General Assembly

Having deciced to leave my previous job in Commodities Trading, it is fair to say I didn't fully know what to expect from my time as a WDI student. As it turned out it was initially tough, then much harder and finally, after a lot of hard work, incredibly rewarding! Without doubt, the best career decision I have ever made.

The course is called 'Immersive' for a good reason - you are thrown straight in at the deep end, smashing out code from day one and whilst it is initially quite overwealming, you find yourself week on week amazing yourself with how much you learn in such a short space of time. There is a heavy emphasis on 'job skills' over theory and abstract computer science which as a career changer, was exactly what I was hoping for.  

The standard of teaching is excellent - smart, confident industry professionals who know what life is like at the coal face of software development. I certainly wasn't 'top of the class' on the course, but there was always willing and friendly support on hand pretty much 24/7 to keep me on track. 

One of the best things about GA is the after course experience - you aren't just dumped in the job market and left to your own devices, rather there is dedicated team helping you along the way with interviews, CVs and setting up meetings with eager employers. My final project was impressive enough to get me my first front-end job with Penguin Books at a GA hiring event and since have worked for agencies, a fin-tech startup and today at a FTSE100 retailer, building complex webapps, handling literally millions of hits a day.

Coming up to three years on from graduation, I still stay in touch with a lot of my coursemates, tutors and the wider GA gang - I would, and have, wholeheartly recommend the WDI course to anyone wanting to fasttrack themselves into the world of web development!

I took the Web Development Immersive course in April 2014 and I can honestly say it completely changed my career and propsects for the better.

I came into the course with minimal coding knowledge (but did complete all of the pre-work assignments leading up to the course) and within 8 days of finishing WDI had found a job as a full-time web developer. Nearly two years on I'm still working as a Frontend Developer and have never been so excited about my future.

The course itself is intense to say the least, but you get out what you put in. If you want a surface level course that will go a an easy pace, this is not the one for you. But if you want to challenge yourself, learn true programming concepts that span multiple languages and are serious about becoming a web developer General Assembly's WDI course is a must.

General Assembly as a company are great too. They work hard to keep the community together and host parties every month for alumni, instructors, employees and prospective students. This means that you're not just thrown out into the big bad world after you finish the course. You've always got a strong community to integrate with.

Overall I can't speak highly enough of General Assembly. They've completely altered my career trajectory in a hugely positive way. I can now build experiences that anyone with an internet connection can use and all I need to do it is my laptop.

Ok, so like you I have read everything this site has posted about coding boot camps.  First of all take it with a grain of salt, like a movie review not everyone has the same opinions and thoughts as you do.  With that said my review from WDI here in Washington D.C.  I separted from the Navy to attend this specific coding boot camp, I was also awarded the Oppurtunity Fund that pays for the course.  The 12 week program is seriously no joke in keeping a pace.  Everyday you learn something different from the concept of implementing API's to connecting front end languages with back end languages.  Each day seems more daunting and does not seem to be enough time in the day to ask questions and get the work done.  But that is the thing, you are not expected to complete all assignments, however with that said you are expecting to time box everything.  Work on something, get stuck, take a break, come back and own it.  Do not dwell on one problem for to long, there will be time to ask quesitons why something was not working.  My only, I would not say pet peeve, annoyance was that Javascript was not covered as much as some of us thought it would be.  Your prework was the gamit of what you learn.  So in order to be a total bad ass and rock out, do as much Code Academy, Free Code Camp an any other free online training.  Yes it sucks I know however it will seriously only help you, that you can trust me on.  Come into the program hungry to learn to program not thirsty to get that big paycheck.  On the finding a job note, yes GA, at least in DC, will do everything they can to help you find an awesome position.  However you need to bring your A game and do your part.  I had some people in my class complain that the Outcomes team was either not doing enough or was not doing what they needed.  Well you come to a coding boot camp to learn programming PLUS what employers are looking for, the Outcomes team can not and will not hold your hand.  My experiance with them was different and everything worked out after I stopped and just focused on my skills.  I work part time right now, however I work in Cyber Security which is where I wanted to be.  The company that brought me on said they wanted to bring me on because of my programming experiance but did not have a position open so they asked if I was interested in part time and I jumped on it.  Find a programming stack you enjoy and look for a position alinged with that, do not pick a job with the highest paycheck.  You need to learn first trust me.  I literally go to work excited, armed with the skills I learned in the Military and at General Assembly.  You just have to want this.  On another note to any veterans interested in General Assembly or any other coding boot camp in Washington D.C. I have only this, do not expect these companies to hire you because you are a veteran they do not care.  They want only veterans with degrees no matter your skill level.  Be prepared to hear that a lot, however with that said if you stay out of the government spot light and go private sector you will do fine trust me.

I took the 7th WDI course in NYC at GA and it was a life changing experience. It was extremely difficult, not just mentally and physically but emotionally.

I put in about 18 hr days often including the weekends and gave it everything I had. I got what I put in. My instructors were phenomenal and taught me from basically no programming experience and all the essentials of programming mentality, data structures, how the internet works, HTTP, RESTful API, hitting external API's on the backend, scraping, AJAX, responsive design, HTML/CSS, ruby, rails, javascript, jQuery, etc.

We learned JavaScript in 2 weeks and by the 3rd week I was able to create a JS side scrolling action game using a game engine library they had never taught. 

To this day I still share a bond with many of my classmates as we forged through the experience together.

A year after graduating, I had gotten a job as a junior developer (on an entire tech stack I had never once learned) and eventually got promoted to run the entire engineering team of 10. We successfully scaled out our flagship product tripling daily revenue, hitting +100k DAU's and eventually GA called me back to teach as a lead instructor.

It's been a wild ride but I owe so much not just to the program, but the people. My instructors were quite simply amazing. 

I graduated from GA’s Digital Marketing course in 2013 and their Intro to SQL in 2014 and can honestly say that GA’s courses are great.

The content is robust, the teachers are of a high quality and the timings make sense for the full time employed, but what really makes GA stand out is their after care and the community they’ve built. It’s one thing to go and learn a new skill, it’s completely another to try to get a job afterwards. But not with GA. There’s a ton of networking opportunities and meet and greets with hungry startups waiting to snap up fresh talent.

I’ve gone on to hire GA graduates, who’ve then gone on to start startups, who’ve then gone on to hire GA graduates :)

I’m still in touch with many of my classmates and the community at large is always willing to help out – that is priceless. 

I took WDI in London in 2013 as the second course they ever ran. I had no prior coding experience other than the pre-course work they assigned me, as I was working as a historian for English Heritage at the time. Going in, I was super nervous, but quickly found that everyone in the course was more or less in the same position. We were all there to learn from scratch, and that's exactly what we did.

Those 3 months were some of the most intense months of my life and some of the best. We worked insanely hard, all day every day, often worked (and partied) late into the night. It was really tough, sometimes confusing, always challenging, but by the end of it we all could call ourselves developers. My course curriculum was very different to what the current course is today, and by all accounts I hear it is vastly improved (we learned very little javascript back then, which would have been a huge asset to me now). But the foundations I learned in Ruby on Rails completely set me up for my career as a developer.

I got multiple job offers straight out of the course, and now 3 years later I'm working for an incredible creative agency as a Front End Developer making movie websites. I even got to help build the official Star Wars website last year for The Force Awakens!

General Assembly isn't just a course, it's about taking control of your skillset and your career and going into an industry where you can solve puzzles every day and get paid to do it. With GA you get the opportunity to learn some truly awesome, relevant skills, meet a new family of people, be mentored by passionate and brilliant instructors, and get access to an international community of developers, designers, marketers, product managers and data scientists for the rest of your life. It's a fantastic course, an amazing network, and if you are serious about changing the course of your career, I highly recommend GA as your first step towards success.

General Assembly's Web Design Circuit is amazing! It was my first real deep dive into the world of programming and I was delighted to learn with some of the most inspiring, creative, and entrepreneurial minded people. GA's staff is incredibly thoughtful and patient (thank goodness because I was so new to all the concepts!). Our teachers presented the modules in a logical and fun manner that built upon each week's lesson. Learn should be fun, right?!  Every online classrroom experience of the Circuits course unllocked another creative possiblilty that I could tangibly create in my multiple lines of code. I couldn't be happier with my experience or what I created as a result of going through the Circuits course. Thanks, GA! 

I signed up for the Web Development Immersive course with no prior development experience.

The admissions process checked for basic qualities. Can you think logically? How serious are you about doing this?

We were given small projects to complete at home. Make sure to do these, otherwise you will likely struggle when the course starts.

You can expect to work 12hrs a day, Monday-Saturday. It's tough, but there's a strong support network. Instructors, alumna, and your peers have your back 24-7. Each class defines their own culture and values - my cohort had a fantastic camaraderie.

This course is 3 months long, however you should manage your expectations. This is the beginning of your journey. Yes - you can come out with the competency of a junior developer - but the learning doesn't stop.

It's been 2 years since I completed my WDI course.  General Assembly is still providing value to me now with it's global alumni network and followup events. I went on to code for a few startups, and subcontract for the likes of Google and Skype as a Technical PM. I've now founded a company called Fromigo - a marketplace of tours and activities by local people.

I enrolled in the Web Development Immersive at General Assembly in summer 2014. Given my Industrial Engineering background  + work in consulting I was a bit skeptical of the program's promise to truly bring you up to speed in 12 weeks on being able to get a full time job. My headline for review is: WDI is incredibly valuable, there is 0 minutes wasted on useless topics, everything is practical and a necessary block needed in progression towards becoming a junior developer. 

Faculty: The highlight for me was the dedicated faculty (2 instructors per class + 1/2 TAs) who would come to class extremely prepared, run each session as a working session (vs. lecturing at you) and be prepared to stay through the evening as you are going through the daily exercises. The faculty really lives and breathes your success and holds that as a KPI. This is something I could never say about many of my undergraduate professors. They were also extremely good at their job and very up-to-date on what is being used and most relevant in the industry today.

Classmates: It is a very fun and engaging environment. The class sizes are much smaller than normal university which means you get to really know the people you are studying with. There's a lot to be learnt from your classmates throughout the 12 weeks but also during project weeks. 

Relevance: The WDI team constantly updates the curriculum to make sure students are equipt with the latest talent requirements in the industry. Don't be surprised if the curriculum you will take is a bid different than years before -- it is all changes made to student's benefits with the aim of getting us junior developer jobs. 

Outcome: Almost everyone in my class was able to find junior dev jobs 1-3 months post graduation. Others who were interested in becoming a more technical PM, also found WDI useful in giving them credibility needed to deal with engineering teams. I have since had 3 close friends enroll in the program and all happily found great jobs after. 

I have been looking for one of the courses that I can study during my visit to US and my firends who live in Boston told me that Generalassambley is a good option. I did not have a chance to apply to full courses because of my current studies and I have tried applying for part time. I have filled first document from their website and they replied me that one of their representetives will get in touch with me.This person send me an email to mark a day and an hour that both of us are available. I did exactly what they asked me for and I got an email that my apointment is confirmed. Hence, when the day arrived no body called my and I have decided to number that exist in the mail. When I called her I told that I have an appointment and gave my name but she told me that she already made an appointment with somebody else , however she can call me back half an hour later. I have waited one hour but she didn't call me. I called the other numbers that exists on their web side and I call same person also but nobody asnwered. Next day she send me an email that she didnt understand my name but she was waiting for me... It was a compelete lie because she got my number. if she wanted to call me she could.

  Finally, I tought that it might be a bussy day for them and I made another appoitment with same person another day at 2:30pm but samething happened one moretime. This responsible person called me at 6pm. I dont even remember wether it was the same day or the next day. In these two days I have already apllied for another school and same day called me and I applied for the school. 

 It is very unfortunate for companies that most of the people are fighting really hard to do something good and everyting goes wrong just beacause of one person. 

I walked away from the General Assembly course with a vague but imcomplete understanding of what data science could do. Many important subject were not covered, and those covered were taught poorly.

The instructor was often unfamiliar with the material and couldn't answer many of the students' questions. He would show up to class unprepared to explain his slides.

The General Assembly staff members took weeks and multiple follow-ups to reply to my emails - including about how to give them the money to reserve a place in the class!

Overall, I was disappointed and frustrated.