Hack Reactor

Review of Hack Reactor from 2016 Fall alumni

I tried for a while to self-teach coding. I knew of Hack Reactor, but hesitated to throw in the towel and fork over the tuition - I wish I hadn't waited as long as I did, I lost a lot of time. I did make progress on my own, but it was undirected, and at best, likely would have led to jobs which weren't very good in terms of learning, impact, or even work-life balanace.

1. Confidence - Their comittment to helping you stay motivated, and belaying fears of being unemployable after the program, is an indespensible part of the program. Many students suffer from imposter syndrome, especially those starting to code more or less for the first time, and HR's staff is not only great at handling this, but they have dedicated people who help manage this. It really helps a lot.

2. Alumni network - My brother attended HR as well, and he commented that the alumni network and support are worth the tuition alone. I agree: through HR, I have become a part of a network of highly motivated people in IT comprising of thousands of people - and it's constantly growing. This opens up tremendous opportunity for your career, and for people who don't have a network of coders (say from taking college classes or a previous job or two), looking to get into IT, this is very difficult to quantify,  and hard to build independantly.

3. Learning - The most important part of HR is what they teach you. Through this program, I got an understanding of different parts of the application layer - from database to server to client. The program is a little more geared towards front end, as we learned multiple JS frameworks, and everything was taught in Javascript (nodeJS for server, and SQL and Mongo for DB), but you get hands on experience in all parts of the stack, and have to hook everything up. The teaching is done exceptionally well: The course starts with lots of instruction, and transitions over time to fullt time hands on coding. The very first week, you work on coding sprints with your peers, to deliver assignments. The senior project at the end was extremely valuable. This combination of instruction, private support, and lots and lots of coding assignments, is the way to go. By the end, you deliver a fully functioning app, available to use through a public web address. This is direct evidence to others (and yourself) that you are employable.

Life after HR - I found a job within about 3 months (definitely under 4). I had the ability to learn everything I needed after the course for interviews, to build whatever potential employers wanted. It was a leg up, though still a lot of work. HR also helped me a lot with salary negotiation. But if you're looking to get into some of the best tech companies, or build useful stuff for customers at a fast paced startup, then hard work is an expecation anyway. This course prepares you for that as well. After my first job, the wonderful HR Alumni support network (directly employed by the institution) helped me land interviews in no time, and matched me to companies which matched my preferences. I had a 2nd job within weeks of starting my search, and have been very very happy with my current employment since.

One comment - This program is very challenging. I liken it to my last few months in my Engineering curriculum in college, during which we had to build an actual usable device for a company. Suffice it to say, it's rigorous. You're coding a lot, at least 6 days a week. But, you will get out of it what you put in. If you choose to do the bare minimum to contribute and pass the midterm assesment, that's what you'll get. If you choose to optimize your time, learn the most challenging stuff in painful detail, you will come out of it better.

I attended Hack Reactor in August-November 2015 (HR33), and then stayed for another cycle as an HIR (hacker-in-residence, essentially a TA for the next cohort). I got a job as a full-time programmer three weeks after finishing HIR, and had two other offers. I'm still in the field and am 1.5 years into my current job, and loving it.

The pros:

- I loved the teaching staff and the curriculum; Fred and Alan were some of the best instructors I've ever had. The tech mentor staff was also great and helped us in our day-to-day work; Beth was one of the best explainers and kept me sane.

- The Outcomes staff was amazing. Way more of the course than I had expected was devoted to interview prep and how to conduct a job hunt. Marlene was my guide, and she made sure I was applying to at least 5 jobs a day, and would hunt me down if I didn't! She will kick your resume and interviewing skills into shape, and she helped me negotiate through some tricky offer conversations, literally helping me compose emails to get me a higher salary.

- The curriculum was challenging and taught me just enough to get jobs. It was very rigorous (6 days a week, ~12 hours a day most days), but when you're with a bunch of other people going through the same thing, it's really fun.

 

The cons:

- When I was an HIR back in 2015, it seemed like they were effectively lowering the admissions bar by introducing the Fulcrum & related programs, which I assume was to get more "qualified" applicants through the door to make money. I genuinely believe that most people can learn to code, but not everyone can do it at a breakneck speed in just 3 months, and letting in people who are unlikely to succeed in a 12-week program is doing a disservice to the bootcamp, and an even greater one to the students themselves. I have no idea what admissions are like now, especially now that they've been acquired by Galvanize, so it's probably pretty different these days. It's hard for me to draw any conclusions, but when people ask me, "Should I go to a bootcamp?" I always tell them that they should do all the prep work on their own (without a program) and make sure they can pass the admissions test, because if they can't pass the admissions test on their own, I'd have a lot less confidence that they could make it through the program successfully (not to say students who do pre-programs can't be successful! Just that if you can't make it in without doing the program, it's an indication that you might struggle in the real thing).

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 React was a fantastic, but extremely challenging boot camp. 12 weeks may seem like a short time, but it felt like I was in a two year program at a traditional university. The speed, intensity and amount of knowledge learned in a short period is not for the faint of heart, but if you are dedicated and willing to give it your all then this is the program for you.    The curriculum is extremely up to date, the instructors are very knowledgeable on the latest tech and are constantly making sure they are up to date with the industry. I also appreciated the support given from the counseling staff. They clearly understand the mental and physical demands of taking a coding bootcamp and they do an amazing job of checking in and supporting you throughout the program. I was also impressed with the time dedicated to job preparation and coaching -- daily whiteboarding, interview prep, resume review, and one-on-one coaching really helped when I jumped into the job hunt.   Overall, I am extremely happy I chose Hack Reactor and proud of myself for completing.

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.

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.