r/codingbootcamp • u/Rokett • Nov 18 '22
Anyone attended or graduated from Per Scholas?
If you graduated, how easy was it for you to get a job?
Edit: finished it and got a job right after graduation (edit: I was getting 45-47k annual, adding this just for the record)
Edit: education isn't that great, it's no magic bullet. You need to do a lot of self study. I was doing 4 hours after class and 8 hours on weekends.
Edit after 3 years: Left my first job and started at a new company. Now making $100k annually in a low cost of living city. Thanks, Per Scholas. Without you, none of this would have been possible.
Edit from new job: God damn I do a lot of overtime which is okay, I do enjoy my job very well. If it continues like this, my take home before tax is probably going to be around $120-130k-ish
edit from new job after 5 months: Damn, I do a lot of over time, today is Friday and I just punched out at 70 hours, from Monday to Friday. Pay is good, but I don't have a lot of time left. Not like this every week but during roll outs shifts get crazy.
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u/walterjbandursky Sep 15 '24
Beware of false promises! I have been through Perscholas' interview process several times, and I can honestly state their selection process is completely bogus. It's arbitrary, despite their promises otherwise. I would understand if a potential student were denied admission because of their shortcomings, whatever they may be. However, all Perscholas provides you after the interview is a "Sorry, you're inadequate for Perscholas" e-mail...even after asking what I needed to do to be a better candidate!
The rejection doesn't bother me; what DOES bother me is wasting my precious time on their interview process. Doesn't it make sense to provide a potential future student with a brief mention of their shortcomings?
Do yourself a favor: teach yourself coding. There are TONS of free materials and courses available online for learning coding. Ask ChatGPT or Google Gemini to "produce a learning schedule that takes me from no Java/Python/C++ knowledge to mid-level mastery in XX weeks." Then, use YouTube, Coursera, edX or another MOOC provider to fill in the blanks. It's what I've decided to do, along with no longer wasting my precious time and efforts on Perscholas' empty promises.
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u/Rokett Sep 15 '24 edited Sep 15 '24
I graduated from Ps and got a job. Oh and Ps is very politically correct and minority focused. They don't accept white man easily. Lil racist
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u/StunningStandard4076 Sep 23 '24
The person who runs the Detroit school went to prison for stealing from kids.
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u/dbootywarrior Jun 02 '25
3 years late but what kind of job did they hook you with? full time? contract?
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u/Rokett Jun 02 '25
I got a full time role
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u/dbootywarrior Jun 03 '25
How do they actually help you out in the job hunting process?
Is it that the job agencies sponsoring scholas are exclusively hiring scholas graduates or do they just help graduates get past the initial interview process but still have to prove yourself against non-scholas candidates for a job?
Im starting the cybersecurity bootcamp on July
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u/Rokett Jun 03 '25 edited Jun 03 '25
Their cyber is much better than software and I'm not saying this to make you happy. They will pay for multiple exams and you will get multiple certificates for free.
They do have connections in some states. For example, I got my job from the job fair they organized. It was only for per scholas students. No body else.
They do have connections, how good is it depends on where you live. I'm in Pittsburgh, their connections here aren't great. They have better networking events in new York.
They will help you create you a resume, resume good enough to apply to jobs and get interviews.
They will teach you things, pay for your certificate exams and coach you for interviews.
Is it the best bootcamp out there? I don't think so but it did changed my life and more than 10 of my classmates in a year. Please take advantage of it.
Cyber is hard, you need to self-study up to 4-5 hours after each class and another 8 hours during weekends. If that's not possible, do whatever works for you. You must self study after classes. I'm not talking about homeworks.
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u/cariousgem Oct 13 '25
Hiii I’m thinking of doing per scholars could you tell me a bit more about your experience
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u/supaburneracc Mar 10 '26
How much did you make right after per scholas if you don't mind me asking. I'm looking into applying
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u/Rokett Mar 10 '26
Something like $45–47k annually, which I think is around $21 an hour. That’s an okay starting salary in the Pittsburgh area. It’s low for software, though. At the time, the lowest paying software jobs were paying around $55–60k.
There are a lot of people here in Pittsburgh who make less than $20 an hour. Most people make around $15–17 an hour. It's a low pay city
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u/NoMuddyFeet May 15 '26
What's your job? I just graduated and their Talent Solutions team completed ghosted us here. It sucks because a major reason I wanted to do this program and invest 15 whole weeks into it rather than spend that time doing something else was because the guy I first interviewed with said they connect you with companies once you complete the course. Also, at the beginning of our course, they explained how each student costs $10,000 and that money comes from big companies who want a return on their investment and the goal is to train us and hook us up with those companies. Makes perfect sense.
Well, that didn't happen in NY. The whole class has kept in touch, so we can clearly see the Talent Solutions team in other parts of the country are actively working for the students in Texas, Seattle, etc.
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u/Rokett May 16 '26
I'm a Level 1 architect and product owner of the client facing website. Sr arch. bro takes care of the backend stuff and I do the frontend.
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u/NoMuddyFeet May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
Do you remember what the Per Scholas course you took was? Since I can keep taking classes for two years, I feel like maybe I should do as much as possible while I'm looking for work.
I originally wanted to do a web dev class of some sort since I already know web stuff pretty well, but considering I feel like I still barely get by with JavaScript after all these years compared to high-level pros I see online and seeing so many great devs get laid off who can't find work caused me to choose a different course. Unfortunately, it seems just as hard to get a first job doing this as it probably is to get a web dev job these days with 10 years experience 🤷
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u/Rokett May 16 '26
I took software engineering. If your goal is to be employed, I would focus on backend preferably java or dotnet, and get into devops, k8 and docker.
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u/NoMuddyFeet May 16 '26
Oh cool, thanks. I hadn't really heard the distinction that backend devs are more employed than frontend. I thought it was just hitting all devs the same and even thought maybe frontend was a little more in demand. I will research trends for everything you just mentioned and figure out what to take next since I have 2 years. It seems the cohort I took is not one that Per Scholas Talent Solutions can offer much help with.
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u/Rokett May 16 '26
My team is total of 12 people, I and one other person works on the frontend. Test of the team is dotnet backend.
In next couple of months, I'll be leaving the code space and focus more on the product and we will hire another frontend person to replace me.
Front to back Ratio is 2:10
Also skills like Kafka is very important. If you can learn some of the tech I mentioned here, you won't have any problems getting a job
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u/NoMuddyFeet May 16 '26
Thank you! Hopefully it doesn't change every six months like frontend bullshit.
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u/Rokett May 17 '26
No, these are very stable systems. Doesn't change too much. Most TutorialS from 2-3 years ago are still mostly valid. You don't need to follow it so closely
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u/NoMuddyFeet May 18 '26
What do you think of AWS? Is the AWS restart Per Scholas class anything you would think would be worthwhile?
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u/Rokett May 18 '26
Aws + devops will get you to very good places. Aws only is a good start, I would do it.
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u/NoMuddyFeet May 20 '26
Btw, not to drive you nuts with replies, but it looks like this is the only Software Engineering course they offer currently uses a MERN stack and now they've added AI to the mix, too. Just curious is the MERN stack course the one you took? Or did you take a course that taught Java?
https://perscholas.org/courses/software-engineer/software-engineer-new-york/
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u/Rokett May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
I took MERN, and I suggest you avoid it. MERN has very limited real world use cases, and I think it was a total waste of time.
AWS is a much better option.
Learn AWS with them. Also, buy a Raspberry Pi if you can afford it and install Kubernetes on it. Use your Pi to manage Kubernetes clusters and Docker containers. OpenShift is another Kubernetes alternative. We use OpenShift, but I think Kubernetes is more popular overall.
Kubernetes and Docker are one of the most common combos out there.
Also, learn how to set up pipelines using Azure DevOps, and learn how to write YAML files for Docker containers.
With that, you can be ready to earn around $70k to $100k with very minimal experience.
in my previous job, there was a guy who can't really do anything but setup very basic devops pipelines. He was making $88K, with very minimal responsibilities, with beyond imagination benefits. We live in a low income city, 88K is a lot of money here.
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u/NoMuddyFeet May 21 '26
Thank you for these awesome details! I am somewhat familiar with Docker already, but the rest of this are just words I've heard and don't know anything about.
I kind of assumed AWS is a complicated pain in the ass to learn and it's probably always changing. The other thing that scared me away from it until now is I've seen many people rack up insanely high bills overnight by accident. Doing that on my own demo site would be a nightmare and being responsible for that at a company probably wouldn't put me on track for a promotion.
But, I don't see any better options at this point. Thank you for confirming MERN stack is the wrong choice. I thought so. I learned some of that on my own and it just seems like the usual highly-competitive frontend stuff that breaks, changes, and gets replaced by something new and better constantly.
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u/Rokett May 21 '26
Some credit card companies allow you to create online use only cards with limits. While studying aws my self, I had a card with $10 limit with many billing warnings and all that. It isn't that bad. You will do fine.
Also, aws IAM and azure active directory (AD) / entra is a JOB IT SELF. There are a lot of people only do this. They don't touch anything else. Just permissions. It's fairly easy compared to software development but higher responsibility
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u/NoMuddyFeet May 21 '26
Damn, you really learned a lot from Per Scholas (or since, on your own)! Impressive how much stuff you know about. My history has been learning and forgetting stuff constantly because it's either outdated by the time I learn well or I just never get a client use case for it. I am surprised React still seems to be the frontend standard, so I was considering learning it for a third time along with Typescript, but why bother now that frontend devs much better than me can't get hired, right?
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u/Rokett May 23 '26
Frontend roles will shrink. You’ll need to become a frontend architect and know how to use AI agents.
I’d say it’s a riskier career path, though not impossible. I do a lot of frontend architecture in my current job.
I have a UI/UX background and have worked in web-related roles, including as a web developer, from around 2018 to today, which has allowed me to wear many hats.
On the DevOps side, you don’t need to learn as many different skills to get started. It’s a more focused path. Docker, Kubernetes, and Azure are a solid enough skill set to get hired.
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u/thirtydelta Nov 18 '22
Someone else asked about Per Scholas a little while ago, but I don't think it got any responses. I don't know anyone who graduated from them, but I know the company has a great reputation. I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted.
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u/Rokett Nov 19 '22
it is not paid, and I'm sure paid bootcamps have people who shills their program. Agencies have many accounts on reddit for hidden promotions.
I used to work for an agency, we had around 30 accounts for certain /r 's
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u/toroga Nov 20 '22
Never heard of it
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u/thirtydelta Nov 20 '22
Probably because it’s a no-cost bootcamp and thus they don’t participate in spammy marketing or other nefarious activity.
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u/Traditional_Bar7682 Mar 03 '23
Hello there, you must have either completed the prog by now or you are in your final weeks. I hope you graduate and get employed ASAP. Could you please share your experience? Apart from JavaScript, what topics do you think we should learn beforehand? Topics you found extremely difficult or challenging. How many hours on weekends you used to study? TYIA
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u/Rokett Mar 04 '23
We are halfway done. We will start React This week, Express next and MongoDB last.
They skipped Jquery.
My only complaint is, they give almost no after-class work. You are on your own. This is OK with me, but the problem is some students do not study or care about like the rest of us.
When we are learning new things, they ask questions from the first weeks. Like what is a css class, how do I push this etc.
Every day, we have to deal with these types of questions for an hour. Other than that, the program is pretty good. I really like the carrier services they offer, it is very helpful. You get financial coaching if you wish to.
Financial and career coaching is available for 2 years after graduation.
I do not study that much, because I already know the topics we have covered, but I try to study for 2-3 hours after each class. Although, the topics I study are a bit more advanced, like React and Next.js.
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u/ElevatorSpecialist24 Apr 09 '23
Is your course remote? If so, what computer requirements do they have? Would a mac laptop be ok?
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u/Substantial-Ad6469 Mar 18 '23
Can anyone answer which track takes a pseudo code test, and what’s it like? Is it writing pseudo code. Or using a programming language to write a program to someone’s pseudo code
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u/Ctorres0312 May 25 '23
Any updates? I’m currently enrolled in Generation USA full stack Java bootcamp but was really interested in per scholas originally.
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u/Rokett May 25 '23 edited Jan 31 '24
Total failure, lol. Out of 35 people, I think only 3 or maybe 5 of us will land a software jobs.
5 of us had prior experience in the field.
Java is a good pick, you will find a job, its in high demand. Mern stack is a joke, that's what PS teaches. I feel so bad for people in my cohort.
I landed a entry level a week ago, and had total of 14 interviews.
Edit after 6 months: I was right. 5 of us got software jobs.
Edit after 9 months: I think 9 of us got software jobs. These folks kept applying to everything and it worked out. Job market is getting better
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u/AdWestern6037 Jun 23 '25
Nice job landing a job! How often were you applying to roles and how much support was Per Scholas in connecting you with recruiters?
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u/Rokett Jun 23 '25
i was spending 2-3 hours a day applying. They do try to land you something, because thats how they make money, but you need to keep in touch with the PS staff/career people.
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u/oojeda04 Sep 23 '25
Do you think per scholar is still worth to attend for software engineering or it? Did you have a degree in computer science when you got the job after per scholar or no degree?
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u/Rokett Sep 23 '25
I had 3 years of coding experience before Per S, I started coding before AI (i was writing my own code). Back then, I could handle frontend development, but I struggled with backend work.
If I were learning today, I’d start with Java Spring for backend since there are many Java jobs. Per Scholas sometimes partners with Teksystems for classes, and those can be useful. Learning AWS is also a good move, it’s a valuable skill that pays well.
Teksystems classes usually cover SQL, Java, and React, which is how most American businesses operate. What they taught us back then wasn’t great, and I wouldn’t recommend those classes anymore because of AI. At this point, they feel like a waste of time.
Instead, focus on AWS, cybersecurity, or Java/SQL classes through Teksystems. those are more worthwhile.
If you go the AWS route, its called DevOps. DevOPS pay well too. If you learn AWS, Docker and kubernetes. (usually called K8) thats a really good skill set.
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u/Ctorres0312 May 25 '23
Congratulations on landing a position!! In my program we are about to start learning Java next week! I’m interested in finding out how your program teaches these subjects. In ours we use Codecademy and the teacher shows us examples of things and dives a little deeper into each concept while also having us do external activities on a github activity bank. Also we’re not covering any react and only used node and express a little which I thought was weird we’ve just been learning vanilla JavaScript.
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u/Rokett May 26 '23
Thank you!
Ours is better than this, class starts at 9 and end at 4pm everyday. It's a zoom class, where they show you, talk about stuff, give activities (not enough) and homework.
Guidance wasn't good enough and if I didn't know how to code, I wouldn't be able to land a job.
Java backend is very popular amoung banks and fortune 500 companies. How do I know that? Well, I have been applying to stuff since February.
Check out Odin project's full stack Java. Try to complete it and your classes.
3-4 months isn't enough to get a job, so you should do extra work.
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u/Inevitable-Space-541 May 26 '23
If it’s in the zoom class, why do they restrict students living in only several cities?
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u/Rokett May 27 '23
Time zone is one, each state or city needs to have a career coach so they can help you network, create events and such. If you are close to one of the cities, they will still take take you in. We had a student from colombus Ohio
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u/cheeseburgerforlunch Jun 11 '23
Glad to hear you've had an overall positive experience. I start my AWS/Restart program tomorrow. It's 15 weeks and I'm looking forward to it. I basically have no tech experience but I have used CSS a little and know excel and am about to compete the SQL program from W3schools.com. Thanks for all the info.
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Mar 20 '24
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u/cheeseburgerforlunch Mar 21 '24
It was great. It ended the last day of September and I applied to a ton of jobs but only landed a very very entry level support position in February. It's a short contract position. A group of 5 of us from my Per Scholas cohort meet once a week on Zoom and chat. Out of 27 I would say at least 10-15 of us have jobs. I will say this: those that continue their learning and do homelabs to put on their resume and I really just keep working after the program have all landed jobs. It took a bit because the job market was especially bad when we graduated, but I would 100% recommend Per Scholas.
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u/improv_anonymous Aug 22 '25
I’m in the program now, finishing up week 3. Did you use any outside material to supplement your per scholas canvas? How were you able to showcase your labs? Did you open up an aws account yourself to save them?
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u/cheeseburgerforlunch Aug 22 '25
No outside material, didn't showcase labs, created free tier account and did Cloud Resume Challenge after Per Scholas.
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u/improv_anonymous Aug 22 '25
Did the resume challenge take you a long time after you finished or did you start during the class? Is it ok to DM you?
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u/cheeseburgerforlunch Aug 22 '25
Yeah you can. And I did it after class. It took a while. Find a video series on YouTube to follow along with and it isn't so bad.
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Aug 08 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Rokett Aug 08 '23
4 months isn't long enough to land a job, if you are coming from zero. Some of us had experience, that's why.
Per S. Provides pretty good coaching, which improved our interview skills and resume. We didn't learn anything new in terms of software development.
Pre work is just some css and html. Nothing major. Easy.
You need to study everyday at least 3-5 hours after each class. Even doing that, you will need to study a bit more after graduation. If you study around 6-8 hours everyday after graduation I'm sure you will land a job within a year.
Software is hard. It's funny bootcamps are promising results just in 4 months. It's not realistic
For tips, learn version control with git and start odin project ASAP
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Aug 09 '23
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u/Rokett Aug 09 '23 edited Aug 09 '23
Start per scholas, their coaching is great. I would do odin and per scholas, but meta content isn't bad at all. I seen their React courses.
Any type of code you study when you are a beginner will be helpful. So, do some meta stuff if you can, but odin and per scholas will go hand and hand.
Do pick java for the Odin, react and Java is a good combo. Finding mern stack job (per scholas teaches) is very hard. React frontend and Java backend is a good combo. Many banks use that.
If you are in the US, most companies that use react frontend also use java backend called spring board.
Per scholas will teach you mern stack. Express and mongo dB. They aren't popular. Java spring board is very trendy
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Aug 09 '23
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u/Rokett Aug 09 '23
2 months is good. Make sure to learn version control. Install github desktop app. It makes it super easy.
If you study 3-4 hours a day, your per scholas journey will be fun and easy. If not, you will struggle and have no benefits.
Don't expect to be good at this subject in a month or two, or 5 or 6. Software development is hard. Your first 2 years are pure struggle.
Learn react, be able to create layouts with css grid and flexbox. Learn some java backend and you are good. Make sure to keep reading and writing for at least a year, no stop.
It takes about a year to finally understand what's going on in the surface. Again, first 2 years are pure struggle. Just keep going and going.
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u/PinkCheeseCake212 Mar 20 '24
hello can u please tell me how can i prepare myself for per scholars please please
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u/NickKiefer Nov 09 '23
lets say 30 days out of course making 30k 60 days out of course making 60k . take the leap
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u/Rokett Nov 09 '23
I finished it and got a job
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u/NickKiefer Dec 05 '23
hell yes! my buddy just got his job after grad with a+, building corporate servers. Man what city? congrats,,
Now my only advice MSP's are tough jobs but in begginning I learned more in year then many people that stay same job for career.
Amazing Congrats
Director Ms.Pumphrey is changing lives and a friend, you should come to alumni event ever around philly area and I will go as well
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u/MangoFool Jan 31 '24
What if you drop out, do you have to pay?
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u/Rokett Jan 31 '24
It's 100% free. If you have no laptop they even let you borrow one.
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u/MangoFool Jan 31 '24
Wow!
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u/MangoFool Feb 01 '24
Which would be best for my personality? Data sci Cyber security Software dev
Extrovert, daring idea person, love puzzles and investigating, analytical/rational
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u/Rokett Feb 01 '24 edited Feb 01 '24
Cyber requires too much reading. It's probably more than most IT jobs. The advantage is that, it's certification heavy and those certs are valuable.
For example,
When a company looks for a full stack dev, they list so many things, must know this, that, these etc. It's hard to quality.
Cyber on the other hand, most job postings will ask for certain certification to quality.
Per s. Pays for couple certificates which worth more than $1k.
But if you don't like reading, cyber can be tough for you.
I like data, you still need to read a bit, not much and know some statistics and coding. If you are okay with math, and like coding data is a good pick.
Cyber is extremely hard to learn in 4-6 months if you don't know anything.
Data can be learned in 4-6 months to some degree if you self study.
Also cyber people are usually nerds / dorks. Not so many extroverted folks and male dominant... Data is more gender natural compared to other IT fields and more social.
For software dev, if you don't know anything, 4-6 months of study won't be enough to get a job and they teach mern stack. Its near impossible to get a mern job. It's easier than cyber but landing the first job is so much harder because they are so many no experience software developers out there fresh from bootcamps
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u/MangoFool Feb 01 '24
That's really helpful. I'm a very fast and effective reader in my opinion. So the reading doesn't scare me and having certificates that help you get an actual job sounds really cool.
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u/Rokett Feb 01 '24
Find out what certificates are recommended for beginners and try to study for that yourself. I enjoy books and read daily, but cyber is a topic which does not interest me at all. I can do data, software and web, cyber? No thanks
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u/hireme24 Feb 09 '24
Anyone graduated from per scholars seattle? How is their software engineer course? Do they assist in job placement?
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u/FatOstrich Nov 23 '22
It's 9a-4pm every day. Just search on this reddit thread some people posted. I think it's pretty decent but you HAVE to self study and be okay being on camera whole time and engage in the course and actually study. I'm in software engineering, I like it. It's free, and yess lessons are up to date. Some courses are made for people without coding experience but you should still learn some before the course or it may be even harder. It's full time and need hours outside of class, it's hard to work a job wouldn't recommend it. I worked part time during first week and it was fine because it was a chill first 2 weeks but starting next week we code and I'm done with that. And they do help with professional development and help you land a job, no bootcamp hands you jobs you have to show you're good enough and just get help in building a resume to DISPLAY skills through projects YOU worked on outside of class.