What Are the Best Portland Coding Bootcamps in 2021?
Portland has a lot to offer. The city’s coding bootcamps offer a variety of curricula, as well as heaps of career services and job placement opportunities. The pandemic has ushered in an era of increased online work, especially in technology. Now is the perfect time to consider a career switch to a tech field.
If your dream is to become a full stack engineer, a machine learning developer, or even a games developer, you should consider attending a bootcamp in Portland.
The 10 Best Coding Bootcamps in Portland
Portland is a fantastic city if you want to learn a tech skill. The list of Portland bootcamps below should help you narrow down your search and find a training school that suits your career goals and interests.
Alchemy Code Lab offers a 23-week intensive course in software engineering. The program covers everything from computer science fundamentals to full stack development.
Throughout the program, students will complete four projects, which they will include in their professional portfolios. The course takes place online, so students can upload their work each day and receive constructive feedback from their instructors. All instructors are industry professionals and will provide students with career guidance.
Alchemy Code Lab puts an emphasis on intimacy. Cohorts usually consist of only 25 to 30 students, meaning you’ll get access to extensive personal feedback and mentorship throughout the program. The campus is centrally located in Portland’s Pearl District, so it is very easily accessible to students living all around the city.
Tuition: $24,000. Loans Available.
Codesmith does not have a Portland campus. However, the bootcamp offers a fantastic full-time, online program that covers both front end and backend development.
Lessons are held Monday to Friday, 9am to 8pm central time, for 12 weeks. There are also lessons every Saturday from 9am to 4:30pm. This robust schedule makes Codesmith’s immersive online course one of the most intensive on this list.
The program condenses everything that you would learn in a four-year university computer science degree into 12 weeks. Modules include algorithms, data structure, system design, programming paradigms, JavaScript, React, Node, Express, and non-relational and relational databases.
Tuition: $19,350. Loans Available
Epicodus’s campus is located near Portland’s South Waterfront. However, all courses are currently being held online until social distancing recommendations can be lifted.
Epicodus offers both an introductory course on programming and a full-stack immersive option. The full-stack course takes place Monday to Friday for 27 weeks. Modules include JavaScript, Ruby/Rails, React, C#, and .Net. Students enrolled in the full-stack course will be expected to complete an internship with one of Epicodus’ partner companies in Portland or Seattle.
The internship gives students a unique opportunity to get a feel for what it’s like to work in the tech industry. This experience is the students’ chance to apply the knowledge they have acquired in a real-world context.
Tuition: Immservie: $11,700; Introductory: $100
At Flatiron School, students will be expected to attain fluency in HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and SQL. The school offers a range of online courses that will prepare students for a career in tech, with over 80 percent of online graduates landing a job soon after completing their course.
Courses are offered in software engineering, data science, and cybersecurity analytics. On a full-time basis, the courses take five months to complete, or 10 months if you choose to attend part-time. Students can also go for a self-paced option, in which they must finish the coursework in 15 months.
Tuition: $17,600
Lambda School is a fully remote bootcamp. Its program condenses a four-year computer science degree into a 12-month course.
A free mini-bootcamp is available for students who want to get an understanding of HTML and JavaScript basics before signing up for the school’s longer, full-stack course.
Lambda School’s full-stack and data science programs cover Python, SQL, data visualization, linear algebra, machine learning, and natural language processing. Full-stack and data science courses are available on a full-time basis over six months, or part-time over 12 months.
Tuition: $15,000
If you want a career in mobile or web development, then Nucamp is for you. This is a fully online bootcamp, so the schedule is flexible and can be organized around a student’s other commitments.
Nucamp offers three courses. The first is a beginner’s level foundational course covering the building blocks of development, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The second option is a four-month, intermediate front end web development course. This program is meant for those who already have some programming experience.
The final option is an in-depth, five-month course that covers full stack and mobile development. This is a challenging journey designed for students who want to land a job in the tech industry as quickly as possible.
All courses come with extensive one-on-one career help. Nucamp also gives its students access to its nationwide job board.
Tuition: $399 per month
PDX Code Guild has a solid track record of ushering young tech enthusiasts into successful careers. The bootcamp specializes in full stack development, although it also offers a few other beginner courses.
The first of these courses is Programming 101. This is a two-week introductory class covering Python fundamentals, text editors and integrated development environments, and problem-solving.
Programming 102 is designed for beginners who already know the basics of the topics covered in Programming 101. This course allows students to cover more ground before delving into longer courses.
The school’s main full stack development course covers procedural programming, test-driven development, unit testing, and user interface web development. This is a four-month, full-time course, with lessons going from 9:30am to 4:30pm five days a week. A part-time evening option is also available and lasts seven months.
Tuition: Introductory courses: $620; Full stack courses: $17,600 to $18,400
The Tech Academy is located in downtown Portland, just a few blocks from the Willamette River.
The bootcamp offers a myriad of courses in JavaScript development, C#, .Net, Python, data science, UI/ UX, Cyber Security, front end development, software engineering, mobile development, and game development. All come with part-time, full-time, and online options.
However, the benefits of studying on campus at The Tech Academy are manifold. Every Friday, the school organizes a free tech talk. Students can also make use of a student lounge, and large classroom spaces. Enrollment is on a rolling basis, which means you can take any course you want when a start date pops up.
Tuition: $8,000 – $26,000
Although Thinkful doesn’t have a campus in Portland, it offers regular in-person networking events and conferences in the city and the surrounding area.
Thinkful offers a very well-rounded range of courses. Programs cover software engineering, data science, data analytics, UX/ UI design, digital marketing, product management, and technical project management.
If you would like to master the tools of backend engineering or improve your presentation skills, Thinkful has you covered. The bootcamp also offers a job guarantee. If you don’t find a job six months after finishing your course, you are entitled to a refund.
Tuition: Part-time: $4,900 – $7,900; Full-time: $7,500 – $18,500
The University of Oregon’s campus is just a two-hour drive south of Portland in Eugene. This bootcamp offers cutting-edge courses in coding, data analytics, cybersecurity, and UX/UI.
Coding courses at the University of Oregon last 24 weeks, although part-time flexible options are also available. One-on-one career mentorship is available to all students, as well as portfolio reviews and interview prep.
If you like the outdoors, sports, and hiking, living on-campus in Eugene would be a great experience.
Tuition: $11,495
Should You Attend a Portland Coding Bootcamp in 2021?
2021 is the ideal year to get into coding. Following uncertainty ushered in by the pandemic, traditional job and career prospects are dwindling. Office jobs are increasingly being replaced by online and home-based work. Attending a coding bootcamp in Portland will improve your chances of landing a well-paid job in the tech world.
Benefits of Coding Bootcamps in Portland
Networking Opportunities
There are 12 colleges in Portland, making it an exciting place to meet other students and expand your professional network. The city itself is quite large, with over 600,000 inhabitants. Your bootcamp experience will definitely be improved by the networking opportunities available in Portland.
Job Opportunities
Portland is home to an array of up-and-coming tech companies. Some of these include Viewpoint, InFocus, Opal, Exterro, and Jama Software. If you are heading to Portland just to study technology, you might end up staying for good due to the booming tech industry.
Geographical Location
Portland is surrounded by open green land and forests. It is a fantastic place to live and study if you like getting in some outdoor activities to counterbalance your computer-laden days. Better yet, another major tech hub, Seattle, is only a three-hour drive away.
The web developer profession is one of the fastest-growing in the industry. If you are considering a career switch, the coding bootcamps listed above will help you achieve your goals. Portland offers an array of great on-campus and online training options.