Makers Academy

Overall, I genuinely really enjoyed my time at Maker's and it did indeed allow me to change careers and get my first tech role. 
The way the learning is delivered and the focus on group projects towards the end provides a solid foundation and insight into working as a developer. That being said, you definitely need to be committed to on-going learning on top of this. 
I took the course when Maker's was changing their curriculum and unfortunately my cohort was bridging the gap between the transition from the old curriculum to the new. This often meant our cohort felt like the awkward middle child and it seemed as though coaches often did not know what the plan was for our group going forward. Nevertheless, we got through the course successfully and moved into the dreaded job hunt. Although I appreciated the job hunt was going to be difficult given the state of the market, I do think there could have been more transparency about the lack of current opportunities via hiring partners. Although there is lots of support available to help with CV writing and applying, this can only take you so far when the opportunities simply aren't there. 
I do think it's really important to highlight that my negatives are quite situational/circumstantial and so may not reflect the course now. In terms of the learning, I do think it was transformational in giving me solid foundations to pursue a career and I did genuinely enjoy my time at Makers. You just need to be prepared for a gruelling job and stay motivated to continue your own learning.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Makers and am so pleased I made the leap to switch careers into software development. The course is fast-paced and provides a solid grounding in areas like Test-Driven Development (TDD), pair programming, version control, and agile methodologies. It's definitely challenging, especially with the volume of self-study required, but it's excellent preparation for becoming a more independent learner, which is crucial for software engineering.

I really appreciated the hybrid nature of the course, benefiting greatly from the on-site learning and collaboration in their London workspace. Both the staff and my cohort were fantastic, making it a fun and rewarding experience. The EQ sessions and career coaching were extremely beneficial. Makers also provided support, mentoring, and mock tech tests while I was going through various interview stages which really helped me feel more prepared and confident.

If I had to point out one drawback, it would be the limited number of partnered job opportunities available when I graduated. However, I believe this was more due to the state of the job market at the time rather than a shortfall on Makers' part.

Overall, I'm really happy with my Makers experience and feel well-equipped for my future in the tech industry.

Pros: 
The content was really great; it was a lot to get in in a short period, but it really did teach you the fundamentals of programming
Learning 2 languages and how to use learnings from one language into another; this was a really helpful skill to learn and makes it much easier to pick up other languages
The coaches and their willingness to help. They really did want to help you solve problems, but also made you independent enough to exhaust all other routes first
Dedicated EQ lessons and daily meditation made me incredibly pleased that I chose Makers. It really did set them apart from other bootcamps and has been invaluable

Cons: 
The communication and management of expectations was a bit of a let down in places, it felt very chaotic when it needn't have been
There were times when people at Makers were very disorganised which really didn't support learning

My life changed after the bootcamp at Makers. I had no clue I was able to learn so much in such a short time and I really love coding and learning about new technologies to make my apps always more awesome! Before the course I wasn't sure I would have been able to become a software developer, for the amount of knowledge ahead and because my attempt to complete university education didn't go very well. How wrong was I! Now I am sure I can create and maintain amazing products and the course finished leaving me experience of hard work but also team work, a lot of new friends with whom I shared my journey, the pride of what I have done and the excitement, curiosity and optimism that are and will be my traits throughout the next future. I love creating software and I am ready to hit the market, thank you so much Makers!

I recently completed the Full-Stack Software Engineer Bootcamp with Makers Academy, and I can confidently say that it was an incredibly rewarding experience. Although the course is self-led, Makers provides tech coaches who are available to help, and answer any questions that may come up. They are knowledgeable and friendly, and they create a supportive and inclusive environment that encourages collaboration and growth.
Throughout the course, we followed the industry’s best practices (e.g. TDD and pair programming), worked in agile teams, and participated in tech rituals (e.g. retro-meetings, and stand-ups). We started with Ruby and then moved to JavaScript on Week 7. We learned how to debug and search for answers to our problems, making us confident in learning new languages and technologies both by ourselves and as part of a group. 
One thing that really stood out to me about Makers was the emphasis they placed on community building. There are always interesting events and activities going on (e.g. daily meditation, weekly yoga, EQ workshops, and community breakfasts), providing a great opportunity to make friends and collaborate with other students who share similar interests and goals.
On Week 10 we were given time and guidance on how to prepare a GitHub portfolio, and once we graduated we were able to count on a team of wonderful Success Coaches to help with our CVs and Cover Letters, prepare and practice for face-to-face and tech interviews. They were always available to provide feedback, advice, and support, which helped to keep us motivated throughout the job-hunting process.
I managed to get a job offer within 5 weeks of completing this training and while I had a great time at Makers, I want to emphasize that this course requires commitment and dedication. The curriculum is designed to be intensive and challenging, so it's important to be prepared to put in the time and effort required to succeed. That being said, I would highly recommend this course to anyone who is willing to make that commitment. The experience is incredibly rewarding, and the knowledge and skills you gain will be invaluable in your career as a software engineer.

Overall - Studying at Makers Academy not only got me my dream role, but it was also some of the best weeks of my life. Each week, you'll either study a fundamental aspect of web development, or build your own application. They work hard on building an atmosphere where everyone can ask questions and learn without judgement, which really pays off. If you throw yourself in, you can learn an unbelievable amount in 12 weeks.

Pros -
· You can genuinely go from no coding experience to succeeding on this course. This was not the case for me, but I saw it happen with people on my cohort.

· Gives you experience of all the areas of web development that are needed to land a role: agile development, test-driven development, object-oriented principles, relational databases.

· The emotional intelligence curriculum is excellent, I have become so much better in working in a team because of this course. The meditation and yoga sessions are also available for alumni for free!

· You quickly form a close bond with your cohort due to Makers selectively picking a certain type of person, even if you do the entire course remotely, as I did.

· Job hunting support post-course is exceptional. The careers team provide workshops, individual coaching sessions, and a special mention to Hunor for reviewing about 1000 cover letters every single week!

· On completing the course, you will have three full-stack web applications as a portfolio for employers.

Cons-
· The only con I can think of is that the first half of the course is in Ruby, which is a fairly dead language at this point (at least in terms of what I saw asked for when jobhunting). Makers do this because they believe it’s the best language to learn as a beginner, so fair enough. Personally, I think it’d be better if the first half of the course was in Python, which I started with, found very intuitive, and it’s the most used language in the world.

I graduated from my cohort in March 2023. The bootcamp was a great experience and you learn a lot. You start with Ruby to help ease people who are new to coding in to it and then progress on to JavaScript.
There is a lot of focus on TDD and pair programming which are all useful tools to know and are used in the industry. 
They leave you to your own devices a lot to help you think like a real developer; you need to sometimes go out and look for the answers yourself. The coaches are available to provide assistance but they will try to guide you towards the right answer yourself which is great.
Overall my experience was a good one and I would recommend this bootcamp to anyone who wants to get in to development.

Makers Academy not only focuses on the technical knowledge but on the emotional welfare of the students. On the technical side I went from having written a few scripts in MATLAB to being able to write a full stack web app from scratch. The course starts in Ruby to give a good foundation which will take you from simple programs to a BnB website. It then moves into Javascript to teach a new language and one perhaps more used in industry. Group projects will have you creating a clone of FaceBook to your own idea from scratch in the final project. The focus is not just on the code but on testing and team practices to prepare you as much as possible for the world of work.

On the non-technical side there are EQ workshops (IQ for emotions), and an emphasis on having fun and feeling ok. I had the pleasure of going into the Makers office and everyone there is so friendly and working to help you.

The only negative I experienced in my time at Makers was there was sometimes a lack of feedback on submitted work.