Student Testimonials and Reviews

I am so thrilled I attended the Rutgers bootcamp. It allowed me to make a full career pivot, and it would not have been possible without going through the program. Additionally, Gwenn was an incredible resource, and I am lucky to have had her on my team! She genuinely cares about her students, and would often call or email me with interesting leads she found, which was not only helpful from a job [search] perspective, but also made me feel so supported and encouraged to continue. Thank you, Gwenn!

I had an overall great experience with the program. I chose to attend because I wanted a career change. I was super nervous going in at first because I had absolutely no experience with coding, just a free HTML and CSS course on the internet I had done two weeks before the program. Thankfully, almost all of my classmates were in the same position and were there because they were just as eager to learn as I was. The instructor Kevin Ferguson, and TA’s Leigh and Francisco, were amazing teachers and I don’t think I would be where I am without their guidance and expertise. My cohort was another support system and we all worked together. I never hesitated to ask questions to any of them. I could not have asked for a better learning environment. I also look forward to using Rutgers Career Services.

I started the bootcamp because the job I had wasn’t one I saw myself staying in for the long haul.

I really liked what little data analysis I had done in the past through other jobs and online courses.

The Rutgers program was accessible and seemed to cover a lot of bases.

I thoroughly enjoyed the classes and found myself challenged by the material. I had to push myself and it definitely helped me develop my coding and critical thinking skills.

I also loved the camaraderie with other attendees and TAs and teachers, all of whom were really supportive.

The program definitely helped solidify my desire to be a data analyst and helped me develop both the technical and professional skills I needed to present myself to employers as a data analyst.

As I was approaching my senior year in undergrad for engineering school, I was beginning to really worry about my lack of work experience as well as the lack of general direction for my career. Even this supposedly practical engineering program at my school was highly theoretical, and any job skills had to be built outside of the classroom. While the degree provided me with a strong background in general abstraction and mathematics, I was still lost in the business aspect of the whole working thing as well as how I could be profitable to various companies. And simply put, from the stories my classmates told me, I was not interested at all in the work the people do in more old-school engineering fields. This data bootcamp allowed me to actually explore the field of data; from data engineering, to data analytics, to data science. I was very lucky to find that I actually LIKED what people do work-wise. The TAs and Instructor really helped instill some confidence in me as well, since they were very supportive and actually wanted things to make sense and for us to succeed. I am now confident that I can learn anything in the field of data myself and have a feeling things are just getting started.

This Boot Camp has impacted my life greatly! I have found a job almost right after the graduation. I consider myself lucky, that I was a student in Zack Fry’s class. This is his success just as well as mine. The amount of knowledge and tools in my toolkit as a programmer is so extensive, hard to believe it’s been only 6 months. I am greatly satisfied with [the] curriculum and career services. I have watched the videos and participated in Career Services events which I believe helped me to pass the interview.

Thank you for everything,
Kseniya

It was a great experience to get myself in the programming field. What I liked the most, looking back, is the curriculum focused on many of the most in-demand technologies in this field — putting myself in the right position for success in the job market.

I knew that I wanted to travel after graduation and then work as a caddy while I searched for full time employment. I thought that the bootcamp would be a good way to learn how to use my math and computer science background in a more practical way. I used the bootcamp as a talking point in my interviews, which helped me get my current job.

The skills I learned in the bootcamp have helped me excel in my current role. The bootcamp provided foundational skills and insight into modern data engineering and analysis tools that I have built upon throughout my current job experience.

Overall, I had a fantastic experience at the bootcamp and would recommend it to someone who has a strong work ethic and wants to transition into a career in data.

I signed up for this class, because I felt like I didn’t have the new (AWS/python/git) skills and thus I was overlooked and devalued. After contributing in the data warehousing space for 20+ years, I didn’t feel appreciated (like I had an expiration date that was almost here)!! We were moving into new technology areas and the company was going through a massive restructuring. My company overlooked me and just considered getting new resources to lead our efforts. Taking the initiative to invest in myself, got the company’s (new leadership team’s) attention. They realized they had a diamond in the rough, and decided to entrust the new reorganized data & analytics team to me (responsible for legacy premised based data warehouse assets and our new cloud data warehouse assets).

I had a phenomenal experience in the program! It was very challenging, rewarding and applicable to the workplace. Just in time learning!! Bootcamp is an appropriate analogy to fitness bootcamp, where you go through something very difficult that makes you better!!! The course has awakened my desire to stay current with technology trends/skills. In class, I greatly appreciated opportunities to do team projects; allowing me to meet and work with other classmates. Homework and projects were very difficult, but so necessary for growth and learning. These were opportunities to stretch and solidify the learning. We had a wonderful teaching staff (teachers and TAs). I appreciated my main teacher (Satish) and my occasional weekend teacher. My teachers had different gifts, different teaching styles. If I had time I would have listened to both teachers’ lectures, to reinforce my learning. Our TAs were so helpful and so patient. Sometimes, the help was simply a branch/clue to get us to figure it out on our own. I ended this class feeling that I climbed Mt Everest victoriously!!!

Post class seminars, resume help and my career coach, phenomenal!!! I learned so much about resumes, branding, interviewing and [the] job search. And I will make continuously learning, networking and branding a priority from now on. Although, I have decided to make the most of my recent promotion (especially in the midst of COVID-19), I feel confident that when I do decide to activate/accelerate my career search, I will be victorious yet again!!

Thank you Rutgers Data Science Bootcamp for opening my eyes to a whole new world, for retooling my technology skills and for updating my resume and career search skills!

I was introduced to Python at my previous job on Wall Street and saw how powerful it was in collecting, transforming, analyzing and visualizing data. After leaving that position, I started self-studying Python but felt that it wasn’t enough. I came across the Rutgers Bootcamp online and thought it was a perfect opportunity to solidify my data skills with Python as well as learn SQL, VBA, JavaScript and other data skills. I found that coding incorporates logic, problem-solving, language learning and other challenges that I enjoy. My classmates were great and the group projects were intense (just like they would be in a professional setting)! I left the course knowing that I wanted to, that I had to incorporate coding and data analysis into the next stage of my career. My resume was now filled with technical skills and data projects that has opened doors to new fields and opportunities.

I chose to attend this program because I needed to have some work to be able to show potential employers, make some connections in networking, and learn some new skill sets to be able to talk about and show in interviews. The program has been pretty great for the most part. I learned a lot of new skills, and gained confidence in my abilities to be able to solve problems using the skills that I have learned from this program as well as confidence in general in my ability to become a Data Analyst/ eventually a Data Scientist. Without this program I don’t think I would have had the ability to make the career change that I had been trying to make for the last two to three years.

I wanted a career change and I just wanted to be introduced to technology and thought this would be a great place to start. I need to still brush up on some of the skills we were taught but I feel a lot more comfortable knowing that I have at least the basic knowledge to get started. One month after the program ended, I was hired as a Business and Integration Analyst.

I truly enjoyed the program. By fully utilizing the resources and career services to support me in my journey, I was able to start and build a career in data, something I had always wanted to do. I chose to attend Rutgers Bootcamp primarily because of the pricing and closer proximity to my home compared to other bootcamps. I learned a lot and built the skills needed to get my foot in the door of some bigger opportunities.

As an Oracle Database Developer with many years of experience, I took the decision to upgrade my skills with the latest technologies for data analysis and machine learning.

I am fully satisfied and feeling confident with my decision after completing the course. The [bootcamp] is perfectly designed to get hands-on … In addition to the great teaching of concepts, the course is equipped and full of class actvities, homework assignments, and multiple projects at various levels.

I gained confidence each week of the course after the class activities and homework … As students we needed an extra effort during this 24-week period to be in class and review the topics each week to be in pace with the course. This [Data Science Bootcamp] really helped me a lot to apply the new technologies in my current work and gave me lot of confidence for the future.

The instructor, teaching assistants, Student Success Manager, and everyone involved from enrolling to graduation day are excellent with full support … all the time. I strongly recommend this course for those who are looking for a career in the latest data analysis technologies.

I attended the bootcamp because I was changing my career. Technology is [at] the forefront of all industries and the bootcamp assisted me in getting a jump start.

Taking the [Coding Bootcamp] has … put me in a company that I can now look to build my career for the next 20 years.

I chose [the Coding Bootcamp] because I felt college wasn’t for me and because of this program, I learned so much…

Because of that, I can now call myself a full-time software engineer only 4 months after graduating.

Great program overall, especially my instructor who was so incredibly enthusiastic and knowledgable, going above and beyond every single day.

I attended so I could make a career change without having to go back full-time to a university. I also wanted to hit the ground running with skills focused on entering the workforce as soon as possible. I didn’t learn everything, but I was given a good foundation and the ability to seek out resources to continue my learning.

There was also amazing career services support, that continued well past graduation and really helped me become more professionally polished and ready to confidently embark on my job search.

I chose to attend the program when I was working in a kitchen as a cook. I figured I was a college graduate and I had more to offer/wanted more out of my life.

Since the program’s completion I am on track for a long-term career, and I jumped from a job where I was making $10.50 an hour to a salary where I can actually support myself.

I chose to attend this bootcamp because I wanted to change my career path.

Graduating as an electrical engineer in 2015, I started a career as a radio frequency engineer working with companies such as Verizon and T-Mobile. After 3 years, I had stopped growing at work and wanted to learn Python and SQL to better market myself for the future.

I was laid off the day the bootcamp started, and thank goodness I enrolled because it led to the career change at Express Scripts I’ve worked so hard for.

I was unhappy with my current career choices, and kept feeling unchallenged and bored at work. I always had an interest in computers and coding, and this was the first in-person program of its kind that I found that allowed me to keep working and go to school, since I could not afford to take three months off, as many other companies offer.

I was able to use the skills I learned at my previous job, which kept things interesting, made the job easier, and also allowed me to practice. But better yet, it has allowed me to completely shift gears and move out of marketing into a developer role. I also met great people in both the instructors/TAs and my classmates, and this really helped me to solidify my choice to take the program. Being with like minded people who had a true interest in talking code was great.

The data science program was excellent. I definitely would’ve liked the course content to focus on less JavaScript and more on R, Hadoop, or AWS. My instructor and TAs were great and always accessible, and did a great job at fostering the perfect learning environment.

Corey Bott and Christopher Wright assisted my career search by making multiple high profile contacts at desired firms. I definitely feel like the program positively assisted my transition into the competitive statistical analytics field.

I became interested in the program because I wanted to learn Python and R to improve my analysis skills. I ended up qualified for a new career and landed a job with a salary 60% higher than I was making.

I absolutely loved my experience with the program. It jump-started my passion for coding and gave me the foundation to learn. I chose to attend because I was extremely unhappy with the career that I was in. A job in development was appealing to me because it seemed like a field where you’re directly valued by the skills you have.

Before getting into coding, my ideal job was a 9-5 where I could go home and leave my job at work. With a career in coding, the learning never ends and surprisingly, that’s an aspect that I now look forward to. For me, getting into coding wasn’t just a career change, it was a lifestyle change.

I’ve been coding since I was in middle school at a youth program in my town. I decided to pursue my Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science when I graduated high school and went to college. I knew that I wanted to build websites but I didn’t know exactly how to get to that point and even started second guessing my choice of degree at one point. I then realized that the area in Computer Science that I was the most interested in was Web Development and Design.

I graduated from Kean University and decided to take a year to relax, work and save money without the pressure of getting into my field. As my year was coming to an end I began to apply to jobs and noticed that I had almost no experience in web development (aside from my youth program as a teenager) and couldn’t land any jobs or internships. I stumbled upon a coding bootcamp description and began doing research and decided that Rutgers Coding Bootcamp (RCB) was the best choice for many reasons. I chose RCB because it was Rutgers of course but also because they emphasized their career services and I was also able to take out a loan through Sallie Mae. The schedule worked perfectly because it was 24 weeks part-time which made it extremely easy for me to keep my full-time job.

I absolutely loved the bootcamp. The curriculum was very intensive but I felt that it taught us the necessary languages and discipline to dip our feet into the Web Development world. It was NOT easy at any point in the course but I was lucky enough to have an AMAZING instructor and two AMAZING tutor assistants. There was an endless amount of support literally 24/7. I never felt like I was bothering anyone when I asked for help and never felt that I was so lost that I wouldn’t be able to catch up (which was my biggest fear coming into this bootcamp). My instructor (Ahmed) genuinely wanted to be there and help all of us succeed. Aside from the education aspect, my instructor, classmates and TA’s have helped me grow as a professional and also as a person. I am forever grateful for my whole RCB team.

Through career services, I was able to get my LinkedIn and resume looking great and landed two internships. My advice for anyone contemplating this bootcamp is to STOP and APPLY to RCB. I learned so much as a developer and am leaving with 30+ people that I can go to for help even after having completed the program. This bootcamp isn’t easy and it takes a lot of time and dedication but it is beneficial in the long run. I recommend this bootcamp to anyone.

Rutgers Coding Bootcamp gave me a good jump start to learning front-end dev. Specifically, I’ve found that having a foundational knowledge of JavaScript and CSS frameworks like Bootstrap are really sought after in the marketplace, as is knowledge of JS frameworks like React.js and Angular.js. I knew nothing about these topics before I attended, and now feel like I have an entry-level amount of knowledge in these technologies.

Overall, I do think that it is a blend of previous design knowledge and what I learned at Rutgers Coding Bootcamp that has allowed me to get jobs. I think the students that go on to become successful after the program know how to leverage other skills they might already have into a web development career.

My name is Mario Aburto and I am 21 years old. I picked up programming in college when I was taking classes in Mechanical Engineering but never took it seriously. One of my friends (who ended up not attending) brought up Rutgers Coding Bootcamp (RCB) and it quickly caught my attention because of all the opportunities that it presented. I applied and was accepted, but to be honest, I was more nervous than anything. I was working a full-time job and only knew the basics for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript from coding on my own. I did not think that I would be able to keep up with a fast pace learning environment, nonetheless be able to manage school and work. Six months later and here I am at the end of the course, utterly proud of all my accomplishments in coding and programming. So many doors have been opened for me!

My feelings of nervousness quickly went away when I met everyone in my class. Everyone had a unique past. From nurses to engineers, from teachers to librarians, not everyone has coding experience but everyone was eager to start a new career. I felt relieved! I strongly advise getting to know some, if not all, of your classmates on a personal level as they will be with you for the next six months and call help you with the assignments. I’m glad to have met everyone in this course, from the instructors to the career services team. Everyone really helped shape me into the full stack web developer that I am today.

Furthermore, I sincerely appreciate all of the instructors and TAs for everything that they taught me and my classmates. I know that they all had full-time jobs but still came to teach and instruct afterward. Often, they would show up before anyone else did and be the last to leave, making sure to answer any question that anyone may have had. They were extremely patient, making sure that every one of us understood each concept before moving forward. I am extremely grateful to Dan, Nate, and Jimmy as they were my instructors/TAs and for all of their knowledge. They would often teach us things that were not in the curriculum. Things like how it is out in the real world working as a developer and giving us advice whenever the time was right. Not only did they do their jobs as teachers but they also motivated us and inspired us every step of the way.

The curriculum was based on JavaScript, along with the platform Node.js and stacks like MERN (Mongo, Express, React, Node). It was very fast paced, where we would always learn something new every day, sometimes multiple different technologies a day. With that being said, it was very easy to fall behind so I do recommend that you attend class every day unless it is a REAL emergency. It was important to always ask for help when something was not clear. There is a strong demand for web developers and web programmers and this bootcamp really does prepare you for those careers. After completing the course, you will be confident in your skills, as am I, and will be able to pick up other technologies and programming languages with ease.

Lastly, the career services portion of the program is immensely helpful. Although they do not guarantee a job after graduating, they provide all of the right resources to acquire one. They often brought in professional guest speakers that gave us advice on start-ups, business methods, and really gave us a peek into the tech industry. Towards the end of the program, we were presented with a lot of mock-interview opportunities. Career services just made sure that we had professional profiles on sites like LinkedIn and StackOverflow and made sure they were nicely polished. I even landed an interview towards the end with the help of one of my instructors and some of my classmates were landing interviews and jobs left and right. Ultimately, it is not the job of career services to get you a job, it is up to YOU. You have to be self-motivated and really determined to succeed despite constantly getting turned down by companies.

I really hope that this testimonial helps you make an informed decision and inspires you to apply. The best decision that you can make is to invest in yourself.

Before I even took a look at the Rutgers Coding Bootcamp I was interested in becoming a web developer. I knew I had a passion for the field, but my technical skills were just not what employers were looking for in a new hire. I needed practical experience and everyone that I knew in the industry told me the same thing: “Find a coding bootcamp!” After looking all over the tri-state area I quickly decided on the Rutgers Coding Bootcamp and haven’t looked back since. I can say unequivocally that my decision to enroll in Rutgers Bootcamp was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Every lesson I took away something tangible that could be used in the real world. During the first month in my new job as a junior web developer, I have already used many of the skills taught throughout the course. As critical as this foundation of knowledge is to my career, the single most important thing I learned from the bootcamp was how to think like a developer. Getting out in the real world was like an extension of class for me.

Without missing a beat I have slid into my role at work feeling prepared and confident I can accomplish tasks, even if they require skills I have yet to learn. This level of problem-solving was fostered in the collaborative learning environment provided by Rutgers which aided greatly in the refinement of my skills. With a classroom full of people from diverse backgrounds, problem-solving the same coursework, I was exposed to thought processes and perspectives I would have missed in a self-guided or online class. Often times it was fellow students that would help me through problems, or the other way around with me helping them. Some of my best learning came this way, as I worked through issues in two or three person teams. Don’t get me wrong, my instructor and teacher’s assistants did a great deal to make the entire learning process a smooth one for me. They did a great job of leading me through areas of confusion while pushing me at the same time to reach outside my comfort zone. There wasn’t a lesson that I felt neglected or lost when stuck on a piece of code. I always had an outlet for help and it was their engaging nature and passion for what they do that made me want to come back every day.

While attending class was the best resource for knowledge, it was repeating these themes meticulously outside of class which led to the mastering of skills. This is why my biggest piece of advice to any prospective students is, “you need to be realistic about your time!” There really is no substitution for repeating skills in order to learn them. I treated this bootcamp as my full-time job for the entire six months and can honestly say that I spent as much time as possible outside of class to aid in my growth as a web developer. The curriculum was always fun and interesting to me, which helped me stay engaged through the many hours I spent every week outside of class. Bootcamp was a rewarding experience, and I came away with more knowledge than expected. I definitely feel comfortable with my skills as a web developer working in the industry. I was even lucky enough to find a job a month before my graduation date. It was not just the learning process that helped me accomplish this, but also the way I was set up with a portfolio and interview skills that helped me land my job. From start to finish this bootcamp has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life and I would highly recommend this course to anyone that has the desire to take the step into the technology industry as a full stack web developer.

I came into Rutgers Coding Bootcamp with basically no coding background. I had considered a career path in computer science but instead chose animation. After the company I worked for shut down, I began my job hunt and quickly realized the need for coding experience. I serendipitously happened upon the RCB website while looking into online master’s programs for Graphic Design. I saw that the curriculum was only for 24 weeks and was immediately intrigued by how much you learn in such little time.

We hit the ground running in the first few weeks learning the basics of HTML/CSS and JavaScript. It was a bit of a learning curve, but our instructor and TAs all wanted us to succeed and were always available whether it was online or in-class office hours. Every week we learned something new and it was never boring. The benefit for me of learning things so quickly is that it forced me to go beyond the curriculum to complete each assignment.

There were also guest speakers that came in to talk on Saturdays about career services or their experiences with coming from a non-traditional background in technology. Career services were there to beef up our LinkedIn presence, resumes, and portfolios. They were really helpful in making sure that you have everything completed and ready to send out job applications. A little over halfway through the program, I managed to get a couple of job interviews. Nearing the end of the program, I am confident that I will be able to find a career with the skills that I have learned.

For anyone thinking about getting into web development, I recommend Rutgers Coding Bootcamp. It can be very intimidating at first, but it’s also very challenging and exciting. You have support from not only your instructors and TAs but also your fellow classmates. If you’re serious about doing this program, know that the amount of work that you put into the assignments and learning outside of class will help you know what questions to ask in class.