Makers Academy

The school is amazing, there is good support but don't expect anybody trying to stick knowledge in your brain - they learn you how to be a knowledge worker, you will have to make the learning by yourself!

I was very pleased by the support before, during (with an amazing student's emotional support) and expecially after the course - they really try to be there at every step of your career, from starting the course to getting a job.

I was convinced doing the live (not online) course was going to make a huge difference.
I attended it and it really worked for me, expecially regarding team working skills.

Although, if you fill you got a good set of those skills already, you can save lots of money by taking the online courses - many remote students have been hired already but don't ...

Makers was a fantastic experience, albeit very intense! They do a lot to foster a sense of community, I met so many lovely people both in my cohort and staff members. This really pays off during the course as it is difficult and you are really pushed so having a support system within the course makes such a difference. There's also a lot of effort put into student well-being with yoga and meditation classes. The course focuses on helping you to teach yourself, you are not spoon fed very much beyond the very first steps and are taught how to find the answers yourself. Beyond coding, you also learn good practices to use while coding which I found invaluable, this works as a framework for everything you pick up. I think my only criticism would be that there is a lot of self-learning, but w...

I came to Makers looking for a chance to change my career, learn a skill that could provide job security going forward and to expand my technical knowledge. What I got was all of that and much more.

I found a community of friends and colleagues that I am proud to be a part of, a happy and supportive staff that knew how to guide me to exceed my own expectations, a curriculum that taught me how to approach my code with with a high degree of pride and integrity and at the end of it all, a job with an organisation that I have loved and respected for years.

The support and guidance I have received from Makers has been phenomenal and I would whole heartedly suggest it to anyone who is willing to commit to such a profound change in their life.

I found Makers Academy to be a brilliant experience that fast tracked my programming knowledge in the space of 3 months. I was taught industry best practice, alongside the skills of learning how to learn effectively in an industry that is constantly changing. We carried out pair programming every day, and were well supported by our coach who went above & beyond to help us learn. I got a job one week after graduating. It's a well respected course within the tech industry & has amazing hiring partners.

I came to Makers with 3 years experience as a technical support engineer.
My goal was to change career into web development.

3 months after the course, I got a job as a junior Python/Django developer.
I wrote a blog about my journey at Makers Academy : https://bkjourneytocoding.wordpress.com/

What I can say about my experience is that you get out what you put in.
Makers has the materials, the curriculum and a dedicated team to help you along the way but you have to put in a lot of work.

Makers is a life changing experience. I didn't have any tech experience but that didn't matter. My aim was to be able to get my foot on the software dev ladder which I was successfully able to do. You obviously need to put in the time and effort of course.

Pros
- Amazing team, coaches and like minded students
- You aren't spoon fed information which makes the learning a lot better, for me anyway
- Challenging work
- Great working space
- Great job via the Makers career team
- Great social events
- Dana (Chief Joy Officer) for mindfulness support

Cons
- Hardly any

In summary I am very happy with my Makers experience, it has provided the opportunity to move into the tech world at an accelerated rate and was in general a positive experience.

Pros:
- It is a fast track to a new career over more traditional methods (degree, apprenticeship);
- There is a steep learning curve, accelerating your knowledge at a rate that is likely to outstrip self teaching (at least to start);
- As everyone is generally like minded you are likely to meet a good set of new friends;
- My salary has jumped by over 50% (I was working an administrative job prior to joining makers);
- I have a solid foundation in which to further my career, skills that will be useful in any tech job and would be useful in any job full stop (in abstract terms).

Cons:
- It's by no me...

You get to learn a lot. You learn how much there is to learn, so it may at times appear daunting. It's captivating, but hard. It demands your undivided attention and all the time you have outside of sleep. It empowers you, but it doesn't do your work for you. It's great company--from students to coaches there's only great people around you, which is a bit surreal. You may think it's expensive, but it's actually a very wise way to invest a large amount of money. It's certainly not perfect, but it's very likely the best bootcamp experience you can get in London.

I did this course just over a year ago now. What a complete and utter waste of time. There is a general consensus among the Makers staff, that everyone is encouraged to be positive, which is great, however the positivity often comes across as sheer delusion, and as such may be skewing the reviews on this website somewhat. I'll start with the positive points and then move on to the more realistic points, so as to give you an honest impression of what it is actually like to attend there. I want to give as rounded a review as possible so you can hopefully understand that I am a more reasonable person, rather than someone who just blindly says everything is "phenomenal" without actually giving any constructive thought into the bootcamp at all.

The pros -

Everyone is encouraged to be ...

I used to code in PHP when I was younger, and finally saw software/web development as a viable career choice. I looked for courses online and found Makers Academy. After reading many blog posts and reviews, I was convinced it was the right decision to make.

I joined the May 2016 cohort which had 39 people, including myself, which was almost twice the size of previous cohorts. This definitely proved problematic over the 12 weeks - many students finished the course feeling that they didn't know how to code and were left behind, and it feels as if Makers either didn't dedicate enough teaching resources (most of the time we had 1 coach between all of us), or that they were willing to let their standards slip by accepting people they wouldn't normally let onto the course in order to make ...

If you want to change careers, with Makers Academy you can do it in relatively short time.
Pros:
They have a super intense curriculum, you'll build fantastic stuff during the course. You'll do pairing, for me this was a thing a bit out of my comfort zone but got used to it and found super useful to stay focused and maximize my learning.
Makers has a really good careers team, and they will do a lot to help you find your dream job.
The course enables you to learn whatever technology and language you chose to learn. There is mainly Ruby, JavaScript on the course but I ended up learning Swift by the end of the course and Java shortly after the course.
Great Coaches for mind and body as they have a Joy Officer to keep you happy.

Cons:
Yes, it's pricey, but staying in a job that you...

This review is for the Maker's Remote course.

Summary
The Makers curriculum is designed to expose you to all parts of the web stack with some well-known technologies but has the flexibility of project weeks that allow you to explore newer technologies if you wish. Learning web development on your own is possible, but attending Makers allowed me to connect with people on the same learning path and we were able to provide support for each other.

Curriculum
It is a problem-based course, you are given challenges to solve and provided with guides to supplement the workshops from the coaches. The coaches are helpful and guide you in finding the solution to your problem but you are especially encouraged to search for the answer yourself using common online resources like StackOverflow...

Great culture and team. Lots of good connections with London startups but the curriculum isn't focused on as much as it should be.

Going to Makers Academy was the best decision ever! I was unsure at first as I was super broke and the course costs more than I ever spent on any single thing in my entire life. Reading reviews online helped me make this decision, so I'm leaving one, too, to help you make yours.

The course is super intense and only for people who are prepared to put all of themselves in it. They say that you will eat and breathe code and this is true. This full immersion and deeply practical approach to learning make it possible to prepare future developers for going straight to job afterwards or for independently building a working web app from the scratch. Check out the mobile app our time built as our final project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJC0dtZXxYA

And coding is only one of many thin...

Pros:
- Meeting a great bunch of people, and getting to pair program with someone different every day which enables you to learn more and learn faster.
- Getting best practices drilled into you. For example, writing clean code that's easy to maintain and extend through TDD and OOP.
- Being taught how to learn and problem solve (and not just learning a language or two), both independently and also by practicing communicating and discussing in pairs and groups.
- Knowing how far you've come by being able to pick up any new language of your choosing in the last two weeks and developing your own final project application idea.
- Extremely helpful and supportive careers team, who are always prepared to give great advice throughout the course and especially after the course, with plenty...

Pros: I learnt so many important skills so quickly and was able to get a great job I absolutely love at the end of it. The curriculum changes often based on the changing trends and requirements of the tech industry. Excellent attitude to diversity and encourages respect for others. Very hardworking, knowledgable and dedicated staff. Good careers support (interview training, CV help, being put forward for jobs suited to the individual). Lovely office, location, wellbeing activities and good ties to the tech industry and event.

Cons: It is pretty expensive and therefore only accessible for those who are fortunate enough to have savings. Could maybe give a bit more support to graduates who are taking a long time to get a job and are feeling disheartened.

Overall, I loved my time at M...

Firstly, I should point that I came to Makers after a conversion Masters in computer science (a Masters for graduates in disciplines other than software engineering) at one of the top UK universities and a year of work in consultancy (pretty much unrelated to software development), so I wasn't new to programming, but I had forgotten a lot of it and had never applied it in a professional context.

The bottom-line is that Makers taught me essential, pragmatic software development skills that the Masters didn't even touch upon (e.g. testing, writing clean code, familiarity with modern technologies and tools such as git) and that heavily inform the way I code every day at my job, which I secured through Makers. The staff put a lot of care and effort into providing an amazing learning env...

Cons? It seems expensive, and the intensity means you have to commit to it fully, quit your job etc, so I imagine this would put some people off. That's all I can really think of though, as I can honestly say it's been the best thing I've done.
I think the best things about this course are being thrown in at the deep end with a learn-by-doing approach, as well as pairing with different people every day. It breaks you out of your comfort zone really quickly, and you learn loads in such a short time, obviously about programming but also about communicating, teamwork and how to work well with others who may have completely different skills and experiences to you.
I also loved how inclusivity and diversity are so important to them. And also the fact that as well as working hard you are ac...

Makers Academy is exceptional. I knew it way before I even applied. I have met a lot of alumni, people who work with Makers graduates and everyone was of an opinion that Makers really helps you become a better software developer. However, many have emphasised that the people who had the best success stories and found it easier on the course were those who have already done some programming before.
From my own experience, what I really loved about Makers was the atmosphere and the people. Everyone respects each other, everyone is open for feedback, everyone is ready to help you, and everyone is there to have fun together. By the end of the course, you have a group of really amazing friends, and many of us did shed a few tears on our graduation day. The most wonderful feeling is to see ...

Learning web development through Makers Academy at their Remote September 2016 Cohort, was both an exciting and a challenging experience due to their "hit-the-ground-running" teaching methods in how to become a "Job Ready" web developer. And I have never regretted my choice joining Makers Academy.

In order to get admitted at one of their cohorts, either at one of their onsite or their remote option, you had to complete a Codecademy path before you were interviewed and tested by one of MAs recruiters.

Once you were admitted, paid their course fee and start the course, you learn how to code through pair programming for 3 months with the members of your cohort, where you swap pairs everyday. During the course you are guided by an assigned MA tutor who's a senior developer. The whole ...

Pros:
- Almost all students are at a similar stage, undergoing a career change, are smart and driven.
- The syllabus breaks down the core concepts and builds them up to form a solid knowledge foundation.
- Core good working practices are ingrained from the outset (such as TDD, Agile, etc.).
- There is a dedicated careers team to assist with finding your first job as a developer.

Cons:
- As so much is compacted into a short space of time it can be quite stressful.
- Although the dev industry is getting better, not having a CS degree can still be an issue.
- There is quite a large range in time span of graduates getting jobs (some after a week, some still looking around 6 months).

Allow me to start by saying, no cons were observed during my attendance at Makers Academy.
Since day one, I felt the presence of very friendly people, coaches and other students alike. I can safely say Makers Academy makes a very thorough selection in order to create cohorts with amazing chemistry.
2-3 workshops each week picked up the pace to the right speed for each week's material.
The idea behind Makers is to "learn how to learn" and that is very significant. Feeling capable of approaching each programming task knowing that you can find the answer because the programmers' community is incredible, vast and eager to help.
Pair-programming and Test Driven Development are two fundamentals of working/learning there!! I won't describe what each is but it was the right way to go!
Soc...

Makers Academy is a great place to learn - the tutors were knowledgeable and friendly, and the curriculum was challenging but well-structured and varied. I had three job offers within a couple of months of graduating and have thoroughly enjoyed my first year as a Ruby developer.

Pros:

- Great people
- Cool location
- Interesting & challenging curriculum
- Focus on principles rather than specific tech

Cons:

- Expensive (but similar comparable to other bootcamps)
- Some of the curriculum wasn't necessarily appropriate (e.g. when I was there there was a heavy leaning on Angular 1, which I will probably never use)

I was stuck in a rut in my life, I had just graduated from University with a BA in Professional Musicianship (like that'll help me). I hated education because I never "got it", I never did well in school and my teacher reviews always went something like "he's a bright boy, but he's lazy". I may have been lazy sometimes, but I really tried. After Uni I people I knew kept recommending I do some sort of computer science degree as I was always good with computers and it was a very employable skill to have. Looking at courses, I really didn't want to lock myself into another long stretch of education, I couldn't handle another three year course. I found Makers Academy and it sounded far too good to be true. A twelve week course with a robust and highly praised alumni careers program. In shor...

When I was doing my degree in Forensic Science I was so sure that that was the career was going to go down. However when I suddenly decided to apply to Makers Academy that all changed! Quite literally a few weeks into the full course (after pre-course) during a weekend challenge where I made a simply rock paper scissors web-app I knew from then on this is what I should be doing! I found the pre-course far tougher than the main part of the course. This course has totally re-wired my brain and has given be the enthusiasm and excitement to go on and learn more.

Makers Academy is one of the friendliest places to learn imaginable. There is zero judgement on anyone, almost to a fault, an excellent curriculum that takes you up to just-about working knowledge on all the stack required to get a job as a web developer, and once you graduate, the support you get to find a job is excellent - I cannot imagine how they could realistically do better.

I'm going to start with my criticisms before I praise them, because then you can see how minor they truly are. Politically, it's a very left-liberal atmosphere. On day one, you will be asked to write your pronouns on your name label (to accommodate the one in two hundred people who aren't obviously He or She). In the waning weeks, your cohort will be summoned to be told that women are discriminated against...

I'd always had an interest in tech, but thought I was too old to change careers. There was no way I was going to go back to university for another 4 year degree in my thirties. Then I heard about Bootcamps. I researched the bootcamps in London, and Makers Academy jumped out to me. Seeing how happy all of their alumni are made me think that there must be something to it. The other thing that really appealed to me about Makers Academy is the focus on wellness and mental health. They have Dana, the chief joy officer, who runs daily meditation, yoga twice a week, and a number of social events. The work life balance of Makers really appealed to me.

I applied, got my invitation to interview, studied my ass off, had my interview and got accepted! The course was intense, but not impossible...

I attended Makers Academy on site starting November of 2015 and I'm happy to say I've been a Junior Web Developer in a role which I love for coming up to a year now. The course was a great mix of intensity, challenging but most of all fun. It is very hands on, from day one we were set challenges and coding. There is very little teaching but rather it's pair programming and then theres escalation processes if you do get stuck. Overall there is a great mix of people there, i've made some great friends from my cohort and the coaches are super friendly and helpful. Previously I was in a Digital Marketing role and was looking for a viable route into a new career as a developer. Makers Academy helped me achieve this and more, I completed the course and about a month after finishing begun my c...

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 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 prepared on our own.