Peter Jang is a Lead Instructor as well as the Dean of Instruction at Actualize. He has had several career changes - he first graduated with a masters in mechanical engineering and worked as a consultant, writing software in C, C++, Matlab, VBA, and Python. He then followed his passion for teaching by earning a masters in education, and taught high school math for 6 years. More recently he changed into the career of web development, working at a startup as a full stack web developer. Currently he teaches full time as an Actualize Lead Instructor, which is a perfect blend of his passions for both teaching and programming.
Be The New You
The coding bootcamp with the nation's greatest coding instructors and job-hunting expertise in one place
Educators First, Developers Second
Actualize is the only coding bootcamp that exclusively hires Lead Instructors who have professional experience in both education and software engineering. Your Lead Instructor is your guide and mentor during the 12 weeks of Live Training, and will directly teach you every concept that you need to know to become a software developer. Because of their expertise in instruction and pedagogy, Actualize is able to teach on a part-time basis what other coding bootcamps take an entire day to teach.
Your Lead Instructor is there for you - both in and out of class - to guide you, celebrate your success, and help you solve some of the toughest problems you'll have ever encountered. Each Lead Instructor is empathic, funny, and engaging, and that is why many of our graduates have told us that their Lead Instructor is hands-down the best part of their Actualize experience.
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Peter Jang
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Josh Nixon
Josh Nixon worked in the entertainment industry out in Los Angeles for more than a decade. In 2013 he transitioned to Web Development by attending a bootcamp himself. He has worked as a private consultant for projects such as idrinksant.com and watchmework.com. Josh taught web development at Code Chicago before joining Actualize as a Chicago Lead Instructor in 2015.
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Dani Zaghian
Dani attended the University of Santa Cruz and graduated with a BS in biology. While pursuing a career in that field, she became interested in programming and attended a coding bootcamp to learn as much as possible, unaware of the life change she was about to make. She fell in love with coding and worked as a front end developer and designer. But she also found a passion for mentoring and education - and taught web development as well. Motivated by growth mindset, passionate about learning, and engaged by problem solving, she found the perfect intersection becoming a Lead Instructor at Actualize.
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Brian Rice
Brian started his career as a teacher, getting his Master’s Degree in Education and working in a New York City high school. He left the classroom to attend a coding bootcamp and become a software developer. He now combines his two interests and teach web development. He teaches his students how to solve problems, not memorize. His goal is that at the end of the course, his students will no longer need him.
Job Hacking
Most people wrongly assume that once you learn to code, software development jobs will just fall into your lap. This is not the case. The speed at which someone lands a job after a coding bootcamp is correlated to how good they are at job hunting, which is a skill set independent to coding. Because of this, we treat the job hunting skill set with the same importance as the coding skill set.
Our unique job-hunting curriculum, which we refer to as Job Hacking, is taught throughout the bootcamp itself. Then, once the coding bootcamp is complete, we continue to work with each graduate by individually coaching them through their job hunt through weekly job hacking exercises and checkins. Our approach is unique not just in the coding bootcamp industry, but even in the larger world of white-collar career coaching, and is based upon years of research and experience.
Day or night classes to conform to your schedule
We offer our signature 12 week course in two flavors. Our Nights-And-Weekends Course, ideal for those who will keep their day job, takes place all-day Sunday and weeknights Monday through Thursday. Our Daytime Course takes place on Monday through Friday during the day. We have separate cohorts for each version of the program.
We're proud to be a recipient of the Best Bootcamp Award by both Switchup.org and Course Report, leaders in coding bootcamp reviews and research.
Be The New You
Learn How To Learn
We believe that teaching people to code is much, much more than dumping students in a room and throwing articles and exercises at them, as is the style of most coding bootcamps. As educator-developers, we study the art and science of teaching people to code with a passion that borders on fanaticism. (Okay, maybe it is fanaticism!)
Our educational approach does not focus on teaching our students a particular language or technology, but instead how to think as a software engineer, with the ability to teach themselves any technology on their own. In fact, the majority of our graduates go on to work with other languages and frameworks than the ones we teach in class.
It is also our educational approach that allows us to teach on a part-time basis what other programs take an entire day to teach. In the words of one student who transferred to Actualize from another program, "You teach the concepts so well that it takes 30 minutes to learn what it took me 5 hours to learn in my previous school."
Download our detailed curriclum below.
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“Actualize bootcamp was the start of the change of my career. Not only was it perfect for me as I was not in a position to leave my job, but the support and teachers there were undeniably the best I could have asked for. I can't rave about this enough!”
-Caroline, API Specialist
Become A Software Engineer
Our grads have landed positions at companies of all sizes and industries, from small startups all the way up to Amazon, Salesforce, and Bank of America.
Knowing how to code isn’t enough to break into the software development industry. At Actualize, we do not simply teach you how to code, but we also teach you how to land your first job as a software developer. Our job-placement curriculum breaks down the nuts and bolts of personal branding and outreach that has allowed so many of our graduates to stand out from the rest of the crowd, and land their first software engineering position.
Ever wonder what it's actually like to be a software developer? Download our ebook below.
By submitting your email, you will receive additional communication from us on learning to code as well as the coding bootcamp industry.
Launch your new career
Our grads have landed jobs at top companies.
Structured Job Support Even After You Graduate
The Job Hacking career support program meets two nights a week following graduation for structured career support. You'll engage in Job Hacking, which is our proven system of personal branding and networking that will help you land your first job. In addition, you'll practice for behavioral and technical job interviews and build additional projects for your professional portfolio.
In-Person
Join us in person at our Chicago headquarters in River North. Founded in early 2014, we're the longest-running coding bootcamp founded in Chicago.
Chicago Coding Bootcamp
Online
Identical to our in-person program, our online program allows you to get the Actualize experience from anywhere in North America.
Online Live Coding Bootcamp
Think Like a Software Engineer
Learning to code is much more than learning new concepts and syntax. It's a whole new mindset. Get a weekly video straight to your inbox with practical advice and strategies on how to think like a software engineer.