There are plenty of bootcamps these days, and curriculum-wise they more or less offer the same; so you might think at this point of your research: Why not go to Ironhack or LeWagon and just get it over with in 9 instead of 15 weeks, I will get the exact same thing in less time and potentially find a job sooner, right? Let me tell you why: Because you won’t. The curriculum at WBS Coding School is not only very carefully crafted to reflect industry needs and current trends, it also stimulates deep learning by giving you some time to reinforce concepts other bootcamps merely brush over, expecting you to just wing it or force you to work overtime at ridiculous hours - trust me, you need sleep & rest if you want to be able to recall that stuff not only 3 days, but ideally 3 years later. Here, you are not just quickly introduced to something once and then move on to a new area a couple of hours later, you will have multiple exercises that slowly build up on each other and let you constantly revisit and practise previously learned material. And when I say “slowly”, I still mean this in a bootcampy sense of the word, but not at the speed of light as is so common for many of the more fast food-ish contenders out there. Apart from the excellent learning material, the staff is also extraordinary. The atmosphere is warm and welcoming from the get-go, at no point does the experience feel like you’re getting piped through some soulless web dev factory - the teachers are knowledgable and engaged, the community manager and career service advisor make sure you have everything you need: They are always open towards criticism and try to cater to your needs wherever possible; and also set you up for the time after the bootcamp with many helpful resources and workshops that provide guidance for the job search. There is also a huge emphasis on community building, with regular guest speaker events vividly attended by students and alumni alike and a discord server with an active “help” channel you can use during and after the course. Regarding campus time, this will clearly be a highlight during non-pandemic times. Unfortunately I could not afford to stay during the whole time (Jobcenter does not account for the stay if you are a Berlin resident), but spent a couple of nights there and was allowed to attend the rest of the campus phase remotely as I wasn’t comfortable with commuting each day due to the Covid situation. The campus is amazing; and you’ll be sleeping in a very cute private room where you can also work comfortably whenever you feel like you need a bit more you-time during your final project. The whole vibe is very “summer campy” in the best sense of the word, as there are numerous entertainment mediums like table soccer, pool and console games available, not to mention having the Spreeufer directly on your doorstep. If you plan on defeating your instructor in Mario Kart to make up for them constantly defeating you in programming, you might want to brush up on these skills a little bit tho - unfortunately they are great at gaming too! I honestly cannot think of any downsides in regards of the actual “product” you get, but there is one thing that could still be improved in my opinion: With the tech industry still lacking diversity and at times even being a hostile space for women and non-binary people, I really think WBS Coding School should set an example and do a bit better concerning their hiring policy. As of right now, the dev team consists - apart from one really awesome female instructor - solely of male developers. It would be an important message towards students to try and actively change these numbers, giving a chance and a voice to those who have suffered from systemic oppression for so long. I for one, as a woman, would have loved getting insight and mentoring from a more experienced female engineer - never underestimate the power of visibility for inspiring and encouraging others! [On a more general note: I know all those bootcamps are advertised for beginners, and it’s also tempting to believe that with the amount of money one has to disburse, you simply will get a career handed back to you at the end. Well, yes and no. Don’t get me wrong, there ARE people that without much or even zero previous knowledge strive in these environments and just “get it” super quickly. But from my experience, those are to be considered unicorns, or at least something you don’t see every day, let’s say a very pretty horse. So please do yourself a favour and get some of the basics out of the way BEFORE you start a bootcamp: GET DECENT IN JAVASCRIPT BEFORE YOUR FIRST DAY. You obviously don’t have to be in expert going in there, but make sure you can write a for loop without looking up the syntax. Do some basic tutorials, do some research on MDN, and actually go and solidify this knowledge by doing some katas on Codewars or Eadabit. I promise you this extra-effort won’t be in vain. You will learn incredibly much either way, but going in with a solid foundation made me able to really focus on some more advanced topics and in general not being completely overwhelmed 24/7, which is not a state of mind that lets you learn and really manifest knowledge in the long run in my opinion.] | 