CODE PLATOON GRADUATE OUTCOMES REPORT, AUGUST 2020

Since Code Platoon launched in 2016, our mission has been to prepare veterans and military spouses to become professional software developers. Our students have, over those years, completed ten 14-week sessions (cohorts).

A key component of our mission is to make our students ‘professional,’ which to us sets the bar of not only teaching students how to develop software but also preparing them for a new career in software development. We train our students on much more than necessary programming skills and emphasize the soft career skills and networking needed to get into the right jobs. Here are our results so far:

Code Platoon Outcomes 2020

• Seventy-three (73) Veterans and military spouses graduated in our first ten cohorts.
• Of those graduates, 59 (81%) found jobs in software development within six months.
• The median salary of those graduates was $65,000.
• Of the remaining 14 graduates, five went to work outside of software development, three looked for work but did not find it within six months, and four graduated but did not actively look for full-time jobs, and 2 were non-reporting.

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 dedicated to 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. We focus on two of the most in-demand languages Python and Javascript and powerful frameworks like React and Django. Our curriculum, designed and taught by our top instructors, is mostly hands-on, an hour or two of lectures a day, followed by lots of coding.

We recognize that technical skills are fundamental to getting a good job, but they are insufficient. These days, you need to know industry best practices, like debugging, pair-programming, and test-driven development. We teach that too.

We provide soft skills training and preparation for a career in software development.

We also prepare our students to find jobs and succeed in their interviews. We help write resumes and develop LinkedIn profiles. We teach our students’ interview skills and practice technical and behavioral interviews.

Because we work with the veteran community, we can tailor our interview prep to help our students tell their stories to civilian interviewers. We even try to 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 internships and networking opportunities to help you get that first software developer job.

Getting your first job in a new field like programming and development is hard. Paid internships are available at the end of the In-Person program To bridge the gap from training to getting a job.

And we know that nothing helps in getting a job like knowing people in the business. Code Platoon students are paired 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 professional software developers.

None of these factors is the single determinant in the success of our students after graduation. Each part of our program and culture adds to the success that starts with the attitude and aptitude of the veterans who come to Code Platoon!

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.