Hackbright Academy

i unequivocally recommend hackbright to anyone who is lucky enough to have the chance to participate in the program. the instructors (Judith, Ashley, Marisa, Meggie, Rome, Hayley, and Annie) were phenomenal; the coursework was challenging, educational... Read More and fun; the community before, during, and after is bar none; and i am so totally beyond satisfied with my experience in the program. the three months fly by, so if you do it i would recommend participating to the best of your ability throughout the whole program. ❤️ THANK YOU HACKBRIGHT ❤️

Pros: Very good class size. The cohort is divided into fours groups with designated advisor. The curriculum is well-structured with both lectures and projects.
Cons: The pacing is too fast and intensive. There's not enough time for the 2nd project or practice... Read More for data structure and algorithms.

Pros:
1) The sense of community is so strong. The feeling of togetherness/sisterhood is so supportive and welcoming. It was a safe place to learn and be vulnerable if any of us were struggling with any of the course material or personal life issues. The... Read More cohort was always there to support each of us and even the staff members, if we could!
2) The amount of material that they cover can be overwhelming, but they give you all that you need to build your own app. You build your own app; It's not a group project. Companies generally want to see code samples but won't accept group work, so building your app helps for the job search. The give out an extensive amount of extra material for further reading, studying, and growth if a student wanted to concentrate on ML, front-end development, site reliability, etc.
3) Each student is assigned 2 mentors who are volunteers in the software engineering field that dedicate a minimum of an hour week each to help the student learn or with career coaching.
4) The staff are extremely passionate about the mission to change the ratio. Their hearts really get poured into each cohort and each student.
5) I have heard from some managers that Hackbright produces some of the highest quality boot camp grads. The name recognition of Hackbright goes a long way.
6) For most cohorts, I have heard (and experienced) a sense of this being a team effort. Everyone is cheering others on to get a job, as opposed to other places that might feel like a more cutthroat culture.
7) The alum network is awesome.
8) They arrange a demo night and career fair specifically for Hackbright grads, which is super helpful in the job search.
9) The field trips to visit potential employers is super fun and informational!

Cons:
1) I have heard from other engineers that they feel the curriculum could use an update.
2) At times the staff can be unorganized, but I believe that was due to them being understaffed before. It is my understanding that they took that feedback seriously and hired more staff members.
3) Back when this was in-person classes, they provided snacks on Friday afternoons (yay!), but I would say 60-70% of the time dietary restrictions were not taken into account or forgotten. (I assume this was from being understaffed at the time)
4) Because there are students from all sorts of backgrounds in the work force, some of the career coaching can feel like unnecessary review if you have worked in the Recruiting, HR, or tech industry before.

I really liked the software engineering prep-course. I will be taking the full course next class available. Teachers were great, content was all new to me but I was able to learn it fast with the resources and classes provided. I recommend the course... Read More to anyone that might be interested in seeing if this field is the right field for them. I am looking forward to the full time course!

I have only done the Python prep course but my experience with HB so far has been awesome! The staff is incredibly friendly and they do a great job of creating a warm and welcoming environment for those that are new to tech like me. I am looking forward... Read More to taking the full time program this summer and using their resources to help me find a job in the future.

Hackbright Academy is one of the pinnacle events in my life and really shaped my career.

Was it hard?
Yes it was hard, but trust me, you don't want to go to an easy bootcamp. It's pretty common to hear that you get out of this what you put into it and that's... Read More 100% true. The problems and assignments given to you in this bootcamp set you up to be prepared for a realistic job. Not just the correct syntax either, I mean at first it's about syntax and muscle memory, but by the end you understand why you are making certain choices. Which, also sets you up to be a great problem solver in the future. But you really need to be invested in your work.

How long did it take you to find a job?
My first day at my new job was about two months after I graduated, but it really varies for each person. One of my classmates got a job within a month and another classmate took a year. There were some good connections and potential routes for me that came up from the demo night at the end of the course, but I ended up finding a position that really matched me as a person from other sources. I'm an artist and a techie, so I was looking for a place to mix those worlds. I ended up landing in augmented reality and I love it.

Was it hard to get in?
For me, YES. It took me 3 times to get in, but I knew that it was worth it, so I just kept trying. My advice would be to find someone you can practice doing live code challenges with. That's what helped me in the end and it will be a skill you need anyway.

What kind of job did you get?
Initially I got a job as Web Developer(70k) at startup in Portland. It was very much a many hats kind of job that me designing and building AR experiences, maintaining the website, being a product advocate, and many more. From there I became a Software Engineer(90k) at another AR company in Portland working mainly with React.

What did you learn?
Mostly we focused on Python. Python, Flask, Jinja, bootstrap, javascript(lightly), JSON, SQL, SQLAlclemy, css, html, AJAX, git and github. I personally taught myself D3.js as well. We learned to use all these things together and then built a full stack web app in the end as a 4-week solo project. Sometimes it's still hard to explain that I did everything in the project to recruiters. We learned algorithms and data structures as well.
During the course we would have lectures twice a day and the rest was spent doing lab assignments where we pair programmed to build something or if it was towards the end, it was personal work time. Fridays we had a retro and a social at the end of the day.

Is there mentoring?
Yes! Each student is given a mentor or two who currently work in the industry. They are a person to help you problem solve, tell you what it's like in the real world, help you job hunt, and just be there as someone to talk to. Mine was especially wonderful and worked at Lyft.

Would you change anything about the course?
I go back and forth on this. I had an incredible experience and think about it constantly, but the time after the course is the hardest and some mental support would be a cool addition. A lot of us felt unprepared for the real world/getting a job, but after getting hired we realized we were more prepared than we thought. We are even taught negotiation, white boarding, resume writing, how to use our network and more job seeking skills in addition to our code concepts. I do think that more javascript or even a tiny intro to React would be nice. Every job I looked at wanted React (I was looking at front-end heavy positions). Maybe I'll start personally offering one day intros to React for new grads who are curious about it. By the way, the alumni network is an incredible group of supportive engineers that know what this position is like, so they are very happy to help.

My life completely changed after Hackbright. I made lifelong friends and memories I will never forget. I'm still wearing the friendship bracelet one of my classmates made for everyone. I was supported there in a way that is really rare to find. I'm aware that my group was especially bonded, but sometimes it just takes one person to bring that energy. Post Hackbright I have a life that I always dreamed of having, but never knew if I would reach. Money and food used to be a huge stresser for me and sometimes I get emotional how much this short time in my life has changed that. I would not change my decision to attend Hackbright and I tell other people about it all the time.

Hackbright, if you're reading this: Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Especially you, Henry and Ashley.

First off, in terms of the job support : I attended the first cohort sponsored by Target, which allowed for unprecedented job support/opportunity for a bootcamp graduate. We were paired with two mentors from the corporation that was looking to hire us,... Read More giving us a better understanding of enterprise level tech and how to manage expectations. Albeit a beat late (my interviews were ahead of the career support) Hackbright did scheduled several career related lectures in the curriculum to help prep for interviews, and generally, the curriculum prepares you for the technical part. And I do appreciate the continued outreach and support.

The Curriculum is based on python with pair programming in labs. Getting comfortable with pair programming certainly adds to your ability to work with others! Having been in a cohort away from the Hackbright headquarters (Minneapolis instead of SF) my experience will not be the same as many others. That being said, we had one lecturer and one TA for a total of 22 women. The lectures were adequate, and at times subpar. Having one lecturer for all lectures gave limited perspective on how to approach problems, to say the least. Nevertheless, if you put in the time to learn (self-study), the curriculum itself is well thought-out. The scheduling of lectures and the sense of continuity was a bit off for my cohort due to COVID19, but Hackbright picked up pretty quick and went virtual during our individual project time. Despite the pandemic, my cohort got ample support (and more lecturers) from Hackbright SF once we went virtual during our individual project sprints, which was a breath of fresh air. Overall, you will certainly learn to work with others, read code, troubleshoot, and understand how to read code written by someone else once you're through with your project. But I cannot emphasize enough, while there exists a curriculum and assistance to boost your learning process, it's really up to you to thoroughly understand the concepts and put it into practice.

Overall, it was definitely a fresh experience in terms of recalibrating my leaning curve and learning capacity, which I let go of for some time. You also meet a diverse group of brilliantly minded women who are resilient and who are all driven in their own way. In the thicket of it, it's hard to sense the camaraderie because EVERYONE is overwhelmed. But if you are considering a career pivot past your 30's, connecting with women with "life" under their belt and with the bravery and capability to switch careers is both inspiring and invaluable!

As a newbie software engineer, without doubt, its more about the people you meet and collaborate with along the way that makes joining a bootcamp worthwhile. Whichever bootcamp you choose, the tech stack will be a challenge to master (if you ever do), and how much you learn is up to you. My two cents are, if you're going to be spend money, better to be with a cohort with an underlying sense of camaraderie and support that will last throughout your career.

*Side note * If you are concerned about the which tech-stack and the what curriculum, let yourself be more flexible. Trust me, because currently I'm learning a COMPLETELY NEW tech-stack at my first job, so really, its just about getting the groundwork right and meeting the right people!

3 months before attending Hackbright, I had just graduated from college with a BA in music and chemistry. I was on a pre-med track and decided not to continue down that route. I didn't want to commit to another degree program or many more years of school,... Read More but I wanted a technical career, and word of mouth brought Hackbright to my attention as a viable option. Overall, I have no regrets about my decision: I had a junior software engineer offer less than a month after the conclusion of the program (from a company who attended my cohort's "demo night", where students present full-stack web apps created during the program).

Pros:
- a kind, supportive learning environment. I loved my instructors and found them to be both highly competent engineers and effective teachers
- my class size was small; the student: teacher ratio was 2:1 which allowed for a lot of individual instruction
- overall well thought-out curriculum that I felt prepared me well for technical interviews (one caveat about JS, see cons)
- the pair programming structure for the first 6 weeks of the program prepared me well for explaining my thought process out loud in technical interviews
- networking -- in my opinion, this is one of the most compelling reasons to attend a bootcamp rather than just self-teaching yourself programming. We took trips to Bay Area tech companies to practice whiteboarding and meet engineers in the industry, attended presentations by various engineers in different tech roles (devops, SWE, developer advocacy, and more), and presented the full stack web-app projects which we spent 6 weeks working on to many companies who were looking to hire junior engineers (one of which then hired me!). The Hackbright alumni community is strong and widespread, and helps many grads get not only their first tech job, but 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, etc. Gaining connections in the tech industry is especially important for career-changers, and Hackbright excels in this area.

Cons:
- I would have preferred a stronger emphasis on JavaScript and front-end development in the curriculum. When I attended, the course was python-heavy, with the first week or so being a review of basic concepts that we were supposed to already have been comfortable with prior to enrolling. It would have been better to start with the second week of material, and then leave more time for JavaScript later on. I definitely did not feel comfortable with front-end development at the conclusion of the program and largely had to self-teach those skills after graduating. However, 12 weeks isn't that long, and there's an argument to be made that having strong back-end skills is more valuable than mediocre full-stack.
- various administrative and organizational aspects at Hackbright need improvement. In the interview and enrollment process, response times could be long and key details were not always well communicated.
- the mentorship program is a hit-or-miss depending on who you are matched with (mentors are volunteers who don't go through any sort of application or training to determine qualification)

I attended the October 2019 - April 2020 cohort. Graduating in the next three weeks during the part time course I can say a few things about Hackbright:

Our part time co-hort of 10 women was a great size class. If I were to be in the full time class I... Read More probably would have felt like I didn't receive enough one on one time. It was a struggle, but doable to complete 6 hours of course work during the week and 7 hours on Saturdays. The instructors can be hit or miss. Both of ours were very good and offered out of class support as well. You will definitely need to do a lot of out of class work in order to build your web application and study coding challenges.

The mentorship is one of the best parts of the program. Getting to meet with professionals in the field has been awesome. It is on the student to keep up with the weekly meetings.

With COVID-19 we have switched to virtual mode. So far so good, but the in person aspect is definitely better and hope we can get back to it soon.

Job support is pretty good, but you have to do a lot of work on your own. I really appreciate the network Hackbright provides. Don't join the program hoping for a ticket to a job - Hackbright doesn't advertise that. If you put in the work and are diligent in your job search you will get a job.