Wesley Student • Certified Full Stack Web & Software Engineer Bootcamp • Cape Town
Jul 19, 2020
The quick version: Terrible, terrible, terrible. Avoid at all costs!
Here's why...
Being in the Aviation Industry and grounded because of CoVid-19, I decided to ups**** myself by learning to code. I had done some coding in Python before on places like Udemy and by reading books, but decided now was the perfect time to dedicate serious time and effort into this. I joined HyperionDev for the primary reason of being accountable to a mentor. The website adverti...
The quick version: Terrible, terrible, terrible. Avoid at all costs!
Here's why...
Being in the Aviation Industry and grounded because of CoVid-19, I decided to ups**** myself by learning to code. I had done some coding in Python before on places like Udemy and by reading books, but decided now was the perfect time to dedicate serious time and effort into this. I joined HyperionDev for the primary reason of being accountable to a mentor. The website advertises that a mentor would tailer the course to your experience and guide you from “zero to hero”. I paid the full fee of R19 995 for the six month Data Science Bootcamp. It went downhill from there…
The bootcamp started on the 5th May 2020 and it asked me to schedule an “on-boarding call”, which I did. A call was scheduled, but never received.
I then checked on how I would go about scheduling a call with my mentor. To my surprise, the next available date was in four (4) weeks… June.
I then called HyperionDev and bought the above to their attention. I offered 3 scenarios: Either assign a different mentor to me, transfer me to a different bootcamp, or refund me. I was told to stick with it and was given my mentor's email address to schedule calls. I accepted.
I went through Level 1 of the bootcamp quickly, as I already had experience in Python. However, whilst doing the tasks, I remember feeling sorry for people that have never coded before at all. More on that later.
When I needed help from my mentor, I fired off an email and could only schedule a call a week later. Unfortunately, even the call was disappointing. Not my mentor's fault - How much can you really teach and explain in 30 minutes?
Think you’ll get personalized code reviews in your code file as shown on the website? Nope. They show code feedback on a separate webpage. If you’re lucky, it’ll be personalized. I received a lot of automated feedback. You’re told to ask questions in your code file, but the automated response doesn’t address questions. Better ask your mentor for help… in 2 - 4 weeks.
“Code is reviewed within 48 hours.” No, no, it’s not.
On to the content. The good stuff - the notes that will teach you how to code. They are delivered in PDF format to a Dropbox folder. There’s some text on there and a few tasks, which are much, much more involved than what you were taught in the PDF. Expect to research how to code if statements and loops on the internet. It does not teach them before you need them. Sure, doing your own research is good and part of the learning process, but there are limits. They should vary tasks just enough that they make you research the official documentation and not outdated forums. They plagiarize most of the tasks. If you want to do tasks/challenges, go to HackerRank or similar sites. Think the projects are related to real-world problems? They’re not. They’re just more meaningless tasks.
To accompany the PDF’s, are “example.py” files that have example code for you to read through. Right at the top, you’re reminded that they are there for you and should you get stuck, to please contact your mentor. Prepare for a 2 - 4 week wait if you go that route. Some files ask you to make sure you have Python 2.7 installed, while it teaches the course using Python 3! You run the file… error. Now you’re troubleshooting their example file. If you know what you’re doing, you’ll find the “print” statements aren’t accompanied by parenthesis (). The entire file still has Python 2.7 code.
They don’t teach best practices. All variable names are in CamelCase and not snake_case as recommended by Python style documentation. In another, you’re asked to install SpaCey, a Natural Language Processing module. Enjoy spending the day trying to get that installed! Don’t bother asking your mentor for help. They’re not available. The instructions on how to install SpaCey are incorrect in the PDF. Best to just go to the official SpaCey website. Also, the version of Python they provide for you is the 32bit version. SpaCey needs the 64bit version.
With all of that said, I asked for a refund on the 29th May 2020, as what they promised on the website before joining was not being delivered. I was happy to pay the one month fee of R4795 plus the 15% cancellation fee.
It has now been 5 weeks later and after working my way from Support to the Head of Education to the CEO and the legal department, I finally received a response:
They are putting me on the new cancellation policy which came into effect on the 1st July 2020.
It states that since I completed 29% of the course and that I enquired about the refund policy on the 29th May, my cancellation was made in week 4. I am therefore, eligible to receive a refund of 40% minus a 15% cancellation fee. Depending on how you work it out, that’s a refund of between R5000 and R6800. From R19 995. Disgusting. The bizarre thing is, even if I had just paid monthly, I would have covered the same amount of content.
I have no choice now but to take it further legally.
There are FAR, FAR, better courses out there that are free or very cheap. If you want to learn web development, use freeCodeCamp. If you want to learn Python, use Udemy. Courses are excellent and only cost around R200. Sure, you don’t get mentor support, but you get very little of that at HyperionDev, anyway.
If you specifically want to learn Data Science, try Codecademy or DataQuest. I have since moved on to another learning platform called Udacity and it is amazing! Projects are real-world - Analysing actual data sets. Content is fantastic. Video and text is available. They mark projects with personalized feedback in less than 24 hours. They marked my last project in 10 minutes. Mentors answer questions within 30 minutes.
If you must join HyperionDev, DO NOT pay upfront. Instead, pay monthly. That way, if you feel like they sucked you in by false advertising, you can at least cancel and stop the debit orders. Lesson learnt.
Good luck.