Fullstack Academy

I had an overall very positive experience at Fullstack Academy. I got into their WDF program which is part of a partnership with the city and is 100% tuition free, so bear in mind that the fact that I got to go for free may have made my perception a little rosier than it would otherwise be. That being said, if I had to do it all over and pay the full cost for this coding bootcamp, I absolutely would (especially their Grace Hopper program, which has deferred tuition). I just got my first coding-related job 4 months after graduating and I'll be making almost triple my previous annual salary, so the cost is definitely worth it in my opinion. 

The two main instructors that I had at Fullstack are amazing. Sarah especially is incredibly effective at communicating very complex topics clearly in a short amount of time. Going through a coding bootcamp, you have to absorb a crazy amount of information very quickly and it's difficult to keep up no matter how good you are, but having great instructors is essential to making it more manageable. Being able to deliver massive amounts of information to beginners in a way that is digestible takes a lot of talent, and I'm impressed by both Sarah and Orlando for doing it so well. All the fellows who acted as teaching assistants were also amazingly supportive and helpful.

The curriculum overall was very good. We started off learning coding basics in JavaScript for about a month, and then moved on to learning the PERN tech stack, which includes PostgreSQL, Express, React, and Node.js. There were some workshops that I think were not as clear as they could have been, and some other workshops that stood out as being brilliantly written and organized (shout out to Finn who made a couple of those A+ workshops). The workshops were made to be worked on in pairs, with one person sharing their screen as they type code, and the other person giving directions on how to approach the problem. The idea of "pair programming" is central to Fullstack's education model. I did get social burnout sometimes from pair programming so much, but for the most part I liked it and found it to be very effective.

There was lots of career success support during and after the bootcamp but I think my cohort got extra support especially after graduation because we were in the WDF program. I underestimated how important career success support was, and I think a lot of people tend to do that. It's not unusual to graduate bootcamp with imposter syndrome but getting coaching, resume reviews, and interview prep definitely helped me counteract those feelings of self-doubt.

Going through this bootcamp was extremely challenging but great instructors and classmates made it fun and manageable. You learn a LOT in a very short amount of time, you WILL have to study on your own time during and after the program to fill in knowledge gaps, but overall it's well worth the cost and the effort! Although there are lots of free resources out there, I wouldn't have been able to learn how to code like this from scratch on my own. Now that I have a solid base of coding knowledge and have "learned how to learn" so to speak, I feel like I can make better use of other resources too.

I recently graduated from the Grace Hopper Program at Fullstack Academy and I had an amazing experience. Even though the entire course was remote, I was able to gain the skills necessary to get plenty of interviews and job offers as a software engineer after graduation. I was also able to form meaningful friendships with my classmates and professional connections with the instructors. I think the main thing to know if you're considering any bootcamp is that people won't hold your hand the whole time. You have to be a motivated, self-starter in order to put in the work during the course and put the work into applying for jobs. Super worth it though, I successfully changed careers from something I hated into something I now love.

I did the Grace Hopper Program at Fullstack Academy. I thought the experience was overall very worthwhile and made a huge impact on my career choice. In terms of pros, they have a great curriculum with everything you need to begin as a software engineer and a very welcoming community including staff and other students. On the other hand, being well prepared for the job doesn't mean well prepared for interviews. I felt that the last few weeks of the curriculum were not concrete or taught as smoothly. This was the time when the focus was on algorithms and data structures. I think it would've helped to have more preparation in that area because Fullstack offered Launch day. Launch day pairs students with employers and gets them the first interview. Upon doing well on these interviews, students move to the next round with those companies and if they aren't well prepared to interview right out of boot camp these will be wasted opportunities. Of course, there will be more interview opportunities after graduating but note that graduates will need to spend significant time on their own in technical interview preparation.

I loved my time at fullstack. It was an incredibly challenging experience and I totally white-knuckled my way through. They do provide an abundance of academic support as well as career counseling and social-support as well. I was very impressed with the diverse group of students they admitted to the program. Everyone came from a different background, and they were all very friendly and intelligent. I have made life-long friends and we continue to ask each other questions, and provide support for one another.

Pros:
-Structured class setting with minimal lectures and lots of hands-on work
-Great workshops that don't hold your hands
-Great setting for working with others whether it's pair exercises or group projects
-Great instructors who are always available to help
-Awesome career day that really helped get you prepared for more serious interviews down the line

Cons:
-The pacing of the course could use some work. e.g. REACTOs (practice technical interviews) are more of an after-thought in the current set up when they are so crucial for the job search
-Based on my experience, the weaker students are generally grouped with the stronger students for group projects, giving little incentive to demonstrate that you are a top student; almost better to just do the bare minimum on the Junior phase.

I don't regret going to FSA. I have an engineering job as a result of what I learned at the program, but a few things rubbed me the wrong way. I'm going to focus mostly on negatives because I haven't read some of my biggest concerns in other reviews. Also, apologies for the rambling and disorganization below, I acknowledge the structure of my review could be better.

Fullstack Academy is not equipped properly to handle everyone of all levels

I think they removed this from their website, but they use to state that everyone from all backgrounds would benefit from going to FSA, even seasoned programmers who want to brush up their skills. Some people with programming experience, especially seniors, would pull their teeth out with the amount of pair programming the bootcamp forces you to do. I personally wish they did less pair programming. They immediately alienate people with programming experience in the first week by doing a long workshop on why pair programming is the best way to learn. FSA tries to prove the point that pairing beginners with beginners leads to the most amount of growth, but they fail to discuss intermediate and expert level programmers paired with beginners. The beginners obviously learn a lot from people with more experience, but, ultimately, the people with the most experience get dragged down a little by less experienced partners. You're not supposed to finish every workshop, but some of the more knowledgeable people would benefit more from finishing the workshop all the way through, and doing the extra credit, instead of teaching their partner the workshop. FSA recommends finishing the workshops at home anyway, but it could feel like class time is wasted time. This applies to both experienced programmers and fast learners who end up becoming the top of the class.

I think FSA needs to work on a way to better balance the curriculum for beginners, those with a background in programming, and fast learners. The curriculum is great for computer science graduates because a lot of universities do not teach full stack technologies or web dev, however, workshops and especially group projects can be painful when you're not supposed to move on if your partner does not understand what's going on. I'm not saying person who is struggling should be left in the dust, I'm saying it's just not ideal scenario for both parties, and I do not believe that FSA handles the students who struggle the most appropriately, but I'll talk about that in a later section. FSA has to rely on pair programming due to not having enough resources (teachers and teaching assistants) to support every student during a workshop.

Those with a CS degree also want to do a bootcamp like FSA because they want help in building a portfolio for job hunting, so the second half of the program sounds incredibly appealing. FSA gives you a ton of code and knowledge of a stack that you can leverage to build your own projects, but it's difficult to produce a decently functional app in the short amount of time you're given if you have to code along with someone who is struggling. Yes, you can work on the app after you've graduated but some people want to immediately dive into the job hunt once the program ends. I witnessed a couple students do the entire project for the rest of their team, which really sucks for the people who didn't actually end up doing the project because they can't even explain the code. In this scenario, I think it would be better to match students of similar levels for projects so everyone will learn together (as FSA even stated at the beginning of the program).

Additionally, there's a little bit of a toxic culture towards individuals who have a computer science degree or had a programming job. This is not only specific to FSA, I have encountered other bootcampers who express the same sentiment. FSA's curriculum is great for CS degree graduates who were never taught full-stack technologies. Despite these graduates not knowing web dev, other students talked about the experienced people and asked "why are they even in this program?", or put down computer science majors for not knowing the same things bootcampers know. It was enough to make me feel uncomfortable and that reaction is unwelcoming to students who do have a CS degree. It's one thing to say you accomplished something without a four year degree, but it's another thing to put someone else down for it.

FSA does not provide enough support for the top strugglers

As mentioned earlier above. FSA should be more strict with who passes junior phase. The strugglers would really benefit from redoing the first phase (which is a possibility) instead of FSA expecting other students to educate the struggler during the final phase when these other students are already past that point and want to start developing applications. Someone from my cohort didn't finish and understand the last project before senior phase, had redo the project, and somehow "passed" even though they still did not understand React and Redux in senior phase. FSA threw them on a team for the first project, and expected the rest of the team to catch the person up with pair programming. This person ended up even more left behind because the team wanted to have a working app. It's not a great situation for everyone involved and is a great diservice to the person who's struggling.

There are not enough teaching assistants, not long enough office hours, and class sizes are way too big. My cohort size was around 40 students, which FSA mislead me about when I was applying. I asked several times how big classes are and they either gave me a non-answer (it fluctuates with the seasons) or told me about 20. I was not expecting that class size. Students do not get enough attention or resources amongst large class sizes. Increasing the class sizes also floods the market with even more junior dev job seekers, so it's even more difficult to get an engineering job.

FSA is misleading about their outcomes

I'm not a big fan of the fact that they showcase success stories and companies who have hired graduates from the first year or two of FSA, when bootcamps were probably at their peak. They also do not explicitly state how many people get non-software engineer jobs like product management, support engineer, or solution constultant. Not all graduates land programming jobs, quite a few end up in a form of a technical role that does not involve coding. FSA also links to out of date CIRR reports that have higher success rates.

FSA spends too much time on "sharing your feelings" and "bonding" events/workshops

Someone did mention this in another review, and I also felt the same way. You are forced to go to lunch with a group every week to share your highs and lows. There are retrospectives where you compliment other people in the class for something they did well. Sometimes FSA ends the day early for bonding activities with other classmates or fellows. It felt like wasted time when I paid so much, and FSA already moves too fast and doesn't spend enough time on certain topics. Also, somewhat related, everyone is an adult, but I felt like I was being treated as a child by how certain FSA staff talked to the class.

 

 

If you’re thinking about a boot camp, go to Fullstack. That’s the gist of this. Boot camps won’t totally prepare you, but they do a pretty good job, and you should get ahead of this as much as possible because there might be a job bubble coming if there already isn’t one. 

Students: They clearly care about who they let in to the cohort. Most students are kind, sociable, and chill. Some are especially decent. A couple are bummers, but the ratio is outstanding. Everyone stops what they’re doing to help each other out. I have made great friends from Fullstack. I was someone who was going in thinking “this will be cool but these aren’t going to be my people”. They will be your people. If you're thinking of changing careers or adding a skillset, the student body alone is a reason to choose Fullstack.

Company + Personnel: Fullstack is scrappy, mostly transparent, and they take you seriously. The instructors are good, super smart, and very kind. They're completely sincere and straight forward with you. Only the people whose job it is to be obtuse will be obtuse, and even then they do their best to no be, and for the most part, understand that’s sort of their function within the structure of the company. People here work hard to show that they care. The fellows (the student teachers) range from being brilliant and kind to being NOT the best engineers ever but still very kind. They are all wonderful and committed to being helpful. This is a reflection of the student body again, and the commitment to a stellar culture. The recent Bridgewater purchase of Fullstack makes me nervous, but I doubt they'll interfere too much with how the company is run for now. Just look out for that, I guess.

Education: I know JavaScript. That's just true. I understand most things about it at a fundamental level. I have a stack I can code in. I felt fully supported the whole time, with tons of opportunity for extra help and practice even after school was out. The exams were tough but fair. I have made more than one app since graduating, like, got it up and running by myself. They were dinky toy apps, and most were used for interview projects, but I can do that now. It's wild. It will be brutal, it will be fast paced, but seriously trust the process. You'll see a lot of people say that, and they're right. The process won't help you get a job, but it will allow you to learn a lot very quickly.

All that said, there’s a lot more to learn, and relearn, and relearn. You will still be a junior when you leave. You graduate an engineer in that you can engineer things, but you’re going to be very confused looking at a large codebase, you’re going to forget a lot of what you learned, and you’re going to feel stupid but you’re not! They teach you well, so you’ll be able to brush up on what you forgot. It's 3 months though. Take it easy on yourself. You are pretty much job ready, and that's amazing.

Most importantly — despite their best efforts, unless you have a BS in Computer Science or general experience with CS, you will lack those CS fundamentals and algorithm skills. If you can help it, spend a couple hours a week practicing algorithms before the second half of the program where you will practice more frequently. It’ll be a lot less rough when you get out of the program that way.

Diversity + Culture: The environment is great. Fullstack is pretty progressive regarding identity politics so that's really nice. I mean, not everyone who is there totally gets it, but everyone is very friendly and I knew at least one trans person who had a solid experience at Grace Hopper, and I know there were other NB folks who did well there. There is still a lack of diversity mostly in gender and sexuality in the Fullstack cohorts. Mostly dudes, mostly white, with a few SEA and EA guys (my cohort had one queer person and no black people). Almost no women because they usually go to GH, which can make it a bit of a boys club, but the environment does a great job preventing that from happening (GH helps too, you interact with your sister cohort quite a bit). GH had a lot more overall diversity.

But yeah, just reemphasizing that the culture is overall really great. Very surprised how cool everyone was. They clearly care a lot.

Other thoughts:

The whole boot camp thing is nuts. You go in there, and you're learning a hundred new things a day, and they're trying to give you theory but also trying to make sure you can actually get something up and running so you have projects on your resume by the time you graduate, and they spend a good amount of time practicing whiteboarding problems but it isn't enough, and you're meeting new people, and you're working 60+ hours a week, and you're not seeing any of your friends and family (or if you are, not that often) and it's just bananas. Fullstack is pretty great, and there will be people who are better at identifying specific negatives about the program. I had a good time, I did well for myself, any flaws I saw seemed to be no fault of theirs as much as it was the fault of boot camps as a whole. I think if you have a different background or you're a different kind of person, maybe Fullstack isn't right for you. I don't know. Read other reviews, they helped me a lot when I was deciding.

You're almost definitely not going to come out of this interview ready. Some of you will, because some of you are wired for this. God bless. Most of you will not, and you'll probably take a very high paying hybrid role (sales + engineering usually) and do quite well for yourself. There just aren't as many junior roles out there right now. The industry is starting to grow wise to the fact that they can avoid hiring new engineers by just paying seniors more money to create systems that do junior work for them. Yes it is unfair, but that's how this works right now. There are a ton of great folks in software though looking to mentor people. Find them -- they will help you. Unless you have a lot of natural talent (and even if you do), it's going to be a long road. A handful of folks from my cohort got jobs after a normal amount of time (3 - 4 months), but a majority are still looking (4 - 5 months in right now).

None of this boot camp stuff is sustainable, but it is available right now, and it is totally feasible that you leave Fullstack with a high paying job in the tech space. Also, if you come from a relatively privileged background, and you're young, and you don't have a lot of direction, just do it. Nothing out there is going to fulfill you right now, but you'll be able to get some direction in your life towards a discipline that pays well with tons of flexibility, you'll get out in front of the incoming automation wave,  and you can maybe even have some time and energy and capital after all of this to eventually do something you like for a living that isn't actively contributing to the siphoning of wealth from the bottom to the top. I don't know.

If any of this sounds appealing to you go to Fullstack. If I sound like someone who thinks like you go to Fullstack. It’s probably the best boot camp around.

The 14 weeks onsite at FullStack were intense, challenging and very thorough  The instructors are deeply knowledgable (and very patient).    The curiculllum was clearly set out at the beginning of each phase.  Pair programming and test driven development kept things interesting daily. Workshops and test were challenging and really helped motivate me.   There are several bigger projects as you progress through the course and they really helped increase my understanding and enthusiam for software development.  

Fullstack's curriculum is pretty great and very up to date. Fullstack gives you a solid foundation for modern web development careers. Every project was jam packed with essential programming concepts, which was overwhelming at first, but it was useful to return to these projects during the studying phase of my job search. I also felt that my instructors were genuinely interested in web development and also in teaching. Fullstack is very high quaility bootcamp and you cant go wrong if you choose it.