Makers Academy

Pros: learned through doing, TDD focused, was taught all aspects of programming the proper way, pair programmed throughout, very supportive environment, pushed to adopt a growth mindset, got a job at a very reputable company straight away and with a good... Read More junior salary.
Cons: mild burnout but wouldn't put it down as a negative because it was an immersive programme, like it says on the tin.

Had a great time pair programming and learning the basic concept to pick up any language, Met great people and still code with them on weekends! The only disappointment was the jobs week when literally none of the tech tests were helpful and so we mostly... Read More prepared on our own.

Makers Academy was a brilliant adventure that only in 12 weeks helped me develop the programming skills I had and taught me how to learn new ones quickly, all whist making everything incredibly fun and introducing me to new people and helping me make... Read More friends for life.

I have learnt not only best practices, object oriented software design and many more technical languages at Makers Academy. They have taught me how to learn and I am grateful for the experiences.

You are expected to start around 9am and stay committed... Read More to learning until the end of the day with weekend challenges to complete. It was very intense so do make sure you make time for time in your life to accommodate that. If you are serious about software craftsmanship, this course is the one to go for.

Attending a remote course suits me well. My advise to any remote student would be have a dedicated learning space, and make sure you have some time assigned to yourself to unwind. You are expected to pair program with one of your classmates throughout the day and do speak up if you're struggling, Makers have countless support team members whether it is related to the learning, or your general wellbeing. The support that is on offer from Makers Academy is worth every penny, and you have many Makers graduates you can reach out too if you need some guidance.

Don't worry about getting a job after the bootcamp, the dedicated careers team is very helpful and they do their best to get feedback from employers you apply through them. I didn't find a job through them, but via my personal contacts, however I can still go to them about job related questions and guidance. I wish Makers Academy all the best and keep on doing the great job.

Before attending Makers Academy, I had no technical training whatsoever. I had recently returned to school after working for about 5 years, yet I found that my masters degree wasn't really leading to jobs that I found personally meaningful and that stretched... Read More my brain. Luckily, circumstances led me to check out programs for learning to code and I found Makers. I immensely enjoyed the program. It was really tough but they realise this. Makers provides all kinds of services and mentorship to help you improve and feel as comfortable as possible with the intensive learning process. If they could improve something, I think it might be the pre-course which increased my anxiety about the program rather than helped build my confidence. What Makers did best was teaching me to think like a programmer, which would have been a tough thing to pick up on my own. In the end and most importantly, I ended up with a job that I really enjoy and a career track that is incredibly inspiring.

TLDR: do this course if you want to be a software developer, are happy to put in the time, are cool with self-learning and enjoy collaborating with people to build awesome things.

I loved Makers Academy, but be warned, this course is not for the faint-hearted!... Read More It is really intense - it has to be, it's only 12 weeks long! So you have to be prepared to commit utterly during that time, including weekends, if you want to make progress.

I chose to do Makers Academy because I felt that just doing online tutorials by myself was difficult to find time to do while working, demotivating and left me with a lot of questions. Makers Academy did not disappoint. The way that the course is structured means that you're not spoon fed a 'how to be a developer' syllabus but rather led to discover yourself how to be a developer - you're given signposts, if you will, rather than an actual map. So we were taught concepts, skills and behavioural practices (Agile, XP values) over the concretes of how to actually write code, as the latter is usually quite easy to find yourself. The focus is put on learning how to learn and learn quickly in order that students can leave with a certain level of self-sufficiency when coming across a new language or coding practice after the course is over.

We pair programmed throughout the duration of the course - this is great for honing communication skills, for learning how to talk clearly about unfamiliar concepts and enhancing understanding. Again, this is not for everyone - if you're a lone ranger, get frustrated at others for being slow or resentful of people being ahead of you, then you should probably look into other courses.

One of the really great things about Makers Academy was that we were being taught best practices on real-world applicable projects from day one. It meant that right from the beginning I knew that what I was learning I could actually use once the course was over - which sounds daft but I did a degree and have not used it since graduating.

I also appreciated Makers Academy's attention to the wellbeing of their students - it could be easy to burn out in such an environment, but daily meditation, twice weekly yoga and the support of the Coach and Joy Officer kept me simmering at an optimal learning temperature rather than boiling over.

Conclusion: do this course if you want to be a software developer, are happy to put in the time, are cool with self-learning and enjoy collaborating with people to build awesome things.

Hopefully this review helps those thinking of applying for the remote course of Makers. To sum it up, as good if not better than the on site equivalent! I had only a small amount of coding experience prior to this before switching from a science degree... Read More to a programming bootcamp but the amount you learn in a relatively short amount of time is insane. The coach we had was extremely helpful and I loved every minute of it working with others from the cohort every day.

I don't feel that I lost out in doing it remotely. We still did daily standups via video conference and screen shared when pairing for the rest of the afternoon. We all left at the end of the course with as much knowledge as the others but there is a lack of social activities to bare in mind. There also aren't as many(if any) remote jobs for a Junior Developer as they tell you so bare that in mind if applying from abroad or somewhere with a rubbish tech scene.

I'm currently working at a fantastic startup as a backend engineer in London after doing the course back home near Birmingham and it wouldn't have been possible without going to Makers. Best decision of my life. Can't recommend enough!!!

An incredible experience if you're serious about a career change. Makers provide a vibrant and stimulating environment to learn important real-world programming skills (test-driven development, best practices, git flow) that will make you stand out against... Read More traditional computer science graduates in the right kind of companies. Take this from someone who did a conversion masters in Computer Science at one of the UK's most prestigious universities and still decided to attend Makers, and now work at an amazing tech start-up as a result.

Makers is not for the faint-hearted. Firstly, the cost of any bootcamp is prohibitive, though it pales in comparison to the cost of higher education (and don't forget that you need to sustain yourself for about 6 months, not 3 to 4 years). I would also recommend seriously trying to learn how to program on your own and in other ways (attending workshops, taking online courses) - not everyone who joins a bootcamp ends up choosing to become a developer, and that's down to personal preferences and warped expectations. Don't expect to be "taught" things in the traditional sense of the term. A few don't fully understand this and feel frustrated when they're struggling outside a traditional classroom environment. Lastly, don't expect to just be given a job. Makers are improving their ties to companies and are boosting their careers team, who are extremely helpful, but at the end of the day it is up to you to figure out where there is a good fit, to ace interviews and tech tests and to go out and find companies that want to hire you.

The coaches and staff are passionate and helpful, and the material is kept as relevant and up-to-date as possible. There's a lot of hard work and team projects, and ultimately you get out of it as much as you put in, since nobody holds your hand and there is a vast amount of knowledge to be uncovered. 12-16 weeks is a short amount of time, but the hands-on learning approach, being steeped in the right environment and surrounded by passionate individuals really does ingrain the knowledge in your head. People in the tech industry who are familiar with Makers and their graduates are consistently impressed, so no wonder some of the best software companies hire direct.

Do your research, go to open days and taster events and make sure you want to code for a living. If you do, Makers is the right place to start.

Although I already knew how a code a little, I never considered myself a developer.

Makers doesn't just teach you how to code, but how to be a developer. Concepts such as agile software development, TDD, version control, and pair programming. These are... Read More like gold dust to employers, and it's something I wasn't exposed to during my CS degree.

Overall I'm very happy with what I learned, and I managed to get a job not long after completing my course.

Experience was one of a kind, I had never study anything related to programming until I started preparing for this course, It's extremely important to do all the material given for the pre course, I could not get it all done before we started and I really... Read More paid the price through out the course, because once you start there is not stopping or resting! Its a very very intensive course the fact that I did the online one might have made it more intense I'm not sure but it was definitely challenging for me, I struggle with the lack of guidance or people to answer my questions, apart from other students they pretty much want you to find the answers on your own and I'm not very good at that so that made me struggle through out, my mentor was available but only to ask more questions... this is kinda their methodology no way around that, but on the other hand I loved that they help me get job ready, 4 months of studying and I was ready job ready, earning way more than a minimum wage salary, because I lived in London they also helped me to secure interviews and finally a job, I'm very happy I joined MA and regret now doing it earlier in life! its a major change in life style, you get to join an amazing industry that is very flexible when it comes to hours, holidays and family time, there is so much demand that developers pretty much choose where and how they want to work I haven't heard of any other industry that offers this! (obviously the more experience you have the more picky you can get) again I highly highly recommend anybody to go for it, its hard but totally doable