CareerFoundry

I chose the Web Development track for CareerFoundry on the reccomendation of my friend, who took the UX design course (and got an internship, and then 70k a year job shortly after). It's a 6 month track and it took me just over 4 months to do it, even with a full time job. I had been wanting to switch into the Web Dev field for a while and primarily chose CareerFoundry because of its affordability and the fact that I could do it on my time. There aren't a lot of comparable options. Overall, I was satisfied by my experience. I learned a LOT- CareerFoundry gives you all the foundations you need to build a static website and Ruby on Rails application, which in turn gives you the foundation for other frameworks.

My mentor was available from 7pm-11pm every day, and was incredibly helpful. He gave me a lot of help on his own, sometimes stayed a little later than his shift to help me, and he taught me a lot. However, he also taught me the importance of being resourceful and looking stuff up on my own.

I'm not sure that "just taking the course" will get you a job- but nonetheless, neither will "going to college." However, without the structure of the course to help me, I don't think I would have been as sucessful with my learning. You essentially build two websites for the course, both of which can be used as "portfolio projects" to apply for a job. The course doesn't focus on javascript and algorithms and things like that as much as it could have, so that's really what my next step has to be.

Another important aspect to CareerFoundry is the Slack community and the networking opportunity it presents. And when your mentor isn't available and StackOverflow doesn't seem to be able to answer your question, you can likely get an answer on there. Their customer service and staff are incredibly friendly and helpful and genuinely want you to succeed. While they don't seem to have the resources to be able to do direct job placement, they do provide other advice to students. Personally, I feel like I could maybe apply for jobs now and be successful, but want to learn a bit more. If I didn't take this course and just tried to learn unguided and compiling other resources together, I'm not sure I would have been as motivated in successful in my endeavors.

While I have yet to land a job, I believe that this was a great investment of $1,500 and the boost I need- I couldn't quit my job and go do a $15,000 bootcamp. This is affordable, you learn a lot and I would reccomend it to anyone.

Suggestions: They have a few "optional projects" like a calculator in JavaScript that you can make or a rails "to-do" app and give you suggesions on how to make them. In my opinion, they could add a few more of these, as it wouldn't require much staffing on their part but really help their students.
 

I'm taking the developer course and I've just about finished the exercises and achievements.

Pros: The curriculum is setup well and it's easy to track your progress and see where you are going. Having a mentor is a great resource and the Slack community is pretty knowledgeable and accessable. Compared to other bootcamps the price is reasonable too.  

Cons: This is still self-based learning and if you get stuck on a problem you are encouraged to try and figure out the issue yourself by looking online. Yes, you can ask the community or your mentor, but you will not always get quick responses. Part of being a developer is learning how to google your issues and how to fix things on your own so in a way this is a good thing. I don't believe there is much in the way of job assistance, but if you ask your mentor or the community you can be pointed in the right direction. 

Overall, I liked my experience and feel I learned a lot about web development, but I've only scratched the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more to learn and this course is just the beginning. I think it is possible to get a job after this course, but you must be disciplined and continue building and learning on your own. 

The content was decent, although there were plenty of errors in the lessons, some that would completely throw off your learning until you inquired to your mentor or the community only to find out it's an error in the lesson. I'm not clear on why these things weren't corrected immediately, even after they'd been brought to the attention of CF multiple times.

My mentor was very little help. This is the worst part since it was the EXACT reason I signed up...for mentor access. He was often not available when he said he would be and often took a week or more to respond to questions or lessons. Also, we are promised 12 skype sessions, I got exactly 0 (it appears they no longer provide that, lol). My guess is this is more mentor specific, as many other students have raved about how responsive and helpful their mentors were. So, you'll want to make sure you get a good mentor and if you don't, ask for a new one.

Also, there isn't any job assistance whatsoever. The "student success manager" never checked in, although I received a few automated broadcast emails with general advice. I was surprised that after six months, there wasn't one personal check in.

Because of these issues, I can hardly recommend the course, not for $1900! Maybe $300. I have used Treehouse for more than a year and the content and overall quality is outstanding (unfortunately, there just aren't any mentors...for now).

I started the Web Developer course as a complete newbie and in the beginning felt the learning was well supported. As time went on, my mentor was little help, the course materials were lacking in places and my experience hasn't been enough to get an internship, let alone an actual job. When I got stuck in places, it was up to Google and Stack Overflow to save me. The feedback I received was minimal and if not for the online community, I never would have finished.

I do think they provide a lot of great resources and teach you the basics. It just isn't enough to get a job as advertised. 

I loved my time with CareerFoundry.  I found my mentor to be extremely knowledgeable and encouraging. The mentor was probably my favorite part of the course.  I also liked the format of the course material.  The assignments were clear and easy to understand.  They don't unlock the next section until you finished the previous one.  This made it easier for me to stay focused and on track.  My experience  was a very positive one. I will be continuing my education with them later this month by taking the Web Developer Course.

I signed up for CareerFoundry's "Web Development" course with the belief that at the end of the course, I would be ready to apply for junior-level jobs in my area, as per their online promise.  I was suckered in by their cutesy-poo story of some developer who was unemployed and after three months was working as a freelance developer.  That may be well and dandy, but it would be nice to see a roadmap as to how to go down that path.  But this is my review of CareerFoundry.

PROS

CareerFoundry is affordable.  It is cheaper than other bootcamps where you pay 10% of your mortgage, but you pay for what you get.

My mentor was nice and knowledgable, but per CF you are only entitled to one Skype call per week.  So Google and StackOverflow become your friends.

The community on Slack is (somewhat) engaging.  There's a lot of "Hi, I'm from [insert country here]" where you can meet other people.

CONS

CF is more geared toward UX/UI development and freelance web development.  So if you're looking for support in web development for a company, you won't find it here.

There are NO CAREER RESOURCES.  No help for technical interviews, job preparation (they don't do placement), resume writing, nothing.  Sidenote: how do you call yourself CAREERFoundry and provide no career support?  They claim to have an "extensive job network", but that's for European jobs in UX/UI.

The majority of their lessons leave a lot to be desired.  They say that no programming experience is required, but if you've never even looked at HTML before, you'll be blown away by the early assignments.

Good luck asking for help on the forums.  I've come across problems with assignments and tried to post questions and received no help.

Your portfolio consists of "two" projects: the personal website and a Ruby on Rails app.  Nothing to really impress a potential employer.

If you're a PC user, you will struggle with the RoR portion and they provide no support.

Bottom line is, you can go through Treehouse and get the same skills at a fraction of what you pay for CF.  I cannot recommend this program to anyone.