We Got Coders

I was put in a really awkward position when one of the instructors (an irresponsible, cradle-snatching, American man whose name my sister has suggested that I leave out of this review) had taken it upon himself to play matchmaker on behalf of a slow-witted misogynist who had also enrolled in the course. This instructor would use mealtimes as an opportunity to make inappropriate comments about my supposed compatibility with the misogynist in question, who was a drug-addicted trainee with the IQ of a carrot, and would encourage him to treat me like the prize at the end of a video game and not like a colleague or an equal. The drug addict would regularly talk to me in a patronising tone and on one occasion, whilst drunk, the disgusting little man put his arms around me and tried to sniff my hair whilst we were alone (an idea I honestly think he could only have gotten from the cradle-snatching American)! Rather than being reprimanded, on another night, for turning what had been a normal out-of-office-hours conversation into a full-blown argument that woke the neighbours or for practically threatening me with violence after I corrected him on a mildly offensive and inaccurate comment he'd made, he was mollycoddled by a group of guys on the course (guys who must have found my intelligence, honesty, my refusal to blindly conform to some gender stereotype and possibly even my youth as I was the youngest in the cohort at age 23, far more intimidating than I could have guessed) and the Boris Johnson look-alike who runs the bootcamp demanded that I apologise to the drug-addicted misogynist (I refused as I see no reason to apologise for correcting others when they make factual errors and even less of a reason to apologise to spoilt man-children who still believe women exist primarily to service men. I apologised to our neighbours instead). I actually suspect that the Boris Johnson clone identified with this misogynist so much that he later sought ways to sabotage my team during the group project (though I will admit that this suspicion is largely drawn from circumstantial evidence and the founder's generally rather shifty nature).

I found the Boris Johnson clone's attitude whilst he was teaching the course to be rather disappointing overall. He would frequently disappear for hours on end during class time because he had "a call to make", for instance, and would generally refuse to share the code he wrote when he actually was in class. He tended to treat his students like children, nagging us all for the most trivial reasons and setting house rules that made no sense. On top of that, he seemed to have a weird fixation on my ethnicity and some of the subtext in our later conversations in particular would suggest that he views minorities merely as tools to make white liberals feel better about themselves.

Luckily, I didn't have to pay for the course upfront when I was unable to obtain a PCDL as I'd taught myself Ruby on Rails before I'd enrolled. Given the way in which the founder treats his students, the policing of people's emotions that went on and the hostile environment that I had to endure as a strong, independent-minded, and decidedly single woman, I'm rather glad that I didn't and have no intention of paying anything close to the £8000 rip-off that he typically charges. With that in mind, things were certainly more bearable when the American was teaching the course and not meddling in his students' affairs as he is the better teacher. However, the fact that he hadn't made the effort to sort out his immigration status before the start of the course struck me as a miscalculation on his part.

On a lighter note, the food - which I did pay for during the course - was great as our chef was very talented. I'm not usually one for the outdoors but I did appreciate the beauty of the garden on occasion which was quite lovely in the summer. My room was rather comfortable as well (even if it didn't have a lock). In the end, I managed to find a job at a really cool startup without the help of We Got Chauvinists and now earn more than I would have done on one of their salaries. I will leave the reader to draw their own conclusions regarding this.

This course was really fantastic.  As a female in my late 30s, I wasn't keen on a frat-house environment. And given my learning style, I respond best to small classes and personalised tuition.  I wasn't disappointed on either front.  The mansion is beautiful and quiet and our chef created delicious meals.  It meant that we were able to wholly focus on consuming the large amount of course work.  Most days I was doing 12 - 14 hours coding and loving it!

The two instructors clearly cared about our progress and were determined to show us how to be exceptional developers.  They made themselves available when I needed help, even if that meant evenings and weekends.  I valued their perspectives given they have an excess of 30 years development experience between them.  They were very different to each other and that meant that we learned alternative viewpoints and styles, all within the framework of well organised content.

I enjoyed the mix of working on my own and working in pairs / teams.  I learnt a lot from the other delegates and have formed life-long friendships with many of them.

For someone who was basically a beginner coder when I started, I found this a safe and positive learning environment. As a business owner and entrepreneur it gives me great satisfaction to know that I can now confidently create well tested, well written code and I am working on some MVP's as we speak.

Highly recommend.

This course could have been absolutely fantastic, and I really wish it had been. However, I'll list the positives before getting into how it let me and some others down.

Positives

• Lorin, the main instructor, is incredible. He will answer any question he can, or he'll go away and figure out the answer if he can't, then go through it with you. A natural teacher - friendly, hilariously quirky and uncompromisingly dedicated to the success of his students. He was there for all of us whenever we needed help, even late into the evening, and always found a way to bring out our potential.
• The chef, Zoe, is also amazing at what she does. I'm fairly health conscious, and pretty much all her meals were nutritionally balanced and tasty. The cookies and cakes weren't so healthy, but they were too good to pass up!
• The curriculum covers a wide range of principles and code libraries, enabling to you to put together a decent project in a short space of time by the end of the course.
• I expressly chose a residential course for the study-focused environment and sense of community, and we certainly had that. We all coded throughout the evening and would often work together on each other's problems, which both provided support in terms of studying and also in understanding that we were all having the same sorts of problems. You're not tackling it on your own!
• The house is spacious and well situated for getting both to the shops and gym in town and also the nearby train station.

I wish I could end my review here, but it wasn't all as good as hoped for. The negative points almost all centre on Dan, who runs the course and also (when he feels like it) provides some of the tuition. As such, if Lorin is no longer an instructor on the course when you’re reading this, I’m not sure that I can recommend the tuition. In any case, I will try to be brief, as I don't intend this to be a personal crusade.

Negatives

• It's a testament to how unbelievable Lorin is that I gave four stars for the instructors, because I'd only give Dan two. On the days he actually taught us he would frequently come back up to 20 minutes late after lunch or a coffee break (which was only meant to be 15-20 minutes in the first place). On a few occasions he even announced a "doing day" or "self-study" at about 11:00 and disappeared, leaving us to figure out the rest of the day ourselves. This was most notable in the JavaScript week, which was only three days of JS after Dan spent the first two going back over something else in Ruby, and his absence and total lack of interest in our learning had repercussions right through to the end of the course, as most of the others in the class hadn't had previous experience with JS or jQuery and struggled to get it up to a level where they were comfortable with it.
• Where Lorin never made anybody feel stupid and welcomed class input, Dan was too busy trying to make himself look clever and would treat the rest of us patronisingly or make someone who gave a wrong answer feel stupid, which actually discouraged class participation and discussion.
• When in a bad mood he will take it out on his students. He once interrupted our class with Lorin to accuse us of stealing cables, talking to us like badly behaved children rather than clients who were paying a lot of money to be there. On other occasions he complained that he couldn't hear any work going on, as if we should be pounding our keyboards to kingdom come or else we couldn't possibly be doing anything productive. All because he was in a bad mood. And you have to live with him.
• During the weeks we were away, some of us left things at the house (toothpaste, shower gel, etc.) only to find they had gone missing when we went back. This despite Dan's charging us rent when we were away to keep our rooms available, so there shouldn't have been anybody in our rooms when we weren't there. But he did have people there, and when the missing items were brought to his attention he was uncaring and unhelpful, as if what amounts to the theft of his students' belongings is of no importance to him. Which, I suppose, it isn't, because he already has your money.
• The bedroom fiasco. Not all bedrooms are as advertised. Mine, for instance, was a loft space converted into the housekeeper's living room. It was sparsely furnished with (I'm assuming) a cheap Ikea bed, with a wardrobe and chest of drawers to match, had a threadbare carpet, as well as wires and screws coming out of the walls, which were themselves faded and peeling away in places. And it was cold. Then, when one of the nicer bedrooms became available, Dan at first refused to let me transfer (because he prioritised letting it out on Airbnb over his student, which never actually worked out) and once he did offer it to me, he wanted me to pay £533 a week (almost double the already steep £280 a week I had agreed to pay when I signed up and thought I'd be getting a decent bedroom). The takeaway? Dan is just after your money, however he can get his hands on it.
• Dan also has very strong opinions on, well... everything actually. But in relation to religion and politics, you'd better agree with him. He referred on more than one occasion to my faith as a "cult" and was generally derisive of it, so I'd think very carefully if you have any strong political or religious convictions of your own before applying.
• The job situation. Dan said on the day we presented our final projects (which presentation exactly zero employers attended) that he had a couple of jobs in mind for me, one remote and one with a company local to my home in Oxford, both potentially at around £30k salary. A couple of weeks went by and I heard nothing, so I contacted him to find out that he hadn't even arranged anything with one of the companies. Another couple of weeks went by and he rang me to give me notice less than 24 hours in advance of an interview for a job down in Poole offering £23k. Poole, for anybody not local, is nowhere near Oxford. In fact, it's over two hours away, and he had at no point checked whether I would consider a job there. When I turned it down, he threw a tantrum, tried to bully me and use emotional blackmail to make me take the position, then deleted me from the course communications and informed me that he could offer me no further help finding a job. He had already deleted one of the other guys in my cohort who had managed to get a job on his own through a developer friend, so this came as no surprise. Dan was consistently disappointing in how he treated us.

I apologise for writing such a long and negative review, but I would feel bad if I didn't warn you of what you will have to deal with. At the end of the day, I have a job as a web developer now, but that was from my own effort, so I'd strongly advise you to weigh up your options before applying and, if you do get on the course, to go in with your eyes open and expectations low.

I discovered WeGotCoders by chance while browsing the internet and the course really peaked my interest. I was super fortunate that it was located only about a 20 minute drive from my house so when they announced they were doing an open day for potential new students I jumped at the chance to go meet the people at WGC and see what it was all about.

I was super impressed by not only the location and the house but also by Dan (the owner and lead instructor at WGC). I did a code challenge and was offered a place on the course.

I did the course with 5 other awesome people and had an amazing time. It was also one of the toughest 3 months of my life as you are basically learning and coding from 9am to 9pm (if not later each night), and is something I am really proud that I accomplished. 

You don't just learn how to code, you learn how to think as a developer, how to discuss and explain your code to others and also how to present your code properly to other developers. This is nerve racking at first, but after 2-3 days you settle in fine and this becomes the norm.

A typical day at WGC looks like this:

9am-10am - 1-2 people will present their code from the previous day, explaining what they did, why the did it and then the group discuss any other approached they could have taken and any code improvements they could make.

10am-3pm - Dan or one of the other instructors will teach the days lesson which will teach you any new concepts, technologies etc. This is generally mixed up between lectures and code alongs.

3pm-Late - You are then given your daily coding challenge and you then split off into pairs or small groups to work on the challenge, which will you will then present the next day in the morning.

Once you finish your course you have 2 weeks to make your final project which you will then present to CEO's, CTO's, startup founders etc who come along to see what all the fuss is about. As it happened there was a CEO at my presentation who I would eventually go and work for. While this does not always lead to a job, there have been members of WGC who were literally hired the same day as doing their presentation.

Once I had finished the course I went for 4 interviews which were arranged by Dan. I was offered 3 out of the 4 jobs and after much deliberation accepted a job working for an awesome security startup. I worked for that company for 9 months until they unfortunately ran into some funding issues and I had to move on.

As it happened Dan was looking for developers for a new project that was starting, and the CEO who I had presented to only 9 months earlier hired me to help build his Pharma startup.

I was really pleased that Dan found me so many interviews for some really cool jobs almost immediately after the course. Dan will do his very best for you and try to get you interviews and a job after you graduate, but this does depends on if there are any opportunities available at the time, otherwise his hands will be tied and you may have to find something yourself.

So would I recommend this course to anyone who wants to become a developer? Absolutely! You cannot go wrong with the course as long as your willing to put in the hard work that is required.

The course will give you all the skills you will need to become a junior/mid level developer with skills that employers love. I don't know a single person who graduated from the course who didn't get a job as a developer, which in its self pretty much tells you as much as you need to know.

I really recommend this course if you are looking to properly learn and have a great start in the web development industry. Overall, you need to be prepared to work hard and interact with other peers during the course. The interaction part is very important, not only because you can learn new software development techniques such as pair programming, but also because you will work better in a team, discussing diverse approaches.
The course is intensive and well organized, every week you learn lots of new concepts and have interesting projects to work on.  Also the size of the classes are perfect. In this way you can be offered an individual tutoring and feedback. 
My favorite part of the course was the group project, since it is a great preparation for your first web development job and also for your final project.
If you are determined to change your career or get practical experience using good practices in web development,  this is definitely the course you should go for.

This is definitely a course for someone who really wants to be a web developer. If you're only a little bit interested and fancy giving web development a try then go elsewhere because this course is not for you. The pace of the course is very fast and a lot of material is thrown your way. Be prepared to work long hours and be seriously challenged. It is also a very practical course. Don't expect any books or PowerPoint slides - a lot of stuff is live coded in front of you. There is a lot of emphasis on TDD/BDD and pair programming too. Which isn't to say that it isn't fun or anything like that - just don't expect an easy ride. 

The instructors really do want you to succeed. Their passion is clear to see and I never had the feeling that they didn't care about your work. They were always willing to answer questions and to give you help when you got stuck.

I didn't take up the accommodation option so I can't speak about what it was like to live in but of course I did attend every day and can say that the working environment is really great. No dingy classrooms with plastic seats. Rather wood panelled rooms with comfy sofas! And the food was awesome!

My only real criticisms are that the course tried to cover too much material in the time available and that the instructors would sometimes get carried away by their own enthusiasm and introduce us to stuff that we weren't quite ready for. This sometimes led me to feel that things were left unfinished.

Overall, I would say that the course is worth doing if you are really serious about becoming a web developer. It will be one of the most intense 3 months of your life but will reward you if you are willing to put the effort into it 

I was in the January 2015 cohort of WeGotCoders. Working for years as a linguist, I joined the course with the aim to make a career change and enter the web development industry. It proved to be the right choice. One year and a half later I have a full time job as a web developer and I plan to keep progressing in this field.

The course was really intensive and sometimes hard to keep up with. People interested in the course shall be prepared to fully commit for these three months and focus solely on learning how to code. However, it definitely pays off! The curriculum comprises of all the necessary knowledge that a junior to mid-level developer needs so as to score a good job. 

Dan, the instructor, was very helpful, always there when the trainees needed him. He used to urge trainees to experiment with code, cooperate with each other, exchanging knowledge and opinions and, in the end of the day, coming up with a solution for every coding challenge. This process simulates the way that a real development team works and that is what makes this course so unique among all the others.

I also had the chance to live in the residential house which helped me a lot to focus on the course. Not having to commute every day, having things like every day food being taken care of, proved to be very beneficial and time saving. Thus, I had more time to sharpen my problem solving and coding skills.

The final week’s presentation resulted in me getting placed to a job only a week after the course ended. So, it goes without saying, that I would highly recommend the course to anyone interested in web development.

When I arrived at We Got Coders I had a lot of doubts about my abilities and lack of experience.  Over the next few weeks they quickly disappeared.  It’s a very intensive course, but Dan and Lorin made sure that nobody got left behind, making themselves available in the evenings and at weekends.  The fact that we were living in a mansion with an amazing chef didn’t hurt either.  In a very short time they helped me turn myself from a complete novice, to a capable web developer, managing to secure a great work placement within a couple of hours of my final presentation. I would recommend this course to anyone who's serious about getting into web development!

I started the We Got Coders course in April 2014 and after much research, I decided that this was the place for me. Other similar coding courses offered the three months of training but seemed to offer very little when it came to acquiring a job after. We Got Coders' three month mentoring phase, including giving paid work experience (which I am currently on) and higher chance of a full time position after, is what sold it for me. The intensity of the course is high, the rate at which you're expected to pick up material is high, however, Dan (my instructor, and founder) made it a point to ensure us that it wasn't necessarily about how much information we absorbed in one sitting but our ability to quickly grasp concepts and search for the answers using other resources, if need be. Because of the high intensity, Dan was always on call, making himself available on weekends and after hours when needed. He didn't just give us the answers when we got stuck but gave us tools and skills to find the answers ourselves, which I appreciated. Also due to the intensity, I find that now, in the mentoring phase, when we are applying for full time positions, employers are very impressed by the level and standard of my work. Many have stated that they didn't expect me to be at the level I am because many boot camp grads they have come into contact with are not where I am. Although I am a junior developer, I am working at a mid-developer level. My work has been accepted into different global, open-source projects such as Diaspora* & the gem 'acts-as-taggable'. The process has been difficult but satisfying, Dan has been very helpful and sacrificial along the way, he doesn't just want to fill seats, he wants to create great Ruby developers.

I was in the January 2016 cohort and it was one of the best experiences of my life. 12 weeks of intense web development, we worked hard and we played hard and we all emerged as web developers ready to work in the real world. I'm writing this review as a full time employed web developer in London, this program works! 

Being able to live in a mansion during the course is not just amazing but highly recommended, as I genuinely believe that being completely immersed with highly enthusiastic developers is a great motivator and pushes you to do better.

The mentors were amazing, both with many years of experience in the industry and both highly vested in your success.

If you're serious about becoming a web developer then this is the best way of starting. 

TL;DR Brilliant course, best in the country in my opinion. Definitely will result in a job if you work hard.

This course is about seriously learning to become a web developer. Be prepared to spend most of every day, all day, studying code in a relaxed, fun and friendly environment. While it remains focused on teaching, learning and code, it does this in a way which is relaxed and non pressured. There is great support, and the mentor is live in as well so he is available pretty much all day every day. Of course, he has his free time as well, but he is available much much more than a regular tutor would be. 
When I was on the course we spent most days coding from 9am till 10pm. This changes depending on how interested you are in the topic being covered that week. The curriculum is very varied so you are exposed to a lot of different areas of web development throughout the 3 months. 
If you focus, knuckle down, take an interest and work hard you can come out of this course a gleaming pristine example of a professional web developer. 
Being prepared for this course is also very important. I would say you should take minimum 3 months of self study to be properly prepared. The more prepared you are the more you will get out of the course.

The course itself, and it's tutors are very helpful to prospective students so if you want to know what materials to use to prepare then just send an email to the company. 
Pros: 
- They actually do help you to get a job at the end by organising interviews for job positions. 
- The topics the course covers are the most relevant to working in web development. 
- The technologies the course teaches you to use are the most up to date, and recent available. For example ReactJS, Mocha, Chai and RSpec. 
- The live in environment allows you to study as much as you want.

Cons 
- Must be prepared to spend 3 months studying.

But seriously, this course will change your life. It changed mine.

I went to WeGotCoders as part of University work experience and came out of it into a well paid job as a full stack Ruby on Rails developer. Having been taking part in Computer Games Development at University for 3 years, I had some of the basics down, but by 6 weeks in everyone was on the same level, and by 12 weeks in we covered most of my University course, and were all immediately employed after the end of the course.

I would highly reccomend anyone, regardless of their computer experience or knowledge, to participate as long as they are willing to put the work in!