Makers Academy

In November 2016, I enrolled in Makers Academy, Europe's leading developer Bootcamp, and the Bootcamp has been a fantastic experience for me. Firstly I am amazed at what I have learned and can use those skills to create web applications using Ruby and JavaScript. In addition, I learned many software-development-best practices, including Agile methodologies, XP values, and object-oriented design principles.

Career team is approachable and supportive. They provide us job hunting technical as well as mental support. 

Before attending Makers Academy, I had no technical training whatsoever. I had recently returned to school after working for about 5 years, yet I found that my masters degree wasn't really leading to jobs that I found personally meaningful and that stretched my brain. Luckily, circumstances led me to check out programs for learning to code and I found Makers. I immensely enjoyed the program. It was really tough but they realise this. Makers provides all kinds of services and mentorship to help you improve and feel as comfortable as possible with the intensive learning process. If they could improve something, I think it might be the pre-course which increased my anxiety about the program rather than helped build my confidence. What Makers did best was teaching me to think like a programmer, which would have been a tough thing to pick up on my own. In the end and most importantly, I ended up with a job that I really enjoy and a career track that is incredibly inspiring.

Maker's Academy was the beginning of my beautiful, frustrating, love-hate relationship with code. Before starting the course, I had dabbled in HTML, and CSS. That's it. I was an infant in the ever expanding universe of web development. I don't owe Maker's Academy for turning me into the software engineer that I am today. That's mostly due to my stubborn tenacity to keep struggling through. However, I do owe Maker's Academy for enabling me to fall in love with the process of learning how to code. One must understand that no bootcamp, school, or educational establishment can teach anyone 'how to code' in twelve weeks. That's impossible. Maker's Academy taught me how to enjoy the struggle, embrace the unknown, be confident in what I know, and curious in what I do not. If you're curious about if a job in web development is for you, Maker's Academy will be an inspiring introduction that just might make you fall in love as well. It's a magical experience, and I give it five stars all around, aside from the aspect of Job Assistance. I believe that they are quite helpful when it comes to EU citizens who are looking for employment inside of the EU (almost all of the hiring partners are within the EU). However, being an American, there really wasn't much that they could do for me due to visa issues. Regardless, I recently landed my dream job at ThoughtWorks in Chicago and at the end of the day, when it comes to getting a job, I think it's a very individual effort anyway. 

Hopefully this review helps those thinking of applying for the remote course of Makers. To sum it up, as good if not better than the on site equivalent! I had only a small amount of coding experience prior to this before switching from a science degree to a programming bootcamp but the amount you learn in a relatively short amount of time is insane. The coach we had was extremely helpful and I loved every minute of it working with others from the cohort every day. 

I don't feel that I lost out in doing it remotely. We still did daily standups via video conference and screen shared when pairing for the rest of the afternoon. We all left at the end of the course with as much knowledge as the others but there is a lack of social activities to bare in mind. There also aren't as many(if any) remote jobs for a Junior Developer as they tell you so bare that in mind if applying from abroad or somewhere with a rubbish tech scene.

You have to be willing to work incredibly hard as Makers don't hold your hand throughout the course. You'll leave a much more independent and capable developer from it. Do some practice problems and join codewars to make sure it's what you want to do as a future career. 

I'm currently working at a fantastic startup as a backend engineer in London after doing the course back home near Birmingham and it wouldn't have been possible without going to Makers. Best decision of my life. Can't recommend enough!!!

An incredible experience if you're serious about a career change. Makers provide a vibrant and stimulating environment to learn important real-world programming skills (test-driven development, best practices, git flow) and modern technologies that will make you stand out against traditional computer science graduates in the right kind of companies. Take this from someone who did a conversion masters in Computer Science at one of the UK's most prestigious universities and still decided to attend Makers, and now works at an amazing tech start-up as a result.

Makers is not for the faint-hearted. Firstly, the cost of any bootcamp is prohibitive, though it pales in comparison to the cost of higher education (and don't forget that you need to sustain yourself for about 6 months, not 3 to 4 years). I would also recommend seriously trying to learn how to program on your own and in other ways (attending workshops, taking online courses) - not everyone who joins a bootcamp ends up choosing to become a developer, and that's down to personal preferences and warped expectations. Don't expect to be "taught" things in the traditional sense of the term. A few don't fully understand this and feel frustrated when they're struggling outside a traditional classroom environment. Lastly, don't expect to just be given a job. Makers are improving their ties to companies and are boosting their careers team, who are extremely helpful, but at the end of the day it is up to you to figure out where there is a good fit, to ace interviews and tech tests and to go out and find companies that want to hire you.

The coaches and staff are passionate and helpful, and the material is kept as relevant and up-to-date as possible. There's a lot of hard work and team projects, and ultimately you get out of it as much as you put in, since nobody holds your hand and there is a vast amount of knowledge to be uncovered. 12-16 weeks is a short amount of time, but the hands-on learning approach, being steeped in the right environment and surrounded by passionate individuals really does ingrain the knowledge in your head. People in the tech industry who are familiar with Makers and their graduates are consistently impressed, so no wonder some of the best software companies hire direct.

Do your research, go to open days and taster events and make sure you want to code for a living. If you do, Makers is the right place to start.

Experience was one of a kind, I had never study anything related to programming until I started preparing for this course, It's extremely important to do all the material given for the pre course, I could not get it all done before we started and I really paid the price through out the course, because once you start there is not stopping or resting! Its a very very intensive course the fact that I did the online one might have made it more intense I'm not sure but it was definitely challenging for me, I struggle with the lack of guidance or people to answer my questions, apart from other students they pretty much want you to find the answers on your own and I'm not very good at that so that made me struggle through out, my mentor was available but only to ask more questions... this is kinda their methodology no way around that, but on the other hand I loved that they help me get job ready, 4 months of studying and I was ready job ready, earning way more than a minimum wage salary, because I lived in London they also helped me to secure interviews and finally a job, I'm very happy I joined MA and regret not doing it earlier in life! its a major change in life style, you get to join an amazing industry that is very flexible when it comes to hours, holidays and family time, there is so much demand that developers pretty much choose where and how they want to work I haven't heard of any other industry that offers this! (obviously the more experience you have the more picky you can get) again I highly highly recommend anybody to go for it, its hard but totally doable

The whole experience at Makers changed my life for good, I think everything was good apart from the fact that important things like JS experience and Sass or even CSS were not cover with more intensity. 

Another down side was the "Hiring Week" it was a complete disaster, bad organized and when I applied for different roles I did not have a proper feedback about why I was not shorlisted in the pack of applicants, then I applied outside and I was called for interviews, but I must say that this part of the course has been removed and this issue does not occur at the moment. That week is another part of the course which I think was a great decision.

Apart from those previus comments, everything at Makers was phenomenal, Coaches were like big brothers or your best friend, communication was very fluid, Dana was awesome with her yoga and talks. The building itself was great, having fruit everyday was good, table tennis was something I quite did not understand at the begining but once you are inmerse coding 12-16 hours daily it becomes vital part of your daily excersice, I really miss that at work.

Making real friends was another big plus for me, I found several characters there which I consider a good influence not only in my career but in my personal life.

I have told my story to many people interested in doing the same, shame that they are not ready to sacrifice what is needed, so I started a Charity Coding Club with kids thanks to everything I learned at Makers and who knows maybe some of them would be Makers one day.

If you are reading this review I just want to tell you that Makers is a door that can give you access to a huge universe called Programming, just do it, you will never regret about it. 

I graduated from Makers in mid-August 2016. At the time of writing this, I have accepted one of the three job offers I have been made and am about to start working as a professional developer after only 6 months since I decided to change my career and do something I love.

Makers Academy is an amazing environment for learning, helping you develop fundamental skills that make a great developer rather than teaching a specific language or framework. Their career staff is extremely helpful, assisting everyone to find the right job for them.

If you know you want to have a career as a software developer and are looking for reasons to join or not to join Makers, just look at the biggest deliverable, which is how many people who studied here have then gone on to get a job as software developer (relatively) soon after finishing; that should give you confidence that anyone who wants to can make it and Makers is the best way to get there!!

In summary, just do it!

I'm really happy with my decision to go to Makers Academy - really happy. It's quite a big deal to quit a career and to start out completely fresh in something else but that is what I did and I couldn't be more pleased with my decision.

The course is fantastic and the instructors are all great and very knowledgable. They create an atmosphere which is just perfect to learn in. It's quite a fine balance as Makers walks the very thin line between giving you the space to grow by yourself whilst keeping you pointed in the right direction.

If I was going to make any criticism it would be that sometimes Makeres ered on the side of giving us too much space and maybe a bit more structure would have made people feel a bit more comfortable. Saying that though the whole course really is amazing and it is incrediable to look back at quite how much I learnt in whats really a very short amount of time.

A great foundation to kick-start my new career as a juniour developer!