Northcoders

I found Northcoders while on my honeymoon, browsing on Instagram, many courses claim that they can get you into work, that you will be a full software dev in 12 weeks, Northcoders delivered. From day one, you get to learn the basics of Javascript, before... Read More splitting into your chosen path, Data Engineering or Full Stack, You learn the theory and then spend the day putting it into practice, which gives you enough experience and confidence to take on the final task in the last 2-3 weeks. As well as the teaching there are various workshops, with the careers team who will help you with your CV, and then give you access to the jobs board to find work. The careers team are such a big difference because they do their best to help you find work, build your CV, practice interviews and whatever questions you want to ask, are answered. They celebrate students and make a big deal out of graduation, I cannot rate Northcoders highly enough.

This course offers a well-structured, in-depth exploration of many important topics. The mentors were knowledgeable and provided excellent support. However, the graduation policy seems quite lenient. While this makes the course accessible, it can be challenging... Read More for highly motivated students to excel in the sprints and final project if paired with less ambitious colleagues. Despite this I'd strongly recommend this course, I enrolled because it had the most positive reviews online and I haven't regretted it for a single second. For anyone considering this bootcamp, I would recommend doing some self-learning beforehand. This will allow you to finish tasks faster and explore topics that the curriculum touches on but doesn't go in depth into.

The tuition provided by the teaching team at Northcoders is genuinely excellent. They have all the time in the world for students and the tutors genuinely care about your success. The content is taught in a super accessible manner, and the process has... Read More obviously been refined to a tee over the years. As well as teaching you the foundational coding skills you’ll need, the tutors at Northcoders make sure you have an understanding of the more practical skills that are required for software development careers, such as version control, refactoring and pair programming. Lectures and seminars are always interesting and student participation is encouraged, despite everything being delivered remotely (even if you go into one of their offices). Can’t fault the tuition and tutors at all. The careers team are also really friendly, although they seemed quite thin on the ground when I was there given the recent influx of students due to Northcoders’ cohort sizes tripling after the government funding was introduced. Nevertheless, I would advise potential students to be wary about the state of the job market for junior developers at the moment before committing to Northcoders. When I signed up to Northcoders, I was quoted figures such as ‘94% of our students find work within 2 months of graduating’ after asking about job hunt prospects following graduation, and given the impression that I didn’t need to stress about it too much. Although I’m sure whoever told me this believed it to be true - I’m almost certain it’s no longer the case. The market is extremely tough at the moment, and the vast majority of people I did the bootcamp with are yet to land a coding job months after graduating. This is not Northcoders’ fault of course, but I would advise you to be wary of any claims made about how good they are at getting people into work. They may have been great at it pre 2022, but if my cohort is anything to go by, they are struggling to get people into jobs now. No matter how good the Northcoders careers team are, the reality is that the majority of bootcamp graduates are not finding junior roles at the moment, and the recent rounds of government funding that have allowed Northcoders and other coding bootcamps to triple their cohort sizes do not help ease this problem. This is not to say you’ll never land a job; as I mentioned, the tuition sets you up perfectly to embark on a career in development and you’ll definitely have the skills, but please be aware that the junior dev market is no cake walk in 2024, and the bootcamp alone will not guarantee you a job.

I kick-started my tech career using the Northcoders bootcamp as a stepping stone. The opportunities are endless once you've got a solid grounding in a popular programming language like JavaScript. This will allow you to explore many different options... Read More in the tech world. And the best part is, they train you up in a way that emulates a real work environment.

The course is very structured and organized. They teach you enough coding fundamentals to carry on studying coding on your own after the course is finished. The job searching support was great. They helped with preparing CV and interview which was amazing.... Read More

I was an Actor who wanted to pursue a career as a Software Developer with ZERO experience. Northcoders fast-tracked me into the field, teaching me all the fundamental practical knowledge necessary. Moreover, the content was delivered in an engaging way... Read More and I felt supported throughout the course. For anyone thinking about taking the plunge into the world of coding, I cannot recommend this boot camp and their friendly and professional community enough!

It was a life changing course that was funded by the DFE for myself. However I am going to review this based on the course cost which is £8000. Pros: Great teaching from seminar leads, brilliant detail and extremely helpful and reassuring, would go over... Read More topics like imposter syndrome and talk about soft skills as well as just code. Taught me a lot in a short time, felt that if I was to learn this independently it would have taken double the time. Helped me learn industry standards like TDD, Agile and scrum. Also helped a lot with soft skills. Job I landed was off Northcoders jobs board. Made amazing friends on the course, great atmosphere. Cons: The marketing on the course is a bit misleading, it takes way longer than the 4 weeks to learn the fundamentals prior to the course, there's a huge learning curve picking up programming. Id say at least 5 months of consistent programming before going on the course would be more realistic. I know very few people who have a job now because of this and given a few more months of solo learning might give people a better chance. I also think the barrier to entry and the review day in particular is too low, it is a very challenging course and a lot of people at the end really struggled, especially on the project phase. Multiple teams have had 1 or 2 people really struggle on this and definitely could have benefited with having more experience prior to the course. My job support has been really good, in particular Darren has really helped so I cannot fault this, but I know other people haven't had the same level of support. Overall, it is a great bootcamp and I definitely recommend doing it, but don't go in with limited experience. The jobs board is great if you're based near Manchester in particular and the teaching is extremely well done especially the fundamentals and the front end! I would advise though when finishing the course to have a back up plan as the market is pretty tough at the minute. I only know a handful of people who are employed.

Pros: Excellent teaching, good mix of independent work, pair programming and lectures, kind and supportive staff, talks with partners were very interesting too. Took a lot of effort and hard work but, after 2 months of intense job hunting and 800+ applications,... Read More I am finally working as a Junior Data Engineer - thank you Northcoders! Cons: Internal job board was underwhelming (few roles advertised and some dodgy companies in there too). Most sessions by the Careers team were not particularly insightful - too much time spent on CV formatting and cultivating a funky LinkedIn persona and not enough on the structural realities of a job market where thousands of strong candidates are competing for a handful of junior roles.

"Several years after completing my degree in Engineering in Informatics Sciences, life circumstances led me away from my career. Returning proved challenging without the necessary consistency and discipline, much like trying to learn a new swimming style... Read More without a coach, unsure of how well I was navigating the complexities of my field and whether my learning pace was appropriate. The independent learning path, though fruitful, left me uncertain. Enter Northcoders—the program I wish I had found earlier. It provided not just knowledge but a supportive network, offering insights into analytical problem-solving crucial in programming. Emphasizing foundational basics, the program facilitated a smoother transition to new technologies. The experience of teamwork, often overlooked in self-study, became a highlight, shaping my understanding of the collaborative dynamics essential in the industry. Northcoders not only equipped me with technical skills but also offered unmatched career support. This support, coupled with a dedicated team, boosted my confidence at every step. In hindsight, my sole regret is not discovering Northcoders sooner. The program not only accelerated my learning but also built a sense of community, proving to be an invaluable resource as I reimmersed myself in my career."

Pros: Excellent learning experience (seminars, katas) Cons: Lack of coordination between teaching team and careers team. e.g. expectation for completing CV before completing projects (for most job switchers the projects are going to be the most important... Read More part of their CV as it will be the only way to demonstrate coding experience to employers. Another example, job board opening same week as final projects beginning In general did not find the careers team providing much support in general, the jobs board was quite sparse for opportunities considering the size of the cohorts. The one to one advice was good for designing the CV but actually finding opportunities, the support was non-existent. It may be benficial for the careers team to have some basic understanding of coding to better understand the opportunities. Course is aimed at people with little coding experience, so putting jobs for C++ on the board is not exactly helpful - as most coders recognise that this language takes years to learn...not a 13-week course