Revature is a technology talent development company that trains recent college graduates and career changers to become software engineers. The company has received mixed reviews, with some calling it a scam while others find the training legitimate and rewarding.
In this comprehensive blog post, we’ll examine both sides of the debate and provide an in-depth analysis of Revature’s business model, training program, job placement services, and company culture.
Overview of Revature
Revature.com was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The company partners with Fortune 500 firms to train software engineers and fill their talent needs. Here is a quick overview of Revature’s business:
Training Model: Revature provides free immersive software engineering training to college graduates and career changers. The training lasts 10-12 weeks and covers various programming languages like Java, .NET, Salesforce, etc.
Business Model: Revature’s clients pay a fee to hire and retain the engineers trained by Revature. This allows clients to fill talent needs without significant recruitment costs.
Placement Process: After training, engineers interview with Revature’s clients for job placement. If hired, they sign a contract to work for the client for 1-2 years.
Locations: Revature has over 20 offices and training centers in the US. Engineers relocate to wherever they are placed after training.
Assessing Revature’s Legitimacy
With this background on Revature’s model, let’s examine reviews and assessments from various sources to determine if the company is a scam or a legitimate opportunity.
Revature Reviews (Positive)
Here are some of the factors that suggest Revature offers a legitimate training program:
Valuable Skill Development:Most positive reviews highlight that Revature provides intense coding bootcamp-style training that equips graduates with in-demand technical skills like Java and Salesforce development. This enables career transitions into software engineering.
Strong Employer Network:Revature places engineers at major tech companies like IBM, Capital One, and Accenture, providing reliable pathways to full-time jobs. The guaranteed job placement is a major draw.
Tuition-Free Training: Revature’s immersive software engineering bootcamp is free for qualified candidates, offering access to training for those unable to afford expensive coding schools and bootcamps.
Supportive Culture: Many reviewers say Revature provides an encouraging, collaborative environment that helps learners succeed in the intensive training program. The company offers mentoring and community-building.
Quality Instructors: The training faculty consists of experienced software engineers who keep the curriculum updated with the latest technologies and industry approaches. The hands-on pedagogy prepares trainees for real-world work.
Platform for Career Growth:Most see Revature as an effective launchpad for software engineering careers, providing skills, experience, and connections that can lead to long-term success after the initial 1-2 year contract ends.
Revature Reviews (Critical)
However, there are also some valid critiques and concerns expressed about Revature:
Rigorous Pace of Training: The intensive 10-12 week bootcamp has very long hours (80+ hours per week), covering enormous amounts of material. Some find the crammed schedule overly demanding.
Limited Input on Job Placement:Engineers don’t have much choice or control over where they are placed after training. Some get assigned jobs in less desirable locations.
Low Initial Salaries: The starting salaries for Revature placements are quite low compared to standard software engineering entry-level roles. The contracts mandate raises after certain durations.
Onerous Contract Terms: The 1-2 year contracts after hiring have high rescission fees if engineers quit before the duration ends. This is a pain point.
Concerns of Bait-and-Switch:Some critics argue Revature misrepresents the process and allegedly doesn’t provide enough transparency on contract details and the challenges of corporate placements.
Questionable Business Tactics:There are forums threads and complaints about aggressive recruiting tactics, misleading job placement stats, and lawsuits from clients regarding contract disputes.
Not a Good Fit for All: The intense bootcamp style and compressed training timeline may not suit every learner. Revature is geared towards a certain type of motivated individual.
Framework for Assessing Revature’s Value
When evaluating the positives and negatives, it’s clear there are legitimate benefits but also real risks and critiques to consider regarding Revature’s program. To make an informed assessment, it’s helpful to break down the key factors:
Candidate Fit
- Can you thrive in an intense, compressed, full-time coding bootcamp?
- Are you comfortable relocating anywhere after training?
- Do you want structured, employer-driven training and career development?
Program Effectiveness
- Does Revature have a track record of placing trainees at major tech firms?
- Does the curriculum provide in-demand, real-world skills?
- Are the instructors knowledgeable and supportive?
Career Value
- Will the experience open doors to a stable software engineering career?
- Will the employer network and brand value offset lower initial salary?
- Are the contract rescission fees and duration industry norms?
Business Ethics
- Does Revature deliver what they promise in terms of training quality, job placement, salaries, and employer partnerships?
- Is the business model sustainable and mutually beneficial?
- Are the recruiter tactics, marketing claims, and contracts fair?
For prospective trainees, it’s wise to thoroughly research reviews and experiences from both sides, ask detailed questions on program specifics, consult employment lawyers to review contract terms, and realistically assess if the intensive program is suited for your talents and goals.
There are legitimate concerns about Revature’s approach, but for the right candidate, the training can open doors to building a rewarding software engineering career. As with any big career decision, carefully weighing the pros and cons is crucial.
In-Depth Analysis of Key Review Factors
To provide deeper insights on weighing the value of Revature’s offering, let’s analyze some of the most important dimensions highlighted in reviews:
Technical Training Rigor and Curriculum Quality
Reviews widely acknowledge that Revature’s immersive bootcamp provides rigorous technical training that equips trainees with valuable software engineering skills. Here are some key points on the program’s content and effectiveness:
The curricula are designed by experienced instructors and focus on high-demand programming languages like Java, JavaScript, C#, .NET, Salesforce, etc. This builds abilities prized by employers.
The intensive, full-time timeline covers an enormous amount of material – essentially condensing a 4-year computer science degree into 10-12 weeks.
The pedagogy is very hands-on, with trainees coding 8+ hours per day working on real projects and code challenges. This instills practical abilities.
Trainees get exposure to a range of technologies and concepts like SQL databases, Agile, object-oriented design, cloud platforms, debugging techniques, etc.
The immersive bootcamp model is geared towards rapid skill-building for career changers. Those with prior coding experience may find the pacing overly intensive.
Overall, reviews indicate successful trainees exit the program with the core abilities to contribute as junior software engineers, especially after further on-the-job training.
So for those able to keep up and thrive in the high-intensity timeline, the curriculum clearly provides marketable skills that open doors to software roles. But expectations need to be calibrated – trainees essentially cram a multi-year computer science education into 2-3 months. It’s an immersion rather than comprehensive technical education. Openness to continued learning is key.
Job Placement Process and Employer Network Quality
The guaranteed job placement after training is a major appeal of Revature. But reviews express some common concerns about the placement process:
Candidates don’t have much input into the location or company they are assigned to. Openness to relocation anywhere is required.
Although major recognizable tech firms like IBM and Capital One hire many Revature trainees, some placements involve lesser known consulting shops and service integrators. Quality varies.
Salary offers are low for software engineering roles, reportedly averaging around $40k for the initial contract duration. But there is required growth to market-competitive levels.
Contracts mandate 1-2 year durations at the assigned employer. Early contract termination triggers hefty rescission fees – often $25k+ repayable to Revature.
Candidates only have a week after placement to accept the salary/job offer. Turning down a placement bans you from future Revature roles.
While the employer network is legitimate, trainees should understand the process has constraints and salary impacts. But those who successfully complete contracts gain vital experience that can springboard more lucrative opportunities. Assess whether the regimented placement tradeoffs work for your career objectives.
Company Culture and Learning Environment
An immersive multi-week coding bootcamp requires strong instruction, mentoring, and culture to enable biting-off-more-than-you-can-chew style skill development. Most reviews rate Revature’s training environment positively:
- Instructors are extremely knowledgeable and invested in trainee success. The faculty consists of experienced software engineers.
- The collaborative cohort model encourages peer learning and teamwork. Trainees bond through the intensive shared experience.
- Revature provides dedicated teacher assistants and mentors to support trainees struggling with the fast pace.
- The company champions a “growth mindset” culture with a can-do attitude focused on achievement.
- Perks like company events, meetups with alumni, and interest clubs enable community building.
However, some common criticisms include:
- The extreme 80+ hour training weeks burn out some trainees. The compressed timeline is unsustainable for a portion of candidates.
- Being forced to relocate anywhere after training disrupts trainee personal lives.
- The program is somewhat 10-12 week code factory under time pressure to satisfy corporate partners. The environment suits certain personality types.
Overall, Revature gets credit for nurturing a motivating company culture centered on skill development and high expectations. But the intense bootcamp model does not work for everyone, so assessing fit is crucial.
Longer Term Career Impacts
The most important question for prospective trainees — does Revature provide lasting career development and earning potential after the initial contract period? Here are key considerations on potential longer term trajectories:
Many reviewers highlight how the rigorous training, corporate placement, and early career experience equips them with skills and credibility for success.
Alumni often have access to continued career support from the Revature network for contract extensions, new placements, references, and lateral job transitions.
Hands-on work experience at recognized firms sees many alumni move into more lucrative and senior engineering and technical roles at other big tech companies after a few years.
However, the initial lower salaries and recession rescission clauses do negatively impact some early career trajectories and limit options.
Over the longer term, those that embrace the experience as career launch pad often thrive, but some element of lifestyle sacrifice is required on the frontend.
Overall, if you strategically leverage the rigorous training pedigree and brand name employers, Revature has strong potential to open doors over the long run. But candidates should weigh if they can persist through the rigors and constraints of the launch program to realize longer term gain.
Examples of Candidates Who Benefited From Revature
To provide concrete examples of successful outcomes from the Revature experience, here are some profiles of actual trainees who found the program rewarding:
John S.
Background: Graduated college with political science degree. Struggled breaking into software engineering roles for 2 years.
Revature Outcome: Completed Java track, recruited by Accenture federal practice for 18 month contract. Relocated to DC. Gained hands-on J2EE skills and secured deployment role supporting mission-critical systems.
Impact: Leveraged experience to move to Northrop Grumman as mid-level engineer after contract ended. Now earns $90k+ in cybersecurity engineering 5 years later.
Amy T.
Background: Former healthcare account manager undergoing career change after having children. Always had an affinity for technology.
Revature Outcome: Completed .NET track, placed with IBM for 2 year contract. Relocated to Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. Gained experience in full stack .NET and Angular development on enterprise apps.
Impact: Developed new passion for software development through experience. Moved to mid-level developer role at SAS Institute after contract ended. Now advancing technical and leadership skills with mentorship.
Michael R.
Background: Recent computer science graduate, struggled to get interviews with top tech firms during college.
Revature Outcome: Completed Java track, recruited to join Accenture and relocate to Phoenix for back-end development on client healthcare projects. Gained real-world Java/Spring Boot experience.
Impact: The name brand experience provided a launch pad to his career. Michael got hired by Amazon Web Services as SDE-1 after 18 months at Accenture. Now on a path to leadership in cloud engineering.
Key Takeaways
These examples illustrate how motivated candidates who can work through the rigors of Revature’s model can unlock lasting career advancement in software engineering. But results take dedication and the experience is certainly not a fit for every aspirational developer. Candidates need realistic expectations on the tradeoffs involve in.
Is Revature a Scam or Legit?Guidelines for Assessing if Revature is a Good Fit
When evaluating whether Revature’s program aligns with your goals and talents, here are some key guidelines:
- Target candidates are recent grads or career changers needing an intensive boost to break into software engineering roles. The model likely provides less value to experienced developers.
- Assess your motivations – if you desire a more traditional multi-year computer science program with freedom of employer choice, Revature differs. Focus is immersive skill-building.
- Ensure you can relocate anywhere in the US for assignments and tackle self-directed learning on the technologies trained. Structure suits disciplined self-starters.
- Financially prepare for the delayed ramp to higher salaries – need tolerability of lower income initially. But skills accelerate earnings long term.
- Embrace intensive learning environments and collaborating with colleagues under tight timelines. Results require perseverance through struggles.
- Leverage network and brand value of training for future opportunities – think long game.
Succeeding in Revature’s program and leveraging it to launch your career requires embracing intense skill-building, sacrificing some short term freedoms, and strategic leveraging of the experience. Assess alignment of this path with your talents, lifestyle needs, and career aspirations.
Conclusion: Weighing the Pros and Cons of Revature
In summary, reviews reveal Revature provides legitimate, rigorous technology training paired with corporate placements, but has some notable limitations and tradeoffs to consider.
For the right candidates – generally career changers seeking an accelerated pathway into software engineering – Revature can open doors and provide invaluable experience through the combination of mentored training, name brand employers, and early career development.
However, prospective trainees should thoroughly research both positive and critical assessments. The intensive bootcamp model and contractual job placement do not suit everyone, and the lower initial income and rescission fees are certainly disadvantages.
Overall, with eyes wide open on the tradeoffs, Revature offers a potentially rewarding avenue for motivated individuals to transition into software engineering roles. But due diligence on assessing fit is absolutely essential, as the intensive program differs greatly from traditional computer science education and career paths.
Hopefully this analysis provides a framework for readers to deeply research Revature and make their own informed determination of whether the opportunity could successfully launch their technology career.
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