Makers Academy

Pros

Fantastic fast-paced curriculum covering the practical side of development so you can produce applications as quickly as possible.
Great collaborative techniques and online hub for resources.
Dedicated, skilful and patient coaching staff (Thanks Eoin, Katarina, Alice, Tatsiana and everyone else who helped me!)
Fantastic mental health and wellbeing management (Thanks Dana!)
Emphasis on balancing delivery, learning and fun.
Really teaches you invaluable best practices and design patterns  and tools to land you in a job quickly.
Accepting, inclusive and motivating environment. 

Improvements

A bit too many pairing sessions. Outside of special weeks, you are allocated another developer to work with in the afternoon every day. While I absolutely enjoyed pairing and saw great value in the process, five out of five days on occasion felt like a lot!

Little theoretical teaching on topics like advanced data structures and algorithms. They do however, for free, provide this as extra work outside of the course. You will have to ask or look for it though.

If you are thinking of learning how to code, DO IT. If you are thinking of joining a bootcamp, join Makers Academy! 

In my previous life I was a Technical Recruiter and had always been interested in the tech world, especially software dev, as I found it fascinating how engineers can solve real world problems by writing code and creating applications. 

My initial idea was to return to University and complete a CS degree, however after speaking to engineers they said a bootcamp may be a better option. This is because bootcamps teach you the everyday skills of a dev, for example: writing clean code, working within agile methodology (pair programming, sprints, CI/CD, TDD), understanding git/version control and knowing how to work in a dev team.

Here are my overall thoughts on Makers Academy. 

-The admissions experience is incredible, I knew exactly what was going on and what I needed to do to succeed. There is a technical test to get into Makers, but they provide you with the required learning material to succeed. 

-It's a bootcamp, it's intense. You will work 7 days a week, you will work 12 hour days. Some people didn't work as many hours and still achieved similar results so it's up to you and how much effort you put in.

-The curriculum is great for learning OOP, TDD and starting with Ruby helps understand/engrain this. You will start learning JS in week9 ( i think?) and theres a sprinkle of HTML/CSS. I would say the bootcamp is more focussed on back end that front end. I wanted to learn REACT but it was not in the curriculum so needed to learn outside of bootcamp hours. You will work on various projects which allow you to have exposure to different tech, for my final team project we worked within REACT which was cool.

-The coaches are awesome. They have experience working in large tech firms (Deloitte, Facebook). They have extensive knowledge to share but be warned, they are not there to provide answers to when you are stuck. It is a course that teaches you how to learn, how to break down problems and find solutions independently. This is how the real dev world works. 

-The partnerships team are incredible, they provide so much support to you when you are job hunting. I was lucky to get a job via Makers and I can't thank them enough. 

-There is a strong focus on mental health which is awesome. They have a full time joy officer (!) who teaches yoga daily and helps with any emotional stress <3

Please attend Makers, it's amazing.

 Overall I had an amazing experience at Makers. I was on one of the remote cohorts in 2020.
The course focuses on teaching you how to learn (growth mindset) and wants you to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
You will be supported by an amazing array of coaches, staff and peers whilst you are on the course and overall will feel confident that you can learn and build anything when you've finished!

The learning started slow with the prep work and precourse. But quickly ramped up during the full time portion of the course.
I worked with an amazing bunch of people to help navigate all this new information and worked to learn industry best practices, get the confidence to build anything and have fun doing it!
But don't kid yourself, the course is intense! It'll challenge your learning style and patience to accept that you can't learn every minutia of everything. Makers promotes a growth mindset. Once you are comfortable with this, you'll enjoy the learning process all that much more!
Coaches are there to help unblock you but will help only after you've followed an effective debugging process (which in almost all cases will help you unblock yourself anyway). The coaches do help you with all aspects of the course including (but not limited to) the job support post course as well as additional workshops. You are here to upskill and gain new knowledge and all these things lends itself to helping you find the right job for you!
The support for job hunting post course has been crucial to helping me find a role. There are plenty of opportunities to help you practice being interviewed, what kind of questions you'll be asked during an interview, what kind of questions you should ask during an interview and what you need to do for technical interviews.

If you can put learning at the forefront of your time whilst on the course (and even post course), you'll gain everything you need to be a successful developer! 

I joined Makers during probably the most difficult periods in our lives(COVID). Considering everything that was going on, the Makers team was flawless in delivering our Bootcamp remotely and took measures to ensure all students felt together on this journey.

Each member of the Makers team is extremely supportive and emphatic to our individual needs. I thoroughly enjoyed learning from coaches with not only great commercial experience but a real passion to teach others.

Having now completed the course and secured my first role, I have come to really value the curriculum and how it was shaped. Ruby is a great first language to learn as it's easier to pick up and get your head around the core concepts. Once you have achieved this, learning Java, Python or any other language will be much easier. This is something I'm seeing today as I'm learning Scala and Java for my first role.

The Bootcamp can be incredibly stressful and it's important for the 12 weeks you have the right support system around you to see you through. To help with this, Makers paired us up with mentors (students 8 weeks ahead of you) and this greatly impacted my learning in a positive way.

Please note Makers Bootcamp is not your traditional classroom taught system as you might have experienced at school. There's a REAL focus on self-led learning and using your coaches and peers to steer you in the direction to find answers. In my opinion, this is a great way to learn as it forces you to really understand concepts rather than learning to pass an exam. The coaches will always be there to help, but you won't be spoon-fed the answers.

Overall I couldn't speak more highly of Makers and whichever direction you chose to go I wish you all the best.

The Makers Academy bootcamp was the best decision that I made. From having zero coding experience and coming from an entrepreneurial background it had to be challenging to leave everything behind and dive deep into this experience. What led me to make that decision was my friends who had already been through this bootcamp and started jobs with in a period of 3 to 6 months. I have also done a MSc in Banking and Finance but this bootcamp provided me with more learning than a year long degree. It helped me understand how tech teams work in real work environments and how you can implement what you have learnt into projects. It's a lot of information to process but the idea that Makers heavily promotes of having a Growth Mindset really helped me conquer the problem of getting "Stuck". They explained how to get around problems and break them down step by step to eventually resolve the issue. The pair programming was also a good experience since I was able to understand concepts from different perspectives and also work from people with different multicultural backgrounds (always good for team work/team building).
I would recommend not to focus too much on the idea of "getting a job" but the idea of up skilling yourself and learning. I felt that when I was chasing a job I was not learning but was more focused to getting a job but that only came when my perspective changed towards learning and developing the technical abilities, which would then get you the job.

Overall I had a fantastic experience at Makers Academy and it was the best decision I've ever made. It goes without saying that it was very intense in terms of how much you learn in a relatively short time-frame, however, I'm sure all bootcamps are similar in that sense and the pros definitely outweighed the cons for me.

Pros:
- Excellent technical coaches who are willing to help and guide you in the right direction to finding the solution.
- Regular workshops in the first few weeks, which teach you the fundamental processes of software development and coding best practices. (These were also recorded as the course was fully remote, so we could watch them back later if necessary).
- Emotional Intelligence workshops led by the 'Chief Joy Officer' - learnt how to communicate better, how to give and receive constructive feedback and working with different personality types etc.).
- Great careers support upon finishing the course - workshops on CV's, cover letters, all the different jobs boards etc. (provide 1-2-1 careers coaching sessions if required).

Cons:
- Didn't anticipate how much we'd learn in a short time, however, if you're willing to put in the work and some self-led learning you'll still enjoy the course as much as I did!
- The coaches don't 'spoon feed' you and won't give you the answers straight away, which although can be frustrating at the time, it really made me think for myself and I can now unblock myself most of the time rather than asking for help straight away.

It wasn't without trepidation that I decided to hand in my notice and look towards a career in development. I had no idea what to expect at Makers, especially after we were told that the entire course would be remote. After having a tour of the facility in Shoreditch, it was a bit disappointing that we would be spending no time there. However the Makers team made things very easy in terms of what was needed to get set up, pre-course learning materials, the interview itself.
Once the course started and we had our initial full cohort Zoom session the feelings of anxiety were replaced with excitement. I could see that even though everyone came from wildly different backgrounds, we were all in this together and that brought an instant feeling of calm. The course was run extremely well and whether I was just lucky or not, the cohort themselves were just amazing. I have really made some friends for life.
There are times when you feel that some of the coaching could be a little more hands on rather than sticking to the ethos of 'teaching you to teach yourselves' to the letter. But having said that, I never would have thought that just a few weeks in I could be able to pick up SQL queries and a new language in JavaScript within the space of a week!
Once the course had finished I think you really get a sense of where the strength of Makers lies. The course is fantastic, don't get me wrong, but the help guidance that you have at your disposal from the careers advice team is wonderful. They assist with putting CV's together, writing cover letters, or just picking you up when you're feeling down. And you will feel down at times.
Looking back at my time at Makers, I can honestly say that it has been one of the greatest experiences I've ever been through. I have cried, laughed (a lot), pulled my hair out, helped others, had others help me (a lot), stared in wonder at the things I can now create and build, and just generally had an amazing time.
I look forward to getting started in my new career and will always look back fondly at my time at Makers and could not recommend them enough if you are thinking of taking the plunge.
Best of luck!!

I was stuck in a job that I hated for 7 years. I spent a lot of that time trying to teach myself how to code but never managed to develop the skills I needed to switch careers. Choosing to study at Makers is on of the best decisions I have ever made. The full team are excellent form the coaches that work with you every day to the careers team that help you to find your next job, the support has been overwhelming. In six months I managed to secure my first role as a frontend engineer. This is something that I could never have achieved without Makers Academy. Thank you!

I'm 43 (2 years ago), I'm stuck in a job that I hate for the last 18 years, even though I reached senior management level and earn a lot of money in the dream city of Dubai, but I still hate every day of my life.

I take a crazy step and leave Dubai after 11 years there, and take my family back to the UK, leave construction  follow my childhood passion and join Makers Bootcamp. Turned my hobby into a career.

BOOOOOMMMM, I'm now 45, working and earning a decent salary to support my family, I love every day of my life, never look at the watch to check when my work day will end (some times I look just to see how long I managed to hide away from my wife and do some more work), in the past 13 months I only took 6 days off, and they were for family commitments, as I never felt tired or needing a break. I work in an industry that offers a lot of challenges to keep me excited every day, and offers a great salary growth potential. 

I am indeed one of the happiest people on earth now, and honestly I don't believe I could've reached any where close to where I am now if it wasn't for "MAKERS" and their amazing family (staff would really describe them or give them justice).

Thanks Makers, you really made my dream come true. Love you guys 🥰

I've had a difficult time trying to figure out what career path I want to take, doing 7 A-levels trying to keep my options open between medicine and finance it's fair to say I've spent most of my earlier career trying to figure out what I enjoy and am passionate about. Having never taken any interest in technology I left my accounting job and took a chance with doing an IT grad scheme and very early on I realised I loved coding, as a Systems Analyst and then a Test Analyst pairing with developers would always be the best part of my day. Having never actually studied Computer Science, becoming a Software Engineer felt like an Everest climb, near impossible.

Having spent 3 months on the Maker Bootcamp not only have I learnt stuff I've been trying to teach myself for 4 years but I have gained a lot of confidence in my ability. You learn a lot in the three months: command line; code versioning; TDD; new languages...but the most important thing you learn is how to learn. Becoming a developer felt like it was near impossible but now that I know how to learn a new language and how to maintain the best practices that Everist climb looks a lot smaller!

I am excited to finally be on the career path that I am passionate about and looking forward to continuing my learning.

P.S. The support the Makers team give is amazing, on many occasions I had myself referring to Eddie as a superhero!!

The title sums it up quite well to be honest! I used to be enrolled on a Computer Science degree program but I had to drop out due to catching Pulmonary Tuberculosis. I spent months recovering and then worked as a bartender. Makers allowed me to get back on track with my career and switch careers from Bartending. It certainly wasn't easy, and I would say the hardest part was job hunting after the course was over. A big pro is that there is a dedicated careers team that helped with planning my job hunt. They also provided a lot of encouragement along with the alumni group!

Attending Makers Academy was actually one of the best decisions I've ever made. I would have been miserable otherwise!

Before Makers: I had done some HTML/CSS before the course but found it difficult to learn to code alone because it's tough to know what to study next. The Makers curriculum will teach you industry best practices and fundamentals that you need to succeed as a software engineer, be it as a frontend or, in my case, backend engineer. The coaches are dedicated to your learning and bring in their industry knowledge from some very impressive backgrounds (Facebook, MIT, etc.). 

The course: It is a challenging 4-month long course but it is what you make of it. Coaches are there for you, but it's up to you to reach out with questions, for additional support, or if there's a particular topic that interests you. This simulates the real-life industry experience where you have to learn how to help yourself. 

Job-hunting: I started job-hunting as soon as lockdown began in March '20, which was a very painful experience, but the support that I got from Makers staff, my cohort, and the wider Makers alumni community was fantastic and really made it all worth it. It was also nice to know that the Job Offer Guarantee was there, just in case.