| | Benjamin Gluck | Full in depth review of the the Academy online Full-Stack Software Developer Program
tl;dr version - it rocks
Full-stack software developer online course review -
This review is mostly for people who have no background in tech or are on the fence about joining. Let me lead by saying I had a fantastic (not to sound corny, but in the literal sense, life changing) experience, and landed a job relatively quickly afterwards (react & react native developer). The course will definitely take you from zero/minor experience to being job ready, with enough of an understanding to quickly adapt to new languages/frameworks/etc….
A little background about me, I decided on this bootcamp because I knew I wanted to really give coding a try, but with only 2-3 weeks programming experience, just deciding what to learn is daunting. Having saved up some money as a waiter pre-covid, and having free time due to that not really being a job atm, I decided to bite the bullet and try it out. We live in the age of the internet, and info is readily available, there is nothing in this course that can’t be found online; however, if you too are also a beginner who feels overwhelmed by the sheer mass of available information and have the time and funds, I think enrolling in this bootcamp could quite possibly be the most fruitful decision you’ve ever made. Details below (I just spent every penny I ever earned and 6 months full-time, duh I’m going to rip it to shreds, what? I deserve it.)
Courses “The Bad” -
Alright, honest review time - Let me reiterate the fact this is a long course and it is NOT easy to get through, but well worth it and incredibly rewarding. Please take these criticisms as constructive. One problem for me was that courses had no index page to easily refer back to previously covered topics, which when there are some courses that will take you over a month, with close to 500 pages, It’s very easy to lose track. I remedied it with a whiteboard, but rather than going back to browse through old topics I found myself googling them more than I’d like. I was recently told that an index page was in the works, and during my 6 months, every major course I was in was updated, so I imagine that won’t be an issue for long. Gripe two, the person who instructs classes throughout all of the fundamentals of programming the first 3ish weeks, Eric Gross is fantastic, he’s enthusiastic and breaks things down very well. He mentions that he’s an expert at C#, but after the more computer-centric courses he disappears, only to return at the end of each course to say good job, or random snippets to explain general concepts unrelated directly to coding. The other teachers aren’t bad or anything, but Eric definitely was more entertaining (sorry Leigh) it’d be nice to mix him more into the hands on parts.
Courses “The Good”-
The course delivers on all the claims it promises. I have full knowledge of all the fundamentals in the languages and frameworks my course covered (C#, Python, Javascript, HTML/CSS + some bells and whistles). If the in-person campuses open up at any point, I highly recommend that. I didn't realize just how beneficial cooperating in a group environment was until I worked on the live project (which in my case was working on an actual theatre’s content management system). Working as a team and applying everything you learned during the course really helps to iron out the “imposter syndrome”, which is so important right before the job hunt, definitely my favorite portion of the course hands down. Also the project directors rule.
The Online Aspect-
Learning online for hours a day, for six months can get pretty rough (idc who you are). Any time I asked for help during hours via email it never took long for feedback or a zoom call. Studying at home really just feels like you're being self taught, but when you’re really stuck, that help is crucial. How you study is geared more towards an individual, so if you’re easily distracted (like me and my lifelong rampantly ADHD self), you’ll have to strategize as it’s easy to fall behind. I wouldn’t let that deter you though, as everything is online currently, and the fact if you don’t finish, you just wasted what equates to a really nice car is a great motivator (jokes). Once you get over the learning hump and you can start to create things yourself, the work is infinitely more rewarding. I never thought I’d love programming as much as I do. It’s waaay more fun than it looks.
Staff-
The staff was awesome, from the people who handle onboarding and payment, to the live-project directors and instructors, no bad apples there; in-fact, everyone was super cool. Not once did I ever feel like an idiot for asking a question or that someone in a position to help me didn’t genuinely want to help or wasn’t qualified to help, and for a fully fleshed out course with a staff consisting largely of recent graduates, that’s pretty major.
Job Placement-
This is entirely up to you. They can bring you to the lake but can’t force you to drink. Thank Bruce Almighty, I never dealt that closely with job placement, as I lucked out, but I will say I’ve gotten multiple check up calls and insightful input on adjusting my resume, which full-disclosure, I based very closely off the example templates (*cough*copied). I can’t give too thorough a review on job placement, but https://cirr.org/data shows the rate of graduation and employment for The Tech Academy and similar programs. During the program you’d hear many times that those who don’t find employment are usually those who don’t stay with job placement. The data presented there, from my analysis, supports that. The percent of people employed at 90 days post graduation is usually only marginally smaller than that at 180 days, if not equal, and those numbers are generally shared across the board, +/-10%. Everyone has their own situation, and it’s unfair to give blanket statements, but for most people, I can say with a fair degree of confidence that if you apply the same effort to the course as you do to your job search and stay current with job placement you’ll not be disappointed.
If you’re looking to get into software development, and they are hiring what they teach here around you, I can think of no better place to get a full tech education than The Tech Academy (Not paid to say this, actually quite the opposite lol).
I hope this helped someone, maybe you’re insane and actually read it, but all in all, it’s a 5/5 program. You’ll get every dollar you put into it if you’re willing. Transitioning from someone with no prior experience and no degree to speak of, to someone with a career path and more than double what I made previously is a surreal feeling lol.
Check out some hosted projects from the course on my portfolio, atm the big boy from the live project unfortunately is a windows app and I don’t have a windows server. So until I deal with that, probably in a month or so, you’ll have to deal with a very brief overview video of some stuff I worked on. Maybe it gives some insight. Hmu on Facebook or one of my portfolio’s resume links if you have any questions.
Ben’s Portfolio - https://benjamingluck.com (contact form not set up) |
