The Iron Yard

I cannot say enough about my front end development instructor, Eric at the Dallas campus. Not only is he very smart and a great instructor, but you can tell that he genuinly cares about his students and will do what it takes to help them learn. I'm not going to lie, the front end program was one of the most challenging things I've ever done. But along the way I felt support from my classmates and from the entire TIY staff. They want their students to succeed, and it you can feel it.

Not to mention, TIY Dallas offers many ways to network and meet others in your shoes. They host several meetups on campus and are a great way to branch out. 

Moral of the story: This program kicked my butt, but it was absolutely worth it.

The 12 week course to being a developer was a challenge, but a rewarding one. You learn to think differently, and enjoy the process of it. I learned a lot from my time at The Iron Yard and it helped start my career. 

The TIY team is made up of kind and helpful people that want to see you succeed. They are approachable and there if you need help with work or even when you need to talk things through. They know the work is tough so they help where they can. Part of what was great about my experience was having their support when I needed it.

I am a mom who decided to make a career switch.  I loved web development, and really wanted to secure a career path that would allow me to support my family without question.  I spent a lot of time evaluating coding bootcamps based on cost, length of the program, classroom environement (online vs classroom), quality of the teachers and student outcomes.  I was very pleased with the education I recieved at The Iron Yard's Charlotte Campus.  I really appreciated the professional atmosphere of the teachers and support staff at The Iron Yard.   

This commitment is intense, oftentimes overwhelming, and completely doable if you are someone who loves to learn, loves the classroom experience, and is driven to create.  Our typical day included morning lecture from 9am - 12:15pm. This was time that we were introduced to new concepts at a breakneck pace.  We would typically run through high level concepts, followed by building small applications to use what we had just learned.  There was also time for going over homework questions.

One of the first things you have to decide to balance is how you plan to absorb the class.  I am a notetaker and found it difficult at first to learn what to record.  Sometimes I found it beneficial to code along with the instructor, but other times I felt it was better to just watch and intake what was being demonstrated.  We always had access to the code after class and our instructor always took the time to make notes in the code for us to reflect on for future use.  I really appreciated his emphasis on best practices and clean, dry coding. More than that, I really felt that his having a Masters in Computer Science contributed greatly to the depth of the class.  He could teach code, of course, but he could also go deep into more high level ideas and theory when our class wanted to know more about CS topics.   

Everyday you have an assignment based on the lecture and code practice done during class.  You spend the afternoons working on these assignments.  The instructor was always around for questions and he always did a nice job of helping without giving you the answer.  This is important because you have to learn to ask the right questions, research the right resources, and get to solutions without serious hand holding.  Weekend assignments were always bigger projects that really incorporated everything learned from the past week.

One highlight of the experience was getting the opportunity to do multiple projects with your Backend/Java collegues. Learning how to work through a project, not just getting the code right, but getting the setup and communication right between partners, is a huge skill that I reflected upon in job interviews.  Our final project, which paired a frontend and backend person, was invaluable as I really learned how to think about scoping out a doable application in the two week time frame given.  And I learned how to map out this project in tandem with my amazing Java partner.   

The job search is painful as it takes time, and you must confront the interview process.  TIY-Charlotte did provide us with several opportunities for interview experiences.  They also spent time teaching us about resume writing, LinkedIn profiles, and using Trello to organize your job hunt.  After a couple of months, I found two opportunities after my cohort completed - a contract position and a software internship with a great and well established company.  I am thrilled to be financially secure and able to support my family!  I am also thrilled with the job prospects going forward.  So long as you keep learning, this industry needs you!  

I would conclude by saying that for any single parents struggling to find a career the coding school path is legitimate, and I found The Iron Yard - Charlotte to be fantastic.  I did take out a loan to finish the program, and finding the childcare support is definitely difficult.  The kids don't always understand why you are so preoccupied, but for twelve weeks, your kids can brave it.  Just let them know that going back to school is important to everyone, and in the end, everyone will be happy!   

I attended the Front End program in Charlotte in early 2016. It turned out being one of the best decisions I've made in my life, and that's not being hyperbolic. I spent about 70-80 hours/week with the program in the three months I was there. It was tough, but you can do anything for three months, right? I truly got so much out of the program, not only because of the course material itself, but mainly to the instructor of the program - he skated a line between being very knowledgeable and letting you come to conclusions and solving problems on your own. I ended up landing a great gig shortly upon graduating the program for a great company that I'm still with today. The only thing I would caution is the job assistance aspect - and this is from my own experience. I didn't get a lot of help finding a job, so I just made finding a job my full-time job. Again, this is only my experience, and I've heard that it's actually gotten much better at the Charlotte campus with job help. If I had to make the choice again, I would definitely choose to attend The Iron Yard.  

I attended The Iron Yard a couple months after receiving my computer science degree. My programming skills were solid, but how to apply them was a mystery. Throughout my degree I wrote a fair bit of code, however, the assignments were incredibly abstract. I don't recall having written any sort of application that could serve a general purpose.

The Iron Yard sharpened my programming skills and taught me what was possible with those skills. Back at school we discussed Software as a Service (SaaS), but never really got around too it. The Iron Yard has given me the confidence to build applications that provide service and reliability to users.

The Iron Yard in Tampa/St. Pete is lead by some amazing people. The front-end instructor that I studied with, Jason Perry, is extremely well respected in the Javascript AND Ruby communities. That would be enough but he also proved to be an amazing person and passionate teacher. Although I didn't have classes with the other instructors, Mark and Gavin, both were supportive, knowledgable, and eager to help even if my questions weren't in their area of expertise. I also can't say enough good things about Toni, Katherine, and Holly as well. All of them are extremely helpful and caring. You can tell that they love their jobs and take what they are doing very seriously. They are very intentional about creating a safe, open-minded, and diverse atmosphere both in the student cohorts and the industry meet-ups that they host (which are a huge perk for networking). We had an very diverse cohort and one of the unexpected fringe benefits is that I feel that I've gained some really great friends along the way.

As part of the career prep we did mock interviews with industry professionals and ironically, I made a connection in my mock interview that turned into a real interview and eventually, my current job! I was hired about 4 weeks after graduation and I'm currently working as a front-end/web designer. I had a little bit of design experience prior to TIY but I wouldn't have considered myself qualified for a full-time job. TIY filled in the gaps, provided me great opportunities, and now I'm excited to be pursuing a new career. 

Overall, my experience was positive but to be completely honest there were some challenges. I spent a ton of time studying and working on projects, at least 80 hours each week and probably more for the weeks leading up to our final projects. It was hard for me to manage my expectations of how much content I would actually be able to master in 12 weeks. I'm also married with 2 kids and it was extremely hard on them. It was a good start but I'm constantly challenged to keep up and learn new skills to be effective in my job (a fact that the instructors were very transparent about). TIY provided me a foot in the door to a new career and frankly it was an expensive door. I would highly suggest that you take as much time as possible to assess whether or not it is a good fit for you. If so, go for it and give it everything you've got!

The Iron Yard was one of the best decisions I ever made. But it was also one of the hardest things I've ever done. It is rigorous and grueling and you can get a little defeated sometimes, but at the end of the day it pays off. I couldn't have asked for a better instructor and campus director at the Columbia campus. We were the last cohort to be in Columbia and I hate to see it go because TIY is truly a fantastic program. I learned an immense amount of knowledge in 12 weeks. Information that was so well taught that I was able to get a job offer before the last day of class ended. If you have a passion for this field and you want to learn what you need to learn to get hired, TIY is the best place you can go for that. I can't recommend it enough for anyone whose interested, just be prepared for an intense workload and lots of knowledge thrown at you. But if you put in the time and effort, it's one of the most best things you will do.

After nearly a decade in a different career, I decided to attend the 12-week program at The Iron Yard in order to become a programmer.  I can honestly say it was the best three months of my life.  It was challenging, to say the least, but I think it speaks to the quality of the program. At the end, you'll know programming!  I'm really thankful for the opportunity to have attended and for the lifelongs friendships and professional connections I made as a result.  I'm enjoying my new career!

The immersive program was fantastic! The curriculum was rigorous, the pacing was intense, and I learned an amazing amount in a short amount of time. The staff was friendly, supportive, and built a culture of community. There are opportunities for volunteering, networking, and career support consistently throughout the program. I highly recommend The Iron Yard. The instructors were helpful and always available for help. Our cohort had an instructor leave halfway through the program, but the staff handled the transition perfectly. There were no hiccups in instruction or changes.

I joined the Front End course at The Iron Yard with the intention of getting a foundation in how to build websites in order to be a more competitive graphic designer. Over the course of the cohort I discovered that the critical thinking and creative power involved in graphic design was only magnified in the development world and found a new career path that I have loved since.

The course itself was very challenging and fast paced. I had some experience prior to the course in the basics of html and css so I didn't struggle as much at first as some of my classmates, so if you have never tried development before I would definitely encourage reviewing the basics well beforehand so that you don't fall behind. I would describe the style of class as more guided self learning than the lectures of a traditional class at a college. You are given the materials and guidance you need to complete the tasks you are challenged with but the learning comes from running into problem after problem and consistently learning as you work out solutions each time. Because of this I felt I gained way more at the end of this course than I did from my time in traditional school. I didn't learn syntax and simply how to write the code but how to think and problem solve like a developer and not be intimidated by challenges or new more complicated projects. 

Outside of the cirriculum itself, the culture of my cohort was the other big reason I valued my experience so much. We as students taught each other as much as the instructor as we struggled together and supported each other in our work. I feel like I made lifelong friends and colleages from my class and instructors. The instructors and staff also kept us encouraged throughout the tough moments and always drove us to strive for excellence and not settle for medicore in our projects or finding jobs. I was able to find a position within 3months after finishing the course along with most of my classmates.

My only complaints would be that our instructor was fairly new, and we could all tell that he was brilliant but struggled with how to give constructive feedback and communicate concepts that he understood on a much higher level than us. He cared alot though about us as his students and I can only imagine he has improved tremdenously since that first class. I also wish we would have been able to talk more about back-end technologies in our class but I know that the curriculum has already changed to include that since.

I was in the Jan 2017 front end engineering class. I went in with high expectations and they were all exceeded. The entire staff is dedicated to your success and it shows. I went in knowing nothing and left with enough confidence in my technical skills to apply for tech jobs immediately! If you're on the fence, just do it. You won't regret it. 

Classes were well paced with different homework "difficulty levels" to accomodate a range of student abilities. TIY has a "work hard, play hard" mentality. We all grew into a family immediately. Five stars.