The Firehose Project

Signing up with Firehose Project program was the best decision I could have ever made regarding a step into a new career. Why The Firehose Project?

• A structured online platform. Website is clear and easy to follow. 
• Dive in method. Didn't spend a whole two weeks on explaining syntax, arrays, Boolean. Instead jumped right in and started coding with explanations along the way. 
• Mentor. Held my hand when needed and also pushed me forward with challenges. The mentor part of program was priceless. I'm a shy person but I really bonded with Mike. Meetings with mentor via videochat are weekly for an hour along with email communication in between whenever needed.
• Office Hours. Weekly the two owners have a video chat with students and help by explaining concepts in further detail.  Its was also a chance for a quiet student, as me, to hear other students struggle (like myself) and listen to them provide assistance, explanations and pointing us to other resources. Such a hands on approach by the owners demonstrates that you acquiring the knowledge and skills is important to them.
• Team Project. Wow I learned a lot about how to really use github and interact with others on a project. 
• Affordability compared to other online bootcamp schools, The Firehose Project was very affordable AND the mentor sessions alone were priceless !

I have a degree in biomedical engineering and as such have had some programing experience in c, c++ and MATLAB.  

This program is filling in some much needed gaps in my computer programing knowledge.  The code critiques/mentor sessions are invaluable and offer something that I didn't get in my coding classes at the University which were only concerned with the end result of the programs and offered no feedback on how to improve my code.

The weekly office hours are also very beneficial even if you don’t have a question yourself. Ken and Marco are extremely knowledgeable and I often gain additional insight into topics I am already comfortable with or get answers to questions I didn’t know I had until they were asked by someone else.

Overall I am very satisfied with my experience.

While on Facebook one day I stumbled across a Fire Hose Project ad that I could not resist clicking on and checking out to see what all the hype was about. With previous knowledge and attempts at jumping into the software development world using other online tactics, I had a notion that this Ad would seemingly be taking me through a similar route. Boy was I wrong! The Fire Hose Project is a very unique and advantageous website for teaching yourself about coding online and being introduced to the software engineering world. They are the very best website for all beginner and novice computer programmers. There is just not another website that compares to the practicality that they are offering. I can literally see my future outcome, goal, and career from the beginning of The Fire Hose Project and its sources. The creators behind this website are absolutely Genius! Since joining Ben and The Fire Hose Project team only 1 day ago, I have already created my first mock website portfolio! This will be the beginning of my software development career without a doubt! http://joshuasilva.getforge.io/

I first learnt of The Firehose Project when I joined a course provided by Refugees on Rails Munich in April 2016. In the space of 5 months I covered basics on Ruby, HTML,CSS and a bit of Javascript. I also used there material for getting "Job ready". During this time I was a delivery driver for a food delivery service company. Using what I learn't from The Firehose Project and the mentors at Refugees on Rails, I was able to get an internship that later turned into a full time position at CLIQZ, a Munich based startup.

The way concepts are introduced and explained on the site made it very easy to learn general programming concepts that could be used to learn other programming languages.

The mentors always provided support when it was required and also left room for me to discover and learn on my own. This has helped me to always push myself to grow but also realize that I need help from others.

I didnt know what the "coding" link was on facebook but clicked any to do some exploring, and after following incredibly simple steps I found that I was half way through desiging an online portfolio.

I didnt relise how simple it could be and how much I actually enjoyed this which has created a new interest and new possabilities for me. Unfortunatly it is a hobby for me and I cannot afford to join the Firehose Project however I would highly recomend anyone who is looking to do a career in this field to join these guys.

The online support in incredible and not over bearing where they are annoying you. They are just there, friendly and ready to help.

10/10

I have been organizer and volunteer for the Refugees On Rails project in Munich, a coding school for refugees. Thanks to a partnership we have used solely the content in the Firehose project to teach our students Ruby and Ruby On Rails. We have been impressed by the quality of the different tracks and lessons and it has given us a lot of ideas to suggest extra exercises to our students. Moreover, we have been able to set a structured course to teach software development and provide the students with the right content at each step of the learning path. 

I would strongly suggest the Firehose project to anybody willing to start the Web Development career path :) 

I attended The Firehose Project from September 2016 up and until February 2017. I actually had to cut the course short because I got a job offer at a financial technology start-up almost two months before the course finished. 

The training was great, and the reason I know that is because I was able to handle the programming challenge I was given by my eventual employer without too much difficulty. I had to create a small application in about three days, and TFHP was able to training me well enough that I could do it. I'm thrilled with the results.

As far as any downsides, I don't see any obvious ones. TFHP may be one of the few bootcamps that actually has an advanced track (Angular, React, SQL, APIs, to name a few) that helps you continue learning on your own. 

I highly recommend the Firehose Project.

I just recently finished the 2 week prep course at Firehose having already taken some Ruby courses on Treehouse. I really appreciated that there was feedback on some of the coding excercises.  I am only a day into the actual bootcamp at this point but I already feel like I am learning more than if I had been left to my own devices.  There are alot of people out there that will say why pay for a bootcamp when there are so many free resources out there.  Granted there are probably some that could effectively learn that way, I feel like alot of bad habits could be developed learning to code without regular feedback.  I am excited for this journey and I will write another review after I have completed the bootcamp.

I have just spent two months comparing all available online bootcamps. In the end I selected two that involved a deeper approach that would include more computer science than traditional bootcamps. My preferences went to The Firehose Project but  I was still hesitating a bit until I followed their free prep course, which convinced me to go for the full program.  Everything is lively, well organized and presented, the challenges are interesting and rewarding, and the comunity forums active. I highly recommand it as a great introduction to html/css and Ruby.

I am almost half way through The Firehose Project Bootcamp Prep Course. I just recently created and uploaded my first website to the Internet and it was a lot of fun doing it. There were a couple of times I became frustrated and stressed when I could not figure something out, but before reaching out for help I used troubleshooting skills I have developed over the years and either found a workaround or finally figured it out. I am more than willing to reach out for help when I am stuck, but I find that I learn a lot more when I try and find a solution by myself. Ken, Marco, Brita, and a couple of software engineers that work with Firehose have been a great support to me during the prep course thus far. It is nice having industry professionals evaluate my code and website (gregcorrigan.getforge.io) and their feedback is very helpful. I am hoping to be accepted in the full course in the next month or so and am looking forward to a change in careers.

      I've started my course in June this year, so somewhere in a middle of the programm now. It's amazingly well structured. From the very first lesson you deploy your web apps and make them not only functional but a good looking also. This is great. You can tell that curriculum is a very well thought and the Firehose Team are very responsive and attentive. When I got stuck with something and posted a question Ken Mazaika responded literraly in the next couple of minutes. Deffinetely recomend! 

 

I had reached a turning point in my previous career when I came across a lifehacker article on boot camps. I found the concept appealing, and in-person bootcamps like Hack Reactor sounded awesome. However, the logistics (ie moving there for the duration of the program) and cost put that kind of program out of my reach.

While researching alternatives, I came across The Firehose Project. I exchanged quite a few emails with them and eventually gave their 2 Week intro a shot. This was free of charge. This went well and after only a little hesitation I started the full-time program. The program consists of 3-4 Full-Stack web apps, separate coding challenges throughout, plus a group project at the end. You can look up the program details elsewhere, so I won’t repeat them here.

A big positive is that that the team is always working on the program. Some are minor tweeks, other a big section additions or overhauls. They don’t just sit on something that works, they are constantly working to make it better.

It is an online bootcamp, but I still felt well connected. Every time a had a concern and emailed Ken or Marco, I received a reply very quickly. The online office hours were always worth my time, even if I didn’t have a question.

In regards to mentorship: I’m not going out on a limb when I say that all the mentors really know there stuff. Once a week, you will get 1 hour of quality time to pair program or talk about code with a very competent developer. How much they care about you beyond that will vary.

You will have a seperate mentor who will act as the project manager for your group project. For me, the group project was mostly positive, although the end of the project was during the December holidays which made completing the project difficult. You do have the alternative of doing your own project as an alternative to the group project. Talk to the staff to figure out what’s right for you.

Today, I’m working as a developer and Firehose played a major role in that. But don’t think that paying for a bootcamp and just going through the motions will get you a job. Personal initiative and continous learning is critical.

In closing, if an in-person bootcamp is feasible for you, give it serious consideration. But even if it is, take a look at Firehose. Above all, do your research and ask a lot of questions.

 

I knew nothing about coding when I started with Firehose-- literally nothing. I didn't know what a terminal was. Two days later, I've built my own page from scratch, written lines of basic code, and have rudimentary grasp on web development. The start-up courses are easy to understand, and the videos make it very simple to follow along. I would highly recommend this course to anyone looking to crack into the world of web development and coding.

I am on my sixth week at the Firehose Project, and so far I am really enjoying it. I had spent a few weeks researching bootcamps, including here on CourseReport. I wanted online and part-time.

There were two main reasons I was sold on Firehose:

1. The free two-week bootcamp prep course. I got sucked into it because the curriculum is so well-written. I figured they must be confident in the quality of their curriculum to offer this wonderful prep course for free, and that really impressed me. 
2. The agile team project. This showed me that they really value teaching how to work as a developer beyond just the coding itself. (This is also true as they get you into reading and writing blogs.)

My one concern before starting was that one mentor session per week wouldn't be enough. Now that I'm in the bootcamp, I have personally found that one per week is just right for me. I don't know that everyone will feel the same way -- I think this really depends on each person's learning style, so it's important to really know yours when making this decision.

There's a lot of material to conquer. I spend 25+ hours per week (on the accelerated track). But finishing a project or a challenge is so satisfying, and after almost six full weeks, I already feel confident that I can create basic web applications. Also, the community is active and friendly. There's plenty of support and general discussion in the forums, office hours, Slack, and Google+.

I haven't started the job assistance stuff yet, so I can't comment on that. But so far, I am very happy with Firehose.

There are a lot of bootcamps out there, but not a lot of good ones that are fully online. I joined the FirehoseProject last year and it was a life changing experience. Prior to joining the bootcamp, I had experience with HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I joined because I needed to move beyond the basics. Firehose will help you review those 3 skills but will teach you a lot more. Algorithms and Ruby on Rails. 

The best part of the bootcamp is that they teach you both of these two skills. Not just a website but a web applicaiton, and critical thinking. My goal to land a position and after hard work I finally did. I honestly give credit to Firehose and the push that this community gave to me.

I started The Firehose Project in Feb. 2017 with the intention to change careers and develop my existing programming skills to a professional level. Before I joined the programm, I did a lot of research on what would be the best coding bootcamp for me, and I was straight away overwhelmed with the options that I had. So after spending a good 2 weeks going through reviews, blog posts and even starting some of the free coding camps out there, I decided to go all in. I quite my job as an Engineer and started the Firehose Project.

It soon turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made in my professional career so far.

The reason for choosing the Firehose Project were mostly related to their preperation course and a personal interview before the actual course started. I could ask all the questions I had to a 'real person' (not only watching a recorded Youtube video as with some other boot camps out there) and got a good idea of what the real course would look like by going through the preparation. In addition to that, The Firehose Project's curriculum included not only lessons about Ruby, jQuery, CSS/HTML etc. but also hours and hours on algorithms andTest Driven Development (TDD). 

I am now in the last 2 weeks of the course and currently involved in a remote agile team project. After endless hours of coding, mentorship and reminders from my wife to eat, shower and sleep, I can now say: Through The Firehose Project, my passion for coding transformed from an initial spark into a wild fire. Looking back, I never would have thought that I learn as much as I did within just a couple of month. Thanks to the two founders Ken and Marco who are constantly helping their students (via weekly office hours, slack chat as well as via email and as mentors), I am now confident not only to enter the real life coding world (and they even prepare you for that with a big job preperation at the end of the course) but have also already started to help out other coding students.

If you asked me if I chose them again , I'd say: without hesitation!

I have been only using Firehose for a little over a week. I have tried other bootcamps and the thing that sets this apart is the communication and philosophy the Firehose staff use to keep future programmers engaged and also supported when hitting the wall...and sooner or later you hit the wall when learning to program. The fact that I was often supported as well as given positive reinforcement was great and made bette rby the fact that if I had a question it was almost answered before I asked it. I think there are many good and some great coding schools out there but the ones that communicate actively as well as push in the positive way and direction are the ones that shine. So far my experience with Firehose has been extremely positive and it keeps me working through the prep work feeling that if I go furthur I will be well supported in leaning all I need to learn...and some things they will make me awrae I need to learn. 

 

 

 

 

I'm having an awesome experience with Firehose Project, as in the beginning it felt like a new journey in the coding world is about to start. I've learn a bit of coding from some other free sources but none were like this. It's great how Ken explains everything and makes it easy to understand. Too bad that my Firehose journey ends with the preparation course, as I don't have enough money for the full program. Anyway, Firehose it's great and I'm very happy that I found it! 

 

Before joining the boot camp prep program at Firehose I already had some programming background, nothing serious but still. I also studied HTLM back in school quite a long time ago. So far I have only completed the HTML part and am just diving into Ruby which I'm really looking forward to.

What I must say is that in these 2 hours of watching HTML tutorials I've probably learned more than in 20-25h at school. It's qiute a simple task if you know basics of programing and might be a bit challenging if you don't. But it is definitely enjoyable and I absolutely love the format and pace of the videos. Barely any theory, straight to practice.

I must add that I have participated in several other online coding courses related to Java, C, Python and whatnot. And trust me this is the only one that got me on hook. For the first time I don't want to dump the course after a couple of lessons.

Definitely would do it again.

P.S. I recieved feedback to my code sumbissions within couple of minutes and it wasn't some automated copy-paste e-mail. So good work on that Firehose, makes me feel more like in class.

I really appreciate my experience from the Firehose Project (FHP). I have no background with computers or computer science, so joining this bootcamp was my first experience with all these things. The staff is always good at responding to questions. Within the curriculum, there are always ways of getting help, so anyone new should never be afraid to ask for help. Having weekly mentor sessions is part of what makes this program really awesome. I had a mentor who loved mentoring and would be happy to go over the one hour allotment. The group project at the end is a great experience learning to work with others. I think that the job prep section is a good resource, but they don't actually have jobs posted. So in the aspect of job assistance I didn't rate them high. FHP has recently started a advance course section for those who complete the program and want to keep learning. I think this a great resource for people like me who need help getting more experience to land a job. As a new developer, the most important thing I learned is to keep learning. I choose FHP because of the time flexibility of the curriculum and the price was good for me. Many of the other camps I looked at charge much more. The curriculum can be done at your own pace, but they have a recommended pace if you want to keep up with the program. Finally, to highlight what I think are FHP best attributes: ability to go at your own pace, mentors sessions, group project, and price.

While I have just taken introductory course but my experience has been good ,they have explained things very clearly and are also very assisting with the problems and doubts and I thing that sets them apart because I have tried other boot camps before but they seem to very slow paced with replying to queries or reviewing projects, to sum it up I think Firehose coding bootcamp is definitely worth trying.

I am impressed!

At the moment I am going through their free prep work.  I will tell this, I have never seen something like that before(and I have been looking around for about a year). They are on it; the amount of support they provide is mind blowing. Ken and Marco are the owners of the school; they are also the ones providing the mentorship. If you are serious about a Web Developer career or just looking to get a little knowledge as a newbie; go ahead and just check their free prep work(There is nothing like them out there!). You will thank me later!

I am currently taking the free prep course at The Firehose Project, which is a prerequisite to the full program. I was not sure whether I would have any aptitude for coding, and this prep course is giving me exactly what I needed: an idea of what is involved in being a developer. I am impressed with everything I have seen so far from the team at The Firehose Project. They are helpful, quick to respond to questions, and encouraging. Furthermore, I learned the Firehose teaching team has a background teaching real-world CS courses in college classrooms. This experience is evident. Lessons are designed well; the explanations are clear and easy to assimilate, and anticipate my questions / problems before they occur. This program is geared toward giving students the tools they need not only to be great at coding but also to know how to successfully navigate the resources and community that exist around coding, and to be ready for interviews and teamwork within a work environment, and that part really sold it for me. Very professional program and people.

I am an attorney learning programming for my own purposes -- not to get a new job. So my review is focused on whether I am learning what I need to know and not so much on placement.  I have been in the program for about 4 months.  I have made a simple bio page and three apps -- each of which uses HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Ruby and Rails.  One also uses Javascript. More JS is coming in the next few lessons. There is a lot of concentrated learning ahead.

The program materials and videos are very good. I give them a solid B (and I'm a tough grader). I definitely needed to stop and think, sometimes go to third party materials, to ensure I understood what was being taught.  Sometimes I became frustrated, angry, annoyed, and lost.

Where The Firehose Project really shines though -- and I really think this is critical for an online course -- is the speed at which I was able to get support when I was having problems (which was often).  I would post a question to the lesson questions page and always received an answer within a couple hours -- often within 30 minutes -- day and night.  The coverage was very impressive.  

My guess is if you can afford the time to be in a full time in person bootcamp, that is the best. But for me (and I am guessing for lots of people), that is not an option. The Firehose Project is a solid, worthy option. I'm getting my money's worth and learning what I need to learn.

Michael Burnstein

michael@burnstein.com

My first contact with programming was through this firehose bootcamp prep-course. The lessons waste no time and get you writting your first code almost immediately. The videos are and activities are concise and informative and you have the freedom to go as fast or slow as you want. Not only were the firehouse instructors friendly and helpful, most of my questions were answered, by reading the comments section of the activity, before they were even asked. I would highly recommend this course to anyone considering programming and am looking forward to continuing on my own personal journey.