Job Guarantee - Launchpad

In 2017, the North Carolina Department of Commerce named technology as one of the five industries expected to grow the most jobs and one of the fastest growing occupational groups statewide. A PayScale search shows the median income for software engineers in Greensboro is over $71,000 a year.

The numbers check out country-wide: Full stack software developers were the No. 1 fastest growing job in the United States, according to a 2018 study by PayScale, which also said software developers could expect to average $77,000 a year.

The software engineer industry grew by nearly 65% between 2006 and 2016, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, outstripping projections by nearly 20 percent.

The point is, coders are in demand. So, how is North Carolina going to meet the increasing need for employees who can code?

One option is going to back to school to learn Computer Science, but a degree may not be an option for many professionals. Fortunately, Coder Foundry, has a solution – an immersion learning system to teach people software development.

“We’ve learned that a novice can become a professional in just a few weeks if they experience a ‘workplace simulation’,”

Coder Foundry founder director Bobby Davis said.

“The reason is they’re literally coding eight hours a day. And they’re very focused on delivering their projects on time, just like they’d be doing at their job. Immersion training is the same way a soldier or pilot learns their craft.”

Coder Foundry teaches multiple coding technologies, including C# and .NET.

“We teach the most popular technology stack, which gives graduates the best chance to get a job,”

If you’re a coder-at-heart who likes to dabble in your spare time, but don’t consider yourself a pro, Davis recommends applying to the program.

“If you’re thinking, ‘I’m not a natural software developer; I’m just a fill-in-the-blank, but I really like to code,’ they need to come to our classes. Not everyone who comes to our classes is some rock star nerd. The only way to overcome your fear is to dive in and learn.”

Most of the demand for web developers comes from non-tech companies, Davis said, and the school’s in-house recruiter pitches graduates to car dealerships, grocery stores, trucking companies, among others.

“We had a student placed who came over to our program from being a 911 operator. Our recruiter pitched her skills – she was good at working solo, working under pressure, and learning quickly on the job. She got hired at Fresh Market as a developer.”

He said there are even big-name companies who would rather train someone with basic coding skills than outsource their tech work overseas.

“The bigger the company, the more they are willing to hire a junior developer. Companies that used to outsource their tech are asking us, ‘Do you have a junior developer available?’ because they’d rather train up a junior developer than pay the higher cost of outsourcing.”

To meet demand, Coder Foundry launched a tuition-deferred program called Launchpad.

Students in the Launchpad program pay no tuition upfront, and payments are deferred until they land a job making at least $40,000. If a student earns less than that, then they will not owe any tuition.

Davis encouraged people who are nervous about a career switch to understand that Coder Foundry is a hands-on program with and a job guarantee. Also, the school employs an in-house recruiter to help graduates find employment.

To apply to the Launchpad program click here, or to find out more about Coder Foundry, visit coderfoundry.com.

Coder Foundry is hosting an open house event on August 29th from 6PM to 8 PM. If you’re interested in a software development career, click below to RSVP.

How to Get Decent at JavaScript - for Free

Over our five years of teaching students at all skill levels, we’ve perfected turning a novice coder into a professional web developer.

Of course, you need to think like a coder, work hard, and devote hundreds of immersive hours to mastering your craft.  But still, we’ve tuned our program to be truly transformative; you don’t need prior experience to be successful.

However, we get questions every week from prospective students:

“How do I tinker with the basics of web programming, just to see if this career is right for me?”

The problem is most tutorials available online are poorly taught. Even some of the most popular “learn to code” websites deliver more confusion than clarity. 

We encounter prospective students every week who doubt their own skills because they’ve been trying to learn from bad teachers, not because “coding is too hard” or they are not smart enough.

Today I have 3 JavaScript resources for you, and they’re all free

None of the individual resources are perfect - but each one will help you with a specific step in your learning process.

 

Step 1. Grasshopper App (by Google)

Link: https://grasshopper.codes

Strength: Google designed this app to teach you the basics of programming using gaming features. You can drag and drop blocks that represent bits of Javascript code to solve various puzzles. You don't have to commit a lot of time to learn, and you don't need any experience in coding to get started.

Weakness: The app is focused on solving puzzles and introducing you to coding concepts, so you don't truly learn how write Javascript yourself.

 

Step 2. 10 Days of JavaScript

Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpcSpRrAaOaoIqHQddZOdbRrzr5dJtgSs

Strength: Brad Schiff is a gifted teacher who wisely put together a small project that will give you a handle on the basics of JavaScript. 

Weakness: After you work through this project you may still feel unable to use JavaScript to solve a real-world problem. 

Step 3: Publish a Free Website

Link: https://youtu.be/6ElQ689HRcY

Strength: This straight forward video shows you how to publish a simple website using free tools. Your website can now be a “playground” for practicing coding with Javascript. 

Weakness: Creating the website involves learning 3 tools at once, and it is easy to become overwhelmed.   

 

Go Pro

These tutorials are a great start, but there's still a gap you need to close to become a professional. If you want to take the next step learn how to be a professional software developer, apply for an upcoming class.
 

Why We Created Coder Foundry

“Coding is the economic mobilizer of our time”

— Bobby Davis

The New York Business Journal conducted an interview with Bobby Davis, the co-founder of Coder Foundry. In the interview Bobby talks about the power of learning how to code, and how it can change you, your family, and even your city.

That's why Coder Foundry exists - to change the lives of our students.

Listen to the full interview here:

True tech savants are the ones who hustle to create all of these on-demand services we take for granted, or maybe it's that next breakthrough innovation on our mobile devices, or the next addictive game we can't stop playing. Whatever the creation is, coders were responsible, and the reality is there just aren't enough. Coder Foundry founder Bobby Davis, JewelBots founder Sara Chipps and Fullstack Academy founder David Yang tell us more about this niche market and how it's changing traditional education. Music: Scott Holmes "When I'm With You" via FreeMusicArchive.org

Do you want to learn how to code? Request our syllabus to get started.

Learn Mobile Application Development at Coder Foundry

Coder Foundry is excited to announce the biggest change to our curriculum since the school launched over two years ago.

Starting with this currently enrolled cohort all students will learn mobile application development, in addition to our standard course on programming for the web.

When you attend our program you will graduate with three core web-based projects, and one native mobile application for Android and iOS mobile operating systems.

 

We Are the only coding bootcamp to teach you web and mobile development in the same track.

Any other immersive program you attend will ask you to choose between building for the browser or building for the smartphone - or they do not provide Android and iOS programming at all.

At Coder Foundry we will teach you both within 18 weeks.

Most bootcamps can teach you how to become a Full Stack Developer, competent at front-end and backend development. We will teach you how to become a Universal Full Stack Developer, competent at programming for the three most most popular platforms of today - the web, Android, and iOS.

Please read below to understand how we're able to train you during such a compact amount of time.

 

Why You Can Learn Web and Mobile Programming in 18 Weeks

It's no coincidence that coding bootcamps began to launch at the same time programming frameworks and libraries became widespread and popular. The first bootcamps discovered that not only is rapid, immersive learning a better way to learn to code, but the new tools available to programmers makes it easier to teach a beginner. 

Even experienced programmers and Computer Science graduates attend schools like Coder Foundry to learn the workflow and tools of modern developers.

A new advancement happened this year, specifically for .NET web developers. Microsoft purchased Xamarin, a set of tools that makes Android and iOS development more efficient for any programmer with C# experience. 

Xamarin used to be expensive and difficult to learn. That confined adoption to a small set of coders with backing from their employers.

Today Microsoft has made Xamarin virtually free, and has dedicated resources to promoting the tool to the masses. Remember - Microsoft spent $2 Billion ensuring the popularity of .NET and C#. We believe they will do whatever it takes to make Xamarin a standard in Android and iOS programming.

This is a prime opportunity for any programming student. Xamarin is easy to learn for anyone who has training in C# and Visual Studio, and will become a standard requirement for employers in the coming months. This is why we have added it to our curriculum and why you can feel confident in learning mobile development in a short amount of time.

 

Here's What Makes Xamarin Special

Xamarin makes it possible to build Android and iOS app using a shared C# codebase. 

In the past you had to learn Objective-C or Swift to create apps for the iPhone, and learn Java to build for Android devices. 

Xamarin empowers you to use C# to access the unique capabilities of each operating system. The project you create for Android or iOS is completely native. A user can't tell the difference between your app and one created with Objective-C, Swift, or Java.

Xamarin also has a best-in-class testing suite so you see how your project performs across dozens of devices. Even companies that do not use Xamarin's tools to build their app have been attracted Xamarin's powerful "Test Cloud".

 

Are you interested in becoming a Universal Full Stack Developer?

Come and learn with Coder Foundry.

Our next class starts in January, however our application deadline is December 9th. Apply today.

How to Prepare for the Future of Full Stack Programming

In the old days of web development (think: 2012) building an application required at least two people - a front-end developer and a back-end developer.

Then just a few years ago the concept of a “full stack” developer emerged.. Thanks to the rise of frameworks, libraries, and other time saving tools a Full Stack Developer can capably do the work of both a front-end and backend developer.

This change brought about a huge leap in productivity in the tech industry. Today an employer can  choose to have one programmer work on a full application by himself, or collaborate with a team that chips in on any part of the project.

Three years ago Full Stack Developers were unicorns.

They were in high demand and employers had a difficult time finding someone with both skill sets. 

But recently the talent market shifted. Being a Full Stack Developer is now standard in our industry.

Job postings for front-end developers sneak in requirements for backend languages and tools. Backend programmers are expected to work on the UI of their applications, not hand the work over to a front-end specialist. 

That’s why most coding bootcamps require students to take a Full Stack track, even if a you want to focus on front-end work. This is what the market demands.

Today the tech industry has a new problem.

Instead of the work being separated by front-end and backend programming it is now divided by web and mobile development.

Employers can find Web Programmers or Mobile Programmers, but it’s rare to hire someone who can do both. Even worse, mobile development is split between the two major operating systems - Google’s Android and Apple's iOS. 

It’s common to find a dev team staffed with Full Stack Web Developers, Android Developers, and then separate iOS Developers. These teams do not share a codebase or tools - they may as well work in completely different offices.  

The new unicorns are programmers who can create web applications and mobile applications.

We call these people Universal Full Stack Developers. 

We believe the demand for Universal Full Stack Developers will follow the same trend line as the original Full Stack Developers. Today, possessing web and mobile development skills will make you a stellar candidate in front of any employer. However, soon every developer will expected to have multi-platform experience - it will become standard.

How Coder Foundry Can prepare You for the future

After every graduating class we examine how to make our curriculum better. We take feedback from students and feedback from employers then develop ways to make our program better for the next class.

Usually that change is small. All it takes is a tweak to how or what we teach to help students be more prepared for their coding career.

Today is different for us. In response to the future need for Universal Full Stack Developers we are making the biggest change to our curriculum since we launched our school over two years ago.

If you are interested in learning exactly what is changing, please subscribe to our email list and we will send you an alert with the announcement.

How to Launch Your Coding Career in New York

Stop me if you’ve heard this joke before:

Four companies walked into a bar in New York...

The first company is one of the most valuable sports teams in the world, the New York Yankees. 

The second company is an ivy league school that pre-dates the founding of our country, Columbia University.

The third company is an insurance firm with more than 88 million customers in 130 countries, AIG.

The fourth company is the world’s most valuable bank, and the largest bank in the United States, JP Morgan Chase.

So the Yankees, Columbia, AIG, and Chase walk into a bar and - in unison - all order the same thing: 

 

“Give me one .NET Developer. And make it quick!”

This silly joke is a metaphor for what actually happened this month. Each of those premier companies put out a job posting looking for .NET Developers.

The skills they are looking for are almost identical. They want candidates that know:

• C# 
• MVC
• Visual Studio
• SQL Server
• Web APIs
• Javascript
• HTML & CSS

In short, they want developers who are trained in the .NET stack. However, there’s a problem.

 

There’s a shortage of .NET Developers in New York

By combining Indeed.com’s data on open .NET Developer jobs with LinkedIn’s data on local .NET programmers you can measure the talent gap for different cities.

Seattle has the smallest talent gap with 37 candidates for every .NET job listed. We believe the presence of Microsoft, the creator of the .NET framework near Seattle contributes to the rich pool of talent for employers.

The city with the worst talent gap is New York. There are only four available people for every one job posting.

This is bad news for the Yankees, Columbia, AIG, and Chase. It’s likely that they are recruiting people away from other jobs or other cities, which is a long and expensive process. 

However, it’s good news for New York-based .NET Developers at all levels of experience. The combination of a tight talent gap and a current need among top tier companies means a qualified coder can pick and choose the best fit for his or her career.

 

Coder Foundry is the only Coding Bootcamp in New York for .NET / C# Web Development

We are the best reviewed, most experienced .NET bootcamp in the country, and the only choice if you’re in New York.

So if you want a shot at a coding job for the Yankees, Columbia, AIG, and Chase or one of the several .NET firms that consult enterprise companies, then we’d love to have you as a student.

In December we’re hosting an Open House at our New York campus. RSVP today and meet our alumni, instructors, and in-house recruiters. 

We hope to see you soon.

Student Success Stories: Designer to Front-End Web Developer

Please join us congratulating Danny L., a graduate of Coder Foundry!

Danny had a design career but was always interested in becoming a programmer. He attended out Full Stack Programming course and learned both the front-end and backend of web development. 

Danny's new job, a marketing firm in North Carolina reported to us that he's a rockstar in the office. We're very proud of him and honored to be part of his career story.

Watch Danny talk about his journey below:

I really like my experience here so far. Like every day became really fun. I never thought I’d be excited to come to school every day.

When I get focused on something the time just goes by and like I said before I really enjoy it. Just me and a couple of other people we just stay after and work on extra stuff. 

I always had an interest in coding. I actually had a front-end degree before I went into technical design.  But I couldn’t land a job in it before because of lack of experience coming out of school.

It was something I always wanted to do but didn’t get a chance and I thought coming here would give me extra experience.

I think all the things I learned so far paid off. I learned a lot more than I thought I was going to. 

My name is Danny and I came to Coder Foundry because I wanted to learn a lot more about programming.

Want to launch your coding career like Danny did? Request our course syllabus.

Coding is the Future of Every High Paying Job

Job hunting site Burning Glass analyzed 26 million online job postings and found something very surprising: Employers are beginning to require coding skills for non-programming jobs.

“Coding, or computer programming, is becoming a core skill requirement for many well-paying jobs. Coding skills are in demand across a broad range of careers, not just for programmers.


The ability not only to use but also to program software is often required of business people who work with data, of designers and marketers who create websites, of engineers who build products and technologies, and of scientists who conduct research.
”

— Burning Glass http://burning-glass.com/research/coding-skills/

Unfortunately, our educational system at every level has yet to catch up to employer demand. An introduction to programming course should be required in every high school across our nation. If a teenager wants a high paying job in the next six years he will need to at least know how programming languages work, even if he's not interested in working as a programmer.

For example this marketing job at CapitalOne wants a candidate who knows SQL, and this sales job wants someone who knows Javascript. The most in-demand teaching job today is for Computer Science, and one presidential candidate has promised to fund coding programs to fill the gap.

Do you want to learn to code? Request our syllabus and find out how our training program works.

Student Success Stories: Math Major to Computer Programmer

Please join us in congratulating Andrew L., a graduate of Coder Foundry!

Andrew is one of the most talented students we've ever had, and we're honored that he would allow us to guide him on his career journey.

Andrew has a BA in Mathematics had some experience programming, but came to Coder Foundry to build a professional portfolio and work with our job placement services. 

Hear Andrew's story in his own words:

“My name is Andrew Lawrence and I chose Coder Foundry because I wanted an environment that was structured in the way that people really learn programming.

Before I came to Coder Foundry I was working as a Junior .NET Developer.

I think Coder Foundry is a good fit for someone who is excited about programming and they believe they have the skills but just haven’t had the opportunity.

I would compare the learning philosophy here to “Learning By Doing” and figuring it out as you’re working with it and getting your hands dirty.

I chose Coder Foundry because I was looking for an environment where I could learn real world skills as a developer without the pressure of having to be performant on the job.”

Student Success Stories: Law Enforcement to Software Programming

Please join us in congratulating Sean S.!

Sean has a degree in Computer Science but spent the last decade working in law enforcement as a criminal investigator. He came to Coder Foundry to update his skills and dive back in the software programming industry. ean From

Starting from day one Sean took a professional, no nonsense approach to the class, and he proved to be one of the hardest working students we've ever graduated.

Watch Sean's story in his own words:

Before I came to Coder Foundry I was a law enforcement officer, I was a criminal investigator and a supervisor for the domestic violence unit. 

My teenage years was in the early pioneering days of “advanced” web design. So I already had a lot of it kind of under my belt. 

But when I got out of college the economy collapsed for engineers.

I came to Coder Foundry because I wanted to reignite my passion for development and resume my role in the programming industry. 

If you want to be here, you will invest yourself, you will immerse yourself as long as you need. This is not just a nine to five even though it says it is on paper. To get the most out of this place you really have to dig in deep. 

I found that the further I dug myself into the course, the more results I got out of the place. The more I learned the faster I built myself up. 

I love the idea that Coder Foundry gave you both sides of the coin. You got some front end but they give you a lot of backend. And that’s a really tough field to break into without someone to really help you along. 

So all the nitty gritty all the behind the curtain stuff - you get to see [The Wizard of] OZ in all of his glory. And this was a great place to actually do that, a safe environment to do that.  

A local newspaper interviewed Sean about his experience at Coder Foundry. You can read that here.

Three North Carolina Cities Top List for Highest Paid Programmers

Job hunting site Glassdoor combined data from their salary reports with stats from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis to discover which cities have the highest pay for programmers after you adjust for cost-of-living.

What they found surprised many in the software industry. New York and San Francisco, home to the biggest tech companies in the world do not make the list, due to their high housing, transportation, and other costs.

However, North Carolina has three cities in the top 25! Look at the list below:

#5. Raleigh, NC
Real Adjusted Salary: $94,142
-4.4% below national average cost of living
Median Base Salary: $90,000

#12. Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
Real Adjusted Salary: $88,143
-4.7% below national average cost of living
Median Base Salary: $84,000

#18. Charlotte, NC
Real Adjusted Salary: $85,653
-6.6% below national average cost of living
Median Base Salary: $80,000

Want to learn how to be a professional programmer in North Carolina? Take a look at our Charlotte coding bootcamp.

First Choose Your Stack, Then Your Bootcamp

There are so many coding bootcamps to choose from, with the list growing every year. How do you decide who to give your money (and time) to?

That’s the problem Evan had to solve a few months ago. He’d just graduated from college with a Political Science degree, but already knew he wanted to attend a bootcamp to learn web development.

Evan made a smart choice that every person researching coding bootcamps should imitate. Instead of contacting every programming school that appeared in his Google search, Evan called up local employers and asked them about their “stack”.

Evan wanted to know which programming languages were in use by the companies in his area. Only then would seek a bootcamp that teaches what most employers are looking for.

Most aspiring web developers mix up the bootcamp selection process. 

First they choose a bootcamp based on location and price, then they learn whatever stack that bootcamp teaches. That’s like applying for a college before you know if they offer your major!

For example, Darrell graduated from a coding bootcamp and learned Ruby. Even though he was trained to be a full stack developer, his first job was at a .NET/C# shop, so he only worked on the front-end of the application. 

Darell had the same problem at his next job at a large consulting firm. The application they put him on was built in C#, so Darell had to spend his time learning a new stack. Unfortunately he’s never touched Ruby outside of his bootcamp experience. 

If Darell knew Evan then maybe he would have chosen a different stack, and a different bootcamp.

When fresh-out-of-college Even spoke to local employers he kept hearing the same thing, over and over:

“This company uses .NET.”

Watch Evan tell his story in this video

Evan used Course Report to find the best .NET coding bootcamps. He choose Coder Foundry based on our stellar reviews. Today Evan is working as a .NET web developer.

A study by Course Report confirms Evan and Darrell’s experience. The “2015 Coding Bootcamp Outcomes & Demographics Report” had this to say about the C# and the .NET stack:

 

"Students who learned C# at a bootcamp are most likely to be employed as a developer after graduation."

That stat shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s been in the software industry over the last decade. Microsoft invented .NET and C# and spent $2 billion promoting the framework and language. Large enterprise  companies and smaller B2B shops adopted the .NET stack years ago, which sustains the continued need for .NET developers. 

While Ruby and backend-Javascript may be popular in Silicon Valley, C# is the language of choice across the country and across industries, from aerospace to banking and beyond. Do your own research with a quick Indeed.com search - you can find a .NET developer position no matter what state you live in, or which industry you want to join.

C# vs Ruby vs Javascript

The popularity of .NET and C# creates a question for every aspiring web developer interested in a bootcamp. If learning the .NET stack is the surest path to breaking into a programming career, then why do most coding bootcamps teach Ruby or backend-Javascript?

There are two theories about why most coding bootcamps are not aligned with industry demand. First, many bootcamps started in California where Ruby is popular. Once they expanded to other states they never customized their curriculum to teach a stack that has more widespread usage, like .NET. That means a bootcamp can build a good reputation helping launch Ruby Developer careers in one state, and not have the same success rate in North Carolina or Ohio. 

Second, many bootcamps are switching away from Ruby to teach Full Stack Javascript. We think this is because it is easier to teach one language to students within a 12 to 18 week program, not because the current demand for these jobs is there.

Unfortunately, most coding bootcamps are falling into the same problems that universities that teach Computer Science create for themselves. Their curriculum choice is based on legacy and the preferences of the teachers, rather than what the market wants.

It’s up to every student to do their research so they can get an education that immediately prepares them for the job market in their city. We are confident that if you choose your stack, then your bootcamp like Evan did, you’ll select .NET and Coder Foundry.