Fullstack Academy

After working in human resources for over five years, I realized I wasn’t finding my work fulfilling. I switched roles, switched companies, but I just wasn’t a fan of being on the sidelines as a support function. I’ve been casually coding as a hobby for a while and my family encouraged me to research how to make the switch from HR to software development. I knew I didn’t want to be out of the workforce for too long so the bootcamp route was perfect for me. I did lots of research in figuring out which Chicago-based bootcamp was for me and from what I saw, Fullstack was a step above the rest. Most bootcamps are three months long, but the admissions process and level of difficulty for Fullstack was much more advanced than the other bootcamps I looked into. To me this meant that by the time I graduated, I would be in a much better position to land the right role. I went through Bootcamp Prep and spent most nights and weekends learning how to code to really make sure this was the right move for me.

The immersive is broken into two phases - junior phase and senior phase. In junior phase, we learned the fullstack (Postgres, Express, Node, React, Redux) in just six weeks. The program is structured with very few lectures and more hands-on pair-programming, which is great. Everyday we built something new, learned different ways to debug, and overall learned how to think about the challenges of our work. As someone who doesn’t come from a technical background, junior phase was really challenging. I learned quickly to get comfortable with the feeling of being confused and overwhelmed. Thankfully the students in senior phase would reassure me to trust the process and keep at it. The curriculum is set up so students have enough touch points to the important concepts to ensure they stick, there’s checkpoints to make sure we’re keeping up with everything we’ve learned, and the Teaching Fellows do a great job of breaking down difficult concepts and guiding students when we got stuck. Senior phase was my favorite. We started every morning with white board questions that helped prep us for job interviews. During the six weeks of senior phase, I built four projects (an e-commerce site, a news analysis web tool, a texting chat bot, and a mobile app) that used all the information I learned in junior phase and then some. It really helped build my confidence and diversify my portfolio of work. We also got personalized career success help to prepare us for the interview process. I really valued the help I got, but coming from HR, I do think that career success is an area that could use a little more focus (and I know the Chicago campus is already working on it). That said, I had two offers within a month of graduating and really love the work I do now.

Overall, I loved my experience with Fullstack. It’s challenging and difficult, but so rewarding. If you’re seriously thinking about a career in software development, I would highly recommend it.

SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR PEOPLE CONSIDERING BOOTCAMPS: 

Be warned about General Assembly, Coding Dojo, or Northwestern bootcamps. These do not have good reputations. You may have a good outcome, but there are better options out there. 

Ask yourself some questions: 

• Can you get your company to pay for this? Can you get a scholarship to pay for this? 
• Do you really need to do an in-person, immersive bootcamp? Can you start taking on engineering projects at your current work? Even having one professional project in your portfolio will go a long way to helping you in the job search. 
• Is there a way for you to start learning more now on your own? Do you have to do this right now? You will get more out of FullStack the more you know already. 
• Do you actually like software engineering / programming? 
• Are you ready to work your ass off in bootcamp and then work twice as hard afterwards to get a job as a junior software developer when most companies are looking for people with more experience and might have negative connotations with bootcamp grads? 
• Have you talked to a student from the bootcamp that you want to go to in the during, right after, 3 months after, and 6 months after phase? 

Why I chose bootcamp: 

• I wanted a rapid change and was ready to be in an in-person environment after working from home for 3 years.
• I wanted to get paid to write code, and I wanted to make that change happen as fast as possible.

Why I chose FullStack: 

• Seemed like the best coding bootcamp option in Chicago. 
• Grace Hopper track meant I paid $3000 up front and then the rest later. 

What I wish I’d known about bootcamps before: 

• Job market is not geared towards people with bootcamp-type backgrounds, even though they are very prevalent. There are a ton of jobs for people with more experience, though, so I know that as soon as I get two years under my belt, the recruiters will be banging down my door. 
• The more you know going into bootcamp, the more you can get out of it. (I knew this, but still wanted to make a change. I’d been studying on my own for like a year or so before I went, but I wish I’d built some small projects and/or had more experience with computer science fundamentals. 

Advice to FullStack Chicago: 

• Be more selective. Do not let people in who do not actually love coding or would not try to learn this stuff on their own. Don't let in the get-rich-quickers. 
• Be more transparent. Telling students to "trust the process" when they put $15k + on the line and are taking a big risk is not helpful.
• Also, treat students like adults, because that's what we are. We should know why deadlines exist and the reasoning behind the structure of the program and its curriculum. 
• Care about your students more OR change your model so that you have fewer students or cohorts and can care more about them. 
• Do NOT market yourself as an easy way to career change and start making a bunch of money. Software engineering is NOT EASY. The people who will do the best are smart and driven and will use FullStack as a way to continue launching themselves somewhere that they already want to go.
• Double / triple / quadruple down on your diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. 

Did I get what I wanted? 

Yes. I think so. I only graduated a month ago and have a PT software engineering apprenticeship that I got through a connection from FullStack, so that's awesome. It'll be interesting to see where things go over the next several months and years. 

I kind of wish I'd been more patient and taken time to learn and do more on my own before a bootcamp, maybe taking on engineering projects at work, but I waited too long and then I was too eager to get out of there and make the change. 

I also kind of wish I'd bit the bullet and moved to NY for the Grace Hopper NY experience. It would have been awesome to get to work with more ladies (there were only 3 others in my cohort of 19). 

Would I do it again? Right now, I'm fairly happy with my experience. It was a good time, and I met some awesome people in my cohort, and I'm getting paid to code. Ask me again in a year what I think about it. The outlook may be rosier. 

So, while FullStack is not your software engineering fairy godmother and will not turn you into a programmer overnight, it can help highly motivated students get to where they want to go faster. 

Good luck! 

Before attending Grace Hopper, I was working as a music teacher and freelance musician. I’ve always had an interest in engineering and computers, and as I was debating acceptances to a few graduate programs in music, I decided to also look into computer programming as a possible career path. I’m now enjoying my first few weeks as a professional full stack software engineer, and I couldn’t be more grateful to Grace Hopper/Fullstack Academy for the quality of training I received. The curriculum includes information, training and practice for learning how to develop full stack web applications. Even though my job requires me to code in Go and not in JavaScript, the technical skills I gained at Grace Hopper are applicable to my current work. Also, the soft skills I learned through the guidance of my teachers, pair-programming in workshops, and collaborative work on my projects are invaluable to communicating with my coworkers. One of my favorite parts about attending Grace Hopper was getting to know my cohort-mates. The women I met at Grace Hopper are smart, fierce, and driven, but always managed to built me up instead of tearing me down. This has continued after graduation. I listed a project group member as a reference on my job applications, and continue to communicate with my cohort-mates as we start our jobs. I’ve also found that the support of the Grace Hopper/Fullstack network extends beyond just my cohort. After relocating to Chicago, I reached out to some alumni in the area and everyone I contacted responded positively, willing to help however they could. Attending Grace Hopper was expensive, but the fact is that I am much happier as a software engineer than I ever was as a music teacher, and I am earning about double my previous salary. I truly could not have gotten to where I am now without the support of my teachers, mentors and fellow students at Grace Hopper/Fullstack, and I believe it was an investment that has already paid off.

I recently finished Fullstack Prep in July 2018, a part time course designed to help students get their feet wet learning Javascript and also to get a feeling for what attending the full time bootcamp might be like.  Prior to the course I'd worked in completely unrelated jobs, had meager self-taught experience with coding languages, and had found the process of learning code daunting.  Making progress this way is difficult!  I really can't recommend taking Prep highly enough if you are curious about the subject matter or are considering applying to the immersive program. 

The program's design is very good, they've put a great deal of work into the content and the philosophy behind it.  I always felt like the resources and tools on offer gave many options for study and were enough to keep you occupied and learning well.  Our teachers were stellar!  They were always diligent.  If you have trouble with a concept they'll walk you through examples step-by-step or mock up a problem on a whiteboard; all very helpful!  I also appreciated the staff's honest opinions about if a bootcamp is the right choice for you, they were always forthright about exactly what Fullstack offers. 

If you have any burning questions about the school I'd recommend attending one of the informational sessions.  They hold them about once a month, in person, at the school.

I have a background as a professional musician and I made websites throughout my music career. I decided to go all-in and teach myself computer science fundamentals. I fell in love with programming and eventually decided that I wanted to learn web development as fast as possible. I did a lot of research and decided to attend Fullstack Academy. (I also considered the Hack Reactor remote program.) I was hesitant to attend any bootcamp - they're expensive, especially considering you won't be working during and after the program while you search for a job. It wound up exceeding my expectations and I'm so happy that I attended!

I've written a handful of posts about my experiences before, at, and after attending Fullstack Academy here: https://scraggo.github.io/

In a nutshell:

- You learn SO MUCH in a short period of time. I recommend doing a "Hello World" in all the technologies before attending. That way you come in already having gone through a first-touch.

- Time FLIES by! After 3 months, you'll be amazed at the projects you've built.

- My confidence went from a 2 to an 8. You'll be a real full stack developer with the confidence to learn anything new that you need.

- If you worked hard in the program, you'll really be job-ready. It's a monumental task to get an offer for a junior developer, but stick with it. I took an offer just under 3 months after graduating.

Feel free to contact me through my website if you have any questions: https://scraggo.github.io/

I graduated from Fullstack Academy in May 2018.  It took me less than two months to find a position after graduating.

I have a CS degree - but I never learned how to write a piece of software in school.  I had to go to Fullstack to learn this.  Fullstack also got me to finally build a portfolio and learn how to interview.  I never learned any of these things while earning my degree.  I am sure that both my degree and bootcamp experience contributed to a successful job search.  However, I didn't feel confident in my coding abilities until after I completed Fullstack

I am a believer.

Definitely the biggest pro about Fullstack Academy is its flexibility.  They offer flex programs, immersive programs, and a remote version.  Throughout all these programs, they use the same curriculum and the same standards for admission.  They even offer a deferred tuition option for women enrolled in the Grace Hopper program.

They also offer a lot of flexibility in terms of how to grow as a developer.  For my cohort, they allowed us to explore project ideas on our own because the biggest skill they wanted us to hone was using each other as a team to make the best decisions from start to finish.  There was also no restriction on what type of project we could build.  And we received A LOT of support from every instructor.  Kate and Ashi were there to back our team up with answers to our technical questions no matter what we decided for our project.  And even when the first half of the program ended, Karen and Dan, our junior instructors who prepared so well for the project phase were there available to cheer us on and only an elevator away for further advice.  My teaching fellows were also the best!  Biggest thanks to Christine, Luisa, Liz, and Aria!

A bit of nitpick from me would be that the job support on the technical side wasn't the best right after I came out of Grace Hopper.  Because I had no idea how to prepare for technical interviews...and honestly, this was my first official job hunt ever.  Luckily, after 6 months of searching,  Ceren started this Mentor-Mentee program and I was seriously lucky to have Wenson Tsai as my  mentor (a volunteer mentor too, bless those Fullstack alumni's souls who volunteered).  Coming from an physics background with only 3-4 semesters of CS-related classes and no formal job experience in tech (or any formal job really), I was not up to date with the jargon in the tech field and Wenson helped me present myself as a confident developer.  He pointed out weaknesses to me in System Design and helped me work on my communicating my projects better.   One of the useful things he pointed out to me is that I should use declarative language when solving problems during JS technical interviews. 
 

Fullstack also assigned me another career counselor to help me on the behavioral side.  That person was Natalie Giuliano.  I had no idea what a job hunt was supposed to be like, and I had a lot of phone interviews already before she was assigned as my counselor.  So she made sure to help me practice answering those hard behavioral questions and helped me come up with better answers.  She also helped me with a lot of job hunt etiquette that I didn't even know.

The biggest thing I like about Fullstack is that they really listen to feedback and offer plenty of support in return.  And thanks to all of this support, I've now accomplished my overdue dream of wanting to make an immediate impact as a software engineer :)

I did the Grace Hopper program, which is the same as Fullstack Academy but has deferred tuition. The curriculum is STRONG!!!! Before you get to campus and during your very first week, you will coding and learning very advanced computer science topics. They truly ensure that every student knows their stuff and is prepared for the job search ahead including whiteboard interviews. I never had a doubt throughout the program that I would have any trouble finding a job because of what and how they were teaching. 

One of the great things Fullstack did was make sure from the beginning that students are ready and that everyone is on the same page. Just to get into the bootcamp, you need to know javascript and be able to solve somewhat diffucult problems as well as be familiar with recursion. However, they have a lot of great resources to get you accepted. Foundations covered some pretty advanced topics but they provided a mentor for each student and paced the prework over 5 weeks so that everyone could master it and there were some tests along the way to make sure everyone was learning the material. I learned so much before I even got to campus and I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to converse about code and solve quite challenges problems on the very first day.

I realize that talking about the material in the light of how advanced it is could scare some people away, but I just want to say that I found the program extremely friendly and not scary at all. They just want to make sure everyone is ready and on the same page, and they provide a lot of resources to get you there. If you ever feel like you are falling behind, they will not kick you out like some bootcamps will. Instead, they will get you the help that you need, and even allow you to repeat the first half of the program (junior phase) if you are struggling. Everything they do is to make sure you succeed. 

I also found they focus a good amount on soft skills, which was amazing to see. They make sure students learn to communicate about issues that arise during pair programming before these issues ever arise, they talk about unconscious bias, they have retrospectives to reflect on different parts of the program, make sure students are taking care of themselves emotionally, etc. I found that students are able to give feedback about the program and the feedback is taken seriously and changes are implemented almost immediately as a result of student feedback. 

The career success program is very strong as well. They don't just teach you how to code and build projects on this program. A big portion of the second half of the program was focused on getting students hireable. We had regular mandatory meetings with the career success team, practiced interviews (behavioral, technical, and whiteboarding), received feedback on resumes and linkedIn profiles, and so many presentations on job hunting. The career success team really sticks with you throughout the process and after you graduate to make sure you get hired. 

Overall, this program was amazing for me. I went to a different bootcamp before this program to turn around my career and I constantly felt anxious and unready to find a job. Fullstack Academy eased my worries and I never once doubted that I could find a job in the end. At first I was concerned because Fullstack teaches pure JavaScript instead of mixing in some of the other competing languages, but I truly believe that it served me well. I was able to learn really complex topics in depth and branch out past just web development. I also believe that now I can learn anything. In a nutshell, I learned amazing things, I built amazing projects including a mobile app and VR app with AI, I made amazing friendships with the women there, I constantly felt uplifted, and I had a job offer 10 days at the end of the program. 

You'll be amazed by what you'll be able to code by the end of the program. The lecture materials and workshops are very thoughtfully ordered to help you blaze through the most efficient learning path. Whatever you learned in the morning is just enough to lay a foundation for the afternoon. You concentrate mostly on skills you would actually use on the job, but there's also just enough theory to help you learn technologies not covered in the program. The pace is fairly challenging, but the instructors and fellows are super friendly and always there to help you.

I graduated in December 2017 as a part of the TTP Web Development Fellowship cohort. This was a slightly longer program in terms of on-site commitment, and about half of us did Bootcamp Prep together as well, but the Immersive Section was the same curriculum as the standard cohorts. I was lucky to go through this with an extremely smart and motivated group that was also 100% supportive of each other at every turn. 

The only programming experience I had coming in was working through some online courses and basic Comp Sci books, mostly Unity related and Harvard's CS50. This course will demand all of your time, your mental space, and your former social life. It's often exhausting. The first positive thing I have to say is that our instructors were super engaging, and even when things were difficult, even confusing, or I was really tired, the teaching style kept me fully present. They described the pace of the Junior phase as "like drinking from a fire hose" and I'd have to agree. They'll tell you to trust the process, and you should. There were times I had to move on from something new feeling like I really hadn't fully conquered the previous topic but things had a way of sinking in over time. I think that's a credit to their pedagogical design. Things build on top of each other very well. I'd echo the review of one of my cohort-mates and agree that the instructors are great teachers but also just great all around communicators.

The first half of the Immersive is workshop based, the second is project based. This semed to work really well and I found the balance good. 

The curriculum is kept very up to date with what's actually happening in the job market: React, Redux, ES6, etc. I think it's good that they teach relational DBs (Postgres with Sequelize for us), I found MongoDB pretty easy to pick up conceptually after the fact but I'm not sure it would have worked the same in reverse.

There's a solid emphasis on computer science fundamentals for a bootcamp: in early workshops, additional lectures, and the fact that you practice whiteboarding algorithm problems every morning for the entire Senior phase.  There are a lot of kind of "extracurriculars" that I really enjoyed, bonus lectures on functional programming, special guest presentations, some Agile training, teambuilding exercises, and occasionally just something extra one of the instructors were interested in (two memorable ones for me were a lecture on the lambda calculus and another on the Koa framework).

There were times where I found it somewhat difficult to get one on one time with instructors around checkpoint times but on the whole they are super available, intelligent, communicative, and willing to get into the reeds on any number of topics inside and outside the curriculum. Every cohort also has Fellows, which are kind of like TAs, recent graduates competitively selected to stay on in support of the instructors for the next cohort. Ours were excellent.

I'm not sure what to say about Career Services. It felt rushed and single-minded at times, and I didn't always like the tone it was delivered in. Sometimes the balance or timing of those tasks didn't feel well thought out in terms of what was going on in the main curriculum. But I think it's probably smart, you can't get too nuanced in something that's so highly variable, I think in the end they commit to this one-way-that-they-know-can-work-and-has. I have worked in other capacities at tech companies and have a lot of professional experience before making this decision to pursue software development, and when I try to imagine myself in the position of not having that experience I think their advice is extremely valuable for someone new to the job market in general or tech in particular. 

The hiring day at the end was a success for me, I met my current employer there and I'm super super happy with my job. I had other offers and onsite invitations come out of it as well. So like I said, even though I didn't always love it, the Career Services team delivered for me (and a number of others in my cohort who also got hired out of Hiring Day).

My instructors were excellent, the other instructors I was exposed to through other events were excellent, there is a ton of genune support for students throughout the whole process (they have a kind of experience counselor there for any and all things you might be going through), and I got a job. So I'll just wrap up by saying this program works, it's exhausting but ultimately enjoyable if you love code. And it can get you a great job.

    I only have good things to say about Fullstack. I can’t guarantee that everyone will have the same experience. The program worked well for me partly because of my learning style and also due to the type of job I got after graduating. The program favors self teachers which is probably the case for any coding bootcamp. That doesn’t mean they don’t do anything for you or provide structure because they certainly do. I found they did a good job of providing what you need as beginner but still encourage you to explore and learn on your own. A coding bootcamp would not be helpful if they explained and guided you through every little thing. The end goal is to get you a job as a software developer and as a developer you will be struggling through much harder problems with only online resources to help you.

    Another reason I say that the program was beneficial to me personally is because the technologies I use at my first programming job are highly related to the Fullstack curriculum. It’s likely that I was hired at this job because of the skills I was able to list rather then the overlap being a coincidence, however I have heard of graduates getting positions where they learn an entirely different stack or are required to code in a language other than Javascript. I can say that whatever you learn at Fullstack (curriculum is always in flux) will be highly relevant for many jobs. While you will still have a lot to learn after graduation it’s likely you will be ahead of the curve in some aspects as you have been trained in cutting edge concepts that those working in the field don’t have the time, desire, or even awareness of it’s existence necessary to learn.

    Another great thing about the program is the atmosphere and attitude exemplified by the administration and instructors. They have high expectations and push you very hard but are very understanding when you encounter difficulties (almost everyone does) and encourage you to open up. It is not a cut throat atmosphere (as I’ve heard some bootcamps are) where they try to get you to snap reality tv show style, so they can whittle down the field to only the most competitive and sleep deprived students. Instead they encourage you to take breaks, take care of yourself emotionally and physically, and most importantly (i.m.o) foster a sense of community with your peers and invite you to express yourself to a member of their staff if you’re not doing well. They even have someone dedicated to helping you deal with (non-technical) emotional/psychological difficulties. I can objectively say I was not the quickest to understand things in my cohort nor was I ever the first or even the fifth person to finish a test. The program is structured so that people who may not have the strongest raw programming ability, can do just as well as anyone else. Through pair programming and other systems students who are ahead can help students who are behind. The program also emphasizes the full range of skills necessary to becoming a software developer of which writing code is not the only one.

    The education and hands on experience of developing a project as a team at FS went beyond my expectations. I participated in their hiring day on graduation and got a follow up interview with two of the companies the next week. A week after my follow up interviews I was invited for a final on-site with one company and was offered a job at the other. Two weeks after graduating I already had a job that exceeded my expectations both in terms of salary and the type of work I wanted to do. In my case the timeline was a little quicker than usual but my level of satisfaction was not uncommon based on conversations I’ve had with peers and other grads. Much of this is due to their great curriculum and emphasis on mastering tough technical concepts. The rate of success is also do to the fact that they have a dedicated career success team that teaches you how to market yourself, job search, and interview both during and after the program. The school is also very well connected to many tech companies with a broad alumni network. There are probably around 10 FS grads at my company alone which only has a workforce of around 60.

    Main takeaways are as follows. Expect to work very hard including nights and often all weekend. If you put in the time and effort you will be rewarded exponentially. They only hire the most talented, knowledgeable, emotionally intelligent, and capable teachers. Expect to be well taken care of. Expect some tough times but if you want to be there, and want to learn, expect most of your time to be fun, positive, and exciting.