What to consider when choosing a programming course?

Length and intensity

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You should always look at these two factors together, because the most important thing is the total amount of time you spend learning and programming during the course. You can best compare the individual courses by looking at the following:

• how many weeks/months the course is,
• how many times a week you will have classes,
• how many hours of daily dedication is needed (it makes a difference, for example, whether it’s a full or a half day course).

For example, if you have two courses of the same length, but one is a full day and the other is only in the morning or afternoon, you can get to a completely different depth in programming.

As well as looking at how much time you actually spend on the course, you should also consider how much time you need to spend on working through the course material and practicing at home (most coding bootcamps have recommendations for this), as it also shows the depth of the course.

At Green Fox, for example, the 4.5-month super-intensive course takes place every day between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., and you also have to spend an additional 1-2 hours a day preparing and practicing at home. And on our 10-month part-time course, there are classes 3 times a week: 2x3 hours during the week, 1 full day at the weekend, plus 5-10 hours home preparation per week. In comparison, you will spend approximately the same amount of time programming in our bootcamp course as you would in a university course in practical classes.

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Depth of the material

As a layman, this is perhaps the most difficult to compare, but at the same time it’s one of the most important aspects. It does matter to what depth you reach the end of the given course, because it will prepare you for future work, so the knowledge you acquire does count. There can be a huge difference between back-end and back-end courses. How can you find out about this?

It’s worth comparing the detailed curricula of each course, to see what technologies and languages are covered in what depth, and what additional knowledge (e.g. soft skill training) is provided. The time spent on course can also be a reference point, since it’s typically in direct proportion to the amount of material covered. We recommend that if you have doubts, ask for help from a techie friend who can help you make a decision based on the individual syllabuses.

Both Green Fox and the other coding bootcamps should have a detailed syllabus available by course and by specialization, so you can compare which technological knowledge you can acquire. If you still have questions after reading these, feel free to contact the training provider by phone or via email.

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Practice-oriented learning

In our experience, the best way to learn programming is through real-life projects, not just covering theory. If you're about to change your career, you should look for a course that also focuses on real-life projects.

Green Fox's super-intensive, part-time, on-campus and online programming courses are also made up of 3 modules. During the course, we teach you all the tools that you can use to further train yourself on other technologies. In the first two modules you will acquire a strong theoretical knowledge, then in the last part of the course you will work in a team of 3-4 people on a longer project to be completed by the end of the module. In the Project module, you will learn new technologies on your own with our guidance. By the end of the module, you can reach junior programmer level and start your IT career.

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Other aspects

‍It may happen that after considering the above mentioned aspects you are still not sure which course is right for you. In this case, it is also worth taking into account the general impression of the given bootcamp: how close you feel to the bootcamp’s communication, for example its website or Facebook page, and if you have questions, how openly and quickly they answer them.

For example, you can contact us by phone, e-mail or Facebook message, and if you want to make a personal impression, we are also happy to meet you in our office for a coffee at a pre-arranged time. It's also worth attending some events where you can get a personal impression (even if it’s online :)), or try out some free courses. For example, you can meet us next time here.

In the second part of this article series, we bring you some other useful aspects, such as determining the price/value ratio, which can also help you make such a big decision. Stay tuned and follow our blog for the second part!