Makers Academy

So I usually don't write reviews for much but I know this is a huge decision for some and when I was doing my research I was always wishing there were more reviews (especially for some of the online bootcamps). So I'm about to finish up Makers Academy Ronin, which is now Makers Academy Remote and wanted to write this while it was still fresh. Sorry for the length but I tried to be as in depth as possible.

TL;DR- Makers Academy Remote has been an amazing experience. They have a lot of positives and a few downsides for people not in London or willing to move to London. Despite that, I was able to get a job offer on Friday of week 10 and in the US starting the Tuesday after the course finishes. I’d definitely recommend Makers Remote to anyone who knows they want to get into Ruby and can dedicate the time and effort to the class. Makers is growing so they're starting to have more reach in the job placement/help department.

My time at Makers has been a little different from my classmates. I'm in the US so with the time difference it's been rough. For the last 12 weeks, I've had to get up at 3:30-4:00 am every day, and when I visited my family on the West Coast, I was waking up at 12:30-1:00am. Going into this class, I was nervous for that reason alone but I knew if I did a self-paced bootcamp that I wouldn't accomplish as much in 12 weeks (I'd have an excuse to delay or put off work). I was fortunate enough to have a 3 month break from work due to my work schedule but that meant I was on a time crunch for the course. I went into the course hoping for a job shortly after graduating knowing if I didn’t, I’d need to go back to my current position. So now that you know what my situation was when I chose Makers, I guess I'll go over why I chose Makers Ronin. 

I did my research for probably 6-7 months before I decided on one. I went back and forth between in person and remote courses. I was accepted into 6 or 7 bootcamps that had some pretty rigorous application processes and some low acceptance rates. I actually paid a reservation fee for one but then decided on Makers Ronin because of a few things. First was timing. I needed to start before a certain date so I could finish the bootcamp before I had to go back to work if I didn’t get a developing job. Second was price. There was a huge price difference, especially if you opt for in person bootcamp. I did it from my home and didn't have to pay extra for room and board. That helped tremendously. Compared to other online (Launch Academy, Learn.co) bootcamps it was probably similar if you finish them in 3-4 months. I’m not sure how doable that is with self-paced, I tried finding out but they were just too new when I was applying to bootcamps. Third (as stated before) it wasn't a self-paced course. I know myself. Had I done a self-paced bootcamp, I would have skipped school for the slightest reason. "Oh it's a full moon tonight, I can't do school…” “Gosh darn it, it’s the Asiatic Sparrow-Hawk’s migratory season, guess I’ll stop school for 2 months…" Makers kept me on track to finish in 12 weeks. It was rough given the time difference but doable. Fourth reason was their results. At the time I was doing my research, they were showing, or at least advertising, some pretty incredible results for both in-person and Ronin. It was hard not to do the class since it was everything I wanted and then some. So those are the reasons why I chose it. 

Most of those reasons held true and some deviated from my expectations slightly. The deviations mostly were in the job department and basically the whole reason most go to a bootcamp. Most of us do the bootcamps to get a job or help our current career. So first, and it's not really Makers fault at all, is since they're based out of London, their connections are mostly in London. They're slowly branching out to other parts of the world but haven't quite reached the wonderful US of A. So that was extremely nerve wracking. Basically if I didn't want to move to London or the few other European locations (which I didn't), I was on my own for available jobs. I didn’t have the connections that knew what Makers Academy was or sometimes even bootcamps in general. I know there have been a few, not sure how many, Americans that have done the Remote course. I was never given any information on if they received job offers or not, so that was another scary part. I was basically going into this not knowing if I'd be able to get a job at my location. Another deviation was the job report for remoters. What we were told initially was slightly different from what we were told during the class. If I remember correctly they basically told us that if you're not in London, your chances of getting a job drastically decrease. Somewhat expected but still scary. The percentages provided that time weren't as great as they made it seemed when I first started the class. Also, when they were telling us about the results, they informed us that they had one cohort where no one got a job but they took full responsibility for that. Not sure if it was because of the curriculum or coaches or what. The results did seem to be increasing with every cohort but I felt as if they skewed the results to their favor. When someone has to justify why they’re only counting certain people for their results, it gets me wondering what the results really are. This is just my opinion about the information they provided us during the course, it could be off. You might want to ask them for the job placement results for each and every remote cohort. Could help your decision based on your location. They still have really good results and as I said before, they’re getting better with every cohort. We’re not yet at the hiring week where they give pointers about your resumé (CV) and how to deal with interviews and such. I’m sure it’s helpful and I plan to learn a lot from it for future job interviews. 

As far as the curriculum goes, I feel it was everything they promoted. Now I’m not sure if this learning style is for everyone. It's very fast paced and a firehose of information. They do a workshop in the morning and then we break off into pairs for a weekly project. On the weekends we had solo projects that were fun and challenging. They are very hands-off because they’re trying to simulate a dev shop as much as possible, well that’s how they sell it at least. If we had a question that we couldn’t find or get answered someway, the instructor was willing to step in and guide us but still never giving a direct answer. It can be extremely frustrating at times when you just want to know the answer but I can see the value in that. Towards the end of the course, it was almost like completely giving up on life if I had to ask the coach for help. I would do everything I could to get the answer without asking him. The majority of the answers are on stack overflow, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to make it work with your code. We’ll see just how helpful it all was when I start my job. Some of the curriculum seemed to be incomplete or pieced together from different versions. It was a huge pain for some of the challenges and as you can imagine, quite frustrating. Their curriculum is open-sourced so it’s constantly being updated and changed for the better. So what I went through won’t be the same as the next cohort and so on. I do believe they have a pretty solid curriculum, not sure all my classmates will agree but that’s how I feel at least.

I’d say the biggest thing when it comes to their curriculum and getting a job is to make sure that Ruby is a popular language in the area you want to work. After starting the class, I quickly realized that I was in a .Net/Java heavy area with very few Ruby companies even in the area. So that drastically lowered my chances of getting a job. Makers Ronin has been great and I’m glad I did it. I met a lot of people, learned a lot (to say the least) and now have a skill under my belt that would have taken a lot longer had I done it on my own. To put it in perspective, I met a guy who was doing the Free Code Camp to try and learn. He started about 6 month before me and after 4 to 5 weeks of Makers, I already knew more than he did. I’m not sure how dedicated he was to the Free Code Camp but that’s part of being on a self-paced curriculum compared to one that’s not. I’d most definitely recommend Makers Remote to someone if their goals line up with Makers’ curriculum. It’s not for everyone, that’s for sure but if you dedicate 12 weeks out of your life to finish the course and make sure you remain enthusiastic along the way, I believe you’ll do fine and enjoy it. 

My results: I received a job offer on the Friday of week 10 of the course for a local company who uses Ruby on Rails. I had an interview Tuesday of week 11 with another company and possibly another later in the week or early next week with yet another company. I start my job the Tuesday after we finish the course which is awesome. To have a job before graduating is a great feeling. I’d say the most valuable piece of advice given to me was to get involved in the local developer community. We have a pretty active one where I’m at. I went to as many meetings as I could, messaged and emailed multiple managers and other developers telling them about my past experiences and what I was doing with the bootcamp. That probably helped more than anything. I had a lot of responses and a few that, as stated earlier, led to interviews and an offer. Good luck with whatever bootcamp you decide on, there are a lot of good ones out there, you just need to decide on which one lines up with your goals and expectations.