Fullstack Academy

Overall, I think that Fullstack Academy is a very good coding bootcamp, and I am glad that I attended. Fullstack is considered one of the best bootcamps, and I am glad that they have a fairly strict application process, so they only let in people who have at least a decent amount of coding knowledge.

I did a large amount of self-studying before attending Fullstack, probably more so than most other students. I am glad that I did, because then I was able to get the most out of the Fullstack instruction and experience. I thought the instructors and instruction was overall quite good, although there were a few times where I thought it could be a bit better/the instructors could explain things a bit more clearly. Again though, it's tough, because bootcamps have to cram so much material in in such a short period of time.

This goes back to my point about preparation and self-studying before attending the bootcamp - I think it's really helpful if you have a good base of knowledge, and have at least looked a bit at the topics and technologies that will be on the syllabus, so you are not completely lost when they introduce some of the topics. In some ways, I think this is a flaw of coding bootcamps in general - it's impossible to teach someone everything they need to know to get a job in tech in 4 months or so. One will have to do a lot of studying before attending, work hard while attending, and probably work a bit after graduation to sure up knowledge/skills in some areas. And ultimately, my other point is that coding bootcamps can be great, but in the end, you can (almost) teach yourself all of this stuff. There are so many resources available online at this point that are either free or very cheap. Is this expensive bootcamp worth it? - it could be, but I would say try to self-study a lot before attending, so you get the most possible out of it.

My other slight criticism of Fullstack Academy is that I felt that the size of the class was pretty large. I think my cohort started off being around 37-40 people. Throughout the course, a few people did end up dropping out (and then a few people were held back into the next cohort, since they didn't do that well in the "junior phase", so they didn't get to go to "senior phase"). However, even though the cohort was large, the instructors and teaching fellows nevertheless did a good job of providing individual instruction where needed.

In the end, I have a very positive review of Fullstack Academy. Could instruction have been a bit better in a few areas? - probably, but overall it was quite good. Was the cohort size a little big? - yes, somewhat, but not outrageously big and I still felt I was able to get enough help. Can you just teach yourself most of this stuff? yes, for the most part, but Fullstack helped me to get better in a few areas, and the senior phase stuff (working on a team, career services) I thought were very valuable to me. Ultimately, I am a success story, because after graduating (and then after about 3 more months of doing a bit more self-studying and applying to jobs) I got a high-paying software engineer job at a major company.

I attended FSA remotely in Spring of 2021 in the 2104 Cohort. Overall all the staff were amazing. My instructor Orlando, did a fantastic job explaining the concepts, and the teaching fellows did a great job answering any questions and making sure you are grasping the material. Serena, the program lead, did everything in her power to make sure you were as comfortable as possible. And Nicole, one of the career success advisors, were super helpful during the job hunt, always willing to answer questions or help me with interviews. My only real complaint about the program, was the very little time spent on data structures and algorithms, I found those concepts particularly difficult. Thanks to FSA I just signed for my very first Software Developer position!

I've decided to switch my career and was coding on my own for quite some time until I realized I've only learnt some HTML in 3 months and the speed and motivation for my learning is not leading me anywhere. My friend recommended looking into coding bootcamps and I started researching. Fullstack Academy had great reviews and job landing rates so I looked no further and applied. They provided great recommendations on how to prepare for their application process, I knew zero JavaScript at that time and yet I made it! It's been a year and I just landed my first software engineering job, no way I would've done it on my own! If you need a little more guidance like me, very determined to make that switch and ready to put your life a little bit on hold for the time of the course look no further and just do it! 

Not only did I get the knowledge but also great connections, tips on how to enter the industry and how to be successful in your coding. It is going to be tough 4 months, like a highly intellectual full-time job but with take-home assignments, and the weekends are going to be busy as well with homework and projects. But if you truly enjoy coding you will be so excited to do it along like-minded peers willing to help and share their knowledge. Your classmates and instructors will become your industry connections forever along with all other graduated students. Even people I haven't met were willing to help when I reached out to them via LinkedIn knowing we both came from the same school. 

Don't be fooled that you will get a job super easily after you graduated, you'd still have to put a lot of effort into it, continue learning and applying A LOT, but everyone who stays on it eventually lands the job. During my interview process I've learnt that Fullstack Academy is highly rated among employers and that's your entrance ticket for landing an interview. After that it is your skills, your mindset, your knowledge and how well you prepare. It may take you anywhere from one week to a year to get that job, but you will and that's the point. The industry is very competitive and you'd have to compete with people who have Computer Science degrees and maybe even some experience. So I just want to be honest with you that it will take a lot of work and determination and believing in yourself. I think that the most important thing you'll get from Fullstack Academy is confidence that YOU CAN DO THIS and super important tips on applying and shining during your interview. 

A separate topic is people -- people at Fullstack Academy are just AMAZING, they have a no-ass strict policy for all staff and students. So when pair-programming you can be sure there is a kind, respectful person on the other side who is willing to help, it makes the whole process so much easier. They create a safe space for you to speak up and ask questions, that was super important to me. There are also some extra-curriculum activities, games etc. to let you all get to know each other and just have fun! 

Overall, highly recommend!

This one was one of the best experiences I've had in my adult life. Sounds dramatic, but working with full stack helped me to reawaken the potential from inside of myself that I have not felt since college. Enrolling in FSA was the first step of my career change into software engineering. The admissions process was tougher than I expected. New students must have a firm grasp of javascript basics, and must pass a coding assessment and interview process to be placed in a cohort. The pace is described as "drinking from a firehose", which sounds intimidating, but is really a blessing in disguise. The staff is very supportive, and students are assigned to Fellows for more individualized help and feedback. I started to fall behind at certain points of the program, but the instructors recognized the pattern, and provided additional resources and weekend lectures to help me catch up. The fast pace really helps to instill confidence in students when it comes to learning new technology. In 12 weeks, I would say I learned at least 15 new technologies. This has built my confidence to the point where I feel that I can handle learning any new tech in just a few days. 

The post-graduate career success team has been wonderful to work with. There is constant support, and weekly meets to share resources, thoughts, concerns, and successes during the job search. 

It is a pricy program, but the personal growth, and networking opportunities are well worth it in my opinion. I even stayed on to serve as a Teaching Fellow myself. The experience has been very rewarding. 

Before attending Fullstack Academy, I was a fashion designer working full time during the pandemic and decided to quit my job to become a software engineer. It was such a crazy decision to make, but it's well worth it because I got an offer from a company that I really like after about 3-4 months of job searching. I think 3-4 months was reasonable and as expected. 

I attended the Grace Hopper Program at FA from Sep 2020 to Dec 2020. The full-time remote immersive program was super intense, I was very emotional because there were too many tools to learn in such a short amount of time. I struggled a lot during Junior Phase but I didn't give up, and all of our instructors, Jess, Finn, Ben were very helpful. We also had great fellows like Maddie, Ashlee, and Tori, so I suggest booking as many office hours as you can with the instructors and fellows if you are struggling. 

After Senior Phase and graduation, we had a "Launch Day" with potential employers. It operated as a job fair, we could attend their section to learn more about the company then reach out to the recruiter afterward. After the Launch Day, I emailed the recruiters and got an interview with Bloomberg and another digital media company, so I liked how FA organized the event. Just don't expect to have an interview with the recruiters and received a job offer right away on Launch Day, it's not going to work like that anymore, you have to put in the work to do your part instead of wait for FA/someone to give you a job. For the job searching part, if you are still unemployed 2 months after graduation, you can apply to be a mentee and have a mentor (FA alumni working full time as a software engineer) to guide you. I would like to thank my career coach, Jolie for assigning a great mentor for me. I would also like to thank Trent for hosting job search Q&A events every other week so we have a place to share our interviewing experience. 

Overall I am satisfied with the FA's immersive program and career assistance, the only thing I would suggest for improvement is to make the class size smaller and hire more career coaches. I highly recommend FA to those who are willing to work hard and have a positive attitude.

Fullstack Academy (FSA) transformed me from a beginner of almost zero coding experience to a full-time employed full-stack developer within 10 months. To clarify, the 10 months cover pre-bootcamp preparation, self-paced foundation phase, immersive junior and senior phases (the main body of FAS), and 3 months of job hunting after graduation. My program focused on web development; the curriculum covered a up-to-date set of full-stack languages and technologies, including Javascript, React, Node.js, Postgresql, and Express. On top of that, the program also strongly encouraged students to explore languages and technologies outside the curriculum through solo and team projects. In my case, my team and I also learned AWS, React Native, Xcode, among many other tools. Although there are always more new technologies to learn, the stack on FSA's curriculum turned out very useful and practical in the current market. In my case, the core technologies and tools I will use for my job are those I learned from FSA.

Besides the tech stack, I was able to build three projects, which will constitute an important part of my resumes in the job market. Moreover,  FSA operated the program using the method of Agile software development, which is widely used in the tech industry. My classmates and I practiced pair-programming throughout the immersive phases and the pairing changed every single time to make sure most students got to work together. We also built projects starting from writing a user story, to diagraming workflow and using Github Kanban, to attending daily stand-ups and weekly code reviews, and to a final presentation. All these practices prepared me well for the real working environment.

The instructors at FSA are AWESOME! My cohort (2009 => 20 means 2020 and 09 means September, I know, it took me a while to figure this out) started during the pandemic. As a previous teacher myself, I totally understand the difficulties to teach online. However, FSA instructors did a wonderful job. They structured their lectures in a clear way. They were knowledgable, attentive and patient. They constantly checked in on everyone and were very willing to pause and answer any questions. Additionally, they all have different personalities, and made the lectures engaging, interesting, and funny in their own ways. (Jessica Bracht, Natalie Lane, Bienvenido Rodriguez, Travis Stratton, and Finn Terdal, thank you so much for being patient and caring!)

I also benefited from the fellow system at FSA. Every 6-7 students at FSA were assigned with a teaching fellow who usually graduated a cohort ahead. Our fellow organized group lunch every week to get together, to discuss everyone's process and struggles, to share strategies and resources, and also simply to chat and to get to know each other. My fellow Bobby Ton was super encouraging and supportive throughout the entire process. He was there to support me when my laptop broke down in the middle of the bootcamp, and he also wrote a wonderful recommendation letter for me after my graduation. (Thank you, Bobby! You are the best!)

FAS career assistance started during our senior phase and fully kicked in after our graduation. Career advisors gave talks on every crucial steps in job hunting. They also provided one-on-one meetings to help me prepare resume, linkedIn profile, and also a pitch speech (Thank you for helping me and supporting me, Dezzi Rae Marshall). Although I found it hard to do all this while working on my senior projects, it is good to just start. After graduation, they selected and regularly send out job opportunities, job fairs, and various events related to job hunting. I found this very helpful and the two job offers I got were both from the events my career advisor recommended. Moreover, it was very convenient to book a one-on-one meeting with my career advisor to discuss literally anything about job hunting. I discussed with my career advisor to speed up my application, report my progress and figure out what's working and what's not, prepare interviews, and negotiate salary. In addition, the career advisors also reached out to FSA alumni to organized panels, pair newly graduated students with experiences alumni to provide mentorship, and they also offer meditation sessions! (Thank you so much for always being there for me throughout the job hunting process, Trent Rhodes!)

I highly recommend FSA. As I said in my title, FSA is an awesome program that is worth your time and money. If I have to say anything for improvement, I wish the class size were smaller and there were more guidances on the Async week. Perhaps these would not have been issues if it were not for the pandemic. Oh oh, one last request, please consider adding digital accessibility into the curriculum!

I graduated from Fullstack's Web Development Fellowship in July 2020 (shout out to WDF-2004!!!). I'm currently set to begin an internship this summer at a company that aligns well with my values and interests and will stretch my knowledge and experience of languages and tools I was exposed to at Fullstack.

I had the privilege to begin the bootcamp prep in person with those who would be my cohort mates in January 2020 under the instruction of Sarah Zhao (who is so amazing at what she does). Post-lockdown, the program went remote but smoothly with Orlando Caraballo and Julissa Napoletano as our instructors. They provided a nice balance in the course of or class week, were very encouraging, and kept our learning fun. Retrospectives and check-ins with Oscar Robles were absolutely necessary for us as we were all experiencing the strain of being in lockdown and also the stress and trauma of social injustices happening around us. The curriculum was intense but taught us the full NERDS (Node.js, Express, React & Redux, and Databases using SQL) stack. We got to complete some fun workshops, pair program with our peers, and build some amazing projects during the senior (last) phase of the program. Those projects helped me when interviewing because I was excited to talk about what I've been able to build because of Fullstack.

Career Success services and our Flight (post-grad) program were great and definitely instrumental in my job search success. Special thank you to Jolie Dudley, Trent Rhodes, and my remote coach Laura McClernon for being such an instrumental part in my job search and interview readiness prep. You feedback and support were invaluable.

Overall, my experience at Fullstack was AMAZING and I would highly recommend them to anyone interested in Web Development. The Web Development Fellowship (WDF), which is in partnership with the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline, is quite competitive but allows you a tuition-free education with the same curriculum as a normal Fullstack student.

I'm a recent grad from the Fullstack WDF program. It was such an intense learning experience, and the staff there seem to truly care about your success. They handled all questions from my cohort gracefully and patiently, no matter how silly or repetitive the questions were. The career service team provided us with an abundant amount of information, and made themselves available if we ever needed extra office hours to discuss our individual career goals. 

ProsExtremely supportive and amazing staff. Curriculum is constantly updated, and I feel like I have a solid foundation to enter the job market.

ConsIt's extremely fast-paced (but hey, it's called a bootcamp for a reason), and sometimes we had to learn like 5 different technologies in one week, which seemed overwhelming at the time. I had to do Udemy courses and watch youtube videos to solidify the material. Their algorithm and data structure preparation is not as robust as I would have liked. I would have preferred to have more structured lessons on data structures, and going over solution patterns.

Overall, I highly recommend this bootcamp. The staff are there to support you as much as they can, but at the end of the day it's up to you to dedicate the time and effort to ensure you really understand the material.  

This isn’t something that is easy or will fall in your lap Software Engineering is Hard! That being said there are few programs that I feel could prepare you as well as my program did!! What I love and will rave about to any one looking for a bootcamp is the resources and prep that Full stack offers prior to even taking the immersive bootcamp course. I first took a month long bootcamp prep course where they have industry folks teaching. Also where I met my teacher who referred me for my first job.  After that class they offer me a builders program which was another 4 weeks of prep work (not always offered so ask for it). They also recommended a self directed JavaScript platform called teamTreehouse (this took me 3 weeks I did on my own). Then their actual bootcamp is prefaced with a 4 week program called foundations.  Overall I got a total 12 weeks worth of preparation before actually starting the 12 week immersive course!! Trust me when I say it was an immense help to have had all that preparation. I really got a bootcamp worth of prep prior to the Bootcamp. The Bootcamp itself is well structured, focuses on JavaScript and heavily uses React on the front end and NodeJS- Sequelize on the backend. If you want to be a backend engineer this may not be the best. Most backend in my job search is Java Go or python.  However, for Front End there’s no better place. As a FullStack program you will have all the base skills needed to create websites front to back! My Teachers in the immersive program were Sarah Zhao and David Patlut some  of the Best teachers you could have!! They really teach you how to think for yourself and guide you to questions that you can ask yourself about what is happening with the code. This form of teach allows you to be able to teach yourself by understanding what questions to ask and therefore (what to google) ultimately leading to teaching yourself or having a good educated guess and being able to communicate  the ideas effectively. Pair programming is big here and will be something you will want to utilize in the workplace. Unless you are in the Grace Hopper program you will own your Job search. It will be imperative to adopt a strong LinkedIn and contact recruiters prior to applying to even get responses and cover letters are a must! Again the don’t follow up on you so be active and stay on top of emailed opportunities. Yes, resources of relevant opportunities are constantly passed along. Though the professional network of FSA is growing everyday and we look out for each other, find us on LinkedIn! I strongly would suggest anyone looking into tech to consider this program. 

Attending Fullstack was easily the best decision I've ever made in my life. I found the curriculum and the style of teaching excellent. From the Foundations course through Senior Phase, and beyond, with career support, my expectations were surpassed at every step of the way. It's difficult to look back and think about where I stood before day one of the program, because of how rapidly I was able to grow during this time. I truly went from very little experience to feeling job-ready, as an entry level software engineer, as a result of this decision.

I so enjoyed collaborating with many of the students in my cohort and all the instructors and teaching fellows were an absolute pleasure to work with and learn from. A couple that stand out in my mind are Noelle Laureano (instructor) and Asim Samual (fellow). Noelle created a real sense of accountability, while simultaneously bringing so much enthusiasm each and every day, to the point that it was contagious. Asim was always there for me as a fellow to help navigate the, at times, overwhelming program. He was always good for some advice, technical or not, and of course, was there to squash some bugs with me when needed!

I've already recommended the program to a few people in my life that are looking to enter the world of development. I will continue to do so anytime I meet anyone else looking to endure this same path!