Makers Academy

Makers Academy is hard - but it is exactly what I was after when I decided to change careers. I wanted to come out with the ability to build anything I could think of, and that's what I've got. Practical, real world, immersive, challenging learning, teaching me how to craft solid code (fully tested) with in-demand languages and frameworks, how to code with people (in pairs and in teams) and also that I can actually build anything I put my mind to.

I repeat - it isn't easy but it is worth it. And, best of all, it's a wonderful family. Once you've gone through something as emotional as their 12-week program, you'll have made friends for life.

Having taken 4 years out of the workplace to stay at home with my two young children, I decided to do a coding bootcamp in order to find challenging meritocratic work that wouldn't care about my 'career break'. I did a lot of research and felt that Makers Academy were head and shoulders above the rest of the UK bootcamps on offer. Not only do they teach you to code, they teach you how to become a good developer by drumming into you the principles of good design, testing, pairing, and agile working. The instructors were amazing and all really lovely people (a couple of whom have remained good friends). It was a very intense 3 months, but some of the most enjoyable I've had. I was offered a job within 2 weeks of finishing despite the fact I was only looking for part-time work (which is thin on the ground in this field). I would recommend Makers Academy unreservedly!

Attending Makers Academy was a the right choice, the things I’ve learnt are priceless and the people I’ve met are very special.

It has been all about the people, co-working in a lot of different projects either in pairs or bigger teams (4-5 people) coding all day with the coaches supporting us. It was just brilliant, I’ve learnt how to learn and it feels great.

The mentality that reign at Makers is “learn by doing” which is the best way to learn, and the lessons/breakouts are dynamic to make sure you get a proper understanding.

Obviously it is not come for free, and I am not talking about money but the effort that you have to put in order to get the most out of it. You must be very motivated and pro-active, ready to join the Makers family.

ps: They don’t ensure you a job, but after pushing hard the 11 weeks plus the hiring week you will find yourself above any other CS graduated. I’ve got a job after one month and I would have never thought that it would have been possible.

I just loved it and I would definitely do it again!

  Before attending Makers, I had finished university with an unsatisfactory degree and was working dead-end jobs to keep myself afloat with little hope for the future.  I half-heartedly applied for Makers, expecting yet another rejection but the day after the  intense interview, I received my acceptance letter.
  What proceeded was probably one of the hardest yet most fulfilling experiences of my life.  They provided an intense curriculum with a very relaxed atmosphere to complete it in.  Whilst at Makers, you are constantly surrounded by happy yet hard-working individuals, which makes for a very conducive work environment.  I managed to build things over the course I never realised I would be able to do and feel that now that I have finished, I am ready to take these new skills and motivation into the work place.  I have already been offered a job in a company I did not think I would ever be able to work for and feel this course has opened up a whole new career path for me.
  I wholeheartedly  recommend Makers Academy to anybody looking for a new career or even looking to apply new skills to their current job.  It was an amazing experience and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to attend Makers Academy

I would start by saying that attending Makers (September 2014 - December 2015) is by far one of the best experiences of my life from so many different perspectives. The learning curve is insane, the people on my cohort and the staff are inspirational and I had the time of my life. 

I chose Makers for a couple of reasons, one of the biggest reasons was simply the feeling I got after having interviewed at a number colleges. The Makers process for entry is a lot more selective, giving me confidence in the marketing message and the course content they would eventually deliver. The atmosphere was collaborative, positive and I felt at 'home'. 

Having now completed the course and started on my journey as an active member of the London developer community, I can also say that Makers take teaching best practices seriously and are actually pretty unique for this approach in the education sphere. At the core of the syllabus is a test driven (TDD) approach, something which not only makes your resulting code more maintainable and adaptable but also makes you a hot commodity in the job space. 

The best  part of the course is the intense learning experience, you do get pushed to the limit! I was at college from 8.30am to 9pm every day for three months and also coding on weekends, so expect to get addicted! 

At this point I need to give a big shout out to their Chief Joy Officer, Dana, who is absolutely crucial (at least from my personal perspective) to your experience on the course. She offers regular meditation and yoga and is there to talk you through any difficulties you are having, both course related and personal. She was a huge support to me throughout the course and is now one of my close friends. 

The only downside I can honestly say is that Makers live and breathe agile (a well used industry practice), what this means is that they are constantly iterating and so every cohorts experience on the course is quite different and course materials that are perhaps not always polished. It does however mean that they are keeping up with what your eventual employers would like to see on your CV and gives you the opportunity to truly learn like a developer.  

The support on the course and post-course, while looking for a job, is one of the big reasons I am still a familiar face at Makers Academy. It has become a hub for my development, and the placements team at Makers are my first port of call for any career related questions I have.  

I was on the course from September to December 2014. I had three of the most fun, intellectually stimulating months in recent memory when I was on the course. I loved my cohort, the teaching style under Enrique's leadership was well-suited to my learning style, and Makers provided a focused, work-like environment without which I never would have learned to code. The CEO, Evgeny, is very receptive to criticism and promotes a culture of openness within the company, among both the staff and the students.

I also cannot say enough good things about the placements team. Samantha, Ruben, and Will really, really go to bat for you. Makers has only been around for two years, but when a group of us went to Silicon Milkroundabout earlier in the year, we attracted a lot of interest because employers could pick out that we're Makers students. I think it says a lot that so far (and it's a tremendous reflection on the placements team) Makers has done a reasonably good job of churning out grads of consistently high caliber.

I've been reading about a bubbling backlash against bootcamps like Makers Academy in recent months, and I think a lot of it is caused by misplaced expectations on the part of students. It's not a magic pill that will turn you into a great coder in 12 (or 16, now, with the precourse work) weeks. That's impossible. The Makers system works really well for people who are reasonably smart, but much more importantly, hard-working, self-aware, and willing to help those around them. You don't need to be a genius to succeed in a coding boot camp. It's precisely because these are the qualities that are found again and again in good developers. If you walk in the door on Day One with the mindset, "I've paid £8000 to be here, I expect these people to make me a developer in three months," you are probably not going to do too well.

You're probably wondering, what is Makers' distinguishing point from General Assembly, or any of the numerous boot camps in North America? I don't know enough about Dev Bootcamp or Hack Reactor, but Makers is much more discerning than GA, particulary when it comes to Test-Driven Development (TDD). Do some research on what TDD and Behavior-Driven Development means before you make your decision. Learning to write automated tests alongside your code is a painful process the first few times, but it is incredibly valuable -- it is often the difference between building something maintainable and extensible versus just hacking together 200 lines of spaghetti code that somebody else has to spend a week untangling later down the line. When you have junior devs who have been coding for 8 weeks already thinking about technical debt before they've written a single line of production code... I think that's pretty awesome.

But, since this is a review, I'm gonna be honest about where Makers still needs improvement. I feel extremely fortunate to have been on the course when I was, in large part because of Enrique's teaching. However, as of November 2014, Enrique is no longer with the company. Neither is Alex Peattie, who left in September 2014. There is currently a lack of experienced senior developers with industry experience on the permanent teaching staff. 

I think Makers also need to better define its target audience. There are generally two categories of people who sign up for Makers: those who want to become developers and those who want to become entrepreneurs of tech startups. Makers is successful at meeting the needs of the first category, but is currently not well-suited to the second category, particularly with the introduction of an entire week dedicated to finding a job placement at the end of the course. If you are just looking to prototype a web app, I would say that Makers is probably overkill.

Overall, I had a great experience at Makers and would recommend it to anyone who wants to make a career change and is willing to put in the effort and time.

I attended the Makers Academy bootcamp and graduated in early 2023.

TLDR: Was skeptical of bootcamps before I started but am very happy I did now I've completed it.

I had a relatively long and successful career in a different field so I was very worried about making a new start as a SWE. I didn't think it was possible to become a SWE without being a computer science grad. Bootcamps had a strange reputation too - some people loved them, some hated them. After doing a lot of my own research (which I highly recommend to anyone considering bootcamps), I pulled the trigger on Makers and quit my job shortly before starting. The bootcamp teaches you Ruby first, then switches to JavaScript at the end. You get exposure to SQL and MongoDB and there is a heavy emphasis on clean, object-oriented, and test-driven code.  This was the main reason I chose Makers; I wanted to learn and gain experience in as close to a professional environment as possible.  Employers don't want people who write hacky code and have no idea how to test it - which is what a lot of other bootcamps teach. Makers is very focused on making you professionally ready.

Not everyone enjoys Makers. It's self-led so students can sometimes struggle if they were looking for the structures of daily lectures/hand-holding. However, most cohorts support each other either through the designated daily pairing sessions or just because Makers students tend to be super nice people who are willing to help each other. I do wish we had spent less time in Ruby because it's quickly becoming outdated but I don't regret learning the core principles of object-oriented programming in it - it's much easier than many other languages out there. But you get out what you put in. If you work hard, you'll be fine. If you want an easy gig to just coast through, then you're going to have a tough time so I encourage everyone to make sure that you can dedicate the energy and headspace to working super hard for those 3-4 months. You'll be glad you did in the end. In aggregate, I loved Makers. I made very good friends and learned a lot. And although the job market is very difficult for junior SWEs, I came out of the bootcamp feeling very prepared to be a "real" SWE. (Also, the alumni community in London is so friendly!)

Highly recommend Makers - there's no better developer bootcamp in London.

The quality of teaching at the bootcamp was exceptional. The instructors were highly knowledgeable and delivered the material in a way that was both engaging and easy to understand. 
The overall organization of the bootcamp was professional, and I felt supported throughout the entire program. Despite the high number of cohorts and students at a time, the support level was excellent, and everything was well-coordinated and curated.
The curriculum was modern and up-to-date, with a focus on fundamental and high-level concepts that are in demand in the industry. The atmosphere on the course was amazing, and everyone was very supportive, contributing to the overall wellbeing of the students. The bootcamp prioritized personal wellbeing and learning, ensuring that everyone had the resources and support they needed to succeed.
Although the course is very intensive, it is a unique and valuable learning experience that can help you change your career. You may not finish everything in one sitting during the course, but the important thing is to focus on learning and developing your skills. I met amazing people from my cohort and other cohorts, and the course has amazing perks that you have access to even after graduation. 
We worked on very interesting team projects and it was pure fun.
Overall, I am extremely satisfied and can wholeheartedly recommend the course. I am grateful to the entire Makers Team for their support throughout my journey, both in good times and in tough times.

Throughout the pre-course, I was experiencing imposter syndrome (probably not an uncommon feeling for a career changer). However, from day one of the full-time course, the empathetic and patient environment that the Makers team provided, helped me to overcome those initial fears and realise my potential in programming.

With numerous engineering group projects and 'give it a go' encouragement from the coaches, Makers works very well in preparing you for a real-world tech job - so much so, that I was able to draw from many of my Makers experiences when interviewing. The EQ workshops are an invaluable addition, particularly if you're hoping to make the most of those group projects.

After 4 months of intense learning and self-development, I wasn't sure if I had much energy left to look for a job but the careers team had that covered. I have never experienced motivation that abundant and readily available. With job-searching being a daunting experience for me, I made sure to lean on the team and their resources as much as possible and I don't think would have found a job as quickly as I did without them.

Pro's:
- Met some amazing people who are great to be with, and having the web of contacts is almost as valuable as the course itself.
- I really liked the coaches, I learnt a lot in a short space of time. 
- Learnt to code!!! 
- A great way to kick off a career.

Cons:
- I felt a bit out of my depth at times. I felt when I embarked on the course I wasn't quite ready, and it was so easy to get on the course I didn't think hard enough about how intense it might be. It was worth it in the end but it was a bit like: if you can write a line of code, you're in. A good idea would be to introduce an opt-out at the end of the precourse - because when I did the course I had to pay the fees and commit by the start of the precourse, which I felt a bit pressurised by.