Codeworks

After a year I finally write my review, Codeworks was a fantastic experience, not so much for the instrument as for the mentality, the team is really incredible Arol Alessandro, Leo and Marco are excellent instructors, always available to give you a hand . I decided to do this review after having so much time to dare another point of view, that of a person who has attended the bootcamp and works and after a year I can say that Codeworks is the state more than useful, I worked in Italy for 2 companies at the top of the startup in my area, I have an average salary higher than my peers and I do the job I love to do.

If you are looking for a truly professional bootcamp, choose it and I'm sure you won't regret it.

I graduated Codworks 1 year ago and I can tell you that my life changed completely from that moment on.

This bootcamp is not only an amazing experience, but of an excellent level:

- The course curriculum is everything you're going to need to succeed in a full stack position.

- The teachers are more than qualified and really great people.

- The course teaches you how to code, but moreover, it teaches you how to learn, so you'll be working with a lot of different technologies and languages but you won't be afraid to approach them.

- You'll be spending 3 months developing code, but also developing a bond with a lot of different people (and some ping pong mad skills).

For me it took 2 months to find a job. Why so long? I had a lot of offers, but I wanted to find a company with a product I could see myself using and having fun developing. I can tell you that you'll find a job, but if you're patient enough, thanks to Codeworks, you'll find your deam job.

I'll try and keep this as succinct as possible:
Is it worth the 10k? Yes/no- Do you want to completely change your career and get started as a full stack developer? Yes, worth it. Do you want to learn this so you can return back to your current job and be able to work better with developers as a PM or Agile Coach etc. No, I would say not worth it. This course is really intense and designed for those who want to start with a leg up.

How's the quality of the material? This is the only school, that I was able to find in the area, that went as in depth with JavaScript as possible with the time available. The **mandatory** pre-course work is no joke, one of the co-founders will say that it alone is enough to get a Jr. Dev position. I think it's a little bit of a stretch, seeing some job applications and coding challenges for potential hires leaves me to believe that he is not too far off from that statement. If you know programming and have used the method `.reverse()` and you use it but don't know the inner workings of it... don't worry, by the end of the pre-course you will know the inner workings of maaaaany JavaScript methods. Then you will go through topics of Classical Inheritance to Pseudo Classical(Prototypal) Inheritance to Classes. You will learn Angular AND React for frameworks, bare Node, Express and Koa. too many things to list.

Is it that intense? Yes, though depending on your previous knowledge. I did freeCodeCamp for a year previously and this course was intense. Not just because of the material, but you will do a serious deep dive into JavaScript and look under the hood often as to who, what, where, when, and why. You will do this for 3 months Mon-Sat 09h-21h (minimum).

How are the staff? The staff are great, very knowledgeable and patient with answering questions. Although, be fairly warned don't even dare asking them a question that's easily answered online because you are too lazy to google it. Aside from that. staff members will hold meetings with other classmates and go over topics maybe you still don't understand, they will really bend over backwards for you.

100% hiring? There was one person that I knew of that it took him longer than the 5 months to find a job, of actively looking. However, he is now working at a company as a full stack dev. The guy who helps you find a job (Don't know his title, sorry Marc) will work with you until you land your job. He will negotiate the contracts with you and try and get you the money that is deserved with the company that you want. Then if you decide that you don't like your current job anymore and want a new opportunity you can reach out to him and he will do his best to help you again. 

Negative - So this course is not a course where you are going to get your hand held through it. You can get really really easily overwhelmed. It's still a little too pricey. You will have ZERO social life. If you are not from the city and you think that it will be nice to go to Barcelona and see the city while programming, get that thought out of your mind. You will spend 90% of your time awake either reading about programming or actually doing it.

I attended the 12-week full-stack program Codeworks is running in autumn-winter 2017. It was one of the most rewarding experience in my life. The environment is the best I could ask for, both the personnel at school and the classes are very supportive and nice and their facilities are great. The course is very demanding, but for our benefit, I learnt an insane amount, and was really proud of what I was able to build. The program is the right mix of theoretical and practical. I can only recommend anyone to join!

TL;DR

Excellent curriculum, great outcomes, passable lectures, fun experience overall. Be prepared to study hard and teach yourself. Don't be afraid to ask lots of questions. If you put in the time and effort, you will succeed. The jobs are out there, and if you can get through Codeworks, you will definitely find one.

The Course

• The course is every bit as intense as is advertised. You will really spend 11-12 hours there a day, 6 days a week
• The curriculum is excellent and well-tailored to the job market. You will leave well prepared for the technical interviews.
• Lectures were meh. There were a few excellent ones, but I have to say that as a whole their effectiveness was questionable. Make sure to be vocal and ask questions if you don't understand. Be prepared to spend time learning things on your own.
• Make the most out of your senior projects. These will form your portfolio after the course during the job hunt, and will make a big difference.
• Ultimately, you get out what you put in. If you show up having barely spent any time on the precourse, you will struggle through the course and lose the opportunity to learn more in-depth things. The more prepared you come, the better positioned you are to take advantage of the whole experience.

Peers

• The peers in your batch make a huge difference! You are spending 6 * 12 hours with them a week.
• I was lucky to meet 14 amazing individuals who were a pleasure to work and learn with.
• You can't control how your classmates are, but you can be an agreeable and cooperative person yourself.

Outcomes

• To my knowledge, everybody in my graduating class (14 people) who wanted a job as a software developer has now received an offer as a developer, regardless of citizenship.
• Job assistance was quick and effective. Thanks Marc!

I waited a bit before writing my review as I had taken some time off before applying: I needed to make up my mind on where I wanted to live, which role, etc. I had therefore little visibility on how I would perform compared to the rest of the "market". Currently I am a full-stack developer working in London for clients as a contractor. I am now in the position to attest that the things we learned and the depth of our knowledge in Javascript and software development in general is really, really good. If you're skeptical about whether those months can take you to a professional level, please, know that it really will. 
You'll get much more than just knowledge in web development. You'll get the right fundamentals (algorithms, data structures, etc), which makes a whole difference on your approach when you'll start building things: you'll be able to judge the efficiency and quality of a given code. 
Warning - before coming to CW, you do need to learn and code as much as you can. As others have pointed out, in the end of the day, you will have to do the work. So you might struggle if you haven't prepared properly before the program. Really take the pre-course exercises seriously, and start learning on your own now. 
The TAs are really patient and helpful, it really speeds up your learning by ten times compared to if you were on your own. Not to mention the rest of the students. I met the most brilliant minds. 
I urgently recommend if you're serious about becoming a full-stack / front-end / software engineer. 

I just graduated in December and Codeworks was an amazing experience.

It is definitely very challenging and intensive, but the instructors and TAs are always very helpful, the infrastructure is extremely good and having colleagues that are just as dedicated as you makes the learning process much better. At the end of the course, you are just amazed at how much you've learned!

I can definitely recommend the course for those who want an intensive and immersive experience.

I completed the Codeworks program a little over a month ago. I decided to wait a bit before writing this review because I wanted to see the validation of the market on my preparation and skills first. This validation has come in the form of job offers that demonstrated me, once again, how well Codeworks prepares its students.

My three months at Codeworks have been very intense and despite the stress, every day I was fully conscious that it was totally worth it. The pace is vigorous but you will never feel lost because you will have the support of your instructors, your teaching assistants, and your classmates. The student selection process really works well, and your classmates will be some of the most driven, motivated and knowledgeable people you will ever meet.

I spent an average of 12-13 hours a day in Codeworks including my Sundays. On my typical Sunday, I would sleep a couple of hours more than usual and then go to Codeworks to revise the concepts introduced during the week or to experiment with new technologies. I was not the only crazy one! Many of my classmates were doing the same!

Regarding the team there, everybody is amazing.

Arol is a coding rockstar and he mentored us throughout all the course. Marco is super competent and always in a good mood. Leonardo is really experienced on the front-end and always very supportive and helpful. Marc will be the to-go-to person when looking for a job after the course. Marc is super knowledgeable and encouraging: he will guide you through your job search. From him expect pieces of advice that will save you a lot of mistakes and will help you to get the job you want.

Barcelona is an amazing city, you probably won't have the time to explore all its corners during your time at Codeworks, but the weather will definitely help to keep the mood positive. The wonderful weather really played a role for me.

At Codeworks I learned Node.js, React, Redux, GraphQL, MongoDB, MySQL, Redis, Web Sockets and so much more. The curriculum is vast and in line with the current technological trend and after the intense months there, you can really call yourself a Full-Stack Developer.

My recommendation is that, if you are looking for a coding boot camp in Europe, joining Codeworks will be one of the best experiences and choices of your life. It has been for me.

CW is still a young and growing bootcamp, but is proving to be one or the best bootcamp in Europe.
The challenges I had to face everyday were huge, because studying here is very demanding but the good is coming now after finishing it, finding myself able to build stuff, learn new things and technologies with ease, apply for positions and being considered by employers! Now, I'm working with leading libraries like React and React Native, build chrome extensions, create phone app and countless other things.
Yes, at first I was unsure about it and more in general about bootcamps, but trust me, it totally worths your efforts.

As all the places there are good things and bad things, the reason why I leave 5 stars is because the good things in Codeworks are undoubtedly the most important things.

- I have learned a lot during this time with Codeworks, possibly everything I need to be prepared in today's job market, and I think that without Codeworks it would have been very difficult and it would have taken much more time.

- I met a lot of amazing people with my same interests.

- After 2 weeks of finishing the bootcamp, get a Full Stack job in a very good company with a very fair salary.

For these three reasons I think that Codeworks deserves the 5 ends, and these are the things that I think could be improved, and that you should keep in mind before starting in Codeworks to be more prepared:

- the pre course: it's not bad, but it's missing a lot of things, being a bootcamp things go very fast and many times when you have to learn something new that is complex in just 24-48 hours it can be very frustrating even if you will understand it later.

That's why I think it would be great if the pre-course were more extensive and cover more things like for example: more javascript challenges, more exercises with flexbox and CSS grid, definitely back-end (Node.js, Express, MongoDB, Mongoose, MySQL...), look at the basics of Agular and React, a finally some basic of Testing.

If you look at all this before you start you will be more confident, you will be more prepared and you will get much more out of the bootcamp.

But in summary if your looking for a coding bootcamp in Europe without a doubt I think that Codeworks is the best option.