In 2019, Qwasar Silicon Valley was founded to train people for roles in the digital economy at Silicon Valley standards. Created by co-founders with 20 years of experience in project-based learning and designing programs specifically for software engineers, Qwasar now brings its specialized and effective learning platform to millions worldwide.
Qwasar’s programs are designed around the co-founders’ experience in education and are built for the 21st century. The programs are 100 percent skills-based instead of focusing on knowledge transmission, and constantly reflect the job market trends of the tech industry, fulfilling its mission of training people for top-tier tech companies.
Qwasar also seeks to increase access to high-quality tech education by making their programs flexible with part-time options, affordable, and fully remote, while training learners to a level of technical difficulty demanded by the industry.
They use a cloud-based integrated development environment (IDE) that allows learners to code directly on a web browser. That means you’ll no longer need to download additional software or purchase expensive computers to take any of the programs; a Chromebook will suffice. To top that off, Qwasar’s programs are affordable, with tuition starting at $100 a month for learners in North America.
Read on to learn more about Qwasar Silicon Valley and how it fully prepares its graduates for the workplace by arming them with a strong foundation in technical skills, interview readiness, and a robust portfolio.
Qwasar offers certificate programs in Full Stack Development, Software Engineering, and more for as little as $100 a month.
Explore Qwasar’s programs here.The Qwasar Difference
Qwasar Silicon Valley offers the following specialized programs:
- Full Stack Developer
- Software Engineering
- AI/Machine Learning Engineer Program
- DevOps and Cloud Engineering Program
- Data Science Program
- Claris App Developer Program
Because Qwasar understands the importance of staying on top of industry trends and training its students to be job-ready, each of its programs is “specifically designed to train to Silicon Valley standards”. To do so, Qwasar harnessed learning and behavioral science to create programs and a learning platform structured to meet its learners’ needs.
There are several aspects to this. First, all programs are entirely online instead of campus-based. This allows Qwasar to meet learners wherever they are, instead of requiring students to go to a physical location.
Second, meetings are flexible, and students can choose between full-time and part-time schedules. This ties back to the company’s philosophy of training as many people worldwide as possible and increasing diversity in tech.
If a student has other responsibilities, such as a family to care for or a full-time job, Qwasar accommodates their needs, and a learner can choose a schedule that works best for them. This approach has been key and has worked for many learners from diverse backgrounds.
Next, Qwasar has frameworks in place that encourage accountability. Students are held responsible for their own learning and are encouraged to structure their schedule for weekly working hours, which sets up an important precedent for their future jobs. For example, students are required to join specific cohorts, attend virtual meetings on the days their cohort meets, and actively participate in coding collaboration sessions.
Lastly, Qwasar focuses on learning and competency. Students experience active, hands-on learning that involves projects, exercises, and role-playing. The focus is not on passing but on progression, a vastly different concept than most educational approaches. Qwasar programs are challenging, but this ensures that students are fully prepared to join the tech industry before or right after graduation.
Qwasar programs are in-depth and therefore run longer than the average duration of other bootcamp programs. Its Full Stack Developer program takes nine months to finish full-time and 12 months to complete if taken part-time. The Software Engineering program requires 12 months to complete when attended full-time and 18 months when taken part-time.
To this end, Qwasar demands discipline and a commitment to learning from its students, and its outcomes make such a commitment worth it.
How Qwasar Prepares Students for the Tech Job Market
Qwasar Silicon Valley begins with the end in mind. It reads the pulse of the industry by assessing job descriptions across the US to identify skill requirements and market trends, and these insights then drive program curricula, ensuring alignment for in-demand jobs skills. The goal is that by creating a market-led curriculum, graduates will be well-equipped once they enter the workforce.
Aside from imparting the necessary technical skills to its students, Qwasar also ensures that its graduates have the critical job skills to make it to tech companies, be those top-tier companies, startups, or agencies. They focus on career success, including preparing learners for the job application process through Qwasar’s Technical Interview Preparation Program (TIPP) and Technical Portfolio Preparation.
1. Technical Interview Preparation Program (TIPP)
Technical interviews are known to make or break a job application. They can be intense, complex, and require in-depth knowledge of data structures, logic, algorithms, databases, and at times, OOP. The TIPP is a proprietary program that a Qwasar learner joins during the second half of their program.
Learners complete 40 technical interviews in this program, role-playing as both the interviewer and the interviewee. The program also consists of a bank of more than 800 exercises, ranging from Levels 1 to 20. Learners practice a structured interview approach and simultaneously learn communication skills, problem-solving, and what interviewers are looking for in the technical interview.
The considerable number of practice interviews students undergo increases their confidence significantly. By the time they sit through a real-world technical interview, they would have done extensive practice and are fully prepared to succeed.
2. Technical Portfolio Preparation
Qwasar’s Technical Portfolio Preparation also plays a significant role in the success of graduates. Learners develop a technical portfolio that demonstrates the depth and breadth of their technical skills and ability to handle databases, deployments, and development. The technical portfolio is an asset that learners can present to future employers during the job search.
While graduates from other bootcamps also have several projects on their resumes, what sets Qwasar apart is the breadth of projects, the technical difficulty, and the amount of experience in the software development lifecycle.
Both the TIPP and technical portfolio are created and implemented with the success of a Qwasar graduate in mind, also considering how companies recruit and what challenges lie on the path to getting a job.
Qwasar Graduate Outcomes
Qwasar has approximately 2,000 users on its learning platform globally, and it is expected to reach over 3,000 users over the next year. There are about 150 learners directly enrolled in programs, but the number is fluid as learners leave and return due to their current employment status. Qwasar expects its number of learners to double in the next six months.
After completing their programs, graduates move on to hold various positions at top tech companies globally, at startups, or their own companies and immediately put their acquired skills to use.
“At Qwasar, I learned many key concepts of computer science and problem-solving that have greatly helped my day-to-day work as a developer,” shared Alex Rosenfield, a junior software engineer at Evercast Streaming. “[Qwasar] projects such as building a database-like program to learn SQL and replicating C/Linux methods from scratch to get comfortable with shell scripting have direct parallels to my responsibilities on the job.”
Employers also recognize the deep knowledge and high quality of skills that Qwasar graduates bring to the workplace.
“Scality is committed to providing employment opportunities to Qwasar Silicon Valley students. We are willing to screen and interview those who successfully complete Qwasar’s Full Stack Development Program,” said Pierre Derome, VP of Engineering and Customer Experience at Scality.
“We are confident that this program will be of great value to the academic community, the tech industry, and more importantly to all job seekers seeking a career in the tech industry,” he added.
Qwasar also continues to work with local colleges for not-for-credit college certificate programs in various states across the US.
Below are several other job titles and organizations where Qwasar graduates currently have and work for:
- FPGA/ASIC Engineer, Boeing
- Software Engineer, DISH Network
- Software Engineer Intern, Microsoft
- Lead Front-End Developer, Capgemini
- Network Engineer, Infosys
- Java Developer, Infosys
- Junior Software Engineer, Evercast Streaming
Is Qwasar Right For You?
Qwasar graduates leave their programs with strong technical fundamentals and the ability to learn on the job, due to the intensive hands-on training they receive at the bootcamp. Thanks to Qwasar, a career in a top-tier tech company is attainable and within reach.
If this sounds like the tech training experience you are looking for, take a look at Qwasar’s programs here and start your application process here.
About us: Career Karma is a platform designed to help job seekers find, research, and connect with job training programs to advance their careers. Learn about the CK publication.
