Alexander T.

Earlier this year, as I was graduating from college, I ran into a cross-roads, wherein I had really no idea what I was going to do for a career. I had looked at a variety of different options, but none were really popping out as particularly feasible, as at this point I was now planning a wedding with my fiancée, so I needed something flexible that would be productive and get me some marketable skills so I am able to deal with the expenses that marriage brings.

Thankfully, as I was working my security job at school, while I was on break, I got an ad on Youtube talking about TripleTen (Practicum at the time) and from that point forward I started to look into tech boot camps, as previously this career avenue was completely new to me. Over the course of a few months from about March to June, I began surveying a ton of different boot camps, as well as asking close friends of mine who had pursued this career path, and eventually, around mid-June, I made my choice and went with TripleTen, and man am I glad that I did. Not only was it the best bang for my buck considering all the other boot camps, the guarantee of job placement or money back is amazing and gives me a tremendous feeling of confidence, as well as their career prep courses, among many other things.

The program itself, when it comes to its structure and how it actually helps you gain proficiency in those things that you are studying is generally as follows:

Every ~two weeks, you begin what is called a sprint (named as such in order to model the SE job world) that consists of a number of lessons concerning theory and conceptual work that also have a lot of practice exercises, as well as a project for that sprint. During these sprints you will take a certain topic, and really grind away at it, gaining general facility with the topic through the theory and practice, and then immediately you put it into practice in the project for that Sprint. The sprint that I just completed for instance was concerning asynchronous JS code and interaction with APIs, so during the lessons on theory, I spent a lot of time learning the way the JS engine actually executes code (asynchronously), as well as the syntax behind interacting with an API. After all that, I put it into practice and began implementing asynchronicity into my project that I had been working on. After you finish your project and turn it in, you then go into a code review phase during which an actual software engineer who works in the field will comb through your code, looking for mistakes, as well as finding good marks in how you executed certain problems well. You will then go back and forth with this reviewer as they continue to help you fix bugs and refine your code until it is accepted and you can continue on to the next Sprint.

In my case (the part-time program), I spend roughly 20-30 hours a week studying and writing my projects, but this varies person to person based on how well you understand the concepts of that week, as well as external life circumstances. For the average individual, expect to work anywhere from 15-30 hours a week at this program in order to stay on track. Thankfully though, if life happens and external circumstances preclude you from completing as much as you might like on a given week, the TripleTen team will be quick to accommodate with extensions and help by way of tutoring.

Additionally, though I have not been able to participate in them very much given that I am working outside of this and am rather busy, TripleTen offers a ton of extra-curricular coding activities that are not only enjoyable, but they often are marketable pieces of work that allow you to add one more project to your Github or LinkedIn for recruiters to see when they consider you for a position. I personally am excited, as this next sprint that I am beginning will allow me to take part in another extra-curricular coding opportunity that TripleTen has offered called "externships" wherein you work with another company TripleTen has partnered with to help create a product of some sort, allowing you to take part in actual development which is very marketable, and is certainly a good thing to have in order to bolster your LinkedIn and your portfolio for the job search.

Of all of these things which I appreciate very much about the program, I would have to say my two favorite part of it are easily the staff and the degree to which the team pursues practicality and job application.

Concerning the first, I have grown to love programming largely due to the very patient and quick-to-help tutors that are always willing to bear with even the seemingly silliest of questions in order to help you understand what it is you are doing. I have asked a whole variety of silly questions, but the tutors never make you feel as though you are a drag or an inconvenience. You get their real attention, and they go out of their way to make sure you understand what you are doing, allowing you to actually enjoy the learning process, while also becoming confident in your abilities over time.

Concerning the second, what I mean by it is that pretty much every avenue, the TripleTen program is structured in order to help you understand job relevant skills that will allow you to mesh well with whatever team you find yourself employed. Whether it be practicing using Git, practicing pull requests, or learning coding paradigms like Object-Oriented-Programming that allow you to keep your code readable and workable, the focus on practicality and effectiveness in the work place gives me great confidence in my ability to work with a team when I end up getting hired. On top of these hard skills, they also spend a great deal of time focusing on your soft skills like networking, taking criticism well, among many other topics that not only turn you into a proficient engineer, but also into an effective and kind team member.

All that being said, for anyone who is considering this program, know this. There are going to be (lots) of times where you feel like a complete idiot, wherein it seems like everything you studied went in one ear and out the other. Please, though you will be discouraged, do not quit. Imposter syndrome is a very real thing, and you will feel as though you know nothing because so and so knows more, or so and so's project is better than mine, but please do not quit because of this. Know that you almost certainly know more than you give yourself credit for, and that as long as you continue to hammer away at any given section, you will eventually understand. It just takes practice and application.

While certainly not an easily gotten career, I could not be happier with my choice to go with TripleTen, and I have and will continue to recommend it to anyone and everyone who is interested in the field of web design and software engineering. Easy 5 stars from me.