Revature has a lot of potential to be something great but just needs to fix a few issues.
Pros
*Education - The education you are getting is invaluable, it consist of the latest/ most popular tech stacks that large companies utilize. *Connections - The connections that Revature has with other companies is unreal, they are consistently in contact with different Fortune 500 companies as well as Government contracting, tech consulting, banking, and more. Once you finish your training you began interviewing with these massive companies which if landed will look amazing on any resume. *Trainers - Overall the trainers are great. You can tell that they truly do care about your success and have a passion to teach programming to others. Although connections and the education is great, I believe the trainers are what makes the business succeed. (Shout out to August Duet!) *Paid to learn - Although it might not be much (we are talking minimum wage), getting paid to learn is a big deal. Is it sustainable long term, no way. However you are only getting back minimum wage during training and the interview process, after that your salary is dramatically increased. *Benefits - Although some might not take advantage of it, Revature provides company benefits for all its associates, even if you are still in training. This is pretty awesome and should be taken advantage of by everyone!
Cons
*Contract - I get it, in order to pay people during training, the company has to make some sort of contract so that they are able to make money off you in order to pay for their employees and others going through training. It's actually kind of a brilliant idea, however, being on a 2 year contract with any company is a drawback which individual should consider before applying. (Revature does make a point to ensure each associate knows what they are getting into before you sign the contract.) *Communication - Overall I think this is probably one of the largest drawbacks of Revature. There was many times during the interview process or even towards the end of training that many of the associates were simply left in the dark. Not knowing what to expect when it comes to upcoming interviews, interview feedback, what is expected of us during this interview process, and more is super frustrating at times. *Pay (Once hired) - This point is rather similar to the contract point we discussed above. I get it, in order for Revature to provide people with pay during training two things must happen. 1) Individuals must be on some sort of contract and 2) Revature will need to cap an individual's pay during the life of the contract. So what happens is you get hired by, lets say Accenture. Although you now work for Accenture, technically you are still a Revature employee and are still being paid by Revature. Accenture will pay Revature X amount of money, Revature will then take that money pull a percentage of that off the top (to pay management, bills, associates, etc) and then give you the rest. For the first year of the contract you will only make $45k (or $55k if you are placed in a high cost of living area, more on that later). The second year you are capped at $55k (or $65k if you are place in a high cost of living area). *High Cost Of Living Areas - The second largest drawback to Revature is how they determine what areas are considered high cost of living. Currently there is only a handful of places that qualify as high cost of living, NYC, LA/SF, Boston, Houston, and a maybe 1 or 2 more cities. Strangely, Seattle, DC, all of California, a lot of New England cities, and other places are not considered to be high cost of living. For this reason, if you get hired by a government contracting company and have to relocate to DC you will only be making $45k(first year) and $55k(second year) respectively for your two year contract, which is rather insane. DC is one of the most expensive places to live within the United States and unfortunately $45k is going to be extremely rough to live on (considering the average apartment in DC is a little more than $2000 a month which would be $24,000 a year. That is already more than half your salary and we haven't even included your ulitities, other bills, food, etc). Due to this, how Revature determines what is classified as high cost of living needs to be reworked or updated. *Training - Overall training was great, I have no complaints there. However, this is more of a warning for some people looking at applying to Revature. Training is rough and requires a lot from you. The first couple weeks be prepared to be work (learn) a 55-60-70hr week to stay ahead. You will have weekly QA and quizzes to ensure you are learning and understanding topics. At the end of the day you are responsible for your education and how well of a grasp you have on these topics discussed throughout training. The trainer are willing to provide additional help if needed, but YOU have to reach out to them (which is the way it should be). If you get to far behind, or have not made an initiative will be let go. Personally I did not find training to be that big of a deal because I wanted to learn this sort of stuff, but if you have no passion for programming DO NOT apply to Revature.
