We recently sat down with two-time CodeCraft bootcamp graduate, Hanna Vadeboncoeur to ask what made her invest in not one, but two coding bootcamps, and why she chose CodeCraft as her technology school in Boulder, Colorado. After completing both the full stack web development and user experience (UX) design bootcamps, she had a lot to offer about her experience and what she gained.
Hanna is a recent Boulder, Colorado transplant who has been working for nonprofits since graduating from college. While she loves working in nonprofits, she is constantly faced with not having enough technical resources to efficiently solve problems for the organization because of their limitations with modern tech. Being constantly faced with these technical challenges, she decided to learn the skills herself so she could be the one to solve the problems rather than depending on others or letting the problems persist.
Why CodeCraft?
Hanna ended up choosing CodeCraft after searching online for different programs in Boulder, CO. Among the long list of reasons she chose CodeCraft, was CodeCraft’s smaller class sizes, which would mean one-on-one personal attention and getting to know the instructor and other students in a supportive environment. This gave her a level of comfort and confidence that she knew would be conducive to learning brand new technical skills. After interviewing the instructor, she also felt confident in the curriculum and the instructor’s ability and commitment to adapt the curriculum to the ever-changing technology as the class progressed. This level of agility reassured her that she would keep up to speed with the available tech languages and that she wouldn’t get stuck or left behind.
Why Both Coding and UX?
After a positive and successful full-stack web development bootcamp, Hanna went on to attend CodeCraft’s UX design program. Her decision to go from coding to user experience was based on her desire to understand the front-end of digital spaces and to use technology to solve people’s problems versus just creating things. The two skillsets marry well and allow her to take a project from concept to the end-user experience. “It’s a skillset that will allow me to solve problems in my nonprofit work, but also in other areas of my life.” After completing the two bootcamps, Hanna now possesses some of the most in-demand skills in the job marketplace - making her incredibly valuable to any organization wanting to hire a junior web developer or UX designer who is poised to grow.
Online Versus In-Person Bootcamps
There is no doubt, there are endless resources online to learn to code, however, when Hanna was looking into online resources, she noticed it was hard to filter out the good/useful content from the bad/not useful content. She said, “It’s important to have someone there to talk to and ask unlimited questions.” Taking an in-person bootcamp significantly cuts down the amount of time it will take to learn. She added, “It would have taken me four years to learn this on my own at home and I would have given up along the way…but having someone in a structured environment tell you what to do and guide you along the process sped that up and made it possible to learn.” The benefits of attending an in-person coding bootcamp are clear: it decreases the amount of time it takes to learn to code, accessibility to world-class instructors, cohort collaboration and support, and it streamlines the learning process. “CodeCraft’s campus environment is fun and welcoming, they focus on the whole system of learning to code rather than just memorizing and specific technologies.”
Finally, Hanna talked about a benefit unique to only CodeCraft, and that’s it’s partnership with Boulder Digital Arts (BDA). Codecraft students can attend BDA classes for free! This means they can add on digital skills classes like Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, and many many more, to really make their portfolio and resume stand out to prospective employers.
Bonus: 20% Discount
We want to make it more affordable for people to acquire a more well-rounded set of technical skills, so we offer CodeCraft students a 20% discount on any second bootcamp they attend.