Juno College of Technology

I recently completed the Front-End dev intensive boot camp at HackerYou. At the time I was a teacher and was wanting to upgrade my skills and change carreers. It was an extremely exciting time for me as I moved from Kingston Ontario back to Toronto for... Read More the summer while my family stayed home. The school itself had a great location, a great facility and a great communitiy. From day one Heather Payne was extremely invested in my interest in the course and making sure it was the right decision for me as I was coming from Kingston Ontario and the front end scene isnt quite as big in Kingston as it is in Toronto. I equate my expereince at HackerYou to summer camp. The staff were both extremely knowledgable and made the expereince fantastic. The focus on bonding with fellow classmates was high up on the list with learning a mass aount of new skills (this was important as often times we would be at the facilty until 2 or 3 in the morning working on projects). The content was delieved in a easily digestable format and the main instructor (Simon Bloom) had the perfect mix of teachablity and humour. You could really the staff loved working there, but that they all also walked the walk and were working professionals in the field! The course offered some very interesting opportunities which included building a polished portfolio, extra curricular workshops from local specialists and several opportunities to share the love for code by volunteering with Lades Learning Code (which I have taken back to Kingston and instructed several workshops at the local chapter). I am now currently working for Queens university. My background in teaching and my new skill in coding has landed me a fantastic position working for the Medical Education unit where we are leading the world in building software for the new medical education curriculum.

I started my journey with HackerYou back in the fall of 2012 and their first part-time web development class. I've since gone on to take a number of other classes with them, including the full-time bootcamp in winter 2014. Not only did I receive a supportive... Read More education that led me to landing my dream job as an interactive news developer, I've personally witnessed HackerYou's steadfast commitment to teaching industry best practices and providing a quality technical education. They have never hesitated to adapt their curriculum or course offering in order to position their students for success. If you're looking to make the switch to front-end development, HackerYou is the place in Toronto to learn that skill.

I took the part time Intro to Web Dev course in Winter 2014/15 and quit my job just a few months later to go to the Summer 2015 Bootcamp.
My experience at HY was unmatched by any other course/school/workshop I've ever attended. Not only does the operations... Read More team take all the time to get to know each and every student, but they will make sure that everyone progresses and feels confident and comfortable by providing all the necessary tools and support needed. Maybe you've been sick and while and have fallen behind on a project? Not to worry - a mentor, buddy, or alumni will come in and work with you one on one to help you get back on track! You're feeling down because you see your peers excel in areas where you don't feel as strong - you'll feel supported by everyone who will share with you and help you get over the hurdles!
The 9 week bootcamp was intensive but also incredibly fun. I've never felt so invigorated by the content of the course I've done. You'll learn so many cool new things and solve a million problems. The community of existing alumni, mentors, partners, and HY friends are the most supportive folks and they make coming to HY so worth it. I landed an awesome job 2 weeks after finishing the bootcamp - a job which has given me more experience in the last year than anything else I've done in my life - and I still take time to go and mentor, talk to students, participate in alumni events, and just do as much as I can to continue paying it forward because I see the immense value of giving and contributing to the wonderful ecosystem of talented, generous, and enthusiastic individuals.

I took the bootcamp in the fall of 2016, and previously to that, I took the part time intro and advanced into HTML and CSS at HackerYou. I found the instructors to be very knowledgable and approachable. Now a few weeks later I have my dream job as a Interface... Read More Developer, with a great group of supportive people. I also have friends for life from HackerYou, and a bunch of amazing experiences both in and out of the classroom.

I was initially introduced to HackerYou through Ladies Learning Code. After taking a few LLC workshops, I realized that I was hooked on web development! I took the Intro to Web Development and Advanced Web Development Part-Time courses and absolutely... Read More fell in love with HackerYou's blend of hands-on learning and community-focussed atmosphere. From there, I went on to take the Web Development Immersive bootcamp. Within 3 weeks of completing the program, I had an offer for a Front-End Web Developer position at an e-commerce agency. A year and a half later and I still work there AND utilize the skills I learned at HY every day.

There are so many reasons why HY is special. They find new and innovative ways to make learning challenging content a fun experience. The teachers are top notch web developers themselves, and the focus is on learning skills and languages that you will be using in the "real world". You will come out of this course with a solid foundation in the major front-end languages (HTML, CSS, JS) and the tools you will be using to work in those languages (Git, Gulp, Sublime Text) and much more. In addition to all of that, they offer a tremendous amount of post-grad support and make it their mission to help you find the right job for you. The icing on the cake is that the community is so good that you will want to stay involved even after the course is over. So, as a student, you have access to the teachers, mentors AND the entire alumni community. It's unlike any learning experience I've ever had.

Thanks to HackerYou's course material and support, I was able to completely change my career in less than 6 months.

I attended HackerYou in September 2016. I'd worked as a freelance designer for nearly 3 years, and learning web development seemed like a logical next step to take my career to a new level. At a conference celebrating women in web in November 2015, I'd... Read More met a number of HackerYou grads who all told me the same thing—if you want to learn front-end web development in an awesome, female-friendly atmosphere, HackerYou was where to go.

And they were definitely not wrong. I found the atmosphere incredibly welcoming and friendly, with an amazing ratio of female to male students—pretty much 2 women for every guy—and knowledgeable and genuinely passionate instructors. I was worried it was going to be competitive, that those with a lot of experience would sail on ahead while I struggled on behind, but it wasn't like that at all. Every single student was friendly and helpful to fellow students—there was such an amazing community atmosphere, and where there were definitely some people ahead on certain portions of the program (particularly JavaScript), they were all so helpful to those that struggled. It was an amazing group to be part of.

Working on a new project every week was challenging, but also great practice. The whole style of learning is very much learn-by-doing (after learn-by-instruction of course), and the more you put in as a student definitely got you more out of the program. Plus, it's really awesome to come out of a program with several portfolio projects right away—at least half of my portfolio after finishing at HackerYou were projects completed during the course.

I'm now working as a UX / UI Designer in a really exciting role that I don't think I would have gotten had I not attended HackerYou. Both in terms of the confidence HackerYou gave me in coding (and kind of in life, to be honest—learning to do something completely new and struggling through it in such a short time frame is incredibly confidence-boosting) and in the help afforded to me post-HackerYou by the CEO herself on how to approach the job hunt. Though code is actually not really much of a part of my day job, having that knowledge of how the web works behind-the-scenes made me a much more attractive candidate for any design jobs I was looking for. Though I chose to continue on in design instead of switching to front-end development, I'm 100% confident I would have gotten a job as a junior dev (like all my friends did!) if I'd wanted to post-HackerYou.

All in all, it's an awesome program. Both for the learning, the instructors, and the community. It's such a great group, and I love that it's a really inclusive atmosphere for women in an industry that isn't really yet, and especially where a lot of other programs aren't. Being taught by female developers and surrounded by a high ratio of female developers really makes you feel comfortable and included and part of a great community as a female developer. I was honestly really sad when the program ended, even though it was challenging and stressful at times—you really are a part of something special while you're at HackerYou.

I took the full-time Web Development Immersive bootcamp in the summer of 2016 and have been working as a front end developer for about 3 months now.

It was definitely the most challenging thing I've put myself through and isn't for the faint of heart.... Read More That being said, it was also the most enjoyable learning experience I've ever had. The instructors and mentors did a great job of guiding us as we learned the basics of web development and then helped us solve problems on our own as we approached the end of the program.

The community is also filled with alumni (myself included) who are itching to help students out with technical questions and general support. On top of that, I got a full-time job in a month and a half and made some great friends so it was well worth the time and money.

HackerYou is known for having all the resources, industry knowledge, and personal coaching to keep a learner going. The best and most supportive community. The entire team (including the very active community of past grads) has challenged me to go further... Read More than I ever could alone. I've taken the intro and advanced part-time HTML & CSS classes, and went on to do the full-time immersive front end web development bootcamp in January 2016.

The genuine excitement and passion of my instructors and mentors has been a huge part of my growth as a developer. On top of being experts, they are fired up, and want to help you grow. They give you the skills to keep yourself going on a path of learning for the rest of your life.

I now get to go to work to a job I love, and I can be proud of the things I build every day. I was hired as a front-end dev at an agency in April 2016.

I attended the part-time Intro and Advanced classes to Web Development in the Winter of 2016 and highly recommend HackerYou for those who are looking to either upgrade their skills or who want to get a in-depth look into what it takes to be a web developer.... Read More

Though I already had some background in HTML, HackerYou thoroughly explained each concept and helped to eliminate bad habits and provide explanation to proper coding habits. I had previously tried to learn online but with work and life, I could never fully immerse myself into the education. With HackerYou’s course twice a week, it was a nice balance that allowed you to absorb the information.

Ricardo was our instructor and his entertaining personality was perfect touch in learning code; his method of teaching was easy-going yet as a working professional with experience, he had helpful insights that came out into each lesson.

I met some pretty awesome people there and the community continues with new job postings and interesting workshops. I work as a web designer and love seeing what I can create with what I have learned.

I first found HackerYou in 2016, when I was on the search for courses that would enhance and develop my already existing skills as a developer and (importantly), introduce new skills as well. At the time, I worked as a designer and the sole developer... Read More at a small design agency, but I had recognized that my true passion was in the development work. For that reason, I approached Hacker You for its Advanced Web Development course in the hopes of propelling myself into a full-time development role.

To start the process, all applicants are individually interviewed by HackerYou's CEO, Heather Payne, to get a sense of what the expectations are, what knowledge you bring into the course, and what course is right for you. From this initial meeting, and from the classes I would later start, I got the sense there was a very inclusive community behind the growing school, one in which the Heather was personally invested in the success of all who joined it. Later, as I read up on reviews, I discovered that many highlighted this as one of the perks of choosing HackerYou. After completing the course I have access to a whole alumni network, where I can ask questions, learn from other alumni, or find job postings. This despite only taking one part-time class.

The class itself was headed up by Jordan Deutsch and Christopher Miller, as well as two TAs. All of whom were very helpful in getting me started (as I took the Advanced course, I was joining a cohort who had already been together through the Intro segment). Given that my existing skills were all self-taught, I benefited most from the best practices taught throughout the course, as well as learning new software like the powerful Sublime Text, and Prepos. I also appreciated learning the theory behind a lot of why some code does what it does (particularly CSS), making me far more proficient in applying it rather than just implementing it and knowing it works for some reason. I was able to apply this knowledge immediately at work on client projects and saw my development speed improve dramatically. Towards the end, I also learned about Github and SASS, two important tools in the development process that I had not learned before.

The class atmosphere was inclusive, informal, and welcoming - we were encouraged to ask questions, and even give our own answers, in such a way that we all learnt from each other. We were also encouraged to work together as developers.

A month after taking this course I was able to make the switch into a full time development role with a 30% jump in salary. Working now with other developers at a midsize digital agency, I have been applying what I learned from HackerYou in the use of SVN and being part of an Agile Scrum team, which leads me to stress the following:

Whilst you can learn to code at any of HackerYou's competitors, it is learning how to work with other developers, how to be part of a team, and ultimately the community you join that make HackerYou a special place.

Highly recommended.

(A Final Note: As this was a part-time course I took, the job support was limited to what is posted on the job board. If you are taking the full-time bootcamp you can expect a lot of support, including from the CEO!)