Code Platoon began its 16th full-time Software Engineering Bootcamp for Veterans, military spouses, and transitioning Service members two weeks ago. The start of Papa Platoon made us think about some of the “Do’s and Don’ts” for students attending their first coding Bootcamp. The list of do’s and don’ts falls into two categories – living and learning. Check them out.

Living Do’s and Don’ts

• Don’t spend all your school days and weekends studying. You’ll burn out too quickly. Yes, Code platoon is intense, but make sure to take time off from coding each week. This will help you be more productive and thoughtful while you learn.
• Do take time for breaks and drink LOTS of water. It can be tough when you’re in the middle of a breakthrough or just want to squash one more bug, but take regular breaks and keep yourself hydrated. Sometimes, you can think more clearly after walking away from a problem for just 5 or 10 minutes.
• Do exercise. It’s great to have an outlet and keep yourself healthy. It’s easy to end up going to school early and leaving late, but don’t forget to take care of your health as that’s most important.
• Do find a mentor — someone with experience in your field who is willing to share knowledge or look at your projects and offer constructive feedback. (Code Platoon offers professional mentors who are also Veterans or military spouses to help prepare our students for careers and apprenticeships).
• Do lean on your peers in your cohort. These people are here for the same reasons as you, and they share a desire to learn and become professional software engineers.

Learning Do’s and Don’ts

• Do read the error messages you get and try to understand them. If you don’t know, then Google what the error message means. You’ll inevitably see the same error message in the future, and if you know what it means, you’ll be able to solve it faster the next time.
• Do break down each problem into smaller problems.
• Don’t copy and paste code without trying to understand what the code is actually doing.
• Don’t feel like you have to memorize every method or every way to do something. Google is your friend.
• Don’t compare yourself to your peers. Everyone comes in with a different level of knowledge, and everyone learns at different tempos. If you work hard and keep pushing forward, you will eventually get it.

As a Code Platoon student, you will be challenged and rigorously trained in our immersive full-stack software engineering Bootcamps. Professional software engineers teach each class. The curriculum features lectures, pair programming, and independent study. Students get hands-on experience working with today’s web development tools, from programming languages to industry best practices. Code Platoon provides a solid foundation to launch a software engineering career.

Jim Hennessey is Code Platoon’s Director of Marketing. Jim brings a strong background in non-profit marketing and start-up enterprises to the mission of Code Platoon. Jim is a graduate of Clemson University and lives in Chicago. Follow Jim on LinkedIn.

Since Code Platoon launched in 2016, our mission has been to prepare Veterans, military spouses, and active duty Servicemembers to become professional software engineers and developers. Over our first five years, we have graduated more than 200 students into new careers in software engineering.

A key component of our mission is to ensure the successful transition of our students from military life to the professional business world. To accomplish this, we must teach students how to develop software and prepare them for the corporate world. We train our students on more than just the necessary programming skills. We also emphasize the soft career skills and networking needed to get into the right jobs. Here are our results so far:

Code Platoon Outcomes 2021

• Ninety-two (92) Veterans and military spouses graduated in the last two years (6 cohorts).
• Seventy-four of those graduates (80%) found jobs in software development within six months.
• The median starting salary of those graduates was $72,000. After 24 months, the median salary of our graduates is $96,000.
• Of the remaining 18 graduates, two went to work outside of software development, four looked for work but did not find it within six months, five graduated but did not actively look for full-time jobs, and seven did not respond to our survey.
• Our graduates are more than simply employed; they have demonstrated great earning potential as well.

We attribute the excellent success rates of our graduates to several factors. First of all, our students come hungry to learn and are working long hours every day. Second of all, we have some great tech community partners who help our students with job placement. And, of course, there is the program itself.

We provide excellent technical training in software development.

First and foremost, we teach programming skills. Our Full-Stack Software Engineering curriculum focuses on two of the most in-demand languages Python and Javascript, and robust frameworks like React and Django. 

A typical day in the classroom features two hours of lecture and instruction, workshops by industry professionals, and dedicated time for programming challenges. Students participate in regular pair programming exercises and complete both individual and group projects.

We also know that while technical skills are fundamental to getting a good job, they are not enough to succeed. That is why our curriculum also includes soft skills training, resume preparation, LinkedIn skills, and interview preparation, including technical, whiteboard, and behavioral interviews.

Because we work with the military community, we tailor our interview prep to help our students tell their stories to civilian interviewers. We even help prepare our students for the complexities of post-military life. We have seminars on personal finance, workplace sensitivity and inclusion, and growth mindset.

We provide apprenticeship and networking opportunities to help our graduates get their first software engineering job.

Getting your first job in a new field like programming and development is hard. Paid apprenticeships are available in Chicago. These apprenticeships are a bridge from our training program to a new career in software engineering for graduates of Code Platoon.

We’ve built a strong network that our students can tap into, providing opportunities to learn more about entering and working in the tech industry. Code Platoon students pair with industry mentors and professional software developers who volunteer as teaching assistants. By the end of our program, each of our students should have met at least ten experienced software developers.

Each part of the Code Platoon program and culture, combined with the grit and determination of our Veterans and spouses, leads to the success our students enjoy after graduation.

Rod Levy is the Founder and Executive Director of Code Platoon. He holds undergraduate and Master’s degrees in engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he graduated with honors. Rod has also completed Dev Bootcamp’s web developer program.

The final step for Code Platoon students before they officially graduate from the Full-stack Software Engineering Bootcamp is the showcasing of their final group projects. This is where the students really get to shine and demonstrate all that they learned in fun, innovative, and creative ways by creating software applications as a team. 

On Friday, September 3, 2021, 18 students graduated from Code Platoon’s 16th Full-time cohort, Oscar Platoon. Here are the three final projects from the recently graduated class. 

First is “There Can Only Be One”, a fun new way to answer life’s toughest questions such as; ‘What should we watch on Netflix?” ‘What should we name the baby?’ and the classic ‘Where are we eating tonight?’

Check out “There Can Only Be One”, presented by Andrew Whitford a Veteran of the Air Force, Sarah Dellheim another Air Force Veteran, Marine Veteran Jeremiah Mauga, and Shawn Kiernan who served with the Navy for 20 years. 

Next up was “The Trendy Investor” a platform designed for the savvy investor in all of us. With Trendy Investor, users can stay up to date on market trends, including crypto currencies, and make the best investment possible.

See the application that Alexander Saunders and Reno Averill, both Veterans of the United States Army, and Navy Veteran Vincent Brunstad brought to life as their capstone project!

The final project in the line up really speaks to the nature of Veterans wanting to give back. Oscar Platoon graduates Jack Shuff and James White who are Veterans of the Army, Stephen Sun and Marc Stanley, both Veterans of the Air Force, and Navy Veteran Jonas Paulikas all wanted to create an application that would provide value for future Code Platoon students and instructors.

Their project,“Slacker” is a resource finding web app which allows users to find the reference material they need with a simple search rather than scrolling through pages of information. This app integrates with Slack and has the potential of making the breakneck pace of learning code more bearable. 

Check out how the “Slacker” team put together this app!

 

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening and whenever you are watching this I hope that all is well. My name is Chip the Intern and today I will be chatting with Code Platoon’s very own Greg Drobny. Greg is Code Platoon’s Student Outreach and Recruitment Manager, meaning he is one of the first people that you will talk to if you are a Veteran or Veteran spouse looking to join one of our cohorts right here at Code Platoon.

While we are going to be answering some of the most commonly asked questions, so if you are starting the Code Platoon journey and you see this video, hopefully, this can help guide you along the way.

Chip: Greg.

Greg: Chip!

Chip: Are you ready for some rapid fire questions?

Greg: As a matter of fact, yes I am!

Chip: Do I need to have any experience in coding to apply?

Greg: Short answer; no. Longer answer; we do provide all the materials necessary to get you up to speed in order to pass the assessment to get into Code Platoon and bring you straight from complete beginner all the way up to the level of entering Code Platoon. 

Chip: Does Code Platoon accept the G.I. Bill?

Greg: Yes! However, strong caveat: One must be present in the classroom in Chicago to take full advantage of the G.I. Bill. For those outside of Chicago who want to attend remotely, VET TEC is certainly an option.

Chip: What if I’m a spouse of a Veteran who does not have access to the G.I. Bill?

Greg: Not only are you accepted into Code Platoon as a spouse, we also have a scholarship just for you.

Chip: Do you offer career services and job placement?

Greg: Yes we do. We have a robust job placement effort that takes place after one graduates from Code Platoon, to include paid apprenticeships for our graduates in the city of Chicago with some major organizations.

Chip:  I’m currently working a boring day job and won’t be able to do classes in the daytime. Is there any kind of option for me?

Greg: Yes indeed there are. For people in your situation, a boring day job, we actually have an Evenings and Weekends Program that enables you to go through our program in a little bit extended period of time but still keep your day job. 

Chip: What’s the graduation and success rate for each class? 

Greg: Code Platoon currently boasts a 91% graduation rate with an 85% success rate of placing our graduates in roles in software development within six months of graduation making a median salary of $65,000 a year.

Chip: I can’t attend in-person classes. Is there a remote option? 

Greg: Yes, as a matter of fact, during the COVID crisis we went 100% remote with a lot of success with our students. Our remote students attend virtually, so they will be attending the same class as the in-person students, just doing so from a virtual platform. 

Chip: Will I be working in a group setting?

Greg: Yes, and I know that this strikes fear into the hearts of anyone who’s ever been to a college class and done 90% of the work while taking 10% of the credit. However, this is why our application process is what it is, which ensures everyone who is at Code Platoon truly wants to be there and everyone will be putting in solid effort.

Chip: Is there anything else to learn other than coding stuff?  

Greg: No.

Chip: Okay, I have a chance to get a job. What sort of certifications will I be earning beforehand?

Greg: Graduates of Code Platoon will walk out of the program with three certificates. One, the Code Platoon Graduation Certificate, two, the AWS, the Amazon Web Services Devops, and three, a SAFe agile framework certificate.

Chip: How big are the classes and will I be able to receive all of the proper attention I may need from an instructor?

Greg: As a matter of fact this is one of the areas where we can say that Code Platoon is a true nonprofit. We would rather have smaller classes where people can receive the immediate attention of instructors than have big classes just to make a lot more money. We want to ensure the best possible learning environment and we believe that smaller classes is ideal for exactly that. 

Chip: Well thanks Greg for doing this. 

Greg: Always a pleasure.

Chip: And that was Rapid Fire Questions with me, Chip the Intern and Code Platoon’s Student Outreach and Recruitment Manager, Greg Drobny.

If you’re interested in joining one of our cohorts and becoming part of the growing pool of Veterans and Veteran spouses that are entering into the world of software development then check out our website, www.codeplatoon.org. That website is again, www.codeplatoon.org. 

Take a look around and maybe fill out an application. Our link will be down in the description. My name is Chip the Intern, thanks so much for watching, leave a like and a comment below and have a lovely day.

Chip Lauterbach is Code Platoon’s Summer Social Media and Marketing Intern. He served in the United States Marine Corps and just recently graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a major in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Political Science. In his free time, he enjoys running around playing games with his daughter and thinks of the great outdoors as his second home.