Seattle’s Coding Dojo is coming to DC

They say necessity is the mother of invention.
This was certainly the case in the founding of coding bootcamp Coding Dojo, which began back in 2010 when founder Michael Choi was struggling to find qualified software engineers for his company Zurple. Choi couldn’t find the engineers he needed, so he decided to train them himself.
Two years later, in 2012, Coding Dojo’s first official bootcamp was held.
Now the Seattle-based company is doubling its presence and expanding to three more cities in the coming months — and D.C. is among them.
Coding Dojo CEO Richard Wang told Technical.ly the company chose D.C. because it is an “upcoming tech hub” with huge growth in tech job numbers. He also cited the “political climate” — namely President Obama’s TechHire initiative.
Of course, D.C. already has coding bootcamps. But Wang says Coding Dojo is different. The 14-week program teaches three full stacks, with the goal of producing versatile coders with an understanding of the fundamentals of web development. For Wang, this distinction means Coding Dojo students aren’t just being trained to work in the contemporary workforce — they’re being taught to handle tech that doesn’t even exist yet.
Coding Dojo also boasts an after-program “residency” and career services that aim to narrow the gap between completion of a bootcamp and a student’s first job. Wang told Technical.ly that 92 percent of students graduate and go on to get a job within two months.
The new District-based campus is slated to open in June, in a location that is yet to be revealed.