CodeClan

CodeClan is very expensive. The education given can be found online if you do some research, but this is not what attracted me about CodeClan. It attracted me that I could learn so that later I could use that knowledge to be able to find a job, through them obviously, as they will always remind you that "99.9% of our students find a job right after CodeClan with our partners”, if you ask, 99.9%?, they will smile at you, correct themselves and say “well, maybe 97%”.  

You will learn a lot of things in very short time, plenty information to process in your brain, unless you know some basics of programming. However, as beginner you will probably feel overwhelmed with the amount of stuff they teach you, by the end of the course, you will rarely understand all the concepts.

If you don't have experience with coding, CodeClan will not take you to the places they promise. Yes, they will repeatedly give you the good vibes and tell you stuff like: “the tech industry in Scotland is growing!”, ”we have a large number of partners willing to take graduates from CodeClan“. CodeClan has about 300 different companies. About 150 are micro companies (0-14 people), small-size companies are about 70 (15-49 people), 30 medium-sized companies (50-249 people) and 50 large companies(250+ people). Make your own conclusions from there.

The teachers and the program is great and fun and you will learn and interact with the class thanks to them. But the problem right here is the CEO, which seems to be a nepotist with no shame. If you are good friends with her and you didn't find a job, not a problem! She will be able to provide a job, by recommending and putting nice words about you for one of those large juicy companies. Apparently, one person got a job at one of these companies, didn't necessarily know how to code. Well, later on I found out, this person got fired and that specific company refused to take more students from CodeClan ever again, good job Melinda!

Now, what type of business allows this to happen? The nepotism from the CEO jeopardised one important partner for the business and the future of oncoming students with the required TALENT to learn and develop successfully within that company. Now starting from this point on, everything else you hear from the CEO is complete crap and lies, in fact, at some point I thought I was being brainwashed with all this fake-positive statements. Let's not forget who is paying for CodeClan, the students! And the CEO is giving herself the right to decide who gets a job, how, where and why. 

The speed networking event is somehow a lie too, you get 10 companies more or less, but they do not necessarily have jobs on offer, or are willing to take graduates onboard. If you don’t get a job, you will join a Slack channel, where there are probably other 200 people from previous cohorts looking for jobs too. Here, the careers department will often post job vacancies, and the 200 of us will apply, including the people applying externally. The careers department is a bit weird too, they will help you make a CV and make sure that the word CodeClan is at least 20 times mentioned on your CV, do not give them more hype, maybe it’s just me, I don’t like to wear clothes where a huge logo says MC Donalds or Adidas. The CVs are not made for a specific job role, do you want to be a java developer? front-end developer?, a back-end developer?, a UX designer?, maybe a product designer?. Well if you have paid already, push them to help you create a specific CV for that.

Conclusion, if you are an experienced programmer with no job, definitely spend the money, if you are lucky you will only have beginners with no clue on what’s happening in your class, this way your chances to get a job at the speed networking will have increased. If you have no experience with coding, save that money, go for holiday for a week or two, enjoy your time, and come back full of energy to study at the University. You will learn the same stuff properly and you will take your time to achieve a more solid result. Or make good friends with Melinda, make her coffee in the morning or I don’t know, buy her a pan au chocolat! maybe she fancies giving you a job at a top tech company. Good luck on both!