Fullstack Academy

This one was one of the best experiences I've had in my adult life. Sounds dramatic, but working with full stack helped me to reawaken the potential from inside of myself that I have not felt since college. Enrolling in FSA was the first step of my career... Read More change into software engineering. The admissions process was tougher than I expected. New students must have a firm grasp of javascript basics, and must pass a coding assessment and interview process to be placed in a cohort. The pace is described as "drinking from a firehose", which sounds intimidating, but is really a blessing in disguise. The staff is very supportive, and students are assigned to Fellows for more individualized help and feedback. I started to fall behind at certain points of the program, but the instructors recognized the pattern, and provided additional resources and weekend lectures to help me catch up. The fast pace really helps to instill confidence in students when it comes to learning new technology. In 12 weeks, I would say I learned at least 15 new technologies. This has built my confidence to the point where I feel that I can handle learning any new tech in just a few days. The post-graduate career success team has been wonderful to work with. There is constant support, and weekly meets to share resources, thoughts, concerns, and successes during the job search. It is a pricy program, but the personal growth, and networking opportunities are well worth it in my opinion. I even stayed on to serve as a Teaching Fellow myself. The experience has been very rewarding.

Fullstack Academy (FSA) transformed me from a beginner of almost zero coding experience to a full-time employed full-stack developer within 10 months. To clarify, the 10 months cover pre-bootcamp preparation, self-paced foundation phase, immersive junior... Read More and senior phases (the main body of FAS), and 3 months of job hunting after graduation. My program focused on web development; the curriculum covered a up-to-date set of full-stack languages and technologies, including Javascript, React, Node.js, Postgresql, and Express. On top of that, the program also strongly encouraged students to explore languages and technologies outside the curriculum through solo and team projects. In my case, my team and I also learned AWS, React Native, Xcode, among many other tools. Although there are always more new technologies to learn, the stack on FSA's curriculum turned out very useful and practical in the current market. In my case, the core technologies and tools I will use for my job are those I learned from FSA. Besides the tech stack, I was able to build three projects, which will constitute an important part of my resumes in the job market. Moreover, FSA operated the program using the method of Agile software development, which is widely used in the tech industry. My classmates and I practiced pair-programming throughout the immersive phases and the pairing changed every single time to make sure most students got to work together. We also built projects starting from writing a user story, to diagraming workflow and using Github Kanban, to attending daily stand-ups and weekly code reviews, and to a final presentation. All these practices prepared me well for the real working environment. The instructors at FSA are AWESOME! My cohort (2009 => 20 means 2020 and 09 means September, I know, it took me a while to figure this out) started during the pandemic. As a previous teacher myself, I totally understand the difficulties to teach online. However, FSA instructors did a wonderful job. They structured their lectures in a clear way. They were knowledgable, attentive and patient. They constantly checked in on everyone and were very willing to pause and answer any questions. Additionally, they all have different personalities, and made the lectures engaging, interesting, and funny in their own ways. (Jessica Bracht, Natalie Lane, Bienvenido Rodriguez, Travis Stratton, and Finn Terdal, thank you so much for being patient and caring!) I also benefited from the fellow system at FSA. Every 6-7 students at FSA were assigned with a teaching fellow who usually graduated a cohort ahead. Our fellow organized group lunch every week to get together, to discuss everyone's process and struggles, to share strategies and resources, and also simply to chat and to get to know each other. My fellow Bobby Ton was super encouraging and supportive throughout the entire process. He was there to support me when my laptop broke down in the middle of the bootcamp, and he also wrote a wonderful recommendation letter for me after my graduation. (Thank you, Bobby! You are the best!) FAS career assistance started during our senior phase and fully kicked in after our graduation. Career advisors gave talks on every crucial steps in job hunting. They also provided one-on-one meetings to help me prepare resume, linkedIn profile, and also a pitch speech (Thank you for helping me and supporting me, Dezzi Rae Marshall). Although I found it hard to do all this while working on my senior projects, it is good to just start. After graduation, they selected and regularly send out job opportunities, job fairs, and various events related to job hunting. I found this very helpful and the two job offers I got were both from the events my career advisor recommended. Moreover, it was very convenient to book a one-on-one meeting with my career advisor to discuss literally anything about job hunting. I discussed with my career advisor to speed up my application, report my progress and figure out what's working and what's not, prepare interviews, and negotiate salary. In addition, the career advisors also reached out to FSA alumni to organized panels, pair newly graduated students with experiences alumni to provide mentorship, and they also offer meditation sessions! (Thank you so much for always being there for me throughout the job hunting process, Trent Rhodes!) I highly recommend FSA. As I said in my title, FSA is an awesome program that is worth your time and money. If I have to say anything for improvement, I wish the class size were smaller and there were more guidances on the Async week. Perhaps these would not have been issues if it were not for the pandemic. Oh oh, one last request, please consider adding digital accessibility into the curriculum!

I really enjoyed the bootcamp, but I was definitely a special case as I was awarded a full-tuition scholarship which heavily influenced my decision to attend. The instruction was top-notch, and my cohort was mostly professional and hard-working. The skills... Read More you'll learn are valuable and marketable, but competition in the job market is intense, and you may struggle after the bootcamp. Most bootcamp grads will find a job in their industry in 6 months to a year after graduating. So, make sure you're in this for the long haul. The only negatives I can think of are that you could potentially leave the bootcamp without any notable projects on your resume. So, work hard to make every project a resume worthy one. You can also revisit them afterward to polish them up. It may also take some commitment on evenings and weekends to really create something impressive, especially in the second half (senior phase) of the bootcamp. Don't get burned out, but give it everything you can so that you're not disappointed after graduating. I did not heavily use career services, but found a job after 6 months anyway. It's a personal decision of how much you use what they have to offer, and personal opinion on how helpful you perceive it to be. Best of luck if you attend, we're nearing the end of Covid, but returning to in person classes in the future may be possible. I attended the bootcamp fully remote in the summer of 2020.

I graduated from Fullstack's Web Development Fellowship in July 2020 (shout out to WDF-2004!!!). I'm currently set to begin an internship this summer at a company that aligns well with my values and interests and will stretch my knowledge and experience... Read More of languages and tools I was exposed to at Fullstack. I had the privilege to begin the bootcamp prep in person with those who would be my cohort mates in January 2020 under the instruction of Sarah Zhao (who is so amazing at what she does). Post-lockdown, the program went remote but smoothly with Orlando Caraballo and Julissa Napoletano as our instructors. They provided a nice balance in the course of or class week, were very encouraging, and kept our learning fun. Retrospectives and check-ins with Oscar Robles were absolutely necessary for us as we were all experiencing the strain of being in lockdown and also the stress and trauma of social injustices happening around us. The curriculum was intense but taught us the full NERDS (Node.js, Express, React & Redux, and Databases using SQL) stack. We got to complete some fun workshops, pair program with our peers, and build some amazing projects during the senior (last) phase of the program. Those projects helped me when interviewing because I was excited to talk about what I've been able to build because of Fullstack. Career Success services and our Flight (post-grad) program were great and definitely instrumental in my job search success. Special thank you to Jolie Dudley, Trent Rhodes, and my remote coach Laura McClernon for being such an instrumental part in my job search and interview readiness prep. You feedback and support were invaluable. Overall, my experience at Fullstack was AMAZING and I would highly recommend them to anyone interested in Web Development. The Web Development Fellowship (WDF), which is in partnership with the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline, is quite competitive but allows you a tuition-free education with the same curriculum as a normal Fullstack student.

I decided to go with FSA because of my sister. Seeing what she built and how quickly she learned things in such a short amount of time was the push I needed to change careers. The course is split up in 2 parts: Junior and Senior. Junior: This is where... Read More you build your foundation with tons of pair programming and gaining the fundamentals. The tech stack: Node.js, express, React, React-redux, PostgreSQL. Senior: 2 projects consisting of 4 teams to expose you to a team environment and to put what you learned in Junior Phase to the test. The course ends with you presenting your capstone as well as launch day where you meet with 2-3 companies and then have the opportunity to speak with more on the open floor. It's a surreal experience. Career Department: I want to shoutout the whole department with providing resources and tirelessly looking for leads. I especially want to shoutout Trent Rhodes who's positivity was instrumental to making it through the applying process. In short, FSA is a perfect way to get your foot in the software engineering world and provides the tools necessary to succeed. My advice is to utilize all the things FSA has to offer, that means frequent meetings with your advisors! Be persistent and keep coding on friends!

I applied to Fullstack Academy though the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline for a chance at a fellowship opportunity. With a degree in computer science and the terrible market due to the corona virus, I knew it was going to take a lot more to stand out. That and... Read More in today's age, a CS degree holds little weight compared to practical skill in today's climate. Anyway, I applied, went through a bootcamp to learn the fundamentals of JavaScript. I had to take a midterm and a final to get a shot at the actual curriculum. In the curriculum we learned advanced JS concepts, frontend and backend frameworks and in the final weeks of the program we had 3 incredible projects in our portfolio. From my experience at FS, I can say that if I could do it all over again I'd go down the bootcamp route instead of getting a degree!! Shout out to Fila, a TA at the bootcamp. He has such an amazing way of teaching and would be available on days he was off! Definitely made me want to give back to the community in a more significant way.

I applied to Fullstack on recommendation from a couple of friends who are developers. I had looked into 2 other highly respected bootcamps as well, but was not interested in the hours they offered. Fullstack is 5 days a week 9-6, while the other two were... Read More something like 9-8 M-F and 10-5 or so on Sat. Perhaps they end up covering more at the other schools, but I'm not certain. I knew that I would need to get enough rest, and that I would probably have enough to study on the weekends anyways, which was certainly the case. In addition, I liked that FS has a large alumni base and I felt like I was joining a large network.

The application process was pretty smooth, and included a live pair programming algorithm over Zoom or Skype. I was excited to be accepted, and had to begin the pre-course which was online, at your own pace with weekly deadlines and mini-tests called checkpoints. Most of the pre-course was targeted at improving your javascript skills and didn't include any frameworks or any type of work with stacks. After 3 weeks or so of that, the on-location portion began in NYC. It was exciting to be back in a learning environment, and I had been out of school since 2005. It was also energizing to be surrounded by many other people who were making a career change and were eager to learn. Unfortunately, we were on location for only a week (or two?) because of COVID, but I was extremely pleased at how well everything worked in a remote setting.

The 13 on-location weeks are split into two phases. The first, called junior phase is essentially learning the core stack. Node, Express, Sequelize, React, Redux. Then there is a week off with limited assignments, and a god chance to relax and review. The second phase is essentially putting everything we learned into practice, and prepping for the job hunt. I was surprised at how robust their career coaching was from resume reviews, interview practice, etc. I came out of the program a transformed person, and was fortunate to land a job within 2.5 months of graduating.

I chose Fullstack Academy for my bootcamp because of the emphasis on cultivating a positive community, the highly relevant JavaScript tech stack, and the strength of its reputation and network in NYC. It definitely lived up to my expectations in those... Read More areas. The instructors were super knowledgeable and took our learning and experience seriously. Even though COVID forced the program to be fully remote, by the end it felt like a new family. The curriculum has really nailed the balance of lecture time with solo workshops and paired programming/group work, and there's a good natural progression of building on tools and concepts that really helps a TON of skills and knowledge sink in over a pretty short time. The career success team is a real blessing- they have so much advice to share and really put their all into supporting graduates on their job search. There is so much valuable coaching on networking, professional communication, and career growth, which feels almost like you've taken a whole extra course, which you might not realize or understand the value of when you're deciding to apply to a bootcamp. Bootcamps in general have their downsides and it's no walk in the park to find a junior developer job in these times, but I was pleasantly surprised after graduation by how seriously we are taken by recruiters and companies. As far as I can compare Fullstack to other top-tier bootcamps, I think we got the best of all worlds, with the most time spent on the most relevant and desirable tech stack possible, in a fun environment that challenges you but also deliberately avoids the overly intense and cut-throat atmosphere that I have heard students in other top bootcamps can struggle with. Fullstack should be your choice if you want a positive and engaged social environment while you learn, you're ready to make use of their strong professional network after graduation, and you're going to hold yourself accountable for pushing yourself to get the most out of it without external pressures like being cut from the program if you don't keep up, which is known to happen at other bootcamps.

This program is hand down the best coding academy out there. It provides hands on experience from some of the best professors. With the software provided by Fullstack academy, I was given full resources to learn comfortably. I was able to get a job from... Read More this bootcamp with starting salary of $70,000 from a fortune 500 company.

I was starting with simple test about any programming language usage. After that I've got an invitation to attend one week JavaScript course for free. Then it was preparation to the course at home and final exam to get started bootcamp junior phase. The... Read More process was so excited that I did not think a lot and made a start.
The advantages of this course are very talented teachers, with many years experience in the industry. Smart Curriculum, it means you step by step learn how to make things starting from front-end and ends of back-end. You will try to get some technologies by yourself and make a project on it. You will aware about additional tools for developers that helps to host and control you work. Data structures and algorithms is a big plus as well.