Bethel College Tech

Bethel School of Technology, in my opinion, offers the perfect environment for all ranges of aspiring Technologist - from Beginner to Expert. The curriculum is designed to ensure a wholistic approach to preparing students for the "real world" - something that not very many other boot camps or indeed educational institutions do too well. Bethel Tech's emphasis on the development of one's character and technical skills is indeed a breadth of fresh air - producing the quality of leaders and professionals needed in a Tech-driven world. Being admitted to Bethel Tech was one of the proudest days of my life - more so being an alumni as I know that I remain an integral part of a rapidly growing family of tech enthusiast and revolutionaries. I cannot recommend Bethel School of Technology highly enough - it is indeed an experience I will forever be grateful for!

Pros include (but not limited to the following):
- Ideal course duration guaranteeing ample coverage and exposure to critical areas
- Readily and easily approachable Staff
- Great student body and community

Cons include:
This is more of a recommendation (as opposed to a con). I would love to see students given more real life/world challenges for their weekly and final projects. Perhaps, Bethel Tech could partner with organisations in identifying areas where they have challenges, and then pass those issues over to the student body/community to come up with solutions.

I took the Full-Stack course, so this is coming from that perspective.

This is a Christian coding bootcamp that is entirely online, and based out of Redding, California. I believe they are associated with the Bethel church and partnered with the Visible Music College in Tennessee.

The people are awesome and do their best to help you even if they don't always have the answer. They work to help you succeed in gaining new skills and starting new careers.

BOOTCAMP:

Starting the bootcamp, you have a choice of several different front-end and back-end web technologies and can mix-and-match your curriculum. I chose React for my front-end framework and Java for the backend.

I was then assigned an instructor and met with them along with several other students who (iirc) were studying the same technology once a week for an hour. Some were several modules ahead, and some were behind, meaning that we didn't all start at the exact same time and could offer help to and get help from our peers.

The curriculum was pretty well paced, was very relevant, and has been incredibly useful to me. To be critical, I feel as though some things that were focused on were either out-of-date ways of doing things or very advanced methods that aren't quite necessary and aren't common. I don't know which of the two yet. Another issue was that some of the materials weren't updated or were confusing/incorrect (especially during the assignment instructions), leading to some frustration. Overall, don't misunderstand, the curriculum was good and it was taught well. I highly recommend this bootcamp. Those were just my only two complaints.

There's also a Career Services team that starts to work with you a few months before your graduation. They work on interviewing skills, updating and overhauling your resume, and giving you tips on what interviewers want to see. They also host graduates and guest speakers a few times a month to speak about their journey in the workforce, give tips on interviewing in general or for specific companies (big names included), and have an AMA segment for the students watching.

I believe the Career Services team and the guest speakers are available to graduates as well, not just current students.

Lastly, the final project is a group project where you're assigned several teammates. You work on project management, team management, and development skills over a month to develop a final Full-Stack application. You also make a few friends along the way. :)

POST-BOOTCAMP:

During and after graduation, I spent about one month (iirc) applying to 42+ jobs and speaking with 20 recruiters. Only one company responded with a follow-up. But, by that point, I had received a job offer. This company reached out to me after receiving my resume from my Career Services instructor. Thanks to my CS instructors, I got an interview and a few follow-ups before I received a job offer and eventually took the job.

I entered Bethel Tech with no coding background. I only had interest and curiosity to learn coding and possibly find a career in the tech industry. When I started, I found myself quickly doubting my ability to learn coding with the amount of time that I had. What Bethel Tech provided was a great community of instructors, mentors and fellow students that helped me from doubting to confidence. Even when outside circumstances in my life brought hesitation with me completing Bethel Tech, I found so much support from my instructors, mentors and fellow students to keep moving forward. With their help and support, I was able to make it through Bethel Tech and graduate. Not only did I graduate, but I was also able to find my first coding job a month after graduation! I'm truly grateful for Bethel Tech for the opportunity to see my dreams come true!

The program is definitely challenging and really taught me the importance of time management and discipline. All things that I will need in my future employment and life.

Bethel Tech was by far one of the best things that has happened in my life.
 

The course work is challenging but extremely applicable.  The instructors care about your success and it's evident in every conversation.  The community that is established at Bethel Tech is solid and always ready and willing to help.  Whether that's in course work, prayer, or job hunting.  Because of the preparation Bethel Tech provides as a software developer, I landed my first job in my dream city as a UI Developer before I even graduated the program. 
 

 

 Before Bethel Tech I was confused about what my future looked like in any aspect.  Now I can't imagine my life without Bethel Tech.  The opportunity I now have has changed my families life forever.

if your thinking about the program. DO IT!!

Before attending Bethel School of Technology I had  zero experience in software development and I never really even felt drawn towards learning tech. The program and the staff at Bethel Tech not only met me where I was at, they personally encouraged and empowered me to believe that I could thrive and excel as a developer.  Not only have I exceeded all of my own expectations in regards to learning how to code, I feel like I have learned how to think and problem solve in totally new ways. Attending Bethel Tech has been an incredible blessing to my life. I have gained so much wisdom and understanding. I was concerned about how it would look to go back to school while raising kids and being a husband, but even my family would tell you it has been life giving to them as well based off the impact it has had on me. You will not find better staff and support anywhere. This school will change you and equip you to not only be an amazing leader in the workforce, but also an amazing leader for your family and community. 

Two years ago when I decided I wanted to jump into web/software development as a career, I was needing some structure in my learning and was choosing between a local bootcamp vs Bethel Tech's (BT) online program. What drew me to choose BT was the spiritual curriculum that was offered alongside the full stack coding curriculum, as well as the flexibility that an online program offered timewise (meaning I could go through the course on my own time but was still offered structure). 

BT's coding curriculum was pretty fast paced. The curriculum was broken up into multiple modules covering various of topics and domains within web and software development, approximately 2 weeks per module that leads up to a final group project. Knowing now how much there is to know about a single topic, BT's coding curriculum was a decent introduction to a wide breadth of topics in the software world that helped me begin my understanding and also exposed me to domains that I did not know much about before taking the course. 

BT's spiritual curriculum was extremely rich. It consisted of reading books and watching the related video teachings, as well as meeting (online) one hour a week with our cohort group and pastor. It was amazing to me how intentional and worshipful the community that formed, even though it was all done via an online medium. The coding curriculum was what I wanted, but the spiritual curriculum was what I needed. It helped me further experience the intersection of work and spirituality. Having a healthy spiritual life allows me to have a healthy work life. Going through BT was more than just a career switch, though it definitely involved learning how to learn a new skill, but it was also learning how to approach it from a heart posture of knowing God and knowing myself, and being free from unhealthy thinking and beliefs. We learned values of the kingdom of God, what it means to carry a culture of honor into any sphere of life we find ourselves in which includes the work space, and to gain a vision for God's work of redemption and renewal in society and learn our role in it. 

As long as BT exists, it will never stop improving. I appreciated the way staff and faculty cared about what we thought about the program and were listening to our feedback and were improving our experience even while we were going through it. One of the best things about BT is that alumni is still connected to each other and the community of staff, faculty, mentors and students, encouraging and supporting each other, sharing knowledge, and even sharing tips for the interview and job hunt process! Overall it was a great experience, and I've gained a lifelong community to walk with in my career journey.

My experience at Bethel School of Technology has been an amazing one! It’s truly a unique program in that it partners your growth in coding skills along with growth in your own faith. This was something that was very important to me because many bootcamps provide the coding skills but I was hungry for more of Jesus and to continue to grow in my faith so this was the place to be. The technical preparation was very strong I felt – there were lessons in different languages followed up projects that required a lot of self-study and figuring things out on your own (very much the real world). However, there were many instructors available to meet with me whenever I ran into a problem with my code or project. While they would help me with parts of the assignment they would also challenge me to google certain topics so I can continue to grow as a developer. The capstone project was also something that I really enjoyed and learned a lot from. My teammate and I built a workout app which I then spoke to in my interviews and it came off really well. In terms of the faith component, that was probably my favorite part because we were reading several books written by Bethel Church pastors which helped me to grow in my identity in Jesus. There would be weekly writing assignments on different topics in faith which also challenged me and helped me to process different parts of my faith and how I viewed myself. Overall the coding bootcamp felt like I was partially in a seminary and partially studying computer science at a university. There was a lot of career support which was very tangible advice and helped me land a job 2.5 months after the end of the coding bootcamp. Having a personal advisor was also super helpful because at many times throughout the bootcamp I would become worried about the future or my finances, but I knew I could go to my advisor and ask for prayer. He was someone who would hear me out and give me encouragement which was very important for me during a career transition. Overall, it was a blessing to have attended BST and I am so happy that I did!