Software, Web and Mobile Engineering

I was part of the apprenticeship side of the academy and have just completed the 3 month upfront boot camp. The course is mainly structured around ruby but in my opinion the course is about teaching you how to program in any language and transfer your knowledge to any programming language you may need to work on in the future. We also focused on different languages such as JavaScript and java, we also learnt TDD.

We would spend the week learning a new module with regular zoom calls (my cohort was remote) and there was lots of support on slack if we needed it. At the end of the week we would complete a Friday challenge which we had no guidance to see if we can put what we have learnt in to practise on our own.

On completion of each module we would fill in a feedback form so the coaches could see how we were feeling and if we needed any support and if we did they would come and talk to us to see what they could do to better support us.

Overall I would rate the boot camp 5 stars, the only thing I would say needs improving is pairing for remote cohorts as its more difficult pairing remotely.

I have just finished my 3 month training, and honestly it has been really challenging, but I have enjoyed it thoroughly. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who has an interest in getting into Software Development. My knowledge when I first started programming was pretty basic but Makers teach you Ruby. This was the main focus at the start of the course but then you progress onto Javascript. For our cohort we did Java and also SQL. Doing all of this allows you to use this knowledge to learn a completely new language by yourself. You will also learn from the start how to Test Drive code, which is a really valuable skill when programming  for your future job!

I think the Final project was a really good way to showcase what you have learnt over the 12 weeks You also get to present it in front of your cohort and share your experience over the 2 weeks you had to make the product.

Overall, be prepared to put in a lot of time into the course in order to be successful but when you reach the end of the course its the most rewarding feeling to have completed it! You don't get spoon fed answers and you will also come across a questions from your coach that make you look further and find the issue out by yourself.

Moving into coding was a huge career change for me, having a performing arts and retail background but Makers made finding my first job in tech feel like an inevitability rather than a pipe dream. I chose Makers because they came across as a focussed, professional operation that offered good job support.

I enjoyed the focus Makers put on writing clean, clear code and instilling you with a strong problem solving process through TDD. This, more than the actual languages taught, made me feel confident I could get a job as a software engineer because these skills can be transferred to any language.

Being responsible for my own learning while on the course was another great aspect of Makers. Self-directed learning is a big part of how you learn at Makers. There are goals for each week, typically being able to understand and explain object oriented programming concepts or other technical concepts. The projects you work on each week give you an opportunity to explore and implement these ideas, but you’re encouraged to reflect each day on your own learning so far, what you do and don’t yet know and set yourself SMART goals to fill in the gaps in your knowledge. It’s a mindset and process that helps a lot post-course as you tailor your learning towards the requirements of jobs you apply for, even in languages you haven’t studied on the course. You trust that you can pick up any language you want.

The emotional intelligence syllabus really stood out to me from my time on the course as well; learning a lot in terms of empathy, effective communication and working in a team. Makers develop you as a person as well as a programmer and prepare you for the ever-changing world of tech.

The support post-course from the careers team is also solid. For me, the careers coaching offered is very friendly and effective; they helped me extract transferable skills from my previous experience to use in applications and guide me in terms of the type of work I’d want to do, as well as offering valuable feedback on my CV and interview technique. The careers team also have a varied range of hiring partners the work with in several different and interesting fields. I would though still encourage people to apply to jobs outside of Makers too as the careers team sometimes have insight into those companies and can give you good tips on what to look for/watch out for in an employer

Makers is an excellent place to kick-start your career in software development. As long as you commit yourself to the career change, fully commit to the work, take heed of the advice that's provided, and bring a positive energy with you, I have no doubt that you will get a great job in software development through this course.

The curriculum is heavily self-learning based, which might put some people off at first, but I have come to realise that it is this fact that actually makes the course a much stronger learning experience. The support is there, both technical and careers, but you're not going to be spoon fed, just as you wouldn't in a professional environment.

There is a lot to learn, and it can be intense, but over many iterations of students, Makers has REALLY honed the skill of taking individuals and turning them in to highly employable Software Developers. Trust the coaches and trust the careers team - they know what they're doing and are always there to help :)

As with pretty much any endeavour, you get out what you put in. As I say, no one is going to spoon feed you, so if you're not ready to fully commit and give it your all, then you risk wasting a lot of money. On the other hand, if you are ready to give it your all, you will come away with untold benefits and huge personal growth. Don't worry about your ability, Makers know what they're doing and they won't select you if you're not ready. All you need is positive energy and determination and you will succeed.

The final projects are a fantastic growth opportunity. Each team can build essentially any software they want, using any languages or frameworks they choose (as long as everyone in the team agrees). I can't tell you how much this (on top of the rest of the Makers experience) has helped me in interviews!

Finally, Dana (Chief Joy Officer) is absolutely incredible and a huge asset during your time at Makers. From meditation, to Yoga, to Emotional Intelligence workshops, she provides invaluable support throughout the entire process. You might not be someone who intuitively places a high value on these things, but trust me, they are HUGELY helpful during your time at Makers, and almost every company I have interviewed with places an extremely high value on Emotional Intelligence, Empathy, and Social Awareness. Those skills could well land you a job :)

Learnt a lot in a very short space of time, things you wouldn’t think about learning on your own. A big con for me that ruined it at the end was the final project, the groups could have been balanced better. At the end of the day, I came here to learn with the goal of securing a software dev job, which is what I did 2 weeks after the course finished, with fantastic help from the careers team. 

Coming from a non tech background wanting to transition into the tech industry I had explored different options including self teaching, I'm glad iI made the decision to enrol with Makers Academy as the experience has been one of a kind. Before starting I reached out to Makers Alumni and not one person had anything bad to say about the course and after completing the course I can see why. 

The great thing about the course is that it eases you into learning how to code and gradually ramps up in complexity. The coaches are always on hand to provide support and help along with the workshops, meditation and yoga is also available to all. The course offers different types of projects built through pair programming and group projects and by the end of the course you'll have a portfolio of projects. Another awesome thing is that even though we learnt Ruby and Javascript on the course as we are taught in a way that allowed us to easily pick up other programming languages, when it came to final projects some groups did theres in Python even though they hadn't written a line of code in it beforehand.

Definitely a great investment not only does Makers teach you how to code but they also have an amazing careers team that help with cv, applications and interview prep to help land you your first role in the industry.

Makers Academy is not just for people without tech background, I chose this course being already a web developer, wanting to learn TDD and backend and more importantly learning how to teach anything to myself and it turned out to be exactly that. I was lacking progression and learning new technologies in my job and online courses wasn't enough. I wanted to gain the correct mindset and learn around the people with the same passion as mine. Makers Academy was the best education experience I've ever had and I recommend this to anyone who wants to become a software engineer with a full package. With this course you don't even need to go to University for software engineering. Also in the end of the course you have the career's team full support in finding best companies suited for Maker's students to develop their skills further.

The tech industry has a bad habit of exulting the lone developer, the person who shuts themselves away from other people to emerge from solitude with elite skills or a perfect product. Whilst this image is slowly changing you can have the stereotype duely shattered by attending Makers.
I started the course with a bit of narrow tech experience and a desire to expand my stack to the full version. Even during the precourse we were encouraged to start collaborating, through pair programming with mentors or self organising meet ups for the cohort. The course continued with this principle without no single day spent working solo. This environment took my desire to learn and supercharged it, it improved my learning process, how to share that knowledge and all in a space where people were excited to share new knowledge with me.

You will pick up new technical skills, and by any measure it will be a large amount. Along side that you will be well equiped for the career which comes after.

The course itself is taught in Ruby with some javascript later on, however that won't stop you from getting employed in other languages, as the hiring partners have an array of different tech stacks. I got hired within 2 months of finishing, in my ideal position using C# and Azure.

I would say this has been one of the best investments I have ever made and the careers team really put in a lot of effort to getting you hired!

I have worked in IT for many years, but for the last 10+ years I've drifted away from hands on development and moved to managing IT teams.  This never sat well with me, as I hated losing my technical skills.

So I decided to go on the Makers 3 month course, and haven't regretting it for a second.  

The whole experience was fantastic, and has really got me ready to join a Web Development team, and actually start delivering code again.  The environment at the course was amazing, and the other people on the course made it a really great experience.

It's interesting that the course is very hands off, leaving you to figure stuff out yourself.  This seems odd, but has meant I've hit the ground running now that I'm back in my office.

I strongly recommend this course to anyone wanting a kick start into Web development.

Before I started Makers, I had read several reviews stating that it was a hard course, and that it took up all of your time for those few months. This is the same experience for me, but that was a good thing. I was really looking for something to challenge myself and this course certainly did that. 

I really liked the curriculum, starting off with Ruby and its easier to read syntax, and then moving on to Javascript and beyond. I liked the weekly challenges and the different projects you get to work on, and how they get increasingly more difficult each week. Along with this, I liked the fact that it was largely self-led learning - the coaches are there to give you advice, and do workshops etc but for the most part you are relying on yourself and your cohort. The coaches however do instill a good mindset about being able to learn anything, and how to easily pick up new languages due to the learning process at Makers. The only things I'd change to the curriculum is for them to maybe add more about some JS frameworks - maybe a few days on React or Vue etc since they are such a large part of development these days. The other would be to change week 7 as I haven't really found anyone that particularly enjoyed it and could maybe be used better learning something else. 

The after course care has been really good. The careers team are great and are a very helpful lot. If you are active with them and engaging with the careers fairs etc then you can get a lot done in a short time. While it took me a few months to get a job, there was so much opportunity around and I feel that the alumni have been great at sharing job postings. 

I don't think anyone is going to be an expert in development after 12 weeks, but Makers definitely gives you the tools and the attitude to pursue it and to be a great developer. I would always recommend them to anyone looking for a great new career. 

I was told joining Makers would be a life changing experience, and I was told right! A friend who graduated and is now a software engineer recommended this "bootcamp" and I cannot thank her enough for this.
I put "bootcamp" in quotes because to me, that word sounds like you would have a drill sergeant forcing you to work hard on something until you can't take it any more. For tech, that would be trying to digest a Computer Science degree in a few months. But Makers doesn't do that. The coaches teach you how to learn more than what to learn. Of course you'll have a set of tools they'll recommend you use for the project of the week, but mostly they teach you how to think like a programmer, how to solve problems, how to get un-stuck when a problem seems too big for you. It's not intense because you've got your head down trying to learn every single JavaScript library, but because you feel how much more you can improve and learn, because every day you understand a new concept that opens more doors.

And then there's the environment. I expected the technical know-how I'd be getting there, but what struck me the most was how good I felt being there. I was surrounded by like-minded, open, and generous people, both coaches, students and staff, who all contributed to make these intense 3 months (4 with the pre-course) the period I've felt the most relaxed and happy in the last few years. You're never alone in your struggles, and pair programming is at the heart of the whole course, learning from each others. Taking on this journey with people like them is priceless. The Chief Joy Officer, Dana, is probably the symbol of that spirit at Makers. Through quite a few workshops, she made me understand how emotional intelligence and awareness could practically, tangibly impact your well-being and your capacity to take on challenges. I even practised meditation, and I wouldn't have believed it had you told me a year ago...

Oh and once you're done, they're not done. There's a great team of people whose sole purpose is to find companies that they believe junior devs should work at, make sure students get in touch directly with them through careers fairs, and help the graduates be at their best for the whole application process. I applied in April, started in July, graduated in October, and started on my first dev role in November. 6 months to train and get a job as a software developer, I couldn't be happier.

If what you want is to know how to write programming languages' syntax, look up the documentation. But if you want to become a software developer, Makers is definitely a good bet!

Makers is intense, hard and fun, but rewarding doesn't come close to expressing the feeling you will have both when you finish and when you find a job.

Why I chose Makers: Once I had visited Makers I felt almost drawn to it. Unlike most (or maybe all?) of the other bootcamps, Makers was offering one course, available in one location. This gave me the feeling that their angle was more "we will do one thing but do it better than anybody else" than "we will offer a huge range of things across many places in the world". Although drawn to it, exactly what that "thing" is didn't become fully clear until doing the course and after finishing, so I will attempt to describe it here:

1. Intimate - one course in one location has an intimate we're-all-in-this-together feel to it. Every 4 weeks a new cohort starts, so around you there are people simultaneously at varying stages of the course. The feeling instilled is that these people are not your competitors, but rather your peers. People willing to help you with any aspect of the experience, be it coding or indeed emotional support that you need.

2. Holistic - Makers is NOT about coding coding coding, it is about the whole picture - your well-being, your readiness for your first job, your ability to work with others and your ability to take an unknown concept and know how to approach it and understand it. Software development is a career in which you will never stop learning. Being aware that this is the case, and knowing how to manage it is paramount to success. In addition, the 2nd half of the course is set up to imitate what dya to day work life might be like - Agile methodologies, team work, XP values, advanced use of Git. It is not only about TDD (test-driven development) and OO (object orientated) principles. This means that by the time you're attending interviews, you are prepared with first hand experience you can use to show off your skills.

3. End-to-end support - From onboarding to pre-course to full-time course to the job hunt, Makers is equipped to offer help with whatever aspect is troubling you. Dana, the well-being officer, is fantastic for advice on all things not coding, and the coaches are all on hand, approachable and supportive in everything else. Once you have finished the course, the careers team are an incredible group of people who work extrememly hard to help you find work.

4. Makers leads by example - everything is learning and feedback contributes in a major way to improvement. Makers is constantly checking and re-checking their processes, improving things off the back of feedback, and providing feedback whenever sought. If you can buy into and do this too, you will be a successful coder.

Finally, it's a lot of fun!

I finished makers in August of 2019 - and am about to start my first job in tech in mid Novemeber.

Makers was a tough few months, I certainly didn't find it an easy journey, but for the most part I had a really fun time. A lot of that is down to my wonderful cohort, many of whom are friends for life as well as a few of the staff. I definitely struggled most at the start of the course - I felt very uncomfortable and out of my depth, but this is something that we are really taught to 'lean into'. That feeling discomfort is part of growing and learning - I think around week 5 that mentality really began to click.

Makers is not a golden ticket to a job, it's a lot of hard work - and you get out what you put in. The course is good, but it is very self directed so it is up to you to do the work and the learning.

I feel like the course needs some updating, inclusion of React and APIs would be very useful given most tech test requirements. But I also understand that Makers is about giving you a foundation in programming - to learn how to learn. And I did find that to be the case, the real journey began for me post Makers when I was on my own, making up my own projects and learning what I wanted to learn. I felt like I was capable enough to tackle new technologies which was an amazing feeling.

Ultimately I managed to career change in well under a year, and in the most fun and exciting and mind opening way - and for that I am truly thankful to Makers.

I recommend this programme because from my application to the moment I found a job, I found every relationship with the Makers team very human, supportive, constructive and positive.
 
Before Makers I did plenty of different studies and jobs and I already found myself quite good at learning new things. But now, I find myself being faster and more structured in anything I do. Even if during the Bootcamp it might feel a bit messy with too many resources to explore in depth, this is the process to get fast at learning and to know how to prioritise what to learn in order to constantly move forward in an Agile way. 

In term of software engineering, well, I got a job and people tell me I am doing well, so I believe with the Makers process and some determination, it works. What I love the most is that Makers really focus at making you a good autonomous software engineer but also to be good at working with others (group work, Github, SCRUM) and to look after yourself (Yoga, Meditation, pace your self directed learnings), I believe this is what make the transition to the workplace easier.

You might be interested in reading the 2 Medium blogs I wrote about it: 
https://medium.com/@AdrienFabre/journey-to-coding-why-a094a4e06541
https://blog.makersacademy.com/journey-to-coding-makers-d0e3fc97059f

It says a lot about Makers that their open days for the course are also students final projects. The confidence is well placed as well, I graduate confident in my abilities and keen to start my new career. The curriculum is fantastic, focusing on your own independent learning but the real strength at Makers lies in the environment. Coaches and fellow Makers are friendly and helpful, meditation and yoga adds some relaxation to what could be a stressful time of your life and the building is a wonderful place to be. You can sense if from the moment you walk in but if you doubt me, attend demo day and see for yourself.

I decided to move into software engineering as I was looking for something more challenging and focussed on problem solving. I was recommended Makers by a friend who already worked in engineering; he worked alongside Makers Alums who had been hired by his company after the course, so I knew going in that their methods worked.

The Makers course encourages you to get into the learning mindset, without being punishing if you don't understand something straight away. The early weeks consist of pairing with other members of your cohort on weekly challenges, which have multiple ways of approaching them (walkthroughs, reference materials). If there are concepts you don't understand in those early weeks, you'll continue to encounter them in different contexts going forward, so there's very often a realisation a week after you're introduced to a concept as to how it can be applied, as well as a really supportive coaching team who will unblock you if you feel you're struggling.

Makers focusses on Ruby at the start of the course, as opposed to JavaScript, which is more standard in the industry, however Ruby is a comparatively simple language for learning object-oriented programming and test-driven development, and they also teach you how to effectively learn new languages based on your understanding of an existing language.

Along with coding, you're also learning effective communication and Agile team-working styles that are used in the industry. You'll have seminars on effective communication and empathy alongside how to develop good algorithms, and yoga to destress after a long day writing code.

By the end of the course, you'll have a strong portfolio of work, a process for developing code and you'll be able to work effectively in teams, taking a final project from ideation to demonstration in just two weeks.

After the course, you get access to monthly jobs fairs with the Makers hiring partners. You also get a great support structure from the careers team from CV reviews and mock interviews, to offering you support if you are feeling disheartened.

Makers is an intense bootcamp. It requires you to be self-motivated, prepared to learn and explore for yourself and not rely on being spoon fed. If you are willing to put in that effort, and are not deterred when you come up against a bit of a wall, then Makers could be the course for you.

It is worth noting that the key thing that you learn at Makers is a process, not any particular language. This can lead to some frustrations along the way, but once it clicks you are left with a skill that is far more valuable than proficiency in one language - you are left with a proven method of learning any language. This approach means that you shouldn't end up being fazed by new problems - just apply the process and you can do it!

I did not have any serious coding experience before undertaking the course, instead having had a ten year career in an unrelated field. The prospect of starting a new career at 38 was both exciting and a little daunting. The careers team at Makers were brilliant, both before I had any interviews and then in helping me prepare once I had an interview. In my case, I had a six-month gap between completing the course and starting to job hunt (self-granted paternity leave!), and the team were always available to check in with and then to reassure me that all would not be lost once I started the job hunt.

Before coming to Makers I was working in IT as an Operation engineer but wanted to move into DevOps, however my programming/coding ability and understanding of the software development lifecycle  wasn't strong enough to make the transition. I decided to come to Makers after failing to learn sufficient programming skills by myself and certainly don't regret making that decision. 

Pros:

Excellent learning environment
Some of the coaches are really knowledgable & helpful 
Good course materials and projects

Cons:

On a few occasions the lectures/lessons didn't seem well planned
Not all of the coaches are helpful, one in particular was avoided by the whole cohort due to their unhelpful attitude 

I decided at the beginning of 2019 to leave my career as a criminal solicitor and attempt to become a software developer instead. I knew absolutely zero about coding so it was quite a big step for me. 

Fast forward 5 months and I'm now about to start my first role as a software developer so Makers has certainly done the job, and to be honest I never thought I'd be in this position so quickly. 

The course was intense and requires a lot of work, both onsite at Makers and in your free time, so you can't sign up half-heartedly. However, because of this you do learn a crazy amount in a short period of time. I enjoyed every day of the course and haven't once regretted my decision to leave my previous job. In addition to being a great learning experience, it was also really fun. I met some great people in my cohort and there was a lot of socialising which meant that our group projects towards the end of the course didn't feel like work at all. The standard of work that our cohort produced by the end of the 12 weeks was pretty impressive.

I feel that some of the course materials are slightly outdated (which I imagine is difficult to avoid with coding languages that dip in and out of popularity constantly), but it meant that I felt a bit on the backfoot when it came to interviews and I wasn't using the most up to date version of javascript for example. I would advise any new starters to find out whether there is a more modern version of the language you're learning, which is used in the industry, and to brush up on that as well as what you learn at Makers. 

At one point we were told that we should expect to find a job within 3-6 months after completing the course which terrified a few people, but it turns out a good handful of our cohort had jobs within 4 weeks. However, I would advise budgeting for the full 6 months, or having a back-up plan,  just in case. The careers team are very helpful and supportive and the careers fair which is held every month generates some good opportunities.