Coder Academy

Thoroughly enjoyed being apart of the 12 week Ruby on rails course at Coder Factory and learnt a lot helping me launch my first few websites. Great for those just getting started in coding!

I just completed the 1Q15 Master's Class at Coder Foundry.  If you want to jump-start your career, this is your place.  It is a professional environment that leaks integrity from the top down.  We learned ASP.net, javascript, CSS, HTML5, AngularJS and related in a Visual Studio environment.  The instructors provide direction, and rather than hand-holding they encourage you to develop problem solving skills that will extend beyond the course.

Check out Coder Foundry if you are serious about upgrading your skills and getting a great job.

Overall the fast track course is great for beginners, only wished there was more content of Node Js for backend development, instead of using Ruby on Rails for MERN API.
Big shout out to Glen Johnson, the "educator assistant", he is a huge reason that made this course a great experience!

Decent course teaching web development coding for Ruby, Rails, JavaScript and React. They give you a lot of info and support, it's intensive but if you spend the time listening, learning and applying, it will serve you well. Internship optional at end isn't guaranteed.

 the course structure has big problem! their lesson only teach part of full stack, so after class you still can't finish a whole full stack website individually and  have to do research by yourself. 
 They used to say they did not prefer front-end or back-end, but the fact is that they completely ignored front-end teaching and only taught CSS skills for 2 weeks in the first semester, and then did not involve front-end teaching. it should be said that they are institutions that tend to back-end teaching. 
In the last term, the course arrangement was very unreasonable and the course content was rushed, so students have many problems in the final project.
So if you don't have a certain programming foundation, it's not the best choose for you! there are many students drop out the course. And another important point that there are lots of dramas happened during the class, coding not working properly and plugs install problems happen all the time. 
For assignment, in the academy requirement 100-200 words for each question, but teacher will tell you that requirement only reach to pass level, you have to submit 300-400words each question if you want to get D or HD. So all students spend lots of time to do these research and still need to do practices.
Before you plan to register for classes, you must think carefully, academy say they will guarantee offer you  internship opportunities after finish the course, but in fact not everyone can get the internship, and academy will ask you to wait or try to find job by yourself, but it's very difficult for people who just finish course without any experiences. 
maybe it's only happen on me.... but just let everyone know about that before you make the decision. 

Just a heads up for those people reading through these reviews, I'd like to suggest taking them with a grain of salt. I've spoken with a number of these people leaving reviews throughout the course and they've said many things which leaves me baffled as to why they would leave 5 star reviews. I imagine it's a combination of them forgetting how they felt throughout the course, just being happy now that they are nearing its completion, or being concerned that there will be negative ramifications if they leave a negative (or accurate) review.

Pros:

- I've learnt a lot and am ultimately happy I've done the course.
- I've been placed into an internship at a great company which could set me up for moving into the industry.
- Met great people throughout the course
- The teachers make themselves easily available to message any day of the week if you have any questions about the content (although I feel like this could also lead to burnout as they don't necessarily take as much time away from the course as they need to).
- Feedback was recieved and action taken when people were unhappy with a number of things (so this means the below cons may have been mitigated somewhat). However, this took a long time to happen and numerous complaints and discomfort during classtimes (it was clear the lead teacher had read negative feedback and made a number of passive agressive and self-deprecating comments as a result).

Cons:
- Course content was all over the place with no clear structure of what was going on from day to day.
- A teacher was let go during the course. I'd speculate that that was in relation to his behaviour in class, lack of willingness to record videos of the lectures, and general attitude. During the teachers deterioration, the number of students showing up to class dropped significantly because people found it more useful trying to self-learn (I understand that self-learning is a part of becoming a web developer but I signed up to the course so I didn't have to purchase additional online courses.)
- CSS teaching was really disappointing, at that point I considered leaving the course because we were just told to play online CSS games and were just watching videos in class (we could do this at home).
- The teachers were clairly unhappy with how management operated in Sydney, which as a student I didn't need to be exposed to. Would have been more professional to deal with it in meetings rather than being vocal about it in class (which distracted from the reason we were here).
- Communication from those providing job assistance was lacklustre. We were provided example CVs hours before we were told we needed to submit our own (and the examples didn't relate exactly to our situation because they were post-internship CVs and we were applying for our internships). I'm about to start my internship in a week and do not have the email of the person I will be working for and am not even sure what time I will be starting (the job assistance has however told me they have scheduled an email for next week).
- Mentor talks were hit and miss and we were often convinced to show up to class without them saying what for (this is because they often weren't great).
- Teachers suggested we do a number of things just to tick boxes rather than put a positive spin on the fact that we were learning skills that might be useful. Discrete maths was just something we "needed to remember for the test" but it cost us a lot of money to be here so I'd prefer they emphasise the fact that this could be useful in software development.
- The way people were assigned to internships seemed like a lucky dip with people who I know are capable web developers not receiving any interviews while others recieved 3.

My time at Coder Academy was one of the best experiences of my life! I made life long friends, got employed but most importantly I rediscovered my passion for learning. 

Before going to Coder Academy, I was working a job that I had no passion for, or was challenged in. I had finished University and thought I can't be doing this for the rest of my life. I had no idea on how to code, or even the mindset you should take when tackling these big problems. My friend was a developer and I was always interested in the problems they solved, so I decided to give Coder Academy a real go.

In my opinion, Coder Academy really separates itself from the pack for 4 key reasons. 
1) The staff are amazing, and really care about you as a person and want you to succeed. One of the annoying things about finishing is I don't see them as much as I use to!
2) You will be surrounded by like minded people who you really learn from and grow with. This sort of environment will expedite your learning! 
3) 27 Weeks instead of 12 weeks like other bootcamps. In my opinion the concepts you cover cannot be absorbed in 12 weeks and I really enjoyed the longer time. 
4) The internship! I was not hired where I interned,  however the learning experience was fantastic. Lucky enough I was able to get a job after because of the contacts provided for me by Coder Academy. 

You get what you put in, and if you truly immerse yourself in this experience I guarantee you will not be disappointed. Ask lots of questions! Go to meet-ups! Go to Hackathons! You are in a place where your learning is number one priority and if you make it yours then good things will naturally follow.  

Overall, the course will not teach you everything about coding, but that's not what is important. What is important is learning how to learn and loving it, since that's what your life will be as a developer.  This is a fantastic launching pad for your career and I wish anyone who does it good luck and to have fun!

Student(2017 July to 2018 March)

The curriculum is great, staffs are great except the instructors. We were 36 students and by the time we reached our term4- only 23 students left as most of us didn't want to give up. 

If you your instructors names are Michael or Luke, do me a favour, just run away. They do not worth your time,let alone $$.

If you still decide to pursue the course, do not forget use your census date(every term ,they have to by law provide you a date,you have an option to leave the course).

Course is ok, instructors are defenitely NOT.

Coder Academy's fast track coding bootcamp is perhaps the only bootcamp in the world that you can do with government-sponsored student loans. The only catch of that is you have to be qualifed Australian citizens or residents to reap this special benefit. It is by far the most appealing thing about this bootcamp. 

Overall, the experience was excellent with the just the perfect mix of student for this particular cohort of graduates. The tutors provided good mix of help and guidance without too much spoonfeeding. Some bootcampers that rely on too much spoonfeeding for their learning could not catch up and they could have been filtered earlier during the interview process.

Mentors that gave talk to the group throughout the course were 50:50 hit or miss. Most of them were only interested in promoting themselves. 

The arranged internship process was a disaster and it caused many people in the cohort unnecessary grief. As the bootcamp program grows larger and the intake size increases, their promised guaranteed internship opportunities will dwindle, at least the good ones. Next batch of students should plan ahead and plan strategically for their job hunt after graduation – preferably weeks in advance before graduating.

I completed a bootcamp with Coder Factory and I can say I am a new person! 

Being fairly new to code apart from what I had learnt from Uni, I had the opportunity to learn 2 stacks with Ruby on Rails along with the MEAN stack and reactjs which I have noticed everyone is looking for. 

The teachers were very knowledgable and interactive with the class and we all were able to work together giving our own ideas and a good contribution. I had completed a Masters a while back and touched on more than basics of code in Java and some HTML, it seemed like I had completed a course just to do homework and come out with no real idea about development and made my views on development a weak career choice! 

As I started to look for work it became very hard for me and it seemed like there were a whole heap of opportunities out there, just I wasn't right for the picking it seems. Luckly a friend had told me about Coder Factory and what they do and that he had also gotten a job at the end of it. 

I had a look around at other courses and there was one that seemed similar, but then Coder Factory is an accredited course and the background on the teachers was very impressive.

All in all, the course taught me about Agile, to build web applications, to read and problem solve someone elses code (in the past I had no idea what I was looking at!) and 2 tech stacks along with a range or commonly used tools, libraries and frameworks. 

I had only just started with a well renound organisation and after my second week I have been offered a position after my internship. 

So all I can say, thank you Coder Factory, you opened my eyes to the real world of development and I have a strong passion for the industry and know I can do anything in the future. 

 

These guys have the right hint, they're accredited, they are the right time frame as well, 6 months, to let the mind to not only accept but also grow on the skills one would have learnt. They kept everyone engaged by introducing them to relevant and influential leaders in the industry (much needed) all whilst practicing technology that is not easy but technology that is relevant.

I found the lecturers well praticed and organised, they know what theyre doing in the competitive environment, the consistency of the lecturers helped the students communicate and connect well with the teaching style and content.

All aspects of the web were covered and education was encouraged at every single point throughtout. They are the future of programming bootcamps in Sydney, they're honest, outcomes driven and content/quality focused.

Dan, Pete and Raman have done a good job kicking this off the ground and the sky is only the limit for these hustlers.

I would recommend them 100% for anyone looking to become a good programmer with a job, rather one that just lands a random job.

All the best guys!

PS: No one comes out "good" in three months, especially after a 0 base. Any bootcamp that sells that...well you know what they're selling

These guys are the most disorganised bunch of misfits i have ever delt with.

I could not be more unimpressed with this chop shop.

They profess the "best instructors in the industry"

Every instructor this was their first course teaching.

Promises, promises, promises.

The material is nothing more that what can be obtained online for free!

They try to give the big sales pitch but they just want your money.

Once you are in they have a like it or lump it attitude.

Save your time and money.

Do not do this course.