**"Enrolling in this program was one of the best decisions I've made for my career. In just a few months, I went from having only a basic understanding of programming to feeling confident in my ability to contribute in a professional tech environment. The course was intense and at times overwhelming, but the structure, support, and encouragement from the instructors made a huge difference. There were moments when the material didn't click right away, but with persistence and guidance, everything came together piece by piece. I especially appreciated the variety of teaching styles--each instructor brought unique perspectives and methods that helped reinforce the material in different ways. This made the learning process more dynamic and accessible to everyone in the class. The projects, both individual and group-based, were invaluable. They not only solidified what we learned but also gave me real-world experience in teamwork, problem-solving, and communication. These skills are just as important as the technical ones when stepping into the tech industry. As someone transitioning careers, I found the environment supportive and motivating. The small class size allowed for more personal attention, and the sense of community helped me push through the toughest weeks. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it. I'm grateful for the knowledge gained, the friendships formed, and the opportunities this program has opened up for me.and please enrolled my website http://www.iwanttolearnsql.com/ read more

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In just a few months, I was able to acquire the skills necessary to land a job. Skill Distillery was a challenging course, but I am so thankful to have gone. There were times when I felt ready to give up, times I didn't know what I was even learning only to finally understand it a week later. I really enjoyed having multiple teachers present information coming from different backgrounds and experiences. The multiple rotating teaching styles helped as well, especially since different students learn in different ways. As a USAF Veteran who had a bad experience with attending a school that claimed to be "Veteran friendly", I was thankful for the care Skill Distillery gave to its prior service students. It was also fun having Vets from all four branches in my class, providing comradery and an easy way to get to know one another through shared military experiences. Sprinkled throughout the program were several pair, group, and individual projects ranging in difficulty and time allotted to accomplish. These projects instilled the skills learned and helped me get a sense of how to work together on a team, a skill essential to today's tech industry workplaces. Although the school lacks the flashiness of some of the other local boot camps, in the end, it helped me (as an extrovert) remain focused on my studies without distraction. I also enjoyed the small class size allowing the teachers to spend more one on one time with each student. Again, Skill Distillery was super challenging but I am thankful for the skills learned, the relationships made, and the opportunities I now have going forward. read more

Skill Distillery - Specialty Schools Near Me - Greenwood Village, Colorado

All my career dreams have come true as a direct result of attending this bootcamp. I had a little bit of programming experience prior to attending, but not enough to interview anywhere. I had an unrelated degree already, but didn't have time to go back to school for a full Computer Science degree. Skill Distillery taught me Java, Javascript, SQL, and Angular over an intense four-month period. Java in particular is a valuable skill that no other bootcamps will teach you to my knowledge. My first interviewers after graduating were very impressed with my Java knowledge, and offered me a $75k starting salary. I held out and interviewed at a few more places, and ended up landing a software engineer position at one of the world's leading software companies making well over $100k. All my interviews were all in Java, which I had never written a line of before attending this school. Veterans: This school will cost 9 months of your GI bill, despite only being 4 months in length. In my opinion, if you already have a degree, it's still 100% worth it. If you don't have a degree yet, it's worth considering your options. Read the reviews on Course Report for the whole story. read more

I originally started looking at coding bootcamps after deciding that the way colleges handled Computer Science wasn't for me. It felt like the material was moving so slowly and had a lot of information that wasn't relevant to actual programming. After two and a half years, I knew a lot of concepts, but I knew almost nothing of how to really write a program. Initially, this drove me away from programming, but I decided to try it again with a different approach. Skill Distillery stood out to me because of their curriculum. Most of the other bootcamps put a focus on front-end development, but Skill Distillery teaches full stack development. I really liked that I could put together a program and understand every aspect of it, rather than just bits and pieces. Skill Distillery's curriculum is really tailored to be enticing to employers. The technologies that they teach are the top technologies used in practice. Java, MySQL and Angular in particular are all highly sought after. More importantly than the technologies are the fundamentals that this school teaches. It's not just about plugging in code where it belongs, it's about understanding what that code is doing and knowing exactly why it needs to be there. There were times when the course got difficult, but the staff members were always there to lend a hand and were very patient. I would highly recommend Skill Distillery to anyone interested in learning how to program. read more

This place changed my life. Am now making almost 6 figures doing something I love and anticipate making more soon. Just bought a house. They are one of the few boot camps to instruct a true full stack including a core compiled language like Java (most of the others I investigated taught JavaScript stacks. Good, but not what I saw job postings looking for). read more

Making the decision to restart my career and enter the world of software development did not stop feeling like a crazy decision until the middle of my second week at Skill Distillery. I had just moved across the country, away from friends, family, and continued employment for...what exactly? To work harder than I ever had before towards the idea of coding for decent pay, rather than as a nerdy hobby? Essentially, yes, and it was the best decision I could have made at that point in my life. I started looking into coding bootcamps after spending several years in other industries, always working hard but rarely making more progress than simply treading water. After speaking with some old friends (and occasionally less emotionally invested acquaintances), I decided that the coding bootcamp that would best fit my needs and goals would be one that focused on learning the full development stack with Java as the base, general purpose language. Thus began my application process: with my search parameters in place, the filtering process was at hand. The bootcamps that focused on JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and other front-end frameworks were cut out from my search at the start. It's not that these aren't useful; it's that my personality type needs to know how everything works, and so manipulating only one side of an equation without understanding where that information came from would drive me up the wall. This left the full-stack camps, and in this group Skill Distillery kept floating to the top of the list. Other reviews indicated smaller class sizes than other bootcamps (true), highly relevant curriculum (also true, and continually updated with private sector input), and most importantly to me, a teaching staff that was dedicated to and invested in the success of the students. This last part was more true than any college or vocational course I had attended previously, and is unquestionably the major driver of the success both I and my classmates had at SD. As a final thought relating to classmates, going through 16 weeks with my cohort led to incredible new friends bonded by the intensity of this process. We were all in it together, all invested in our collective success, and for all of these reasons I would not only do it again in a second but would (and have) recommended it to close friends. read more

"Made me more employable than my three degrees" Skill Distillery first caught my eye when I saw they accepted the GI Bill, and they happened to be close to home. I'd heard vaguely about coding bootcamps, and dismissed them without much thought, figuring they were all a scam somehow. But all of a sudden I had a relatively low risk option, and decided to check them out. What I got was far beyond my expectations. I took about a year of computer science back in college, and this program blew through everything I knew in the first two weeks. It was challenging. Java is challenging. And adding in the full stack to build web applications with SQL, JDBC, JPA, JSPs, HTML, and CSS made me wonder if I could grasp it all. And then moving to JavaScript and building these apps using a whole other suite of technologies (Node.js, Express, jQuery, AJAX, Angular...) was like climbing to the top of a mountain only to realize I was only at the saddle. Looking back I can't believe how much I learned in 19 weeks. I started looking for a job a little later than most, but started interviewing in the last week of school. In every interview I had I would describe what I had learned and the response was always "you worked with [fill in the blank] technologies? Well that's exactly what we do here." In some cases the employer could see areas where I could show them something new. All my interviews were favorable, and 10 days after I graduated I had an offer I couldn't refuse working with a great group of people. For the first time in my life I'm turning down job offers, and making more money than I ever would have imagined. read more

SUMMARY The learning process was intense consisting of 60+ hours of work a week. Each of the instructors was among the best I've ever had the privilege of learning from. I accepted a job offer I am incredibly excited about, for a position I really wanted, only a day after graduation. Overall, it was the best decision I have ever made. In the following chapters, you can read about my background, other students' backgrounds, Skill Distillery's strengths, the school's weaknesses, financing, and the outcome. MY BACKGROUND Firstly, have no fears about your background. The first person who to have a job in my cohort had never completed their Bachelor's degree. That same person was consistently one of the top performers in the course and had multiple job-offers weeks before completing the course. When I joined Skill Distillery, my experience with coding was next to none. A couple of months prior to attending the boot camp, I picked up some Ruby as a hobby, doing it for a few hours a week. That was enough for me to know that I want to turn that hobby into a profession. I had a bachelor's degree in business from Germany and experience in business development/sales. However, I do not think that either of these was needed for me to get a job. All you need is a combination of passion for technology and problem solving, discipline, and an always learning and collaborative mindset. OTHER STUDENTS Other students in my cohort came from all walks of life. From people who spent 23 years in the Military, to those who haven't been born that long ago. From people with no degrees to those with advanced ones. From business owners, through chefs, to insurance sales representatives. One thing they all had in common was that they were ready for a change and willing to learn. WHY SKILL DISTILLERY (Strengths) I did a lot of research before deciding which boot camp to enroll. Skill Distillery was a clear winner, and here are some of the reasons: 1) BEST CURRICULUM ON THE MARKET Java is the most popular language in the world (source: tiobe.com). It is used in many disciplines - from Web Development, through IOT, to machine learning. It is an object-oriented language, just like any other of the six languages with the highest TIOBE index. If you only learn Javascript, like at most other boot camps, you will limit your possibilities immensely. Also, switching from a statically typed language to a dynamically-typed one (e.g., Python) is easier than vice versa. At Skill Distillery, you get to learn Java, as well as the most widely used technologies and frameworks used with Java for web development (Spring framework, Maven, Gradle, etc.). Finally, you will come out a very well rounded web developer, as you will learn front-end technologies such as Javascript and Angular, as well as MySQL, a language very similar to SQL, which used to talk with your relational database. 2) BEST INSTRUCTORS ON THE MARKET At most boot camps, you will get to learn from recent boot camp graduates. At Skill Distillery, the instructors are world-class experts and have an average of at least 20 years in the industry. They are also great pedagogues, and their teaching style is very involving. Each student also gets the individual help they need whenever working on a project/homework. Finally, a big shout out to the teaching assistants who have done a great job, often sitting with us until very late hours on Saturdays, rather than enjoying one of Denver's breweries. Good job lads. CONS OF SKILL DISTILLERY 1 ) EXTREMELY FAST PACE The biggest con is that you have to learn all of the technologies I mentioned above, and so much more, in just 16 weeks. What that means is that almost every day you will be learning a whole lot of new things, and there is very little time to catch up on something you struggle with. I stayed many nights until after 11 pm to cope with such a pace, especially in the first 5 weeks. On the positive side, we did get to work on two 10-day group projects, (a mid-term and a final project), which give you an excellent opportunity to work on your weaknesses and to exchange knowledge with your peers. Besides, you will get a week to prepare for Oracle's OCA exam, at which time you will get to solidify and improve your core Java skills. FINANCING Skill Distillery has a deal with Climb for loans, or, if you are a veteran, you can use GI Bill. I used Climb's loan to pay for the school. I am a recent immigrant, so my credit history is short, and therefore I got a very high interest rate. None the less, the return on investment is great. Consequently, even if your credit is not too good, it is probably still worth it getting a loan and attending this program. Comparing to some other boot camps, financing options are lacking support for the cost of living. You will have to figure out how you will afford your living expenses during the boot camp, as you will not have any time to work. I strongly urge Skill read more