Learn Java at These 194 Java Bootcamps

• In person bootcamp. I don’t see how I would have been able to progress and stay on it working from home
• Culture. The teachers and students of my batch were great and the learning atmosphere was fantastic. The whole team behind Le Wagon is brilliant and making the 9 tough weeks a great experience. There is always someone to speak to if you struggle with the process or have questions about career paths after Le Wagon. They offer fun activities for all students (pilates on Tuesday, outings, networking events) and work very hard on making the students experience a good one.
• I’m above the average age of students and was one of the older ones in my batch. There was no point during the 9 weeks that I felt I didn’t fit in and I would recommend this bootcamp to any age group interested in learning how to code.
• Structure of learning. The way the curriculum is set up is brilliant and clear. There is a lot of focus on Ruby and I personally would have liked to see more Python being incorporated to match the skills needed to find a job after the bootcamp. At the end of the bootcamp students work on a 2 weeks project and it is impressive to see what you can do after 9 weeks at Le Wagon. 
• Alumni network. The tens (hundreds??) of thousands students that graduated from Le Wagon all over the world have the opportunity to keep in touch via slack – there is a forum on which you can ask coding questions when you are stuck – a careers forum  - women in tech forum etc. I found this platform extremely helpful during my job search and to speak with likeminded people.

• 93% employment rate / 3 months to find a job. I assume this statistic may need to be adjusted for 2023. From my batch of nearly 40 I know that the vast majority did not manage to get a junior/graduate/early career developer role within 3 months. Some people got part time employment and became teaching assistants at the school after graduating or did part time jobs to pay the bill but from what I can see nearly all graduates are still looking for a developer job 3 months after graduating. The job search is tougher than I had anticipated as junior developers often are required to have 2+ years developer experience and graduate roles are very competitive (hundreds of candidates for 1 spot). It seems that product management roles or support engineer roles (careers that don’t only code) are easier to get.
• Batchsize. We were nearly 40 students on the batch – imaging working on complex challenges with 40 people in the back. I mostly worked with my noise cancelling headphones on as I wouldn’t have been able to concentrate otherwise.
• Skill levels. It seems that students are selected by keeping quantity rather than quality in mind. I have witnessed students in other batches struggle with basic computer literacy and language barriers. I’m not sure how students are selected for the bootcamp but can see advantages of having a stricter process in place.
• Collaboration with employers. While I did Le Wagon there was not opportunity for an apprenticeship and work placement post bootcamp. I know a lot of other bootcamps work in a way where you apply for the bootcamp AND a company and you start working in the company right after graduation. If I were to do it all again I would try to get into a bootcamp that offers work placement (though they are harder to get into and the interview process takes much longer)
• Classroom learning. The lecturers were clearly very skilled in all things coding and have deep knowledge of web development. Unfortunately, that is sometimes not enough to be a great teacher – some lecturers were not able to read the room (majority of students struggling to understand topics), moved through the topics very quickly or found it difficult to explain topics to students with no previous knowledge. My advice to students would be to ask, ask and ask. As soon as something is unclear ask the teacher questions. Most of the time other students will be having the same questions and if you get lost in the first 20 minutes of a lecture it will be very difficult to keep up. I don’t know how much pedagogic training teachers are getting but I feel this would be helpful

• DO THE PREWORK – all of it (especially the Codeacademy Ruby course). This was such a fundamental basis and without it you will have a hard time especially at the start
• Ask questions and make use of the teaching assistants and teachers to clarify concepts you are struggling with
• Have fun and connect with your fellow students – the emotional support and networking opportunities you get from fellow students is second to none
• Give it your all.

Code Crew CodeSchool provided me with a quality introduction to development in only 6 months! I came from a non-technical background. I had no previous experience with coding but I did have the drive to learn and succeed and that is truly all you need for this program. The class size was ideal! Two instructors, and occasionally teaching assistants, were able to teach and reinforce multiple concepts a day with the bonus of review sessions before and after class. The technical skills and technologies that I learned in the CodeSchool directly contributed to me landing a development internship within months of graduation! The CodeSchool also provided extensive soft skills training and career prep that made me feel more confident with each interview and networking event that I attended. This is still a new program ( I am a graduate of the second cohort) and I see a lot of growth as this already impressive program gains traction in the Memphis tech community! 

• There are some programs available to help with tuition. 
• The tuition cost is very reasonable and they offer Flexible payment options.
• The class size is small which allows the instructor to help students during or after class times. 
• The schedule is very relaxed and designed for people with busy lives. 
• The course is beneficial for all experience levels. You will learn C Sharp (C#) through the course while learning how programming concepts are applied in real world scenarios/ industry.  
• After the course they offer career counseling. 

I have taken two classes at Interface Web School so far - Foundations and Java. I am starting my third class with them, WordPress, on August 7. I have really enjoyed my time at Interface. The instructors, Nick and Kent, were great. I learned a lot from them. Nick ran the Foundations course, which teaches HTML, CSS, and jQuery, with a bit of Bootstrap (although Nick doesn't like that - he prefers coding in pure CSS). We did several projects, including one where we animate flipping a card over. I know it doesn't sound like much, but I have since used it in sites I am working on to create a spinning effect. We did not have one big project in that class, just some weekly projects. In Java, however, we did have one big class project. We made an online UNO game (the card game, that is). It works great! We finished the main work on it during class, but we still have some things we want to add, so we all agreed to meet on Sundays after the class was finished to add those things. One thing that the Java class had that online courses do not have is the back end. When you're making Java applications for a server, you have to add extra code such as POJOs to the package in order for it to work. We also had to learn a bit of SQL to get our data working for the game. I highly recommend Interface!

Disclosure: I did not have to pay out of pocket for Interface. A state grant has paid for my classes. I don't think paying for it would change my opinion though.

Treehouse caters to a large audience.  They make many of their materials available to everyone without having to pay.  This is great for anyone on a tight budget or who just wants to get their feet wet. The videos are also superb quality and the teachers are very encouraging.  Their courses cover a wide variety of technologies and languages.

Next, you can pay about $500/year to get additional, more advanced materials and take quizzes and code challenges.  

Lastly, you have the tech degree program which is much more expensive, but is more intense and for those who seriously want to pursue software developer jobs.  

I also like that they are completely online.  Sure, you lose out on networking with individuals in person, but it's also very convenient.