To make a long story short, the process worked. The Core Curriculum taught me the fundamental concepts I needed, and at my own part-time pace. Capstone extended and integrated that knowledge by cultivating it in a dedicated, full-time, team-based environment. After finishing Capstone, I secured a job as a Senior Software Engineer within six weeks.

I ran across Launch School after about a year of trying to teach myself coding with low-cost online resources. I was working full-time, and my efforts up to that point had not been too successful. But the moment I started reading Launch School materials was the moment my studies started building towards something bigger. “This process will take longer than you want it to, but if you take your time and do things the right way, it will be worth it.” It was a message I didn’t really want to hear after I had already put a year into the effort, but a message I knew that I needed to hear anyway. No other course I had tried was stating this truth so clearly and honestly. I knew up front that the first two or three months of Launch School would cover material that I already knew well, and I would feel a bit frustrated at first about “starting over”. Nevertheless, I jumped in right away, with the realistic expectation that it might take another two years or more before I could accept a job offer.

Friends and family were incredulous when I shared my excitement about this program, but there was no reason for me not to be hopeful. The pedagogy–starting from the ground up, building mastery of fundamentals, verifying the knowledge of students before allowing them to continue, and slowly building confidence through that verification–made all the sense in the world. And Launch School had the results to back up their claims, not only with numbers, but with real people. Engineers with credentials, people who had been through the process and were now working for amazing companies, were hanging around in the chat channels, answering questions and talking about their work. I trusted the process from the beginning because everything about Launch School was genuine.

To make a long story short, the process worked. The Core Curriculum taught me the fundamental concepts I needed, and at my own part-time pace. Capstone extended and integrated that knowledge by cultivating it in a dedicated, full-time, team-based environment. Working every day with other students, and with program graduates as mentors, I was able to learn interviewing skills and contribute to the development of an amazing product. I began to feel proficient. Capstone prepared me so well for the hiring process that, once I finally started interviewing, I was full of confidence, and there were no surprises. I knew I belonged in those hiring pools because Capstone had given me the preparation I needed.

After finishing Capstone, I secured a job as a Senior Software Engineer within six weeks, with essentially the Capstone average salary–a higher salary that I had originally hoped for. Now it’s been a year since I graduated. I’m at a company where I love to work, and I’m able to jump into any task or project that interests me and find my way thanks to my strong background in the fundamentals. I work at a company that supports continuing education, gives me a voice in what projects I work on, and has a clear path to promotion and career development. My family is buying a new house. And honestly, this is all thanks to Launch School. I was nowhere close to making this kind of progress after a year of self-study. But after less than two years in Launch School, I had everything that I needed to begin this career and flourish as an engineer. The same has been true for many others, and I would recommend Launch School and Capstone as an excellent choice for anyone who is interested in starting a career in software engineering.