Flatiron School

I simply had an amazing experience at the Flatiron School. I had recently graduated from an art school where I had developed a passion for programming. While I was able to pick up some fundamentals on my own, there was still a lot to know to be able to work in the industry. I had a lot of doubts that someone from a non-technical background would be able to land a job as a Software Engineer. Flatiron seems to be churning out a ton of great entry level engineers at an unbelievable pace.

My favorite thing about the program was the people. The backgrounds in my cohort seemed to be CS, engineering, finance, and art/music. I was pleased to meet a few other musicians had been admitted to the program. To my delight, the musicians in the cohort seemed to be some of the best programmers! I can honestly say that the people I met at Flatiron are some of the smartest people I've ever known. I definitely felt like the dumbest person in the room (this is a good thing) and I've heard people way smarter than I say this too. 

The curriculum moved pretty fast. If you were able to get through the interview and prework process, you should be fine. The first few weeks were pretty stressful. "Bootcamp" is a truly apt name for a program like this. The program is stressful enough to warrant a weekly "Feelings Friday" where everybody sits around a circle and talks about their feelings. Towards the beginning of the program, there were a lot of feelings, but by the end, everybody seemed to have adjusted to the intensity, and gained confidence making the sessions much shorter. The most common feeling expressed was something along the lines of "yeah I have no idea what's going on, but I'm going to trust the process". The information can be complex and come at a pretty high velocity and it seems like most people don't completely understand after completing the readings and going through the labs. By the end of the module, everybody absorbs the information through a combination of the readings, lectures, pair programming labs, and projects. For me, I only actually learned the material by discussing it, so pair programming and projects ended up being the most valuable part of the curriculum for me. 

After the program, Flatiron provides a huge amount of support. I met with my career coach weekly to share my progress and revel in my wins and mourn many losses. Be warned: the job hunt is not for the faint of heart! You're competing with everybody in your cohort, everybody in the other cohorts, everybody from the other programs in the city, and the sought after CS majors from elite universities. If you went to a great school or have a technical background, you will probably be fine. If not, you're most likely going to be an underdog. The business development team at Flatiron does an incredible job of setting up interviews with students. At one point, I was doing 3 interviews a week scheduled for me by BD. This was almost worth the price of the program itself. Every job gets thousands of resumes from Bootcamp grads and most of them look identical to employers. It's really hard to make it beyond the first stage so having the interviews set up for you is really nice. I ended up interviewing at amazing companies: JP Morgan, WeWork, BounceX and many many more. I eventually got an amazing job offer that came through BD. 

Overall it was a great experience. I would highly recommend it to anybody who is willing to put in the hard work required before, during, and after the program.

I just finished the prep course for the Data Science bootcamp immersive. I had a great experience with their prep courses. They explained a duanting topic very easily and made it all very simple to understand. I particulary enjoyed how gradient descent was explained through real life examples. Their prep course was a lot of fun! Their simplification of daunting topics and their reputation to help you get started with your carear was the main factors I decided to apply for Flatiron School. 

For context, I have just recently been accepted to the Flatiron Data Science class and have no background in coding at all. I have completed the data science bootcamp prep and about 2/3 of the other bootcamp prep class. As coding is new to me I had tried several online intro classes (datacamp, codeacademy, udemy) and the Learn.co online class Flatiron has was by far the best. The courses really explained not just what was going on in the classes but why it is occurring which is very helpful for me. Additionally, the very accessible Community tab was by the most amazing feature which allows you to ask questions about the specific course you are working on and actual tutors and other students respond within seconds (sometimes minutes, longest wait time was never longer than 5 minutes). The people who always responded helped me walk through the problem instead of just typing the code solution, an amazing feature for a free online class. Every conversation I had with any of the admissions team went amazing they were very open and informative and answered every question that came up. Lastly, my favorite part of Learn.co experience is that it wasn’t so formal, there are graphics and jokes and pictures that make it a little more fun as you go along instead of just pages and pages of text. I am very excited to start the class after completing the online courses and going through the interview process.

If you are familiar with Udemy or other online learning portals, you'll find that there is usually a disconnect between the learning and your working through the materials.

What Flatiron has done with learn is pretty amazing in that you can use their IDE or your dev environment to fork, clone, pull all the labs, test the labs, and submit the labs for review. 

The written materials are very easy to follow, and those materials in conjunction with the realtime feedback of the labs made learning the basics of Javascript and Ruby a piece of cake.

If you are new to programming, or have interest in starting your Javascript or Ruby journey, I would strongly recommend considering this course. This has been an invaluable resource for me thusfar. 

This program not only gave me the knowledge and confidence to chase my goals of becoming a developer, it gave me a network of individuals - from my cohort to instructors to other alumni - to help me along the way. It seems crazy to learn as much as you do in 15 weeks, but you really do. Now, it's no lie that you have to put the work in which they tell you from day one, but if you are willing to immerse yourself for just 15 weeks, then you are sure to come out on the otherside confident in your skills as a developer.

I had the pleasure of beginning Flatiron's in-person immersive bootcamp last summer and then switching to the online two months into the immersive (due to personal conflict) Flatiron was an amazing experience and think really highly of this program. It was a great experience having done both. Of course, the in-person immersive is a lot more demanding because of the 3 month time period. The modules go back quickly and you are expected to keep up. Every end of a module they'd give you a practice project for you to test your knowledge and if they see you are struggling, you repeat that module. I believe Flatiron's instructors and overall culture is that of genuine support. They want to see you succeed just as much as you want to. The culture is amazing too because you spend so much time with these people everyday and are embraced with the same friendship and support. 

That being said, if you are in New York City, the in-person immersive is the way to go! But the online experience was just as worthy, it was just sometimes a little challenging when you're working on the final projects but they have weekly/nightly online meetups so the support and instructors were just as there for you as the in-person. It just took me a little longer because I felt for the final module, I really wanted to absorb and understand so that was an upside because i felt taking my time really learning and redoing labs benefited me in the long run. The only critique I'd say is when you're doing the online program and can't make some of the online study groups, it can be a little isolating as opposed to having a cohort you can reach out to have help you. I do wish there were more online instructors with more lectures for the different modules. 

The career coaches are outstanding as well! They really support and work with you to make sure you are receiving interviews and doing well. I was getting interviews even before graduating. Their job placement team really knows what they are doing to ensure you find one once you complete. 

It definitely recommend Flatiron among all the other bootcamps out there without bias. I believe the culture, modules and instructors will challenge you and you learn so quickly! It is a demanding program but if you have the passion for learning to code, it willl all be worth it in the end. 

I will never have another 15 weeks like those I spent at Flatiron, nor will my life be the same after graduating from the program!  The school draws together all the best aspects of learning-- the curriculum is very challenging, but achievable; the school's culture promotes friendship, collaboration, and connections; the material and instruction is relevant now and also prepares you for a lifetime of learning.  Lastly a shoutout to Career Services who holds your hand throughout the job search process with expertise and attentiveness, at a level you rarely find in any service as an adult.

This is probably the best intro prep material out there (especially as a free resource) that let's you get started immediately. The Learn platform comes equipped with a terminal and editor with the lesson plan available to the side that you can follow. It feeds into the online (and immersive) web developer program, where you can continue the program. 

The quality of the instructional material is top-notch and community based, which tries to mimic real-life, where you can see people who are working on the same lessons as you and have a chance to interact on many levels, from asking a question to forming study groups.

I would hightly recommend the bootcamp, and thus far, the online web developer program, which I signed up for shortly after. 

I was part of the Online Full Stack Web Development Program. Before going to Flatiron School, I had done some basic Codecademy tutorials. I also enrolled in one intro to programming course at a community college just before I got accepted to Flatiron School and finished it while also doing Flatiron School. Overall, my experience with this program was great, and I truly feel that I would not be where I am today without the guidance of the program. 

What I loved about this program is that it was super flexible compared to the in-person program many schools/bootcamps offer. I worked full time for the first 8 months I was in the program. The way the program is set up allowed me to go through the content at my own pace (which was quite slow), while also offering live online lectures/study groups throughout the day/evening.

When I was about 75% done with the program, I was given a career coach to work with and help prepare me for looking for jobs and the interview process. This was awesome! My career coach was a huge help throughout my job search process and was always available through skype or email throughout the week. My coach was my go-to if I had any job/interview related questions or if I just needed some support.

With all of this, I ended up actually getting a job before I even finished the program (which I know may not usually be the case)!! Personally, I am super glad that I decided to do this program at Flatiron School. You can tell that the people there really want you to succeed and are passionate about what they do (this includes but not limited to the dean, instructors, TA's, career coaches, and students). Everyone was so supportive, and I think this is one of the main things that made this priceless to me -- the community the school and students has helped create. It can be a difficult road to change careers, but a support system with people cheering you on every step of the way makes it a lot easier and helps keep you motivated.

While you could probably learn a lot of the stuff by yourself (without going through the program), here are a few reasons why I am glad I chose Flatiron School. 1) I am used to the structure of a classroom. This program gave me structure that I would not have gotten alone. While there aren't due dates, there are hundreds of lessons, labs, and 5 projects that have an order and are there for you to complete. Especially with the labs and projects, I learned a lot from doing those and they helped to reassure me that I was learning. 2) The projects are great to add to your portfolio and they teach you a LOT. They give you some guidelines as to what should be included in each project, but the project idea/topic is basically up to you. There is a lot of freedom, but they also provide you with some suggestions if you are having trouble coming up with an idea. Also, the assesments on the projects really help you learn how to talk about/explain your code to other people. This is super important and a great practice for interviews. 3) I really believe in support systems and communities. I do not think that I would have been able to get myself to a point where I am able to switch careers so quickly by myself without the help/support of others. 4) They are constantly updating and writing new content to add to the program. It is great to know that what I am learning is up-to-date. 

I had a great experience at Flatiorn School and would recommend it to anyone who is serious about going to a bootcamp or changing careers. It DOES take a lot of hard work, but it can be very rewarding too. I do recommend checking out any pre-bootcamp prep and any free lessons Flatiron School offers on their website. It will give you the best feel for what it will be like in the program.

I attended the Flatiron School's Immersive Software Engineering program from May to August 2017. The experience was great, and I am happy to say that now as of the end of November I have just completed my first day as a Software Engineer.

The program is very challenging but Flatiron school does a great job to make sure you are supported throughout. The education was great, and the style of teaching really worked for me. They really do a great job at changing things around quickly once they get feedback which I really liked as well. 

I really appreciated the career services team also! I very much felt supported throughout my job search in all ways. I would say about 90 percent of my interview leads came from them which was very encouraging and made a stressful situation less stressful.

If you are interested in learning how to code, and you enjoy learning in a group of energetic people, the Flatiron school is for you!

Also, they have a great bootcamp prep course that is free of cost that I actually completed prior to starting the program. I was a complete novice and I found the prep course to be one of the most helpful ways to get up to speed with the basics. I highly recommend the prep course to anyone who is interested in getting a feel of what learning the Flatiron way would be like.