| | Michael LaRocca | Hey All!
I came to find LEARN academy having had about 3 years of professional experience in Product Management and Database/Manufacturing operations. I had been doing basic SQL (self-taught) for 2 years, loved it but found I was missing knowledge of the other tools that go around it. I did research on a number of schools, Hack Reactor, Thinkful, and LEARN... finally ending up at LEARN.
Why I chose LEARN?
It's local in SD and I thought it would be nicer to have an actual class room to go to every day with people to interact with. The price was on the lower end of the ones I researched at 12.5k. They offered a guaranteed internship with a local tech company for a month after the 3 month curriculum ended.
What I got out of it?
Ultimately I think the biggest take away was the structure of what Full-stack was. Backend vs. Frontend, linking the two together, translating data into real world UI's. LEARN teaches React on the frontend which is obviously a hot tool and something that a lot of employers are looking for these days. They drill how to do self discovery as there's only so much that anyone can cover in 12 weeks and LEARN did a good job of teaching patterns for learning... ultimately stressing that this is just the first small step on a long journey. You don't go to a bootcamp and wake up a Software Engineer, there is a huge amount of work that needs to be put during and after the program to ultimately realize you're true potential and goals. The people that I saw fail in the process were not paying attention daily, not invested, and somewhat entitled. The individual is responsible for the information they retain and put to use, the institution is responsible for delivering the advertised curriculum. LEARN delivered the curriculum and more... The internship was crucial. I got to do mobile development with React Native, building a full chat interface. This is where you build some industry connections and see how production apps function in the real world. It's a soft entry into job searching and while it's not promised, I saw some of my fellow students get picked up by their internship companies. The career service manager is fantastic. I am a year out and I speak with the past career services manager and the current career services manager regularly. Rob the founder is always open for communication on Slack (I don't know how he finds the time to answer everyone's questions, it's quite amazing). In my eyes they have really created a community here in San Diego, I look forward to the events and I've become friends with not just my individual cohort, but people from all different years and experiences.
Recommendation?
YES. 1000x Yes |
