Part-Time (24-week) Software Engineering Program

This is a bootcamp that does the job well. They train newcomers for technology stacks in the software field. They were great to work with as a student, and I am very happy I graduated from this bootcamp. 

As someone who already had a job in tech and knew a fair bit about some of the topics, it was still a fantastic learning experience. There's lots of material out there, but it's very hard to assemble it into a sequence that results in a fully-functioning app this fast. I was consistently impressed that each lab asked us to do something I had no idea how to do and at the end of the hour, I could do it. Making the project forced me to understand how it all worked together. On top of that, there was a lot of time practicing white-boarding and computer science concepts--things I didn't realize I needed before enrolling. I was truly blown away by the apps the women in my cohort built in such a short time. It's incredibly difficult to create a curriculum that supports and challenges students from so many different backgrounds and experience levels, let alone one that gets every student in a cohort across the finish line. I've done a fair number of courses and certifications (~seven) and I would unhesitatingly recommend this one as forcing me to learn more than I would have been able to get through on my own in twice the time. It's possible to get through exercises and memorizing flashcards on your own, but it takes a carefully scaffolded set of challenges with quick feedback to build ability.Students of any bootcamp should expect to spend six months on average after the camp building skills and projects while they conduct a job search. Hackbright is no different. They force you to update your resume, linkedin, github, etc. and help link you up with companies open to hiring bootcamp grads, but there's still a lot to learn to get to the level of a software engineer. Hackbright gives you the schema and support to be successful in getting there. 

Amazing experience!  I've tried learning to code on my own with online tutorials and always got stuck.  It turns out pair programming-working with a partner on progressively harder problems was the key to accelerating my learning and keeping me motivated.  The instructors truly care and went above and beyond to answer questions.  It is difficult and ton of time, but if you are willing to put in the work this course can get you there.  

Hackbright is a quality, full-stack software engineering bootcamp exclusively for women. The curriculum is clear, comprehensive, and well organized. The instructors are excellent! They have actual work history in the tech industry and strive to teach you the things that will most likely help you to succeed in the industry. In my experience, the instructors go above and beyond to help. Several have spent time after classroom hours to help me out. This was not something I expected from them, but it shows how dedicated to their students they are. By graduation, you have created a fully operational app, and you understand all the workings of it, so you can develop more apps on your own. Hackbright provides TONS of support to help you get connected with the tech community to find a job. Even before graduation, I had recruiters from well-respected companies contacting me. I wholeheartedly recommend Hackbright Academy!

I have really good experience with Hackbright. The best part was the instructors and lectures.The instructors support students incredibly and their lecture is really good quality.The school always makes sure everyone is on the same boat.Also Hackbright's career team is really strong.

My review will be somewhat unique for a couple of reasons:1. I took the part-time course on a full-time basis (i.e. I didn't have a concurrent job similar to most of my cohort-mates in the part-time program).2. I enrolled in a coding interview preparation bootcamp immediately after Hackbright where I learned data structures and algorithms.If you can afford to take the part-time program on a full-time basis, I highly recommend it.  There is a lot of material/ topics to cover and if you're coming from a completely non-technical background (such as myself), the ability to rewatch parts of the lectures that you may not have fully understood or the ability to practice coding on the side using CodeAcademy helped solidify my understanding of the topics in a more sustainable way.  Pros:- I left the bootcamp having learned both Python and Javascript feeling comfortable coding in both (note that I took the option to learn/use React in my capstone project).  Many other bootcamps only teach Javascript.- I thought the instructors were quite good.  They explain the topics well and they go above and beyond to answer all of our questions both in the live sessions as well as meeting with us outside of school hours to resolve any issues we may be having.- I enjoyed the labs and I thought they were practical and solidified my understanding of the material.- It was quite helpful to me to be able to get recordings of the lectures both ahead of time (from previous cohorts) and after the fact so that I could study ahead of the class or review material that I may not have fully understood the first time.- Hackbright has a positive reputation amongst employers.  There was a couple of times in interviews/info chats when an engineer commented on the quality of engineers coming from Hackbright.- I rather enjoyed being in an all women's bootcamp; my cohort-mates were motivated and delightful and it was a positive and supportive learning environment.- Hackbright provides us with mentors (software engineers who are in industry) and my mentor was critical in my getting the job offers that I did.  He practiced whiteboarding with me on a weekly basis for months.  While not every mentor does this, a cohort-mate told me that she asked for a new mentor and Hackbright provided her with one.- Hackbright organized a career fair at which several employers attended.  All of the employers were eager to interview us and I got an offer from the one employer that I chose to interview with.Cons: - Sometimes administrative or scheduling related things can be disorganized.- There isn't enough time put towards data structures and algorithms or whiteboarding.  As mentioned earlier, I did a separate interview coding bootcamp where I learned data structures (and my mentor helped me significantly with whiteboarding) and I highly recommend considering something similar.  While Hackbright will teach you how to code, it's up to you to learn DS&A and practice whiteboarding such that you can successfully pass technical interviews.- Hackbright's set up isn't very conducive to using React easily in our final projects.  The Python and Flask backend (and Hackbright's set up) made it such that we couldn't easily import React libraries so I had to find workarounds to implement the 4 APIs in my project (but I was able to do this successfully and the instructors/advisors did provide resources to help me).****While everyone has different experiences, I ultimately ended up getting multiple job offers within 3 months of graduation, but one reason for this is that I put so much emphasis on learning data structures and algorithms and on practicing whiteboarding that for every job for which I got a face-to-face interview, I was able to successfully get an offer (and this includes a company that came to Hackbright's career fair). In summary, when preparation meets opportunity, amazing things can happen.

I took the part time program while I was working. The classes are Tuesday and Thursday 6-9pm and Saturday 10-6pm. We pair programmed for the first half of the class and the second half we worked on building a full stack program. Python, JS, Flask, Bootstrap, jquery, PostgreSQL and SQL are some of the things we learned during the course. Lectures are given at the beginning of the course and labs exercises are given after to practice what we learned. There are also career lectures, field trips to companies and endless amout of support from the staff and classmates, not to mention we get assigned two mentors!

I have great things to say about this bootcamp,

I took the Part Time because I was working a full time job at the same time, and even though you are expected to do work after hours, its totally doable.

One of the things I liked the most about the course is that they not only prepare you into the technical aspect of Software Engineering, they also support you, give you advise and a whole week  dedicated completely to the job search that you are going to endure after finishing with the course.

Hackbright always made me feel empowered and the community as well as the instructors are amazing supporting you in every step of the course.

I came to Hackbright with some experience with coding and computer science. I had dabbled in many different programming languages and technical applications through working at a couple tech startups, online tutorials, and a CS class in college.

I was initially attracted to the curriculum. Bottom line, it’s legit! Hackbright teaches Python as the core language and Javascript second. Hackbright was the only program I found that focused on backend and full-stack web development which aligns with my career interests. I had already started learning Python and wanted to continue to master it. Another aspect of the curriculum that stood out as unique was that we covered more typical CS concepts such as data structures and algorithms that someone would learn as a CS major. I think this puts me on a more equal playing field with CS majors during interviews and on the job. We also covered a bunch of “need to knows” for the software engineering industry like:how the web works, version control, testing, React, and machine learning.

The other main factor in my decision was the schedule. I wanted to do a part-time program. From my past experiences, I knew that I learn best if there is time between classes to allow information to soak in before moving on to the next topic (especially if the topics build on each other!). Since I was in no rush to complete my program, this worked for me.

Although I was in the inaugural cohort in this 24-week format, I was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly the program ran. The instructors were accommodating to our schedules with assessments, advising meetings, and additional office hours during project time (especially since all of us were working full-time).

It was a very collaborative and supportive learning environment among my classmates and instructors. Everyone there genuinely wants to see you succeed (throughout the program and beyond)! It was great to have an advisor who is aware of how things are going. There are also assessments twice a month to help solidify your understanding and identify gaps in knowledge. Hackbright takes feedback seriously. They have a survey after every lecture to let them know what worked and what didn’t. You also receive feedback on your assessments based on your understanding of concepts and your coding style.

After each lecture, there are lab exercises completed in pairs. What’s great is that you get to apply the concepts right away and are able to ask questions about things you thought you understood. Beyond checking your understanding of concepts, through pair programming I learned skills in technical communication, working with others, self-confidence, and was exposed to different problem-solving strategies and programming styles. I think these are all important skills for the workplace since you’ll likely be working as part of an engineering team.

During the second half of the program you build your own web app. Having a project that you can say, “I designed and built this whole thing” gave me a sense of accomplishment and allowed me to see firsthand how much I had learned over the six months. Plus, since I made every decision and wrote every line of code I now have a project in my portfolio that I can explain in depth to a future employer.

Overall, I loved my Hackbright experience. I definitely learned the skills to be a successful software engineer. I am proud to be part of a group of diverse, intelligent and driven female software engineers.

I enrolled in Hackbright's full-stack bootcamp after completing their Python prep course. I had done some self-learning prior to that but the prep course gave me the confidence in their curriculum and their guidance to dive into a job transition that I had been hesitant about prior to that. A bootcamp is a big investment both financially and in terms of the time and energy required, but after testing the waters with Hackbright's prep course, I was completelly sold.

With Hackbright, I found that coding could be fun and done in a supportive, non-competitive environment where everyone was excited to share ideas and see one another succeed. I also felt confident enough in my newfound skills to start applying them at work almost as soon as we covered them in class (I was enrolled in the 24-week Part-Time Bootcamp, so I was employed full-time throughout), which meant I got to have some real-world experience of writing code and seeing it work in a job environment even before I graduated.

Some elements of the bootcamp did feel a bit awkward; for example the instructors were relatively junior, and not all had much direct experience either as instructors or working as professional software developers or engineers themselves. I think this was largely because of the challenge of finding instructors whose schedules could work around the odd hours of the Part-Time Bootcamp may have limited the pool of instructors who were available. That said, they were all lovely, personable people who were willing to go above and beyond to find the answers to questions if they didn't immediately know them, and I think the curriculum was sufficiently solidly constructed that the material we covered did not suffer overmuch. Another (possible) negative was that some of the job-hunting resources and events felt a little cookie-cutter and poorly timed. However, I think this was largely because they were still figuring out how to adjust the syllabus to make sense in the brand new 24-week format (e.g., our project demo night happened long before we were ready to start seriously networking or applying for anything). Regardless, I felt that the majority of the career-support resources, such as site visits, guest speakers, and whiteboarding with real live engineers in real live partner company offices were by far the most helpful aspects of the bootcamp, as they gave us the chance to interact with potential future colleagues and be treated as peers, which was tremendously confidence-boosting.

The place where Hackbright really shines, however, is in the community of women who surround it. Every single alumna we spoke to, every single current student we interacted with (across all courses and campuses), and every single instructor or admin at Hackbright (many of whom are alumnae themselves), was thoughtful, encouraging, and frankly, loving. I am not normally a very sentimental person, but the community of women at Hackbright is the perfect antidote to much of the negativity around tech and diversity initiatives that has been in the public dialogue lately. I feel inspired to give back as much as I have gotten, and hope to stay involved with the great work Hackbright is doing moving forward.

I won't beat around the bush--completing a bootcamp is HARD, especially if you have a life or a job outside of class that you can't step away from. But if you have the passion and the discipline to get yourself ready, ask for the help and resources you need, and to keep knocking away at it week after week, you will be amazed at how quickly you can learn and the awesome things you can build. There are many ways to learn coding, but there are not very many ways to connect yourself with an amazing community that can help you carry yourself forward at every stage of your engineering career. Hackbright is both!