Hackbright Academy

It's been a year since a Hackbright graduate posted the last review --and I can still vouch for it. The reviews in Course Report paint a rosy picture because those reviewers' identities are shown. The Cons: 1) It is what you make out of it and you have... Read More to forge your own path to learning at Hackbright. It's the luck of the draw for quality instructors and I felt like my cohort was half lucky. One of the two main instructors we had was a Hackbright graduate, but I liked her the most because of her communication style. She knew her material, taught the lectures and demos well, and was prepared when we asked her questions. Too bad she quit towards the end of our program. Our second main instructor was a CS graduate who was unfortunately unprepared at times and lacked communication and teaching experience. They were all nice people... but whenever the second instructor got stumped by a student's question or got a bug when showing a demo and couldn't troubleshoot it on the spot and then just gave up and moved on to the next topic in the lecture --I would personally feel like I was ripped off as a customer who paid $13K for my education. This is what I mean by forging your own path to learn. My learning experience at Hackbright wasn't perfect. I was lucky to have a boyfriend who is in the tech industry and could help me clear up any confusion from a lecture. You also need to get used to finding information on your own, as it is likely that will happen in the work place anyway. I personally don't feel prepared for an entry level SWE position and will need to self-study after the boot camp. 2) I asked if I could switch cohorts because I didn't feel ready as we were heading into project season. I was told no, but that I could audit courses in the future. As a paying customer who was unhappy with the instruction quality, people should at least be able to choose if they want to be a part of a different cohort. 3) The main person of the Career Outlook team gassed us up too much. I didn't like that she talked down on CS graduates and sugar coated coding boot camp students. As a boot camp student, I would rather hear advice on how to best play my cards when applying to jobs that CS graduates would obviously be more preferred for. The Pro: The community. There are graduates that make it into big roles in the tech industry. It gives hope in the job hunt to know that it is possible. Hackbright does have existing relationships with tech companies. Not all students will benefit from it, but you're lucky if those opportunities align with your interest.

Pros - If you don't know anything and don't mind not learning much for your 1k+/week program, Hackbright is the place for you. Cons- It will be very difficult for you to find a job. After 200 applications, Outcomes will tell you your resume looks great,... Read More keep grinding and to "be prepared for a paycut" - Staff are almost all recent HB grads, not teachers or experienced SWEs. This means they are still learning and are often unable to answer questions outside of a very basic range. Our lead instructor failed out of another bootcamp, did the HB program and was unable to find a job so they hired her to be a lead instructor. That is the quality of instruction you can expect.- Hackbright will not protect your financial information. A student's full name, address, and bank information were "unintentionally" emailed to another student. I'm not sure that they notified that student, which they are required by CA law to do. - Instructors frequently did not understand their own demos. More than once admitted that they hadn't reviewed the slides prior to lecture. - Curriculum is poorly thought out, incomplete, and lacks appropriate confirmatory work. - Slides, homework, and assessments are riddled with meaning-altering errors. When students complained, we were told "you should have seen how bad it used to be" - Help is unavailable during queue hours. Hackbright says wait times of up to 30 minutes are acceptable. Many, many students including myself waited hours or days for help that never came on multiple occasions. HB acknowledges that this was unacceptable but didn't do anything to solve it.- Staff frequently complained of being overworked, being busy with other cohorts, or being too tired to participate in scheduled queue times or to give full effort during lectures. - You will be held back by the slowest learners in your cohort during project season. No help for projects was available until after every student completed their data models, which took almost a full week. - Zero support for project demos for Windows users - Watch out if you are trans of nonbinary, you will consistently be misgendered and brushed off- Assessments are not graded in a timely fashion. We waited FIVE WEEKS for one assessment to be graded and 2+ weeks for all but one other. If you are doing something wrong, you won't know until the program ends and good luck teaching yourself at that point. Hackbright admits this has been a problem "for some time" but has done nothing to fix it. - Use old tech. Who still uses vagrant? - Instructors encouraged anyone who was ahead to use React for their projects, then refused to support the students using React, using the excuse that it is not part of the curriculum - then why did you tell us to use it??? I can teach myself a new framework with no help or resources on my own time.- Hackbright took a full month to do an "investigation" of our experience and determined that it was in line with what they promise and intend to deliver.

really great to be in a group of women, all trying to do something difficult- change careers pros: - the instructors really care and want us to learn and are willing to go above and beyond to help us, even staying after hours - there are varying levels... Read More of expertise among the TAs and instructors, but there is always someone who can help, no matter what the issue is - great experience building a full-stack web app as well as giving a lightning talk cons: - career services has been spotty, with some people being difficult to reach - given the importance of testing in the workforce, more emphasis may be helpful - it has been difficult to get help in a timely manner, especially during project season

Pros: - I participated in a remote session due to COVID-19. Even though the staff, my cohort mates, and I were remote, a strong sense of community was fostered among the women. Hackbright was thoughtful and intentional in choosing Discord as the platform... Read More for communication. - Teaching staff were great. The lead instructor was always able to answer my questions. If a TA was unable to answer my question, then she would look into the question on her off time and get back to me. - Most weekends they give an assessment of what was covered that week. Every assessment took me a long time, but I'm grateful for them because working on the assessments was when a lot of the concepts really clicked. - The last 6 weeks are dedicated to working on a full-stack web application. Cons: - The careers service team was difficult to get a hold of and would convey different information. This was brought to Hackbrights attention. Hackbright was responsive to student complaints and reform is underway, so hopefully, this won't is an issue with future cohorts. - My cohort size was on the larger side with about 35~37 students.

The program is 12 weeks, which is a great length and didn’t feel like too long to put my life on pause. The instructors were encouraging and welcoming. No question asked was ever viewed as a “stupid” question. My cohort was particularly encouraging and... Read More we just wanted to see everyone succeed. Our cohort was online due to the pandemic - I would’ve preferred in person but couldn’t pass this opportunity up. The major con of this 12 week program is that sometimes you only spend a day or so on a language, which makes it hard to digest because you don’t get much time to practice before moving on.

I recommend this to anyone who’s interested in programming but doesn’t know where to start. They have a great structure, course materials and support. Exercises and homework are fun and challenging. Instructors are very kind yet motivating and encouraging.... Read More Instead of just teaching, they make you think how to approaches problems etc. and not just give you answers. They also did a great job creating an environment that encouraged students to support each other. I don’t normally like working in a group but I was very grateful that they make you do pair programming. Not only can you learn so much from your partner but also it stimulates your own thought process. If you’re looking for a starter course that’s challenging but in an friendly environment, this is it! Thank you Hackbright!

Hackbright Prep is a 5-week, part-time course in the fundamentals of Python, with lectures, pair programming exercises, and assignments each week. Absolute pros: - Part time so not as heavy a time commitment if you're not sure about where a full time... Read More program may fit into your life - A great group of women alongside you each class who are supportive of each other - Instructors create an environment in which you can ask questions comfortably - Coursework prepares you for your final project, with resources available for you to go above and beyond the requirements of the project should you want to do so - Time set aside outside of lecture time to speak with instructors about questions from the course content to applying to the full program I'm grateful for the community at Hackbright, even if it was just a few weeks in which I had the chance to meet with this peer group. Their staff makes the process of learning comfortable, yet do push you to work past any difficulties and mistakes along the way so that you're capable of making a useful Python web application.

I had the most wonderful experience during the prep course. The instructors were knowledgeable and always willing to further explain concepts. Not once did I ever feel like I couldn't learn something. It was the perfect environment where I felt supported... Read More and nurtured to grow. I also really enjoyed the pair programming style of the course, it was really helpful for my learning style.

Biggest Pro: The staff are extremely friendly and the overall environment and culture are incredible. With the exception fo the career team (which clearly have issues with the rest of the staff internally as well) the overall experience and receptiveness... Read More of the staff is unfounded. <3 Biggest Con: The career team doesn't provide much more than a few repeat slide shows that could have been made from *any* medium article on tech job interviews. They don't respond to messages and the aren't accountable or professional when addressed with concerns. If you're COMPLETELY new to the tech scene they will have some decent information but nothing you can't get with a quick google. The support around demo night and company communication is poor at best. They have 0 inclination to prepare students for conversations with companies at demo night -- only offering possible attendees hours before with no room for prep. Interactions with the career team were the most stressful part of this bootcamp. I'm sure it's different being remote, but I would stress to anyone who attends to push themselves to be over communicative and involved in slack/discord. The connections you make with other students is what will get you through when you're stuck on a problem or lesson. Most of the teachers are TA's so if you get the one with industry experience as your personal advisor you are fortunate. Cohort was the only one to make a private server on discord to chat freely around the issues we were having in the course and it opened it up for people to connect more easily. Strongly suggest doing this. This is an amazing bootcamp and I still believe it's the best one a woman joining the industry can attend, purely because of the people it attracts as students. The more involved in the community you are the more fun you will have! The coursework is enough to be challenging but not enough to drown you. My advice is to trust yourself. If you feel like you know what's right for your capstone project then do it. Your advisor and TA's are good people but they are managing a lot and likely won't remember the last advice they gave you for project direction or being paying very close attention. If you don't like how something is be VOCAL. Write emails to your advisor and program director. If you're having an issue I guarantee many people are/have and the staff are happy to accommodate but cannot do so without anything written.

I did the Python Prep Course online, and I was not coming from a tech background at all (some participants were from a tech/IT background, but were new to Python). I really think this was a great course for all of the different levels of experience, though... Read More it made the pair programming challenging sometimes when you were matched with someone with wildly different skills/background. The instructor was solid and was willing to connect during office hours every week. Some of the lectures seemed crazy fast/full and others seemed almost too slow/light. So, maybe a better balance in the curriculum would help. The best part is being with a group of all women who are similar to you in their learning and journey. That is powerful, and helps with not feeling like a fish out of water all the time. A slightly smaller cohort (we were about 30 online, I think) might also help since sometimes there were more questions during office hours/class than could be answered. Overall, a great experience, though.