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Hackbright Academy is a software engineering school for gender equality in San Francisco, Dallas, and Lehi founded in 2012. In addition to in-person classrooms in the US, Hackbright Academy also offers their courses online. The school offers a 12-week, immersive full-time software engineering program and a 43-week, part-time program, both of which cover the fundamentals of computer science and modern web development such as the command line, Python, JavaScript, HTML & CSS, Git, Flask, Django, pair programming, SQL/ORMS/NoSQL, and deployment. The part-time program covers the same content as the immersive program, but is designed for students who want to maintain their jobs. Hackbright also offers a 4-week part-time prep course, which teaches the foundations of programming; and a week-long immersive prep course.
Prospective applicants will need to fill out an online application detailing their interests and personality, then complete a coding challenge and two interviews. Hackbright's ideal candidate has a desire to learn software development and has prior exposure to programming.
Hackbright Academy provides students with mentorship, tech talks, and career services. After graduation, Hackbright Academy connects graduates with Silicon Valley companies looking to expand their engineering teams as alumnae work at companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Slack. Hackbright Academy offers deferred tuition, limited scholarships, and payment plans for qualified students.
If you look closely at their statistics of "90% employed", they are actually from 2014. I graduated from Hackbright in June 2016, and almost 4 months later, I would say about a quarter of my group of 43 is employed. So simply, those statistics don't apply anymore, and sadly that 'quarter' of our group would include internships, non-software tech roles (like support engineer), those who went back to their old jobs, and those who had years of experience in the indu...
If you look closely at their statistics of "90% employed", they are actually from 2014. I graduated from Hackbright in June 2016, and almost 4 months later, I would say about a quarter of my group of 43 is employed. So simply, those statistics don't apply anymore, and sadly that 'quarter' of our group would include internships, non-software tech roles (like support engineer), those who went back to their old jobs, and those who had years of experience in the industry already.
Hackbright sold out to Capella, and now the VP of education, the only truly experienced software engineer out of all the education staff, is leaving at the end of this year. All the TAs, Lab Instructors, and basically all the teachers are Hackbright graduates with no real world experience as software engineers. They only know what they've been taught at Hackbright, and when you need your questions answered, they will tell you your questions are outside of the current project or lecture. It seems a little silly to pay $16,500 for a program where the education staff can't answer your questions, which is the point of paying for more experienced mentors/teachers.
Another thing to note is that what Hackbright teaches are some of the easier languages/techs to learn. Python, Flask, jQuery, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap - these you can learn on your own with all of the free resources online.
Here are some resources for learning (there are dozens more, these are simply what I’ve used):
https://www.codecademy.com/
https://www.udacity.com/
https://teamtreehouse.com/
For learning about Computer Science Fundamentals, I recommend MIT OpenCourseWare (https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm), and 'Cracking the Coding Interview' (you can find it on Amazon). For MIT OCW, you can scan through their list of courses, but going through their intro and algorithms classes are all you need. 'Cracking the Coding Interview' will teach/review all the Computer Science Fundamentals, give you problems to practice on, and it has great interview advice. It is considered to be THE book for beginners and experienced engineers who are trying to get a software job.
Here are a couple websites where you can practice coding:
https://www.hackerrank.com/
https://www.interviewcake.com/
If you are studying on your own and you think going to Hackbright will get you a job, that is simply not true - or at least it is not anymore since they sold out to Capella. For my cohort, it will probably take more than 6 months for most to get jobs, if they can even find a job within tech that is remotely connected to software. And I mean that seriously. We are all out of a lot of money, most quit their jobs and/or moved to SF for this bootcamp, and now most of us can't find a job. Paying this much money for a bootcamp is a huge decision, and can be crippling for many if it doesn't payout. And sadly, Hackbright hasn't paid out for most of us.
Sharon Wienbar of Hackbright Academy
CEO
Oct 27, 2016
Hackbright Academy is an all female bootcamp which seeks to "Change the ratio," but what the start-up really does is "line their pocket books" via taking advantage of a niche market.
Learning Environment:
For $16,570, I'd expect a learning environment geared towards the individual students needs. At least this holds true for costly private institutions. Even in public institutions (community college class is roughly ~$300), students are guaranteed the professor's time by o...
Hackbright Academy is an all female bootcamp which seeks to "Change the ratio," but what the start-up really does is "line their pocket books" via taking advantage of a niche market.
Learning Environment:
For $16,570, I'd expect a learning environment geared towards the individual students needs. At least this holds true for costly private institutions. Even in public institutions (community college class is roughly ~$300), students are guaranteed the professor's time by office hours, one on one appointments, or at least the tutelage of the teacher's aide. Not at Hackbright. Students are given two one and a half hour lectures daily, assigned daily homework, and weekend assessments in which none of the above are graded. They are mandatory assignments, yet none are scrutinized carefully nor corrected by the student assigned advisor. Upon requesting more individual help, we were told that the school did not support such a structure. The most I ever got was 20 minutes of tutorial per week. When I asked a question, the advisor would conveniently Google the answer and then send me the link. There is 30 minutes of advising per week for the project, but we were told it's mostly for 'strategy.'
Now one might argue that debugging is an important skill to master. This is true. However, for a beginner, it is far too easy to get caught up on a programming idiosyncrasy where one might spends hours debugging as opposed to having an instructor help that student past a simple blockage point and explain what she is doing incorrectly. In Python, it could be a silly indentation error, or forgetting a colon at the end of a loop statement. Plus, it's helpful often to 'talk through' the issue with a more experienced person. For the same amount of tuition ($16,570), Hack Reactor offers 24/7 online help to it's students. CodeAcademy Pro offers the same for 12 hours a day EST for $20/month.
Instruction:
The quality of instructor also followed the Gaussian curve at Hackbright. While there are some very gifted coders, the majority were non-industry teachers. Some of which had just graduated from the last cohort. If they did not know the answer to a question, it was often heard, "That's not within the scope of this lecture." My most poignant memory was a student asking a question and the instructor saying, "That's not within the notes" to which the student pointed out, "It is here in the notes" and pointed out the section. The instructor then answered, "I don't want to answer that right now." Seriously. An "I don't know. I will research it and get back to you" is a perfectly acceptable answer. Or, if the instructors sometimes didn't know the answer, they just kept deflecting until the student got tired of listening to it.
Career Services:
At this point, one might ask...would the $16,570 tuition merit a high return on investment in career services? Sadly, no. What 'Career Services' does is simply surf LinkedIn profiles. The student gets secretive 1:1 meetings with the career services counselor who 'coaches' them on how to hone their skills to target their employment goals. Now, what this really means is that the woman spends time surfing LinkedIn profiles for recruiters...something one can do oneself without paying $16,570. She also advises the student that she has 'connections' and not to tell the other students about them. These 'connections' are easily gotten off surfing LinkedIn profiles.
Additionally, Silicon Valley media has much highlighted the disparity of male to female engineers. So much so that companies are moving to sponsor diversity fairs and events in which to hire minority engineers. Hackbright career services is not attuned at all to the various Silicon Valley company sponsored diversity fairs. This is a shame considering Hackbright's slogan is to "change the ratio." One would think career services would be working extra hard with companies to truly "change the ratio." When prompted during a Q&A session, the counselor had no clue that these programs existed whatsoever.
There does exist a Career Day where the students can show off their projects to prospective employers. However, the catch is that Hackbright does not know who is attending the event until the day before and the companies may not be hiring. If they are hiring, what you will get is a prospective interview...but then you need the skills to pass that interview.
Hackbright boasts that ~90% of it's 'engineers' get hired within 3-6 months. Yet, what is the break down? Is it 3 engineers within 3 months and the rest within 6 months? And, 6 months is a LONG time to find a job. Within that 6 months, the student could have studied a lot with free online resources on her own. Don't be fooled by the marketing of these statistics. Many Hackbright graduates feel unprepared for the traditional computer science interview.
Financial Aid: For a school that is focused on "changing the ratio;" Hackbright only offers loans through partners, one full scholarship for one woman out of 52 women, and for the rest $500 owing to financial need. They do not offer to help look for scholarships through private funds which any solid university or community college would offer if they were truly trying to help a student out.
Lightning Talks:
Students are assigned short 8 minute presentations in which they are to get up in front of their cohort and talk about a pertinent topic. The point of this is to learn to communicate technical ideas clearly and to be able to speak to an audience. While in theory this is a good idea, the talks were never critiqued by the instructors and therefore not useful to the student. What is useful is the information shared with the other ladies in the cohort when it was a good presentation.
Skills Readiness:
While the program does cover many of the items that industry professionals utilize, the items are covered in breadth and not in depth. Students are only given the chance to ask questions during the lecture and once a week during an hour long 'study-hall.' Many of the graduates and current students expressed feeling unready and confused. The students are able to code simple algorithms, but when prompted 'why' and if they can optimize...many students fail in this regard. This is due to instruction failure.
Mentorship:
One thing that Hackbright does well is assigning industry level mentors to each of it's students. These are tried and true professionals whom volunteer their time to help get students on their way to careers. My mentors in particular help with my code, project, resume evaluation, and invited me to tour their companies and network. However, I'd say this is more on the part of those individuals than Hackbright as an institution.
All of this makes it hard for a 12 week bootcamp graduate to compete with the many four year bachelors degree graduates from traditional computer science backgrounds. Silicon Valley suffers from no shortage of engineers from all around the world vying for engineering jobs. While it's not impossible to find a good bootcamp and to develop web savvy skills to become a full stack developer, I would recommend doing it at a school that actually has a solid curriculum and in which the instructors are competent and readily available. Good luck on your search!!
The last reviewer did a good job in summarizing my unhappiness with Hackbright. I only have the below to add:
I graduated with the June 2016 cohort. Only 5 girls out of our graduating class have been able to find jobs and it's been 2 months since graduation. One of them went back to Hackbright to be a lab assistant, another already had a job lined up outside of Hackbright, another picked up what she'd been doing previous to Hackbright, and I'm not sure what the remaining girls a...
The last reviewer did a good job in summarizing my unhappiness with Hackbright. I only have the below to add:
I graduated with the June 2016 cohort. Only 5 girls out of our graduating class have been able to find jobs and it's been 2 months since graduation. One of them went back to Hackbright to be a lab assistant, another already had a job lined up outside of Hackbright, another picked up what she'd been doing previous to Hackbright, and I'm not sure what the remaining girls are doing.
By the project phase of our cohort, many of the girls were expresssing malcontent with the program. In particular, career services. If you are struggling with the material, they turn the onus onto you. Meaning, they said that you weren't doing well because you weren't working hard enough or something like that. But seriously! My advisor and my instructors never had time to answer my questions and I got the same, "We don't support tutoring." They didn't give me any personal attention. If a girl wasn't doing well, they would say that it was failure on her part. Not the instructor. And! There was never any personal attention given even if so to help that girl out.
They have unusual and almost unethical practices at Hackbright. At the end of every cohort/class, they offer jobs to the girls with the caveat that if they accept a job at Hackbright - they're not allowed to participate in career day.
And! During career day, companies are not allowed to ask the girls technical questions about their projects. This seems really shady as it would be the perfect opportunity for the girls to show off what they had learned during the Hackbright 12 week class. It serves to do two things: 1) cover Hackbright ineptness 2) protect Hackbright reputation in case the girls don't do well. I was raised to believe that the student's faults were that of the instructors. Hackbright does all sorts of things to cover itself. It doesn't stand up to the things it purports to do.
What really upset me the most is that career services told us all sorts of things about being able to find a job within 3-6 months of graduation. Then, a month before graduation, she tells us not to expect to find jobs soon, but it would take about a couple months of study to really 'get it down.' Some of these girls cleaned out their savings to attend Hackbright! They're owed more than the inflated marketing!!
And! Hackbright was recently acquired by Capella University. This is an online centred learning business that 'takes advantage' of women and minorities. Much alike University of Phoenix that went down for marketing cheaper and more convenient sub-standard MBA programs and catered to women and minorities. When these demographics went for jobs, they were told their MBAs were not competitive. So now the graduates owe money from tuition and they are jobless.
Take your money somewhere more deserving! Hackbright is NOT!!!!
TLDR: I came to HB with 0 coding experience. I tried 3 different online courses to learn coding in my previous non-programming, non-tech career with no bueno. Based on my experience and what I have gathered from my classmates, friends from other bootcamps and tech companies, do not expect that "omg! I'm going to be a programmer after this bootcamp!" Expect that you'll know one way to build a website. That doesn't make you a hot Mission burrito in this town. It makes y...
TLDR: I came to HB with 0 coding experience. I tried 3 different online courses to learn coding in my previous non-programming, non-tech career with no bueno. Based on my experience and what I have gathered from my classmates, friends from other bootcamps and tech companies, do not expect that "omg! I'm going to be a programmer after this bootcamp!" Expect that you'll know one way to build a website. That doesn't make you a hot Mission burrito in this town. It makes you a Chipotle buritto at best.
Disclaimer: This review is sarcastic and can come off as harsh; in complete opposite to HB's practice of being encouraging and believing in oneself. If you'll get angry or bitter reading negative reviews, skip this one. Also, this is meant for those who are career switching with no prior tech-industry experience.
Classroom experience:
I agree with many reviews who say that the instructors are knowledgable and are good teachers for basic programming techniques. You'll learn the basics of how to write code. You will NOT learn how to write good, scalable, or smart code. If a good CS degree holder can write it in 10 lines, you'll probably use 20-50 and your run time will be poor. When whiteboarding in interviews (or mock interviews), you'll be trying to use recursion to traverse the tree when a while loop is sufficient and then stutter, "I don't know..." when the interviewer asks for the spatial complexity. But, you'll be able to write code.
Social experience:
I understand that HB is now multiple classes per session. Each class has it's own personality. I met great ladies whom I am close friends with till today. We mainly commiserate about the state of our morale, bank accounts, and job search prospects (all dangerously low, if you're wondering). One thing that really impressed me was the diversity of women I met. Great women who work hard and deserve so much more.
Career Services:
They are great people in the career services. But I personally find them to be emotional roller coasters. They build your expectations up and then when you come head to head with reality and crash, they are nowhere to be found. Everytime they're told how difficult it is, they say, "aww, that's too bad. You need to keep trying!" After the 4th email saying that, I stopped giving them my weekly updates. I can now program my own bot to wish me good luck by text if that was all I wanted.
Go and study with your classmates and use the online resources (someone here linked a bunch of awesome sites). Besides, with the new intakes being so large, I have no idea how they expect to provide sustainable support.
Oh and those partner companies? Isn't great to go on on-site visits and talk to REAL engineers and get interview practice??!! Come job application time, you'll be told they're hiring people with 3+ years experience which is not surprising considering the funding situation now.
Post-HB:
HB is a safe place. After you leave, most of you are going to go feel effing terrible and great at the same time. You'll meet alums who are still job searching 6-months in and think, "Oh, that won't be me" but then wonder a week or two later if that'll be you. Go out with a clear mind and no positive expectations about how fast you're gonna be a legit programmer. That is the best start you can have.
Personal note:
One advice I will give you if do end up going to HB: Your personal project is your own. A friend from the other class (same session) had to fight tooth and nail to get her project approved. Even then, HB refused to help her with the aspects "they warned her is over her head" but are basic things we should have learned about Python. Fortunately, her mentor helped her sort it out.
I wish I had made something other than "[popular website] but for [another everyday item/hobby]". I am now working on a less-bootcampy project to put on my resume.
Come project seasion, keep this in mind: Everyone is making a website/webapp. If you are front-endy, by all means, make a beautiful website. During the early years of HB, projects were augmented reality, compilers, large data sciency things, actual programs, etc. Do something to stand out from the sea of websites. Own it. Fight for it and don't give up cuz this is just the begining of the battle of entering the tech world. You'll be fighting to prove yourself even after you get your first job. Might as well get some practice in now.
Wendy Saccuzzo of Hackbright Academy
Director of Career Services
Jan 26, 2017
I am a current student at Hackbright and will admit there are some good and bad things about this academy. The entire operation feels more like a community center than an institution that charges students $16,000+ for the 'education'. The majority of the ed staff lack professional training and do not conduct themselves professionally. There are a few great people on the team, but there are staff members who are very unprofessional and immature. Not something you'd expect for the price you...
I am a current student at Hackbright and will admit there are some good and bad things about this academy. The entire operation feels more like a community center than an institution that charges students $16,000+ for the 'education'. The majority of the ed staff lack professional training and do not conduct themselves professionally. There are a few great people on the team, but there are staff members who are very unprofessional and immature. Not something you'd expect for the price you are paying. Aside from the instructors who actually have CS degrees and professional experience, the ed team consists of Hackbright graduates who act as if Hackbright is their special sorority. Highly unprofessional. The career services and other teams conduct themselves professionally, however, as a student, my interactions with them have been limited. You can tell they genuinely care about what they do. I would strongly suggest you weigh your options before attending Hackbright. They have a lot of work to do, especially with their education team. Students are not here to be judged, we're here to learn. If you can't do that with a positive disposition, you should take a lesson in client relationship management because we help fund your salaries. For an organization that claims to be inclusive, it seems to cater to one specific type of woman. The curriculum itself needs a lot of fine-tuning and they need a system that will make grading more consistent. As stated, I am disappointed with my experience at Hackbright and will say that this is solely because of the experiences I've had with the Hackbright graduates on the ed team. Tighten up and be more professional its the least you can do for the cost of tution.
Meggie Mahnken of Hackbright Academy
Instructor
Nov 30, 2016
As you can tell from the ratings, I really enjoyed my time at Hackbright. I'm more of a list person, so let's make some lists.
Pros:
As you can tell from the ratings, I really enjoyed my time at Hackbright. I'm more of a list person, so let's make some lists.
Pros:
Cons:
If you have any questions about my experience, feel free to read my blog post on it and reach out to me with questions. Happy to answer them!
As a recent graduate, I was fascinated to stop in and read the reviews here. Having so few reviews should be taken with a grain of salt, especially given that this bootcamp has been going strong for several years and has an alumnae network of more than 500 incredible women upon which to draw support and inspiration.
To set the stage: I have a Bachelor's in...
As a recent graduate, I was fascinated to stop in and read the reviews here. Having so few reviews should be taken with a grain of salt, especially given that this bootcamp has been going strong for several years and has an alumnae network of more than 500 incredible women upon which to draw support and inspiration.
To set the stage: I have a Bachelor's in Psychology and Masters in Marketing. I spent years providing data analytics, workflow and reporting for a non profit, and then worked as a consultant providing online brand development. I have very little coding experience behind me outside of Wordpress and oh yes, MySpace in the 90's -- but seriously, I had seen little code prior to stepping into the belly of Hackbright.
I applied to 5 bootcamps and was accepted 4: but I held out for Hackbright. Their interview and application process was simple, though their admissions team was a power of (an amazing) one and they took several weeks to give me an accept/decline. I was down to the wire, my second choice start date was a week later! Since then, they have brought on a second admissions staff member so I imagine it's now more streamlined.
I chose Hackbright Academy after doing an on-site visit and talk with all five of the bootcamps I was considering. Each has their own flair and flavor, offerings and perks. Your mileage will vary, your needs & desires are different than others: do your research just as you would choosing a college. I did, and I'm thankful for having done so.
Key differences that steered me towards Hackbright Academy:
Women-only while still being inclusive and accepting of those not constrained to the standardized binary of genderization. I personally value their understanding and appreciate their care around this subject matter.
They are creating community and want to see us support each other through time. They encourage the cohort to bond and recognize that we are in the act of solidifying a network of other women that (for the most part) are going into the same field. Networking is the key here!
Hackbright respects that you have a life and appreciates work-life balance. Unlike the other bootcamps that warned me of late nights and pointed out their nap rooms, our instructors encouraged us to step away and refresh. Studies show that quality, not quantity, facilitate greater learning potential and productivity.
The subject matter is vast while making space to really develop a strong foundation in the basics of Python, Javascript, CS and more. Project time is perfect for really digging in the dirt and finding what calls to you and/or practicing those areas that you may have struggled with previously. I believe the lead instructors are professional and highly capable. They are personable and try to cater to student needs - but there are 25+ and each with their own struggles. This brings me to a KEY point:
You NEED to be your own best advocate. Step back and consider, then step up and state your needs! They genuinely do try to allow space for everyone's voice, but this is usually done in a group setting. For me, I found that the advisor format is full of holes: it depends who you get, if you are comfortable speaking up, how experienced that person may be, how involved that person wants to be, and other such factors that fluctuate on a per person basis. This was the weakest point in my Hackbright experience, by far; if I had one change to make, it would be in this arena!
The education team is warm, supportive, helpful and encouraging. Lead instructors are killer. They know their work, they know this program, and they want to know you as a person in order to better assist your growth. That level of interactivity can be difficult in such a large group, and I believe that is why they assign you an advisor.
You create an app independently, rather than in a group. The majority of bootcamps have you walk away with several little projects and/or a large project done within a group. Creating your own app serve many purposes: my favorite being that I got to choose for myself which curriculum topics called to me, and then dive deeper. Note that TAs do not have a lot of coding experience under their belts, and this really began to show during project time. Some are more comfortable than others at saying, "I'm going to need another set of eyes". My advice: practice timing your entrance into the help queue.
I'll speak of Career Services directly:
There are two ladies that handle this arena whilst you're within the program. They are outstanding in so many ways. I have been totally shocked to see people complaining about their job search! For each of the other bootcamps I was accepted into, I spent the majority of my on-site visit, grilling (one employee actually used that word when handing me off to their employment search staff for further questioning) them about this aspect of the bootcamp.
Learning the skills is one piece of the puzzle, but as a queer woman stepping into the bro-world of tech in San Francisco, I knew without a doubt that this would be the most difficult piece of my career change. At BEST, other bootcamps offer a week of support at the end of their program, to prepare you. Then a single point of contact for their alumni to help with the job search. Not so at Hackbright.
They started at Week One. And each week they gave us lots and lots of information to digest and action items to begin preparing ourselves, our online presence, and our networks. They provide "fieldtrips" to tech companies for panels, discussions, whiteboarding and even yummy meals. Then, the last two weeks of the fellowship are JAM PACKED with speakers who talk about negotiation techniques, product management, how to work with recruiters to maximize your potential, etc. I was shocked to see so many people not attend these informational talks. Even after week 12, you get an entire month of twice weekly whiteboarding sessions, job leads, and more.
I attended two Hackbright information sessions before applying: I was told point blank that most people find a job within 6 months, some within 3 and those typically already have ties and networks within companies to begin with. In my notes from the first week of career services, I can see that I asked about this and received the same answer. Throughout the fellowship I believe they have repeatedly told us that they are here to help, to support, to provide resources and help facilitate connections, but that it is up to us to really make the job materialize.
Is Hackbright built for underserved populations? Only just barely but really. Do they bill themselves that way...sort of yes. It's a sticky point for me, and has been since the day I came across their website. They are trying to make a change from a very specific angle: those women that already have the financial, educational, physical, etc. capability to take 6+ months out of their lives. Others are working to support women that have obstacles not accounted for here. If that's what you need: proceed on in your search. But if you are able to swing the commitment, I happen to think it is well worth the money, time, energy, and care
Getting in was hard. Getting through the program was hard. But was it worth it? YES. I see a lot of inaccurate posts on this website and I've got to address some of them.
Instructors:
The instructors have all had industry experience(seems that some people don't know that). TAs and lab instructors are mostly grads from the program who were exceptional enough to be able to assist others beyond their cohort end date. But all of them bring passion for teac...
Getting in was hard. Getting through the program was hard. But was it worth it? YES. I see a lot of inaccurate posts on this website and I've got to address some of them.
Instructors:
The instructors have all had industry experience(seems that some people don't know that). TAs and lab instructors are mostly grads from the program who were exceptional enough to be able to assist others beyond their cohort end date. But all of them bring passion for teaching and coding that I have never seen anywhere else. They are constantly trying to give individual help and make sure everyone feels supported. Clearly, some people think they should have 24/7 assistance--but that seems like overkill. (I hear HackReactor has 24/7 support...but talk about overkill overall...). I found advising to be useful check in times with someone who wanted to listen when I had concerns or wanted more instruction on a subject. They cheered me on and seemed to deeply care.
Tech Stack:
The stack that they teach at Hackbright is less about the content and more about HOW to learn. About 50% of my cohort is NOT working in Python but rather in Ruby/PHP/JS. How cool is that? I didn't feel like I was an expert at Python at the end of the cohort but I think I learned as much as one could of a programming language in 3 months. On top of that, I've heard from the people I work with along with others who have worked with HBers that we write the cleanest, best documented and tested code of any bootcamp. Badass!
Career Services:
Ok, here's what career services does for you:
- They meet with you during the program to get a feel for what your strengths are and what you can leverage as well as what you want to do post HB.
- They have weekly meetings with your cohort to talk about making a great social media profile, how to identify Series A, B, C startups, how to evaluate your past experience, etc...
- They coordinate 2 weeks of talks from industry experts in how to whiteboard, soft skills interviewing, how to negotiate, as well as field trips to partner companies for meals and whiteboarding, and introductions to partner companies who were interested in you from career day.
- Every Monday they have job club to talk about our experiences and give more tips and tricks and keep you on track. Also, every Wednesday they have whiteboarding practice. You have access to these two nights forever.
- They talk and work with you indivually trying to find opportunities and recruiters for you. If you get an offer, they'll coach you through your responses and negotiations.
That's a lot, right? No, it's not a silver platter--but no bootcamp has that.
Overall, it gave me the best launching pad for my career. I met the most amazing women who are inspiring and intelligent along with a great alumni network who want to hire other HBers, and the faith that even a for-profit company can be mission driven and have a heart.
Oh, btw, only 3 people from my cohort don't have jobs as software engineers(or data engineers or security engineers) 3 months after graduating. I graduated in 2016.
My review is not about the engineering fellowship, but about the admission process as a heads up to future applicants.
Hackbright Academy was the 4th bootcamp I applied to. I applied to the September cohort. Out of the four, this one left the poorest impression on me.
The online application and coding challenge was straightforward. The notification for the first interview/scheduling it afterwards was fine as well. Everything after that was a poor experience though, espe...
My review is not about the engineering fellowship, but about the admission process as a heads up to future applicants.
Hackbright Academy was the 4th bootcamp I applied to. I applied to the September cohort. Out of the four, this one left the poorest impression on me.
The online application and coding challenge was straightforward. The notification for the first interview/scheduling it afterwards was fine as well. Everything after that was a poor experience though, especially with communication. I received an email the following day that I made it to the 2nd interview. However, over a week passed before I finally asked the admission team themselves when the 2nd interview would be. To that, they promptly sent me an email to schedule the 2nd interview. After the 2nd interview, they told me they would let me know in 2-3 days their final decision. It has been 27 days since their “2-3” days.
The impression this application process left me was they don’t really care about their applicants. It also felt like they were either understaffed or disorganized. Sure, forgetting to update me once is forgivable, but neglecting to contact me twice? That's pretty bad (speaking in comparison to the other 4 bootcamps I have applied to since then, whom have all been prompt with their updates).
With this experience in mind, I probably will not apply to Hackbright again in the future.
Dear Reader,
If you're reading this, you're most likely considering attending a Dev Bootcamp of some kind. Awesome!
It's almost surreal to look back on the time when I was deciding between bootcamps -- having just graduated Hackbright in December '16, there's no doubt in my mind Hackbright was the best option for me, and the best option for anyone with determination, dedication, and grit looking to transition into the software engineering community.
Around th...
Dear Reader,
If you're reading this, you're most likely considering attending a Dev Bootcamp of some kind. Awesome!
It's almost surreal to look back on the time when I was deciding between bootcamps -- having just graduated Hackbright in December '16, there's no doubt in my mind Hackbright was the best option for me, and the best option for anyone with determination, dedication, and grit looking to transition into the software engineering community.
Around the time I was looking at reviews in my own DBC search, I was reading these reviews thinking "Yeah, it's great to see happy reviews, but seriously tell me why this is a better option than staying at my paying, comfortable job." TLDR version: The return on investment (skills/experience, network, Hackbright name/brand, career services support) is absurdly high.
The longer version:
Before I start the longer version, let me state in glorious but brutal honesty that this is not a cakewalk. There will be days (or even weeks) when you wonder why you ever thought this was a good idea. You will be so tired and/or pressed for time that you seriously question your own ability to make good life decisions for yourself. However, you also get out of this program what you put into it. Simply showing up does not mean you'll be granted all the benefits the Fellowship has to offer. In order to get the most out of this program you must be ready to persevere through exhaustion, overwhelming amounts of information, and your own self doubt.
With that Surgeon General's Warning having been clearly explained, let's jump into all the reasons you should *definitely* do this: skills, network, Hackbright name/mission, and career services.
Skills: There are a ton of different ways to build or do or learn anything -- your own experience in life will tell you this is true. That being said, you can certainly have an opinion on the HB curriculum. Whatever your opinion, the point of this curriculum is to give you the skills to be a hirable junior developer, and it does. I loved how they paired the lecture with a lab where you could really dive in and get your hands on a topic...because having been in a classroom for 5 years I can tell you that listening to a lecture about it does not skills provide. You have to get your hands dirty and they provide you the time to do just that. You will also gain skills no matter your starting skill level -- the lectures and labs are designed to take you from your own point A to a new point B. How far your point B is from your starting point A is largely up to you -- remember, you get out of this what you put into it.
Network:
Hackbright Brand and Mission: Hackbright is serious business, and the employers who work with them know they have consistent results. You can certainly argue that bootcampers are not the "favored" employee picks, but no more so than learning on your own. Hackbright is a well respected name in the DBC community, and that goes a long way. Hackbright is also fiercely dedicated to their mission to #changetheratio. This is empowering at many levels -- I had only briefly considered the social impact of what I was doing when I signed up for Hackbright, but the mission is A Big Deal and brings together employers that you actually *want* to work for.
Career Services: This team organizes field trips and networking events, they work tirelessly to bring job opportunities to you, they give you 1:1 and coaching sessions to help you update your resume/cover letters while you transition careers, they tell you of opportunities (Hackathons, conferences, workshops, panels) in the broader engineering community, they aid in connecting you to the alumnae community, and they genuinely care for your success.
So let's get back to ROI for the program and why it might actually make sense to give up a paying gig to go back to Hackbright.
Many things you could do to switch careers or get up that professional chain also include mean back to school. Hackbright is across-the-board cheaper than an MBA or other schooling -- it's the clear winner in terms of time, overall cost, and opportunity cost.
Not convincing enough for you? Let's undervalue everything and crunch some more numbers:
At their root, most new jobs are gotten through connections. How much are all these connections worth? Let's say you're in a cohort of 20, and you value each of those connections at lifetime value of $100. That's $2000 of benefit you're getting right off the bat. High value networking events often charge admission, and Hackbright sponsors consistently high-value, free-of-charge networking events. Plus you've got connections to a growing network of alumnae -- let's call that a lifetime value of $3000.
It's not like going to Harvard, but recognition of the Hackbright brand and mission is also valuable. Let's say $1000 lifetime value.
How can I even begin to put a lifetime value on the support career services offers? The value there is stunning, but I said we'd undervalue everything, so let's go with $3000 lifetime value.
Given the value of the intangibles above, you're now looking at getting all those skills we'd discussed for about $8000. For a twelve week course. That will make you infinitely more marketable in a growing career field. And you will gain those skills at a pace you simply could not manufacture independently with support that is quicker and more tailored to you than anything you could get online with free tutorials or books.
I dare you to argue with me that you could do better for the money and time than you could at a Dev Bootcamp, but especially at Hackbright.
P.S. I'm not one of the magical HB unicorns that got employed right out of the gate. I'm unemployed while I'm writing this, but I'm still confident that it was the right choice for me, and the right choice for any gritty woman looking to get into tech.
During my part-time class, it was a "hit or miss", depending on your instructor and class dynamics. My review is a bit late, but after several of my friends talked about problems with the full-time Fellowship program, I felt I could no longer stay quiet about the matter. So....here goes:
There's plenty of blame to go around...from the typos in the curriculum, TA's who are recent grads but don't know enough to actually teach new students, lack of knowledge from some instructors a...
During my part-time class, it was a "hit or miss", depending on your instructor and class dynamics. My review is a bit late, but after several of my friends talked about problems with the full-time Fellowship program, I felt I could no longer stay quiet about the matter. So....here goes:
There's plenty of blame to go around...from the typos in the curriculum, TA's who are recent grads but don't know enough to actually teach new students, lack of knowledge from some instructors and mentors, etc. The fact that Hackbright touts itself as a "feminist bootcamp" can come across as a negative. I am a female and also work in the tech industry since I left HB. I can tell you that "man-bashing" is NOT professional; and just because I used go to Hackbright does not mean that I have instant access to a network of female engineers. Most of my contacts were found on my own, not through Hackbright.
If you are serious about entering this profession, then I strongly suggest you take plenty of FREE online classes before making any decision to spend money on an full-time Fellowship. You will gain knowledge and experience NOT found at HB and then be able to expand your own network.
Remember, you're spend MAJOR money for this Fellowship, plus you cannot work - which means you are dipping into savings to pay for cost of living...and then there's a 6-month or more job search in San Francisco/Bay Area. Ever since HB was bought out by Capella, the program has only gotten more disorganized! As a female, I believe we also deserve better materials and treatment from Hackbright. Come on! There are so many boot-camps in the Bay Area...you people need to come clean and give more to your students!
TLDR;
enroll if you really like coding, learning new things all the time, working hard; join the surprisingly awesome coding community
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I'm in my last week of Hackbright, and looking back I see that Hackbright has been a place where I've been really empowered and inspired to try my best. It was a great learning environment to ask questions, be surrounded by curious and hard-working people, create personal connections with people who really care,...
TLDR;
enroll if you really like coding, learning new things all the time, working hard; join the surprisingly awesome coding community
_
I'm in my last week of Hackbright, and looking back I see that Hackbright has been a place where I've been really empowered and inspired to try my best. It was a great learning environment to ask questions, be surrounded by curious and hard-working people, create personal connections with people who really care, and met industry leaders who were happy to join in our learning journey because of the name Hackbright and its alums have brought for themselves.
It was a risk, but I quit my job and enrolled in Hackbright because:
The people I've met here are some of the most resilient, tough, mature, disciplined, and admirable people I've met. From what I've seen of the students, education team, career services, marketing, admission, the rest of the staff: Hackbright attracts diverse and phenomenal people. You probably need to talk to one of us personally to realize this, but the more I get to know each person (especially among the students), the more amazed I become at how much each of us have overcome in the past and throughout the program to have gotten to where we are now—software engineers and leaders in our own right, but even better, with the humility, stamina, and motivation to keep on learning and improving. And the curriculum itself is pretty demanding—10am to 6pm every day we’re learning and trying out new things, and afterwards we’re studying, even after arriving home late.
One thing I did not expect but super duper appreciated: mentors. From the Hackbright education team, you have an advisor who you really come to trust and admire and a whole group of instructors who help us understand the concepts and care about how you're doing. And career services has the best advice and plan dang cool events for us. Hackbright assigns three mentors for you who are currently working in the field, from software engineers to VP's of engineering, to even CEOs who volunteer their time to help us at the start of our software engineering careers. They’ve been really helpful, each in their own ways.
I would suggest that you don't apply if you're not that interested in coding/just having trouble finding a job after college. Think of it long-term: it’s going to require a lot of work and personal initiative, not just in the three months of this program, but even after, while you’re a software engineer. After graduating Hackbright, there shouldn’t be a point where you say “okay, I’ve learned enough.” There are too many cool things to learn and do to become complacent.
If you’re stuck because you really like coding but you don’t think you can do it, reach out to Hackbright and see if it’s right for you. Even though it’s a lot of hard work, there’s a magic of excitement that comes from doing what you really like to do that makes it all worth it. Good luck and ada ftw.
How much does Hackbright Academy cost?
Hackbright Academy costs around $12,900. On the lower end, some Hackbright Academy courses like Hackbright Prep Course cost $249.
What courses does Hackbright Academy teach?
Hackbright Academy offers courses like Full-Time (12-week) Software Engineering Program, Hackbright Prep Course, Part-Time (24-week) Software Engineering Program.
Where does Hackbright Academy have campuses?
Hackbright Academy has an in-person campus in San Francisco.
Is Hackbright Academy worth it?
Hackbright Academy hasn't shared alumni outcomes yet, but one way to determine if a bootcamp is worth it is by reading alumni reviews. 109 Hackbright Academy alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Hackbright Academy on Course Report - you should start there!
Is Hackbright Academy legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 109 Hackbright Academy alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Hackbright Academy and rate their overall experience a 4.51 out of 5.
Does Hackbright Academy offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Right now, it doesn't look like Hackbright Academy offers scholarships or accepts the GI Bill. We're always adding to the list of schools that do offer Exclusive Course Report Scholarships and a list of the bootcamps that accept the GI Bill.
Can I read Hackbright Academy reviews?
You can read 109 reviews of Hackbright Academy on Course Report! Hackbright Academy alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Hackbright Academy and rate their overall experience a 4.51 out of 5.
Is Hackbright Academy accredited?
While bootcamps must be approved to operate, accreditation is relatively rare. Hackbright Academy doesn't yet share information about their accreditation status.
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