Founders and Coders

Founders and Coders is much more than a bootcamp.
My experience with it was great and am really happy I went through it.

Beside the fact that in 16 weeks you will be able to get a job as a software developer, u will be part of
a great community where everyone... Read More is just great.

Founders and Coders is a coding bootcamp that is the perfect springboard to jump into the world of coding.

What sets FAC apart from the other bootcamps is the level of support. Since the prerequisites that need to be completed before applying are tough... Read More and the course is highly selective, it has resulted in a community of people who are the best of the best. The beauty of FAC is the people who are always ready to help, and I’ve made many friends from FAC.

Over the four month course, I have learnt more than any other four months of my life. It is an intense learning environment, one where it is best if you do not have anything else going on on the side. You need to be ready to be immersed in the bootcamp. Although at times it was mildly stressful, it was definitely worth it.

FAC has completely turned my career around. I managed to find a job in a small start up in a great place in London within half a month of finishing the course, where I’ve now been for about nine months and having a great time.

I would highly recommend FAC, it was so so worthwhile.

Founders and Coders is a 16 week bootcamp course, that ensures you develop the skills to become a software developer. The first eight weeks are focused on learning the principles of JavaScript (that can be applied to other programming languages), as well... Read More as using popular frameworks such as React and Express. This includes two days each week of mini projects in a group of four to put what was learnt into practice. The latter eight weeks are spent working on two four-week projects, one of which is for an actual client.

The curriculum is open source, mostly based on contributions from previous alumni, and is improved after each cohort based on Agile principles. There is a course facilitator that oversees the process, whilst for the first eight weeks there are mentors from the previous cohort to coordinate the self learning.

I would highly recommend the course - it teaches you the technical as well as the personal skills required to become a software developer. Being able to learn in a safe environment, with support from your peers and the mentors, was invaluable. Although it was intense, and a lot of information to take in, it was definitely a rewarding experience. Our cohort also became a close knit group that still meet quite often as well!

Founders and Coders provided me with the groundwork to pursue my career in the tech industry, and I will always be grateful that I was welcomed into such an amazing community.

To summarise it in a few words: a sheer waste of time.

The course is simply not properly taught and I would have better used my money on some udemy classes. At least they are done by professionals, not by improvised mentors that just finished the same... Read More course a few weeks before us and often had no real work experience, while following an old curriculum.

Reporting problems is more or less meaningless, they are just blinded by their own political views (read: radical feminism in its most dogmatic form) and as long as they make sure that you donate (because you have to, they put it on paper - it is not free, that is just another lie!) and do not ruin their image, they are fine with things as they are.

And I do not say that without evidence: our cohort was a major shipwreck (lot of people not finishing it due to poor selection process, just to get a class going and get some funding, I would say), but still on twitter they keep celebrating the alleged "success" of the campus without any speck of shame.

Oh, no, wait: if you object and complain too much, you can forget to work in their small projects for a very cheap pay. Well, thanks, but no thanks.

Avoid this trap, don't repeat my mistake!

An amazing experience, I couldn’t recommend it enough.

Firstly for the sense of community whilst learning. Students are expected to support fellow students during the course, and you also contribute through hosting meetups for new coders and through mentoring.... Read More There really is a sense of being 'in it together' which makes the whole thing really enjoyable!

The course material was fresh and current, largely because Founders & Coders is based on an iterative model - each cohort of students feeds back on the syllabus and the experience as a whole, so the course is updated & improved each time. As a student the learning is mostly focused on ‘learning by doing’ (workshops and coding challenges, as well as a weekly group project). Don’t expect to be spoon fed, but do expect to learn valuable skills for a developer, i.e. *how* to learn new skills, how to research new technonlogies, and how to work in a team.

Another point of difference from other bootcamps is that for your final project you work with a real client, usually a charity. This is great on your CV as employers appreciate candidates with client experience, and of course it’s fantastic to help out a charity by solving a real-world problem with your newly-learned tech skills!

I am a graduate of Founders and Coders and I can honestly say it is one of the best things I have been a part of.

The curriculum is ever evolving determined by current trends in tech. Topics during our cohort included accessibility, Node, Express, relational... Read More databases, React, authentication. We consolidated our knowledge through weekly projects, which also helped hone our skills in pair-programming, TDD, code reviews, team retrospectives and the Git work flow; all assets in the professional environment.

Not only do you come out with these skills; you also become part of the Founders and Coders community. This was the main selling point for my decision to attend Founders and Coders. All alumni and students go above and beyond to ensure everyone feels welcome, and are more than willing to help out when asked.

One last (and in my opinion the most important) thing about Founders and Coders; it prides itself in diversity and accessibility. My cohort was made up of 75% women. All in our cohort come from a variety of professional backgrounds and are of varying ages. It’s also free.

A truly remarkable boot camp that I would recommend to all without hesitation.

I’ve recently graduated from Founders and Coders, and I’m amazed at how much I learnt in 16 weeks. I’m definitely very prepared to be a full stack web developer.

The course has a great balance of workshops, coding challenges, short weekly team projects... Read More and longer 3 week projects which has given me fantastic experience of working in a team and problem solving, along with a really solid grounding in the technical concepts.

What makes Founders and Coders so special is the sense of community from the day you arrive, and after you graduate. There’s a sense of excitement about making FAC the brilliant learning experience that it is, and it’s such a supportive and collaborative environment which is so unique.

I would highly recommend Founders and Coders!

I've just graduated from Founders and Coders. Before enrolling on the course I was studying BSc Computing at university. Just at the end of the first year, I found out about FAC, and decided to drop off the uni as I didn't enjoy paying an arm and a leg... Read More for studying mainly in my own time, outdated tools. At that period I wasn't sure how well FAC would work for me, and now I can certainly say that it was the best decision I've ever made. I learnt so much within the last 4 months, and I'm well prepared to get a job as Junior Developer. I learnt Express, React and Redux, which are currently in a big demand on the market. I'm very thankful for the opportunity I was given and definitely recommend the course to everyone who wants to get into coding.

My cohort was the last one that didn't have to pay for this boot-camp so that was a big plus. Also the founder of FAC procured small contracts with real customers in London, so that we could have some real world work experience while attending the bootcamp,... Read More which was really a good thing and don't know if many bootcamps do something like that for their students.
So why do I give a negative review? The learning experience and the atmosphere were poor in my opinion.
There were no proper lecturers, the curriculum was very loose. The responsibility to teach to attendees was left to the most 'experienced' members of the cohort. The less experienced attendees were routinely complaining they couldn't keep up and this led the management to ban several technologies that were widely used in the market. JS Promises where banned, ReactJS was banned, Express was banned. People kept complaining and eventually any idea was regarded with suspicion or shut down.
In general the atmosphere was not very friendly. There were constant discussions going on about gender equality, feminism, white male privilege, systemic misogyny. I heard more the once sentences like 'stick it to the white male' or 'the white male ticket has expired'.
There was a female only meeting for coding, but when one of us created a male only whatsapp group for going to the pub( never used anyways), we were ordered by the management to shut it down, and all of us were labelled as misogynists.
Honestly, I went there to improve my coding, I really didn't want to be part of all that.
On a more personal note, I also worked on a project for them at the end of the cohort, I was the lead developer for the project and we won the competition the customer organised. It was a really exiting machine learning project and they applied for further funding, which I was told they were likely to receive some months later. I asked the management to be included in the further development of the project, which I was told was a normal thing at founders and coders. However one of them came to me one day asking to forward her all the emails, the repo and all the material I had, and thanking me for the job I did.
So for me it was a bad experience. They seem to have very good review now, maybe something changed in the meantime.

Never thought I could learn so much in such a small amount of time. Nazareth is still in it's early stages yet you get so much support from everyone, from great mentors and facilitators. The community is insane, teaching everyone how to truly cooperate... Read More for the collective good. All the work is very transparent and accessible on github. All the workshops are structured very well and the level of learning is progressive and well paced. The support at the end of the cohort is also like I've never seen before. Facilitators help in getting into projects or going for positions right at the end of the course. Couldn't have made a better choice.