It would seem that residents of the capital have a choice: if you are looking for programming courses for beginners, Kyiv can offer several dozen full-time options. However, in reality everything is not so rosy. And that's why.
Let's say you decide to find suitable programming courses, Kyiv is your place of residence. What you should pay attention to?
1. Teacher
How many are there and who are they - teachers of full-time programming courses? One teacher for 10-15 students “How many do you need?” you reasonably ask. In fact, one good lecturer is quite enough. True, the question arises - where can I get this good lecturer? In addition, the main problem of face-to-face courses is not the quality of lectures, but the fact that most often during the courses the same lecturer also checks students’ homework. Now imagine the picture: one person who needs to check 2-3 tasks of 10-15 people per week. And check carefully. What if he has not one group of students, but two (which also often happens)? Really? Not good. It’s good if the teacher has an assistant, or better yet, two assistants. Is the course teacher a working programmer? If you're lucky, it will be so. If you are very lucky, this current programmer will also turn out to be a great teacher, a fan of teaching in the good sense of the word. The combination is very rare and, we are sure, expensive. However, if you happen to be lucky, stick with these courses and this teacher. And at the same time write to us and send us his contact information, we will be happy to offer him a very interesting job =)! Unfortunately, most often the quality of teaching offered by programming courses in Kyiv or any other city in Ukraine leaves much to be desired. Sometimes in this position you can meet a sophisticated university professor of computer science who knows the theory very well, but is extremely far from practice. Or, on the contrary, you will be taught by a green youth who has just found a job in the Java Junior profile
2. Class structure
Typically, a programming course (for example, Java Core) lasts 2-3 months, and takes place in the format of two two-hour classes per week in the classroom. If the teacher cares, usually the first 40 minutes are spent answering students’ questions, then a new topic is read. As homework, the student is asked to do 1-2 tasks. In total, in three months of training, a student, at best, solves about 36 programming problems.
Towards the end of the course, some courses ask the student to do a mini-project. If the student completes it, the teacher will review his code on GitHub. If, of course, he manages to do it. Most often, he will simply say that you did well and let you go in peace - his mission to train you is over, why waste time? We did not notice any special deviations in the structure of full-time programming courses in Kyiv. All companies offer relatively similar Java programs, usually within the scope of Java Core.
3. Price
A good Java programmer with more than two years of experience usually earns a salary close to $2000. Well, if he is Senior, then multiply this amount by two. That is, the time of a worthy teacher-programmer costs at least $6,000 per quarter (and usually the course lasts just that long). Add to this the rental of a class, preparation of the course, depreciation of the equipment... It is unlikely that one person will be able to charge less than $600 for a training course. And most likely this amount will be much higher. There are rare exceptions: programmers who make good money at their main job, but at the same time really love teaching. Teaching programming courses is their hobby. But this is a view from the red book: if you find one like this, consider yourself lucky.
4. Time
Monday from 19 to 21, Thursday from 19 to 21, and nothing else. Stayed late at work? Are you sick? Missed the lecture. Emergency or session? Left behind the group. Stuck in an evening traffic jam? We arrived in the middle of the lecture and didn’t understand anything. Has your work schedule changed? You will have to change the group or schedule of the courses! Still, we arrived to class on time, but after a hard day at work and... almost passed out? Well, it happens...
Of course, if you are serious, all of the above are not such serious problems. However, such developments should be taken into account by those who work full time or study in a big city, and in the evenings try to attend courses filled with non-trivial and sometimes complex information that requires comprehension and active processing.
So, the main problems of full-time programming courses:
Quality of teaching. Most often, the teacher of full-time courses has not advanced very far in the profession of a programmer and is extremely rarely a good teacher.
The teacher simply does not have time to bother with all the students.
On-campus courses have very little practice for beginners , whereas there should be as much of it as possible!
Price: Really good courses are very expensive, since they have to pay the teacher at programmer salary rates.
You need to go somewhere at a strictly defined time, most often after your main job/study.
It may seem that I am campaigning against face-to-face courses. Not really. If you are not too strapped for money, try taking courses. Google “programming courses, Kyiv” and the rating will tell you what to focus on. Just remember that a high rating is not always reality. Sometimes it's just good advertising. So there is only one main piece of advice for choosing full-time courses: look for a cool, caring teacher. Go to forums, ask alumni. If you find a good teacher, consider yourself to have drawn a winning lottery ticket.
What are the online courses in Java?
Group lessons with a teacher. This is approximately the same as face-to-face courses, only you study at your computer or somewhere else where it is convenient for you. Most often, the teacher sets up a conference call, and students can ask questions during the lesson. If these online programming courses are in Kyiv, or rather the teacher lives in Kyiv, sometimes students (either themselves or with a sensei) gather for offline meetings where they discuss their studies. The advantages and disadvantages of this method of learning are approximately the same as those of full-time courses, except that you do not waste time traveling to school. Webinar recordings + chat + assignments + “general” teacher. This is the most common option for online courses. Lectures are not given “live”, but rather provide links to recorded lectures. The advantages of this option are that you don’t have to worry about missing lectures and, most often, you can study at a convenient pace and time. Disadvantages - such a “shared with everyone” teacher does not always have enough time for everyone.
Webinar recordings + assignments + personal assistance from a mentor. This is a more expensive type of activity. Typically, a mentor is ready to answer questions and advise a student online about once a week for half an hour (options are possible). This type of course can be very effective under one important condition: you are lucky with a mentor. Otherwise, these courses are similar to the previous ones. Videos + tests + assignments. There are a lot of such courses on different resources. The problem is that a lot of students enroll in them, so the likelihood that a specialist will pay attention to your problems is extremely small. In addition, it happens that the course was recorded several years ago, and the teacher has been doing something else for a long time. Typically, the correctness of the solution to programming problems is not checked or checked by a very simple and not very accurate validator.
JavaRush - completely different online courses
Actually, JavaRush is a structured online course with 500 text mini-lectures and more than 1200 Java tasks. Take a closer look at this number: 1200. Let's say JavaRush is comparable to six-month full-time courses (usually these are two courses, let's call them Java Basic and Java Elementary). During the course you will solve about 70 problems. This is very little! The author of these lines was advised by JavaRush... by a teacher of full-time courses. Very good teacher of full-time courses. In fact, he advised our entire group to solve problems on JavaRush, since on this resource you will solve 36 problems and check the solution in the first three levels, and they can be completed in a week, not in three months. He believed that JavaRush was very helpful in improving his skills, something that is so lacking in 99% of other courses, no matter whether full-time or correspondence. So JavaRush is suitable both as an independent course on programming in Java, and as an advanced collection of tasks to help with full-time courses.
Features of JavaRush:
A well-structured and methodologically verified course on Java Core;
You can study at a convenient pace: some complete the course in 3 months, others in a year;
1200+ tasks;
Instant verification of solutions - solve a problem, press 1 button, get the result;
“Smart” system of recommendations for solutions (if you make a mistake, you will receive a hint about what exactly the mistake was);
Code style check;
Opportunity to sign up for an online internship, learn Java EE stack technologies and make a real project for your resume;
A friendly and large community of students, developers and teachers - they will always help you if you are stuck on solving a difficult problem. There is a Help page for this.
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