Makers Academy

Intro 
Considering attending Makers? Well, you're in the right place! Hopefully, my review can help give you some valuable insight and help you make a decision with confidence.

Last year I took a huge risk and left the stability of my job to pursue a career in software development. It was a really tough ride going at it alone so I reached out to a fellow developer for advice, it was not long into the conversation he recommended Makers. He's a senior technical consultant and stated; "You should try Makers, some of the best developers I've known came from there". Needless to say, I was sold and attended a Makers open day to find out more. I highly recommend doing so if you're on the fence or have questions about the curriculum, I went to 3 open days prior to enrolling and applied with confidence I was making the right decision. 

So, what was it like joining Makers? 
I knew early on my experience at Makers would differ largely from previous cohorts. The semester commenced right as the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK hard, we were officially in full lockdown. Ultimately this resulted in my cohort only physically being on campus for one day, the remainder of the lectures were hosted via Zoom calls. This said, if you're reading this further down the line, your experience could differ largely from mine! 
Prior to attending the course, you are required to complete a fairly easy-going interview. This interview consists of an introduction and some very basic questions about the Ruby language. (You will be using Ruby for the first half of the course and later be introduced to JavaScript. Ultimately however you can explore any tech you want for your final project.) 

Following the interview, clear instructions are provided and you will be assigned some basic technical tests. Providing you complete your tests you will then be enrolled to attend the main portion of the course. I highly recommend you take advantage of this time to get to know your cohort. During this time my fellow Makers were a wonderful source of support and I had the chance to form some very meaningful friendships. 
As previously mentioned you start the course using Ruby and I was admittedly a little put off by this. If you are London based and know the job market Ruby is not a popular choice, however, I was missing the point. Ruby is used by Makers to illustrate the concepts of programming as it's a clear and simple language to get to grips with. The further you get into your development career the more you will realize the concepts of programming play a much larger role than syntax does.

What you cover in the main portion of the course
You will cover;
Object orientated programming, Test-driven development
Agile/XP principles
Ruby, JavaScript
Rails, NodeJs, 
PostgreSQL, SQL, Mongo DB
RSpec, Jasmine, Capybara
Anything else you wish to learn 

A friendly warning: as the main portion of the course is only 3 months long it is very intense. You will have to work very hard during this time to keep up, however, you will be provided with a lot of support too. During your time at Makers, you will learn not only how to code, but you will also learn how to look after yourself and manage workloads. Makers emphasize the importance of looking after your mental health, daily meditation sessions were on offer, and prior to lockdown yoga sessions too! You will address subjects such as imposters syndrome, burnout, and anxiety as it's something we all deal with at some point in our career.

During the course I found Makers did something very unique, you learn how to learn. Yes, you heard that right! The tech industry is a very fast-moving one and having an effective learning process is paramount, 'What do I need to learn?' is a very ambiguous question. I feel a lot of courses out there neglect this factor and Makers does a great job of addressing the subject. 

Preparing yourself for the job market 
Makers did a fantastic job at helping us write a good CV, every job I got a response for would comment on how well written it was. We had workshops on platforms such as LinkedIn and support preparing for interviews. However, I have to confess I felt a little out of the loop during the job hunting process. Morning check-ins were available but ultimately it felt like a rather isolated task searching for work. It would have been great if there were more post-course up-skilling workshops, just something to help prevent people from stagnating. 

During this period I recommend continuing to pursue projects with your cohort and supporting each other. Keep in touch, don't drop off the grid, and keep learning!  

Pros and cons

Pros 
You will be fast-tracked to getting your first developer role, providing you put in the work.
Wonderful culture and friendly staff. 
Internal job applications are available via Makers recruiters.
You have the chance to meet industry experts. 
You get to meet like-minded people and form meaningful friendships. 
You remain part of the Makers alumnus even after the course is finished.
You get support writing a great CV for your first job.

Cons
The course is a very intense experience and may be overwhelming for some. 
The course cost is a fairly hefty lump of cash, however a similar price to others of its kind. (£8000).
No option to work on-site at present (11/11/20) (However this is out of Maker's hands due to Covid in fairness).
The course is aimed at web development, which may be a pro or con depending on what you're looking for. 
There were few jobs to apply for through Makers (Again I believe this to be due to the Covid pandemic).

In summary, would I recommend makers? 
The short answer is yes, I would, but it depends. 
Are you dedicated and enthusiastic about development?
Are you looking for a challenging career with continuous up-skilling? 
Are you willing to put the time in to learn the skills?

If your answer is no to any of these questions, I would say with all honesty this is not the course for you. If your answers are all yes go for it and don't look back!

I hope you found this review helpful and informative, I am at present employed leaving the course and my career prospects are looking very bright.
Thank you for reading!

The coaches are skilled, caring and supportive. They get to know you and really care about your success and wellbeing. 

The course is very comprehensive and at times intense but not as intense as I was expecting. It was manageable and I learned so much in such a short space of time. I wouldn’t say I felt totally prepared for that first role as a software developer but that’s more because of many companies’ unrealistic expectations on Junior Developers (and maybe a little bit of a self-confidence issue, too - I was a teacher with zero coding experience before making the switch). 

If you put in the work, you can make that career switch with Makers. They came highly recommended to me and I saw why. 

One of the best parts of the Makers experience which is not highlight enough is the continued support once you have completed the bootcamp. As an alumni, I have received consistent career support from the Makers team, in the form of job offers and apprenticeships they have received as well as CV reviews and interview prep. As an Alumni I also feel like part of a community with my fellow alumni.

An important note is that it may not be the best experience for everyone, the curriculum follows as strict pace, although anything you want to work on can be done in your own time, that being said some of my fellow cohort struggled to keep up and this can be very demoralising for some people. Being part of a cohort does mean that you do have peers to aid you, as was my experience.

Overall the experience was well worth it, between what I learned to the community I became part of. 

This bootcamp provides a great experience for those with no prior tech experience (such as myself!) and you are taught the basics of what is required to flourish in the tech industry. You are taught in-demand languages, frameworks and technologies whilst also learning how to efficiently learn/teach yourself new technologies. You learn industry ways of working in teams such as agile metholodies, TDD (Test-Driven Development), pair-programming and how to conduct stand-ups. By the end of the bootcamp you can effectively build full-stack projects in agile teams and are given the tools for success.

However, the mission is not finished when you graduate from Makers as you still need to build up your tech skills, behavioural skills and projects to get interviews for jobs. The support from Makers is lacking for job-hunting, but I hear they are improving it for alumni which is promising news.

I would advise prospective students to always keep learning new things and building upon their skills as this will benefit their portfolio and skills bank and therefore improve their chances of being employed.

I was in the March 2023 cohort and just started my first tech job last week so it is possible, but you need to perservere and not give up!

Makers coaches are pretty good and the curriculum is good and with the good support that is provided during the course I am sure you will be able to achieve your dreams!

My experience at Makers was very positive. I chose them because they seemed like a supportive and inclusive place to learn and it definitely delivered on that. 
My cohort was between curriculum changes, so we learned Python and Javascript and only had the option to complete the software development track, and I believe was slightly shorter than the current iteration. During the course we worked on 3 group projects of varying complexity, using technologies such as Flask, Express and React.
Coach support was generally very good, although at times you would have to wait a while for your turn for support during coaching hours if they were helping someone else out for a long time. There were a couple of weeks where the coaches seemed a little disorganised and no one was sure who was supposed to be leading, but I believe this was due to sickness or absence of a few coaches at one time. In the end there was always someone on hand to introduce us to the next module and provide support during coaching hours. 
There were a few workshops on emotional intelligence and wellbeing that were a nice touch and they didn't take much time away from technical learning. There was also daily morning meditation and weekly yoga classes which I enjoyed.
Job support after the course was quite good, but limited by the market conditions. There is a partnerships team that makes relationships with companies to recruit directly from the pool of graduates, but there were very few opportunities in the 8 months that I was job hunting. Support in terms of interview preparation and CV advice was excellent though (thank you Sandy!).
Overall I would recommend the bootcamp, however I would warn that the market is really difficult at the moment and no matter what bootcamp you attend it will probably be difficult to find a job. It's taken me 8 months to get any offers and there are plenty of people who have been looking for longer and still haven't managed to secure any roles.

I attended Makers starting in September 2023 and started my first Software Engineer Role in May 2024. The experience at Makers was extremely valuable, mainly being exposed to a tailored curriculum of core concepts that any Software Engineer will need to understand. Having the support of coaches when necessary was extremely valuable to help build confidence in understanding of these concepts. I think it is great that the course now starts with Python as opposed to Ruby and that you can select a track to pursue your interest. I chose the Software Development track where I learned JS, React, Node and MongoDB. The group projects were really the main highlight as it's where you can feel your skills improving most and you make real progress in a very short time. I'd say the main difficulty for Makers and any bootcamp right now is the difficulty of the hiring market as ultimately you will be pitching yourself as an efficient learner with a good base to companies rather than a finished package, this can be a tricky sell but it's not impossible, as long as you work hard to remain productive after the course. My role will be using C# and .NET of which I have no experience (yet) so there are companies out there willing to take on those with great skills from their past career and a commitment to learning. I would recommend Makers, it's not easy, nor is getting a job afterwards but it is worth it and I'm very glad I made the choice to change career with Makers. 

I was able to really understand what I wanted to do with the tech industry by seeing how a domain could be constructed, accessed and consequentally be exploited by visitors!  I was put in a cohort with like minded people who wanted to change carreers as well as challenge themselves to do better and become something greater.  The teachers have a varied experience that they draw on to help the students effectively and the curriculum has helped in structuring this fast paced programme. Without Makers I wouldn't be where I am today!

I loved my bootcamp experience. I was pushed to work hard, but found the work engaging for the most part and loved the group dynamic. The pace of learning takes a big adjustment but once you get used to it, you find yourself surpassing what you thought you could do very quickly. 

You get out what you put in. Not everyone on the course is going to put the work in, which makes teamwork hard sometimes. But that's true of any course or job and you have to roll with it. As there's no formal assessment at Makers, it makes it easy for people to coast, and noone really checks up on how much work you've done or not done.

The real issues start after you leave Makers. The current job market is really tough, and Makers don't offer much support to help you. Out of my cohort of 18 people, I know that 3 of us are now employed in tech 6 months after finishing the course. A large part of that is the difficult market, but I do think another factor is the lack of support from Makers to help their graduates navigate the market. They don't really have many special opportunities (which used to be their big selling point), so you're left to your own devices. 

Overall it allowed me to career change which was the goal, and I enjoyed the course and the tutors were great, but I'm not sure I could recommend it without reservations.

The learning structure of the bootcamp was good, there wasn't a week when it felt wasted. The emphasis is definitely more so on producing projects and completing challenges rather than getting a thorough understanding of the topic, which is understandable given the time constraints. However, as topics got more challenging towards the latter end of the bootcamp, this lack of depth proved to be more detrimental. So see the learning as a foundation to give you the gist of what to learn in your own time during or after the bootcamp. 

I think the real value of Makers comes from the large alumni network you are able to tap into and take advantage of at any point of your career. Additionally, being able to learn, pair-program and do team projects with other fellow learners  is invaluable and is not easily replicated. Due to Makers reputation and selection process you are going to be in cohort with many amazing people that you will learn so much from and could help you down the line. There's also a big push on mental wellbeing and emotional intelligence, which is not necessary of a bootcamp, but just goes to show that Makers goes above and beyond for its students.

I found the course to be a great way to learn the foundations of Software Engineering. I think it's important to note that a lot of success depends on your own motivation and ability to seek help from peers/coaches if you need it, as a lot of the learning is hands off. Coaches are available to help with the course materials and run a few workshops/webinars. 

The structure for most of the course of 'solo work' in the mornings and then 'pairing' in the afternoons works well. You get assigned a pair that will either be behind you or ahead of you, and you work on the materials of whoever is behind. This way if you fall behind a bit, you can get guidance from someone that's further ahead of you, and if you steam ahead, you are somewhat forced to reinforce what you've already learned by helping others.

Careers support is pretty good, but again it's somewhat hands off. Lots of workshops to help with CV and cover letter writing, application tips, etc, and then ad hoc support when you need it. E.g. if you need a pep talk or technical advice before an interview you can schedule a call with a coach. Also students are allowed to book a (theoretically) unlimited number of 'code reviews' these are like mock technical interviews where you get really detailed feedback on your coding process and where you can make improvements, as well as a full recording of your review. These are done with an external partner so there's no bias. These are really useful so, if you do Makers, be sure to take advantage of these.

It's hard to give a fully thorough assessment of the careers support however, as the job market is really in a bad place right now, so the 'getting a job' bit is quite tough at the moment. The careers partnerships team seems, however, to have started bringing in a few nice hiring partners who agree to interview Makers grads, but for a while there was a real drought of any partnerships coming in so there's a bit of a backlog of job hunters in the alumni. General chatter is that the market is picking up again after the bloodbath of layoffs in the sector have started to stabilise, but it could still be a while.

Overall, I'm really glad I did Makers and I found a job 2 months after graduating, however some people have been less lucky and are still hunting quite a few months on. With that in mind just be aware of the fact that - given the current market - the job hunt requires a LOT of work to keep coding and keep your motivation up applying to jobs, and also requires a fair bit of luck too.. But if you have the logical mind for coding and the motivation to power through it I'm sure you'll be great.

Pros:

Learn javascript + ruby very well and indepth in 12 weeks
Learn frameworks and supporting technologies that are high in demand and relevant in todays workplace.
Fantastic support in learning via coaches and mentors. They will answer each and every question.
Experience working through projects in real-life, work applicable methodologies such as AGILE.
Be part of a cohort with like minded individuals who push each other to succeed.
Immense job support after the course through 1 to 1 tailored coaching, group sessions and interview advice.
Access to an exclusive network of Alumni Makers, many in senior and lead positions today.
A rubber duck as a souvenir.

Cons:

Will require effort. It's a full time endeavour, very intense and will require your full attention and effort.

Overall, I had a fantastic experience at Makers. Regardless of the extremely tough job market toward the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023, I managed to secure a very desirable entry level job with one of my favourite languages that I was taught at Makers. There are concepts that I had no idea existed in web development that were taught at Makers and my success singlehandedly goes out to them. If I could do it all again I would 100%.