LearningFuze

I am very thankful that I chose to come to LearningFuze. Five months ago, I left a job in HR, with hardly any technical background. And now, I just started my first job as a web developer. LearningFuze accelerated my ability to successfully transition... Read More to a new career. Though there is still a ton that I don't know, I am surprised and how much I was able to learn in 3-months. More than anything else, LearningFuze laid the foundation to continue learning and have categories to place that new information.

There are a lot of things I could say, but I'll focus on two major strengths that stand out to me about LearningFuze:
1. Post-Graduation Support
2. Job Support

Post-Graduation Support: I've had the experience at other schools of being cut-off from the community as soon as you graduate. This was not at all the case with LearningFuze. They have a dedicated room for Alumni and I always felt welcomed. After graduation, the staff continued to invest time and energy into me, my portfolio, and my job search. If you continue to invest the time and effort, LearningFuze will continue to invest the time and effort until you find your first web developer job.

Job Support: LearningFuze provides amazing networking opportunities and job support. Because they have been around for multiple years and have an established staff, they have strong connections with companies in the greater Orange County area. These connections will often be the foot in the door for a new developer. I want to give a specific shout out to TJ Kinion. TJ does an amazing job of getting to know students, informing students about job opportunities, connecting students to networking events, and providing resume and interview guidance. I owe much of my current opportunity to his work and support.

If you are looking to restart your career, and you want to pursue Web Development in Orange County, I highly recommend this program.

Feel free to check out my LinkedIn at: www.linkedin.com/in/soren-baird

LearningFuze took me from my first taste of web development, through building my own live website, to support during my job hunt. The curriculum starts out with regular assignments and lectures. Later, the structure of the class becomes more typical of... Read More what you would see in a real-world development environment: project focused, working both individually and in teams. Through it all, there is plenty of support available from the instructors.

Just a few weeks after the end of official instruction, I was hired as a web developer thanks to a connection I made through TJ, one of the instructors. One of the first things I noticed at my new job was that I already felt comfortable in a working development environment. LearningFuze was able to emulate that environment so faithfully that I entered my new job already with a sense of how the day-to-day proceedings worked.

Definitely the best investment I’ve ever made!

You have to actually try really hard and put the time in. If you aren't willing to do that, then I do not recommend.

However, if you are willing to work, then LearningFuze is the perfect place to be. You are surrounded by knowledgable and helpful people.... Read More You are taught the necessary skills for being successful in a working environment. I learned a ridiculous amount in three months and I'm excited to say that I landed an awesome job just a month after graduating. I'd say that it's definitely worth it because I am now set up for a long term career.

Dan, the head instructor, is an excellent teacher because he can boil relatively complicated ideas down to his "Danalogies" (Dan + analogy). If you don't understand something, he'll personally take time to make sure you get it. Also, the other instructors are always there for answering questions and they all foster a good learning environment. All of the teachers and students were friendly and I enjoyed spending time there. I miss it now that I'm gone.

Some advice: During this course, you need to find a way to make yourself passionate about web development. If you can get yourself to wake up in the morning and be excited to learn, then you will succeed. Find things you are already interested in and figure out ways to incorporate them into websites or applications. Also, invest in some decent headphones. I find that good music is essential for good coding.

For background, I've started programming 13 months ago, going through multiple online resources to learn even just the basics of Javascript, HTML, CSS, etc. For 8 months I struggled day to day on whether I'm optimizing my education. Hell, with so many... Read More resources online, the first half of learning is picking the right resources, and the second half is actually the learning.

Needing a clear goal and plan to development, I invested all my energy into LearningFuze, 10-12 hours a day for 12 weeks. I came in with the attitude of only success. I literally couldn't afford failure. And LearningFuze was the perfect choice for that. It was clear to me how excited and invested they were in their students. I wasn't even a paid student yet before I came around to personally check out their program. The team let me sit in on lectures and use their spare rooms to study to get a feel for their 'campus,' aka office. Their commitment to my education was simple: They gave me the food while I ate everything and asked for more.

The difference between my learning on my own to having a cultivated learning environment was not just the facts - the facts are out there to look up - but the access to an insider's POV and experience in the development field. Our instructors were a constant source of guidance for everything, from learning how to code to learning how to learn as a developer*. Every wall that I hit and failed to climb, Dan or Tim were there to lay bread crumbs. Anyways, woooh. It was a fantastic 17-week struggle before I got employed. But 17 weeks! Just 17 weeks and I completely switched life tracks. Long story short, it was not easy. But it was made easier having an open mind to critiques and knowing to ask for help when needed.

As a program, I have full faith in their ability to adapt and grow with the market. It is led by some amazing heads that are willing to listen and improve/mold their program to their students.

Thank you: Dan, Scott, Tim, Andy, Collette, TJ, and Bill.

I just recently graduated from learningfuze and without a doubt I can say it was the best learning experience of my life. Before the program I was pursuing my degree in Computer Science and working as a junior developer for a family owned company. I found... Read More little enjoyment in my work because I had almost no knowledge in programming. Learningfuze helped me to develop skills in html/css/js/react/node/php. Now, not only do I enjoy programming because I'm finally capable of writing complete code, but I also enjoy learning in general. Learningfuze taught me how to learn like a developer and take creative approaches to problem solving. I feel much more confident in pursuing my degree and expanding my programming knoledge.

As for the instructors of learningfuze.

Bill, Dan, Scott, Andy, and Collette are the reason I was successful in this program. They all have an unbelievable passion for programing and love to help others. No matter how much a student stuggles in the course, they will always go out of their way to ensure the student catches up and has a firm grasp on the subject.

I would recommend learningfuze to anyone who enjoys a challenge and truly wants to pursue their career as a programmer.

Spending the last 3 months at LearningFuze has been a great experience! The staff's very real passion for helping people became evident as soon as I walked in the building. LearningFuze has created an environment where you can learn at your own pace,... Read More regardless of your prior experience/knowledge.

Everyone from fellow students, to staff and guest speakers, have been very supportive and motivating throughout the course. I'm glad I came here and completed this challenging, but very rewarding program and i would highly recommend to anyone thinking of moving into the field!

Prior to starting at LearningFuze, I only had very basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript through sites like Codecademy and Udemy. With the help of the awesome instructors at LearningFuze, I am now confident in my skills as a full-stack developer.... Read More

The best part about LearningFuze is their staff. The instructors are super helpful and very passionate about programming. They are always available to help you through whatever you're working on and will stay as late as you need them to. The career help after the program is also extremely helpful. I personally had no experience with the interviewing/job search process and Bill was there every step of the way to help me through it.

The program is extremely challenging and requires your complete dedication to it but at the end of it, you'll be glad you stuck with it.

NO PRIOR SKILL REQUIRED

I am currently 7 weeks into my course at LearningFuze, and I can tell you from experience, this course is extremely comprehensive, intense, and 100% possible for anyone with a drive to succeed. I had never coded before in my life... Read More prior to deciding I wanted to take a coding bootcamp course, and I have learned more in the last 7 weeks than I had ever thought possible. Once I started considering taking a bootcamp course, I spent every day worrying if I would have what it takes to succeed. Will I be quitting my job and joining a course I'm ultimately going to not be able to grasp the material in? I was terrified. Thankfully, I'm here to tell you from experience that you don't need to know anything about coding before you start. You don't need innate talent, photographic memory, or superhuman analytic skills. You only truly need one thing: commitment.

This course is not about talent, it's about drive. Are you willing to devote twelve hours a day to learning the material? Are you prepared to challenge yourself to find new things to learn on a daily basis? Do you see yourself being passionate about solving problems and creating new things through coding? If you can answer all these questions with yes, I've got great news for you: You have what it takes to succeed at LearningFuze.

This program is not designed to cater to people with prior knowledge or a certain type of thought process. Learning starts from the ground up, and you will be supported by a welcoming, attentive staff who are always there to help you work through issues. There's quite a bit of material to work through on a daily basis, but if you put in the recommended 12 hours a day, it feels extremely doable. Everybody here has a vested interest in helping you succeed, and I can tell you from experience that they will do whatever it takes to help you reach your goal of becoming a successful web developer. And you can do it! You just have to put in the hours.

LearningFuze sets itself apart from other bootcamps by having a curriculum that it fine-tuned to help anybody reach success, and by having a staff that understands where you're coming from, largely proven by the fact that multiple staff members are prior graduates! It's a very welcoming, supportive learning environment, and I can't recommend it enough. If you see your future in web development, this is where you should be!

What sets LearningFuze apart from the other boot camps is how well connected they are in the job market. The Director of Operations, Bill, knows just about every tech-related person in Orange County. No matter what industry you’re coming from, you know... Read More that networking is the key to finding a job. Bill leverages his connections to help you find that job after you graduate.

Another thing that sets LearningFuze apart from other boot camps is the culture. Where most bootcamps have classes that start and end at a specific time, LearningFuze keeps their doors open for as long as you need. The Lead Instructor Dan really invests his time into you and makes sure you truly understand the concepts being taught. His resolve has fostered a culture where students are often coming in early and staying late to get the extra help. Our cohort came in at 8am and left at 10pm every weekday, and about 5 hours on Saturday. The LearningFuze instructors matched our time spent, and even came in at 630am to offer “zero period” lectures twice a week. The fact they were there with us 13-16 hours a day goes to show the level of dedication of the LearningFuze staff.

Beyond Dan and Bill, there are a plethora of resources available for you at LearningFuze. Senior instructors are there to mentor you on your projects and offer you tidbits from their pools of immense wisdom. Junior instructors help you tackle your issues, and really invest their own time to learn better ways they could teach and help you be well-equipped for your career. Professionals from various companies come in almost bi-weekly to provide stories about what makes a successful career, how to present yourself in an interview, pitfalls to avoid on your resume, or just random insight on the tech industry.

The most successful students are the ones who put in the most time. Dedication, not skill is what makes a successful bootcamp graduate. If you put in the time, so will the LearningFuze staff. You'll never feel yourself in a position where things are moving too slow. My best advice would be to find a small group of people willing to commit 12 hours a day to code, and just do it. Passion and determination are contagious, and soon your whole cohort will follow suit. It's much easier to learn in an environment where everyone else is willing to put in the time, like you. After all, that's why you're looking for a boot camp, right? If you could learn coding all on our own, you wouldn't be here reading this review and looking into bootcamps.

Here are some tips from a graduate who got an offer less than 10 days after his first application:
• Be ready to spend 12 hours a day, 65 hours a week coding. The more polished your projects are when you complete them, the less polish you’ll have to do post-graduation. This is a time investment; let your post-graduation time be spent focusing on applications and interviews.
• Cut off all unnecessary distractions. Deactivate your facebook, mute your group chats, change your social media passwords, unsubscribe from all news, uninstall your games.
• Cut back on all responsibilities. Cancel your gym membership, tell your significant other you'll be spending less time with each other, drop all your hobbies. You have plenty of time to catch up on all of these later when you celebrate your offer.
• Treat every day like it’s an interview. Your instructors and peers are your references; you being a hard-worker will definitely make them more inclined to see you succeed.
• From Week 1 Day 1 all your projects are “production-level”, aka your Github is your resume. If the Past-You builds good habits early on and learns what is best practice to write clean code, your Future-You (and prospective employers) won’t be as confused when you go back and comment your code from 3 months ago.
• Do NOT stop your good habits after you graduate. The worst thing you could do for yourself is take a vacation. Keep the momentum rolling because you definitely won’t be sharp for any interviews if you’ve allowed any of those 3 months of knowledge crammed into your brain to leak out.
This is a life-changing 6 months (1 month prep, 3 month course, 2 months portfolio and applications). Learn as much as you can now and get your dream job. You dont have to go as hardcore as me, but understand that the more time you put into your education now while you're at LearningFuze, the better jumpstart you'll have for your career.

So a little about myself and my previous experience so you don't think this is some fake review. I graduated from CSUF with a BA in finance, did that for several years and felt like there was something missing with my career. Being unhappy with my current... Read More heading in life I reflected on things that I enjoyed doing but for whatever reason or another never pursued as a career choice. I always had a knack for technology and still remember the first computer my uncle brought home in my wee childhood years. This in turn lead me to programming and taking introductory courses at a nearby community college to see if this was a path I wanted to go down. After taking the courses, I found that I really did enjoy building and creating things with code, but I felt like there was something missing with that traditional college type learning. After countless of hours researching the best way to achieve my goals of being a programmer, I somehow came across an advertisement for bootcamps. Feeling that this was a bit of a scam, I added more and more hours of research and reading reviews, to finally found the right programming bootcamp for me, LearningFuze. Pretty much after the info session and root course you could say the rest was a wrap. I signed up, completed the course and feel a million times better with my career changing life choice.

This bootcamp is not some easy 12 week stroll. You'll have moments where you'll feel lost, incompetent, and stressed. Have no fear, the team and your future classmates will have your back. They will come in as early as and stay as late as you do to help you understand the material and lessons being taught. But you, also have to put 100% and more effort in to this. Be prepared to fall, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and do it all over again the next day. This type of learning isn't for everyone, but I know my classmates and I have overall, better our lives going through this program.