Blog

career development

Meet Jen: Code Fellows Graduate

By Mitchell Robertson on September 12, 2019

When Jen Carrigan enrolled at Code Fellows, she dove in headfirst: she quit her job, dropped out of her computer science degree program, and devoted herself completely to the Code Fellows program instead. It may have been a risk, but it paid off royally—today, Jen is a Code Fellows graduate and software development engineer. Jen’s journey to Code Fellows may have been full of some twists and turns, but she reached her destination by taking it one step at a time.

Learning to Code: 5 Paths to Becoming a Software Developer and How to Enhance Your Skills Along the Way - Part I

By Heather Cherewaty on September 12, 2019

Are you learning to code or looking to improve your technical skillset? Join us for a 5 part blog series on the many paths to a career in Tech and how you can improve your skills, and your job prospects, along the way! Monthly, from September through January, we’ll be exploring various learning mediums and how to best leverage those resources for success. We’ll cover free online tutorials and courses, coding schools/bootcamps, CS degree programs, interview prep, and continuing education.

Meet Hector: Code Fellows Graduate

By Mitchell Robertson on August 19, 2019

When Hector Norzagaray enrolled in Code Fellows, he expected to learn how to code. What he didn’t expect was to find a community of people who rallied together to help him believe in himself—and make it through.

Up Your Coding Game: Learn More with Code Fellows Tutoring Program

By Heather Cherewaty on July 10, 2019

Discover more ways Code Fellows is dedicated to helping students become confident, knowledgeable, and career-ready software developers.

Field Notes: How to Prepare for the Technical Interview

By Misty Hays on January 19, 2019

Interviewing can be brutal. But it doesn’t have to be.

Field Notes: Impact is Greater Than Visibility

By Jeff Adelman on December 31, 2018

As you progress in your career as a software engineer, one piece of advice you may hear, from coworkers, friends, or a manager, is that you need to be more “visible.” What do these well-meaning people have in mind when they tell you to increase your visibility?

Field Notes: Advice for a Career in Programming

By Ted Spence on December 20, 2018

When I meet programmers about to embark on a career in the exciting and rewarding field of software engineering, they often ask for advice. The most common question I am asked is what programming language they should learn (I happen to like C#), but I’d like to share different advice today.

Closing the IT Skills Gap with Coding Academies: A Q&A with an Avalara UX Engineer

By Jesse Hamlin on December 12, 2018

Avalara has hired several Code Fellows alumni over the past several years, with each one bringing grit, passion, and top-shelf training in software development. We sat down with Lee Broxson, UX engineer here at Avalara and our first hire from Code Fellows’ program, to talk about his career after studying at a coding academy, and how programs like Code Fellows—his “alma mater”—are helping to shrink the IT skills gap.

4 Projects Sponsors, 8 Mentors, and 80 Devs Walk Into a Code School…

By Elizabeth Scutchfield on November 21, 2018

Thank you to everyone who participated in our first Community Hack Night Initiative!

Introducing the New Talent Portal!

By Elizabeth Scutchfield on October 26, 2018

We’ve launched a new way for hiring managers and dev teams to find their next teammate!

6 Reasons for Pair Programming

By Allie Grampa on August 24, 2018

Iterative loops. Code reviews. Fast feedback. Error checking and linting. These are software engineering practices that have proven to dramatically improve the quality of code developers produce. What if you can could get all of this, instantaneously, while typing code line by line and character by character? You can, with pair programming, a technique common to many agile work environments.

How to Choose a Stack

By Sarah June Fischer on June 19, 2018

We get this question a lot: “How do I choose which Code 401 course to take?” Here’s how we answer.

How to Choose a Stack, Part 5: Java

By Steve Geluso on April 26, 2018

Java is powerful. It’s one of the most established, trusted programming languages in the software industry. Computer science programs teach it, and it helps companies big and small build secure, performant platforms.

How to Choose a Stack, Part 4: ASP.NET

By Sarah June Fischer on April 5, 2018

How do you choose your first software development stack? More importantly, do you even know what a software development “stack” is?

How to Choose a Stack, Part 3: iOS

By Sarah June Fischer on December 2, 2016

If you’re exploring a career as a coder, your first question is probably “Which language is best?” followed by, “How do I learn it well enough for someone to hire me?”

How to Choose a Stack, Part 2: Full-Stack JavaScript

By Sarah June Fischer on November 28, 2016

Exploring a career in tech, but unsure which language to learn first? In this series, we’re detailing the pros of each language you can learn here at Code Fellows to help make that decision a little easier.

How to Choose a Stack, Part 1: Python

By Sarah June Fischer on November 23, 2016

We get the question a lot: how do I know which programming language to learn first? Since you’ll likely learn more than a few languages throughout your software development career, which language you learn first usually comes down to personal preference and what kind of software you want to build. In this blog series, we’ll lay out the pros of each language, show you what you can build, give salary and job data, and help clear up some of the questions around the languages we teach at Code Fellows.

3 Major Perks of Being a Software Developer

By Lauren Sauser on March 1, 2016

In the demanding market where they work, U.S. software developers earn almost double the average American worker. Additionally, the United States Department of Labor has predicted that the number of American software engineers will grow by 17% between 2014 and 2024—dramatically faster than any other occupational segment.

Peer programming: 5 reasons learning in a group beats studying on your own

By Sarah June Fischer on October 30, 2014

Pair programming, a common term used in agile work environments, is the practice of two programmers sharing one workstation. At Code Fellows, we learn in groups, which I like to think of as peer programming, which is two (or more) programmers learning from each other in one unified setting.

What is UX Engineering?

By Dale Sande on December 24, 2013

UI Ninja and Unicorn are names that have been bestowed upon us by a fledgling industry still trying to crawl out of the primordial ooze that is Web App Development.