Hackbright Prep Course Reviews

During my part-time class, it was a "hit or miss", depending on your instructor and class dynamics.  My review is a bit late, but after several of my friends talked about problems with the full-time Fellowship program, I felt I could no longer stay quiet about the matter. So....here goes:

There's plenty of blame to go around...from the typos in the curriculum, TA's who are recent grads but don't know enough to actually teach new students, lack of knowledge from some instructors and mentors, etc. The fact that Hackbright touts itself as a "feminist bootcamp" can come across as a negative. I am a female and also work in the tech industry since I left HB.  I can tell you that "man-bashing" is NOT professional; and just because I used go to Hackbright does not mean that I have instant access to a network of female engineers. Most of my contacts were found on my own, not through Hackbright.

If you are serious about entering this profession, then I strongly suggest you take plenty of FREE online classes before making any decision to spend money on an full-time Fellowship.  You will gain knowledge and experience NOT found at HB and then be able to expand your own network.  

Remember, you're spend MAJOR money for this Fellowship, plus you cannot work - which means you are dipping into savings to pay for cost of living...and then there's a 6-month or more job search in San Francisco/Bay Area.  Ever since HB was bought out by Capella, the program has only gotten more disorganized!  As a female, I believe we also deserve better materials and treatment from Hackbright.  Come on! There are so many boot-camps in the Bay Area...you people need to come clean and give more to your students!

I had a great experience in the Introduction to Programming course taught by Rachel Walker.  I had enrolled in the course because I had been unhappy in all of my professional roles.  When trying to just do something different, I realized that I don't have the techncial skills to have the job I think I want.  I wasn't sure how I felt about programming (given my lack of experience), so I enrolled in the part-time course.  It was great.  The hours flew by in class.  I enjoyed the labs.  I knew there was help available, but I didn't take advantage of all the additional resources provided becuase I was able to absorb most/all the information in class.  The class was a huge turning point in my life.  From that, I knew I would want to partake in a bootcamp and become a software engineer full-time (spoiler alert - I did Hackbright fellowship, got a job, and I'm happier than I ever expected :) ).  

You will learn - how to use the command line / terminal.  Oh - and Python.  But you also learn HOW to learn how to code.  Sweet.