Altcademy

My experience with Altcademy was amazing. I did a lot of research before signing up and consulted friends who are software engineers. We all came to the conclusion that Altcademy's fullstack program is the best amongst its peers. In terms of value for money, and in terms of curriculum comprehensiveness, no one could beat them. The program is very packed, thousand of hours of curriculum material, hundreds of exercises, and a couple dozen assignments. I came out with 6 decent looking projects and a final project which I am very proud of. The mentors are amazing people, very helpful and very knowledgable. This is something I would recommend to family and friends without a second thought. Don't take my word for it, do some research and you will see what I mean.

A thoroughly enjoyable program. Assignments and projects are challenging yet rewarding. I finished with a portfolio of multiple small projects and one large advance custom project based on my own idea. I went through data structures and algo training at the end. They will help you with your cv and linkedin profile for job search. The support was just enough that you didn't feel like going at this alone. You can talk to other students through slack. You can ask and search questions on a Q&A platform. You can book live office hours with your mentor to get help. The offer is amazing for the price.

I started the program in Mar 2020 after I lost my job working for an airline. Well I thought might as well take this chance to make a change. 11 months later, I am finishing up and applying to jobs. A few things I want to share regarding coding bootcamps and making a career switch. 

1. It takes a lot of time to learn the fundamentals and feel confident enough to start applying to jobs. For me, it was 11 months, at 40-50 hours a week. I did take a month off in the middle where I was only doing around 10 hours a week.
2. Do your own due diligence, spend time to research different bootcamps. I chose Altcademy because they are online, and they are super cheap. I asked the bootcamps to send me their curriculum and I realized everyone pretty much teaches the same thing. So your decision is dependent on whether you think the bootcamp can deliver their promise.
3. Join a program with good mentors. I was lucky my mentor at Altcademy was also the person who wrote the course content. He knew everything.
4. Start looking at jobs early in the program and have a plan. If you live in an area with very little tech jobs, you need to think hard and long whether you are willing to move somewhere to get a job. You can also apply for remote jobs, but working alone at home isn't for everyone.
5. Have realistic expectations. There is no guarantee for anything.

If you already have some knowledge of simple website building, you can finish the course in 6 months. The curriculum paints the whole picture of web development. All the details of frontend and backend development is covered. You build 20+ projects throughout the course. The mentors are very knowledgeable and patient. All your projects will be reviewed and given feedback. The quality is on par with other major bootcamps, but these guys are only charging a fraction of the price. It's a no brainer.

Before joining this program, I had zero experience in programming. I knew I would need quite a bit of support from a professional so I chose the personalized package with live office hours. All in all, I was very happy with what I got. My mentor was always patient and had a knack for explaining complex concepts in plain english.

It took me nearly a year to finish the whole program. It was all worth it though since I managed to land an internship at a local startup which turned into a fulltime job. The salary is not super high but since the cost of the bootcamp is very low, I am happy with the outcome.

If you are thinking of signing up, you should know the curriculum is 100% text based, if you prefer videos, this is not for you. Also learning on your own without peers can be tough at times. You need to be mentally prepared.

I really liked the program, it provides structure and flexibility at the same time. I was able to learn as much as I have time for. The curriculum teaches you all the finer details of web development, such as setting up your computer for local development which can be quite daunting for beginners.

When I needed help, I got great support from my mentor through slack and live office hours. This is very important as it kept me going when I got stuck in a rut a few times. I still can't believe they are able to offer so much at the price they are charging.

I am using this program as part of my wider syllabus to learn web development. Altcademy's course is the only component that is paid. The rest of my syllabus consists of free materials and courses you can find online.

The reason I decided to include a paid program like Altcademy is because I want to have a dedicated mentor that can help me. Altcademy's mentor support provides this at a reasonable price.

The program itself is pretty good. The curriculum is well thought out and builds up logically. However as with most paid programs, it is not able to cover all the details. And that is why I am using other resources to drill down more.

If you have no experience with programming at all, this is a good program to get you started on the right foot.

This is my 4th month into the full-stack program and I am currently at the end of the dynamic web development course which teaches you how to build interactive front-ends with HTML and JavaScript. I have to build a simple game to complete this course.

The program provides lots of handson experience through exercises and projects. I have built at least 10 websites by now. Some of them are following tutorials and some of them are built completely on my own according to assignment goals. I got detailed feedback on all my assignments for bugs and improvements. This is a really good learning experience and good for building up confidence. There is a mentor that you can contact for help and guidance, this is very useful and worth every penny.

I don't have much to complain about the program really. But one thing I would mention is that I found it hard to stay focused early on, since you are always learning on your own. It took me at least a good two weeks to find my rymthm. So if you are thinking of signing up, you need to make sure you can learn in solitude, and have a study plan. My advice is that you need to be able to dedicate fixed timeslots on 3 to 4 days a week for studying and build a habit.