If you’re considering to pay $10,000 to invest in your education and change careers, you might as well know what you are actually getting with that money. My goal in this review is to be as thorough and objective as possible, so as to give you, oh prospective student, a clear understanding of what you are honestly signing up for. I do not think emotionally charged reviews like “this is the best decision of my life” or “this totally isn’t worth it” really answer your doubts or questions or help you in your decision process. I’ll write this in an advice format, giving you 10 pieces of advice.
1. CourseReport reviews are skewed
First off, I’d like to mention how I joined. I joined Wyncode as opposed to any other bootcamp in the country (yes I looked at and considered over 60 different ones, either online or local) because of the CourseReport Reviews. Looking back, the hype of the reviews here was not a true representative of the actual bootcamp experience. What disappointed me more was the politics that are being played on wyncode’s coursereport.
Politics? What? Really? What do you mean? I know you’d ask. You see, some of the rave reviews that wyncode has are by wyncode employees(TA’s or campus director, etc.) themselves. Alberto, Henry, Kyra, Tim, Diego are all names you can see down here that are employees. Besides Diego, I didn’t see anyone else mention that they have actually been PAID by wyncode for some services. That’s not an authentic student review then. In any other company or review, that is a condition for integrity.
The other part of the politics is that if a negative review is left, if it has any negative words, it is automatically flagged for deletion. In terms of statistics, that means you are deleting all the negatively skewed reviews and thus giving a greater impression of how much greater you really are. This in statistics is shunned upon and makes ratings like 4.7/5 utterly unreliable.
You want more? I’ve noticed after negative reviews are left on here for Wyncode, usually I see another wyncode employee posting another positive review so that’s the last thing that people see on the page and probably also to bring back up the rating. Why else would Kyra Fillmore, a Wyncode TA (who’s pretty awesome but nevertheless did not put the disclosure) write a review on 3/9/2016 (Link Here: https://www.coursereport.com/schools/wyncode#/reviews/review/2938), almost 9 FULL months after she finished with her Wyncode bootcamp? Why is Diego and Tim’s review (both who are wyncode employees) right before hers? Yup look at the review right before the one Tim posted and you’ll see why: there is a negative review that needs to be balanced. Exactly. I don’t appreciate that. I want students. I want integrity.
2. 90% job rate, really now?
Even if an education or experience isn’t as good as it seemed at least on paper or based on reviews, if they can give you a job within few months, it is still a good decision as you can pay off the $10,000 very soon and get your money back and upgrade your career. Unfortunately, Wyncode can’t deliver on this rate.
First, let’s talk about the rate. I wish I knew before that 90% isn’t 90% of all students, it’s 90% of those finishing 80% of their homework (plus I believe those who are actually job-hunting). Some people survive through the 9 weeks, not able to finish the homework except with survival skills, and come out convinced they don’t want to be developers. I don’t think anyone feels competent to use the term full-stack web developer for themselves when they are out.
On top of that, I actually did the math for Cohort 7 of Miami. After 3 months, 22 out of 30 were hired, some it seems just as part-time employees at Wyncode or elsewhere so even that number needs to be more thoroughly answered. 22/30 is around a 73% placement rate, definitely not a 90% rate. The issue with these placement rates in any bootcamp is that right now they are not thoroughly regulated, so anyone can make up their own criteria and use it as a marketing ploy.
On top of that, from the 3 cohorts that have graduated in March 2016, only around 10 out of around 65 students have been hired (part-time or full-time or as interns) after a month. I personally only know of 1 that got a solid full-time position that was announced at Wyncode. It seems the Miami market is saturating with developers and there is not enough jobs to go for everyone. I’m interested to see how their rate is adapted based on that in this next upcoming year, the slope seems to get steeper and steeper.
3. Wyncode’s Strength: Team & Culture
Wyncode’s team is pretty awesome, they are all very nonjudgemental and all-embracing. That adds to the pressure of why no one wants to mention the other things I have mentioned in a review, they as well as I and everyone still know the team for being awesome, caring, and a big huge family.
Jo and Juha are the founders and are very down to earth, and usually they hire campus directors that also have good energy. Rita is the hiring director and also someone willing to go out of her way to help you or advise you in whatever you need. The team is solid and culture is great. And for soft skills, you'll learn things on how to present and salary negotiate and meet other great developers or CEO's and all that will help get your feet more wet in getting more successful in the industry. The soft-skill and people exposure is also a great plus.
4. Wyncode’s Weaknesses is its core fucntions: Job Placement and Curriculum
People join wyncode not for the soft skills but to learn to code and get a job. And unfortunately those are wyncode's weaknesses. I have already mentioned the issue with job placement above. The only way Wyncode will able to reconcile is if Miami’s market gets hotter or if they start getting connections for hiring outside of south florida. The job assistance you get is basically you having to email and call everyone that you can and hustle desperately to try to find someone to finally consider you and hire you. It's not an easy or enjoyable or streamlined process. It's bootstrapped just like how Wyncode started. Hustle your way to the top.
Curriculum-wise, remember, you are paying the same 10,000 for 9 weeks instead of the standard 12 weeks of education, so you already are getting less education. If I did the due diligence of reading 3 books, one on ruby, one on rails, and one on front-end development (html css javascript) I would have learnt more than what I did at wyncode. But wyncode gave me the confidence to see that I can build useful things and can actually hang and use those books. Bootcamps are helpful to start your programming journey, especially for those ready to spend their life in the code.
For me personally, the curriculum was what I was most disappointed in. I paid to learn to code, but constantly felt out of pace with the teaching. Sometimes I would learn something in class and the homework would ask questions completely different from what we were taught. The frustration kept adding and I considered quitting many times. The curriculum isn’t well thought out. It’s not polished. It’s not like that college class that gets 10/10 reviews every single time for being so clear and so well-designed. It’s the standard bootcamp education of lecture presentations and then disconnected homework that people have to google to keep up to understand. As one student said, “Did I really just pay $10,000 to use external resources to learn the material I’m supposed to be learning?” Yes, you did. The sad part for me was that this was one element in wyncode that could be so much better if they actually put more thought into it, but they need an educational designer for that. The job hunting part is also them trying to play with market trends and is harder to navigate.
After some complaining and after some drop-outs in our class and after 6 weeks of being behind and admitting that I can’t learn these things except after the cohort finishes, the main curriculum was finally over, so then worked with my team on our final project as best I could. In terms of the promises, the main mastery you get at wyncode if you can keep up is Ruby on Rails. Javascript is only briefly touched on, so if you’re into website making and more the external user experience, you’re better off with another front-end specific bootcamp. I didn’t realize how big the distinction was and that I could even do that till after I joined. The ending and the pitch day is always a high and a memorable experience, you are on the spotlight and everyone is cheering you on.
Part of the gimmick I didn't appreciate and that was used is a false promise that you’re going to go out and have so much fun in the 9 weeks. Like when you read Wyncode’s description saying "expect weekly activities like yoga, cross fit, sailing and go-karting”? Or that miami beach’s cohort will actually go to the beach? Lie. Beyond eating out twice, they have one go-karting event somewhere in the 9 weeks and that’s it. And you can ask the Miami Beach cohort if they actually went. This for me is also important for integrity. If you are only going out once, just say it and stick to your word, nothing wrong with that! But don’t make things seem so much greater than they actually are.
5. Conclusion:
Wyncode is still the best option in Florida so if you must stay in Florida, and you have already decided on a bootcamp, then I should say that Wyncode culture and education wise is still in my opinion, the best option out there. There is IronHack, 4geeks, and now NYDCA in the area too, but Wyncode is the dominant force and rightfully so. But you may end up hating development or not getting a job at all in development, and hate the education for the first 6 weeks especially, and then forget everything by the time you keep job hunting in the months after you graduate rendering your money useless, so be prepared for those disappointments.
Also don’t consider online options. I’ve come to terms with local and physical bootcamps being the best way. Wyncode’s curriculum is much better than bloc.io’s curriculum, that I have personally compared. But when an ex-Wyncoder said that after he graduated then he considered joining App Academy to actually feel more like he can feel like he is a coder, that raises some questions.
So anyhow, now time for my last paragraph of advice. If you must join wyncode, only join the wynwood campus, otherwise prepare to be disappointed and sell your education short. Wynwood, the Miami campus, is the original campus. The main teacher who designed the curriculum for wyncode, Ed Toro is there. Ft. Lauderdale (Alvaro) is famous for having a teacher that made simple mistakes while teaching. I’ve heard Auston is good as a teacher but also goes at his own pace and is not a teacher as much as a great programmer. Plus, I’ve seen that when employees are rated really high, they are stolen to the main Wynwood campus. For me, I’m still happy I joined, I don’t have a job, but the experience was good, although it wasn’t the rosy Disney movie that CourseReport reviews may have made it seem. For those who kept up and got jobs, you’ll get great reviews you see here. Then there is a great number that are just trying to find a job and disheartened and don’t want to write a review. And then there are those who had high expectations because of coursereport but got shocked when they came and so wrote the negative reviews you see on here. Hope this review helped, good luck on your career journey!