| | Anonymous | A year ago I was making $40,000 working in the administrative field and decided that I wanted to make a career change to become a software developer. I chose Ada Developer Academy as I wanted an environment that is supportive for women/gender diverse people pursuing careers in tech. I now make over $100,000 and am in a field that I find fascinating and challenging.
Pros:
Ada is tuition-free and oftentimes offers loans to students that need financial assistance
The class sizes are small (mine was 24 students) and have passionate instructors and a supportive environment
Ada offers an industry mentor, an Ada mentor (usually a past student), and if students need additional help there are TA's and tutors available
Students receive a 5-month internship which in my opinion, was as valuable as the classroom portion
The Ada community is amazing - throughout my time at Ada the alumni were quick to answer any questions I had/to offer advice. Also, Ada is becoming well-known in the Seattle area and has developed connections to many large companies.
Cons
It's a challenging, time-intensive program. During the classroom portion you're often learning and applying concepts at a rapid pace and are expected to reach out for help if needed. After going to school for the day you often have homework to work on once you get home/projects to work on over the weekend.
During the internship period it can be difficult balancing internship while learning computer science concepts/preparing for technical interviews.
Sometimes internships don't go well, there's rarely a way to tell ahead of time which internships will not go well as it's more dependent on what team your on rather than what company you're hired for.
I highly recommend this program. It will be a year of chaos but during the chaos you're pushing yourself towards your dreams and by the time it's over you'll be surprised at how fast time flew by/how far you've come. |
