Makers Academy

A little about me: I studied politics at university, co-managed a martial arts school, tutored english & maths, and wanted more intellectual challenge. I was looking for a way into the industry, prompted by a developer friend and was stuck between a more traditional masters CS conversion course or a bootcamp.

I got offered a job last week as a junior software developer working in Ruby which allowed me a moment of massive validation that the career-change gamble I took actually worked. I couldn't be more excited! However, Makers could have done a better job in setting good expectations for how long it would take to get a job. Budget on 3 months job-hunting after you finish Makers. I was among the first few in my cohort to get jobs and i'm 2+ months into the magic 'three months'. (Of course, there are a host of factors involved)

Makers Academy is not just a place to learn to code(in fact i'd say it's a place to learn how to problem-solve), it's a place of community and friendship and self-development. The educational philosophy that Makers seems to follow is to enable you you to learn as much as possible. The traditional model of timed lectures at fixed points during the day or course doesn't work for them. Instead I felt constantly encouraged to find answers myself and then given tools to do so. Standups twice a day and retrospectives at the end of the week help keep the communication flow up, not to mention the constant pair programming which has made me grow immeasurably as a communicator and as a coder. There is a set escalation process when struggling through a challenging part of the syllabus. Online research, then the peer group, and the assistants, and then the coaches. If the coaches are being asked similar questions a breakout lecture inevitably happens. The whole place breathes Agile practices to give a better feedback loop to students and to staff.

Each week's topic is broken down into challenges which we complete as much as we can each day in pairs. and the weekend has a related challenge to be completed by yourself. And the syllabus then keeps marching on. The rest week in the middle of the course was fantastic to catch up on sleep and revisit some earlier challenges and even get started learning other things. The coaches are fantastic and have different strengths and weaknesses, and yet combine together to give an all-round solid net to catch and resolve any question we've thrown at them. My advice is to always ask the coaches as much as you want or need.

Not everyone is suited for Makers Academy. A couple of the reviews here seem to show this. The strength of the course is in the highly selection process that whittles down candidates into a cohort of roughly 30 students. Sometimes the recruitment process makes mistakes. You live and breathe code with the guys and gals for 8-10hours every day for 12 weeks. Now I was the type to be first in the door and last out the door and always trying to find the answers myself. Others aren't quite like that and expect to be handed information. So if you're looking for lots of lectures and lots of 1:1 time each day with the coaches, this is definitely not the course for you. If you're looking for a course that challenges you to rely on yourself until you've banged your head against the wall for an hour trying to understand dependency injection and you finally crack it or trying to debug some omniauth authentication errors but can't but there's a system in place to help you resolve it, and this constant struggle while learning excites you, then this is definitely the course.

Because that's as close a resemblance of the real world as Makers gets in order to train you to be a job-ready dev when you finish. And it's crazy and intense and filled with a wonderful array of personalities from all over the place. Make sure you understand what Makers is, come for a graduation day, speak to us grads, and then make your mind up! And if you are accepted, study hard during the precourse, and study hard during the course!

Definitely, no holds barred, recommended.

So 12 weeks and 8k later, what have I got going on after going through Makers Academy? Well I’ve gotten really good at googling stuff, that’s for sure. 

  Going in to the course I was really pumped up and perhaps a little guilty myself of believing all the hype. I don’t know what previous cohorts were like but I don’t think I got value for money and feel like a lot of time was wasted. Time that could have been used to give us a really solid education.   The biggest problem for me was the lack of trainers. The first few weeks were fine but it got to the point where all the staff were working on other things or unavailable for some reason. It’s really hard to learn a subject properly if there’s no one around to teach it.   I got so fed up of being told to go away and google everything. When I asked what would we do if google wasnt an option, I was told to use bing or yahoo. I’m not sure if this was a joke or not. I understand as a new developer we will have to rely on google a lot but I want to at least understand the basics and have the ability to solve simple problems.   When you add up all the time spent clapping, meditating and other non related events you realise you’ve spent half of your 12 weeks doing nothing that is related to the actual course subject. Do we really need so much relaxation and stress management. The only thing stressing me out was not doing the course i’d paid for.   One thing that is probably just me but still stood out was the staff and trainers swearing. Now swearing doesn’t offend me and I understand that the odd word here and there is usual in the workplace. The problem is when you swear all the time people don’t hear what you’re saying, they just hear a bunch of swear words. It’s basically very distracting.   So, have I walked away as a junior full stack web developer? No. Have I walked away with a solid foundation in ruby and pair programming skills? Yes. Would I recommend based on my course? No.

I'll start by saying that I quickly found a development job after graduating from Makers Academy, so in that respect if you're looking to make a career change and break into the web development arena, it's certainly an option, however I'm not convinced if Makers is the best option when it comes to the bootcamp experience...

The on-site portion of the course is broken down into two sections where students are classified as either Juniors or Seniors. Both sections of the course are six weeks long. I found the first six weeks of the course to be to a great standard; learning was well structured, the instructors (Sam, Leo and Roi) were passionate, engaging and knowledgeable in their field. I honestly could not fault this portion of the course.

In contrast, the final six weeks of the course leaves a lot to be desired. I found that the new set of 'Senior' coaches may well have been non-existant as a means of developing our skill set. They were often missing in action, late to stand-ups, unable to explain concepts concisely or convincingly, etc. When posed with a question, the go-to response always seems to be 'Google it', which is palmed off as being a means of improving your investigation skills as a developer. While I can appreciate this to a certain extent, I feel that the coaches should have been more involved in helping to solidify our understanding of certain concepts. Had I the intention of spending the majority of my time 'Googling' issues, I would not have attended the course. 

I almost felt like some suggestions went in one ear and out the other, as your questions or suggestions would often be met with an unconcerned shrug (given that one such coach was only recently a former Makers student and quickly left the organisation after I graduated, I'd argue that this is an issue with the Makers hiring process and that they need to more carefully select their staff).

One particularly irritating point was that, upon offerring suggestions on how the coaches could be utilised more effectively, my cohort was often told 'the coaches are busy doing other things, such as working on the curriculum'. Please bear in mind that the curriculum in question is the curriculum that the next Cohort will be using, i.e. it benefits the current Cohort in no way, and as such, is not our concern. From my point of view, the coaches' primary concern should be addressing the needs of their current students. 

The after-course careers support service is also, unfortunately, very poor. Makers works in coordination with hiring partners that often employ Makers Alumni, and while this works for some, I found that there were a small number of companies hiring for an equally small number of roles, some of which are based in obscure locations that I can't feasibly see many people being in a position to take. I found that the majority of people are finding work outside of Maker's partner circle.

Now onto the positives; what are you getting for your £8k? You're getting a structured (albeit incomplete) curriculum that progressively builds upon concepts that help to solidify your u nderstanding of the product development lifecycle. You're getting access to equipment and a space occupied by like-minded individuals who you can partner with to solve a common problem - in essence, you're learning from and with your peers. Personally I did not find the course as challenging as others have made it out to be, however if you find yourself in this position the more spirtual aspects of the course (such as yoga and meditation) are there to support your health of mind and body.

Despite the above rant, I've given Makers a 3/5 in recognition of the fact that I was able to obtain a job quickly after graduating. I honestly had a great time on the course, spending time with a fabulous bunch of people, however my critiques are in view of the fact that I, and others, paid a large sum of money to attend the course and therefore expect extremely high standards. Had the second half of the course been in line with the standards of the first half, this would have been a 5 star review without a question.

Makers is capable of great things so I hope they do not allow standards to slip; I only hope that the negative portions of my experience were a result of on-going, unexpected change in the organisation and not reflective of what is to come.

I would urge Makers to strive for improvement and not be content with the current service that they are offering. There needs to be more engagement between coach and student, the curriculum needs to be improved (which I understand is a work in progress), more practical demonstrations should be offerred (whenever they were, I found that they were greatly beneficial in accelerating our learning). There also needs to be more transparency over the careers support, which I hope I have highlighted in this review. 

 

 

I've had a poor experience with Makers Academy. There is a lack of quality communication and general support with learning to code.  The emphasis is more on learning to pair code rather than the code itself. I've finished the course still feeling like I don't know how to code on my own. My advice to anyone thinking of applying is to decide whether you actually want to learn to code or just get a new job and be a pair programming drone. If you just want a job then at least make sure it is paid. If you're going to attend the sample event day then make sure you pay the lowest price. I think it's unfair to charge people different amounts for the same event. Be careful with the after course recruitment help. Don't take an unpaid position just because of pressure and that it gives you experience.  I'm out of pocket and left dissatisfied.  I wanted to feel confident about coding.

After teacing myself coding for several years and working in IT support I applied to Makers Academy to accelerate my learning. After a week of graduating I'd won over £2000 in a hackathon and several weeks later and a lot of interviews I accepted a job as a Junior Developer.

They taught me concepts including TDD and OOP that I was not able to grasp though books and tutorials. The most important thing they teach us how to approach complex problems.

The course is hard, intense and they are long days and weekends. The more you put in the more you get out.

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.