Like you, I was extremely skeptical of attending a programming bootcamp. The thought of it just seemed way to good to be true, there had to be a catch, and there is one. The catch is hard work. The only way to achieve success at a bootcamp is the same way you achieve success anywhere else: putting in 100% effort and persevering. I was unsure of the remote experience and whether I would like the structure of the class or not, so I attended the remote prep program. The prep course was worth the money and gave me a great preview of what the Hack Reactor environment felt like and I loved it. I wasn't sure if the full program would be worth the money (spoiler alert it TOTALLY was) or that it would really be enough education to get me a job with zero experience. I read dozens of  reviews from alumni saying that Hack Reactor was the best choice they ever made. Finally, I decided to go for it, got accepted, and never looked back.

Even in a remote environment the staff finds ways to bring the class together for an unrvialed sense of comradery and collaboration. All of the staff and students I encountered during my time in the course were, without exagerration, the nicest and most intelligent group of people I have ever met. I didn't have a single negative interaction. Prior to Hack Reactor, I didn't have any professional programming experience. All of the material covered in the curriculum is accurate and relevant, containing all of the most in demand skills in the Javascript ecosystem and delivered in an effective (but really rapid) manner. After graduating Hack Reactor in December of 2016, I got a job offer in January of 2017 for a Full Stack Software Engineer role that has gone above and beyond my expecations.

I got an amazing job, thanks to the skills I picked up during my time at Hack Reactor. Some of these non-technical skills include writing a resume, how to ace job interviews, and tips on how to be effecting during the job search. I was able to get an amazing job, that I still love, at a very reputable company. Hack Reactor prepared me extremely well for the path that lay ahead after I left the program. I still tell everyone I meet how much I love Hack Reactor and what a great experience it was. The education that Hack Reactor provides is so impressive and it was doubly as apparent once I was on the job able to keep up with experienced engineers.

All of the team members and management I interact with at my current job are honestly quite amazed at the efficacy of the program and the amount I was able to learn in 3 months.

Hack Reactor is by and far an amazing overall experience, and I would go back and do it all over again if I could.

I was part of the Hack Reactor NYC campus cohort #5 (HRNYC5) that finished in March 2017. I think most people who will read this review are considering a career change on some level. I was in your shoes about a year ago. Whatever brought you to the point in life where you are looking at leaving your safe but unsatisfactory current circumstances and spending a LOT of money and time on an entirely new adventure. I have one thing to say to you. DO IT!

I started out doing some market research and figured out javascript was a great place to start learning to code. So I worked on Codecademy and FreeCodeCamp. I met with a couple devs I knew and got their advice, dug all through the reviews here on on CourseReport. The best program close to me in Utah is DevMountain. Great group of people there. I started working toward admission there, but in the meantime, I heard about the Grace Hopper program in NYC that was for women only. For my circumstances it made a lot of sense to look at programs away from home so I could really focus my attention on the learning. So I headed out to NYC for the FullStack Bootcamp Prep program in September 2016. I had of course heard of Hack Reactor but just dismissed that I would be able to get in since I felt I was too much of a beginner.

Before I left for NYC, I decided to apply to Hack Reactor for a throw-away practice application. I did, as expected, fail. Quite well, actually. But I was completely impressed with the HiR who handled my interview, and with his willingness to spend time with me, teach me, and encourage me even though I was so clearly not ready for a Hack Reactor bootcamp experience. While in NYC, I decided to take a second look and took a few tours at the then MakerSquare(made the name change to Hack Reactor around October 2016) campus. I also asked to sit in on a lecture and they said that was okay too. I tried that at FullStack and was told no I would disrupt the class.

The story was only beginning there. Hack Reactor is constantly working to improve their curriculum and nurture new learners, so they invited me to participate in multiple pilot programs. I was offered 4 weeks worth of mentoring sessions with an HiR, and also got the chance to participate in 2 phases of Intensive study groups that became the current remote prep program they now offer partially for free. All of this was at no cost to me, and gave me the opportunity to interact with many different people in different capacities. Never. One. Negative. Experience. 

So it took some extra work and a little extra time, but I eventually found myself accepted to Hack Reactor NYC and started in December 2016.

The team at the NYC campus is fantastic. From Jeff the counselor, whose job it is to keep you from losing your mind while you work through the hardest 3 months of your life, to Joseph the supersmart primary instructor for the first half and John, the king of Tech Mentoring and then all the different HiRs along the way, every single person is helpful, willing to teach, supportive, and has your best interest at the heart of their decisions.

You don't spend 66+ hrs per week for 3 months with people without some drama and conflict along the way, but that turns into this crazy side benefit of the experience. You are working to change your life around entirely and along the way you make a group of friends who shared this intensity with you.

The Hack Reactor experience does not stop on graduation day. There is a very well-built out curriculum and program for supporting you throughout the job search. I have found the Outcomes Team to be every bit as concerned for me and what is best for me as everyone else. There are cynics out there who will not believe me and won't trust that HR's #1 motivation is the individual student, but I have zero evidence to the contrary.

I have a new career as a software developer! I will be starting my first full-time job in the next week or two, about 6 weeks after leaving the program. If you are thinking about it, look very hard at HRNYC and trust that these folks are the real deal.

Let’s begin by getting the dirty details out of the way to relieve some curiosity. I’m going to attempt to give those who are looking for an honest and insightful review a full understanding of my perspective, so they can possibly make an informed decision about their future. I’d first like to present some facts about me, since it seems to be relevant for the sake of context when reviewing the opinions, perspective, and respective nature of those providing reviews provided here or anywhere for that matter. My name is Richard Boothe, I attended Hack Reactor in Austin during the cohort of 2016 that went from February to May. During my time as a student I decided that I’d like to be a Technical Fellow/Hacker in Residence, and thus went on to do so at the New York campus from June to September of the same year. After my time at Hack Reactor it took me 5 weeks to find a job in web development, my salary is above the average of Hack Reactor graduates.

As of the writing of this review, I am working for both Ksquare Solutions Inc. and also the Boy Scouts of America in Irving,TX as a Senior UI Developer/Software Engineering Contractor respectively. I am 33 years old and before attending Hack Reactor was a bartender/bar manager for 10 years.  Hopefully that’s enough info for you to find me on LinkedIn if you’d like to ask questions or just want to absolutely know I’m not a fake person like a majority of the anonymous one-star reviews seem to suggest.

My experience in regard to software and web development prior to Hack Reactor was limited entirely to Team Treehouse, Code Academy and Coderbyte. I had discovered that I really enjoyed the algorithmic nature of solving problems and was tired of my career behind the bar, so I began researching bootcamps and university options two years prior to my time as a student. The majority of programs at that time were advertising a 0-60 acceleration in learning, meaning having an absolutely zero amount of knowledge in the field of web development to knowing enough to get a junior level job. Meanwhile Hack Reactor advertised an education that would accelerate future web developers with a 20-120 acceleration, leaving their graduates at a mid to senior level upon entering job search. Furthermore, at the time none of these programs offered outcomes assistance besides Hack Reactor, which was a selling point for me for the obvious reason of avoiding retreating back to the bar scene after investing the admitted high cost of a bootcamp like program. I decided completely against the idea of investing in a University program upon realizing it would cost me a minimum of $80,000.

I decided on Hack Reactor for a seven reasons. 

• First, I looked at the reviews on sites like Course Report and Google just as you are today. 
• Secondly,  I appreciated the honesty that was provided in regard to the level of understanding in coding/analytical thinking that was necessary to attend and succeed at their program, I will address this further later. 
• Third, I felt that while the price is indeed high and certainly unarguable, it was worth the personal investment that is my time and future when compared to the other programs and what they had to offer.  I didn’t want to spend my time learning HTML and CSS because I already knew those mark-up languages from my previous studying, the majority of the competition in bootcamps invests a lot of the students' time (some of them spend as much as a month!) teaching HTML/CSS which are concepts that can be acquired and understood independently quickly. I was on a budget and was focused on learning JavaScript concepts that I found difficult to grasp on my own, Hack Reactor focused on those specific concepts. 
• Fourth, their is an emphasis on acquiring soft skills and learning to pair program. This skill has provided me with an enriched ability to communicate in an amicable and concise manner with my peers at work that has absolutely helped me advance quickly in my career.
• Fifth, the continued enrichment of the program keeps the topics fresh. I’ve read a few of these reviews that speak about how some of the instructional videos are old. Yet the concepts and the technology hasn’t changed in the last two years, at all. I'll discuss ES6 momentarily. 
• Sixth, Hack Reactor enforces the basics first. This is the entire reason for the first six weeks.
• Seven and most importantly, Hack Reactor provides a community feel that inspires a drive to learn. This was crucial to my success during times when I felt overwhelmed or frustrated with my progress. 

As a prospective student, an actual student, and later a Hacker In Residence, I never felt that any of those reasons were abandoned or less than what was originally presented. 

Hack Reactor is *NOT* a bootcamp for students looking for an easy ride into a six-figure job, it never has been. Furthermore, it is not a program that one can easily jump into without prior experience and exit with a maximum gain. For this reason I warn anyone attempting to game the admissions program that you are doing yourself a huge disservice. If you review some of the poor reviews, you will notice a trend that most of those students providing 1 star reviews had failed the admissions program several times, or had ‘memorized the admissions requirements’ rather than take the time to learn the concepts that are recommended for admittance.

It took me a year to get to a point where I felt confident enough to take the admissions interview, and that was after performing self-study with the concepts of conditional statements, scope, closures and higher-order functions. For those that gamed the system and feel cheated, I feel sympathy for you but also wonder what you expected when time and again the expectations presented before admittance and during the cohort were that you needed to have a fundamental understanding to succeed. The reason Hack Reactor focuses so heavily on fundamentals to reinforce the understanding that students should already have is to insure that more advanced topics like frameworks, API creation and consumption, data manipulation, and database structures can be taught.  FYI, the admissions system has been changed to avoid unknowingly allowing students into the program that are not yet ready. So while learning the concepts of higher order functions such as each/map/filter/reduce is great and will help you be a better developer, memorizing how to type those functions out without knowing the reason for the code will probably be a waste of time.

Without the core concepts of basic javascript, it is unrealistic to assume that the advanced topics can be taught, which is primarily a reason ES5 is focused on prior to teaching ES6. Why teach arrow functions, spread operators, destructuring, classes, constructors, map, set, block scoping etc… if you don’t have a proficient understanding of functions, arrays, basic iteration (for, for-in, for-of, while loops), scope,  objects, the ‘this’ keyword, the paradigms of Object Oriented Programming versus functional programming versus using OLOO tactics, when and how to use coercion etc…? That being said, as of now ES6 is being taught in at least the New York campus under the great direction of instructors Joseph Martin and John Michelin. 

My experience as a student was excellent in the fact that it primarily focused on JavaScript, with some time spent learning SQL (not nearly at the level I did with JavaScript but enough to be dangerous). I don’t think that I could have spent the roughly 3 months learning more than one language proficiently as I did during my time at Hack Reactor. In fact, in regard to my job I only use JavaScript. This is due to my use of Node on the Server/backend and React/React Native on the Client/frontend. So I think it’s a little odd to read some reviews by anonymous individuals who attended Hack Reactor that make the claim that they felt regret over learning only one language. Especially since SQL is in the curriculum. 

I will admit there were absolute moments of stress and frustration, with my own lack of understanding at times, or the lack of understanding from a Hacker in Residence, or from a partner who was less than helpful. However in hindsight, this was an extremely accurate representation of the employment I currently engage in daily. There are times now at my current employment where I have a problem that needs a solution that is not immediately available or obvious, a colleague who isn’t particularly helpful, or a more senior figure who is less than willing to help find a solution. The environment I experienced as a student provided me with a vast toolkit that was primarily based on problem solving, that just happened to be in the realm of coding in JavaScript. If I were to land a job that focused in a Ruby or Python environment, I would not have any trouble acquiring the knowledge to code in those languages. This is solely due to the fact that I learned how to learn how to code at Hack Reactor. If you can think logically and algorithmically in one language, you can learn the syntax and code in any language. So once again, this is an optimization of time and investment, with all the above mentioned fundamentals that need to be acquired to succeed at Hack Reactor, learning multiple languages and their respective syntax would be a waste of time to you as a student. 

My thoughts on the program overall are great obviously, I rated everything five stars across the board for a reason right? The instructor Gilbert answered any and all questions I ever had about the content of the curriculum, and always did so humbly and with patience. My Technical Mentors/Hackers In Residence were always willing to help me reason about toy problems, or help me find break-throughs in my understanding. Of course there is the chance that I got lucky with a great group of folks as mentors and instructors, but given the nature of the Hack Reactor program, and my experiences at two separate campuses, I highly doubt it. Linden, my wonderful and amazing counselor was a godsend at times I felt overwhelmed and disheartened about my self-confidence in regard to my own progress. The support of a student counselor is one that is not mentioned very often in regard to the reviews on Hack Reactor and it should be, this role is crucial to the students having an ear to speak to and a voice to listen to.  Shout out to Jeff in NYC for being equally amazing! 

During my time as a student I decided I wanted to be a Hacker In Residence as I have always enjoyed teaching, and also wanted to enrich my understanding of more advanced concepts in web development. This decision, which frustratingly, insultingly, and inaccurately has been posted in prior reviews was not due to a lack of ability to acquire gainful employment, but rather a desire to teach and further my understanding in advanced topics related to web development. The Hacker in Residence program is something that students apply for during their time as students, not during their job search or after they "decide they can’t get a job". If you are reading this and decide to attend Hack Reactor, I highly encourage you to apply for this position as it is incredibly rewarding on so many levels, I’ll spare the details as that’s a different topic all together.

Lastly, the community that I still engage with today is one that continues to grow and flourish as I carry on with coding and my career. I am extremely grateful and proud of the accomplishments I have achieved because I am aware of how difficult the task was, and is. And with that I’d like you to keep that in mind when making an investment in Hack Reactor, as with any life changing decision for yourself. Most things worth doing of any magnitude are not simple, or easy, or quick. Don’t try to cheat the experience. If you really want to invest in something, attack the goal with a hundred percent. Please reach out to me if you’d like, and thanks for reading the novel ;)

Quitting my job and making the career transition to software engineering is one of the best decisions I've made. If you genuinely like to code and think you can handle a fast-paced learning environment, Hack Reactor is a great option. Now that I have a job as a software engineer, I can confidently say the skills I learned at Hack Reactor are transferable and I gained the tools I need to learn on the job. It could be frustrating at times with the vagueness of directions and the level of autonomy they expected, but learning how to learn in the dark is one of the most important skills they teach you. 

The job search support is another way I think Hack Reactor stands out. They have you thinking about your resume and practicing interview-style problems very early on, and throughout the second half of the program you have one hour in-person whiteboarding interviews every week. After you graduate, you have access to career counseling for up to 6 months with a weekly check-in to hold you accountable. There are office hours with the tech mentors for mock interviews and the alumni network is very extensive. Any alumni I reached out to was more than happy to talk and help me out.

Although Hack Reactor was great for me, I think it's important to note that I don't think full-time bootcamps in general are for everyone. They are extremely fast-paced and challenging, and if you can't learn under that kind of pressure I would recommend doing a part time option. The job market for junior engineers, especially in LA, feels saturated and finding a job is not easy. That being said, finding a job is not impossible if you're willing to put the work in and be persistent.

Just a little background on myself: I was an educator that was determined to be the exception and remain a teacher for the entirety of my working years. I was incredibly passionate, dedicated...and made it nine years. I needed a change, new problems to solve, and an opportunity to be a true continuous learner. After researching and reaching out to alumni, I landed on HackReactor @ Galvanize (Austin campus) as the path that I would take to my new career and I am SO glad I did.

HRATX offers emotional and technical support whenever you need it. There are opportunities for office hours with residents, instructors, and the campus lead to address any concerns that you may have and scheduling such sessions is incredibly quick and easy. The staff is always kind, direct, and extremely helpful. Not to mention, any feedback you have is well received and addressed.

I have a lot of experience around educators and have known many great ones. However, one of my favorite teachers I’ve ever had is at HackReactor in Austin. The instruction was made accessible, interesting, and no question was too trivial.

As amazing as this program is, you get out what you put in. Not having any technical background, this was the hardest 12 weeks of work that I’ve done and was incredibly humbling. But I worked really hard, stayed late, and asked a lot of questions. I leaned heavily on my peers (which Hack Reactor does a great job selecting, in my opinion) and tried to do everything advised by the instructors. This curriculum, method of instruction, and stellar career services yielded two job offers within a month.

If I had it all to do over again, I would choose this program again in a heartbeat

I graduated from Hack Reactor Los Angeles campus this year. As a graduates, I can confident say Hack Reactor has great learning atmosphere, efficient and powerful curriculum, employees are extremely reachable and helpful. After I graduated, I am very confident in job searching process, the career consoler is here for you when you need help or advice. I got an offer within a month after I graduated. 

In sum, I am really appreciate about choosing Hack Reactor, and it is a successful career path change for me! Thank you Hack Reactor LA!!!!

Hack Reactor was an absolutely amazing and life-changing experience. I know it sounds corny and overused, but it 100% changed my life for the better. The program drove home the idea that the opportunity to attend the program is a rare one, and I should respect that opportunity and take full advantage of it. With that opportunity, I am expected to work HARD, and that hard work WILL pay off. In the first few weeks, the lecturers reinforced and made relatable a very common saying, that success is 90% hard work. That really stuck with me, and pushed me. One of the best things about the program is that the program itself, aka the journey, is also the prize, as the journey is the learning that will allow us to pass tough interviews, showcase learned skills, and ultimately land a good paying job in software engineering. That mentality helped me stay motivated for the duration of the program. One key differentiator between Hack Reactor and traditional colleges is motivation. I attended college because of expectations, not because of my own desire. I attended Hack Reactor after attending college, a graduate program, and after working for a few years and feeling extremely unhappy and stuck. This situation added a ton of motivation for me to work my hardest and to do my best, to have a successful outcome of finding a full time software engineering job. The curriculum was also fantastic. The day is broken up into bite sized chunks of lecture, exercise, and deeper dive small projects. This structure helped me stay focused and helped me work for longer, especially compared against the long monotony of self-study and test-prep of traditional schooling. Combined with the long hours of 9AM - 8PM Monday - Saturday, I learned so much so quickly, and was able to apply the learnings immediately. One of the best aspects of the program in my opinion is the section on writing better resumes. I found it immensely helpful. It clarified for me what was important, what was unnecessary, and more importantly gave me a good formula for better resumes. Post-graduation, the job search support I received was absolutely top notch. The outcomes team told me exactly what I needed to hear to stay motivated, to avoid imposter syndrome, to keep applying, and to stay organized and on top of my interviews. They were extremely transparent with aggregate previous student outcomes, like average number of jobs applied before offer, average number of technical interviews, on-sites, etc. And that again set the tone that the market is huge, and through perseverance, I WILL land a job. Most importantly for me, they demystified and simplified the job search process to a math problem: x% of applications gets to a phone screen, y% of phone screens get to an on-site, z% of on-site interviews lead to an offer. Or the other way to think about it: assuming one is just as likely as any other candidate to get a job, and there are x average applicants per job opening, then an average applicant needs to apply to at least x jobs to receive an offer, on average. One of the amazing services the outcomes team provided was helping us and consistently reminding us to keep track of every single application, phone screen, and interview through a work tracker. This helped me stay organized, and helped me to continue working even when I felt like stopping because I hadn’t done enough that day. One of the outcomes team members, Marlene, also helped me navigate the negotiation process. She was completely amazing. Armed with the knowledge of thousands of other offers and industry norms, Marlene helped me understand what was likely, what was reasonable, and that it never hurts to ask for more. She helped me get a lot more than my initial offers. During my second job search Marlene continued to help me, acting as the Alumni Director. She helped me navigate the simultaneous job search process as well as multiple offer negotiation process. She’s so knowledgeable and experienced, I don’t even know how to talk about it.

I graduated summa cum laude from a top 20 US university and am a former management consultant. College was great. Hack Reactor was amazing. I learned so much in so little time, and took away more than content - Hack Reactor (re)taught me how to learn, and left me with new expectations for my own grit and growth mindset. And while my outcomes were unusually strong, I'm not the only one who's ended up with several offers from top Silicon Valley companies (Google, Lyft, Yelp, others) 8 months after writing their first line of code.

The alumni community is fantastic, and Alumni Director Marlene in particluar is amazing! I would recommend this program to anyone!

I attended Hack Reactor in SF in 2015. It's proven to be one of the most beneficial and impactful decisions that I have made in my life. During the course, I received incredible opportunities to learn at a pace that exceeds most workplaces. What was most special to me is the care I received by Marlene, Career Coach, during the second half of course. She was there to provide me critical feedback and help me through the job search.

Post Hack Reactor, during job search 2, I reached back out to Marlene to see what help she could provide as Alumni Director. She was swift to ask for and critique my resume. Then she went to work using the Hack Reactor network to help me find roles and people to talk to. She even provided advice about comp and negotiation that I wasn't expecting.

Overall, Hack Reactor was a wonderful experience. I met some great friends, and gained invaluable contacts for the journey ahead. 

Hack Reactor was a great overall experience! I learned a lot about full stack development and made a lot of potentially life-long friends from my cohort. 

The curriculum: I thought this was very well designed to enable the students an opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the world of full stack web development. One important note is that the technical mentors work hard to ensure the curriculum is up to date so when you finish, your skills won't be obsolete! This is very important when you start job searching after you've finished the boot camp. I was very impressed as most of what we learned was usually listed on the job description.

Job support: finishing the boot camp is only half the battle. I was and still am very grateful for the support I received from my career coach (shout out to L!). You could set up a weekly check-in with your career coach to go over what worked and what didn't as well as support and advice on salary negotiation. Your cohort is also encouraged to create groups and meet however many times weekly to help support and keep each other accountable. 

A disclaimer: Your effort largely determines how enjoyable and successful the immersive will be for you. The harder you work and immerse yourself, the bigger the ROI will be on this investment. 

Thanks to all the HR staff and cohort-mates for a very enjoyable and memorable experience!

My experience at Hack Reactor was exceptional. The curriculum was immersive and challenging, while the community of like-minded individuals fostered an environment for collaborative learning and growth. It is a rigorous program, requiring some level of grit and above all, challenged me to think like an engineer. HR is not a traditional classroom-set course (although there are lectures here and there), but is much more hands-on, with you learning through the application of concepts as well as trial-and-error. For me, this method of learning was critical to my growth as a developer. Ultimately, HR provided a strong foundation that prepared me for entering the industry.

Let me start by saying that this was one of the biggest and scariest decisions I've made in my life! Now that I have that out of the way, I also want to say that this was also one of the best decisions I've made in my life. My experience throughout the program was nothing short of exhausting and exhilarating all at the same time. I don't think there is anyone there or anyone that has gone through the program that wouldn't tell you that it requires mental fortitude to take the leap of faith and push yourself towards you goal of becoming a software engineer. One of the wonderful things about Hack Reactor is that, that fortitude is fostered in amazing ways. The sense of community that is developed with not only the other students but also the staff is something that you don't often find in most educational settings.
I, for one, was coming from an unfulfilling job and was looking for a way to change my life for the better. I had been teaching myself coding on the side as a hobby and began to get a little more serious about it when my wife really started pushing me towards it more seriously. I went through the same process as everyone else (including you right now) and read what felt like a million different reviews on countless different programs. Hack Reactor stood out to me for several reasons but it was the consistent reviews of the overall program and the support afterwards that really sold me.
When I first started I was incredibly nervous and felt like all of my classmates were lightyears ahead of me, but I am almost positive everyone has the same initial feelings. The staff is there immediately to help even before the program actually starts. From start to finish you're never alone in your learning adventure. A lot of the learning will be spent doing research on your own, but that's what its like in the real world as well, so don't worry. And if you're ever truly stuck, help is almost immediately available for you thanks to the very knowledgable staff and even your other classmates.
I know all this sounds like sunshine and rainbows, and for the most part it is- now that I'm looking back on it. This is a serious program for serious people who are willing to commit themselves completely to achieving a goal of changing their lives. It will be hard. You will feel overwhelmed. You will, at times, feel a lot of self-doubt. But if you start down this path, you will not be alone and will achieve a sense of self-satisfaction that is second to none.

It's not easy to quit your job, spend a large portion of your past 3 years of savings, and then commit all of your time for a chance to succeed as a software engineer. It also wasn't comforting that I often felt behind when I joined the program. For moments, I had the looming cloud of fear and regret when I couldn't complete a project or I performed poorly on an assessment. Despite all the fear, if you are a passionate individual who has a strong work ethic and is willing to commit 100% of your time for at least 6 months with no back-up or fail safe options then I know you'll succeed. If you will work together with your fellow students then not only will you all succeed together but you'll create friendships for life. 

TLDR I was able to land 5 software engineer job offers from mid to large companies after 7 weeks of actively looking. I'm very happy where I am and excited about the future. My advice to anyone reading this is don't be complacent. If your current path is not uphill then you are going the wrong way. This program is a killer hill, approach with caution but the view from on top is rewarding.

I was impressed with Hack Reactor from the very beginning of the enrollment process, which was pretty rigorous.  They clearly spend a lot of time and effort to make sure that each cohort is filled with highly capable people, and it shows.  I was impressed by the pace we were able to keep, and I learned a ton from working with a really interesting and talented group of people.  I was in the remote program, where cohort size was around 20 people; I thought this was just the right amount to ensure we were able to build a strong community and each receive the proper support from one another and from the staff.

No major complaints about the program...it isn't cheap, but I think a worthwhile investment if you're looking to 'up-skill' very, very quickly and you have the means to make the investment (of time and money).

Hack Reactor, I feel, best models the real world of Software Engineering because you are thrown in and left to largely fend for yourself. This shouldn’t come as a discouragement to those on the fence - I believe many I see in Software and my own abilities are always best improved with little interference. Although during my time at Hack Reactor we worked only in JavaScript, the focus of the curriculum is put on how a program is structured, the idea behind writing quality code as opposed to being focused on how to write specific code in a specific language. You will be able to take patterns and models learned from this course and break into any direction you desire with enough curiosity and conscientiousness.

Pros - 
You learn a lot in a short amount of time.
You are a part of another family that you bond with and rely on.
Mentors love working there and want to see you succeed.

Cons -
I can't say anything bad about my experience at Hack Reactor. It provided the perfect knowledge to become a Software Engineer

I have been at Hack Reactor both as a student and as a staff (Hacker in Residence), and after having seen the program from multiple angles, I can confidently say that this is a fantastic place to become a software engineer.

As a student, I had an incredible experience. The curriculum is fantastic. It's very obvious that a large amount of thought and effort went into the lectures and assignments, and the program even uses learning techniques found in teaching literature (i.e. spaced repetition and allowing students to struggle with problems rather than giving answers). Also, the Hack Reactor culture and community is amazing, which made it very easy to meet new people to network with, study with, and even become friends with.

As a staff, I was always blown away by how much everyone cared. They were there with the intention of helping people become software engineers, and would go above and beyond to try and make that happen. They don't work at Hack Reactor because it's a job, they work there because they want to make a difference in people's lives.

I was also there during the transition to Hack Reactor @ Galvanize, having been there both at the old building and the new one at 44 Tehama. There were a few bumps during the transition (lots of stuff had to be moved, furniture had to be rearranged, etc.), but at the end of it all, things turned out great! Galvanize provides lots of opportunities to network with people (there are lots of hosted events, and people working there who are from outside Hack Reactor). Also, Galvanize has a lot more amenities than the old Hack Reactor building, which makes it nice to spend time here as a student and also afterwards, during the job search.

I would highly recommend Hack Reactor to anyone who wants to get into software engineering.

Having taken two online courses I feel very confident in saying that Hack React was a good choice, which is not something I will say about the other online bootcamp I took.  Hack React prepared me incredibly well technically as well as preparing me through the pair programming and group project course design.  When I finished the course I was admittedly very concerned about my abilities but when I landed a job (which was introduced to me directly through the alumni network) I quickly found I was fully prepared for this career path.  I fully recommend Hack Reactor to anyone looking to enter this field.

So let me give you some context. Before attending Hack Reactor in 2017, I was unemployed for an extended period of time. And before then, I was employed in a job that wasn't satisfying. During my employed tenure, I was doing simple HTML and CSS copy pasting, but I knew I could do better and wanted to take my game to the next level. So I left my job and for the next few years, I tried learning software engineering all on my own. 

I learned a lot by myself because I have that tenacious growth mindset, but it wasn't enough. While I learned bits and pieces here and there, I didn't have the high level overview and understanding of how you build a piece of software both from the frontend and the backend. 

So I made the decision to attend Hack Reactor. I felt that by applying, I could actually get to the next phase of my career, up my skillset, and be better prepared in the job search.

There's no secret to the tech stack that they teach you at Hack Reactor and you could probably get the same info without having to attend. BUT... getting accepted and going through the program is one of the most valuable and rewarding experiences because for 13+ intensive weeks: 

-You're learning about software engineering and computer science fundamentals by implementing full stack applications using JavaScript and Node.js;

-You get a higher level understanding of building full stack applications (both the front and backend);

-Get a great baseline for computer science fundamentals;

-Build a portfolio of projects you can showcase to future employers; and

-Learn the soft skills of partner and team collaboration.

One thing I never took for granted are the 36-hour sprints where we're required to learn a new technology or computer science concept on the fly without any prior training or experience. 

As a Hack Reactor graduate, we're trained to learn new skills and technologies in a pressurized and time sensitive environment to the point it develops into a growth and learning mindset. Once you graduate, that mindset never leaves you and only serves you well in the job search and later in your career. 

After graduating Hack Reactor, the job search is the HARDEST thing you'll ever do. It's a long and arduous process filled with studying, filling applications, getting rejected, learning from your rejections/mistakes, and passing the coding challenges and interviews before you get an offer. 

Everyone's job search is different, but I was lucky enough to leverage the wonderful and amazing career counseling services Hack Reactor has to offer post graduation. My outcomes coach deserves special praise and lots of credit for teaching me to be methodical and tenacious about my job search, as well as being a good friend for all the rejections that almost resulted in a job offer.

And the alumni community is nothing short of supportive and caring. All you have to do is ask for help, and somebody is always willing to answer your question or give you a heads up about a job opportunity at their current company.

Looking back on my time and what I can look forward to in my career, I can honestly say that attending Hack Reactor was one of the best decisions I ever made, and I'd do it again.

I moved to Austin just to attend Hack Reactor (HR) and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Before HR I had few job prospects, little money, and no college degree; now I'm doing work that a truly enjoy, making much more money than I need, and... still don't have a college degree. 😜

The program is hectic and difficult, especially when you're so poor that you have to live in the cheapest part of town, cook almost all your own food, and take the bus everyday. But the leadership there and the other students were fantastic; it was amazing being surrounded by so many smart, dedicated, and encouraging people. Although almost all my time was spent there those 3 months, it all flew by way too fast.

Although the program itself was difficult, the hardest part was the job search. Don't think that people are going to be offering you work just because you graduated a bootcamp. It took me nearly 6 months just to get a solid 2-month contract (which has now turned into full-time work) and I only got that contract because I had a great referral from another HR grad at the company. The whole search was emotionally exhausting and I wouldn't have been able to sustain it for that long if I hadn't had some part-time work that could help to pay the bills; make sure you have a backup plan.

If you don't love programming, don't do HR. Learn the basics, figure out if it's something you'll enjoy first, then go apply. I was rejected on my first attempt at passing the coding interview, but after attending the Structured Study Program (SSP) I tried again and aced it. But if you do love programming and want the ultimate crash course in web development, you can't go wrong with Hack Reactor... even if you don't have a college degree. I spent so long hoping that there was decent work out there that I could really enjoy doing (without 4 years of college and debt) and Hack Reactor has helped make that dream a reality.

Thank you, Hack Reactor! Keep up the amazing work of changing lives and supporting the tech industry!

The staff are outstanding. The program is high accountability and high transparency. It's very conducive to people who feel initially out of place trying to cross over into the coding world. If you pay attention and lock into the program, the chances of you making it as a software engineer are very high, I believe. Would definitely recommend!

Awesome program. Great staff.  Very friendly and willing to help with anything. Instructors always challenged us to try the latest technology, and did a great job of guiding us to a solution without just telling us. Got hired a few weeks after graduation, and formed some great memories with all my classmates. 

Advice: I did the remote advanced software engineering immersive. This is a very fast paced course that is 11 hours a day 6 days a week for 12 weeks. Well worth it, and very demanding. Make sure you can dedicate the time to this course. 

Remote: Great if you don't live in a state with a Hack Reactor campus. Same challenging material. You are in a video conference with someone for most of the day (The entire class, or your coding pair). Lots of interaction with teachers. I definitely recommend it.

First Six Weeks: Mainly learning the modern tech stack. Every two days was a new piece of technology. Lightning fast pace. It was a jolt in the beginning, but definitely keep with it. Well worth the effort. Amazed how much I had learned.

Last Six Weeks: Multiple longer projects that encourage going from start to finish of building a website. Easily the most valuable part of the course. Learning to code effectively as a group is critical at my job, and Hack Reactor did a great job preparing me for it.

Outcomes: Awesome support. Mock technical interview, resume support, etc. Consistently every week checked in on my job search, and were happy to work out a time to meet if I needed it. Definitely listen to their advice. They know what the current job market is like, and how to approach it.

Results: Going into the program with some programming experience (personal projects), I graduated, and got hired within 4 weeks of graduating. Really happy with my investment.

I attended Hack Reactor Los Angeles as part of the HRLA22 cohort starting in April 2018. The tl;dr is that I’m happy to give Hack Reactor a 5-star review: it worked out for me exactly as I’d hoped. I learned a lot, had a lot of fun, built friendships and professional relationships with an excellent group of people, and landed a well-compensated job I’m excited about.

About me: I’d been programming for several years before Hack Reactor, mostly in Python and SQL, which made me one of the more experienced people in my cohort. However, I didn’t have a CS degree, any engineering roles on my resume, or any professional network of engineers to speak of. I’d wanted to make the career transition for a while but hadn’t pulled it off. Before deciding to go to Hack Reactor I’d been taking classes in the evening towards a CS degree, but frankly I was impatient and wanted results faster. (I’d only taken a couple math classes and one CS class before making the jump, so I would have had at least a couple years left on the college route).

About the team at Hack Reactor: Everyone I interacted with regularly at Hack Reactor (Campus Lead, Tech Mentors, Hackers-in-Residence, Career Coach, Class Coordinator, etc.) was great. Smart, knowledgeable, friendly, and truly interested in everyone’s success. They’ve done a great job putting together a team.

About my cohort-mates: I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people with whom to attend Hack Reactor. Everyone was excited about engineering, willing to work hard, and easy to spend the long hours with. We’ve kept in touch after graduation and hopefully will continue to do so. 

About the curriculum: It’s definitely “drinking from a firehose”, but that’s kinda the point. I thought the lectures were generally excellent and found the whiteboarding practice especially helpful. The project-oriented system really pushes you to learn-by-doing and practice solving problems autonomously.

About career week: I got a lot out of career week; more than I expected to. The discussions on interviewing, negotiating, etc. were all very helpful. The improvement to my resume after feedback from the Career Coach, Tech Mentors, and my peers was remarkable: I hadn’t realized how ineffective my pre-Hack Reactor resume was (not to mention all the things I was able to add from Hack Reactor’s curriculum).

About the job hunt: I accepted a contract-to-hire offer at a salary I’d previously worried might be somewhat unrealistic (low six figures) a week and a half after graduation. Even apart from the money, it’s a job and a company I’m really excited about. And the job was a referral from Hack Reactor (the company is one of their recruiting partners), so they get even more credit for making it possible. I went to our Career Coach for advice several times during the application process, and she was always responsive and helpful.

Of course, it wasn’t 13 weeks of pure bliss: It’s long hours and hard work, and there were moments when I was frustrated, overwhelmed, bored, or questioned whether I’d made the right decision by going. But comparing where I was at the beginning of April to where I am now (4 months later), or where I’d be if I’d continued taking night classes, it was clearly the right thing for me.

All in all, my experience was exactly what I’d hoped for: I learned a lot, had a lot of fun, built friendships and professional relationships with an excellent group of people, and landed a well-compensated job I’m excited about.