Makers Academy

If you are itching for a career change into software development you really don't have to look any further then Makers Academy. The fast paced bootcamp gets you up to speed in no time. It's really intense so be prepared! Once you are finished the bootcamp... Read More you still get all the support you need from the bootcamp while you work with the job hunting team to land your first role.

It's an **intense** 16 weeks course and even more challenging when you have 2 young children and doing this on the tail end of your maternity leave! The curriculum is good. I'd suggest more materials for certain concepts in Javascript and functional programming.... Read More The coaches were supportive, in both technical and emotional wellbeing. Post-course was a bonus! I couldn't attend the sessions since I returned to full-time work, however I received support from my cohort and coaches around my time. Multi-tasking between working full-time, being a mum of 2, consolidating and job searching was very challenging but I managed to get a job offer through Makers hiring partner within 2 months post-course. Very grateful for the support throughout my journey

My Makers experience was only positive. Joining just before the pandemic hit, we spent one month on site, and through that I met some really awesome people, most of us who still keep in contact today. The self-starter mindset is strong at Makers, so don't... Read More expect classes, lectures, or scheduled days. Instead, the learning is done through collaboration, self learning time, and pair programming; all of these ways prove to be much more effective in preparation for a real-life developer role. I got the support I needed after the course to land myself a role, and have been promoted within a year. Highly recommend Makers as a bootcamp for anyone thinking about changing career.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time at Makers, and was able to land a job as a junior software engineer 5 months after starting the course. Certainly worth the money in my eyes. Course Content - There was a lot of bespoke content, but sometimes it was unclear... Read More and took a few re-reads and research around the topic to fully understand. Be prepared to do A LOT of research independent of the course materials. Sometimes recommended tech to use resulted in unnecessary banging heads on desk, due to it having stopped being supported several years ago. Course Support - Makers focuses on Holistic learning with a wing of emotional wellbeing. The coaches and the support groups provided by Makers are one of the most important resources, and the patience, approachability and knowledge these coaches have are simply outstanding. Makers focus less on teaching, and more on teaching you how to teach yourself - which is an incredibly powerful skill that I think is often overlooked with classic education techniques. I've done GSCE's, A-Levels and a Masters Degree before joining Makers - and I've learnt more about myself and how to learn in the 16 weeks of the course, than the 10+ years of education I've had in traditional bodies. Post-course support - CV writing tips, CV reviews, GitHub cv reviews, how to find a good job via which job boards, job advert breakdown, networking, LinkedIn profile reviews, cover letter guidance, cover letter reviews, interview preparation, mock coding tests, mock interviews, 1 on 1 support. There is a lot that Makers have to offer in the post-course, and honestly, I believe this all was enough to offset the imposter syndrome and provide enough confidence to be able to land my first job. A lot of the tips I learned here I will remember for the rest of my tech career, and I believe that Makers has given me the best start possible.

I'd like to note that the comments from my experience are from 2020 and some of these things may have changed since. Pros: It was great to have my cohort supporting me and helping me at times when I was struggling. Coming to the office and the pairing... Read More sessions was for me the most valuable experience, I've learnt a lot from paring with colleagues. I'd like to specifically mention Alice as a great coach, her workshops were really informative and she always made sure we understood the concepts with student interaction. The support from the careers team has been so much better than I ever expected! Becks & Toby supported me right through to when I got a job and kept me motivated. This was one of the most invaluable benefits of studying with Makers. Cons: I think that there could be more one to one support for students that have more difficulties during the bootcamp. I found that what I got out of the workshops varied greatly as the quality wasn't consistent. This could be improved by facilitating more group interactive work during the session and trying to appeal to all types of learning styles. The same would go for the 1-1 support from coaches some were fantastic at providing support and others not so much.

I decided a year ago that I would like to become a software engineer, as I had yet to start a job I would consider a career. Makers helped me to structure my learning and drive me towards positive change, both technically, and personally. This was achieved... Read More through a well developed and focused curriculum that taught essential web development concepts, as well as learning how to learn. In addition a big shout out to Dana Svobada for her excellent emotional quotient lessons, which taught key soft skills such as: Empathetic listening, receiving and giving feedback and different work styles. Whilst the process was overwhelming at times, if you are willing to commit yourself to change and growth, you will inevitably gain a lot from this program.

Makers gives you the tools needed to begin your career as a software engineer with no prior experience. The course is very intense with different weekly learning topics, lots of pairing, challenging weekend projects, and group projects. It was amazing... Read More to be surrounded by like-minded individuals who were also career changers, there is a real positive and supportive vibe. The EQ curriculum was amazing and totally unexpected too, I didn't know I needed it until I experienced it for myself! Overall the course puts you on the right path for life-long learning and continual self-development, the community is the cherry on the cake. Pros - Positive vibes, great network, alumni community - EQ curriculum - Feedback culture - It's not like school, you're treated like an adult - Course content is super engaging - Talented and experienced coaches with a real passion for tech Cons - If you are expecting to be lectured at for 12 weeks then this is not the course for you

I was on the first post-COVID hybrid cohort that combined remote and in-person learning. A big factor for me was definitely wanting to be able to learn in an environment of others passionate to learn with support of professionals on hand. It was definitely... Read More an up and down experience, with highs and lows. You have to complete the pre-course in the month before starting Makers to get everyone on a fairly level playing field, but the first few weeks definitely ramp the difficulty up as you are thrown into the deep end somewhat (as you'd probably expect from a bootcamp). It can definitely be frustrating at times as a lot of the learning is very much self-led. Makers do provide you with suggested learning materials and challenges each week, but the main issue was that there never felt like there was enough time to complete it all! There were coaches there to support you, though I found that especially during the remote weeks I didn't make enough of it, mostly because I couldn't remember everyone we met on day 1 and maybe it wasn't clear enough each week who was assigned to your cohort that week. Support definitely varied, and we did have to push back to get extra content on certain topics, but some coaches also really went out of their way to put on extra workshops. My feedback for Makers going forward would be more technical workshops during the week, especially on complex topics and especially given the amount paid for the course. Regarding the course materials, these were usually fine though with the initial JavaScript weeks, I think we were the first (at least one of the first) groups to use their new syllabus, and at times it did feel a little incomplete (missing some solutions / additional guidance). I know a big focus is teaching us how to learn, but also for me, personally, if I can't self-assess myself against a solution written by a professional, I find it hard it gauge what I need to improve. At times, it did feel like the blind leading the blind when trying to figure something out with other learners, but of course satisfying if you do figure it out (much like the real world!). One of the best parts of the course was the external code reviews where an assessor watches you code and gives you really good, insightful and actionable feedback to improve your overall process. I just wish a bigger thing had been made of these as I only took my first review after the bootcamp had finished and think it would have helped me massively to do them during. The post-bootcamp support is obviously a big part of the overall experience, and that was overall a good experience. While some of the workshops were a bit more basic, I understand Makers have to cater to all levels, especially those who are maybe fresh university grads or haven't applied for jobs before. However, the real value comes from being able to reach out to the support coaches, get your cover letters and CVs reviewed and get help in preparing for interviews. And overall, I can't complain too much since I got hired into a tech role through one of the companies that Makers arranged to give us a lunchtime job talk, something which I wouldn't have imagined possible so soon after finishing a bootcamp!

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.