Shawn was actually the person who sent me that link and said "some guy wants to teach people to code in a coffee shop or something, you should check it out." Back then, I had been hacking things together and had an engineering job, but never felt like I had enough credentials to be a 'real' programmer. I ended up deciding to join the first class of DBC to see what it would be like. There ended up being 21 of us in a tiny sublet at 923 Market. We literally had to go in through a door that was part of a larger garage door. CEO's and CTO's would come speak and everyone was very excited about what we were building together.
I think the thing I learned from the most was the way that Shereef carried himself and ran the community. We all felt like we were building something bigger than ourselves. Shereef was a next level community manager and wasn't afraid to cajole people into the uncomfortable spots for them. I think literally everyone in my class cried at some point. DBC was more than just a technical education, it was an emotional education. I've tried to emulate and embody the emotional balance I learned while in DBC, especially as Shawn and I were creating HR. I think DBC's longest mark on the industry will be in the insertion of 'engineering empathy' into the curriculum.
Shawn, don't forget that the founder of Epicodus came out of that first class of DBC, as did the founder of Codeunion. And the Bloc folks were working out of DBC early on as well. DBC set in motion a whole industry.
As a member of the industry, a former student at DBC, and a former staff member at DBC, I feel for the people (staff, students, alums) affected by this event and am saddened by the void that it will leave for many. I still have my dog tags, and took them out tonight in reverence. Props to everyone on the team who no doubt fought this closure until there wasn't fight left.
Anyone have great DBC memories to share? My two favorites:
1. Speed chess that happened just about every lunch in the first class
2. White water rafting with DBC2 students and staff
Would love to chat and help out if I can. I helped found Hack Reactor(www.hackreactor.com) and have a bunch of take-aways from the experience. Either way good luck in your learning!
I have coded with and learned with michael before and I think he is one of the most patient and thoughtful teachers I know. I wish you the best of luck and congrats to Sacramento for getting an awesome program.
Thanks for the suggestion, but actually I totally disagree. Spending time coding Javascript and spending time teaching or preparing to teach Javascript are two different things.
If I were a student, I would want a group of guys to get a wordpress theme and reinvest all the time they saved into making the program better for me.
Thanks for the thoughtful response. I'm Tony, a co-founder at Catalyst.
There are a couple of interesting points to address here. One is that having an intense program could have a negative effect. In my experience teaching programming in immersion schools like this one, the students who stayed these kinds of hours knew they were going to work that hard from the beginning and just got more out of the program. I myself learned to code through an immersion school and felt more like I was missing out when went home at 7-8 than anything. We are looking for the type of person who wants this kind of all-encompassing program for 12 weeks.
I also think one-on-one tutors are great ideas, but for me personally being around a room full of other motivated people that are in my same position is so much more motivating.
I'd love to hear about what you think the 'wrong mentality' is. Feel free to ping me offline and let's chat.
It's true that a good majority of these programs focus around tech centers in the country, but there are some other options for people for whatever reason cannot move. The guys at Bloc.io are really great and offer an online version.
Thanks so much for the kind wishes. We haven't decided on a client-side framework yet (though I do like backbone), so we were holding off until we had decided what we wanted to include in the curriculum.
We are still figuring out the details of our pricing scheme, but one thing we are committed to is not letting finance problems stop us from accepting a good applicant. If you are at all worried about the price, I would suggest applying and we will try our best to find a way to make it possible to attend.
I am also a student at Devbootcamp. The intensity of the program combined with the amazing dedication of the other students has realistically quadrupled my learning speed. The program as a whole (starting 2 months before the first day of class when you get your pre-class homework) can take you from a complete newbie to hirable. One of the biggest indicators of its merit is that you can see most of us who are going through the program have become somewhat of evangelists. If anyone is considering the program, I really recommend reaching out to one of the students who are currently in the program and learning more about it. You can also check out my blog at newbietoruby.com
I have been curating a bunch of really handy links that helped me to learn. they are at newbietoruby.com in the resources section.
I was in your situation a little while ago and moved to SF to be where just about every other person on a bike is a developer. If you want to learn and you want to learn quickly, SF is the place to be.