Hi, I’m Brian, a former senior software engineer and now software engineering mentor at Pathrise. I have worked with hundreds of software engineers and web developers to help them land their dream job. Check out my review of Momentum.
- What does Momentum do?
- Who is Momentum for?
- What does Momentum cost?
- Ratings and reviews of Momentum
- Alternatives to Momentum
- How does Momentum compare to Pathrise?
What does Momentum do?
Momentum is a bootcamp that teaches people the skills necessary to land a job as a web developer. While the program is based in Durham, North Carolina, all courses are currently remote. They boast a 90% job placement rate with a 9-month job guarantee.
Students participate in lectures, coding demos, projects, discussions, guest speaker talks, code reviews, and 1-on-1 mentoring sessions. While classes are live, students can “pause” the course and rejoin where they left off at no extra cost. 
The full-time bootcamp meets for 16 weeks while the part-time bootcamp runs for 24 weeks. Both courses teach students how to build full stack web apps from scratch. The curriculum covers HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Python for the web. Students also learn back-end tech like APIs, SQL, and Django. The course even touches on basic UX design as well as Agile planning to give students a more well rounded understanding of web development. Grads leave the program with a full, reviewed portfolio to help them land entry level software engineering jobs.
All students get both extensive job support and a job guarantee. If grads don’t land a job within 9 months, they get a full refund. Mentors meet 1-on-1 with students throughout the program to help craft career plans, write resumes, build networks, and optimize online profiles. In addition to both technical and behavioral interview training, grads get support with salary negotiation after landing a job.
Who are Momentum for?
People with no experience in web development who want to move into this career could benefit from Momentum. The extensive career services and job guarantee could also be a good fit for cautious students who don’t want to risk spending money on a program that doesn’t launch their careers. People who need to take entire weeks off for other commitments might appreciate the “pause” option that allows them to leave and then rejoin the course. Finally, people who live or want to live in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina might benefit from the local program.
What do Momentum cost? How much work is involved?
Tuition for the full-time course is $17,500. Students who enroll in the part-time web dev course pay $12,500. Loans are available through Climb Credit and Skills Fund.
While all students get a job guarantee, only full-time students can choose the income share agreement (ISA) option so they don’t pay anything until they land a job. Once the full-time bootcamp grads get a job that pays more than $40k per year, they pay 14% of their income until they reach $31,000, make 48 payments, or pay for 60 months.
Ratings and reviews
Momentum has mostly positive reviews. The program holds a nearly perfect 4.9/5 star rating on Course Report, where the reviewers seemed to only have positive experiences. Grads praised the supportive staff and the extensive career services. One grad loved that the “instructors were more than willing to spend whatever 1:1 time needed to ensure I understood key concepts.” This extensive support helped her “keep up with the rigors of a full time, immersive course” which could be daunting at times. Another student liked that the curriculum is practical and “tailored to the needs of the local dev community.” This grad agreed that the staff were “knowledgeable, supportive, and creative.” She was also impressed that the career services started the very first week and included a job guarantee.
Students on Career Karma rated the course 4.6/5 stars. While most grads liked that the curriculum was comprehensive and to-the-point, some would have preferred the curriculum to cover the most in-demand technologies in slightly more depth. One student noted that the curriculum “doesn’t dive into the more general computer science” and only covers “practical coding skills.” The grad wanted students to be aware that the curriculum “won’t cover the same breadth of ideas that a traditional university course would.”
The program holds a perfect 5 star rating on Switchup. One grad raved about the extensive job support and the “amazing staff.” While the grad warned that students “will be pushed every day” by the “challenging material”, this was a selling point for her. Another grad described the career services team as “very well-connected in Durham and the surrounding areas” and liked that they continued to help students after graduation. The job guarantee was also a big hit. On the whole, students were impressed by the program’s supportive staff and job support, though a few grads may have preferred a slightly more in-depth curriculum that touched on the conceptual side of coding.
Alternatives to Momentum
If you decide not to enroll in Momentum, there are a number of other bootcamps and courses that can help aspiring web developers develop the skills needed to land an entry-level developer role.
- One of the most popular bootcamps today is General Assembly. They offer full-time, part-time, and 1-day courses on a variety of topics like software engineering, UX design, and more. Like Momentum, they feature an extensive network of hiring partners and a job placement rate over 90%. Read more about General Assembly in our review.
- Students seeking a self-paced coding bootcamp with a full stack development track can check out CodeX Academy. They offer lots of career assistance with 1-on-1 mentorship opportunities. Learn more about CodeX Academy in our review.
- Aspiring web developers and UX designers can check out Bloc, which offers courses in those topics. Like Momentum, their program is remote and includes weekly 1-on-1 mentoring.
- Another remote tech program with an income share agreement is Thinkful. They offer courses in web development, UX/UI design, and more.
- People looking for an income share agreement can also check out Lambda School’s 6-month web development bootcamp.
- Similarly, Holberton School and Byte Academy are tech bootcamps with courses in web dev that offer ISA options. Rithm School also offers ISA financing, with a reputation for low student-to-teacher ratios, meaning extra personalized attention like at Momentum.
- The bootcamp BrainStation offers programs in web development, web design, data science, marketing, and product management. Like Momentum, BrainStation emphasizes practical learning and collaboration, with instant feedback for students.
- Another full-time tech bootcamp, Kenzie Academy offers in-person and remote courses in 2 tracks: front-end engineering and software engineering & UX design. Learn more about Kenzie Academy in our review.
- For students seeking lower-cost web development courses, Simplilearn, Learn UX, Treehouse, and Pluralsight could be worth pursuing. While they may not have the same level of instructor support as Momentum, these programs offer a wide range of courses to learn essential skills for a career in tech.
- Codecademy is one of the most popular coding programs online. They host completely free courses on many different programming languages. Optional memberships range from $20 to $40 for more support and course offerings. Read more about Codecademy in our review.
- For those who want to start building software right away without learning to code, Bubble no-code bootcamps teach students to create their own products with a drag-and-drop platform. Learn more about Bubble in our review.
- People looking for university courses can check out edX. Their platform offers courses from Harvard, MIT, big tech companies like Microsoft, and many other top institutions. Read more about edX in our review.
Both Udacity and Springboard are online learning platforms that offer thousands of courses on a variety of tech subjects. Find out if Udacity or Springboard can help you launch your career in our reviews.
How does Momentum compare to Pathrise?
Momentum is a bootcamp for people who want to launch new careers in full stack web development. Most of their students start with no experience. Pathrise job-seekers should already have some background in their chosen field to make the most out of our technical curriculum.
While Momentum offers extensive career services, most support ends after graduation and mentoring is limited. Pathrise offers unlimited mentoring until fellows in our program land a job with a salary above industry standards. As a full service organization, Pathrise assists with all phases of the job search including portfolio and resume optimization, cold emailing and reverse recruiting, technical and behavioral interviewing, and salary negotiation.
Like Momentum’s flexible “pause” option, all Pathrise sessions are recorded for fellows in our program to review whenever they have time. Our program is also flexible, with only 2-4 hours of group sessions and 1-on-1 sessions that can be scheduled as needed. While Momentum offers a 14% income share agreement (ISA), the Pathrise income share agreement is just 9% of the fellow’s first year salary.
Pathrise is a career accelerator that has already helped 1,000+ students and professionals land their dream job in tech. On average, fellows in our program land a job in 3-5 months. If you want to work with our mentors to ace your technical and behavioral interviews and optimize your job search, join Pathrise.
Apply today.
