| | Anonymous | My experience of the bootcamp wasn't great. And some of my cohort I've spoken to agree. Prospective students need to be aware that HY emails students to encourage us to leave a review on the bootcamp review websites for a chance to win a $$ gift card - and you have to put your name on the review to get the gift card.
The Pros:
- HackerYou has a strong reputation among the tech companies in Toronto that want to hire recent bootcamp grads and front-end devs. You'll learn that some don't.
- They really dive into HTML, CSS, design principles, accessibility and Responsive Web. Most bootcamps tend to skim through this, but HY actually ensures you have that foundation. This is their biggest strength.
- Highly enthusiastic alumni
- Beyond bootcamp, taught by Simon was incredible
The Cons:
- We did not cover JavaScript (for web development) during the bootcamp. There was at most 1 day of lessons on vanilla. The curriculum skipped right to jQuery and React.
Those of us bootcamp grads with JS-focused jobs taught ourselves outside HY or were extraordinarily lucky.
- Overly positive culture discourages criticism of the program and results in an increasingly weak bootcamp. This is the downside of cheerleader rah-rah alumni.
- Huge turnover and administrative changes during my cohort meant a weaker bootcamp than in previous years. Heather, the CEO, was described as a sort of secret weapon, but she is much less involved in the bootcamp than before, and it shows.
- All of this would be ok, if not for the much praised career support being so surprisingly mediocre. It consisted of the spreadsheet and instructions of how to apply for jobs, and any discussion following centered around those instructions. Most of my friends in the class say that HY had little role in their job search process. It's like they gave up on our cohort or were too oblivious to notice the huge cracks. There are several examples of this which I won't get into because I don't want the cult to figure out who I am.
HY bootcamp is considered the best front-end program. The reality is that all the other reputable bootcamps are full stack. It's the only game in Canada for front-end, but that does not make it a five-star program. I wouldn't discourage anyone from attending, because it does help. But know that you will have to do a lot of learning and hustling on your own, to a level that is heavily downplayed in the marketing. |
