Ironhack

My 8 weeks at Ironhack Miami were a whirlwind. I came in with no development experience and looking back it's really amazing how much I learned in that short time. It doesn't feel short though when you're putting 70-80 hours in every week. I honestly think that's a realistic assesment of the time commitment, especially for someone who doesn't have a programming background If there's one thing I would reccomend to any student going in is to do the prework! It really sets the foudation and lets everyone in the class dive into the material at a great pace. The course was a really great balance of lecture and hands on learning. Every morning we would learn enough to really dive into the exercises for the afternoon, and thats when things got really interesting! I think the most amazing thing about Ironhack is the dedication of the Instructors. Whether it was planning extra breakout sessions to go over a particularly difficult topic or them staying late or coming in on a weekend to help with our projects, I can honestly say that I've never had teachers that were so invested in their student's success. The staff is also deeply invested in our career success. The advice on how to sell ourselves as developers was invaluable and so was the interview experience from their hiring partners. I feel really confident going forward that I will be able to start a career in the tech industry.

Ironhack has been to me a unique experience, I had the chance to practice english, get to know people from different backgrounds and countries, but above all, it provided the best entry to the programming world, something I struggled a lot in the past. I didn’t get out of the bootcamp being an expert, but Ironhack taught me how to learn, and after Ironhack I’ve been able to keep learning a lot of stuff that was out of my reach before when I tried on my own.   Besides learning how to program, I’ve also benefited from great guidance for my future career. Ironhack organized, on a regular basis, effective advice and workshops I could benefit a lot from.   Finally, I can safely say that despite not being the best student in the cohort, I landed a job in a startup in just three days. Because of that I definitely think that Ironhack was a great investment for the money I spend on the course.

Looking back at my Ironhack experience, I am truly amazed at how much I accomplished in a span of 8 weeks. It is almost hard to believe that I came to the bootcamp with no experience in programming and left having learned 2 programming languages and built my own website. Don’t get me wrong, the course was intense, more so than I imagined, and it was hard to get a grasp of concepts at first. However, like any other natural language, coding requires patience and a lot of practice! The best part about Ironhack was that I was not alone; my cohort was eating, sleeping and dreaming code just like me and often the most valuable help came from them. It was equally thrilling to learn the diverse backgrounds that my colleagues came from, and I am glad to have made a valuable network that will stay with me forever.

In my experience, the most rewarding part of Ironhack was having the opportunity to work on my own web application towards the end of the course. The mentors and assistants maintained a fine balance between structured guidance and self-learning to ensure we get the most out of our projects. It was great to have something to show for our months of perseverance!

 

 

 

 

At Ironhack, I did not just learn how to use the most cutting-edge technology used in the Industry today. I also learned a way to learn. With the guidance of the TA’s and Lead Teachers, you come to realise that, ultimately, the best teacher you’ll ever have is yourself. Having the audacity and capacity to say “I want to learn that skill, and I can do it” is the most valuable lesson I learned in the course. It didn’t matter that I was being exposed to technologies that I didn’t learn at University. I was empowered to get out of my comfort zone and thrive. Thanks, Ironhack!

My experience at Ironhack was unlike anything I'd ever been through before. The cohort was extremely diverse. Former lawyers, store managers, nfl players, and ivy league grads consumed the classroom. After the first day though, it was clear that we were all equals. Learning to code a new language is like learning to speak a new language. It isn't going to happen over night. Our two teachers, Nizar and Josh, were extremely helpful and patient. It felt like the same question was asked 100 times a day. In programming, it's all about understanding the connections between different syntaxes, and repeating them over and over again. Class begin at 9 every morning, and most of us wouldn't leave until 7 or 8 at night. We were all warned early on that there would be some days where we would feel completely hopeless. I definitely did. Around the 6th week though, something clicked. Things that took hours to accomplish in week 1 and 2, started to take minutes. Programming certain syntaxes became second nature. I was extremely happy with how my final project came out, and by the time the course was over, I was sure I made the right choice about going to Ironhack. 

Tough course but definitely better than other available options. The instruction is very dynamic and is taught in a way that really makes you think about how to solve problems. The instructors are very accessible and were more than willing to go the extra mile often answering very silly questions with admirable patience. 

It is very important to do as much as you can prior and during the course to stay with the course. It is a demanding course but the support structure is provided if you make the effort. 

The IronHack team are a fantastic bunch of people away from the course and the location at Building.co is sensational. The tech scene is Miami is developing and there a lot of great tech events on each week around the area that are great networking opportunities.

I had such a great experience at Ironhack. The team is amazing, since I had the first interview with them I had the feeling that I was taking the right choice. It doesn't matter what coding experience you had before, Ironhack provides a Pre work where you can train and get skills.
The instructor and TA are excellentes and have so much patience!!!. I never felt afraid to ask any question because they were always willing to help. They were guiding and advising us everyday.
In this intense weeks there is a lot to learn, but a lot to study too. There are a lot of materials the program provides in order to improve and reinforce our knowledge. Now that the Bootcamp is finished, I feel so well on my improvements, the connections I've made and ready to show what I'm capable to do. Thanks Ironhack!.

I would first like to say that for all of the skeptics out there: I was in your shoes, but I can vouch (as much as that counts on the internet) that the people in Miami posting reviews around the same time as me, were in fact students at the school in my cohort. This post will be somewhat long but it will be useful if you are trying to decide if coding bootcamps, and Ironhack specifically, would be a useful expenditure of your time and money.

 

So, who are coding bootcamps are for:

• People with no programming experience who want a career that is both fun and rewarding
• People who have tried to learn coding/web-development on their own but got frustrated with how long it takes to learn
• Burgeoning entrepreneurs who want to learn just enough to make their business dreams a reality

 

Who they are not for:

• Experienced programmers who thing OOP is child’s play
• Humans that don’t play well with other humans

 

I fell into the category of those who tried (and failed) to learn this material on their own. While that previous coding experience was useful, it originally led me to be frustrated with the pace of the class. It wasn’t until later in the course that I fully understood the patience and caring that our instructors, Nizar and Josh, had for us and appreciated how slowly they moved to get us all up to the same level.

Ironhack doesn’t promise to make you an expert programmer; and it shouldn’t. Ironhack promises to teach you everything you need to know to just get your foot in the door for a programming career. They adopt a no-B.S. approach to help people who had never opened a text editor besides Word, learn to build incredible and dynamic websites. Ironhack gives you the basic knowledge of everything web-development and then gives you the hard, honest truth that you need to figure out your own path in this huge and amazing field.

Beyond the coding aspect of the course, the people and the location are incredible. The instructors and staff are there for you every step of the way, and your fellow students are there to help pick you up when you fall, because that’s the environment that Ironhack fosters. You know it’s expensive, they know it’s expensive, and it is a company trying to expand, but their product is solid and if you have the time and the money- but most importantly the drive- then Ironhack is for you.

                                              

Before Ironhack, I was an attorney with a liberal arts background. I'd dabbled in front-end design (HTML, CSS, WordPress) for years, but always thought that anything more technical than that (e.g., Ruby) was for Computer Science majors. Ironhack proved me wrong. In eight weeks, I went from being an unhappy attorney to a legitimate developer and tech entrepreneur. But the journey wasn't easy; Ironhack's intensity level was about the same as the first year of law school. The pacing is relentless, and there is a lot of information to absorb. You need to take this course very, very seriously or you will fall behind very, very quickly.

First starting off at Ironhack I had no previous coding history.  Fully emersing myself in a program that will help not only my career but my growth as a person was something I knew coding would fufil and Ironhack delivered on giving the resources and skillset to succeed.  The team at Ironhack were helpful and not judgemental or impatient with people from different professions.  It helped me to reevaluate my thought process on how to learn things and how to solve issues in a way I never could before.  I would definitely recommend taking this course, but remember they don't call it a bootcamp for nothing.  Pre-plan and take on-line courses to make sure this is the right path you want to take.  Then apply yourself and commit.  Always commit.