Makers Academy

My life changed after the bootcamp at Makers. I had no clue I was able to learn so much in such a short time and I really love coding and learning about new technologies to make my apps always more awesome! Before the course I wasn't sure I would have been able to become a software developer, for the amount of knowledge ahead and because my attempt to complete university education didn't go very well. How wrong was I! Now I am sure I can create and maintain amazing products and the course finished leaving me experience of hard work but also team work, a lot of new friends with whom I shared my journey, the pride of what I have done and the excitement, curiosity and optimism that are and will be my traits throughout the next future. I love creating software and I am ready to hit the market, thank you so much Makers!

I recently completed the Full-Stack Software Engineer Bootcamp with Makers Academy, and I can confidently say that it was an incredibly rewarding experience. Although the course is self-led, Makers provides tech coaches who are available to help, and answer any questions that may come up. They are knowledgeable and friendly, and they create a supportive and inclusive environment that encourages collaboration and growth.
Throughout the course, we followed the industry’s best practices (e.g. TDD and pair programming), worked in agile teams, and participated in tech rituals (e.g. retro-meetings, and stand-ups). We started with Ruby and then moved to JavaScript on Week 7. We learned how to debug and search for answers to our problems, making us confident in learning new languages and technologies both by ourselves and as part of a group. 
One thing that really stood out to me about Makers was the emphasis they placed on community building. There are always interesting events and activities going on (e.g. daily meditation, weekly yoga, EQ workshops, and community breakfasts), providing a great opportunity to make friends and collaborate with other students who share similar interests and goals.
On Week 10 we were given time and guidance on how to prepare a GitHub portfolio, and once we graduated we were able to count on a team of wonderful Success Coaches to help with our CVs and Cover Letters, prepare and practice for face-to-face and tech interviews. They were always available to provide feedback, advice, and support, which helped to keep us motivated throughout the job-hunting process.
I managed to get a job offer within 5 weeks of completing this training and while I had a great time at Makers, I want to emphasize that this course requires commitment and dedication. The curriculum is designed to be intensive and challenging, so it's important to be prepared to put in the time and effort required to succeed. That being said, I would highly recommend this course to anyone who is willing to make that commitment. The experience is incredibly rewarding, and the knowledge and skills you gain will be invaluable in your career as a software engineer.

Overall - Studying at Makers Academy not only got me my dream role, but it was also some of the best weeks of my life. Each week, you'll either study a fundamental aspect of web development, or build your own application. They work hard on building an atmosphere where everyone can ask questions and learn without judgement, which really pays off. If you throw yourself in, you can learn an unbelievable amount in 12 weeks.

Pros -
· You can genuinely go from no coding experience to succeeding on this course. This was not the case for me, but I saw it happen with people on my cohort.

· Gives you experience of all the areas of web development that are needed to land a role: agile development, test-driven development, object-oriented principles, relational databases.

· The emotional intelligence curriculum is excellent, I have become so much better in working in a team because of this course. The meditation and yoga sessions are also available for alumni for free!

· You quickly form a close bond with your cohort due to Makers selectively picking a certain type of person, even if you do the entire course remotely, as I did.

· Job hunting support post-course is exceptional. The careers team provide workshops, individual coaching sessions, and a special mention to Hunor for reviewing about 1000 cover letters every single week!

· On completing the course, you will have three full-stack web applications as a portfolio for employers.

Cons-
· The only con I can think of is that the first half of the course is in Ruby, which is a fairly dead language at this point (at least in terms of what I saw asked for when jobhunting). Makers do this because they believe it’s the best language to learn as a beginner, so fair enough. Personally, I think it’d be better if the first half of the course was in Python, which I started with, found very intuitive, and it’s the most used language in the world.

I graduated from my cohort in March 2023. The bootcamp was a great experience and you learn a lot. You start with Ruby to help ease people who are new to coding in to it and then progress on to JavaScript.
There is a lot of focus on TDD and pair programming which are all useful tools to know and are used in the industry. 
They leave you to your own devices a lot to help you think like a real developer; you need to sometimes go out and look for the answers yourself. The coaches are available to provide assistance but they will try to guide you towards the right answer yourself which is great.
Overall my experience was a good one and I would recommend this bootcamp to anyone who wants to get in to development.

Makers Academy not only focuses on the technical knowledge but on the emotional welfare of the students. On the technical side I went from having written a few scripts in MATLAB to being able to write a full stack web app from scratch. The course starts in Ruby to give a good foundation which will take you from simple programs to a BnB website. It then moves into Javascript to teach a new language and one perhaps more used in industry. Group projects will have you creating a clone of FaceBook to your own idea from scratch in the final project. The focus is not just on the code but on testing and team practices to prepare you as much as possible for the world of work.

On the non-technical side there are EQ workshops (IQ for emotions), and an emphasis on having fun and feeling ok. I had the pleasure of going into the Makers office and everyone there is so friendly and working to help you.

The only negative I experienced in my time at Makers was there was sometimes a lack of feedback on submitted work.

The Makers Academy course blends learning to code and learning to be a collaborative developer. These are not the same skills, and actually the second set is arguably more important to getting hired as a junior dev. If you wanted you could learn to code alone, using online tutorials, but there's no substitute for having to actually use those skills with other people to build something together. As we found out, a job in software is a team sport, and the course perfectly sets you up to make that career switch.

They have fantastic people and culture at makers. The curriculum is well thought out and constantly updated, the  coaching is quality, and the ongoing support after course end to help find a job is strong. It can be a challenge to fit in everything you want to get out of the course in the time you have, I personally could only spare about 40 hours per week and I think it would merit about 50, but you will be fine either way.

Highly recommend.

If your goal is to get a job as a software engineer, this course will work 
The 12 week immersive course prepares you for learning things at a quick pace which is arguably the most important skill you need to succeed in software engineering. The thing that I didn't anticipate when signing up for this course is how much I'd value the team-working aspect of the course, it really simulates how it feels to work on real projects with others which is an invaluable experience in and of itself but especially when you begin interviewing. Some of the cons of the course are that it can be a little hard to get in contact with coaches, they do state that they are only available officially from 9am till 12pm for coaching as they have other duties as well so if you keep that in mind you should be ok - your coursemates should be able to help too.
By far the best thing about Makers is the careers support you get to access after the course. The team are amazing, they are always there to help you and support you - they are all kind and lovely people and being around that fosters motivation and the kind of nurturing environment you need at this time. They also really do help you get a job whether that is through advice during coaching sessions when applying for external jobs or by finding companies that want to exclusively hire Makers students. Overall, I'd recommend this course if you want to get a job as a software engineer in potentially 13-16+ weeks. 

My Makers journey was special, from learning and solidifying my understanding of certain concepts to meeting great people. The bootcamp is highly self dependent, so expect to manage the curriculum yourself. It’s intense and the coach support is always available. 

One key benefit to Makers is the coaching and career support once the course has finished. The team go above and beyond to help and ensure you’re doing the right things to land yourself a job. Overall it was a great experience and I would definitely recommend it for someone looking to move into development.

Being a Makers student was a great experience and exactly what I needed to start my career in Software. I got all the support I could need from the coaches, a lot of experience with both relevant tech in the industry (like Ruby, JavaScript, MongoDB, PostgreSQL and also testing frameworks) and also agile methodologies (daily pair programming and using agile approach during team projects).Another good thing to mention was the support you receive after you finish the course, with another team of coaches being there to support you in the process of getting a job, helping with creating your CV, preparing for interviews or just speaking with you about your concerns.Overall an experience I can definitely recommend to anyone who feels like getting into this industry. It is intense but fun.