Makers Academy

Before I jump into reviewing Makers, a little context. I'm older than most people embarking on a technical career - I had just turned 39 when I applied for Makers. I had been aiming at a musical career since I was a teenager, and despite some success... Read More here and there, I was still temping in universities to pay the bills. I was no stranger to tech but hadn't coded anything other than a few childhood ZX Spectrum experiments. Perhaps it was my age, or the fact that my daughter was starting to ask what my job was, but things had to change. When my wife told me of Makers, I quit my job immediately to focus on getting in. The pre-course was a great was to get to grips with the basic tools of the trade - IDEs, the command line, github and so forth. At this point, the Makers student is already at an advantage over someone with a book about JavaScript. The course itself is very intensive and requires your full attention, all day. This tricky when your sleep is interrupted every single night, and I am pleased that Makers have started a part time version of the course - this would have been my preference if it had been offered at the time. The curriculum structure is great. Makers mainly teaches Ruby, which is not the most popular language professionally - however its simple syntax allows you to keep your focus on learning the basic patterns that underpin all mainstream coding languages. This emphasis, combined with a couple of weeks' introduction to JavaScript, provided a great impetus to jump in and learn something new whenever it is needed. Your time is divided between classes that highlight the key concepts, self led learning and pair programming on increasingly complex challenges that neatly demonstrate that week's pertinent topics. The course's first two group projects are in Ruby and Rails, and the third is a free choice. These allow the student to experience what it is like working on a professional software team. The general atmosphere is very warm. The Coaches and other staff are friendly and approachable, the building itself was well organised, smart and generously stocked. Thoughtful inclusions such as basic food supplies, games and musical instruments really made all the difference. The presence of a dedicated yoga/meditation/counselling practitioner was absolutely invaluable. Obviously Makers aren't responsible for this, but all the other students were lovely. The course was pleasantly feud free. Makers' support doesn't end when you finish the course - you are instead ushered into the Makers Alumni online community, where they help you get a job. They support you through the process of putting together a CV, writing an application and interviewing for jobs. It's great for getting to know other developers and networking to get jobs, and this has been vital during the pandemic. The job board has a special place in my heart as it's where I found my first coding job! To sum up - if you want to become a software developer, definitely go to Makers. But if you can't be sure of a good night's sleep every night, do the part time course!

I heard about Makers through a couple of colleagues who got amazing jobs soon after completing the course. I used to be a Web Designer so I had a bit of knowledge in terms of HTML / CSS already but it really wasn't all that necessary to complete the course.... Read More I was on the August cohort, which was a fully remote cohort. You'd think it would have lowered the quality of the experience to have it remote, but it really did not. The first day we received all our Makers goodies by post, and had lots of social events online to get to know each other, so it really went smoothly. I learnt all about Object Oriented programming and TDD development during Makers Academy, which was very different from everything I encountered so far but made a lot more sense compared to the development process I had witnessed previously. I also learnt how to collaborate efficiently and handle version control within a team of developers. I completed quite a few team projects, and the whole experience truly was eye-opening about what I had missed from my previous jobs, especially the collaboration, sharing of knowledge within a team and continued learning while working. The best part of Makers really is your cohort and learning / supporting each other.

Makers Academy was good, great and for the most important part bloody fantastic. I did the bootcamp remotely due to COVID and was in the Jan 21 cohort – graduating at the end of March. For me I think it’s important to separate what happens before the... Read More bootcamp, during the bootcamp, and after the bootcamp – in my experience these were three very different experiences and I think it would only be fair to talk about each of these in isolation. Before the bootcamp: A session with the admissions manager to ensure you’re somewhat competent at coding. For me this wasn’t too difficult but others may worry at the prospect of an interview for acceptance into a bootcamp – I know it sounds cliche but the best thing to do is to just be yourself and talk through the questions. Don’t push yourself to get into the upcoming cohort if you don’t understand what was being asked of you, you’ll only be handicapping yourself during the actual bootcamp. Once you pass this you should get invited for the 4 week pre-course. From my recollection the pre-course is meant to guide you through basic problem-solving skills following codewars-type exercises, understanding the terminal (or command line), and an introduction to pair programming and test-driven development. It sounds like a lot but they guide you through it very well via the teachable platform. It’s meant to be a 20 hours/week programme (for four weeks) and from my experience that was about right, if anything even a little less. It’s a fantastic appetizer for the main course – and you only appreciate just how good it was after completing the course. During the bootcamp: For me it was like trying to drink water from a hose. I learnt SO MUCH and I was desperate to learn from every coach out there and keen to hear their explanation / understanding of particular topics. I found the couple of weeks particularly difficult as there was so much focus on testing – a concept which was pretty much alien to me despite spending a number of months coding prior to deciding to enroll in this bootcamp. Broadly speaking, if I were to describe what I learnt week to week, the bootcamp went as follows: Week 1 - Intro to testing, TDD, understanding pair programming, effective debugging; Week 2 - Dependency injection, domain-driven design, more testing – mocks, stubs and doubles; Week 3 - MVC architecture, designing a web app, more testing – feature tests; Week 4 - Databases, connecting a web app to a database; Week 5 - First group project: building an app to a specification in a team; Week 6 - Intro to JavaScript, TDD in JS (we were using Ruby up until this point so transitioning to JavaScript was a nice moment to catch up on these principles); Week 7 - second group project: building our own testing framework to test-drive a frontend app that fetches data from an API; Weeks 8-9 - Third group project: Acebook (a fullstack Rails project with the goal of mimicking a typical dev team's development process using a CI/CD deployment pipeline); Week 10 - fine tune our "process" by using TDD to solve tech tests individually; Weeks 11-12 - Fourth and final group project: various types of apps depending on your interests. Along with this you had a chance to keep in contact with a mentor (and later be a mentor yourself), have weekly process workshops (to work on your TDD), and book individual “review” sessions to seek feedback from a professional on your TDD process. As I said we learnt a lot and there was so much to do and dig our teeth into. Before the group projects we were pair programming with somebody else in our group to go through the material of the week – every week had a new focus and different learning objectives. After the bootcamp: Naturally, the focus shifts from learning to getting a job. They presented it as three different stages (consolidating, applying, interviewing). The work coaches are great for motivational support and they even have their own hiring partners where you can apply for a role through there internally via Makers. The perception of how things are post-bootcamp will vary from person to person. They can only do so much as to advise you but it’s up to you to make the effort and grab an opportunity by the horns and really go for it. It took me over 7 months to find a job but admittedly I took a 2 month break after 4 months as I was just too burnt out from the interviews. It might take you more time to get that job, or less if you’re really determined. Everyone’s different, and I feel it’d be disingenuous to say something like “it should take you X months to get a job after finishing Makers”. The best aspect was undoubtedly the main 12 weeks of the course – make the most of it while you’re there as you may not have another opportunity to learn so much (and with coaches willing to teach you) in your lifetime.

I started the course with almost zero initial knowledge in software and it felt like a jump with a parachute. It was super exciting and motivating. A way of learning which is collaborative, ever-changing, very dynamic but also mindful. The focus is very... Read More much on finding your own path of learning while interacting with others. When the 12 weeks finish the career-searching phase begins. And the support given to me at this stage was absolutely brilliant! I found a job with the help of the Makers Careers team and now working in a very well-respected company.

I chose Makers over other bootcamps because via a friend, I knew 2 people who had already done it and got dev jobs. Now, I'm able to add myself, the aforementioned friend and last time I checked, 17 out of the 20 people in my cohort to that list! Pros... Read More + You will learn things that are difficult to learn and practice on your own as a self-taught developer e.g. test-driven development, object oriented programming. + You will gain valuable team project and pair programming skills. Again, you cannot get these being merely self-taught and these experiences will come in handy in a real dev job as well as be useful material for your answers to interview questions. + Job support. Makers have a dedicated team of careers coaches that can help you with CVs, cover letters, interview prep and more. They have careers talks, careers events. You will not feel lonely in your job hunt with Makers. + Hiring partners. This is one of the biggest pros. Makers have a fantastic array of hiring partners and trust me it's easier to get a job internally through Makers (competing just with other Makers), than it is to get a job externally, competing with every job-seeking junior developer out there pretty much. + Wellbeing. Unlike another bootcamp I almost did, which was 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, Makers have a healthy approach to work-life balance and also offer yoga, meditation and counselling. Even though I think meditation is total garbage and yoga is not my thing, it's nice that Makers have mental wellbeing in mind. Cons - Too much pair programming for my liking. I was self-taught for 9 months before going into the bootcamp, others had only a few weeks of programming experience. Guess who benefits from pair programming in those instances? If you're more advanced, the pair programming will often slow you down when you could be breezing ahead and delving deeper into things. On the flip side, if you go into the bootcamp knowing hardly programming, this will actually be a pro. Firstly, you will need pair programming otherwise you will often struggle to get things done. Secondly, you will benefit from being able to pair with and learn from more experienced or adept programmers. - Students reviewing each other's weekend challenges. Not sure as to the efficacy of this. Often it's the blind reviewing the code of the blind. That being said, it does give you a taste for reviewing pull requests in a real job. In conclusion, I can't compare the content of Makers with other bootcamps because I only did Makers. But what I can say is that I graduated in January 2021, got a job 10 weeks later, and now in December 2021, I know that at least 17 out of the 20 people in my cohort have got legit, full-time, developer jobs.

Pros Provides a lot of support once graduated The course was enjoyable Good place to network Great coaches to speak to and learn from Great office (pre-covid) Cons The review system could be worked on Some times it was hard to get in touch with coaches... Read More if something urgent was needed

Makers Academy takes you from zero knowledge of web development to being able to plan, create and host your own web apps using the most in-demand languages and technologies. It was a fantastic opportunity to make a career change. The aftercare of Makers... Read More was by far the most impressive part of the course for me, the process is well managed and the hiring team is fantastic at helping you with your CV and interviews. There are lots of high-quality partners hiring through the academy. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to make a career change!

Doing a Bootcamp with Makers was an intense experience that not only led me to acquire technical knowledge and exposition to essential programming topics but also helped me grow into an independent learner. But Makers' support didn't finish with the Bootcamp.... Read More I can still count on a lot of support (technical support from coaches, access to external reviews, support on job hunting, access to a huge community of Makers Alumni, etc). However, I would like to emphasize the importance Makers give to emotional support and how, as a job hunter, it has been crucial to growing my confidence as a junior software developer. Both Becks and Candida have been absolutely amazing in the endless support they've been giving me and that's something I truly value! For all these reasons, I highly recommend Makers Academy!

I completed the makers academy course in 2021. I found the content challenging, the coaches supportive and the careers team excellent. I would definitely do this bootcamp again as it successfully helped me to change career. Even though it was fully remote... Read More it was still a great experience.

If you are looking to change careers, joining Makers is the best decision you can make. Makers' holistic approach to coding helps you build healthy habits that not only make you a better developer but also improve your health and wellbeing. The 12 week... Read More course is very intense, but is such a fun experience that gives you a preview of what working in the tech industry is like. You join the course with very limited coding knowledge, and graduate being able to create applications and websites that you are proud to show off to your friends and family. I found that Makers attract people who bring a lot of positive energy and help facilitate connections with people who share the same interests as you. The biggest focus of the course is "it's not hard, it's new". When you learn to take this approach you create practices that benefit your own self-led learning which helps you to be prepared for this industry. The job hunting support is fantastic. The coaches during your job hunting journey provide you with the support, advice and tools that make you truly feel job ready. I found that the coaches had a breadth of knowledge they were willing to share, were really friendly and approachable. You find that with Maker's extensive selection of hiring partners, there are opportunities to apply for jobs almost every week. Learn to trust the process, and you will find that not only are you learning but you also enjoy and have fun, while creating beneficial habits and skills that will help you with this career path.