Cook Systems reviews

We are a small company trying to swim against the stream. We do things differently than the rest of the industry. We don't charge for our training because we think companies who sell training will pass everyone who pays and then don't care if they get a job or not. Since we don't charge for the training, we only make money if we hire and place our graduates. Though we do our best, not everyone makes it, and you can find reviews here from some who did not. This is not a code school that teaches you how to put menus on the internet. We create enterprise class java and .net developers who create complex applications for the largest companies in America. Once hired, we keep our FastTrackers as full time salaried employees with full benefits even between assignments. Our entry level salary is not very high but we give very large raises every 6 months for the first three years. By the third anniversary, every FastTracker makes at least 70k. It is expensive to do it this way but we think it is necessary to keep our people happy so that they don't have to worry about their next assignment.

So you want to be a Java Developer? Unless you already live in Memphis (or where ever the training site is), be prepared to pay for your own travel and living expenses for the duration of the training. It's an enormous risk because there is no guarantee that you will be offered a position. In fact, less than 50% of FastTrack'd students will graduate. This is used as a bragging point by the recruiters pointing to the "rigor" of the program, but in reality it is a symptom of the toxic culture that pervades the company and the program's pedagogical shortcomings. On that note, you will only be successful in the program if you either have prior programming experience or you are an excellent autodidact; About 90% of the course materials are straight from tutorialspoint.com. During my training, I witnessed many of my peers teeter on the edge of mental and emotional breakdown, and a few who collapsed under the pressure of sticking it out and landing a job. The company is also not honest about it's post-graduation opportunities. They claim to have more jobs than they have people and opportunities in cities where there are in fact none. In fact, you will likely have a lengthy interim period (+2 months) without pay and you will be compelled to take the first assignment available whether you like it or not. Then you will have to pay to relocate at your own expensive chasing a salary that is well less than half of the market rate for entry level developers. Once you're on the job, it's very unlikely that you will use any of the technology that you learned in boot camp which then begs the question: "what was that all for?" Like other reviewers pointed out, the 5-star reviews exist because one day the management required all of us to submit them. Beware.