BrainStation

BrainStation does a very good job of covering all of the bases, from SEO/SEM to paid advertising and email marketing automation. I especially liked the setup having different instructors, all with practical work backgrounds, who taught specific lessons based on their area of expertise. I would've liked a greater emphasis on the hands-on component and job search/interview prep aspects, but overall it was a great course! I would certainly recommend this to beginners who are looking to kick start a career in digital marketing.

I decided to take the Digital Marketing course to improve my marketing skills and to translate my knowledge of traditional marketing to the digital world. 

The course feels really complete as you study every aspect of digital marketing. 

It is really inspiring to have instructors working in the industry. Their experience and real-life examples help to understand the content way more than a tradional text book. 

The space is beautiful and welcoming.

The staff is awesome and ready to help you at any time!

I signed up for Wyncode's September starting class, Despite the efforts of traveling down a 4 hour drive from home, and staying with family, mind you... the Miami traffic of at least 1 hour and 10 minutes for a 20 mile ride back and forth. As I thought it would be worth the investment, there is no free parking, only street paid parking, which you have to be aware of the ticket maids. Small spot, lots of students, very noisy, there is some sort of Zumba techno gym adjacent to the school, which you can hear vibrating music through the walls, School is promising to have the gym install sound-proof pads. If you are NEW to coding, good luck! as it is very fast paced. If you are not new, then this will probably work. :) 

If you want exposure to industry leaders in Toronto or Vancouver - BrainStation is the place to go. The campus is not only an exciting place to learn about industry knowledge but also a place to expand your interest. 

The course is fast paced but it has a lot to offer for those with basic industry knowledge or no industry knowledge. Acess to the dashboards allows you to review material at any time and they cover a wide selection of marketing tools, strategies, and success stories. 

The project allows you to work with others and build a team that you can rely on since you can count that everyone is there to learn. 

I like to start out by saying that my experience at Wyncode was wonderful. The school environment empowers the students and the faculty to be successful. 

The reason for the title of this review is because once you graduate from a course like this, you have a unique set of tools at your disposal. This combined with the lifetime backup/support from the faculty and the graduates really sets you apart in the digital space. Another thing to add is that the network of companies that Wyncode has partnered with, will guarantee that you are at least considered for relevant positions. My story is proof of this. 

I left the Marine Corps in February 2017 after serving 12 years. Being the first coding academy in Florida to accept the G.I. Bill, allowed me to attend the Web Immersive Course painlessly. I graduated Wyncode and within a month I had a job at a great company as a PHP developer. PHP being a language that isn’t taught at Wyncode. After working there for 2 weeks I was offered my current position at Royal Caribbean. That being said, my work does not include web development, it’s strictly IOS and Android development. This goes to show that just learning the fundamentals of coding, testing and agile practices from Wyncode will set you on the right path. I’m positive that I wouldn’t have been considered for this position were it not for Wyncode.

I absolutely recommend Wyncode. It will only serve to enhance your skills and expand your possibilities of obtaining a sweet job in the tech space.

Shout out to Auston Bunsen (Head Instructor) for being an amazing instructor and Miguel Cruz (Director of Hiring Partnerships) for the Jedi like guidance during the job hunt.

I attended the Social Media Strategy Workshop and it was packed with valuable content. The content was useful and up to date, the lecturer was someone in the field with great experience, and the group break-out sessions were a great way to put the day's workshop learnings to use.I

would highly recommend this to anyone looking to brush up on their social media strategy skills, along with adding valuable insights to their already well tailored social media strategy arsenal.

This course gives you the tools to hit the ground running and succeed in your journey as a developer. This is achieved through new and popular technologies and frameworks being covered, as well as making sure each student actually knows how to program and why you would use a particular technology to solve a problem. 

BrainStation provides a fantastic learning ecosystem. Lectures were well delivered and supplemented throughout the course to deliver key and new concepts to ensure students came away with a solid understanding and were confident in going off on their own to continue learning after the course. Teachers and TA's were available and approachable to provide great guidance when necessary to help get you looking in the right direction to make sure you were learning to code and not just learning an answer.

I am approaching my final weeks for my digital marketing course at Brainstation that I have enjoyed thoroughly. It is a great atmosphere for likeminded creative individuals looking to gain tech skills or get a jumpstart in their decided career path. The Brainstation staff as well as the teachers are very welcoming and provide their insights in the constant changing job market as well great views in the tech industry. Every week content has offers great topics and indepth details of how to best utilize new skills to help you get the most out of every class.

Had a great time at the part-time SEM/SEO Analytics course this past semester in Vancouver. The teachers had a tonne of industry experience. I personally learn by applying my knowledge, so it was great to have hands on experience during class as well as help on hand, when needed. We also had a very diverse class with varying degrees of experience: from realtors, to individuals working in agencies, to people looking to retrain and get into the industry.

My only caveat would be that the first few classes were fairly basic, as I had previous industry experience, though i learnt a tonne in the tail end of the course. Would recommend it, highly!

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the SEO/SEM & Analytics course at Brainstation! Working in Social Media, SEO has always been something I knew I should know about but I had a hard time finding the right course. I find that I learn better from hands on learning and this course is all about that. I feel confident that I can take the skills I’ve learned from this course out into the world! 

I had heard about BrainStation through some friends who had taken their courses in Toronto, and after doing some research and talking to their recruiment team, decided to give their part-time Web Development course a try. I could not be happier that I did.

The cirriculum is designed to take anyone from essentially zero experience to being able to develop their own website, and with 2 instructors always around to help and answer questions they are able to easily meet that goal. Both instructors work within the industry and bring their own unique personalities and styles to teaching, which means that they're able to teach to a wide variety of students. And with a Slack channel dedicated to the class, you can ask questions outside of the standard time slot. 

The space itself is clean and tailored for getting work done before class (if that's your thing), and promotes discussion and cooperation between the students, with everyone helping everyone else out. They in the process of building a new campus downtown (which I unfortunately won't get to use) but from what I can tell it will continue with their design goal of creating a work and learning environment that promotes education.

I would definitely consider taking more courses from them, and happily recommend this course to anyone who is interested. 

I am writing this review after completing the course and being currently employed as a fulltime PHP developer in Miami. I first heard of Wyncode when one of my close friends had told me that he was enrolling in a full-time web development course, at the time I was employed in a different city and was very interested in changing my career and becoming a software developer, however I felt that in my current situation that was only a far fetched dream. Some months later an opportunity presented itself and after researching some schools and seeing firsthand how this school had changed the life of some of my friends I decided to enroll into their immersive full-stack web immersive course.

Initially, I spoke with Matt Campbell and Bianca Monaco the school's directors, this was 3 months before starting the course, we spoke on multiple conversations regarding the school and what it entails, they advised me to complete the prework to see if this was something that I would really be interested in doing. Soon after I would be devoting several hours of my day to learning and studying the intricacies of software development. 

Fast forward to January 2017 I had relocated to Miami and had begun the 3-month cohort, the first day of class I met many of the team members, the awesome staff, my classmates and the head instructor Ed Toro. Everybody was extremely welcoming and very thorough in explaining how the next 3 months would pan out, how the school works and what I could expect out of the program. 

The school day is usually broken up in the following format, first thing in the morning you have the morning announcements, usually this will let you know what  the agenda for the week and the agenda for the day, this is very important since its very easy to lose track or what is going on, usually the morning announcements will also give you some insight into any events the Miami Tech community may be having. These events usually involve hackathons, talks, and community forums, sometimes there will be the occasional breakout, this when they will host a study group regarding a specific subject. These community gatherings are very key in the success of the students as one of the factors in the success or starting a new career is meeting the influential people in the tech community. I personally went to various events, they were all very well put together, the people were super friendly and engaging, I was able to make many friends this way and make many connections that eventually could have possibly led to a job. 

During the course we did a mix of lecture-based classes and live coding, homework and projects, and 'one on ones ' (these are extremely important as they show the instructors how you are doing) the days are very long, and it is encouraged that you spend as much time as you can learning the material and practicing, usually once the lecture is over you have the rest of the space to work, not only that but you also have the help of the staff , the teacher assistants usually come after a certain time and they can help you out if you ever  need help with a specific part of the homework or with your projects, they are available in person and in slack for you at all times. 

Part of the coursework focuses on sharpening your people skills, for example, some the skills involve learning about email etiquette, how to approach potential employers and how to be successful at interviews, all of these lessons were extremely helpful at the end of the cohort. While learning all about how to make an awesome application is only part of the puzzle of being able to be hired afterward. I believe that this point is where the team truly shines the most, the whole cohort is geared so well to get you hired, finding a job afterwards was one of my greatest fears during the course, but I trusted the team, listened to their advice and sure enough I was one of the first ones hired out of my cohort. 

The next most important part of the experience is working and presenting your applications. Now you end up making lots of apps during your time in class and outside, but there are two that you actually present to the outside world. Both of these experiences really test your skills and push you to the next level, as you will be using all the resources that you have learned throughout your time there. Once your app is complete you work on your presentations, further cementing your knowledge on the material, since you will be explaining what you have created, how it works and what you used to build it.  The first time you present this to your friends and family, so it relatively relaxed, the second time around you present a more refined application to not only your friends and family but also leaders of the Miami tech community, judges, and potential employers.

So once you graduate and present your app you are done, right? No sir, that's just when the real battle begins, and the Wyncode team knows this. I believe that this is probably one of the hardest parts of this whole ordeal, programming, in general, is a practice, 10 weeks of coding 12 hours a day will kick start your programming career, but unless you keep it up and continue to code, whether on your own or as your day job, it may all be for naught. So it imperative that afterwards you continue to code , so once you are done you are invited to go to Wynwork, in this phase you are placed with director of hiring partnerships Miguel Cruz , he was super inspiring and gave some accurate advice on how to get hired and make it in the industry,and sure enough everything he said was true and I was hired within a month from my graduation date. 

A couple of caveats regarding the school that I must say is that while it is extremely tough to learn to code in a short stressful time, the staff really does their very best to get you through it. Teacher assistants stay late throughout the night working with you, even through slack and even the head instructors will help you out even late at night if you are in a pickle, and after the course if you have any problems. However you have to have the drive to want to learn the material, and be able to work hard and 'hustle the extra mile' as they say, they will never give up on you and they will always treat you like family.

Currently, now that I have finished the coursework and now that I am working full time as a developer I am planning on working part time in the school as a teacher assistant. So that's my story, I went on a limb, took some chances and they paid off, at times I felt the existential dread set in, but in the end, it was all ok and everything went according to plan, which is exactly what I was looking for. Big thank you to Jo, Juha, Bianca, Matt, Jose, Don, Tim, Izzy Angel, Miguel, Miguel, Maddie, Victoria, Joe, Nick, Nick, Auston and of course Ed, you guys changed my life.

This course has been extremely informative. It is also super awesome that our instructors are apart of the industry - currently working in it. Also always avaliable to chat if you need to. Brainstation gives you all the tools you need to succeed. You really have to take away what you want from the program. Overall, this has been a very educational class! It also makes things better when you're not stuck in a stale classroom. Brainstations space is beautiful and bright, making it easy and comfortable to learn. 

I just completed the Digital Marketing course and feel so excited to utilize all that I learned! 

The last 10 weeks were full of so much energy, knowledge and great industry leaders.  
The ability to have a case study based on local brands was so interesting, and the chance to present to these brands face-to-face was very rewarding.  

Our instructors were so passionate about their industry and sharing their experiences. Not once, did they avoid answering a question nor turn anyone away for asking. They always had great examples and information.  
 

The fact that I could come in and work from Brainstation the entire duration of the course was amazing. That is such a perk! I was there every Monday at noon before my 6pm class.  It's a light and airy space right in the heart and soul of downtown Vacnouver.  

I look forward to attend more workshops and courses in the future.

I just finished the part time SEO/SEM course at Brainstation. I came into this course with a serious goal. I wanted the confidence to put SEO on my resume and the confidence to assist a client with the basics of SEO/SEM. After presenting our final project, I can say I achieved this goal. 

The 10 week course structure was brilliantly managable and the Brainstation Vancouver team created an energetic and clean space that made the learning experience great. The instructors/gurus Zak Ramdani (SEO) and Emily Leung (SEM) were experts in their field but even more so, they were great teachers. 

If you were looking to expand your skill set in tech, I couldn't recommend Brainstation enough! Don't waste your time falling asleep on a free online tutorial. Take a moment and ask yourself what you want to gain from the skill, and if you're serious with yourself, I'm sure you'll find yourself in this space too. 

I'm currently enrolled in the Digital Marketing program at Brainstation Vancouver and I love the program. Our course is almost near completion and I'm going to be walking away with a completely new understanding of the ever changing, online market space. I came into this course with the objective of applying the teachings to my own start up business. Conner Gallaway and Laura Andersen taught the course and they are both experts in the industry. It was great to be taught by people who own and work with successful local companies. The community is amazing and everyone makes you feel welcomed. You're even encouraged to use the Brainstation co-working space for the duration of the course. This is a super awesome feature for a start-up entrepreneur! I feel confident in applying the materials to my own business and highly recommend this course to anyone looking to build on their digital marketing skills.

I am currently enrolled in the Digital Marketing at Brainstation in Vancouver and I cannot say enough good things about this program. I have always been a firm believer in "it's who you know, but what you know", and not only does Brainstation give you the skills it takes in this industry, but they also give you the opportunity to meet experts in the industry. I have learned a lot in this program and I can not thank my teacher Conner Galway for his knowledge, resources and enthusiasm. He is truly an expert in his field. Learning from industry experts has allowed me to understand the industry in a whole new way. I would recommend Brainstation to anyone looking to get into the Tech industry. 

Fantastic Experience. Prior to coming to Wyncode, I had been following the self-study route. However, I knew from past educational experiences that I was more of a classroom learner, so I chose to attend Wyncode, and I don't regret it. Wyncode and Auston took me from a hobbyist level of understanding, to a web developer with several web applications under my belt. The curriculum is difficult, and at times you will be frustrated, but like with any new skill, its all about practice and continuing to push yourself learn outside of class and after your cohort. 

Auston was an excellent teacher, and cares about our success. He continues to assist me, daily, lol. He is an invaluable source of knowledge and a great mentor. Sure, there were lectures that felt like a grind but Auston and the T.A.'s always made themselves available to help, whether in person or on Slack, a communication tool utilized widely in the industry. The mentorship the staff provides is invaluable. Their advice has helped me grow not only as a developer but as a professional, as well. 

Wyncode stresses an iterative philosophy- through feedback sessions each week they tailor the program according to criticism and suggestions from the students themselves. If a particular teaching method didn't work for you, speak up, as the team will work to make accomodations for you quickly and genuinely. This adaptive nature is one that I was greatly impressed by. 

I believe there is validity to some of the criticisms found on sites like this. As part of my due diligience I researched the hell out of the school, contacting alumni, going through reviews on coursereport, reddit etc. This is a process I highly recommend, as attendance is an investment, not only of money but your time. It is key to note that as part of Wyncode's iterative ethos, many of the criticisms found on CourseReport are addressed and considered by staff. In fact, during my time in the course I noticed modifications thatl likely made my experience better than what a previous student's testimonial reported. 

Web Development, Programming, coding are difficult trades. You will have nights where you stare at your screen frustrated beyond belief. Don't let the mantra "anyone can learn to code" let you get lazy. Keep pushing yourself to be better. However, know that in attending Wyncode, you've joined a supportive community of developers, all more than willing to help solve any questions or issues you may come across in the field.

As far as the job hunt goes- Know that you're trying to get into the industry as a person on the ground floor. Accept that your lack of work experience will be noted in applications and on interviews. This means that for every project you are assigned during your cohort you need to give it your all, as these will be the first works in your portfolio. These projects will give you something to talk about with potential employers. GO TO THE NETWORKING EVENTS. Not just for potential work opportunities, but to practice talking about yourself and your development career. This practice has helped me considerably in interview settings.

All in all, Wyncode was an excellent introduction to Programming, and It gave me the momentum I needed to keep developing my skills. Know that this is a field where you are expected to learn new languages, technologies, etc. Wyncode can't teach them all to you, but you really do "learn how to learn", a valuable skill that employers look for.

p.s.

Before you start, I will recommend that you take some intro courses on programming, be it on Codecademy, CodeSchool etc. These will greatly help, and will help you decide if programming is for you. Also, do your research!!