Codeworks

I've recently finished Codeworks - it was a great experience and one of the best decisions in my life.

I learnt a lot about web development, had hands on experience  developing apps and just had so much fun.

The program is very intense, but it's very well structured so you don't get too overwhelmed. They teach you good practices, put focus on clean code and knowledge of basics.

All the staff are incredible: nice, helpful. Teachers are very knowledgable and are always happy to guide you. And then you also meet incredible people as your classmates and have great time together.

I got out of Codeworks much more than I expected. Attention to detail is impressive: they thought about everything and constantly strive to get even better.

What impressed me as well is the assistance in getting a job: they share they extensive experience and really prepare you for everything that might come up in the application/hiring process.

I loved the 3 months I spent at Codeworks and would recommend it as the bootcamp to go to :)

I joined the January batch in 2018 and immediately realized that it was going to be such an AMAZING experience. This by far the best bootcamp in Europe.

Here my considerations:
- ENVIRONMENT: there are two big areas inside and a kitchen. Outside a wide garden shared with other companies where you can relax and meet other people.
- THE PROGRAM: it keeps the pace going in depth into the last technologies. People claim the course takes place from 9am to 9pm. Actually it's not true, because sometime you will leave at 10pm and later! And you know what? When you go back home you don't wanna falling asleep, you can't wait to keep studying! I didn't think I could put such a huge amount of information in my mind in a short time and in a constructive way.
- INSTRUCTORS/STAFF: strongly qualified, they definitely know what they are doing. They will take you out of your comfort zone, you will suffer for it and won't totally understand the huge benefits until you complete the course. I'd like give you a piece of advice: completely trust them!
- CLASSMATES: their website announce the acceptance is highly selective. I thought: "it's just marketing". I admit I was definitely wrong. I met brilliant minds coming from Europe, USA, Brazil, Thailand, anyone with their own background, often significantly different from each other. That's why the environment is incredibly lively, challenging, inspirational, exciting, so much I had to learn how to manage my adrenaline during the first weeks. It was such a nice feeling, but.....I couldn't sleep! :)
It was hard to say goodbye to each one as the relationship has grown to more than classmates, especially with someone of them. We preferred to say "see you later"!
- JOB: you will implement three projects even useful to improve your CV. During the last week you will be prepared for the hiring day getting important tips about how to manage your job hunting after CW. Once you leave Codeworks you won't be alone: you will join the Codeworks X slack community with a job-hunting channel, then you keep in touch with a person from their staff until you will find a job. 100% of Codeworks alumni found a job: again, it's not marketing, it's true!

Personally I even found Codeworks really useful for improving my English (I came from good B2/poor C1 level), as everybody speaks very good and fluently.
Lastly I would like to address over 30 people scared about applying Codeworks because of their age: I'm 44 and have a family, for sure companies don't select employees by age......be confident, your effort will definitely pay off and change your life.....at least......it literally changed mine for sure! Good luck!

After only three months (4 if you count the precourse (which is very well done and didactic)) I feel very prepared to start work as a web developer. The course covers many of the theory one might learn in a CS curriculum and offers exposure to modern JS  frameworks and tools like React/Redux, Angular, Node, Express, Koa, Mongo, Mongoose, Monk, SQL, Webpack, and Git. There are others but these were the main ones. There was a surprisingly thorough emphasis on common (not exclusive to JS) programing patterns and idioms, which I appreciated. The course is lead by the two founders Arol and Alex who are both great people and good, knowledgeable instructors. While working on assignments and projects there were two to three former teaching assistants who were all former students. The TA's were generally very helpful as well.

The downsides for me were just that there were not more complete code reviews throughout the course. There were two. However I understand to do that would have required hiring another instructor.

The school is a nice open space with lots of light and super nice terrace for relaxing and having lunch. There was a relaxed, but focused atmosphere and my classmates were all bright people who were as motivated to learn as I was. 

 In summary I will say that I had hoped for an experience like this, but was pleasantly surprised to have found it with Codeworks.

I found out about Codeworks via the relations with my University. Coming here was the best thing I could ever do. I completed my knowledge about coding and now, just after 3 months, I'm able to create Wonderfull projects (some are deployed already!), and I feel ready to hit the job's world. The environment here is amazing, everybody is so motivated that push you so hard. I suggest Codeworks to everybody that really wants to start coding and have a career in this field.

P.S. Barcelona is the right place where to do this.

At Codeworks, you hit the ground running and accelarate all the way to the end. I began coding five months before Codeworks. Had I continued at my self-taught pace, it would probably take me another year before I could even think of applying for junior positions as a developer. After three months at Codeworks, I have the confidence to apply for jobs that list two + years experience as a requirement. But the best thing is that now I can develop my own apps. This is the most empowering thing. If I have an idea, I know I can make it a reality, how amazing is that? 

The lecturers and teaching assistants at CW are excellent. Each have their own strenghs, and I learned and grew a lot as a developer by working beside each of them. This is something you cannot get by teaching yourself coding at home, alone. When you get stuck at Codeworks, you get to work with a pro and see how they think about your problem and how they help you come to the answer yourself. Eventually you begin to see patterns in how good programmers frame their problems and you learn how to frame your problems. This, I think, is the most important trait of a programmer, being able to ask the right question. 

The lectures, excercises and live coding sessions are also excellent and very well thought out. Especially the excercises to teach algorithms and data structures. Implementing a hash table is a lot more fun than reading the Wikipedia article about hash tables. Believe it or not. In the junior part, we nailed how to set up a server in one week and front-end frameworks in two. The lecturs and excercises are designed so you get to see the big picture from the very start, unlike many other coding resources online which only show you techniques to achieve a desired effect. Here, you understand how all the pieces fit together so you can use all the tools in a very flexible way. 

I look at the demos of other bootcamps, and I think the apps that are developed at codeworks have a larger variety in terms of what they do and the technology used. In my batch and the batch before me the apps worked on were 1. Facebook Events App 2. Slack Bot 3.Chrome extension with Google Maps 4.ECommerce with the Twitter API 5. File transfer on IPFS ... the variety is huge. Some other bootcamps have apps that are more or less some version of a website that does standard website things. I think this is because CW students are able to use the technology more flexibly because we actually learn development in a very deep way. 

Its definitely the most rewarding experience of my life, and also extra stars for their effort to address the gender gap in tech. 

Word of warning: if you want to join Codeworks because you want to sightsee Barcelona, look elsewhere. 
The intensity of this course is BRUTAL. 
Me and most fellow students thought that the "6 days per week, 12 hours per day" advertised on their website was probably marketing speak. Well we were in for a surprise! 
Not only did we follow this schedule, we also usually stayed longer (usually one hour more, sometimes several) and came on Sundays to make sure we finished the exercises and were ready for the weekly assessments. 
There is no "work/life balance" concept in Codeworks, your life has to become work otherwise you will fall behind. 
If like me you have a family and your spouse is not self-reliant, you're going to have a hard time.

But if your personality type is "whatever it takes" and you *do* dedicate yourself 100% to this course for 3 whole months, you will become a GREAT developer.

Most students didn't have a programming background before the precourse, but at the end of the bootcamp they can teach you about down-to-earth JavaScript concepts (redux stores, context, ...) as well as Computer Science concepts (data structures, algorithm complexity, database structures).

JavaScript has a bad rap because of the hordes of self-called "developers" (aka one-trick ponies). 
Brilliant JavaScript developers are hard to come by; brilliant developers that can teach are a lot rarer. But brilliant developers that can not only teach but also *mentor* (which is what you should be looking for when joining a bootcamp) are like unicorns. And you will find TWO of them in Codeworks.

I'm not too keen on relocating for a job because of my family, so I've looking for jobs in my area, even though it's quite small (french part of Switzerland). But before the end of the final week, one of the cofounders of the bootcamp had prepared a list of 10 job offers for me to apply. 
I finished less than a week ago, and I've already started interviewing for 3 positions (frontend and fullstack) less than 5km away from my place, and every day I've got new contact requests from recruiters on LinkedIn. 
It's also the first time I can look at a job offer and say "Yep, I actually match ALL of the requirements on that job offer" (and I'm 38 years old btw so I've seen more than a couple)

I did this course after finishing a degree in Computer Science, I was looking for a way to accelerate my proficiency in web development quickly and jump to higher roles. Codeworks does an excellent job in making sure everyone has a strong baseline for coding and computer science principles before entry through their admissions process. This then allows them to take everyone from a good level to a great level quickly. Their curriculum covered a lot of the basics and fundamentals while also giving real and tangible skills for a professional role. The projects you do while on the course are excellent to demonstrate your skill and the tutor support which is always ready whenever you request it is excellent. Finally their process of preparing you for applying to roles in the field, getting your interview skills ready, CV looking clean and ready and finally a guide and process for applying to jobs makes it much easier to find a job even in a tough market.