Coming straight out of a uni course I didn't want to do professionally, I felt lost. I joined onto Makers after a sizable investment, with little idea what to expect beyond having been interviewed by a course coach. I was nervous for the first week, but during the first weekend I came to the conclusion that I was really, seriously learning. The course does a fantastic job of getting you up to speed with not only the tools required to succeed in a tech environment, but also teaching you to learn and motivate yourself. I came out of Makers with my skepticism completely gone and a great developer skillset.

There is a huge amount of support for your money, however, you must actively seek the support out. This is an issue I had with the latter end of the course, as once the teaching had finished I felt that I had, somewhat, been left to figure things out for myself. With no exposure to the professional world of tech, I was unsure of the differences between job descriptions and role requirements. I found what I wanted after much self-motivated research, but I would love to see more structure around the jobseeking portion of the Makers course.

That being said, there is a huge amount provided in both learning and mental health support. I had been told the course would be intense and while it was fast and covered a huge amount, I found that the wellness support provided by the Makers staff went above and beyond in making me feel confident and comfortable.

Makers helped set me on a path and they are very worthy of all praise. As I move into the Makers Alumni part of my experience, I hope that the fantastic support they've shown throughout continues.

Note: I was a part of a remote cohort due to COVID-19.

Pros: 
- The community at Makers is truly amazing and people always go out of their ways to help each other.
- Job support after graduation is great, there are plenty of workshops for people who are at applying stage or interviewing stage. Sometimes coaches take a while to respond, but I had a positive experience most of the time. I got help with my CV, cover letters and advice on preparing to different kinds of interviews.
- Almost all of the jobs from the partner scheme were very high quality vacancies that you would want to apply to.
- This bootcamp puts a lot of focus on industry best practices, such as TDD and Agile - employers value this a lot!
- At Makers, you learn how to learn. By the time of our final project, I was confident that I could pick up any technology that I need. Some teams even managed to build their final projects in completely new languages and frameworks. 
Cons:
- The curriculum has some important areas left uncovered, the most obvious one is working with the cloud. I acknowledge that the course is quite intense anyway, but there is a lot of value in going over the basic stuff, as AWS or Azure are listed in every job description nowadays. 
- Makers has little learning material of its own, which makes the value for money of the remote course questionable. I think that you are paying for a platform that connects you with like-minded people (your cohort) and job support, which are probably the most important things if you're a motivated career-switcher. However, 99% of the technical information we used is available online for free. I would appreciate if there were more learning materials, especially about explaining different tools and how to set them up. When youre doing the course remotely, it becomes a lot more difficult to reach out to someone next to you and solve a problem quickly, like you would on-campus.
- For the majority of the course, you get to work in pairs every day. I really liked pair programming, but I also think that it could be structured in a better way. We would have one big task for the week, but you switch partners every day. If your new pair partner had done less work, you start where they ended. While there are some positive aspects to it, such as consolidating your knowledge by doing something several times, if you're a technically strong student, it will eventually be a frustrating experience repeating the tasks for 8 weeks and never getting far. Personally, I would've liked it better if you had one pair partner per week - this would have made the experience a lot less chaotic, while still getting to work with many different people over the course. For the projects, your team is fixed for the week or two and everyone I talked to liked it that way.

Signing up to do Makers was one of the best decisions I have made in my life. I got stranded in the UK because of coronavirus and lost my job because I couldn't return to China. After some months without work I decided I need to do something, so signed up to start Makers in August. Now 6 months later, and just 2 months after finishing the course, I am about to start the job of my dreams with great pay and an amazing career outlook, I couldn't be happier.

The course was intense, and at times difficult, but the staff are all fantastic people who provided an unmatched level of support. They are all genuinely knowledgable and caring individuals. Both during the course, and after in my job search I have felt totally supported. I would 100% recommend signing up if you are looking for a change.

Overall this was one of the best things I have ever done. I met some amazing people, learned some amazing things, and now just starting my new job as a front-end dev. Short-sighted me sometimes wondered why I was learning a less in-demand language than other Bootcamps,  but now I am working I totally get it. Makers don't teach you syntax, they teach you how to learn and succeed working environment.
I came into this Bootcamp thinking I would learn how to code and then try and find a job, instead, I learned the importance of testing your code, how to work properly within a team, how to plan effectively, how to transfer my knowledge of one language to another and the list goes on. Whilst I can't recommend this bootcamp enough one thing to note is its very hard work, luckily Makers take a holistic approach to this and care about your mental health.

TLDR: Go for it, it's the best thing I have ever done.

Pros: 
- Women and Gender Minorities Discount to promote diversity
- A holistic approach learning process meaning that I have to be very clear with my learning goal in order to progress
- Emotional curriculum that ensures the progress of inner development
- Great post bootcamp career support with helpful workshops for interview methods and job application methods
- Great alumni community to network, ask questions and learn new trending technology
- Dedicated and caring coaches 
Cons:
- The curriculum could be very intense for a learner who has no prior coding experience
- Some parts of the curriculum are outdated, it would be great to have constant updates

It was a very intense journey for me during the pandemic and having a three-year-old running around at home. However, looking back at it, I am glad that I made it. I didn't only learn about new technologies, but also the process to learn a new thing, the process to work in an agile team and most importantly -- the process to understand myself. I also got the chance to meet a world of people and professions that I wouldn't have come across from my old job, and gained some long-lasting friendships. 

Learning a new thing is hard, but it is only because it is NEW. So go ahead, start now :) We all can do it!

It is really challenging but I think that is the fun of it. The things you are doing in your final weeks you would never conceive of doing 12 weeks before. The speed of growth is absolutely incredible. The makers community is also so great, everyone is so keen to help each other even years after they have left.  Having been remote I thought it may have impacted the dynamic of our cohort but it didn't, everyone has made some solid friendships coming out of the course. 

The coaches are excellent and there's always somebody available when needed, but figuring things out yourself first is encouraged. I became more self-sufficient and learnt more than I thought I'd have been able to in 12 weeks. Most importantly, it was fun. The time flew by and I'd do it all again if I could. The job support afterwards is also great, plenty of workshops, one-to-ones available and plenty of hiring partners offering lot's of opportunities.

Deciding to change career and start my tech journey at Makers was by far the best decision I have ever made and the friend of mine who convinced me to go with Makers said the exact same thing. It is not a coincidence.

Despite joining in April 2020 at the begining of the pandemic and the course moving remotely, I still feel that I learnt all that was needed to become a successful software developer. 

The curriculum is spot on for the types of roles/companies that you want to be working for when applying for your first job. The senior coaches are experts in their field and always on hand to answer any questions you may have, even months after you have finished the course. And the learning environment is unique. Makers is a special place and if you do decide to join you will quickly appreciate the "we're all in this together" ethos that is developed among your colleagues in your cohort.

It's not a quick fix by all means and it is not easy, but if you are willing to put in the hours and completely dedicate the next 4+ months of your life to the cause, look no further - Makers is the place for you! 

Good luck!

A great way to learn to code and wonderful colleagues and coaches to help you on the way. Trains you to be a developer rather than just learning a coding language, and really sets you up well for that first coding job in a relatively short amount of time. A great course! 

Overview:
- Self-led + collaborative learning with peers
- Experiential learning through challenges and group work
- Workshops
- Coach support
- Focus on process and problem-solving
- Focus on code quality

Learning Style and support:
I really liked self-learning. But it does not suit everybody, especially if you are not used to this method. The coaches are very valuable resources, and they will spend a lot of time helping you. They will you guide you on solving a problem if you are stuck and will review your code. I found I learnt the most by getting code reviews. But you need to be pro-active and seek their support. You are also encouraged to work together with your cohort to learn. This makes learning much more fun, and also forces you to work on your communication skills.

Code Quality:
Makers has a large focus on writing code that is readable and can be changed easily. They have a large focus teach on Test Driven Development and teaching you problem-solving techniques specific to coding to ensure that that code you write is of high quality as well as best practices to use when working in an agile team. This is definitely one of the things that set makers apart from just studying yourself. Whenever I have done tutorials they have taught me how to apply technology, but they have not taught me anything about object-oriented principles, clean code, or git.

Soft Skills:
There is a large focus on soft skills such as communication and emotional intelligence. There are lots of workshops on helping you with this, and there is a wellbeing coach too who can help you if you are feeling overwhelmed. At first, I thought all this focus on wellbeing is really nice and important to me but is it actually going to help me get a job. But it turns out companies really value this.

Job Support:
There is a lot of support in helping you get a job. There are 2 career coaches who will help you write your CV and perfect your cover letter. For the first month, they offer workshops on how to write technical CV's, cover letter and use LinkedIn. Also there is an option to join group projects, which are facilitated by one of the Makers coaches. You can join these if you want to ensure you are upskilling. Makers also have companies who directly go to them. These companies range in size from startups to very large companies. They are of high quality and really understand what you as a Bootcamp student can offer and also know what they need to invest in you. From my experience, it was much easier to get an interview with these companies than applying externally. However, because of Covid, there are a lot fewer jobs, and thus a lot fewer companies going through makers. I did find though, in the last 2 months, Makers was getting a lot more companies. Again with the job support you have to be pro-active, especially after the first month and ask the job coaches to help you.

Summary:
If you are someone who is pro-active and can self-learn then Makers is perfect, as it will ensure you learn best practices and will give you a great foundation in software development.

I was a grad who wanted to get into coding more, but wasn't able to pick up any jobs with my little experience in coding. This course provided me with the fundamentals to learn more and more and get a job.

The staff are lovely, friendly and helpful. But it is on you as the student (as it should be, and always is) to make the most of the opportunities they provide.

The course is intense, I coded pretty much everyday for 12 weeks as well as doing the 4 weeks pre-course. But there is no better way to learn and this certainly proved that. You have to be prepared to put the time in to learn and improve, especially on weekends to consolidate what you learnt in the week.

 Joining Makers was the best decision I've made recently. 

When I decided to change my career I started to teach myself to code on the frontend. I was hitting walls during my learning but I was hesitant at first to take it further and enrol a bootcamp because of the price. Now I know it was totally worth it. 

I based the decision to join Makers on the unique curriculum that contains topics that make you stand out among all the aspiring software engineers (TDD, Agile methodology, modelling, extreme programming and more). In addition, during the course I learnt how to effectively work in a software engineering team, how to plan and track my learning, and about good processes in general. Learning is mostly self-led with workshops and tutor's support when required. This means you effectively learn how to learn, but it can be frustrating and it may not be everyone's learning style. 

Makers have an amazing career support system for graduates, and they really try to help you find that first software engineering role. There are workshops on writing CVs, cover letters, interviewing etc, and coaching sessions after the course.