From Zero to Hero: Unpacking Zuitt's Code to Success

Zuitt Coding Bootcamp catapults beginners into job-ready web developers in just a couple of months. Their immersive online program blends live lectures, interactive workshops, and self-paced exercises, focusing on in-demand tech like HTML, CSS, and React. They go beyond coding, offering career coaching, industry partnerships, and a supportive community to empower graduates for tech success. With thousands of trained individuals and industry recognition, Zuitt paves the way for a fulfilling tech career, one line of code at a time. With that, why don’t you join me in learning more about Zuitt Coding Bootcamp with its Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, Allister Alambra.

What inspired you to start Zuitt Coding Bootcamp? What niche are you trying to fill in the Philippine tech education landscape?

I drew inspiration from personal experience. I come from a low income family, which didn't really give me many opportunities. Although I was lucky enough to study at UP Los Baños, I felt that having to go through four years of learning for an IT job that didn't really maximize what I learned, and at the same time can be a bit expensive for the other lower income families, was odd. I felt like there could be something better we can do for our fellow Filipinos. Around the same time I met Tomohisa, the Founder of the company, who had the same idea. We decided that we can offer tech education at a cheaper cost, not only in terms of monetary needs but also in terms of time saved. We thought about how we could come up with a bootcamp that focuses on the immediate needs of the industry. Through this, we felt we could make opportunities more available for everyone.

Back in UPLB, I realized that there are a lot of things that can be improved in the education sector. I felt that I could also use this platform to also be an agent of change in the education sector.

What sets Zuitt Coding Bootcamp apart from other competitors in the country?

What we offer that is set differently would probably be how this curriculum should be provided and under what context. We try our best to measure our competence as a company based on how many jobs our graduates can get, and work on improvements from there. The frequency of how much we do research and how often we integrate these findings into our materials is done at a rapid pace, sometimes several times in a span of one quarter. We don't want to just teach and then let our boot campers go on their own. We want them to teach what's relevant through diligent research and backbreaking efforts to make sure that we update as needed.

We're not looking at it as just us teaching tech, but hopefully, we're looking at ourselves as being the “lifelong career” partner too. We care about maintaining and further strengthening our relationship with our bootcamp completers. This goal gives an idea of what the next step would be.

Can you walk us through the design of your coding bootcamp curriculum? What makes it unique and effective?

We have this principle of input-output-solve. It's a three step process and we conduct our instruction in that principle. Input is where the instructor gives the information to learn, output is where we provide assisted exercises to the boot campers so that there is a constant feedback loop, solve is the last step where we ask our boot campers to figure out things or answer exercises on their own.

The curriculum in itself does not have a rigid design. If we think about the idea of being a lifelong career partner, we try to incorporate all of the feedback that we get on a regular basis and select the ones that make sense, put it into that three step cycle and then incorporate it. In this way, we've seen our boot campers successfully shift careers.

Can you share some success stories made by Zuitt Coding Bootcamp? 

The best success stories would be where the boot campers came from another industry or perhaps just graduated senior high school. We were able to help them realize what they could actually do. We know that we're not the sole reason why these individuals succeed. We help them believe in themselves through our program and realize what they can do. 

We've had people from the hospitality industry that have now become senior developers. We’ve had a few who were fresh out of senior high school, went through our program and now are full stack developers. We’ve  had licensed engineers going through our boot camp, but are now securing senior developer positions. And that's just in the local scene. A handful of our boot campers have been able to secure jobs overseas. 

Here are some Youtube videos for more reference:

1. Calvin, Hotel Industry -> Senior Dev: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEvl1y_4syM

2. Casi, SHS -> Full Stack Dev: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JCXVvtTN0I

3. Hans, ECE -> Senior Dev: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKJ5E9DeN_w

What is your vision for the future of Zuitt? How do you see it evolving and impacting the Philippine tech ecosystem in the next few years?

We’re hoping that we can provide opportunities not only for coding, but even in other areas. I see Zuitt as an agent of change in the education sector. We might be doing coding right now, but I'm hoping that it can eventually branch out and become an educational institution on its own. For example, taking the learnings from what we've seen to be effective in providing tech education that is going to be effective in doing other things. I hope that we can develop trustworthy and effective programs that employers can trust, and that we become a brand that employers will look forward to when it comes to hiring and recruitment. I know that there's a lot of things that our education system needs to address, but we hope that we are the ones that will not replace it, but can help augment it.

Allister Alambra is the Chief Technology Officer and the Co-Founder of Zuitt Coding Bootcamp. Allister is responsible for overseeing tech vision and roadmap, managing the tech team, and ensuring the smooth operation of all tech systems and infrastructure alongside his other responsibilities of shaping the company’s vision, strategy, and overall direction. He is an important figure in realizing the success of Zuitt Coding Bootcamp. As seen in him, Allister is incredibly passionate about uplifting the lives of the Filipino people through tech education.

Visit www.techshake.asia if you would like to know and connect more with Zuitt Coding Bootcamp.