Fullstack Academy

As a sophomore heading into his summer with only novice programming skills, my first and foremost goal was to develop and hone competitive software engineering skills. My experience at Fullstack Academy's Summer of Code program did just that. I graduated... Read More from the program not only with comprehensive knowledge and experience with full-stack JavaScript experience but also the confidence and conceptual knowledge to go beyond the scope of the curriculum.

During my time at the bootcamp, I thoroughly enjoyed virtually all the lectures and workshops - instructors were very clear and knowledgeable about the technologies they were teaching as well as engaging and amiable. They also had a passion for seeing their students succeed that eclipses what I see at even an Ivy League institution. There was no superfluous topics that bloated the curriculum in any way; each day felt important and fun. The projects that we built during the second half of the program were critical to developing more experience with the topics we covered as well as impressive to put on any resume as well as talk about during a tech interview.

As a undergraduate, job support was a little weaker than I had hoped; although, it is completely understandable considering the majority of students were looking for full-time positions rather than internships, thus hiring strategies were naturally different. However, I was still given just as much time and effort from the hiring team that allowed me to improve my resume and online professional presence that is invaluable. As a result, I managed to secure an extremely competitive internship in machine learning at a large tech company.

rst of all, I can definitely say that Fullstack provided me with everything, and more, to land a coding job and be a successful coder. A power-packed curriculum taught by brilliant profs, plus an extensive and innovative course on having great coding... Read More interviews, landed me a job very soon after graduation. But many other coding schools can teach you similar things. What sets Fullstack apart is the sheer personal attention and supportive, friendly environment they create. I'm still in touch with so many alumni and the team at the campus and everyone looks out for each other. It's not one of those schools that spits you out, lands you a job, and forgets you, in other words. You're always a part of it. If that's what you're looking for I highly recommend it.

I just graduated Fullstack Academy's immersive cohort in NYC. It was an amazing experience and I learned a ton. They have amazing instructors who really want to make sure you understand the material and the material they teach is what is currently hot... Read More in the tech industry. I learned React + Redux with them and only two cohorts before me they were teaching Angular. They did an amazing job with React, and in general all of their workshops are so much fun to do and they really get you to learn and absorb the material.

I don't have a job yet as I just graduated, but Fullstack is extremely legit about helping you get a job. They have people working there who's sole purpose is to assist students with their job search.

I highly recommend Fullstack to anybody who is serious about coding and is ready to work really hard for about four months straight. Time will fly and you will come out with your brain stuffed with coding knowledge and ready to apply it all to a real job.

If you're thinking about bootcamps in general, or Fullstack in particular, you're probably wondering something along the lines of "does this actually work for real people"?

Well I am a real person, and Fullstack worked for me. It worked out better than... Read More I could have possibly hoped. I wrote my first line of code about six months before I was admitted to Fullstack. Within three weeks of graduating from Fullstack's fellowship program, I was hired as a software engineer at Bloomberg, through Bloomberg's senior hire program (meaning I was competing against developers with one or more years of professional experience).

Fullstack technically teaches full-stack web development using JavaScript, but I was hired into a backend role and now work exclusively in Python. This goes to show that this program is NOT about cranking out web devs with a narrow set of technical skills. Fullstack teaches its students how to think like a software engineer, how to quickly learn and use new concepts and skills, and how to collaborate with a team on fast-moving, complex projects. That skillset will never be obsolete.

My instructors (Gabe and Omri) and teaching fellows were some of the smartest people I've met in any context. They were all very generous with their time and talent. And they maintained the right balance between letting me struggle a bit to figure something out versus helping me understand what's preventing me from moving forward.

Fullstack's career department is also amazing. Ceren and Liz did a great job preparing me for the process of finding a job. It helps that, every year, Fullstack's network of alumni working in the industry all over the country keeps growing. It also helps that the curriculum gets overhauled regularly based on changes in the job market; one year ago they were teaching the MEAN stack. Today they've essentially replaced half of their curriculum, teaching SQL/Sequelize on the backend and React/Redux on the front-end.

Fullstack is also a magnet for sharp students who are willing to take a pretty stunning leap of faith in themselves. We left our jobs, moved across the country (some of us, at least, including me), and plowed a good chunk of money into a form of education that's existed for all of five years, knowing there will be no degree or guaranteed job waiting for us when we're done. Fullstack's admissions process is very selective, but if you get through it, you're going to be learning with, and from, a pretty incredible group of fellow students.

This program isn't easy. If you think all you have to do is get in and then coast along while your inbox fills up with job offers, then this isn't going to be a good fit for you. Fullstack is an opportunity, but you have take advantage of it by giving it everything you've got.

I am very thankful that I was given the opportunity to attend Fullstack. I took that leap of faith, and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. If you too have faith in yourself, and you have the opportunity to attend Fullstack, I'd encourage you to do the same. Fullstack's the right place for someone like you.

After doing research and comparing the different bootcamps, I chose Fullstack Academy for a number of reasons:

+ JavaScript focus: FSA teaches you the MEAN stack. Mongo Express Angular Node.

+ People: I interviewed with other bootcamps as well, and my interaction... Read More with FSA has been more positive than the other ones. Another bootcamp sounded like they didn't care at all and was actually very condescending and stuck up. During code review, I didn't get any meaningful feedback at all at the other bootcamp, but with FSA they explained everything thoroughly and even taught me a few things during the pair programming.

+ Hiring Rate: 97% hiring rate. Not counting those hired by FSA as fellows or otherwise.

+ Support: I made sure there was no risk of getting kicked out of the bootcamp if I did poorly. It's already a huge risk quitting a job and an expensive move taking in both the cost of living without an income and the cost of tuition itself. I know certain bootcamps kick students out for failing assessments during their time there and I definitely made sure that FSA does not do that. If and when any of us struggled with anything, FSA made sure there were additional learning sessions / one-on-ones / fellows there to help out. The only times when students leave the program are if they voluntarily drop out (they made the decision themselves and no one asked them to) or if they graduate.

And now that I've experienced it, graduated and gotten a job right away, I can definitely say it was worth it.

What's awesome:
+ Everyone at FSA. Instructors, staff, classmates, fellows - they're all awesome.
+ Board game nights, happy hours, hot seat, etc.
+ Workshops. Learn from doing. By the end of this program, you'll make at least 3 apps.
+ Knowledge. You'll learn a lot. You'll never feel so smart and accomplished.
+ Job prospects are good. I had lots of interviews and started a job right after. Classmates also got jobs within a month or two. Expect to make at least $90k.
+ Community. After graduation, you'll still be a part of the FSA community.
+ Hackathons. We love hackathons and we win them.

Overall: The most intense yet fulfilling experience I've ever had. I've learned in 3 months here more than anything I learned in college. I'm also much happier with the career change.

My Background: Undergraduate degree in Economics, MBA in Finance. Left my job as a Management Consultant within the Financial Services industry to attend Fullstack Academy. I had very little prior coding experience.

Founders: David and Nimit are great... Read More guys. Both extremely knowledgable about coding and the industry in general. No matter how well the program seemed to be running, they were always looking for feedback and ways to improve the program. Fullstack Academy will just continue to get better over time with them in charge.

Curriculum: Overall very well structured and always improving. First half of the course typically consisted of instructor led lessons, followed by paired programming exercises. Throughout all exercises instructors were available to provide guidance. The second half of the curriculum consisted of two team projects, a 3 day Hackathon, and hiring day. There was also time spent during the second half of the course to help prepare for interviews.

Instructors: I was very impressed by the professionalism and knowledge of the instructors. Every instructor clearly had a passion for coding/teaching (one even described working at Fullstack as his “dream job”. When smart people are doing something they are passionate about, they do an amazing job.

Students: The only commonality was everyones passion to code. Incredibility eclectic group of individuals who were all amazing in different ways. One day you would be working with someone who used to be an Investment Banker, and the next day you were working with someone who was a past stunt actor for the Call of Duty video game (those are factual backgrounds). You will make great friends and you will be surrounded by people who are all working together to help each other succeed.

Outcome: I accepted a full-time Software Engineering position about a month after graduating. I went on a number of interviews (some direct outcomes from hiring day some not). Overall, I received excellent feedback on my coding challenges as part of the interview process at various companies and I always felt as if I was well prepared.

Summary: Exactly as advertised. You come into a great program with awesome people (instructors and students) and you leave with an in-demand skill that allows you to do something you love.

I had such a great experience at Fullstack that I just had to leave a comment.

Before Fullstack
Like many students that went through Fullstack, I came from an entirely different career path (Civil Engineering) non-related to programming. After mustering... Read More the courage to make a career change, I did my research on how I could best transition to a new career in programming and came across programming bootcamps.

I was very skeptical at first because these bootcamps offered short programs (ranging between 3-6 months) for a substantial amount of money (~$12000 - $15000). Furthermore, there were also a lot of bootcamps available, so it was tough deciding which one was right for me. I dug deeper and reached out to graduates from many bootcamps such as Fullstack Academy, Flatiron School and DEV Bootcamp. To me, I found the most responsive people were the ones from Fullstack. Some of the major questions that I asked them were:

1. How quickly were they able to find jobs after graduating?
2. Did they feel like they were ready for the workforce after completing the program?
3. Did they feel like their experience was worth the time and money?

I've received very positive feedback. The students I've spoken with had many interviews lined up the week after Fullstack and most found jobs ranging between 2 weeks to 2 months. Even more surprisingly, they all stated that they loved their experience at Fullstack and some have even mentioned that "it was the best career decision they've made in their life".

During Fullstack
As the program is split into 3 parts: 6 weeks of lectures/workshops (Junior Phase), 1 week for break, and 6 weeks for project phase (Senior Phase).

In the first 6 weeks, we had our work cut out for us. Although the workload was heavy, I felt that Fullstack did a great job scheduling and planning it in a way where the material didn't seem too rushed. We spent a lot of our time learning from JavaScript Fundamentals, Data Structures and Algorithms, Server Side JS (Node, Express), databases (MongoDB, some SQL), Front End Js (Angular), Promises, OAUTH and the list continues... What I loved most about my experience in the junior phase was that all the workshops were done in pairs. This taught me how to adapt to other people's coding styles, which will be very common in the work force. It also taught me how to code as part of a team, which can be very different than if you were to code individually. By the end of the junior phase I would have worked with most people at least once, which made it very comfortable working in groups leading into the Senior Phase.

In the last 6 weeks, this was entirely project based. There was a lot less hand holding from the teaching staff, which gave teams the freedom of how to complete their projects and divide up their work. It was in this phase where I learned the most because I started to see how the entire tech stack fell in place, and what I learned from the first 6 weeks started to make a lot more sense. However, this only came through hours of hard work and debugging which is the learning process all students inevitably will go through. The teaching staff and teaching assistants (Fellows) were very quick in providing help when you are completely stuck with a problem, and did a great job in guiding you towards a solution rather than just simply telling you what to do. Also during this phase, Fullstack helps with your career preparation such as resume building, cleaning up your LinkedIn and Github Profile, interview preparation, whiteboarding sessions, as well as providing a hiring day where many companies come out to see your capstone projects and interview with you. Shanna, who led all this career preparation, has been extremely approachable for career-related questions or advice that I had.

After Fullstack
After graduating, I was fortunate enough to land many interviews within my first week out, some of which came from the hiring day event. Even more fortunately, I accepted a job offer within 3 weeks of graduating. A large part of this success I owe to Fullstack's continued help in which they called "Fullstack Flight". Shanna was integral in helping us by providing us resources for preparing for interviews with coding challenges, and questions, networking and job application advice, and being accessible whenever we had any questions, even when it came down to salary negotiation!

As a side note, Fullstack does an excellent job creating a friendly, personal and down-to-Earth environment from planning weekly events for people to mingle, mentor groups and more. From the Fullstack staff to students, everyone was extremely friendly and open to conversation. I never had any difficulty reaching out to anyone for coding help, not even David or Nimit given their busy schedule managing Fullstack. I personally feel that it was because of this aspect of Fullstack that turned it from a good experience to an amazing one. A million thanks to the entire Fullstack team!

In a nutshell, Fullstack Academy equips students to join an established startup or F500 company as a software engineer with a solid portfolio. For overly-ambitious and hardworking students, you will have all the essential knowledge and mentor support... Read More to bootstrap your own idea. I used the bootcamp as a foundation to break into the Data Scientist profession without spending the time or money to get a quantitative MS or PhD.

Pros:
- Experienced teachers and TAs
- Modern Fullstack JS Curriculum
- Top-notch administrative staff and career support

Cons:
- FiDi location leads to mediocre lunch options (Note: not really a con)

I graduated from the summer 2014 class at Fullstack and I am now working there as a Teaching Fellow. Based on my time here I can confidently say that if you want to quickly learn the skills needed to become a professional software developer, Fullstack... Read More Academy is the best resource you will find.

The program is a unique combination of guided workshops, group and individual projects (in which you build your own apps). This provides just the right combination of fundamentals and practical skills training.

Having also gone through traditional academic channels (undergraduate and graduate engineering degrees from Columbia University), I found this approach much more efficient than that of a typical degree program. Fullstack's approach and exceptional staff were essential to rapidly learning the skills that matter in a job as a developer.

I first realized that I had a passion for coding when working with Excel macros as a Business Analyst. While I thoroughly enjoyed it, I had no idea that I could actually pursue a career change into the development field. I figured that most professional... Read More developers had been coding since childhood and that companies wouldn't hire someone with little to no experience. This all changed when I came across the hot new trend in the development world: immersive software bootcamps.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn about these programs that help non-developers become developers. While I was intrigued by the bootcamps, I felt that the price tags were quite steep, and figured that I would be able to teach myself. I then spent my days working full-time and nights studying as much as I could, but quickly realized that while I was making progress with my studies, it would take forever to learn enough to apply for a job. Although I was concerned that these bootcamps seemed "too good to be true," I was eager to learn more about them, and decided to apply to a few in NYC. I also relished the challenge of putting my new coding skills to test throughout the competitive admissions processes :-P.

Upon being accepted to Fullstack Academy, Nimit reached out to me and spent over an hour answering my questions and addressing any concerns I had. He was extremely candid and helped me assess the pros and cons of attending a bootcamp vs. continuing to learn on my own. I was very impressed with Nimit's patience throughout the conversation as well as the lack of any "sales pitch." After our call, I reached out to some Fullstack alumni to gain students' perspectives and was blown away by the overwhelming praise of Nimit and David. Every single student recommended Fullstack and many claimed that enrolling there was the best decision of their lives.

Fast forward six months and I couldn't agree more. As an employed software developer at an exciting company in NYC (I got a job less than 2 weeks after my program ended), it's hard to imagine that I was struggling to find time to learn the basics of coding only a few months ago. Although I felt that I was capable of learning on my own, there was simply so much to learn and not enough time in the day to view a career change as anything more than a distant possibility. I'm still amazed at how much I've learned and how far I've come in such a short amount of time, and I can say without a doubt that I have Fullstack to thank. I know that all my classmates feel the same way about their experiences as well.

Fullstack offers a unique learning environment that combines a rigorous and challenging hands-on curriculum with a driven, intelligent, and collaborative student body. The pace is quick and intense but also fun and exciting. Nimit, David, and the TAs are all wonderful teachers and always eager to help with any challenges/bugs that students encounter. They care deeply about their students and you can see their enthusiasm and joy as they're teaching.

I highly recommend Fullstack Academy for anyone considering a bootcamp. The excellent curriculum, mentorship and guidance of Nimit/David/TAs, and great friends (and professional contacts) you make throughout the program are truly unique. My time there was easily the most intellectually stimulating and rewarding three months of my life, and I couldn't have asked for more.