BrainStation

Wyncode was fundamental in my growth as a programmer. By commiting to the course and following through with that commitment, I was given the opportunity to build a programming foundation that has helped me land a job that I love.

Wyncode has grown and changed for the better through each cohort, mainly due to its ability to take students feedback through retrospectives each week. This allows students to feel like they are able to constructively criticize certain aspects in the course they don't feel are working and provide insight as to how Wyncode could improve. You get out of Wyncode what you put into it, and you are given the opportunity to get A LOT out of it. The instructors and TAs are there for you and are consistently willing to lend an ear to help if needed. I have made many lasting friendships as well as great connections through Wyncode.

If you are interested in learning to code, Wyncode is the perfect place to start your programming journey! 

First the obvious:

Wyncode is a wonderful team with great support. There was never a time (say, 3 am) when I couldn't jump into Slack, contact a TA or Instructor, and get my doubts resolved. The lectures were fantastic, the content broad and well thought out, and the team receptive. The program provides enough content to begin knowing next to nothing and finish with enough skills to launch a career in web development. But more importantly, they have well thought out pointers to go off-road and learn on your own. The content they provide in the space of nine weeks is astounding, but the program's greatest virtue is the number of resources they make available to students to learn to learn. Their career support after the nine weeks was a major part of me getting hired by a major SoFlo tech company one week after classes ended—a company that I came into contact with through the Wynterviews they set up for the students. Wyncode is a group of motivated, driven developers and developers-to-be—but more than that they are a fantastic network to be a part of. 

Which leads me to the less obvious part:

Wyncode was more than a transformation in my professional life; it was nine weeks of intense personal growth. Being surrounded by talented, intelligent, fun, and supportive people for 12 hours every day (including weekends) not only honed my skills as a developer but as a human being. Knowing RoR and JS is important, but knowing how to be part of a team, how to interact in the professional space, how to approach independent learning, and how to get involved and make a change in the local community is just as critical both for getting a job as for being a successful developer. The friends I made at Wyncode will stay with me for the rest of my career; I know we will grow as developers together. Furthermore, there are hundreds of wyncoders already working in SoFlo tech that I know I can reach out to for help and advice.

I graduated Wyncode and now I know to value my work, to recognize my intelligence and skill, to reach out to the WynFam, to try hard and to ask for help, to think through problems and implement solutions—software-wise and life-wise.

Wyncode is an amazing experience for those willing to take a plunge into a new career and trust their own capacity to learn and create.

10/10 would recommend ;)

 

 

Basically our cohort did not receive the same education Miami did. With the amount of time wasted in lectures to our learning space ( very small and dusty and the bathrooms are quite unsanitary) I feel that wyncode should give those at ft.lauderdale some of our money back. A lot of us are very angry about this but its hard to say this in our retro. I have talked to staff individually and expressed my concerns and still there was no change in the lectures. Our instructor Alvaro is a very intelligent and caring guy. He would however get thrown off during the session and then spend almost an hour trying to fix an error. Sometimes we would still have troubles in the second lecture of the day. This is definitely the #1 complaint from most of us.

I did make some great friendships and I enjoyed going out with my teammates and working in my group. It was a lot of hard work but All in all I do not recommend wyncode from my experience.

Wyncode is a terrific program for facilitating and accelerating a career transition into coding. You come out of the program with enough knowledge and ability to create static websites and web apps, and enough projects on your github to sit for job interviews with confidence. After leaving Wyncode, I felt like I had a foundation for learning how to code, and I was able to get a job offer coding within a few months of completing the program.

The career placement service after Wyncode is very useful as well. Wyncode's network in South Florida is vast, and their head of placement, Rita, does a magnificant job facilitating and assisting with your job hunt when you've completed your program.

I personally found the curriculum challenging to master while I was in the program and it was a very intense 9 weeks. I observed that the people who got the most out of the program 1) put the most into it, and 2) had come into the program with the most experience coding beforehand.

That being said, it is possible to begin Wyncode with very little knoweldge of coding before starting, and come out with the skills you need to get a job. So, don't let a lack of knowledge dissuade you, but do know that doing as much learning about code as you can before starting Wyncode will definitely be an asset once you start.

Finally, the people who work at Wyncode are very much so invested in your success. Everyone who works there is upbeat, positive, and dedicated to helping facilitate your transformation into a successful programmer.

I couldn't recommend Wyncode more.

I am a graduate from the last Wyncode Cohort. I am not an employee of Wyncode and I am not a TA.

I had struggle though the course like all of the students.  I have also questioned the value of the $10,000 investment like everyone else.

 

But I can honestly say that it was the best investment I have made for myself. There is just Nooooo way for me to acquire that much of updated and market relevant knowledge in that short period of time and in that kind of supportive environment.

 

How do you justify the value when beside the basic lettures, you have..

 Top quality instructors, the supportive staff, the guided curriculum, the space, the guest speakers, the soft skill, lean management, agile approach, etc. plus 

 - All the extra information provided to you for tech meetups,  hackathons, (there'll be at least a few activities a week); the immersion to the tech scene of south Florida. The entire process of arranged hiring partners for interviews.  They arrange hiring managers, CTO's, CEO's looking to hire students straight out of the cohort, these hiring partners are already sold about who you are, you don't have to prove to them how hard working you are or how much of a fast learner you are, or the awkward fact that 9 weeks ago, you did not know anything about programming and now you want to be a develop. The school already helped you overcome that hurdle and that is a huge one.  That alone is worth massive amount of time for job applications, and self marketing and blind luck. 

 

And the most valuable part of all is the like minded, hard driven individuals just like you that you would meet and work together. They will be someone you can count on far into the future.

 

This course is designed to be intimidating, and overload your capacity. It is up to you to retain as much as you can by working as hard as you can. There is no way you can learn all the thing they have expose you to. It can get extremely frustrating at times and many of us find that we were not given enough hand holding. But it is knowledge that you can only gain by doing and coding.  No amount of lecture can make you a coder if you don't code or go through a few build from scratch processes.

 

My advise is, if you have 2-4 years of time, you can take the college computer science route, and pay at least $23K for Miami Dade College or a lot more in any other Florida University. You'd come out with more solid understand of computer language but still lack relevant skills, relevant knowledge like Ruby, Rails, Git, Heroku deployment, building api's, hackng fackbook Oauth, they just don't teach you those in class.  It takes months and years of exposure to the coding world to learn all these everyday tricks and tools.

 

 Or you can spend god knows how long in front of a computer taking online courses or watching youtube, but definitely not able to get a job because you are just an hobbist.

 

Or go to Wyncode, pour your heart and soul to learning as much as you can, where you can stand a good chance of getting a coding job. And in 2-4 years, you will a full fled senior developer and earning a very respectable income. 

 

Just remember, it is no a guarantee, but it is definitely not a pie -in-sky lie. The tech job future is very real and it is entirely up to you to achieve it

 

I would also advise not write a review here if you are current student, on your last day of rushing to finish your project. I am sure you are highly stressed and lack of sleep.  You did a great job tonight showing the app that you have built, be proud of how far you have come and have faith in how far you can go. But don't forget to enjoy the journey.

 

I can spend twice the time and money and still wouldn't be able to be where I am today.

 

I am now working as a full time developer now and there is just no way I am get this job without Wyncode.

 

The good : awesome instructors, all the lessons before week 6 are fantastic. The homework is challenging and makes you think like a programmer . Meeting 25 other people with no experience and no background in coding while also growing your skills with them is an experience that is unmatched. The bad: week 6 and onward had many technical problems during the lesson, and it took a while to get on track. Much of the learning on the weekend is done on code school instead of customized curriculum. It's also hard to give bad feedback on Friday retrospectives because everyone you are giving feedback to is employed by wyncode. Most honest feedback is talked about amongst your peers. Overall I did like Wyncode, and I definitely feel I have the skills to get employed. That's what makes it worth it to me

At the time I made the leap into Wyncode I had been a stay-at-home-mom for 4 years. Before that, I had minimal work experience as a social worker. I knew that at some point I would have to level-up my education to make myself relevant and employable again. 

I had dabbled in html and css while blogging about motherhood, and had started trying to learn javascript through sites like Team Treehouse and CodeSchool. I kept losing motivation and getting stuck. 

I tried an in-person Intro to Development class at the LAB where Wyncode is located. The teacher of that class, Walter, was also one of the instructors of Wyncode at the time. He would tell us about the Wyncode experience and I saw many of the students working hard at all hours. The culmination of our Intro class coincided with the culmination of Wyncode’s 4th cohort. 

Walter invited me to pitch day and told me I should consider enrolling in the course. I wasn’t biting. $10k and 9 weeks away from my babies? No way!

At pitch day, I could not ignore the energy of Wyncode’s founders, Jo and Juha. The event was buzzing with interesting ideas. It had been years since I had been in a professional setting with so many other adults, and I had never been part of something that people were so excited about. After the pitches, I had a chance to meet some of the women from the 4th cohort. I talked to a couple of the teaching assistants, and Diego- the campus director at the time. Everyone was so welcoming and enthusiastic. When I left the event, I knew I wanted to join Wyncode.

I struggled with the decision for a couple of days, but after talking to Diego, who convinced me that the people who put the most on the line tend to excel, I decided to make the leap. 

By the time I enrolled, the start of the 5th cohort was just days away. I was so nervous and emotional about leaving my kids, but I knew tech was where I wanted to be. Development has a good job outlook, often flexible schedules, and location-independent- all those things fit well with my lifestyle.

My time at Wyncode was intense (as it should be). I was constantly learning and building. I was surprised by how much emphasis there was on business and teamwork. I spent long days at the LAB fixing bugs, and asking for help from the Wyncode staff. When I wasn’t coding, I was attending various Miami Tech events. There is something almost every night. I pushed myself really hard, and I still had to go home each day and be a mom.

Upon graduating, I wasn’t sure I wanted to take a full-time job right away, but I met a company at Pitch Day and decided to interview. They offered me a full-time, work from home position and would send me to Jacksonville to train with their team of consultants at Hashrocket! I happily accepted!

I have since left that job to start a non-profit with some of my Wyncode classmates. I also do freelance development and am a part-time teaching assistant at Wyncode. I have not stopped learning and just got back from a React.js conference hosted by Facebook in San Francisco. I get offers to come in to interview for companies all the time and I’m lucky to be in a position where I can be choosy about what I take. It’s a great schedule with my two small kids.

Besides feeling professionally relevant again, the number one thing Wyncode has provided is an AMAZING network of people. Between the alumni, the hiring partners, and the Wyncode team, I have built so many relationships that wouldn’t have been possible without Wyncode. It truly is my second family. 

I am so glad I decided to join Wyncode. It has been life-changing. It feels like the sky is the limit!

I have experienced Wyncode Academy from the inside and the outside, I have seen every part of the organization, as an employee and a student. Someone might see this as a kind of bias for this review. But as I sit here on my desk at a billion dollar Silicon Valley startup, thinking of how I got here I can confidently say, without the worry of bias, that being a part Wyncode Academy is the best decision I have ever made. 

My experience with Wyncode is a bit unique. My journey began as an intern for Wyncode in the summer of 2014. I was a middle school science teacher before my internship, I arrived two days before the end of the first cohort. I met Jo and Juha, the founders as well as Ed, the instructor and the students. What struck me within the first day was a couple of things, how hard the staff was working to ensure the students were succeeding and how brave the students were to take this course, untested and brand new.

I was entranced by the positivity and relentless attitude of everyone around me, something hard to find in a traditional institution and near impossible to find in the public school system. So great was this internship experience that I decided to leave my job as a teacher and work for Wyncode as the first campus director. For a year and a half I worked as campus director and as admissions director. Over the course of this time I was able to see first-hand, the lives of over 100 students change radically. As admissions director I would speak with people every day, disillusioned with their previous jobs, in need of a change. Nine weeks later, a developer, with passion for technology and a great paying job.

I cannot say I wasn't a skeptic of the value or the efficacy of this program at first. You see for me, as a Wyncode employee, it was not about money or the growing popularity of the Miami tech scene. The sole reason I arrived in Miami (I am a California native, raised in Mexico) was to teach, to change the lives of people in tough situations. That is what my job as a teacher in a public school could not do. That is what Wyncode Academy could do. The Saturday after the end of every nine week course I would find myself staring out, thinking of the graduates and how their lives were transformed, all with the sincere satisfaction for the work I did to help. I was doing what I had set out to do. This continued throughout my development at Wyncode.

Wyncode secured a partnership with The Knight Foundation to create a scholarship for low income residents of Miami. I had the honor of leading the charge in developing this scholarship from start to finish and all the while in awe of the true impact that Wyncode has on the Miami community. I had a job where people’s lives were changing, there was no doubt of the value any longer. As I helped in the expansion of the Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach locations I began to realize why I had ended up at Wyncode, it was because of my passion for education and technology. 

I have always been around computers and technology, an early adopter, but I did not code until I got to college. I studied Cognitive Science at UC Berkeley and took two computer science courses there. I loved them and hoped I had done more. When I was a teacher, I taught myself a tiny bit of JavaScript to motivate my students to learn to code. I had arrived at Wyncode because I wanted to be closer to technology and continue my duty to education.

When I had this realization I decided that my next step was to take the Wyncode course myself, and begin to make my way back to California, to be closer to my family. I was a student of the third Fort Lauderdale cohort. I learned more in those 9 weeks than in two semesters of computer science courses at Berkeley. I made incredible friends and was supported along the way by the teaching and operations staff. My goal after was to find a job in Silicon Valley. 

A student and friend from the first cohort, Walter, who was recruited by Udacity after he graduated and who I had met on my first day as an intern heard about this and connected me to the right people and encouraged me to apply there as a content developer, where I would be writing Ruby on Rails curriculum for thousands of students worldwide. It was the perfect combination of education and technology, the right job for me. Wyncode helped me throughout the entire process, from professional development, education, application, salary negotiations all the way to the day I signed my offer letter.

Wyncode has now changed the lives of over 150 people, myself included. The program is intense on purpose. Challenging consistently, and ever-evolving. The staff relentless in their purpose to change lives. The leadership insanely hard-working. The students motivated, dynamic and diverse. If you choose to take this course, know that it will be difficult and motivating, exhausting and inspiring. It will open opportunities at a speed you could only imagine. I have seen it and experienced it first-hand. Wyncode is the real future of education.

Wyncode has truly been one of the greatest experiences of my life. Full disclosure, I came here as a student in September and after the course I was hired by Wyncode to be an Instructor at the Wynwood campus. Before coming to Wyncode I was a high school math teacher. I loved my job and loved the students, but felt my impact could be greater through technology. Wyncode has given me the opportunity to do this, and for that am forever grateful. I spent a lot of time trying to learn on my own through online resourcse with little success, and with in the first week of Wyncode I felt I learned more than a years worth of online resources. Ed Toro is not only a gifted programmer, but also an incredible teacher(As a former teacher I am super critical). The best part of the Wyncode experience though is the culture. I made life long friends, high level connections in Miami, and attained a network of developers that are some of the best in the industry( an invaluable resource). For anybody considering a bootcamp, I highly recommend the Wyncode experience. It's the type of life changing decision you will wish you made sooner. 

I'm currently taking the part-time Product Management course at BrainStation and can't say enough good things about my experience so far! I was looking to learn new professional skills to help me progress in my career, but I wanted to learn something completely new. I work in Marketing and thought learning about Product Management/Development would help me have a better understanding of the products that I'm "selling" every day. Not only has all of the course material been completely applicable to my current role and company, but it will also be helpful for any future opportunities. The staff is ALL helpful and friendly, and the instructors and teaching assistants are current experts in their fields, so they can provide insight and advice based on relevant information. Two thumbs up!!