If you’re a lady and you’d like to be a Ruby on Rails developer, well, Code Fellows has something just for you.
The Seattle-based trade school today announced a new Rails Development Accelerator designed specifically for women that begins on July 7.
“Women are still greatly outnumbered by their male counterparts in the programming industry,” Kristin Smith, a former Amazon vet who just took over as Code Fellows CEO, said in a statement. “While it was once a female-dominated industry, the pendulum has swung back hard in the other direction. We’re simply looking to make the opportunity in today’s tech environment more equitable for smart women with superior programming skills.”
Similar to Code Fellows’ other programs, the new accelerator will last eight weeks and students are guaranteed a salary of $60,000 or $100,000, depending on their previous coding experience. Students will be refunded the $10,000 tuition if they don’t land a job post-graduation.
Code Fellows, which launched in January 2013, has had 82 percent of its graduates (165) receive a job offer within three months of graduating, with an average starting salary of $75,600 per year.
Another interesting stat: 18 percent of those grads have started a business. Diana Pham, for example, went on to help start Seattle-based education app maker DinoHulk after she graduated from Code Fellows’ July 2013 women-only development program.
Pham, who arrived in Seattle with $15 in her pocket, said that Code Fellows gave her newfound motivation in the workplace.
“A bootcamp at Code Fellows was exactly what I needed to harness my confidence,” she said. “After being accepted into the program, the fact that I was able to keep up with everyone in class even though I was working nights and weekends made me feel invincible.”
Pham said she didn’t notice any huge differences when taking her classes with all women vs. a mix of genders. But she realizes that having such a program will encourage other women to learn how to code.
“Even though I’ve never personally felt like I couldn’t do something I wanted because of my gender, I’ve met a lot of women who do feel affected by a gender inequality,” she said. “The fact that Code Fellows has a women-only program means they recognize that gender-inequality is real for some people and they’re willing to help fix that.”
If you’re interested, apply here.
