Flatiron School

This is an outstanding coding bootcamp for the following reasons:

1) The curriculum is great! Speaking as a graduate of the online full stack web development curriculum, you are taught everything you need to work both frontend and backend to write a fully... Read More functioning web app.

2) The curriculum is test and live coding assessment driven. This means you can *prove* that you really know how to code and write functioning code. The five projects and half hour assessments with trained developers ensure that you really know your stuff by the time you graduate.

3) You are given a lot of support. You can use the ask a question feature 16 hours a day (9 AM to 1 AM EST) and interact with technical coaches to help you with your code, conceptual questions, or local environment issues. There is no limit to how often you can ask for help on labs (but keep it reasonable and do strive to be independent!). In addition you have a large online Slack community and weekly study groups to help you. That is for the online self paced program I did. If you do a structured or in person program you get more support still. Let me emphasize that this is *far more* support than just about any other place gives you.

4) You graduate with an online portfolio since all of your projects and labs are submitted through github. This greatly increases your credibility with employers.

5) The career and job search support is first rate. You are assigned a career coach and can do half hour weekly checkins with them. They train you to write resumes, network to a job, prepare for interviews, and many other 'soft skills' that help you find a job. Does all this work? You bet! There is a reason why this was the first coding bootcamp to have independently verified placement outcomes that were and remain outstanding.

Personal anecdote: I started from almost zero coding experience (< 100 hours). I worked hard and graduated in 6 months. I then took a part time job with Flatiron as a technical coach. Now, less than 10 months after graduation, I am starting a job as a junior software engineer making 73K a year. This well exceeded my expectations.

The bottom line: if you are dedicated and have the right personality for programming you absolutely have a high probability of success with this school. As an added bonus they have many free labs you can try to see if this is the right choice for you.

I should start with the ol' bootcamp adage of "your outcome/success is dependent on you and what you put into the program" as that very much holds true to my experience with Flatiron. I did the Online Immersive program and managed to land a dream job,... Read More but I also passed on the opportunity to qualify for the "Job Guarantee" so I could spend more time post-graduation learning and polishing my portfolio projects (to be eligible for the "job guarantee or your money back" part that they advertise you've got to keep up with a pretty rigorous job search program that many have mentioned is more exhausting than the course work). I should mention that even though I voluntarily waived my right to the job guarantee, the school still happily provided me with career coaching services that were amazing and impactful in helping me land my first gig.

Here are my Pros and Cons for the program.

Pros:

-The program was flexible enough for a stay-at-home parent. This was the primary reason I chose Flatiron over other schools.

-Excellent Ruby curriculum. Avi is a master at teaching and his methods are sound. Every Ruby takehome test I did for a job interview was really well received and I credit the Flatiron curriculum for that.

-Excellent TAs. If you get stuck on a lab anytime between the early hours of the morning and late at night, there's going to be a TA to help you get unstuck. And if you need help with a project, you can schedule time with them, or bring your problem to one of the many weekly study groups. Basically, if you need help you'll get it. Also, most of the TA's are graduates and insanely smart, so I constantly went away from a TA session having more confidence in the program knowing the alumni were so competent.

-Excellent Career Coaches. My two coaches were tireless cheerleaders for me, helping me successfully self-promote and giving me confidence throughout the ups and downs of the job search.

-Excellent Instructors. My interaction with my section leads was limited mostly to my project assessments, but there is an option to schedule office hours with them. That being said, I learned quite a lot in each 1-hour assessment.

The Cons:

- The Javascript curriculum at the time that I was studying at Flatiron needed a reboot, and the React curriculum was still maturing. If that's the still the case, I would highly recommend using Udemy courses to supplement your study. If you feel like you're getting lost in those sections, you won't be alone. It was a frequent complaint in the community slack channels. That being said, the TA's and section leads are very competent in JS, so there's the option to lean on them a bit more.

-The Job Guarantee requirements are pretty insane, especially if you're a parent (I'm imagining impossible if you're a working parent). Really really really check these out if you feel like you'll be reliant on it.

-I think at least one of the projects should have been a "group assignment" as I found many employers I interviewed with thought it was a negative that I hadn't worked in a collaborative environment with more complicated source control demands. Flatiron could supplement this group project with more Github curriculum.

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Overall, I got exactly what I wanted out of the program, and my job offer pretty much exceeded the ROI I was hoping for, so I really can't complain. I'm very proud of being a Flatiron graduate, and I think this year you'll see the school make a bigger name for itself as it expands to new cities and as more graduates find jobs. I know the month I got a job offer it was one of 60 offers extended to Flatiron grads (and in December, which tends to be slow for hiring). That's a pretty impressive number.

If you're looking for a flexible online program with plenty of support, I'd highly recommend Flatiron.

Coming from a background in business/management I joined Flatiron School to gain a technical skill. After completing the course I am now a Full-stack developer at Tried and Supplied, a recently launched start-up. I am the only developer on the team and... Read More I think that speaks to the level that Flatiron prepares you for.

At no point throughout my time at Flatiron School did I think 'I can not do this' and I think that is due to the incredible people there. At each stage, from admissions, instruction, to the careers team you have the support you need to get you through it.

I chose Flatiron because of their focus on diversity - not just gender or racial diversity but diverse occupational, cultural, age, economic background. I was a tattooer for 15 years and a high school dropout. Flatiron allowed me to successfully change... Read More my life and switch careers in my 30's. Started with the Free Bootcamp Prep course online - got accepted - graduated - had a brand new career within 2 months. I learned much more than just coding. I really wasn't sure at first that I could even get accepted, let alone graduate and get a job. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done but one of the best - maybe the best decision I've ever made.

Flatiron immerses you in code (2 different languages) for almost 4 months so it naturally becomes your life. The culture is supportive and equal. The career services team is incredibly hands-on and effective. The curriculum is thoughtful, deliberate, and strategic, current and relevant. I was surprised at the levels of professionalism all around. So glad I chose Flatiron.

I graduated from Flatiron School's immersive Web Development program in 2018. It is a great place to learn. The staff is committed to your success and even after graudation there is plenty of support to help you find a job. The best part of Flatiron is... Read More the community you build with both students and staff (a lot of the staff are former students). Most classes build really strong bonds that continue even after graduation. Some downsides are that a lot of the community building happens at happy hours on Fridays so if you don't drink it may be a bit harder to make connections but the people who didn't drink in my class were still well liked and included in any non-drinking activities.

Overall wonderful experience. I came to Flatiron as a recent college graduate with a CS degree, so I had a certain expectation with programming classes. I was pleasantly surprised by my experience at Flatiron. They have a great community where everyone... Read More is helping each other out. I did take issue with one instructor who wasn't as engaged with my class as the other instructors were, but they were all extremely helpful and approachable. The only main problem I had was with career services. Although I appreciated all of the tools they provided to help me look for a job, I felt once I received my first job offer, the school pushed me towards taking it just so they could add me to their jobs report. I could be pessimistic but it left a sour taste in my mouth. I would still recommend the course to anyone because of how much you learn in such a short period of time. Just be wary of their career services once you start looking for a job.

I chose to go to Flatiron School, in the Manhattan campus, after a lot of heavy research and planning. I was between this cool and mt seconds choice, but after reading a review about Flatiron on Quora that seemed to emphasize the human aspect of coding,... Read More & the "bootcamp-prep" platform that Flatiron made available to you for free, I chose them.

There's a flexibility that's part of Flatiron's curriculum can be nerve racking because it really does all come down to how much work you can put in, in a short amount of time. And most likely that's being done while learning new material and in most cases while working on a module-specific pair programming project.

Ultimately, there are other coding bootcamps that are well known for being just as good, but there are no second chances, they have the right to tell you that you can't work for certain companies because they'll pay you too little for them to be able to start taking back the money you owe them, or they're just plane cut throat places where only finishing is the objective.

Flatiron was a very safe space, which manages to squeeze in some Redux & Bcrypt lessons towards the end of the modules. These are some very important lessons that will surely come into play when interviewing at future startups that want to know that you're capable of picking up some slack if need be.

The groups themselves can be very organic and helpful, as much as they can be the opposite. But in the end it's really up to every individual of the group to try to be warm and friendly, and approach all of your colleagues questions with openness.

Avi, the founder will come by to give you a life changing talk, which even though he's given it at the start of every mod, he never seems to lose the passion with which he tells it.

Don't listen to friend that might tell you that it's not worth it, that you need to go back to get a computer science degree or that you need to attend some community college courses. If you've saved up for the adventure, please join without hesitation.

There's a career fair that's very helpful for graduates, usually around 2 technical coaching fellows that your specific mod is given that will follow you throughout Ruby, Ruby on Rails with some SQL and Postgres, Javascript and React.

You will need to learn not only to pair program, but also how to speak up when things may need to change as well as speaking up so that your friends in your group can give you some perspective on solving a bug.

I moved from Florida to New York, and am currently working at a small startup. This place will give you the skills and resume to be neck in neck with other jr. devs in the area.

I still chat with my cohort all the time on Discord, and we continue to help each other through our interviews. This will be one of the hardest learning processes you undertake because of the time in which you need to learn. But as long as your prepare mentally, you can make it through! This amazing program has taught me that anything is possible when you have the right teaching staff.

People from all age ranges & backgrounds learn and grow with you, and it will definitely become one of your proudest accomplishments.

I graduated Flatiron School's online web development program at the end of the May and recommend them highly. I did a ton of research before enrolling in their program and they really have the best program out there. I felt supported and challenged during... Read More the whole process. The online tech coaching was invuable as I got stuck with trickier concepts.

After I graduated the career coaching was AWESOME. It was so helpful to me to have someone go over my resume and linkedin profile. I had weekly check ins with my career coach to help in my job search. It was really great and helped me to no end in landing my job!

For those like me starting out their coding journey, I strongly recommend Flatiron's Bootcamp Prep course. Whether or not you would like to do a bootcamp, this course is a great introduction to Javascript and Ruby, with lessons covering HTML and CSS as... Read More well. The topics are broken down into clear, concise, and useful labs. Best of all, the Ask A Question button allows you to get a speedy response whenever you get stuck. There are many great resources available to people starting out, but this is the only one that I have come across (outside of a paid program) that provides continued support while you work through the course at your own pace. Everyone I have interacted with at Flatiron has been friendly, supportive and professional. My experience with Bootcamp Prep led me to apply to their in-person bootcamp, which I look forward to starting in the next few months. Many thanks Flatiron School for this helpful course!

I really enjoyed my experience with Flatiron's BootCamp prep.
The learn.co setup is satisfying in a myriad of ways. You learn what happens underneath the hood, as they explain what your code is doing. The problems are built on one another, increasing... Read More in complexity as you go. Another perk is if you're stuck on a problem, you can inquire about it in through the chat function, and someone will answer pretty quickly, no matter what time of day.
Everyone I've encountered has been really nice and helpful.