From The Basics to Professional, 100% Online

The Workshops

I. Fundamentals of Web Development

We designed this workshop for busy professionals and aspiring developers who want to learn how to code, build basic web applications & prototypes, and work more effectively with engineering teams.

You'll learn the building blocks of web software, including computer networking, HTTP, object-oriented software design, database architecture, HTML & CSS, and the DOM.

Ideal For

• Students & Aspiring Developers
• Designers & Product Managers
• Marketers & Entrepreneurs

What You'll Learn

• Ruby & JavaScript
• HTML, CSS, and the DOM
• Basic SQL

Cost & Commitment

• 8 weeks
• $3,000 (this workshop only)

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Have questions?

II. Rails, TDD, and Professional Engineering

This workshop dives deep into the professional aspects of software development, with an emphasis on group projects, teamwork, automated testing & TDD, maintainability, and other skills one traditionally learns on the job.

We'll use Ruby and Rails as our core framework.

Ideal For

• Intermediate Students
• Self-taught Developers

What You'll Learn

• Advanced Rails
• Automated testing & TDD

Cost & Commitment

• 8 weeks
• $3,000 (this workshop only)

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Have questions?

III. Topics in Computer Science

This workshop covers core topics in pure computer science, with an emphasis on data structures and analysis of algorithms. You'll learn all about lists, trees, graphs, and the algorithms associated with them.

The workshop is still hands-on, so expect to be implementing these data structures and algorithms by hand. We'll implement each structure in multiple languages, to see how different languages make it easier or harder to express certain computational ideas.

Ideal For

• Advanced Students
• Self-taught Developers

What You'll Learn

• Essential data structures
• Analysis of algorithms

Cost & Commitment

• 8 weeks
• $3,000 (this workshop only)

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Have questions?

SQL Deep-Dive & Metrics

We designed this workshop for professionals who want to dive deep into SQL, the language that powers relational databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL. We assume no prior knowledge, but be warned — we're going deep into SQL-land!

By the end, students will be able to translate product, operational, and marketing questions directly into SQL. In addition, we'll cover the basic principles of statistics, analytics, and data science so that students can ask better questions and meaningfully interpret the answers.

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Ideal For

• Engineers w/ basic SQL know-how
• Marketers and PMs
• Founders and entrepreneurs

What You'll Learn

• SQL — lots!
• Basic statistics and analytics
• Designing meaningful metrics

Cost & Commitment

• 4 weeks
• $1,500 (this workshop only)

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Have questions?

The Teachers

Jesse Farmer <[email protected]>

• @jfarmer
• GitHub
• Quora

Jesse grew up in rural Michigan, where he spent years struggling to teach himself how to program. That experience inspired him to co-found Dev Bootcamp in 2012 with Shereef Bishay and Dave Hoover, where he was responsible for curriculum design and baking delicious cheesecakes. Seriously. They were really good.

Prior to Dev Bootcamp, Jesse was CTO of Everlane, an online fashion retailer.

Students imagine that programming came easily to me and that I've never had to struggle with being confused or frustrated. That's totally untrue!

FAQ

How are CodeUnion's workshops organized?

Our workshops are 8 weeks long. The eight weeks are broken down into 4 two-week "sprints." We give students a choice of projects to work on, but the goal is for students to ship one project per sprint. The first projects are defined by CodeUnion, but students spend the last sprint working on a project of their own design.

Throughout the workshop, teachers are available via Slack (a group chat application) and regular code reviews. Twice every week we host a live "small group" session for the workshop — see below for what our live sessions are like!

What are live sessions like?

CodeUnion workshops meet twice a week for approximately two hours each session. Live sessions utilize tools like Cloud9 IDE, Google Hangouts, GitHub, ScreenHero and anything else that seems to make sense. Live sessions aim to provide students an opportunity to get hands on keyboard time with instructors and other students. Live sessions frequently have a guided tour of a particular piece of code or concept. Live sessions also have lots of interactive time where instructors and students collaboratively build software.

The aim of the live sessions isn't to 'teach' everything under the sun related to computer programming. The aim is to build enthusiasm, explore particularly difficult or abstract topics and provide a supportive fun environment for code exploration. Live sessions will hopefully motivate students to write code and work on CodeUnion's curriculum and projects on their own time. The real magic happens outside live sessions when students write their own code and get thoughtful feedback from instructors on that code.

How does the schedule of live sessions get set?

CodeUnion aims to serve people with busy schedules and a full life. A few weeks prior to the start of each workshop we canvas all members of that workshop for times that they are available. We set the schedule of the workshops based on the availability of each group. We currently have workshops that serve people on both the East and West Coast of the United States. We also have students outside the United States. In general, we aim to make these workshops fit the schedules of all parties involved.

How can I get help if I'm stuck?

Throughout a CodeUnion workshop, hopefully you will be coding frequently on your own. It definitely happens that a person gets stuck. In fact, getting stuck represents the best part of learning, i.e., you find a real live learning edge and we get to help you (this is our favorite moment). We have a few ways to get you unstuck. We maintain a very active Slack presence. Slack is kind of like the AOL messenger for coders. Most days, Monday through Saturday, there are a few instructors and a few students active inside our Slack channel from early in the morning to usually just shy of midnight (PST).

In addition to Slack, we have built some custom tools that allow students to get feedback on the code they push to GitHub. As of the writing of this FAQ (10/15/2014), we have answered approximately 500 student requests for feedback. We usually give code feedback in less than twenty-four hours. If either of those channels don't work for a student, we are always monitoring [email protected] and are accessible via @codeunionio, Morse code, email, sms, pager and Atari Pong.

What are other students like?

CodeUnion students are probably a lot like you would expect them to be. Students come from all walks of life including cooking, accounting, aviation, finance, design, marketing, business etc. Students primarily participate in CodeUnion workshops for reasons such as becoming professional engineers, non-technical professionals who want to better understand engineering, designers who want to code and entrepreneurs who want to build their own products.

Our students are all very different in disposition and motivation. The way that they are all the same is that they all want to learn technical skills without having to quit jobs, move to new cities or completely shut down other aspects of their lives.

Can I sit in on a live session and see what it is like?

Of course! If you want to sit in a live session, please apply to a workshop and we will make all arrangements.

Is there an application process?

Most certainly. We like to have a 60 minute google hangout video interview where we talk about motivation, background and expectations. We have a technical portion of the interview where we like to assess a person's technical level. We also really like to use the technical interview as an opportunity to show students how we actually teach.

Interview's aren't pass or fail. Interviews are an opportunity for CodeUnion to make sure we can serve a person well. We only admit people who we think will have an awesome educational experience and who will enhance the experience of other students.

Please don't hesitate to apply.

Is there preparation material?

Generally speaking "no". Depending on the workshop in question, a student is well served to have a baseline understanding of the topics to be covered but we don't push an extensive preparation curriculum. In fact, we don't want students obsessing over trying to learn everything on their own. We want them writing code that they are getting timely and frequent feedback from CodeUnion instructors on. Generally speaking, we highly recommend going through and coding all of Chris Pine's Learn to Program.

It is ok if I use a Windows based development environment?

CodeUnion aims to teach people how to build professional grade web software. The tools we use are anchored heavily in Ruby, Javascript and a Unix based operating environment. Many people who don't have exposure to Unix based operating environments have a hard time understanding that the bulk of the tooling required in the open web software world, for reasons beyond the scope of this FAQ, just don't work particularly well in a Windows based environment. That being said, we do not mandate what computer a person chooses to use while participating in our workshop. However, we will be teaching and discussing coding in the context of a Unix based operating environment.

There are many ways to simulate the Unix based Ruby development experience on a Windows machine. However, CodeUnion will not take responsibility for ensuring that everything works for Windows users. Feel free to use a Windows machine. Feel free to use the Cloud9 IDE or use a virtual machine that runs Linux or generally speaking use any tools that make sense for you. Generally speaking, Windows based development isn't a great choice for open source web software development and that is especially true at the beginning levels. In short, not learning how to navigate a Unix based environment is a very sub-optimal choice with very real long term problems.

How many hours a week does a CodeUnion workshop take?

Like many subtleties in life, it depends. The amount of hours that a student should expect to spend on a CodeUnion workshop depends on many factors. Some very important factors are, but not limited to, expected outcomes, speed of learning and base level of knowledge at the beginning of a workshop. If you are a true blue beginner and at the end of the three workshop series, you want to be a paid developer you need to be prepared to put in a lot of time, like 30+ (sustained) hours a week.

If you are a technical professional who is already working and want to become more engineer-ish, we've seen students have amazing learning outcomes who were probably averaging 5-10 hours of coding a week. The point is, you are the gatekeeper of your outcomes. Your goals and capabilities will dictate how much time you need to put into this experience. Part of our application process attempts to ensure that a person's expectations and goals make sense based on what we know about the process of becoming a developer.

Does CodeUnion offer payment plans?

Two Words, ABSOLUTELY.

We have payment options that will support situations like discounts for paying in full up front or making two payments at the beginning and again at the mid-point of a workshop. In general, we are flexible and accomodating. We care about facilitating amazing educational outcomes. We have also watched many people upset their lives to become developers. We have an acute sense of the pain that this process can bring on. If you are hesitent to participate in a CodeUnion workshop for financial reasons, please contact us directly and we will attempt to work something out in your favor.

Does CodeUnion offer refunds?

Yes, absolutely! Up to the mid-point of a workshop, students can receive a prorated refund (prorated on a weekly basis).

Testimonials

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