I had an extremely positive experience attending FSA in Chicago, and would recommend it to anyone who is seriously considering making a career switch. The instructors (Colin, Ben, Priti) were incredibly helpful and approachable, and their presence complemented the rigorous curriculum very well. If you're looking to jumpstart your Web Development proficiency, this is your best bet. 

I gave the Job Assistance 5 stars because the support provided was great. Fullstack's Launch Day connects you with many local employers and Holly continues to do a great job of keeping in touch and keeping alumni engaged in the job hunt. However, I believe that FSA's strength is in upgrading your Web Dev skills, and not necessarily teaching you DS/Algo or other technical interview curriculum. These topics do not necessarily come up in all SWE interviews, however, depending on what kinds of jobs you're looking for, they can be absolutely critical to know. 

I wrote my first line of code in January 2018. Prior to becoming a software developer, I was an elementary school teacher and non-profit director of 10 years. I was motivated to come to the Grace Hopper Program here at Fullstack Academy becasue of my desire to do something completely different. Leaving a secure career was such a risk. Fullstack Academy made the risk well worth it because of the great instruction, real-world application of skills, and the phenomenal career success team. I am especially grateful to Natalie, Jackie, and Trent who were very supportive with me focusing in on my pitch and making myself as marketable as possible. Also, I hope everyone has the opportunity to be taught by or work with Jessica B, Matt, Geoff, and Dakota. They are all fantastic instructors and people.

Fullstack Academy has developed a challenging and exhaustive curriculum that will definitely keep you busy past 5pm. Fullstack is a great program for people who want balance (i.e. maintain a social life, have families) and for independent learners who have plenty of time to become immersed in the curriculum 24/7. If you're not sure if you can handle a 10+ hour day at another program or if you can manage studying on your own outside normal class hours, then Fullstack is for you. (Also, it's very likely that no one is going to plan out your entire day for you on the job, so get used to being self-sufficient.) 

The staff and teaching fellows are incredibly understanding and assess each situation on an case-by-case basis if something comes up. They will give you more, if you ask. But you have to ask, but I have never been hesitant since they are all so welcoming. As far as social culture goes, it is what you make of it. Fullstack is a educative environment first and foremost, so I've found that your social experience will depend more on students taking the initiative to hang out and organize events. Also, once you graduate, you get to utitlize a large and supportive network of Fullstack grads--I got my first dev job thanks to one of those connections. I highly recommend attending Fullstack especially if convenience matters to you and you plan to work in the same city. Many schools advertise the big tech companies where students have been hired but don't let that be the only factor in your decision--especially if you're not 100% sure if you even want to work at large companies. 

I've been asked recently on a number of occasions to comment on my experience at Fullstack so I decided to repost my thoughts here in case anyone was interested:

1. JavaScript level required:

Before embarking on coding, I had been a corporate lawyer for almost 5 years - so the last time I touched anything remotely close to programming was when I did a course on algorithms 10 years ago in high school. The only JS knowledge I had going into the interview was what I had managed to pick up from codecademy and Code School. Do know that this level definitely wont be enough to get you through the program! Fullstack does pride itself on its pre course prep though, and justifiably so. If you, like me, come from a non technical background, hard work, persistence and putting in the hours to do as much extra reading as possible beforehand to immerse yourself in JS is key. If you decide on Fullstack, take comfort in the fact that their pre course materials will put you in good stead for the 13 gruelling weeks up ahead. Lead instructor Nimit used to tell us to trust the process and know that you will come out on top. I think there's a lot of truth in that and I'm glad I took his word for it.

2. My experience of Fullstack:

I had a very good experience overall. David, Nimit and Zeke are three of the most knowledgeable programmers that I've met. However, what was more important was their ability to distil these extremely abstract concepts into nuggets that someone like me would be able to digest and internalise. I think what was also crucial in why things just work at Fullstack is that they are so selective in who they take as students. The result is everyone is there to learn, work hard and help each other out. In my opinion, this is more important than the curriculum itself because your "eureka" moments in programming never really come in the classroom. They come when late at night as you and your classmates are grinding away at a problem.

3. How Fullstack compares to other bootcamps

I can't really say to how I fare against other schools' graduates, but what I can say is that my first employer did tell me the practical knowledge that I had coming through the door was that of a CS Grad with a year's working experience. All in all, I wouldn't worry too much about the competition and whether going to bootcamp A or bootcamp B will give you a step up over someone else. At the end of the day, which school you go to won't matter much the moment you step in front of that whiteboard in an interview because you're on your own. Bootcamps aren't silver bullets that will turn anyone into a rock star programmer after 13 weeks. It's all down to what you put in, so if you're committing yourself to a career in programming/tech then all you can do is work your butt off and persist until you succeed. Do that and you will acquire skills that any employer will want in a junior engineer. Persistence and hunger to keep learning are the qualities that of any good programmer, and that is what a bootcamp environment, be it Fullstack or any other school, is able to help you develop.

Hope that helped, and good luck!

I did a lot of research before deciding to attend Fullstack and I'm confident I made the right choice. There are other bootcamps in Chicago but none of them have the high admissions standards or strong alumni network that Fullstack does. While in the program I met a group of amazing people with diverse backgrounds and learned a lot very quickly. Within a year I went from teaching myself to code to being employed at a job doing work I absolutely love, and Fullstack helped me achieve that.

In thinking about how to effectively review my experience at Fullstack, I guess it’s most useful to let my trajectory speak for itself: I attended Fullstack Academy in the fall, graduated in December, and was hired within 2 weeks of graduation as a Junior Developer at an awesome company.  Altogether, Fullstack met and exceeded every expectation I had and I can recommend it without hesitation.

Prior to attending FSA (and more specifically, Grace Hopper), I was a high school math teacher with very iffy coding skills.  I knew that I liked to code, and I could write basic for-loops in Ruby.  I decided that I wanted a more challenging career and I wanted a skillset that was more in-demand than teaching experience.  I talked to a few friends who had attended bootcamps to hear their experiences, and I also spoke to a hiring manager at a tech company, all of whom encouraged me to go for it.

I chose Fullstack for two main reasons: because admissions were competitive, and because of the curriculum.   Valuing competitive admissions was a great call: all of the students, fellows, and instructors in my cohort were unfailingly curious, driven, and intelligent.  I evaluated the curriculum with the help of some tech friends who recognized that FSA’s curriculum taught skills like React and Redux that were highly in-demand.  Once I had my eyes set on Fullstack, I studied, applied, and fortunately was admitted to the Grace Hopper program.

Bootcamp was hard and so much fun.  I learned a ton of code (obviously) but also how to pair program effectively, how to work in an agile team, and (probably most importantly) how to read technical documentation.  The people at FSA are fantastic, and we hung out every Friday after class.

Finally, the career success support was phenomenal.  It was invaluable to have someone examine my resume, LinkedIn profile, cover letters, personal pitch, and even follow-up emails to companies to ensure that I was putting my best foot forward.  In the final week of the program, Holly organized 16 companies that came in to interview us so we could work on our behavioral interview skills.  We practiced white-boarding every morning, and we had 1:1 mock technical interviews with feedback afterwards.  I felt 100% prepared when I entered the job market because nothing was unexpected.

As you can probably tell from this review, I am so grateful for my time at Fullstack and had a fantastic experience.  I would recommend this program to anyone.

My experience at Fullstack was completely unique compared to any of my traditional education. Where in the past I felt like I didn't understand the reason why we learned things or whether or not it would prepare me for a worthwhile career, Fullstack was able to definitively change my life in the span of four months. I'm so happy to have a job with a high ceiling and so much to learn. The best thing about Fulsltack was the community you're exposed to, and how much love and care is poured into the process. I made great friends at Fullstack and now have a wonderful career to boot!

I was a musician with some web design background (no real coding experience). Attended fullstack in 2017 as a WDF student and now I'm working for AWS as an engineer.  English isn't my first language.. In 2017 I was already over 30 year old. AWS is my first tech job.

WDF is a free tuition program partnered with NYC and was a very competitive process. Had to go through several exams to go to the final “immersive program”. It was sad to see sizing of the class was getting smaller.... but I really liked how energish our instractors were. They were really supportive and good at teaching. Had such a good energy.

Also I was so happy how attentive Fulsltack’s career success counselor was. After graduation, she contacted me every week to check in my job search progress.  I took 6 months to get this offer letter from AWS. Until then, I and some of my classmates kept going to AWS loft (free workspace. coder's heaven) everyday to study and hang out.  After all, most of my classmates got really great full time engineering positions as well and I'm so happy to see them at reunion. 7 months was short but now we are such good friends after the intense period.

Learning process during bootcamp was just “INTENSE” but see the result. It's worth trying!

Fullstack Academy met and exceeded all of my expectations. I had decided to make a career change to software engineering and was researching different bootcamps. I had heard great things, but it wasn't until I was in the program that I really appreciated how great it was. All of the instructors are excited to teach and the curriculum was well designed ot get someone (like me) who had very little experience in coding up to speed and proficient in the stack they were teaching. Building projects was a great way to learn how to apply the technology and I am extremely greatful for the experience. Everything is taught in a way that is understandable and there is never a feeling that you can't ask questions. I highly recommend Fullstack Academy (and in particular the Grace Hopper Program).

To echo a lot of other sentiments, my decision to go to Fullstack Academy was one of the best of my life. Previously, I had been working in the business (sales, support, marketing) side of tech. While I had some basic coding experience, I learned an immense amount from the robust curriculum taught at Fullstack. The entire staff in Chicago - whether instructional (Collin, Ben W, Priti, and Finn) or career/operations (Ben N, Holly, Brett) have been incredibly helpful in my success.

I'm depletely indebted to them for both my education and for the opportunity to serve as a Teaching Fellow. And without the hard work of the Career Success team, I would not have the amazing job I do now as I was able to land it through Fullstack's Launch Day.

Overall, the highest praise I can give.

Going to Fullstack Academy was easily one of the best decisions in my life.

When you go to a bootcamp, if you're just going for the material, you're doing it wrong. If you just want the material, it's all available for free somewhere on the internet. You should be going to a bootcamp for several reasons:

1) Learning how to learn various techs, and how to learn them quickly. Fullstack handles this wonderfully by constantly never allowing you to become complacent in your learning or start slacking. You constantly have to be pushing yourself to absorb new material and how to digest documentation.

2) You have zero idea how to actually break into the industry. Again, Fullstack provided this with great career coaching and prepping you to have a resume that is worth looking at. Fullstack as well provides an opportunity to meet several companies, towards the end of your bootcamp, allowing you to potentially to turn these meetings into on-site interviews (which definitely happened for me).

3) If you're new to this... you don't actually realize your own knowledge gaps and weaknesses. And it takes an instructor to help you with these and point you towards things you may have never come across before. You can have all the motivation in the world, but without a good teacher to take you there, it's useless. Fullstack has wonderful instructors who are extremely passionate about not only teaching, but improving their teaching (shout out to Corey Greenwald, one of the best instructors I've ever had in any sort of educational setting).

This being said, prepare to work hard. You will only get out of it what you put in. If you think you can just go during the day and not also put in the time, constantly, during your nights and weekends... and think things will go just as well, you're mistaken. Maybe you can coast. But if that's what you're intending to do... what's even the point? I really recommend Fullstack. But if you're going to do it, do it right. Give up your life for three months. It will pay off.

I started the program without any knowledge in coding. The speed of the course is high and you as a student will fell you aren't in control more often than you imagine. To follow that, I had to dedicate more than I had ever dedicated myself to any other academic experience. And after three months, you will be ready to get into the market that changes every single minute. More than JavaScript or any other framework, Fullstack taught me how to learn new things in the speed that the market requires. The school environment is also a plus. They take seriously themes like diversity and all the staff and teachers are very supportive. I couldn't be more grateful for the teacher and fellows I had during the program. Trust the process!

A focused, refined education with excellent people participating and running the show—especially the instructors!

I know FSA is expensive but it is worth it. You are paying for a sterling reputation and amazing network of graduates. Think Harvard of boot camps, with a no-assholes policy that is written down and clearly enforced. If you can get in, embrace the process, and focus, I doubt there is a better program in the country.

I am currently in the foundations portion of the Immersive Software Engineering cohort. I completed Bootcamp Prep in a Month recently and it was an amazing experience. Before the prep course I had only been studying on my own for about 3  months, and I can honestly say I learned FAR more in the 1 month of prep than I did the 3 months prior on my own. Now that I am in the Foundations course I feel so much better equipped to learn and understand new concepts. Having a solid background from the Prep course has allowed me to focus on studying big picture and practicing my new skills. There are a lot of complex concepts taught in foundations and with my Prep knowledge I'm able to understand these new concepts a lot quicker and am not struggling just to understand the concepts. I highly recommend to anyone who's thinking about joining an immersive cohort to take the Prep course.

The instructor was extremely knowledgeable and took the time to make sure all of us in the class (there were 7 of us total) really understood the concepts he was teaching. We worked together with the instructor, he really encouraged feedback throughout each lecture. Once the lecture was over it was our time to Pair Program (a technique explained in detail at Fullstack, where 2 people code on 1 machine or sharing a screen, one as the 'driver' actually writing the code, and the other as the 'navigator' walking through what to write and how to approach the problem) and work through a set of problems in the workshop. Pair Programming was by far one of the most influential aspects of this course, as it really helped to solidify any knowledge I had just received from the lecture. To be able to explain yourself and even to teach a concept ensures that you understand the concept and also helps you to identify the weaknesses you might have in that concept.

There was a plethora of options for support during the prep course. At any time during each class we could reach out to either the instructor or one of the Fellows who were there to assist us. On off hours we could reach out to the instructors and fellows on Slack, any time of day. A solid support team is so important when receiving this level of education.

The way I look at it, our time at Fullstack will only be a few short months, so why not get as much attention and education as physically possible and take advantage of all of the available options.

Overall I had an amazing experience. This 1 month course was one of the defining moments in my life and one of the most exciting moments in the journey to my future career as a software engineer. I can't stress enough how beneficial this course was in my educational journey. 10/10 would attend

Attending Fullstack was one of the best decisions I have ever made. The instructors are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate. The curriculum is constantly being updated to always be relevant to the top tech trends.

My favorite part of the entire experience was getting to pair program with fellow students. It was the first time I was around people as motivated to learn how to code as I was, and it taught me a lot about how to collaborate with others.

I was fortunate enough to be selected to stay on as a teaching fellow for another 3 months after graduating from the program. Having the opportunity to help others with the same material I had been taught cemented the concepts for me and made me more confident for my upcoming job search.

I am happy to say for me, fullstck was a worthwile investment. Just over 1 month after my fellowship, I was hired as a Software Engineer at Bloomberg.

Fullstack has been one of the best decisions I made in my life. All the instructors were not only knowledgeable of all the concepts in the curriculum, but they were all very compassionate in helping every student grow their skillset in coding. 

Fullstack is split into three separate phases: Foundations, Junior Phase, and Senior Phase. Foundations is 5 weeks long and is primarily self-paced. You are given online video lectures, weekly assignments, and checkpoint tests throughout the course of those five weeks. This phase is primarily self paced and helps reinforce advanced JavaScript concepts like functional programming, recursion, and closure, which will be useful to know in Junior and Senior phase. 

Junior phase is 6 weeks long at the Fullstack campus. About half of each day are live lectures, and the other half are pair programming workshops. Pair programming was one of the best learning experiences I had at Fullstack. Not only do you learn more about each person in your class, but you acquire knowledge from your time working with each individual (i.e. setting up your code editor to be more efficient when coding, understanding the Github workflow, keyboard shortcuts, organizing your code in a DRY manner, etc.). Pair programming is also reflective of how programmers code in their day job and is one of the fastest ways to really learn the technology taught for that day.

Senior phase is also 6 weeks long on campus, but focused primarily in building three projects, an E-Commerce website, a personal project, and a Capstone project. Both the E-Commerce website and Capstone project are built in teams of three or four people, and really help you learn how to work agile. The personal project helps you learn new sets of technologies outside the Fullstack curriculum to build a project you're passionate in and want to highlight in your portfolio. I built a Pokemon Augmented Reality game. 

At the end of my 17 week long journey at Fullstack, I was picked as one of the three Teaching Fellows to help teach the next incoming cohort of students. Being a Teaching Fellow added another level of coding experience that was invaluable. Not only did I have another 3 months of reinforcing all the concepts I learned from Fullstack, but also was given the opportunity to teach these concepts to incoming students. I also helped manage senior project teams to be more agile, and conducted daily stand up meetings. I am happy to say that after 1.5 weeks from graduating as a Teaching Fellow at Fullstack, I will be accepting a Software Dev. Engineer role at Expedia. 

If you are passionate in growing your coding career and want a quality curriculum, please consider Fullstack. If you are worried about the large expense, there are free information sessions, bootcamp prep, web development workshops, and other resources to give you a taste of what you may expect at Fullstack, and see if it is a worthy investment for yourself.

Fullstack Academy is so amazing! From the instructors to the curriculum, everything is designed to give you the best learning experience.

This course was split into two phases, the junior and senior phases. During the junior phase, students learn through lectures, hands-on workshops, and labs. First, the pace and organization of the course is great! Lectures were long enough for us to learn a ton of information, and they were paired with workshops and labs to really make sure we fully understood the information. Instructors and teaching fellows were always on hand to give additional guidance and answer any questions we had. I really got the sense that they actually cared about making sure we not only understood the information but also that they cared that we succeeded.

Towards the end of junior and throughout senior phase, we then shifted to synthesizing the information we learned through group and individual projects. These projects definitely gave me invaluable experience for my job search. This was all alongside some fantastic career counselors who made sure I was presenting the best version of myself for the job hunt.

If you are debating about whether you should attend Fullstack Academy, you should go for it! The instructors are fantastic and they actually care if you do well.

I've graduated from Fullstack Academy Web Development Fellowship, the program sponsored by NYC Tech Talent Pipeline.

I have an awesome experience with FS, like the most of it graduates and here is why:

1. Instructors are outstanding. A lot of people complain that instructors in bootcamps are often don't have much experience in real-world development. It's not the case with FS. First of all, because they do have not only experienced but PASSIONATE teachers. I won't speak for everybody, but give a shout out to Corey Greenwald and Dan Soval who were my instructors. Experience in web development multiplied by the natural ability for outstanding public speaking and great desire to teach other people => that's the recipe to engage you in solving the problems every day, every hour, think about code when you go to sleep and wake up because of the dreams about code. Sure it's information waterfall brings you to that state of the mind, but instructors make this crazy state ENJOYABLE and ENCOURAGING. They really care about you and want you to learn. Thanks Corey and Dan!
2. Curriculum. It's awesome. Why?
   • No spread of tech. You need to master your JavaScript before you go further or you'll have a total mess in your head. All stack is based in JS: React.js, Node.js, and other supporting frameworks. If you didn't do development before it's even hard to imagine how COOL is to write your front and back end using THE SAME language. Sure there may certain trade-offs, but it's the fastest way to learn FULL STACK for a beginner.
   • They listen to the trends. The curriculum is always updating. My cohort was going through the workshops and some of them will be replaced for the next cohort. They curriculum evolve synchronously with the tech trends.
   • Hands-on experience. You always writing code, even if you don't really understand the topic. A theory was for self-learning and even lectures were mostly based on live code writing sessions.
   • You work either in a pair or in a group. Only a few assignments were individual. That's how you would work in real life, right? You won't be a lone wolf, you should always communicate, that's the key for learning and for life.
   • They keep you in shape with checkpoints and exams. No slackers, you gotta work and code to learn something.
3. Competetive admission. No random unmotivated people, everyone was crazy about learning stuff.
4. No asshole rules. They were really monitored and enforced.
5. Support not only in your learning but also in life. It's hard to learn to code from scratch in a short period of time. You will be exhausted, unfocused or tired sometimes. You may think that you stupid or can't learn as fast as your teammates. But they have a special counselor who can help you to overcome such psychological barriers and instructors are always caring and attentive.
6. Fellows!!!!!!!! Fellows are awesome, that's recent Fullsatck Alums who employed by FS to help you overcome technical challenges and be awesome. They like your older brothers and sisters who will take care of you if you lost :)
7. Career counseling. The job market is a MARKET. Nobody can guarantee you employment (unless US Army is paying for your education). But you can learn how not to suck in the job search. And FS is fulfilling this. They have a special time in the program dedicated to hiring activities. They teach you how to LinkedIn, write a resume, cover letters, provide you with sessions with a personal career counselor and ongoing support even AFTER graduation. (Like negotiation)
8. Ability to apply for a FS fellowship. Later to the end of the program, you can apply for the fellowship and become the older brother/sister I mentioned before. It is competitive but most of the people are happy with it, teaching others to solidify acquired skills and give you more confidence in a job search.
9. Social activities. It may sound silly, but they are VERY important. You spend the time with the people who an in similar circumstances but may be very different than you. Social activities (like a hot seat :) made our cohort solid like a rock and caring for each other.
10. Reflection. Each week instructors seat in a circle with students and listen to all your complaints and kudos. And they really listen and change stuff! That's amazing for every organization, but not every organization do this.

To draw a line I just want to add that if you want to change your life, change your career FS is definitely what you need. 

In Fullstack Academy you will not only to learn how to write code, but how to become the better version of yourself, how to learn to communicate with other people.

Fullstack Academy's part-time Flex immersive was one of the most wonderful, worthwhile, and challenging experiences of my life. While there were some things that could be improved about the course, I can wholeheartedly say that everyone there is dedicated, intelligent, and fantastic. If you're thinking of applying to Fullstack, don't hesitate--you won't regret it!

Application

Applying to Fullstack was fairly straightforward. After filling out an online form and taking an online assessment, I was then contacted for a one-on-one interview with a teaching fellow. The interview consisted of two parts--behavioral and technical. Don't sweat the technical interview. They're not looking for experts, but rather that you have a good grasp of the fundamentals and can handle instruction/feedback if you get stuck.

Do not go in with 0 experience first, though. You need to, at minimum, understand the basics of JavaScript: variables, functions, arrays, loops, objects, conditionals, some recursion, etc. If you're on Code Wars, you should be able to solve level 6 problems with some regularity.

The Class

The Flex immersive runs twice a week in-person and one weekend a month. A block of time is set aside for remote work/homework on Wednesdays, though there is no lecture during this time. The class runs across two phases: a junior phase, which consists mostly of lectures and workshops, and a senior phase, which is when you'll build applications from scratch.

Eric Katz, the lead Flex instructor, is funny, insightful, and an all-around great guy. He's a brilliant engineer and teacher, and you'll be glad to have him as your mentor.

The curriculum itself is challenging and trying--as it should be. Initially, I had panicked and thought I'd fail, but I realized quickly that I'd be okay so long as I put in the time and effort. Every concept you learn in the curriculum is then reinforced in senior phase, which is when you go from a newbie to a software engineer by building real apps--from a shopping website to your own hackathon project to a fully realized final project.

The curriculum was supplmented by weekend projects Eric assigned, which helped us learn to build projects from scratch far earlier than senior phase.

Career Success

The career success team is great. They provide lectures on interviewing, networking, salary negotiation, and so on. But the lectures are the least of what they do.

First, they organize Launch Day--an event where companies looking for graduates come to the campus and interview students in a "speed dating" style event. Though I wound up not going with any of the Launch Day companies, I did gain several good leads there. It's also a great event and a good introduction to tech interviews.

More importantly, they provide you with actual support during your job search. Jackie Ore, in particular, provided tremendous support during salary negotiations--something that had always terrified me in the past.

Cons

The only cons I'd say are that--at times--the Flex program did not feel like it was part of Fullstack Academy. For example, the curriculum frequently mentions deadlines for the full-time students, a source of confusion for us at times. It also felt sometimes as if the full-time staff had forgotten us. I'm sure this wasn't the case, but occasional checkins through all 6 months of the program would have helped. 

Aside from these minor issues, I wholeheartedly recommend Fullstack Academy. If you put in the work, you'll definitely succeed. Two months after graduating, I accepted a job offer to work as a software developer. :-)

I'm a graduate of FSA and it was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life. The program isn't just designed to teach you to become a (better) developer, it's also designed to help you become a better teammate, public speaker, life-long learner, and leader. 

I came into the program already having some experience with web development and I needed help advancing my career. Even though I had some experience already, I still needed to do a some JS studying before getting accepted. They offer a JavaScript prep course that many people in my cohort took and it worked well for them so if you don't have a coding background already, I would highly recommend that. If there's one thing I give FSA a lot of credit for is that they do a very good job at testing/interviewing candidates before they're accepted. I'm not sure about other cohorts but I was so impressed with every single person in mine not only by their abilities but also their kindness. FSA isn't kidding when they say they have a 'no a-hole' rule.

The program itself is very fast paced and it isn't intended for you to learn everything you could possibly know about softeware development but it does teach you everything you need to know to be successful. You'll learn how to learn and this is the best quality you could possibly have as a developer. Frameworks will come in and out of style but having the ability to learn quickly and apply knowledge is very powerful. Of course, like most things, you can only get out of it what you put into it. They treat you like an adult which means if you're not asking questions or putting in the effort in projects or exercises, they aren't going to chase after you. You need to make the effort.

FSA is also very attunded to what you'll need in order to get attention in the job market afterwards. The senior phase allows you to build projects, explore new technologies (this will help you stand out from other students), get guidance on your resume and interviewing practice. I was particularly impressed with the career guidance I was given by Holly who made me feel like she would literally drop everything to help me if I had a question. I just never expected to get such personalized attention after I graduated but the staff really made me feel like my success mattered to them.

I think the big question everyone has is what it was like during the job search for me. My experience probably isn't going to be what other graduates experienced because I could lean on my background in web dev a bit but by week five, I had two job offers with a third very close. One of those job offers came from a company that attended our Launch Day (previously called Hiring Day). I know there were a few other students who got offers from other Launch Day companies so it's a valuable event that should definitely be taken seriously.

That's not to say those offers came easy though. I didn't take any time off after graduation (which is what they recommend) and rarely took any weekends off too (mostly spent that time doing take-home projects and studying). There were many many applications, cover letters, interviews, take-home projects, and a lot of anxious nights. It takes some hustling and, as good as the FSA program and career counseling is, it's entirely up to you to land that job.

Overall, I have very little criticism of the entire program. It was an incredible journey all the way from the initial application to getting that first job offer. Entirely worth it.

Let's preface this by saying Fullstack Academy is NOT a fast track to a job. The entry bar to a junior software engineering is getting high, and it truly takes hard work to get your foot in the door. 

What this program really is, is a way to bring out your potential as a software engineer. Throughout the months of training, it makes you *fall in love* with programming. With my cohort, I was putting in hours that I didn't know I had. It was addictive. I was a pretty unmotivated individual and I joined FSA because I thought it offered the structure and the peer support(pressure?) I needed to get my act together, and boy did it deliver.

The instructor was knowledable, but he wasn't there to really hold your hand. In that sense it was more of a college lecture format. The instructor had a lot of ground to cover and little time, so it was understandable that a lot of concepts will be hand-waved. It will be up to you to fill in some of the gaps. The TAs were recent graduates who were there to get you through certain sections in the workshops, but I felt they too, were simply constrained by time to go over a topic on a deep level. WHICH MEANS! If you fall behind in your fundamentals, you will fall further and further behind. Even though you will probably still graduate, you are missing the solid fundamentals that you will be required to know to get a job. It will really be up to the individual to make him or herself responsible for really understanding the materials. Fullstack gives you the environment, you give yourself everything else.

Jobs. About a fourth of my cohort received real "software engineering" jobs. But a lot more, I'd say half, did manage a career change into a technical field, which I thought was extremely good. (Note, coming from a 4 year engineering degree, those numbers were pretty much on par.) Like many said, I wouldn't expect much from the "hiring day" here. 

The types of people who found success in this program were apparent in the earlier weeks. You know who they were, the students who were the most passionate and *optimistic* After graduating from the program, they would continue to work on their project, polishing up their skills. I couldn't stop studying after graduating from the program, because like many others, I was addicted to learning.

Could I have done it without FSA? No. Their structure, learning path, the peers, and the environment was what got me hooked and the rest was history. In that sense, this program was worth every penny and it would be disingenuous to say that I could have tapped into my potential myself. 

Because of the way FSA has truly changed my life, I will always consider it the best decision I've made. But in reviews I also need to recognize that some of my classmates complained that the lectures weren't very thorough and there weren't enough resources to catch them up to speed once they fell behind. They expected a more caring, handholding format but instead were thrown into the fire. For such a hefty price tag, it was a fair expectation from them. So, just know what to expect :)



 

II was a part of WDF Fullstack Academy Bootcamp for a period of almost 6 months and when I look back at my journey it still feels unreal sometimes because the growth I have achieved and the amount of knowledge I have gained in such a short period is something I had been aspiring to achieve for a long time. 

I found my interest for programming during my undergrad and I knew I wanted to pursue it as my career but I faced a lot of hurdles along the way and could not pave a path by myself through online courses and self study. My husband told me about bootcamps and how they provide you with the skillset needed in the job market today in a short interval of time. During my search for bootcamps, I stumbled across many options, all promising to offer the best learning experience and future career goals and i was over whelmed by the number of options I had. I decided to reach out to alums of various programs and ask them how their experience had been first hand during their time at various bootcamps. After hearing back from a number of people praising Fullstack Academy's teaching methods and how their curriculum taught frontend and backend in the same language (Javascript), I was convinced on joining this program.

The next hurdle I faced was to figure out how to pay my tuition for the program and the two options I came across on Fullstack Academy's web-page were:

1) Web Development Fellowship NYC Tech Talent Pipeline Program (free of cost sponsored by the state)

2) Their all female (Grace Hopper) deferred tuition payment program

I applied for the WDF program and gave the Grace Hopper as my second option( in-case i don't make it through to the program i really wanted to join). I was asked to take an online assessment and after a one month long wait time (the longest wait of my life), I was told I have not made it thorough directly to the program and that I have to attend an on-campus Bootcamp Prep Course and if i pass that, i would be officially accepted into the WDF program. How could i say no and honestly it was the best opportunity for me because i like working under pressure. 

Bootcamp Prep was a fast paced one month long course where we were on-campus for 3 hours on weekdays (evening) and were first given a lecture on the topic and then a workshop to be completed in pairs. (Yes pair programming was one of the things we were being tested on in order to qualify for the program) The instructors who taught us during this course (Sean and Corey) were the best I could have asked for. They were very experienced in the course material they were teaching and had a solid grasp on the concepts being taught. They kept us all on our feet and made the lectures were interactive and energetic. In this course, we took 2 exams and their accumulated score along with an individuals attendance and collaboration during pair programming were taken under consideration to decide who would be considered for the interview phase of the program. I was selected and after an online live coding challenge, I was given the news of making it successfully to the WDF program. 

Next came the Foundation phase, this is where all the pure Javascript core features were taught to us via online recorded videos and workshops( for WDF students, it was mandatory to be on-campus for this phase). We had instructors there to guide us and teaching fellows helping us along the way if we got stuck at anything. This phase involved taking a 3 hour long test every week to make sure each student was on track and if not, was provided with full guidance and help to keep up with the curriculum. The end of this phase was marked with a grand test passing which put me through onto the next phase; the Junior Phase. This is where all the major technology and softwares were taught and was the core portion of learning in this bootcamp. We started off with backend first and then moved onto to front end in the later weeks. In this phase, we were given a lecture every morning (sometimes twice a day) by our instructors (Corey and Dan) who by the way brought so much energy every morning that I found it hard to not pay attention to what was being taught and Dan with is funny jokes made sure to keep his audience awake and upbeat. Following the lecture we had to complete a workshop (pair program) based on the topic taught to us. Pair programming provided me with the opportunity to look at problems from another persons perspective which comes in very handy later on when finding jobs because you would be asked to solve questions in many different ways during interview process. The curriculum that was taught and the way it was planned to be taught was something I really found helpful because implementing a topic right after learning about it, really helped me understand it well and once i wrote the code myself, it helped me memorize the syntax as well. This phase also involved weekly tests to check the progress of each student and to provide them with any help needed. Study Saturdays were also implemented to help the individuals who were lagging and to keep them up to pace of the program. 

The last phase is the Senior Phase which revolves around projects and prepping for the job search related material. We had to complete a total of 3 projects during this time and they became a part of my portfolio once i graduated. This phase really hits it home because you actually build and deploy apps and web pages that others can access using the tech taught during the bootcamp and learning and implementing new tech along the way. Career advisers helped me along the way to formulate a resume, update linkedIn profile and  with other career related stuff. This phase is a little hectic with longer working hours but it really pays off since the things that I created during this time were the ones I talked about during many of my job interviews.

All in all, Fullstack Academy really changed my life because it gave me the proper skill set and knowledge that is currently a requirement of the job market and not only that, it also prepared me so that if i want to learn things on my own, I am more than capable of doing it now. The confidence I achieved during this program is huge and I was honored to be a part of an environment where everyone supported each other, no one was left behind and where no question was left un-answered. 

I recommend this program to anyone who is looking to make a career change and just as I took the word of alums who experienced this first hand, take my word for it and you would not be disappointed.

TLDR
- Amazing life changing experience
- You get out of this program what you put in, so give it your all!
- Hired fast and increased my salary

My time at Fullstack Academy (FSA) was amazing.  I left my job 12/2017 that I felt trapped in, I was unhappy with, and I was not making much for the dissatisfaction. I completed the program at the Chicago Campus and became a teaching fellow (a position you apply for as a senior during the program). I received a Job offer one week after completing the fellowship nearly doubling my previous salary. 
One week and those kinds of gains are NOT typical of the program. I had a low paying job before, and I was very lucky that a company wanted to hire me after Launch day (the event at the end of Fullstack's program where you have a number of 10-minute interviews with companies that are hiring developers). 
Many people that have gone through FSA have had a transformative experience. I am one of those people. My confidence has been restored. I have confirmed my passion for programming and expect a long and fulfilling career in development. I spoke to a previous student at Launch Day (actually a member of the team that hired me) and we both talked about how we almost didn't trust the reviews and testimonials because they seemed too good. I am perpetuating the cycle of people gushing way to hard.
 
I believe my linked in will be on this post, so if you are mulling over going and want to talk someone who did it and does not work for the school feel free to reach out.  

I was part of the first WDF cohort. We spent almost 5 months on the NYC campus going first through the foundational materials and later through the main curriculum. Fullstack gave me a very solid understanding of software engineering principles, and most importantly, taught me how to be self sufficient. 

The instructors and the stuff were excellent. I was never bored but was continuosly challenged. The level of students at FS is very high, yet everybody was always super supportive.

I accepted a job offer at arguably one of the toughest companies to get in after about 4 months after graduation. 

If you are thinking about becoming a professional developer, I can't recommend Fullstack enough. With that being said, I want to empisize that your results will be directly proportionate to the effort you put in (during the program and especially during the job search).