Fullstack Academy

Fullstack has been one of the best decisions I made in my life. All the instructors were not only knowledgeable of all the concepts in the curriculum, but they were all very compassionate in helping every student grow their skillset in coding.

Fullstack... Read More is split into three separate phases: Foundations, Junior Phase, and Senior Phase. Foundations is 5 weeks long and is primarily self-paced. You are given online video lectures, weekly assignments, and checkpoint tests throughout the course of those five weeks. This phase is primarily self paced and helps reinforce advanced JavaScript concepts like functional programming, recursion, and closure, which will be useful to know in Junior and Senior phase.

Junior phase is 6 weeks long at the Fullstack campus. About half of each day are live lectures, and the other half are pair programming workshops. Pair programming was one of the best learning experiences I had at Fullstack. Not only do you learn more about each person in your class, but you acquire knowledge from your time working with each individual (i.e. setting up your code editor to be more efficient when coding, understanding the Github workflow, keyboard shortcuts, organizing your code in a DRY manner, etc.). Pair programming is also reflective of how programmers code in their day job and is one of the fastest ways to really learn the technology taught for that day.

Senior phase is also 6 weeks long on campus, but focused primarily in building three projects, an E-Commerce website, a personal project, and a Capstone project. Both the E-Commerce website and Capstone project are built in teams of three or four people, and really help you learn how to work agile. The personal project helps you learn new sets of technologies outside the Fullstack curriculum to build a project you're passionate in and want to highlight in your portfolio. I built a Pokemon Augmented Reality game.

At the end of my 17 week long journey at Fullstack, I was picked as one of the three Teaching Fellows to help teach the next incoming cohort of students. Being a Teaching Fellow added another level of coding experience that was invaluable. Not only did I have another 3 months of reinforcing all the concepts I learned from Fullstack, but also was given the opportunity to teach these concepts to incoming students. I also helped manage senior project teams to be more agile, and conducted daily stand up meetings. I am happy to say that after 1.5 weeks from graduating as a Teaching Fellow at Fullstack, I will be accepting a Software Dev. Engineer role at Expedia.

If you are passionate in growing your coding career and want a quality curriculum, please consider Fullstack. If you are worried about the large expense, there are free information sessions, bootcamp prep, web development workshops, and other resources to give you a taste of what you may expect at Fullstack, and see if it is a worthy investment for yourself

The instructors are extremely knowledgable and the program is very well organized. I'm amazed at how much I've learned over the 14 weeks onsite and 3 weeks online (in preparation for onsite). I'm not new to software development, but this program offered... Read More breadth and depth that I've never experienced on the job or in graduate school.
Workshops and exams were almost always challenging. Emphasis on Test Driven Design and on pair programming was very well done. Individual and group projects were great learning experiences as well. The career success team has set me up for a disciplined and focused job search.
I would recommend this program to anyone interested in going deep on the latest software development technologies.

I still cannot believe how well designed and executed this program is. The curriculum is current and continuously being updated to ensure that it meets market needs and delivers the most cutting edge skill set. This is taken very seriously, so you can... Read More trust that what you're learning has been well thought out and planned. The structure of the curriculum itself is conducive to learning a lot in a short amount of time, which is largely driven by a perfect balance between lectures and immediately applying what you learned in workshops both individually and in pairs. In addition, the second half of this program is entirely dedicated to working on multi-day and multi-week projects to reinforce everything you learned prior and build on top of that knowledge. This not only results in knowing the stack very well, but more importantly, being able to independently learn new technologies and know how and when to apply them.

The quality of the instruction blew me away, truly. Shoutout to Geoff, Omri and Dakota! Way better than any professor I ever had at university. All teachers have a deep knowledge of the stack they're teaching and know how to break down complex concepts and explain them clearly and concisely. Every lecture is well planned and delivered. Teachers are patient and 110% committed to ensuring every student succeeds. In fact, the entire staff at Fullstack is wholly committed to going above and beyond to meet each student's needs.

The last 2 weeks have a huge focus on ensuring students are ready to start searching for jobs on the right foot upon completing the program. There is an entire career services team dedicated solely to this and whether you want to or not, they will make sure you are ready to job hunt. They will help with Linkedin, resume, portfolio, interview prep, and probably anything else you ask.

As many reviews on here already mention, all of the above is contingent on you working very hard. There is only so much a bootcamp can do. Ultimately, you need to mentally prepare yourself for an intense but highly rewarding experience. Overall, highly recommend!

Amazing bootcamp. Having come from a computer science background I thought that it would be easy, that was not the case. The courses were well taught, so much so that the students without any computer science background were on par with myself. The people... Read More there were also so helpful and amazing. I highly recommend this bootcamp to anyone who is interested in a bootcamp, it is clearly a cut above the rest.

Fullstack was truly an amazing experience and I would recommend it to anyone. Coming in with almost no computer science background, I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up. The instructional team went above and beyond to ensure that I understood the... Read More material and provided every resource I could possibly need to succeed. If you are considering attending a bootcamp, Fullstack should be at the top of your list.

I was in the October 2017 cohort. It’s been over 6 months since we graduated the program, and I’ve tracked the progress of almost everyone from my cohort — maybe 50% max have been able to find jobs in the industry with an average salary of around $50-60k/year... Read More (estimates taken from Paysa and Glassdoor). The rest have mostly returned to their old jobs or moved in with their parents.

Most of the instructors were people who had gone through the bootcamp themselves and had zero real-world software engineering experience. We spent a majority of the time pair programming i.e., having concepts explained to you by people who understand web development possibly even less than you do.

Most of the few people I know who did manage to get decent jobs either had prior experience or a CS degree. Fullstack pestered those people nonstop to respond to the job survey in order to pad their stats and simply didn’t send the survey to anyone didn’t get a job. These bootcamps are constantly churning out people with near-identical resumes and skill sets, so expect there to be a lot of competition in the job market.

I fell for the reviews and really regret spending the $17k that I’ll never get back. There are infinitely better ways to learn software engineering on your own, through books, online tutorials and YouTube videos. Don’t make the same mistake I did.

I've graduated from Fullstack Academy Web Development Fellowship, the program sponsored by NYC Tech Talent Pipeline.

I have an awesome experience with FS, like the most of it graduates and here is why:

Instructors are outstanding. A lot of people complain... Read More that instructors in bootcamps are often don't have much experience in real-world development. It's not the case with FS. First of all, because they do have not only experienced but PASSIONATE teachers. I won't speak for everybody, but give a shout out to Corey Greenwald and Dan Soval who were my instructors. Experience in web development multiplied by the natural ability for outstanding public speaking and great desire to teach other people => that's the recipe to engage you in solving the problems every day, every hour, think about code when you go to sleep and wake up because of the dreams about code. Sure it's information waterfall brings you to that state of the mind, but instructors make this crazy state ENJOYABLE and ENCOURAGING. They really care about you and want you to learn. Thanks Corey and Dan!
Curriculum. It's awesome. Why?
No spread of tech. You need to master your JavaScript before you go further or you'll have a total mess in your head. All stack is based in JS: React.js, Node.js, and other supporting frameworks. If you didn't do development before it's even hard to imagine how COOL is to write your front and back end using THE SAME language. Sure there may certain trade-offs, but it's the fastest way to learn FULL STACK for a beginner.
They listen to the trends. The curriculum is always updating. My cohort was going through the workshops and some of them will be replaced for the next cohort. They curriculum evolve synchronously with the tech trends.
Hands-on experience. You always writing code, even if you don't really understand the topic. A theory was for self-learning and even lectures were mostly based on live code writing sessions.
You work either in a pair or in a group. Only a few assignments were individual. That's how you would work in real life, right? You won't be a lone wolf, you should always communicate, that's the key for learning and for life.
They keep you in shape with checkpoints and exams. No slackers, you gotta work and code to learn something.
Competetive admission. No random unmotivated people, everyone was crazy about learning stuff.
No asshole rules. They were really monitored and enforced.
Support not only in your learning but also in life. It's hard to learn to code from scratch in a short period of time. You will be exhausted, unfocused or tired sometimes. You may think that you stupid or can't learn as fast as your teammates. But they have a special counselor who can help you to overcome such psychological barriers and instructors are always caring and attentive.
Fellows!!!!!!!! Fellows are awesome, that's recent Fullsatck Alums who employed by FS to help you overcome technical challenges and be awesome. They like your older brothers and sisters who will take care of you if you lost :)
Career counseling. The job market is a MARKET. Nobody can guarantee you employment (unless US Army is paying for your education). But you can learn how not to suck in the job search. And FS is fulfilling this. They have a special time in the program dedicated to hiring activities. They teach you how to LinkedIn, write a resume, cover letters, provide you with sessions with a personal career counselor and ongoing support even AFTER graduation. (Like negotiation)
Ability to apply for a FS fellowship. Later to the end of the program, you can apply for the fellowship and become the older brother/sister I mentioned before. It is competitive but most of the people are happy with it, teaching others to solidify acquired skills and give you more confidence in a job search.
Social activities. It may sound silly, but they are VERY important. You spend the time with the people who an in similar circumstances but may be very different than you. Social activities (like a hot seat :) made our cohort solid like a rock and caring for each other.
Reflection. Each week instructors seat in a circle with students and listen to all your complaints and kudos. And they really listen and change stuff! That's amazing for every organization, but not every organization do this.
To draw a line I just want to add that if you want to change your life, change your career FS is definitely what you need.

In Fullstack Academy you will not only to learn how to write code, but how to become the better version of yourself, how to learn to communicate with other people.

Fullstack Academy's part-time Flex immersive was one of the most wonderful, worthwhile, and challenging experiences of my life. While there were some things that could be improved about the course, I can wholeheartedly say that everyone there is dedicated,... Read More intelligent, and fantastic. If you're thinking of applying to Fullstack, don't hesitate--you won't regret it!

Application

Applying to Fullstack was fairly straightforward. After filling out an online form and taking an online assessment, I was then contacted for a one-on-one interview with a teaching fellow. The interview consisted of two parts--behavioral and technical. Don't sweat the technical interview. They're not looking for experts, but rather that you have a good grasp of the fundamentals and can handle instruction/feedback if you get stuck.

Do not go in with 0 experience first, though. You need to, at minimum, understand the basics of JavaScript: variables, functions, arrays, loops, objects, conditionals, some recursion, etc. If you're on Code Wars, you should be able to solve level 6 problems with some regularity.

The Class

The Flex immersive runs twice a week in-person and one weekend a month. A block of time is set aside for remote work/homework on Wednesdays, though there is no lecture during this time. The class runs across two phases: a junior phase, which consists mostly of lectures and workshops, and a senior phase, which is when you'll build applications from scratch.

Eric Katz, the lead Flex instructor, is funny, insightful, and an all-around great guy. He's a brilliant engineer and teacher, and you'll be glad to have him as your mentor.

The curriculum itself is challenging and trying--as it should be. Initially, I had panicked and thought I'd fail, but I realized quickly that I'd be okay so long as I put in the time and effort. Every concept you learn in the curriculum is then reinforced in senior phase, which is when you go from a newbie to a software engineer by building real apps--from a shopping website to your own hackathon project to a fully realized final project.

The curriculum was supplmented by weekend projects Eric assigned, which helped us learn to build projects from scratch far earlier than senior phase.

Career Success

The career success team is great. They provide lectures on interviewing, networking, salary negotiation, and so on. But the lectures are the least of what they do.

First, they organize Launch Day--an event where companies looking for graduates come to the campus and interview students in a "speed dating" style event. Though I wound up not going with any of the Launch Day companies, I did gain several good leads there. It's also a great event and a good introduction to tech interviews.

More importantly, they provide you with actual support during your job search. Jackie Ore, in particular, provided tremendous support during salary negotiations--something that had always terrified me in the past.

Cons

The only cons I'd say are that--at times--the Flex program did not feel like it was part of Fullstack Academy. For example, the curriculum frequently mentions deadlines for the full-time students, a source of confusion for us at times. It also felt sometimes as if the full-time staff had forgotten us. I'm sure this wasn't the case, but occasional checkins through all 6 months of the program would have helped.

Aside from these minor issues, I wholeheartedly recommend Fullstack Academy. If you put in the work, you'll definitely succeed. Two months after graduating, I accepted a job offer to work as a software developer. :-)

I'm a graduate of FSA and it was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life. The program isn't just designed to teach you to become a (better) developer, it's also designed to help you become a better teammate, public speaker, life-long... Read More learner, and leader.

I came into the program already having some experience with web development and I needed help advancing my career. Even though I had some experience already, I still needed to do a some JS studying before getting accepted. They offer a JavaScript prep course that many people in my cohort took and it worked well for them so if you don't have a coding background already, I would highly recommend that. If there's one thing I give FSA a lot of credit for is that they do a very good job at testing/interviewing candidates before they're accepted. I'm not sure about other cohorts but I was so impressed with every single person in mine not only by their abilities but also their kindness. FSA isn't kidding when they say they have a 'no a-hole' rule.

The program itself is very fast paced and it isn't intended for you to learn everything you could possibly know about softeware development but it does teach you everything you need to know to be successful. You'll learn how to learn and this is the best quality you could possibly have as a developer. Frameworks will come in and out of style but having the ability to learn quickly and apply knowledge is very powerful. Of course, like most things, you can only get out of it what you put into it. They treat you like an adult which means if you're not asking questions or putting in the effort in projects or exercises, they aren't going to chase after you. You need to make the effort.

FSA is also very attunded to what you'll need in order to get attention in the job market afterwards. The senior phase allows you to build projects, explore new technologies (this will help you stand out from other students), get guidance on your resume and interviewing practice. I was particularly impressed with the career guidance I was given by Holly who made me feel like she would literally drop everything to help me if I had a question. I just never expected to get such personalized attention after I graduated but the staff really made me feel like my success mattered to them.

I think the big question everyone has is what it was like during the job search for me. My experience probably isn't going to be what other graduates experienced because I could lean on my background in web dev a bit but by week five, I had two job offers with a third very close. One of those job offers came from a company that attended our Launch Day (previously called Hiring Day). I know there were a few other students who got offers from other Launch Day companies so it's a valuable event that should definitely be taken seriously.

That's not to say those offers came easy though. I didn't take any time off after graduation (which is what they recommend) and rarely took any weekends off too (mostly spent that time doing take-home projects and studying). There were many many applications, cover letters, interviews, take-home projects, and a lot of anxious nights. It takes some hustling and, as good as the FSA program and career counseling is, it's entirely up to you to land that job.

Overall, I have very little criticism of the entire program. It was an incredible journey all the way from the initial application to getting that first job offer. Entirely worth it.