Before Kristen discovered programming, she was an elementary school teacher, and then a stay at home parent. When she’s AFK, she loves reading (If something has to do with magic or outer space, she’s probably read it or wants to read it), puzzles, games and travel. Her idea of a great party involves tabletop games, wine, and puns so cringe worthy that even your dad would groan. Kristen was able to take some time from her busy schedule to share more about her experience as a student, offer her advice for new students, and explain how the skills she learned at Rithm School will be used in her new position as a Software Engineer at Maven Technologies.

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February 06, 2019

Before joining us for Rithm’s 7th cohort, Tyler Ketron got his hands dirty (and sometimes still misses it!) as a hydrogeologist at government agencies and a consulting firm. When he’s not busy at his new job as a Front End Engineer, you can find Tyler competitively weight lifting, raising chickens in his backyard, or flexing his classical musician skills with the oboe and piano. Luckily, we were able to catch some time to sit down with Tyler and discuss his journey from growing up in a small town in Tennessee to becoming a software engineer.

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January 30, 2019

In May of 2018, Blind (an anonymous community work app) released a survey that revealed that close to 60 percent of employees surveyed considered themselves burned out. With over 11,000 respondents from the biggest tech companies in the game, it verified what those in the trenches were already well-aware of: burnout in tech is ubiquitous.

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January 09, 2019

At Rithm, we believe that one of the best ways to prepare students for jobs as web developers is by giving them opportunities to work on real-world projects. Working on personal projects can be fun, but working in a team or on an existing code base gives students insights into the day-to-day challenges of a developer that they might not otherwise learn. Our 8th cohort is nearing the end of working on these projects, so we spoke with our students Sarah Kaplan and Zac Bennet to get their perspective on the experience.

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December 18, 2018

When we first started Rithm in 2016, we made a bet. We believed that there would be people willing to pay a bit more for an immersive coding program that placed the quality of the education and student experience first.

Two years later, we’ve proven that you can build a successful program that focuses on small class sizes and experienced instructors. Our graduates have gone on to work at top-tier companies like Pinterest and Palantir. 74% of our graduates find work within 90 days, and with a median salary of $110,000 (details here).

But there are still challenges. To date, our biggest difficulty has been making the program as affordable as possible without sacrificing quality. Our pricing has always been $24,000, which unfortunately has made our program inaccessible to many potential students. That’s why we’re excited to announce that starting with our first class next year, we’ll be adding a deferred tuition option. This means that you won’t have to pay any tuition until you find a job as an engineer.

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December 11, 2018

MongoDB is a popular NoSQL database provider. Here at Rithm School we used to teach MongoDB in conjunction with Node.js. Recently, however, we have switched our Node.js curriculum to utilize PostgreSQL. For a taste of what that looks like, check out Joel's blog post or our free online curriculum on relational databases with Node/Express.

Much of the reason for this curriculum change is that relational databases, the SQL language, and ORMs can take a long time to master and are more widely-used across the industry. We decided therefore it would be best if our students could focus on mastering SQL and relational databases (the dominant database tech for the last 40 years) rather than split that time between a completely different technology that has only recently risen in popularity.

But another significant reason that I would like to argue is: MongoDB really isn't that hard to learn and master! If you're comfortable with JavaScript, JSON, and Node.js/Express.js (which all of our graduates are), then teaching yourself MongoDB can be a cakewalk. Especially if you have this blog post! 😉

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December 06, 2018

We are elated to have Alissa Renz join the Rithm instruction team! You can find her teaching and supporting students throughout the course as they take the leap into full-stack web development. Here we learn a little bit more about Alissa, her role on the team and her advice to all aspiring web developers (starting with, "you got this!")

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November 14, 2018

Express is a flexible framework for building server-side JavaScript web servers using Node. We teach it here at Rithm School, and students often enjoy getting a chance to use their JavaScript skills on both the front-end and back-end, using Express to build API servers.

One area that can be confusing for new users is how to handle errors well using Express. Express is so flexible that it's not clear how to make a simple, general purpose strategy for handling different kinds of errors.

To help with this, here is a simple, new-learner-friendly system for making and handling errors in Express.

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November 05, 2018

When lecturing, I'm commonly asked how I move so quickly between windows, between tabs and in applications like Terminal or the browser. In this post, I’d like to briefly highlight four essential tips and tricks for becoming a faster and more productive developer.

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October 16, 2018

A lot of people who decide to come like a program like Rithm's spend a lot of time trying to prepare as much as possible for the technical curriculum. We'll often get e-mails from accepted students before the program starts asking what else they can learn or study so that they'll be ahead of the curve when the program begins.

While that sort of planning and dedication is admirable, there's another aspect to immersive coding programs like ours that gets comparatively less attention, though it's no less important. I'm referring to the emotional weight of a full-time, in-person accelerated program. In this post, I'd like to outline some of the emotional challenges that students face, and provide some tips to help you address those challenges head on.

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October 08, 2018