Flatiron School

I graduated from the online self-paced software engineering program.  To me, Flatiron's strength is its support structure.  The school bends over backwards to provide multiple channels of support.  I was originally slated to join the in person program in Seattle, but switched to the online program because it made more sense with my family.  I was nervous about a lack of support structure in the online program, but that proved far from the case.  

There was an abundance of instructor and student led Zoom sessions, focused on relevant topics throughout, including open office hours.  The curriculum resides in Flatiron's online platform called Learn.  While in the platform, there is always the option of clicking the 'ask a question' button.  Questions are displayed to other students who can answer, but Flatiron also has instructors monitoring the questions.  You're awarded 'Karma' points for answering questions.  I only was able to answer two questions because the instructors were so quick and solid.  There are multiple slack channels monitored by section leaders, depending on your place in the program. Finally, you have your educational and career coaches.  Your coaches keep tabs on your progress, well being and ultimately job search.

Everyone I worked with at Flatiron was enthusiastic, supportive and enjoyable to work with.

The curriculum was a combination of reading, videos and test driven coding exercises.  The exercises followed a logical progression from programming basics to React/Redux frontends with Rails driven APIs.  The curriculum stressed principles and problem solving over recipes.  

There were some video based walk-throughs that I was not a huge fan of, mostly because I'd rather read or work through problems.  But those were few and far between.  Most videos were recorded zoom sessions from previous cohorts.  Those were enjoyable, informative and even inspirational at times.   

I experienced a few hiccups and inconsistencies in the Learn system along the way but nothing too catastrophic.  Early on I used the 'ask a question'  button a couple times and had it figured out in minutes.  Later on I could usually work around issues.  The cool thing about Learn is that it's built upon Github.  So you can dive into the code, troubleshoot and offer up suggestions via pull request.  This ensures a pretty healthy evolution.  Most of the problems I experienced were right after a version change.  Within a couple weeks the kinks were worked out pretty well.  That version switch was optional by the way.  I actually think the option to contribute to the health of the system is a pretty valuable learning experience.

Flatiron is owned by WeWork which started experiencing problems while I was in the program.  Flatiron did a great job of communicating as the issue emerged.  I did notice some instructor shuffling and maybe an increase in time to book project reviews.  But that was a matter of book a review maybe a few days out vs next day.  I felt Flatiron was dedicated to providing quality education and honoring their commitments.  If anything, I think the WeWork issue just slowed campus expansion.  It's worth keeping an eye on, but my sense is Flatiron is fairly independent and in control of their internal affairs.  

During my time at Flatiron the COVID pandemic and protest in response to George Floyd's death emerged.  Folks at Flatiron did a fantastic job of communicating, supporting and adjusting to the uncertain times with heartfelt compassion.  The Flatiron family, both staff and students is diverse across all spectrums.  The school takes pride in its diversity, and is all the better for it.

Going into this program I had some experience coding, including a couple computer science classes in college, years ago.  My degree is in Forestry, so technical, but not rocket science.  My job leading up to this was pretty much 'the computer guy', including sys admin, configuration, help desk,  some scripting and low code development.  Before that, I was in EMS.  I'm an EMS instructor of several years, which informs my respect for Flatiron's staff.  

I took this course to fill in gaps, refine my skill-set and land a full-time coding gig.  The curriculum was challenging but digestible.  The volume of material was significant. This is not a casual endeavor.  I juggled a full-time job and raising a toddler.  There were many late nights and dark times but Flatiron folks were there for me.  

I did land a full-time gig before graduation, during the COVID lock down.  I kind of lucked out, I was finishing my final project and hadn't fully ramped my job search up yet.  The position was presented by my career coach, and seemed to be a good culture fit for me, so I applied.  I do live in Seattle, a tech hub.  The career coaching was informative, supportive and valuable.

Overall this was one of the better educational experiences of my life.  It just worked for me.  It was a good blend of prescriptive exercises, open ended portfolio work and support.  Flatiron folks just seem to care and are interested in your success.  

I had a fantastic experience at Flatiron that ended up in me receiving two job offers two days apart, a month after my graduation! They provide the necessary structure and resources to ensure your success in this field. I agree with some reviews that you could self-teach this material, but that is true for everything. The value of this bootcamp relies on these critical elements: - Its structured and comprehensive data science curriculum,- Interaction with seasoned mentors (technical coaches) as you learn the material,- Vetted outside resources to deepen your knowledge and understanding of the content on your own,- Relevant projects to build your portfolio,- WeWork membership to have a space to study and network, - An educational coach that sees to your well-being,- A community of fellow students willing to lend a hand and share experiences,- A career coach that prepares you and guides you through your entire job search, and- Access to career events and employer partnerships.As you can see, you are not just paying for the material, which you could access for free in many ways. You are paying for an entire support network and a whole learning framework that, in the end, will increase your chances of success and minimize the time it takes to transition into this growing, lucrative, and exciting field.

I joined the inaugural Data Science part-time bootcamp in October 2018 and finished in September 2019. Brace yourself, the program is no joke. You will be banging your head on a desk for the next year. If at all possible, join the full-time program, you're learning a new language and it's important that you dedicate as much time to it as possible. However, if that's not possible for you (like myself) the part-time program is still great burt requires waaaaaayyyy more discipline as it is all online.

 

They provide you with a mentor/instructor, a life coach, and a wework membership. You might think having a life coach is silly but lemme tell you, I would've dropped out of the program without Katie McKenna's encouraging words throughout the program. My mentor. Jeff Herman, is the f***ing best. All of our 1:1 meetings were super helpful. He does a great job at explaining any piece of code that isn't making sense and then providing you with extra reading material so you can really lock it in. 

Career services was also super helpful. They keep you on a track with a schedule and secure interviews for you that might otherwise be hard to get. I accepted an offer for a full-time job in under three months through a company that Flatiron School hooked me up with.

It's not all rainbows and daisies though. The nature of the tech industry is that you have to teach yourself to teach yourself. Don't expect anyone to hold your hands through this program. Expect to spend a lot of time on Stack Overflow and wondering why you're inflicting this type of torture on yourself. Reach out to your cohorts for support. Reach out to your mentors as often as you need. Getting through this program has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, but don't forget they're not kidding when they call it a 'bootcamp'. Good luck!

 

 

I attended Flatiron School's online, full-time software engineering program without any prior coding experience. I completed the program on-time, in six months. I received a job offer after five weeks from my official job search start date!

Flatiron School's career services are amazing. My career coach was extremely helpful in reviewing my resume, talking through my job search strategy, providing constructive feedback, and giving me advice regarding salary negotiation. In addition, the job search prep lessons I was given access to upon graduation were extremely helpful and comprehensive. I highly recommend following the number of networking outreaches that Flatiron encourages you to do every week of your job search!

As an online student, I never felt isolated due to the various channels Flatiron provides to get involved in the community, including Slack and Zoom. It helped to have face-to-face interaction with people throughout the week via Zoom, including weekly standups with my cohort, bi-weekly lectures, and weekly one-on-ones with my technical coach. If you get stuck on a lab, you can ask a question on the Learn platform and receive prompt responses from technical coaches. The WeWork Hot Desk membership eased my transition from working in an office five days a week to being an online student.

Overall, the online curriculum was well done. The labs are designed to stretch your existing knowledge a bit further, which helps develop your problem-solving and trouble-shooting skills. I gave the curriculum 4/5 stars because it could be cleaned up a bit. For example, the order of the lessons seemed out of order at times. I noticed this mostly in the JavaScript and React/Redux sections.

Students have the opportunity to provide feedback about the curriculum, technical coaches, etc at the end of each section. I believe Flatiron takes this feedback to heart and is constantly trying to make improvements in order to provide the best learning experience.

I had a great experience as an online student at Flatiron School, and I would highly recommend it. Just be aware that it requires a lot of self-discipline, both during the program and the job search!

First and most importantly I started listening listening to the girls on the podcast 2 years ago and i loved listening to them. I was in the first DS cohort and it was pretty intense, i mean i only thought about DS for 14 months and i took about 5 days off where i didn't code or read code. I had a bachelor mathematics degree, that was getting a little stale and switched to a completely different field (environmental) however i had a job within two weeks after i had applied to 4 position. I also had 2 second in person interviews. My salary was increased substantially with the career change.

If your looking to self teach yourself and pay $15,000, then Flatiron is your school. If you want to learn the pure basics and then have to Google everything else, then say YES! Otherwise, this is school is an utter rip off. They don't have a plan, it is all lecture, and very little study time. You will end your day with daily challenges on topics you barely touched on. This is where Google comes in. You are told that in the real world, you will have to Google the answers so this is preparation. I say NO WAY! I am here to build a solid foundation and if I have to, research the harder bits. I am not about to GOOGLE the most basic tools of the trade. For that, I can stay home and take a less expensive route. APPLICANTS BE WARNED. Prepare yourself for an incredible bright future elsewhere.

Flatiron School was the most challenging yet rewarding expereince Ive had in life. The highs and lows are real. There were days I thought about giving up, I thought I couldnt make it through, I thought maybe this wasnt for me. Yet I kept showing up, putting the time and effort in, taking advantage of the excellent help of technical coaches and tech leads...and after 5 months I graduated. I think the cirriculum and technical assistance is top notch at Flatiron. It wasnt until maybe a month after graduation that I realized all of the information floating around my head finally made sense. It all started to fall into place and I could see clearly the effectiveness of the Flatiron cirriculum. It no doubt teaches you what you need to know to be valuable in this industry. I can proudly say that two months after graduation I received my first ever Full Stack Web Developer job offer. I am excited for this new journey and thankful to Flatiron for the dedication to excellence and providing such a truly robust program as well as an amazing experience. My advice to all who are considering is this:

1. Be prepared to put the time and effort in. Some weeks I spent more than 60 hours studying and coding.
2. Take advantage of the Ask a Question and meeting with your Cohort Lead and join the Study Groups. This is where I feel I learned the most. 
3. Dont give up. We all doubt ourselves at some point. Whats important is to stay positive, keep showing up, learning and doing what you can.

Before Flatiron I'd had several years of experience working as a front-end developer and previously paid for education at a community college and through Harvard Extension School. I had known of bootcamps for a long time and not had much interest or belief in them. But, I was hitting a plateau in my particular niche and within 48 hours of seeing a Flatiron ad on Facebook or Google, I was all in. For me, with mostly HTML and CSS experience, I could tell that this program would fill foundational gaps in my programming knowledge and teach me to use the hottest library in town: React.

The Good

The program really did provide me with everything that I hoped it would and brought me to a level I don't believe I could have acheived on my own. I had several interviews before landing a job, and in the final, live, 90-minute code test, I was tested on everything I learned at school and nothing that I had prior knowledge of. This was hugely gratifying because 1) it confirmed that I had been taught the right way to do things and 2) that any of my classmates who were making complete career changes could also have passed this test. It is not an easy program to get into or to complete, but if you can do it, it really means you have the skills to do it professionally.

Tuition

This will apply to any bootcamp, but really do the math on tuition options. The $15,000 price tag turns into something like $21,000 if you take their loan. On their income share agreement webpage it says "With Flatiron School, you’ll never pay more than 1.5x the ISA portion of the tuition amount." 1.5x is A LOT more than 1x and you're on the hook for 48 to 96 months (8 years), depending on the loan option you take. Read all the fine print.

Career Services

I felt that the career services were a little bit over-sold. I don't live in the city where I went to school, so maybe I had a different experience, but I expected Flatiron to actually provide more job leads than they did. I got a handful from them, but I live in Virginia and the opportunities were in places like Florida, Texas and Ohio.

Mock-technical interviews were handled by a third party and none of my classmates had a good experience with them. We all had our asses kicked by questions that were over our heads. I'm a good developer and I was rated a 2 out of 5 in this interview. A classmate, who was the first or second best programmer in our class was similarly crushed, and we all walked away feeling very discouraged about our abilities and hireability.

The career coaching aspect was good. My coach gave good advice and helped me plan answeres to questions that have been historically difficult for me. The résumé help is also very valuable.

Caution: The Money Back Guarantee

When you officially declare your job search after graduation, you begin working off a spreadsheet with specific requirements for networking and continued education. The requirements are signficant and if you do what they say for 6 months, you'll almost definitely get a job. However, if you miss a single checkbox for a single week of that 6 month period, you are out. There is a lot of legalise on their money-back page (https://flatironschool.com/career-services-commitment/) and I have no doubt that if I had followed the procress for six months and not been hired, they would have found some bullet point on that page that would take away my refund.

You're going to work hard after graduation. Think of this as a 25-week program and not 15. If you 100% follow their process you will get a job, which is great because if you 99% follow their process you won't get your money back.

Overall

Flatiron was definitely the right program for me, based on what I had to learn. (It may not be that way for everyone, so think about what you actually want to do.) I came out with the skills I wanted and made great friends. I expect that my 4 months at Flatiron will stay will me for the rest of my life.