Makers Academy

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.

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. 

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.

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)

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!

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. 

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. 

 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. 

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.