Founders and Coders

What susrpised me about Founders and Coders was that at its core, the key to its success was a group of people in a room commiting to learning together. It's so simple but deceptively powerful.

It was one of the hardest, most intense experiences of my life, Founders and Coders doesn't hold you hand, it teaches you how to learn.

I learnt more in 16 weeks than I did in 3 years, met some extremely talented people who I want to continute working with and am really excited about my future in software development. 

It's hard to believe how much I have learned on the course when I think back to how little I knew before starting. Having finished the course, I feel comfortable setting up a full-stack, fully functional web-app - frontend, backend, database, and any of a number of powerful modern frameworks.... I remember before the course, I barely knew how to make a simple static web-page. 

The fact is that Founders & Coders is an incredibly effective way of learning the skills you need to start a real career in software development. IT WORKS as a way of gaining an incredible amount of knowledge and experience in a very short amount of time. It's also amazing fun, thanks to the people teaching and running the course, as well as the close ties you build with your fellow students.

I can't really think of many cons. The fact that the course is free means that it gets a lot of applicants, and so you have to put substantial time and effort into learning the prerequisites before you actually start the course. Another possible con is that you can't expect to have your hand held. The course relies on self-learning and peer-learning, and the instruction you receive from the teachers is limited to the essentials - this means that you get out of the course what you put in.

As far as getting jobs goes, I think Founders & Coders offers more help than many other bootcamps. They have a great system in place to get graduates paid freelance work after you finish the course - this lets you gain experience and build a portfolio to show to recruiters in the future. If you're thinking about applying, I can't recommend it enough.

This is full-stack javascript boot camp with a twist - there are no tuition fees and no teachers. This is a model based on peer learning combined with excellent support and structure - the ideal environment in which to develop the practical skills needed for coding. Stay at the forefront of cutting-edge technology, learn with and from some of the smartest people you'll ever meet, begin working for real clients, use your newly-acquired skills to make a real difference to people lives..... too good to be true? I can assure you it isn't. It's happening right now so get involved!

A life changing full stack JavaScript web development course! Working collaboratively and learning from my peers, whilst teaching everything I learnt to them, was such a brilliant way to supercharge my development skills. If you're thinking of doing this, just do it. Speakers such as Stephen Fowler (Tech lead at Guardian) Twitter, Bithound and ITV gave us a real grounding in the web development industry. What's more, this place is a real social enterprise and believes education should be free! No fees! I couldn't believe it but it was such an honour to be a part of this incredible organisation.

This is a fantastic coding school, it genuinely feels like a cooperative. The tutors are always happy to give guidance, but also give you the support you need to let you teach yourself. The curriculum is constantly adapting to the views and needs of the students. You are encouraged from early on in the course to branch out and go to lots of tech meet ups and hackathons, this gives you a well rounded view of the London tech industry and teaches you how to promote your developer skills.
Go for it :)

I can safely say that the Founders & Coders Boot camp, has been a thoroughly enjoyable, challenging and rewarding experience.  Coming from a back ground in sales, whilst pursuing various online routes to learning how to build websites I became dis-enfranchised with being the lone ranger sitting at home. After attending the Monday evening meet-up sessions  I began to take on the pre-requisites for the Bootcamp after getting a feel for the environment I knew it was something that I wanted to be a part of.  The course itself consisted of weekley tasked based learning in the form collaborative projects. Whilst the course is taught free of tuition there was no compromise on the quality provided. Throughout Founders & Coders we were encouraged to participate in pair programming and help one another to overcome every task.  We had speakers from a broad spectrum of renowned organisations and potential employers such as , The Guardian, Twitter and The BBC.  

 Whilst the curriculum is vast and the pace fast it certainly lives up to the 'Boot camp' label. Even if you come away with 50% of the knowledge that is provided to you it's a worthwhile experience. Fantastic way to spend 4 months  highly worth it !!!