Makers Academy Reviews
Page 11
-
Anonymous
A challenging course but ultimately rewarding
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
This sixteen week course will provide you with all the skills you need to land your first developer job. The first four weeks make up a pre-course which teaches you the basics of coding. If you have free time during this period I'd strongly recommend to keep learning to build up as much of a foundation as you can as once the main course begins it is intense. The subsequent twelve weeks were a blur, you develop so many skills during this time you'll be amazed when you look back. There is a focus on pair programming, self led learning, mental well-being and team projects. Excellent coaches are always on hand to support you, both technical and personally. I'd highly recommend Makers to anyone wanting to change their career! -
Anonymous
junior developer
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
This bootcamp will teach you how to develop a growth mindset. Studying with a partner will give you the confidence to communicate what you've learned, but you'll also learn not to be hesitant to ask questions when you don't understand something. These are extremely valuable abilities to have while applying for jobs.
There is a lot of technical and emotional help available if you ask for it, so don't expect too many lectures and be prepared to do some extra self-study. The EQ curriculum is what makes a big difference, and the career team will help you apply for your first job in the best way possible.
Great Slack community from which you will benefit and may contribute, as their quote goes, "once a Maker, always a Maker." -
Anonymous
My best learning experience to date
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
I've been to university before that, and I have to say that I have learned more in 4 months at Makers than my 2 years at university, hands down. The programme is condensed, not for the faint of heart and anyone planning to do that part time (we were working 70h/week) but it is so worth it and absolutely guaranteed to get you a good first position in tech !
I was able to learn so much so fast thanks to the coaches who are absolute angels and very understanding of your everyday struggles, but also thanks to the whole cohort. One treasure you will gain out of this experience is the people you've shared it with, they will be your teachers and sometimes your students and you will grow so much more thanks to sharing that experience with 20+ other people.
All in all, I highly recommend Makers as a bootcamp choice if you're in London, it's an amazing opportunity for change and growth :) -
Anonymous
Challenging but worth it
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
It's an **intense** 16 weeks course and even more challenging when you have 2 young children and doing this on the tail end of your maternity leave! The curriculum is good. I'd suggest more materials for certain concepts in Javascript and functional programming. The coaches were supportive, in both technical and emotional wellbeing. Post-course was a bonus! I couldn't attend sessions since I returned to full-time work, however I received support from my cohort and coaches around my time. Multi-tasking between working full-time, being a mum of 2, consolidating and job searching was very challenging but I managed to get a job offer through Makers hiring partner within 2 months post-course. Very grateful for the support throughout my journey -
Anonymous
Great experience
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
I heard about Makers through a couple of colleagues who got amazing jobs soon after completing the course. I used to be a Web Designer so I had a bit of knowledge in terms of HTML / CSS already but it really wasn't all that necessary to complete the course.
I was on the August cohort, which was a fully remote cohort. You'd think it would have lowered the quality of the experience to have it remote, but it really did not. The first day we received all our Makers goodies by post, and had lots of social events online to get to know each other, so it really went smoothly.
I learnt all about Object Oriented programming and TDD development during Makers Academy, which was very different from everything I encountered so far but made a lot more sense compared to the development process I had witnessed previously.
I also learnt how to collaborate efficiently and handle version control within a team of developers.
I completed quite a few team projects, and the whole experience truly was eye-opening about what I had missed from my previous jobs, especially the collaboration, sharing of knowledge within a team and continued learning while working. The best part of Makers really is your cohort and learning / supporting each other. -
Anonymous
An Exiting and Empowering Journey
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
I started the course with almost zero initial knowledge in software and it felt like a jump with a parachute. It was super exciting and motivating. A way of learning which is collaborative, ever-changing, very dynamic but also mindful. The focus is very much on finding your own path of learning while interacting with others. When the 12 weeks finish the career-searching phase begins. And the support given to me at this stage was absolutely brilliant! I found a job with the help of the Makers Careers team and now working in a very well-respected company. -
Anonymous
A positive experience. Has set me on a path of life-long learning as a developer.
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
Overall, a great experience that I would recommend to anyone wanting to switch careers into tech. The course consists mostly of pairing and group-work, so I recommend looking elsewhere if you don't play well with others. The rest of the time is for self-led learning, and some coach-led workshops. The coaches are great, very supportive, knowledgeable and held us to a high standard of code quality. One draw back though is that the coaches will not give you much in the way of individual support or attention unless you ask for it - you may notice a small, vocal minority getting the majority of the coaches attention because of this. -
Anonymous
Intense, expensive, but a worthwhile investment.
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
This is an intense and expensive course. It is a worthwhile investment if you want to find the 'quick' way into the world of software (however do be prepared to not have that software job for several months after the course - I picked up part time work to cover my expenses during the job hunt and eventually landed a role after 4 months, which was earlier than most).
The 4 weeks pre-course is relatively tough but can just about be done whilst holding down a full time job. The main 12 weeks of the course is very intense and participants should commit fully to this. Also, when studying the codecademy course beforehand, I will point out that 'Lambdas' and 'Procs' have never cropped up for me since.
I spent the entire 16 weeks feeling out of my depth, but in a good way - whenever I looked back on previous work I was confident with my abilities regarding that topic. It is also easy to feel that others are progressing more than you, but remember that you will be progressing more than others, and in the wide scheme of things everyone knows barely anything compared to a professional software developer.
There are a lot of online resources available for students during the course (sometimes too much!), but the students who excel the most appeared to be those who would constantly communicate with both the coaches and other students. This can feel daunting at first, but you'll soon get used to asking for help and having someone point out that a word in your code has a small typo! Proactivity is also a must - there are some weeks where you are left to your own devices and it is easy to take the foot off the pedal... beware! Give yourself plenty of down time so that you can crush it during office hours.
During the job hunt, the resources available are excellent, but very much in a 'you get out what you put in' manner. There are coaches available to help you prepare for tech tests, write applications etc. along with Makers linking up with hiring partners to advertise roles to you. You just need to be proactive about engaging with the resources to get the most out of them.
Finally, I would say that you should try coding yourself a lot before committing to this course, even paying a few £'s to have a go at an online class. It's a big commitment to make so make sure you would be willing to do it as a career i.e. screen time, chair time etc. Also, reach out to previous Makers students. I have had several people contact me through LinkedIn and have had several calls with these people to discuss their expectations.
For me, if your finances and personal situation allows for it, and you have found coding to be compelling and interesting, then you should give serious thought to signing up to this course. -
Anonymous
Buckle up, not an easy course!
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
+ Great support during/post course
+ Invaluable resources available throughout your journey
+ Amazing sense of community
+ Resources available on mindfulness and EQ
+ Yoga
- Remote learning needs polishing (would have preferred on site learning)
- Javascript sections feel rushed and could do with better resources
- £8k is a big investment especially for remote learning
If you get accepted, prepare for a challenging but rewarding 16 weeks! -
Anonymous
Great course and Careers support
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
Pros:
- Huge amount of resources available during the course (you can choose the topics you want to focus on).
- Post course careers support (writing CVs, cover letters and building up necessary skills for a job).
- Hiring partners give access to jobs specifically targeting bootcamp graduates.
Cons:
- A lot of work during the course, especially if you go in with zero experience (I'd recommend spending time to learn basic syntax and be able to write simple script eg. on codewars) -
Anonymous
Great Bootcamp for Beginners
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
I really enjoyed my time at Makers Academy. You learn so much and it’s great that you can get in with very little coding knowledge.
It’s an intense course where you learn new things every day and can be draining but Makers offer great support and are genuinely passionate about mental well-being.
I did the remote course which was good but I feel I would’ve benefited more from being there in person so if you have the chance to do the course on campus I would say do that. -
Anonymous
Makers combines intensive learning with a holistic, supportive environment
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
Makers has a well-defined program, which works through the various facets of software development in an organised way. There are extensive banks of learning exercises, along with good access to coaches. I would say that there is space for some additional resources that teach you the topic, rather than just provide exercises for you to practice it.
The decision to use Ruby as the primary language is sensible in many ways - it is a straightforward language, and, with the addition of Sinatra or Rails, allows you to build websites. However there didn't seem to be many junior developer roles in Ruby. The course also teaches JavaScript, by translation from Ruby, and encourages students to branch out to new languages/frameworks for their final projects.
The after-course support from the careers team is where Makers really shines. Help is available for graduates to consolidate their learning, apply for jobs or interview for jobs, with regular workshops run for each. There are also careers coaches available for 1:1 advice and support. The coaches are interested in graduates as individuals, and focus on helping them to understand and display their most marketable skills.
I learnt so much on the course! -
Anonymous
Amazing course, inspiring people!
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
I undertook the Makers course as my career was stagnating. I learnt so much in a challenging and engaging environment and Makers go above and beyond to make sure the new entrants of the white, male world of tech are diverse and know to be inclusive. Even though it was remote I felt connected and have made lots of new friends and perhaps most importantly am now employed within three months of completion! -
Anonymous
Surely the fastest way to retrain as a developer
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
Pros:
- Enforces habits and rituals of engineering environments that it would be really hard to achieve self-led (e.g. diagramming, TDD, BDD, Agile, CICD). My technical interview questions were based on these!
- Amazing emotional support - they want you to challenge yourself but to also practice self-care above all else which is excellent.
- Great people; both coaches and jobhunting team - every one who works there is smart, so supportive and keen to help you succeed.
- Really is a transformative experience. I knew next-to-nothing about software developing in November, enrolled in February and then got my first dev job in May - three weeks out of the bootcamp, with a Makers hiring partner. Not everyone has been that lucky though and some have been searching a long time for the right role.
- Alumni community is amazing.
Cons:
- Zoom fatigue: you pair every afternoon for 3-4 hours which can be exhausting, and there are a lot of group projects. Also there is little time for you to do self-led learning (which is my personal preference).
- Syllabus needs a bit of love - the links are out of date on a lot of the curriculum. -
Anonymous
I changed careers at 40
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
I started this course with only two weeks of experience in coding, and now, 5 months later I'm about to start my first role as a software developer.
Pros:
- The coaches are great, super helpful and keen to ensure you've understood the concepts but you need to reach out and ask for help.
- You are in a cohort with like-minded people of all abilities so you'll find yourself sometimes learning from others or taking on a teacher-role.
- The job-hunting support is great, lots of workshops on offer with great career coaches.
Cons:
- The curriculum could use an update, especially the front-end material. We spent about 7 weeks on Ruby/Rails, 2 weeks on Javascript, 1 week on consolidating and 2 weeks on the final project. The 4-week pre course material was also on Ruby. I think a bit more of a back-end/front-end balance would make graduates truly feel like full-stack developers. -
Anonymous
Life changing experience that resulted in me landing a dream job
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
The coaches were excellent throughout, very patient and forthcoming whenever I reached out to them (in the designated times to do so). At times it felt like the course was moving at breakneck speed however I felt fully supported throughout and enjoyed every second. I met some amazing people and built lasting relationships with cohort members to take with me into industry.
After the course ended I was amazed by the partnerships team who provided excellent feedback in regards to my applications. The internal hiring system was infinitely more effective (and ultimately rewarding) than spending hours trawling through LinkedIn and other job boards (which I did do and had some success with). The feedback I received on my applications was very insightful and helpful, by the careers team members and coaches alike and led to me receiving an offer from an industry leading company.
The Alumni network was also incredible and I cannot wait to give back to those who enrolled at Makers to change their career/life.
Also I landed a job in a language not formally covered by the course and this is super typical so do not think you will be pigeon holed by the course material. -
Anonymous
It does the job because it gets you a job!
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
I went to Makers so I could get a job as a developer within 5 months - and that happened, even during Covid! For this reason, despite the fact that there were things that certainly could have been better (support from coaches & curriculum), I was still able to achieve my end goal, and will soon be starting at a very famous company - with room to grow and develop and a decent starting salary!
There were certainly some aspects that were infuriating - Makers focus on "self-learning", but the lack of direction from the coaches is frustrating when you've paid to be taught - not to constantly learn independently (which you can do for free). As annoying as this felt, at the end of the course, when you get that job, it's worth it! There are certainly things that could have been better and I'm not sure what the coaches are doing to only be available in the mornings, but to be honest, Makers opens the door to a lot of large companies with BIG names. The career coaching team were epic - the advice before interviews was great, and they were always happy to help. In summary, the experience wasn't what I imagined, but who cares when it leads to a job in coding - in the end of the day, that's what we're here for - and that's what Makers does.
-
Anonymous
An enriching learning experience
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
Makers is a great option for those wanting to transition into tech. The 12 week course is fast paced but comprehensive and designed not only to teach you how to code, but how to learn in general.
The hands-off teaching style from the coaches encourages you to be more independent and find answers on your own or reach out for help within your cohort. The careers team are excellent and provide as much support as you require with things like interview prep, improving your CV and even one to one coaching. Overall the Makers staff are super positive and always willing to help.
I highly recommend Makers to anyone willing to put the hard work in, it's totally worth it! -
Anonymous
Great for developing coding skills and practicing agile methodologies
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
Makers provides a great learning environment for a wide variety of people with the willingness to learn. The ways that they do this are through skills workshops, independent learning time and pairing time. One of the most important aspects being pairing which is an opportunity to sit down and code on a task together with someone else which provides you with a different perspective to coding independently.
The opportunity to work in teams and practice agile methodologies is invaluable as this is what many companies are currently using or moving towards. The coaches are very helpful and open to questions which makes the workshops fun and useful. The culture is one which also aims to promote mental health awareness through daily meditation and regular yoga sessions.
Some problems were with job hunting. Due to the unfortunate circumstances there was quite a lot of reduced support including the removal of the careers fairs. It also didn't help that they added pressure towards job hunters by tightening rulings in the job offer guarantee.
Overall, there were some struggles on the job-hunting side of things due to the unfortunate circumstances of COVID-19 but I really enjoyed the course and it has provided me with invaluable experiences. -
Anonymous
Junior Software Engineer
Fast paced and lots of learning so be ready for that, but importantly they facilitate this with a productive and positive environment.
Great coaching, you get out what you put in.
Great careers advice and service... again take advantage of the services and their advice and you'll get a job no problem. They provide support after the course until you get a job you can't put a price on that! -
Anonymous
Fun and intesnse
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
Pros:
- Meet lots of great people.
- Amazing to see what you can learn in a relatively short space of time.
- Freedom to work on your own project in a group at the end of the course.
- Compared to other bootcamps, you get a good full stack approach.
- TDD approach is drilled into you from day one, which stands you in good stead for interviews. Process reviews with external reviewers are another great way to prep you for interviews.
Cons:
- Coaches are stretched and as a result, aren't able to offer as much support as most people would like.
- My cohort was let down by the careers fair - only one company turned up to the first fair; 3 to the second a month later, with one of these companies retracting their job openings a few days later. Therefore, there were only 4 job openings for around 2 cohorts worth of people. You need to be motivated and dedicated to finding yourself a job outside of the course.
- Some of the course material needs updating or for coaches to check for errors before using the material. -
Anonymous
Excellent!
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
Makers is a really interesting programme - I felt empowered to develop my own learning without it being too prescriptive. That being said the coaches were always accessible and happy to help unblock. I feel this mimicked real-life work very well and is great preparation for the real world. I would say that some of the workshops that were run were lacking a bit of direction but coaches were really open to feedback and this situation improved really quickly.
-
Anonymous
Fantastic course & a life changing experience
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
Truly one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I joined Makers this year after dropping out of a humanities degree at university - without any prior computer science knowledge, industry experience or coding skills to speak of.
Since then Makers has enabled me to land my dream job as a Software Engineer, at a company I’m super excited to work for! The course itself is fantastic and extremely apt in teaching practices which are highly valued the industry. Not only this, but the people & culture are extremely giving, and I had a lot of fun in the process. I’m really grateful for entire Makers experience; from writing the first lines of code to securing a job - I was amazed by it all from start to finish!
-
Anonymous
Best career changing decision I made!!
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
I really enjoyed the focus on mental well-being along with learning new skills and the curriculum. Although there was heavy focus on learning ruby in the precourse by no means was it the only language learnt. It help set the pace and knowledge for how to learn new languages.
During my time at Makers I had the chance to learn Ruby, Javascript, Python and Swift. When it comes to the final project, it is very flexible and the team do their best to make sure you get support throughout.
In terms of the careers team they were super helpful. I got a job with one of the hiring partners and beforehand they were great at giving me advice on unsuccessful applications and how to prep for the final interview.
This is definitely an experience I would recommend anyone looking to change their career at any stage in their lives.
-
Anonymous
Worth It
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
Makers provided an excellent bootcamp, that enabled developers like myself (with no coding experience) to be able to go off and make valuable contributions to their tech company. The curriculum provided, covered a wide range of topics that allowed you to be exposed to a range of best practices ,key development concepts and programming languages. The support given by the coaches are of a high quality and they are very supportive and patient. Not only are you supported on a technical level but also on an emotional level by the Student Support Coach.
Cohorts need to be more diverse and inclusive however, and include more females and more people from ethnic minority backgrounds. -
Anonymous
Worth it !!!
I had an amazing experience at Makers Academy, the people were incredible! It was really challenging and hard work, but definitely worth it! I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone!
-
Anonymous
A brilliant experience
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
Makers has been an incredible experience overall and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone considering it. I came to coding with little knowledge or experience but with their guidance and support I have been able to land an incredible job as a junior software developer within 6 weeks of completing the course! It is expensive and for most people will involve some risk but I would say it is definitely worth it.
There is a lovely supportive atmosphere at Makers and I met some amazing people there. Everyone is lovely, kind, motivated and driven and it's an inspiring place to be :) It is very intense though and you have to be ready to dedicate the majority of your time to learning during the three months. You have to be ok with doing a lot of the work yourself but I found that there is lots of explanation and help if you need it.
Lastly, one of the best parts of makers is the careers team. They offer incredible support after the course and have some amazing contacts within the tech world. Jobhunting isn't easy and again it's up to you to put the time and effort in, but if you do, there are lots of opportunities out there.
If you're thinking about doing it, I would say go for it! With their help, I have changed career completely within the space of 6 months and you can too :)
-
Anonymous
MA Remote
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
The MA Remote course is good for having a general introduction to web development practices and technologies involved (mainly Ruby). The course is based on TDD, agile and pair-programming. Although they say anybody can be a programmer in 12 weeks, I would recommend this course to people with a technical background or already familiar with programming, otherwise, instead of acquire the skills to be ready for the job market, the time would be spent on learning the fundamentals, which being honest, is not enough for assure a job in the end.
The good stuff about the course is that the topics are mostly up to date with the requirements of the market. The languages, practices and workflow is quite similar to what I encountered on the job that I found. On the other handm I expected more experienced tutors and definitely more support on the job hunting process at completion of the course.
-
Anonymous
A revolutionary approach to learning
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
It's cheesy to say but Makers Academy has directly changed my life.
There are lots of places that you can go to see what their syllabus looks like, the languages they teach and the frameworks they expose you to but none of this really captures what makes this such a revolutionary school. Simply put: Makers is somewhere that changed my perception of learning. Underlying their program in web-development was a subtle thread teaching you to be able and confident to pick up any piece of technology and, given time, change it, manipulate it and ultimately get it to work.
In practice this proved far more valuable. While studying on the course I was able to practice learning on a particular, useful stack of technologies but when I came out the other end into the real world and a job I was quickly thrown into the deep end using a language and frameworks that I had never even heard of before. That I didn't sink is a testament to everything that Makers taught me. I would thoroughly recommend them to anyone considering going to a developer bootcamp.
-
Anonymous
Makers Academy Remote Student
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
So I usually don't write reviews for much but I know this is a huge decision for some and when I was doing my research I was always wishing there were more reviews (especially for some of the online bootcamps). So I'm about to finish up Makers Academy Ronin, which is now Makers Academy Remote and wanted to write this while it was still fresh. Sorry for the length but I tried to be as in depth as possible.
TL;DR- Makers Academy Remote has been an amazing experience. They have a lot of positives and a few downsides for people not in London or willing to move to London. Despite that, I was able to get a job offer on Friday of week 10 and in the US starting the Tuesday after the course finishes. I’d definitely recommend Makers Remote to anyone who knows they want to get into Ruby and can dedicate the time and effort to the class. Makers is growing so they're starting to have more reach in the job placement/help department.
My time at Makers has been a little different from my classmates. I'm in the US so with the time difference it's been rough. For the last 12 weeks, I've had to get up at 3:30-4:00 am every day, and when I visited my family on the West Coast, I was waking up at 12:30-1:00am. Going into this class, I was nervous for that reason alone but I knew if I did a self-paced bootcamp that I wouldn't accomplish as much in 12 weeks (I'd have an excuse to delay or put off work). I was fortunate enough to have a 3 month break from work due to my work schedule but that meant I was on a time crunch for the course. I went into the course hoping for a job shortly after graduating knowing if I didn’t, I’d need to go back to my current position. So now that you know what my situation was when I chose Makers, I guess I'll go over why I chose Makers Ronin.
I did my research for probably 6-7 months before I decided on one. I went back and forth between in person and remote courses. I was accepted into 6 or 7 bootcamps that had some pretty rigorous application processes and some low acceptance rates. I actually paid a reservation fee for one but then decided on Makers Ronin because of a few things. First was timing. I needed to start before a certain date so I could finish the bootcamp before I had to go back to work if I didn’t get a developing job. Second was price. There was a huge price difference, especially if you opt for in person bootcamp. I did it from my home and didn't have to pay extra for room and board. That helped tremendously. Compared to other online (Launch Academy, Learn.co) bootcamps it was probably similar if you finish them in 3-4 months. I’m not sure how doable that is with self-paced, I tried finding out but they were just too new when I was applying to bootcamps. Third (as stated before) it wasn't a self-paced course. I know myself. Had I done a self-paced bootcamp, I would have skipped school for the slightest reason. "Oh it's a full moon tonight, I can't do school…” “Gosh darn it, it’s the Asiatic Sparrow-Hawk’s migratory season, guess I’ll stop school for 2 months…" Makers kept me on track to finish in 12 weeks. It was rough given the time difference but doable. Fourth reason was their results. At the time I was doing my research, they were showing, or at least advertising, some pretty incredible results for both in-person and Ronin. It was hard not to do the class since it was everything I wanted and then some. So those are the reasons why I chose it.
Most of those reasons held true and some deviated from my expectations slightly. The deviations mostly were in the job department and basically the whole reason most go to a bootcamp. Most of us do the bootcamps to get a job or help our current career. So first, and it's not really Makers fault at all, is since they're based out of London, their connections are mostly in London. They're slowly branching out to other parts of the world but haven't quite reached the wonderful US of A. So that was extremely nerve wracking. Basically if I didn't want to move to London or the few other European locations (which I didn't), I was on my own for available jobs. I didn’t have the connections that knew what Makers Academy was or sometimes even bootcamps in general. I know there have been a few, not sure how many, Americans that have done the Remote course. I was never given any information on if they received job offers or not, so that was another scary part. I was basically going into this not knowing if I'd be able to get a job at my location. Another deviation was the job report for remoters. What we were told initially was slightly different from what we were told during the class. If I remember correctly they basically told us that if you're not in London, your chances of getting a job drastically decrease. Somewhat expected but still scary. The percentages provided that time weren't as great as they made it seemed when I first started the class. Also, when they were telling us about the results, they informed us that they had one cohort where no one got a job but they took full responsibility for that. Not sure if it was because of the curriculum or coaches or what. The results did seem to be increasing with every cohort but I felt as if they skewed the results to their favor. When someone has to justify why they’re only counting certain people for their results, it gets me wondering what the results really are. This is just my opinion about the information they provided us during the course, it could be off. You might want to ask them for the job placement results for each and every remote cohort. Could help your decision based on your location. They still have really good results and as I said before, they’re getting better with every cohort. We’re not yet at the hiring week where they give pointers about your resumé (CV) and how to deal with interviews and such. I’m sure it’s helpful and I plan to learn a lot from it for future job interviews.
As far as the curriculum goes, I feel it was everything they promoted. Now I’m not sure if this learning style is for everyone. It's very fast paced and a firehose of information. They do a workshop in the morning and then we break off into pairs for a weekly project. On the weekends we had solo projects that were fun and challenging. They are very hands-off because they’re trying to simulate a dev shop as much as possible, well that’s how they sell it at least. If we had a question that we couldn’t find or get answered someway, the instructor was willing to step in and guide us but still never giving a direct answer. It can be extremely frustrating at times when you just want to know the answer but I can see the value in that. Towards the end of the course, it was almost like completely giving up on life if I had to ask the coach for help. I would do everything I could to get the answer without asking him. The majority of the answers are on stack overflow, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to make it work with your code. We’ll see just how helpful it all was when I start my job. Some of the curriculum seemed to be incomplete or pieced together from different versions. It was a huge pain for some of the challenges and as you can imagine, quite frustrating. Their curriculum is open-sourced so it’s constantly being updated and changed for the better. So what I went through won’t be the same as the next cohort and so on. I do believe they have a pretty solid curriculum, not sure all my classmates will agree but that’s how I feel at least.
I’d say the biggest thing when it comes to their curriculum and getting a job is to make sure that Ruby is a popular language in the area you want to work. After starting the class, I quickly realized that I was in a .Net/Java heavy area with very few Ruby companies even in the area. So that drastically lowered my chances of getting a job. Makers Ronin has been great and I’m glad I did it. I met a lot of people, learned a lot (to say the least) and now have a skill under my belt that would have taken a lot longer had I done it on my own. To put it in perspective, I met a guy who was doing the Free Code Camp to try and learn. He started about 6 month before me and after 4 to 5 weeks of Makers, I already knew more than he did. I’m not sure how dedicated he was to the Free Code Camp but that’s part of being on a self-paced curriculum compared to one that’s not. I’d most definitely recommend Makers Remote to someone if their goals line up with Makers’ curriculum. It’s not for everyone, that’s for sure but if you dedicate 12 weeks out of your life to finish the course and make sure you remain enthusiastic along the way, I believe you’ll do fine and enjoy it.
My results: I received a job offer on the Friday of week 10 of the course for a local company who uses Ruby on Rails. I had an interview Tuesday of week 11 with another company and possibly another later in the week or early next week with yet another company. I start my job the Tuesday after we finish the course which is awesome. To have a job before graduating is a great feeling. I’d say the most valuable piece of advice given to me was to get involved in the local developer community. We have a pretty active one where I’m at. I went to as many meetings as I could, messaged and emailed multiple managers and other developers telling them about my past experiences and what I was doing with the bootcamp. That probably helped more than anything. I had a lot of responses and a few that, as stated earlier, led to interviews and an offer. Good luck with whatever bootcamp you decide on, there are a lot of good ones out there, you just need to decide on which one lines up with your goals and expectations.