that it creates an enviornment that promotes growth above all else.

When I decided to sign up for Actualize I had two primary concerns:

1. Will the skills I learn be outdated in a year?

2. Will I actually learn what it takes to start a new career in a more technical field?

Actualize was able to qualm these fears by doing one thing that I believe is the greatest part about Actualize: teaching you how to think like a developer. Now I am a fairly skeptical person so if someone told this to me I would laugh and say thank you for your time. After all, I would never accept such a vague statement about a program that is supposed to teach a technical field. In the spirit of computer science logic, I will provide a few examples to support this claim:

1. While the curriculum gave a strong foundation in Ruby, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, Vue.js, SQL, etc., the course open the floodgates and exposed me to thousands of concepts that I didn’t even know existed. The point here is that, and let’s be real for a second, the most knowledgeable people are the ones that know about (may not be experts in but are familiar with) all the concepts that surround a field. While I may not be an expert in calculating time complexity of various algorithms, I sure know that that is a concept and can tell you why it is very important. Further, while I am not an expert in front-end development, I can tell you that it is very easy to quickly set up a demo and I know where I can turn to do this. The primary take-away here is that I feel that I can speak with an experienced developer and not get completely blown out of the water.

2. I finished my Capstone a tad early and Brian (the teacher) suggested I scan the internet and find some additional functionality that could be cool. I started looking around GitHub, reading some documentation, finding some samples of the function and it hit me! I was learning about all these new things I had never heard about and wasn’t really struggling to understand. I feel like that last sentence doesn’t really portray the message here: I READ A DEVELOPER’S DOCUMENTATION AND UNDERSTOOD IT. Further, I implemented it!

Whatever your reason is for looking into the world of development and development bootcamps, Actualize can make a massive difference. Actualize taught me that development is not just about computer languages and scary sounding frameworks but is a thought process and a way of learning. I am not concerned that Rails may one day be obsolete, I no longer scrounge the internet looking for an article that will tell me what the most popular language in 3-5 years will be, I no longer worry that the way we look at Web Development today will be completely different in 5 years. Actualize made me excited for these changes and gave me the skills to succeed when everything inevitable changes. I am very excited for my future and can attribute a lot to Actualize (and Brian!).