Founders and Coders

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 Read More for studying mainly in my own time, outdated tools.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.

I've just finished Founders & Coders and would highly recommend it to anyone. It's an amazing environment to learn in, surrounded by people who are genuinely interested and excited about what they're doing. The support that you get throughout the course... Read More is really good but you are also challenged and certainly not spoon-fed. The fact that you learn to write vanilla javascript before using any frameworks gives you a really good understanding of the language but there's also a lot of room for pursuing technologies you're interested in.

What has also stood out for me is how welcoming the community is, both during and after the course - cohorts tend to keep in touch with others on the course, as well as those from previous cohorts, and continue to help each other improve.

I've just finished the Founders and Coders programme and I couldn't be happier. In summary, Founders and Coders taught me how to write clean and readable code and after completing the programme I was connected with a company who interviewed me and then... Read More offered a Software Engineering position.

The things I loved about Founders and Coders:

- the programme focused on vanilla JavaScript.

- we spent a lot it time writing Node.js servers and creating databases. This is very difficult to learn on your own.

- we built an app every week in a team of 2-4 people.

- challenging and engaging workshops.

- almost all the the time we pair programmed with a fellow student.

- there were weekly code reviews during which experienced developers would give us advice on how to improve our code.

- half-way through the programme we were given an opportunity to build a full stack app using a technology stack of our choice.

- after graduation all students students were given an opportunity to continue to work on paid projects, internships, short-term contracts or full-time jobs.

But above all, the thing I've enjoyed the most is the supportive community of fellow students, freelancers, alumni and startup founders.

Founders & Coders is an awesome full stack coding bootcamp. The culture and approach to life-learning (rather than spoon-fed learning) are what make it stand out to me. It's very intensive and there are ups and downs along the way, but you've got to work... Read More hard to reap the benefits of such fast learning.

At Founders & Coders you’ll not only develop your programming skills in the short space of time, you’ll also learn to how work well with others, be encouraged to contribute to helping develop the course itself, and work out of your comfort zone regularly... Read More to push you to higher levels. Simply put, the course will help you grow as an individual, and you’ll leave the course with highly valuable attributes that many employers look for.

The course reviews here sum up the course well, in my opinion the best thing about Founders & Coders are the core values shared by everyone- in short; every member is wonderfully motivated about making a positive difference to the world through technology, it’s inspiring. Applying to the course and completing the 16 weeks has been one of the best decisions of my life, I cannot recommend it enough!

I feel extremely lucky to have had the chance to attend a Founders & Coders bootcamp. It's extremely challenging and hard work but I have learned more in the last 16 weeks than I did in the 10 months leading up to it when I was teaching myself to code... Read More solo by doing moocs. The community at F&C is great and the atmosphere is very friendly and supportive. My cohort was half women and that was very helpful in making me feel like I belonged there.

I learnt more during the last four months than at any other time of my life. It is exactly what my university experience should have been like and all without the £30,000 debt. What makes Founders and Coders so great is the people. The entry requirements... Read More are tough and this ensures that you are surrounded by intelligent, switched on individuals. Everyone has pushed me to be better every day, I would not be anywhere near as far in my coding career if it was not for this course. As well as the skills I have picked up, there are the friends that I have made. The atmosphere in the space is one of the most welcoming, accepting and friendly I have ever encountered, I will have a hard time leaving!