iO Academy

Overall iO boto camp course was excellent, they offered an incredibly well-structured curriculum that always kept an eye on employability and real-world skills. Weekly guest lectures gave a sense of the breadth of employment possibilities and project... Read More weeks gave a real sense of working on existing codebases and delivering the product within the scrum framework. A slight overfocus on front end web development stuff and we didn't get onto the exciting React stuff until right at the end but other wise perfect. during the course I had an accident that required emergency spinal surgery that meant I took a couple of weeks off to recover. After this, Mike the head of the school, gave me one on one tuition to get me back up to speed. I felt this went above and beyond in terms of student support and made finishing the course despite my accident possible. Incredible levels of care and attention paid to students.

Curriculum The curriculum at iO academy is extremely well curated and constantly tweaked to provide students with the most demanded practical skills in industry. It is structured in such a way that enables even a complete novice like myself, to build... Read More fundamental skills quickly. Despite covering A LOT of ground in 16 weeks, it also dives deep enough into concepts to allow a necessary understanding - a balance well struck. The course is a blend of theory and project weeks where you will predominantly complete group projects in a Scrum team. These sprints conclude with sprint reviews, allowing the whole team to present their work to sometimes over 30 people. This aspect of the course helps to supplement the scrum master certification - CSM training (included in the course) with the practical experience of implementing Agile methodologies. Instructors One of the defining features of the iO experience is that one instructor will lead your tuition throughout the course. I found that this really helped me to build good rapport with not only the tutor, but with classmates too, as it creates familiarity, trust and continuity within the group interactions throughout. The strong relationships built allowed me to feel comfortable asking what I thought could seem like ‘stupid questions’ (never the case - always important to ask). In fact we were constantly encouraged and challenged with daily recaps to ensure that all students really did understand concepts before we moved on. The patient and thorough answers to my ‘stupid questions’ were definitely moments of key learning when the ‘penny dropped’ and concepts clicked into place. There are also guest lectures throughout to mix up the learning experience, definitely another well thought out feature of the course. Job assistance There is a dedicated day towards the latter part of the course to help ready students to apply for jobs. It covers everything from cv/covering letter workshop, getting your portfolio up to scratch and hosted on their servers, to what to expect during the different stages of application processes. There is ongoing assistance to help you make the strongest applications and to put you in the best position to find a job. iO host hiring evenings where they invite hiring partners to meet you, creating a semi-formal opportunity for you to get in front of employers and ask them questions about the company and positions. There is also a constant feed of filtered jobs aggregated from various job boards as well as pre-advertised job opportunities passed on through the vast network of alumni and tutors. The positions are always screened for relevance to iO grad experience levels and offer a reliable source of opportunity without the overload of hundreds of non-relevant postings, often found on job boards. I managed to secure a job with a competitive salary within the 1st week of graduating from iO! Testament to the world class bootcamp experience you can expect from iO. Overall experience I cannot fault iO. The value for money/return on investment outstrips any other educational experience by a long shot. The genuine culture of support and encouragement, as well as inclusivity is the perfect environment for anyone who wants to kick start a successful career in tech. I would and HAVE recommended the course to my nearest and dearest!

The teaching at iO Academy is truly superb. The content builds very clearly and the instructors are fantastic at adapting to the skill level and competency of each student. The instructors really take the time to explain concepts to you so you at no point... Read More feel left behind. As part of the bootcamp there is support with CV writing and interview preparation and the post-graduation support was also incredible. I am so grateful for everything iO Academy has done for me.

I am so glad that I took this course! I had no previous coding experience or technical background, so this was a huge switch of mental focus for me. But the support we received during and even after the training was/is incredible. The atmosphere is very... Read More community - like and welcoming. The trainers are amazing - very knowledgeable, approachable and supportive. They are also the most patient people you may ever, ever meet. If I had teachers like that as a teenager, I would be a different person today! I couldn't have chosen better place to start a new career. I am endlessly grateful for the encouragement I received - that definitely helped me to believe in myself and my abilities. My group started in person and moved remote after a few weeks but it wasn't a problem at all. iO Academy team adapted really well to these circumstances and I found learning on - line even easier. The course is very intense at times but it is manageable and we were actively encouraged to look after ourselves, take our breaks and use our weekends for rest. Trainers are also very adaptable and responsive to any issues or struggles you may experience. I become quite easily overwhelmed and I did it, which means you can do it too! I would advice starting preparing for the course as soon as you can - the more you already know, the easier it will be. And taking good notes is also important, as they become handy after the training, when you realize you need to go over it all again!

If you're debating joining iO Academy, just do it! it's the best decision I've ever made. The training and support is great and they really help prepare you for your first role as a developer. And the support continues even after finishing the course,... Read More helping with any coding problems and searching for jobs.  I started the course in person and after a few weeks got moved to being remote which I was dreading but it was actually even easier than in person. Can't recommend the academy enough! I got a job a week after graduating and am excited to begin my career as a developer.

I can't thank iO Academy enough, the training is first class and the support is incredible. We had to switch from in person too remote during the course and even this was handled so professionally. In many ways it actually helped prepare us for the current... Read More workplace environment. If you're looking for a coding course that prepares you for the workplace, then this is really the one to do.

Having an established career already, it was a bit daunting to say the least to leave employment and retrain. However, the course at iO Academy has given me the best start to launch my new career that I could have hoped for. It was an amazing experience... Read More from the start and I honestly wouldn't change a thing. The course is structured really well, with a general format of one theory week followed by a project week to put your newfound knowledge into practice. You come out with a solid portfolio of work, which is probably the most valuable thing when starting as a new developer. As you might imagine, it is intensive and definitely hard-work at times. However the pace is achievable and the support is always there to help if you need it. The agile aspects are invaluable for those who haven't worked in a similar environment before, with the Scrum Master certification being a real bonus. There are also regular guest speakers which are really interesting and a great introduction to life in the industry and the dev community in general. I couldn't have asked for better trainers - they are really friendly and approachable, incredibly knowledgeable, excellent teachers, and always available and eager to help whenever needed. They are very conscious of continuous improvement, asking for feedback after each module. They also offer one-on-one chats (both planned and ad-hoc) where you can go through anything you need. The whole course is underpinned by an excellent office team, who do a great job at supporting students and trainers alike throughout. Learning remotely for the majority of the course wasn't a problem at all, in fact I think it actually worked better than it would have done in the classroom with social distancing. Towards the end of the course there are excellent job planning sessions, including support with CVs, interviews, tech tests, hiring partner events, recruiter contacts etc., which are essential to get the best start to the job hunt. Overall I am really pleased that I decided to go down the bootcamp route and wouldn't hesitate to do so again if I were to start over. It was an amazing experience throughout and I honestly wouldn't change a thing. I now am part of an ever-expanding alumni of like-minded individuals, who continue to provide opportunities as I start my career. I'm very happy I made the leap and couldn't/wouldn't have done it without the course - thanks to all at iO Academy!

Having been a stay at home mum for 5 years with absolutely no coding experience at all, I strangely decided that software development was for me and applied for iO academy. I am incredibly glad that I made that odd choice, because it turns out that not... Read More only is coding great fun, but I couldn’t have chosen a better place to be trained up. The content was great and has set me in good-stead to be taking on my first technical role with technologies that are relevant. The trainers were absolutely brilliant - patient, helpful and all round good eggs, and didn’t mind answering all my very basic questions. I generally felt incredibly supported and like being part of a really close-knit team. The on-going support after the course has been wonderful as well, with help offered searching for jobs, getting in touch with recruiters and keeping up practicing skills. Overall, I could not recommend iO Academy enough. It was a great experience and I now have a whole new career ahead of me with skills that I had never even heard of 4 months ago! Can’t be bad.

The course material is excellent, the trainers are beyond excellent -- knowledgeable, experienced, encouraging, helpful -- and the job support (and general support), during and after the course, is tremendously helpful. Can't recommend enough for anyone... Read More looking to get into web development, whether you're retraining or fresh out of school.

I left my job in Sept 2020 (in the middle of Covid... perhaps not the soundest decision but it turned out very well!) to attend iO (or Mayden Academy, as it was named at that point. The name changed, nothing else!). Before iO: I did some research on coding... Read More generally, some short courses on Codecademy, some of the free tester sessions you can find online. I wanted to be as sure as I could be that I actually would *like* coding - nothing I saw put me off, so I started researching bootcamps in my area. I was optimistic that I would be able to find one I could attend in person (at this point we were in between lockdowns, it was summer and it sort of felt like that would be feasible... yeah, I know). Anyway I did a lot of reading reviews, lots of digging into old blogs and so on, and I interviewed at two bootcamps. I already had iO pegged as my favourite and the interview confirmed it. There was also an entrance "test" - I got really hung up on this beforehand but would reassure anyone reading not to get too worried. It's not the kind of test you can revise for, and if you're the kind of nerd who's considering a coding bootcamp, you're probably going to find it fun. I took it online, in my own time, and had my face-to-face informal interview later. During iO: We did actually start in person, which was really nice. We were masked and behind plexiglass, but still. We moved to remote working in week 4, I think. I was worried about it but honestly it was actually really easy, and working in pairs over zoom is actually much more intuitive than working in pairs through plexiglass..! So if your cohort look like they're going to be fully remote, don't worry. The course is intense. It is fast, and if you've been out of education for a while, like I had been, it might take some getting used to! I would advise you to do any and all of the prep work you get sent beforehand (I did it for about half an hour an evening for a month or so beforehand, just to get to grips with things). You do a week or two of theory, followed by a project week. The first couple of projects are solo (you can obviously ask for help and so on, but what you make is personal to you), and then the rest are group based. Programming in a group was probably the biggest learning curve for me; it was so not what I was used to, but by the end our final project was something none of us could have achieved by ourselves, and we were all really proud. There are well-timed talks throughout the course from people in industry; these range from broad overviews of how certain companies work to fairly in-depth looks at how certain software works. Lots of the speakers are ex-students and it's really nice to see them and how happy they are in their work. After iO: Well, I'm only just after iO now, and I start my new job in two days! I had a few interviews during the final couple of weeks and the role I have accepted is a Masters degree apprenticeship - I do not have a computer science degree, I have a very doddery Film & Media degree from the dark ages, but in a couple of years I will be a software engineer with a masters degree! It would have been unthinkable to me this time last year, I'm thrilled. iO have lots of hiring partners within Bath / Bristol, and they will introduce you to whoever is hiring at the time you graduate. We graduated at Christmas, during covid lockdown, during a time when it is really hard to get work, and still had a handful of partners keen to interview us. Other notes? There were eight people in my class. We were all totally different in terms of learning styles; and all of us were accomodated. The size of the team means you get to know each other well and you get to learn how to work effectively with people who have different styles to you. It also means your tutor can take the time to give you each the individual support you need.