Technigo

This bootcamp is great if you are curious about programming and want to deep dive into something new and exciting! 

It’s intense and a lot of work, but if you put your time into it you will get a lot back. The schedule is fast pace, you will learn something new everyday and have assignments daily. Everything that you will learn is very relevant, it’s techniques and languages that ”real” companies are actually using. You learn things that’s wanted when you later go out and search for jobs.

The teachers and guest lecturers have all been very dedicated and keen on sharing their knowledge. 

And on top of all this, it’s been a lot of fun!!

 

Last year this time my coding skills were near to zero and now I am starting a full time job as a developer. I am so happy I discovered Technigo and this course put me in a place I see myself building my professional career and just becoming better and better within web development!

To start off, I really liked the format of the course and the positive vibes built around it. I liked how 'colorful and smiley' it was, it was important to me to get to a school that is not too numb, boring, traditional and 'old-school' as it's not for me. At the same time I feel like I learnt a looooot of serious and practical stuff with Technigo. 

Some things I liked:
- course is clearly divided into weeks and sprints. Each week you work on one project which you can put to your portfolio. Each project focuses on one particular tech stuff but you're free to modify it as you wish. You have access to coaches via slack/stack overflow from Monday to Friday. 
- professional set up. Access to the study platforms, useful links, being part of the community and having access to Slack.
- Technigo organises so many cool events for networking and just for having fun (last year they hosted Figma Config Stockholm party)
- Also, for students in Sweden, Technigo organises coffee meetings at different companies for networking. I think some of these events were online, so people from other locations could also join. That was really amazing to visit offices and talk with the members of the tech teams. 
- Technigo offers a great Coaching Programme where we learn about LinkedIn, presentation techniques and how to get into the industry! 
- Being in a small group with other classmates, working closely with them and independently. Having the classmates to support each other and of course to complain a little bit ;) 

My study time at Technigo was from January to June 2023. In November 2023 I got an internship as a developer and now in January 2024 I got a full time job (different place than my internship) [so probably would have got it even without doing the internship].

As I was working full time (office job) during my bootcamp, it was quite challenging to be a perfect student. However, I decided that "it's better to be the worst one among the best ones, instead of not knowing anything". I felt like I needed to go back to the most of things after the Bootcamp. Which I did, and I now I feel confident about my skills within these topics. I also believe that topics that Technigo's bootcamp covers are definitely enough to get a job as a developer. 

Just everyone applying should remember that even the best school will not guarantee you become a good coder. You have to code a lot on your own to achieve great results. But Technigo was a great way to start coding, get routines and learn about tools, and to get excited about coding. I think it was definitely worth the money, the time and even some stress I encountered during that time. 

If I met myself in November 2022 (when I came across the bootcamp first) I would enrol myself again and maaaaybe just asked at my work place about possibility to work 85% instead of 100% ;) as that was really hardcore to work 40h and and then study 25h a week. 

Jumping into this bootcamp was like diving headfirst into a whirlwind of challenges, definitely not your typical stroll in the park. If you're the type who prefers the comfort of a silver-platter learning experience, this might not be your cup of tea. It's a journey that demands everything you've got—your blood, your sweat, and yeah, a few tears. But it's also so much fun and so much love. It's all the emotions at the same time. You will feel like you don't understand anything and the next day you will feel like you rule the world. It's like the coaches say: "You have to trust the process". This is not an easy ride, but if you're in for it and will give it your all it's going to be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life.

One of the most striking aspects is the teamwork. You're thrown into squads of roughly 10 people, mirroring a real tech team. Daily stand-ups, weekly retrospectives, demos, team tasks, paired programming, and those small group projects - it's like a crash course in real-world tech dynamics. But it's not just about coding; it's about leaning on your team when you're lost and celebrating together when you conquer a challenge. Vulnerability isn't just okay; it's a necessity. Sharing your highs and lows with your team is how you grow together. It's like having a bunch of teammates who become your safety net, always there to catch you when you stumble.
If you're looking to change careers, I would recommend joining the Career Coaching Program. Stepping out of my cozy comfort zone was nerve-wracking, but it pushed me to put myself out there. Scary? Absolutely. Worth it? Without a doubt.

This bootcamp wasn't just about learning to code; it was a crash course in discovering what you're made of. It showed me that if you're ready to roll up your sleeves and put in the work, there's no limit to what you can achieve. Yeah, it's tough, but for those willing to dive in headfirst, it's hands down one of the most rewarding experiences life has to offer.

I have just graduated the front end developer bootcamp with Technigo. The course includes html, css, javascript, react and some backend that will make you confident to search for junior front end developer jobs. I did the course together with my current employer to develop my work as an product developer. The course is intensive and really tough (I had never done development before) but with great videos and weekly mob programming I did it! Its part time (I worked during the course) but really fun and you hand in projects every week, both individual, pair and groups. I have learn so much and have now a great portfolio to keep develop. Im very happy I took the course and will recommend to all persons who want to develop their skills or change career. I graduated January 2023.

Before you read this review, please take into account that this is probably will apply to you too only if you are 100% the same kind of person as I am. I want to give you a brief description about me so you can decide for yourself if you should take my review into consideration before you apply to Technigo.
I....
- am not a Swedish and speak only English for the entire course
- knew only basic (very very basic) HTML and CSS before I joined Technigo, so basically the experience was almost non existence
- have anxiety & focus issue
- get overwhelmed pretty easily
- have a child
- had finance support from my partner so that I could just study and paused my work for about 6 months

For me, I would say my experience with this course was like an extreme roller coaster. There were times when I thought I finally managed but then the next time I felt completely lost (but apparently that's what almost all developers feel like all the time).
Here are some points I would say about this bootcamp;

- Every week, students got a new project and we were given reading materials and some videos to watch. The videos were very well made but unfortunately I think there weren't enough videos. Often I wish there were more recorded videos to start with because there were only 2 live sessions in 1 week. I personally think recorded videos were easier to understand because they were scripted, planned, and made so that it is easy to understand. Of course live sessions are very useful as well but I found it hard to focus in every session. My solution was to Google a lot of my problems, asked teammates, and looked at previous students repo to get some inspiration.

- I often felt confused and got overwhelmed by how much new information I got in one week. I didn't have the chance to take my time to understand more about the previous material because I had to go another subject the next week. However, that is what bootcamp is about. Fast learning. In one way, it's also good because I got to "sell" myself to employers with that ability to learn fast. Usually employers are very impressed at how much I've learnt in 6 months. So, this fast pace learning is a two ways swords for me. I was burning out ALL THE TIME, but looking at how I am now, I am glad I went through all those pain.

- The curriculum was pretty spot on with the demand of the market these days. Of course, there are many tech stacks that you might want to try but I think Technigo has chosen the ones that are the most popular. Maybe the next batch should get TypeScript intro as well (?)

- One of the best thing about joining this bootcamp for me is my teammates. I got 9 new amazing friends and they are all talented programmers now. Sometimes I felt like I didn't get much support from the teachers but my teammates were always there for me. So I can guarantee that you wouldn't feel alone in this journey.

- I studied fulltime (8-15) but often I knew it wasn't enough since it took time for me to understand many things. I found myself still studying in the evening after my child sleeps. Might not be the best way to learn but I guess I was too stressful and wanted to make it work. So, if you have stressful fulltime job, you might want to plan more. There are mandatory sessions where you have to be present for team sessions. In my case, it was every Monday and Tuesday. The live session with teacher isn't mandatory but I got to see recordings. One of my teammates have a fulltime job, so she mostly did her project in the evening. If you have the super ability like her, then go for it. But if you're like me, then you wouldn't make it with a fulltime job (that's why I took a break from work).

- If you have child(ren) and partner, you need to communicate with them about this bootcamp and how intense it could be. My partner knew how tired I was. I got overwhelmed almost all the time, I worried about the future and often I needed to be alone to function. I felt distance from my family during this study because of my stress. My partner helped a lot and took my role on the days I felt too much and couldn't function. So, definitely talk to your family and ask for help when you need it.

- Finding a job in tech is not easy but not impossible. I applied to 100+ jobs, got 1 interview and ghosted by 2 companies. I booked a 1on1 with career coach and she helped me to feel like maybe I could make it. As Technigo doesn't guarantee you will land a job, so this whole switch career business is your own responsibility with assistance from career coach. Assistance here is more like how you tailor your cv, your cover letter, LinkedIn, tips and tricks of how to switch career and of course the 1on1 session. It's useful if you already have connections in tech world but if you're like me who is an english speaking immigrant with zero connections, you might have to work a little harder on your job search. You got to standout among those who have 2-5 years experience.

OVERALL, I think this bootcamp helped me to kickstart my career in tech and got to know what I'm getting into, hence the 4 stars. There are things that they could improve (just like any other schools) but you got a chance to give them feedback as well and they will get back to you regarding anything you want to talk about, be it complains, compliments, or questions. I appreciated my time here because I got to know wonderful people. As I said before, this review might not applied to everyone who attended the bootcamp, but if you're like me or closer to how my situation is then you can take this review into consideration. I graduated recently and I got a job 2 weeks after I graduated. Last but not least, it is all up to you how you move forward with this. In the end, you have to work hard yourself and Technigo is a good tool to boost your progress. 

It has been six intense months where I’ve had no life except coding and my half-time work, but I’m amazed at how much I’ve learned! I knew nothing of coding beforehand and now I truly feel ready for a front end job. It feels like I’ve got a solid foundation in both front end and backend dev work.
If I could do it all again I definitely would, but I would have liked to be more prepared on how intense it would be. Maybe not work 50% just so I could have time for basic ground control like food, washing clothes, do the dishes or meet some friends.

I did the frontend bootcamp starting in January 2022, I did not complete but stoped taking the course after 8 weeks as I felt coding wasn't for me. I'm writing this review as it's hard to get accurate info what you can expect from the bootcamp. Take this into account that I have the perspective of someone who only did 8 out of 24 weeks and 95% of students who finish the course have jobs and seems pleased with the course as the demand for developers are higher than the supply.

The course runs at 50% pace, you have three teaching sessions per week and two where you study in your group.
It's a generally a good program, the topics are relevant and you have a weekly project where you practice the things you learn.

Pros:
If you finish you'll get a job that has better salaries and benefits than most industries and you get there in only 6 months.
It's highly compressed and you get a snippet of the most relevant tools needed for a frontend developer.
You'll get a good network of developers and a portfolio which you can show future employers.

Cons:
The problem with frontend bootcamps is that you need to compress what other courses teach you in two years into 24 weeks at 50% pace. I had almost no prior experience of coding, in my group only 2 out of 8 had coded before. I would suggest you get as much coding experience as possible as the pace in the course is brutal. You will not be able to only put in 20 hours per week. All in my group put in 30+ hours at least. 
 
My biggest criticism is that you don't get enough teaching on the basics and still is expected to complete fairly complicated coding projects each week. The explanation is that the program tries to improve your ability to solve problems simulating a regular day of a developer. In my group we were all struggling with javascript and we didn't have enough knowledge to complete the projects by ourselves but had to solve it by looking at previous students work and reverse-engineer it.  As I didn't finish the program I can't say if the strategy of not giving enough teaching on these complex topics to improve the students problem-solving ability is the right way? Maybe it's the only way as the program is so compressed? To me it just seems counter-intuitive. How can you solve complex problems if you don't know the basics. On week 7 we were taught things that we would have needed to understand what we were doing on week 4, I can't understand the rational. If Technigo doesn't want to give more live sessions, why not have more pre-recorded material which the students can watch instead of filtering through 1000 clips on youtube. Everyone was struggling and when asking teachers for assistans you were forwarded to stack-overflow or tried to find the info online. After putting in several hours to solve something without success it doesn't feel like you're improving your problem-solving skills but only wasting time. If this is expected it needs to be communicated to the students. 

This course is a really good and relevant one. Every day is full of information and hands on training. I could not do any programming before I started and now I have a job where I program! Its great teachers, the structure is very relevant, we got to work with interesting companies and we all had so much fun together.

 

I recommend this course to anyone who would like to learn programming, its an inspiring way to get to know this world and perfect for everybody who wants to learn about programming. Every day there are new things to learn and you are surrounded by people who jst want to teach you as all they know.

I've graduated from the UI upskill 8 week course and it was such an awesome experience!
UI design is a craft and the fact that this course is very hands-on makes it super motivating and rewarding to see designs come to life in such a short period of time, even though it was very hands-on it also had a reasonable amount of theory that accompanied the practical side. Every lecture had a theoretical part and then a workshop part where I could apply the theoretical principles that I just learned with the support of an UI coach in real-time, which makes the learning process (especially with tools like Figma) super smooth! 

Each week I learned certain skills and had different assignments that in the end built up to a full prototype of a landing page, this structure mirrored how a UI design would be developed in a real world project (i.e. make a style guide, lo-fi and hi-fi wireframing, design system, all with accessibility and other aspects in mind) which is super valuable to get an idea how the flow would be on a real project. 
I would totally recommend this course at Technigo to anyone wanting to learn more or add UI design to their skillset 

Be prepared for an intense and extremely rewarding experience!
I would like to point out that this is based on my own experience, and in hindsight, I wish I had given myself more time to fully immerse myself  in all the knowledge available at Technigo.

I decided in advance that I could manage this while working full-time at my previous job, and I could. HOWEVER, it was very intense, and I faced many unnecessary struggles related to stress and time management. I did survive knowing it was only six months of my time, and I was doing this for myself. Knowing this, I do not recommend doing this bootcamp with the intention of only putting in 50%.

Because… You get what you give, and the more time you  invest, the more you will learn. The more effort you put into it and the more determination you have, the more knowledge you will gain from this experience. It should be clear that you are responsible for managing your own time (it’s a school for adults), and learning. You do have access to code coaches, previous students, the internet(you will learn what to search for), and that together with the curriculum, opens up  infinite possibilities for expanding your knowledge.  It all depends on the time you are willing to dedicate to it. 

With that said, invest in yourself by allowing the luxury of time if you decide  to pursue this, and you will have an epic experience!

I gained not only the knowledge to become a frontend (or full-stack if I wanted to) developer, but also a totally new community and great friends. Having each other's backs and empowering each other, sharing insights, both ups and downs and always finding a way forward, together. 
I strongly recommend this if you’re anything like me, looking to change your career for the better and are determined to work hard.