SPICED Academy

TLDR: good instructors and curriculum, diverse and cool peers, space is changing but was bursting at the seams before, school is grabbing any and all students it can get and must stay vigilant to protect brand/reputation, job assistance needed improvement but is also being worked on

As a previous reader of these reviews, I think there are a handful of things to consider when evaluating a coding bootcamp:

1. Is the curriculum and instruction intense enough if completed to get you a job? 

2. Are your peers going to contribute or detract from the experience? 

3. Is the school and space going to be conducive to excellence? 

4. Are you committed enough and interested enough in coding to commit above and beyond the school's offering?

5. (for Americans) Is the program good value for the money?

6. Are you supported in the job search?

I will answer those questions in order:

1. Is the curriculum and instruction intense enough if completed to get you a job? 

I will start with the positives: David is a very experienced instructor in coding and even some of the frameworks/materials are slightly dated versus what I have seen since starting as a developer, I am almost certain it is impossible to stay 100% current at the pace things change. The materials and information are highly focused and I think you are taken on a deep dive through older frameworks jQuery that then gives some insight into the current state of affairs. I might shift more of the curriculum towards the frameworks, structuring of applications and software development best practices around Github/workflow, but there is no way for a 12 week curriculum to do anything but give you a taste of most things and not exposure.

Classroom flow was very positive and asking questions there was the move. Read all lectures in advance of the courses and pose your questions then. I found the ability to get questions answered was more limited once you actually were working through problems and projects. There were simply a lot of students and fewer instructors than needed.

In regards to the negatives, outside of the first week of courses, you will not receive a code review. There simply were not enough instructors to provide this meaningfully. I did not expect a review a week, but I think 2-3 thorough code reviews to identify poor patterns, structuring etc. would have been helpful. I have no sense of whether this is offered anywhere else, but I imagine it is.

Bottom line: I do believe the school gives you enough to get you a job if you are commited. Due to various concerns and differing backgrounds, several peers took much longer to find jobs, but those who actively applied and hustled found jobs eventually (emphasis on hustle). There is plenty of demand. I'd recommend aspiring beyond just getting a job, and instead getting a great, high potential and supportive job, but there is also only so much that you can do if you are coming in from a non-traditional background.

1. Are your peers going to contribute or detract from the experience? 

For context, after quitting a decent paying job in the USA, I left everything behind to give my entire life and focus for 6 months to become as strong a coder as possible in Berlin. I am not sure this is a realistic commitment for many and that is ok. The school has a broader mission than just people like me and that is part of its appeal. However, since the school's affiliation with the German Job Agency, many students are entering on free training programs to Spiced. This has dramatically increased the number of students and exposed the limitations of the school's structure and staffing. 

Everyone is super chill, we get along very well, and the group chat has stayed active months after graduation. I can't really give a clear assessment what the impact of the massive expansion of students is on student quality beyond anecdotes. I was extremely committed and motivated to get a job right away due to my personal financial commitment. I found surprisingly that almost no peers stayed and leveraged the space provided for the 6 weeks of job search after graduation. Paying my own money made the urgency of finding a role very high, and I was not sure that was the case for all students. However, those who persevered found opportunities and the market is still favorable enough although increasingly saturated. 

Concerning students, my main concern is that Spiced must stay vigilant to protect its brand and quality of incoming students lest the coding landscape become saturated like the United States (numerous bootcamps have gone bankrupt and job placement has plummeted). Bootcamps risk becoming a dismissed and commodity credential with Spiced simply being another certificate mill unless there is action taken now to continue maintaining the reputation and brand.

3) Is the school and space going to be conducive to excellence? 

The space was just a big open office, but I found it to be pretty calm and was able to take a quiet room for my coding when needed. The classrooms and monitors were great and I loved the lectures. The room was essentially overrun with students and there wasn't enough space if everyone had stuck around. They have moved spaces now so I am not sure this feedback is relevant. However, I would note that the space to keep searching and preparing for a job was completely inadequate and not taken advantage of for that reason. I had nowhere else I could go to for free with WiFi, but this certainly weighed on post-grad outcomes. Again, everything I am saying may now be irrelevant with the space change. The plus side is there was a coffee machine and kitchen. I had no complaints about living there and even sleeping there on one fateful night for 12 weeks, 7 days a week. Others might disagree.

4) Are you committed enough and interested enough in coding to commit above and beyond the school's offering?

Many are not aware of the annoyance and detail oriented nature of coding before attending the school. This is simply laziness. Thousands of coding resources exist online and can be completed. Complete FreeCodeCamp, Udemy courses (focus on highly rated offerings from: Colt Steele, Max Schwarzmuller, Stephen Grider, Andrew Mead, Angela Yu), Code Academy... The pre-work the school provides is the bare minimum. If you are goign to commit months and years of your life to this, do your homework. This is not rocket science, but it requires persistence. I was shocked at for how many peopel the course was the first time opening an IDE. Frankly, without a real sense that coding is fun and something you are passionate about improving in, I would recommend delaying your enrollment in the school.

This bootcamp, and for that matter any bootcamp, will not make you a developer. Without months of silent commitment to improving yourself and a tolerance for being puzzled and discouraged for hours, you will fail at becoming a developer or maybe you're clever but still you will you achieve far less than your potential. I don't think these abilities are genetic by any means, but I also don't think you get all the answers in 12 weeks, so prepare like a madman in Javascript, and the school should just help with the details and frameworks. The team are not miracle workers, and if you do not have work ethic they can't solve things for you.

5) (for Americans mainly) Is the program good value for the money?

This is a special comment for Americans, but I think this school remains fantastic value for the money as it costs 50% of a comparable American bootcamp. Admissions standards are going to absolutely be lower than most comparable bootcamps in the United States and you can see that up front in what is covered in the curriculum. I would recommend you stack the curriculum at a few open-sourced bootcamps against Spiced and you will see there is about a 3-4 weeks of preliminary material that is done as pre-work for other bootcamps. Just raise your level, prepare aggressively, and you'll be fine.

6) Are you supported in the job search?

I had fantastic relationships with the career support person (previous employee), but she wore many hats including admissions etc. The secret of getting a job is networking and strategically continuing your learning, and I freely offer my insight into what that entails to anyone who asks. I mostly achieved these tasks myself and there were some helpful sessions peppered throughout, but they assume you are starting as a relative neophyte.

No career center can help you with all the prep/hustling this process entails but they can tell you where to apply your energies if you lack savvy. I expected a bit more structure in the prep offerings and interview support, but again, this takes personnel and money. There is a bit of a staff shortage, but I think that the new expanded support team will only improve in this area and based on my conversations, I see reason for optimism.

 

I'm super happy I attended the boot camp at Spiced!
All of the staff is super helpful and has such a positive energy. 

I started with basic knowledge of HTML and CSS and learned a lot about web development and feel definitely job-ready.

Things which can be improved:
Since it is a very personal experience and it very much depends on everyone's self, I still think that the BootCamp can be a bit more intense. Sometimes there was a bit too much free time between the classes. This time could have been used to dive into details or to teach additional technologies.

But nonetheless, I would definitely come for another BootCamp to Spiced as every Teacher is such a cool person!

I participated in this Bootcamp during the summer '22 and I cannot be happier with the experience. Nine intense weeks fully immersed in the learning process have equipped me with the tools I need to start my career as Data Analyst: Python, SQL and Tableau, plus career coaching that increases the chances to find a job after the Bootcamp. 

My recommendation for anyone interested in this Bootcamp is to have some basic knowledge of Python. Although the course takes you from the very basics, having some idea of every topic will speed up the process. 

Skillful and kind instructors, nice location, and quality content make this one of the best learning experiences of my career.  

I have a natural science background and decided to switch careers to the field of Data Science and Data Analytics. My motivation to take the SPICED Data Science Bootcamp was to brush up my Python programming skills and to learn the current data science methods in hands on projects. I had already some self taught experience in python, but was not confident enough in my programming skills to use them in my projects. The bootcamp changed that!
Each week brought a new project with increased difficulty level that often seemed impossible to achieve at first, but with ceaseless help of the teachers and full time commitment every hurdle could be taken. The curriculum included a variety of data science methods and the mathematical theory to go with it. Because of the big number of topics, it was often not possible to explore everything in depth. However students were encouraged to focus on specific fields they were interested in and neglect others. Also, by design, every challenge was a team effort. There was no toxic behaviour and cooperation was always encouraged by the SPICED team. The teachers often went out of the way to help with bug-fixing or explanations of complex topics.
In the end, the bootcamp gave me exactly what I hoped to get. It gave me the confidence to apply for Data Science positions as a career changer and allowed me to enter the thrilling and wide field of data science. I had a great time!

I completed the Data science boot camp with Spiced academy 2021 April - Jul and I can honestly say it was exciting, tough and it will push your limits and test you. 
All the teachers and staff were helpful and went above and beyond to provide a quality instruction environment and they also provided HR support and pointers on how to improve your Github, CV, and LinkedIn profiles to help improve their graduate's chances at the Job market. 
On a personal note, I wish I had practiced more exercises with solutions on the topics of Pandas and Python as this would really really help during the course also get second computer monitor.
I wish future students good luck on their journey to becoming Data Scientists and Developers.

Kind Regards

During lockdown I completed the Data Science Boot Camp to 100% remote. Which was a quiet tough challenge for me as newby in coding, guess a little more tough as to do the class room course. Due to 100% remote class room I was missing a little the interaction between or after the class room sessions between us students. Anyway it was a great experience which I didn't wanna miss, especially with our very knowledgeable teachers which gave us a great support! As well the Spiced team around us gave a great support and take care that everything is running smooth, thanks!
At the end I could only recommend this course to every data friend to get a good insight about what is possible in the world of Data Science. Even, as in my case, that you not go ahead as Data Scientist or Analyst, you can participate from the Boot Camp in every data related position. 

Spiced successfully kickstarted my career in tech. That's it. What else can I say.
I also learned a lot about problem solving in general.
The teachers were very approachable, the curriculum was very well prepared and thought out imo, and I had a great connection with other students.
It can be a little overwhelming if you haven't coded before, so I'd definitely recommend preparing as much as possible. The more you prepare the easier of a time you'll have, plus you get to ask much more in depth question and understand the topics on a much deeper level if you have your basics covered already.

I  graduated from the full stack web developer course in June 2021. Following graduation, I received one-to-one career coaching to enable me to successfully gain employment within software development.

The course structure and delivery is well planned and industry applicable. The Spiced team are attentive, knowledgeable and always willing to support. 

I remain in touch with a lot of the Spiced team and I would definitely recommend a bootcamp and Spiced for anyone looking to become a software developer.