UK - Software Development

Coming from a non-technical background, I found the course at Boolean to be exactly what I needed. The main appeal of a bootcamp for me was having a structured learning journey, something I knew I would struggle with if I were self-teaching. And that’s exactly what I received. The curriculum was thoughtfully designed for beginners, starting with the basics of JavaScript and gradually building on each concept. This step-by-step approach made it easy to follow and understand, even without prior coding experience. The tutors at Boolean (I had Ezekiel and Carlo) are highly knowledgeable and always ready to help. The support provided throughout the course is amazing, any time I had a question or needed assistance, a quick direct message was all it took to get the help I needed. I also highly recommend taking advantage of the opportunity to go above and beyond the standard course. Most exercises have extension tasks designed to deepen and extend your skills, which I found incredibly valuable. By the end of the course, I felt confident in my ability to build full-stack applications, utilising both frontend and backend skills. After completing the initial 6 months, you also receive 6 months of career support. This part of the course far exceeded my expectations. Ivana and Giorgio (my career coaches) provided fantastic support with tailoring my CV, updating my LinkedIn profile, and refining my portfolio. They also led weekly career workshops and 1:1 interview prep sessions to help me prepare for the interview process. In addition, Luca provided valuable tech interview prep and coding practice, which was incredibly helpful in building my confidence for technical interviews. Overall, this was a fantastic opportunity, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to switch to tech or develop their skills. A massive thank you to the team at Boolean for their continuous dedication and support!

I was looking for a bootcamp that would give me an opportunity to get started on programming, and I'm glad that I had it by Boolean. The most intensive 6 months of my life, where I was able day after day to learn by spetacular senior developers, that not only gave me the best classes I could have but they were really focused on turning me into a great professional, being available almost every single day to guide me. The exercises and the teaching methodologies are amazing, at the same time that is hard to learn a new tech, they make it in a way that after intensive hours of practicing you will get it. Everything is designed to make you grow, and learning the most modern tech for your desired field. And after 6 months of intensive learning and now being able to develop an entire application by yourself, they will also give you the best support you can get for searching jobs, mocking interviews, CV, Portfolio, LinkedIn profile, new tech to learn, all the support from amazing people that really care about you. I just want to thanks Nathan, Lewis, Luca, Giorgio, Ivana and every single Boolean's professional that changed my life and helped me get through the most hard times of it. 

Boolean truly has changed my life and I cannot recommend the course highly enough. The quality of the teaching is unparalleled that provides a solid foundation that allowed me to build from to help me land a dream job as a full-stack developer with zero experience prior to joining the course. It's tough, you can't shy away from the struggle but if you are committed and work hard it's possible to succeed.

I was enrolled in Boolean's Full-Stack Software Engineer course and Career Services. The training throughout the course was excellent with great people and awesome cohort students to code along side. The biggest benefit I saw at Boolean is how they took the teaching process in a new approach that ensured you got to have a perfect balance of lecture style teaching, immediately backed by hands on practicing and assignments. This back and forth allowed me to pick up the skills very quickly and progress with the course. The teacher are always around to help and don't just give you the answer, they help guy to to finding the answer yourself. The Career Services is by far the best post course attention and training for the job hunt I have ever had. The two career advisors and disposal of teachers behind you, gives a massive boost in terms of how to excel your job hunt and be prepared for the business and tech related world. It really felt like I had people in my corner of the ring constantly cheering me on and ensuring I was in a good mind-set to find a job.The people at Boolean really do care and want to see you succeed. I am so glad I got to be a part of Boolean. Once a Booleaner, always a Booleaner.

Boolean's Full Stack Developer course is great. It is very demanding though and you must be prepared to work on it full time for the 6 months of the course. There is no getting around it. Very tough, very stressful, but totally worth it!

I will preface this review by saying that approximately 6 months after completing the Boolean course, I did receive a job offer for a Junior Developer position, so fundamentally the course did work, but I do think that while it is a good bootcamp, there are areas where it could be significantly improved.I will also say that if you're planning on undertaking any bootcamp with the expectation that securing a job when you finish will be easy, please think again. The job market for junior coders is incredibly tough right now and has been for a couple of years.TeachingOverall the standard of teaching was good, but it wasn't as good as it could be at times. The pace of teaching varied a lot from one teacher to another, some went at a good pace, some went too fast, and some went too slow as a result of getting bogged down with tangents. All of the teachers were clearly knowledgable and enthusiastic, but I think that a bit more of a structured approach would have made a big difference. The biggest issue for me was teachers going off track as a result of questions from students. These kind of courses will always attract students who are curious, who want to think about all kinds of different directions and applications for the things we are learning, and teachers will naturally want to satisfy this curiosity, but too often we would spend 15+ minutes listening to an answer about some tangential application of the thing we were being taught, which then meant that other more relevant parts of the lesson felt rushed as a result. Keeping on topic more, and maybe introducing a regular afternoon time slot for those kind of questions would help.Course StructureThe general structure for the course was a morning lecture, and an afternoon practice exercise, usually done in pairs, with a number of instructors available to answer questions and provide assistance during the afternoon. Spaced throughout the course were longer, 2-3 day, individual challenges with a longer 1-2 week individual project undertaken at the end of each half of the course.Overall this structure works well, but there were a few occasions when an individual challenge was extended by a day or two because one or two members of the cohort hadn't finished, which meant that the other 18+ students who had finished were effectively left with dead time. Slowing everybody down because of a small minority who struggled on a portion felt like it was doing more harm to the progress of the group than necessary.FeedbackThe biggest weak point of Boolean in my opinion. Our daily exercises generally had test suites written so that you could verify that your work did achieve what it needed to, but getting actual feedback from a teacher on your work was extremely rare. The majority of personal feedback we got was at the end of the individual challenges, when we would have a peer review session and each student would be asked to provide feedback on 3 other students work. Some, like myself, took this seriously and would read all of the code, make constructive feedback, suggest potential improvements or solutions to things the student had struggled with, but often you would simply get a handful of comments like "looks good", "clever solution", and so on.The lack of real feedback from the teachers meant that you could end up writing messy, inefficient code, but because it passed the suite of tests you think it's good.Real feedback on your work from experienced coders is essential as far as I'm concerned. You need somebody who knows how to write good code to help you learn how to write clean, efficient code and not just code that "works", and unfortunately real feedback on your work was pretty much non-existent throughout the course.CurriculumOverall the curriculum is OK, pretty standard for a full stack bootcamp, and I'm not sure that much more could be added to it without ending up covering a lot of content to a very shallow level, but the reality of the current job market means that what you learn is really not enough any more. Throughout my time on the course I was spending 2-3 hours a day working on learning things that weren't taught by Boolean. Modern frameworks like next.js, Angular, relational databases with MongoDB, component libraries like Mantine and MUI, TypeScript, full authentication systems. There are so many people who have completed bootcamps or self taught, who all have pretty much the exact same range of things they've learnt, that without putting in a lot of your own time to learn new things around the course, you are really going to struggle to stand out.Career ServicesI will say that it is a very difficult time to break in to this industry as a junior. The number of people completing bootcamps or self teaching has gone through the roof, and recruitment of juniors is still at a significantly lower level than it has been in previous years. Applying for jobs with 400+ other applicants is not uncommon, so it is going to be a slog.As a result of this, I do think that Boolean do make unrealistic promises to potential students. A quick glance at their website tells you that "95%" of students end up with a job in coding, and that it takes "2 months on average to find a job".Nearly 7 months after completing my course, only 4 of the 18 students on my course have employment in a relevant industry.They do have resources available, you are given a series of presentations about things like setting up a professional looking github and linkedin, how to write a CV, and they run a weekly tech clinic that lasts an hour and aims to introduce you to some new things, and regular talks by alumni or industry professionals, and you do have access to a couple of people who you can request a one to one with to tackle problems you may be having. So there is support there, but the unfortunate reality is that there are so many people looking for junior roles at the moment that none of this support really means much because at the end of the day you're still competing against hundreds of people for every role.ConclusionBoolean is fundamentally a good bootcamp. If they can fix the issues with pacing of the teaching, and find a way to give a lot more feedback on students work then I think it will be a very good bootcamp. However what they promise in terms of employment is woefully optimistic and, in the current recruitment climate, unrealistic.If you're willing to put in 10 to 20 hours of your own time every week to build your knowledge beyond what the course teaches, or are able to dedicate yourself full time to further study for several months upon completion of the course, then Boolean is a very good place to start, but it is by no means a golden ticket to a job in the tech industry.

I completed the 6 month Full-Stack Software Development course and having completed it I'm very glad I chose this course. The curriculum was well-tailored and covers frontend and backend software development (html, css, javascript, node.js) to the point that by the end of the course you absolutely have the skills and ability to become a Junior Developer. The course is paced well to teach you what you'll need to know within those 6 months. The teachers are all very friendly and experienced and are able to readily help out if you're ever stuck on a topic, working it through with you until you get it right. Something I wasn't expecting but I found very useful were the tips and tricks from the teachers coming from their experience in past coding jobs. The course itself teaches you what you'll need to know to become a Junior Developer but the tips the teachers provide help you become a great programmer, and one that companies will want to hire. They'll teach you best coding practices, how to make your code more readable to make it easier for your colleagues to work with, the kind of details that you'd normally need to learn on the job you're taught in advance to really wow interviewers and be able to hit the ground running when you do get a job. It should be known that you'll only get out of it what you put in, the course is designed to fit everything into those 6 months and you're expected to put in the necessary amount of time to make that happen. I found I rarely had to put extra time in though often wanted to just to learn more, however as it is a fixed 6 month period for the course if you don't put the time in you can fall behind.I found the job assistance afterwards very helpful as well. They have experienced professionals that'll help you with every stage of the job search process, creating an optimal CV, cover letters, how to best look for and apply to jobs, how best to go about character interviews as well as tech interviews, and will be able to practice 1-to-1 with you ahead of interviews. They also often have alumni or industry professionals do zoom chats to discuss how best to find work or what it's like once you've got a job to better prepare you. When thinking about switching to a career in coding I considered teaching myself but decided that it'd be better to be taught by people that know what they're doing and to have the additional benefit of career support afterwards. I definitely think that was the right call. You'll get stuck a lot when learning to code and having teachers you can rely on both to tell you where you've gone wrong as well as to teach you how to find solutions to problems yourself in the future makes all the difference. Likewise the knowledge that the teachers can pass on from having years of experience as developers sets you up to be a much better programmer and one that'll be a lot more employable. 

It was a great experience and the lectures were great especially Nathan who made some very difficult topics seem less scary.I knew I I wanted to be a developer and now I can say I am one so thank you Boolean 

I haven't experienced any other bootcamp (which makes sense- why would you do more than one?), so it's hard to compare Boolean with similar courses. I chose this course because of the length- some bootcamps are 12-16 weeks, whereas Boolean covers full-stack development over 6 months. And honestly, 6 months probably isn't even enough. There's so much to learn it's staggering, even though the course is paced well with a variety of lectures, challenges and pair tasks. The teaching quality was excellent across the board- both morning and afternoon teachers were highly knowledgeable and approachable. They won't make you feel bad for asking (sometimes dumb) questions, and are generally always on hand to help.If you're looking to learn web development from scratch, you probably can't go wrong here. I say probably, because really it's all down to you. I feel like a lot of people expect to just do a course like this and then easily get a job. Sadly, that isn't the case. As cliche as it sounds, you'll only get out of it what you put in. If you really give 100%, do every extension task and supplement it with extra study in the evenings and the weekends, you may just have a shot. It took me 6 weeks to get a job offer after the course ended, and while the careers advisors are great and super helpful, it still took me applying and studying all day every day post-course to get this opportunity. Over the course, you'll learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript and React in terms of frontend, and Express, Prisma and PostgreSQL for the backend (assuming they don't change the stack any time soon). These are all popular and excellent languages and libraries, and set you up well with the basic knowledge to build upon. But again, only do the course if you're willing to graft and put in the extra work. If you do that, the wonderful teachers and career advisers here will help you on your journey- ultimately though, it's down to you.

Before to join the course I was a pastry chef so I was a bit worried about actually been able to go through the entire bootcamp. I chose the full stack course cause I wanted to have a decent background before to look for a job. I have to say that overall I had a nice experience with Boolean UK, I changed teachers a few times over the 6 months so I found some of them having a better approach in teaching than others. If you want to change career they will give you all the tools but than is up to you to keep going studying and learning more and more. 

Boolean is simply excellent. The service it has provided me has thus far been life changing and has really helped introduce me to the Tech industry. There is always more to learn, however the tools I have gained from my time at Boolean have shown me how to do that. Do not be fooled, it is an incredibly intense and fulltime commitment but it is one that you wont regret. 

Ho deciso di iniziare il corso di Boolean per imparare a programmare ma senza i tempi biblici di un'università e ammetto di essere molto soddisfatto di aver imparato veramente tanto in solo sei mesi. Partendo dal sapere veramente poco fino ad arrivare a un livello di sicurezza e indipendenza che non avrei mai immaginato di raggiungere in tempi così brevi, ma non solo, l'ambiente di boolean si è rivelato anche ricco di esperienze e di persone interessanti, a partire dagli insegnanti del mattino e del pomeriggio, per cui in breve tempo si sviluppa un rapporto di fiducia e simpatia. Ho deciso di frequentare il corso in lingua inglese anche per mettere alla prova le mie conoscenze della lingua ma nonostante questo non ho avuto difficoltà e il job assistance non ha avuto problemi nel mettermi in contatto anche con la sede italiana. Caldamente raccomandato.

The curriculum changed after starting the course, so the topics you wanted to learn in the course could change even without considering your consent.One of the support team members was not qualified enough to answer your question or even offer any help, which is not what I was expecting.Also, before I started the course, Boolean claimed there would be a one-to-one review and they would be more descriptive in their feedback on each project, but none of this happened, instead, they will send you a message like: “Hello (name), you got 2 out of 3 points in this project.” and very rarely they will give the reason for these points, so it was very pointless. And sometimes they wouldn’t even mark your work on time, giving feedback for numerous amounts of work completed at once. You can only message the support team when you would spend so much time on a problem, or, by raising a ticket and waiting for them to respond… after minutes or even hours of waiting for a reply, the problem would probably already be solved, which is not efficient.

I joined this course based on the curriculum and it states that if there was more than 10 people studying on the course they would have an extra teacher to help which they didn’t. The the course felt split leaving behind the lower level students to catch up to minority students whom completed tasks way ahead of schedule. This brought down lots of peoples confidence in the class while the teacher said “if you don’t get it now, you will later”.Within half way through the course, the curriculum was then changed, removing how to learn TypeScript from list which was very displeasing. The course was supposedly stands by a money back guarantee and I missed paying an instalment by one month only because my bank was closed due to covid reasons and I explained this to their HR. In the end, Boolean did not take this into consideration and did not pay me my full reimbursement of was was apparently guaranteed if you couldn’t find a job in the end, stating with excuses that I did not look for the correct job (when I applied for more than 5 jobs per week) and I was late with payments. The support for job hunting was not very great. They knew themselves it wasn’t great so they also changed to process by making students have more meeting with the staff members at Boolean. And would request to do extra duties in order to get your money back guarantee which was not stated in the contract. Also, whilst studying on the course one of the two support teachers was very much incompetent of having the role, not having the knowledge to help and would say “you look like you’re on the right track” even though you would reach out for help when stuck on an issue. 

The 6 months I spent at Boolean was completely life-changing. The course was VERY tough and challenging. The environment is fast-paced and you really need to put in an effort. But, the teachers and instructors (and everyone else in Boolean) are simply great, very well knowledgeable, supportive and it's noticeable how Boolean is a company that worries about hiring genuinely nice and open-minded people.  Plus, the support to get a job is also really got and I got all the attention I needed. I couldn't recommend this experience enough. Again, it was life-changing. Hard, but awesome.

I'm a Graphic Designer aiming to become a UX designer, I was struggling with self led courses when I stumbled upon BooleanUK. It's given me a clear path to achieve a huge building block to my new career and I've learnt more in these 6 weeks than I managed on my own in 6 months. I cannot express enough how thorough the course leaders are in getting you to understand things. They seem genuinely happy to spend an hour going over something you suddenly realise was so simple. They go out of their way to help you, take feedback onboard and are generally lovely people.The course:

In the run up to the start date we were advised to work through some freecodecamp.com javascript solo which I really recommend doing but it's not mandatory. There were also some opportunities to meet the cohort. We were sent a high quality goodie-box of branded bits which was an awesome surprise. I personally had some confusion due to lack of communication but this was quickly rectified once I queried it, nothing you wouldn't expect starting at a new college/job in person.
We started the week with an introduction including a general timeline for modules and projects, no exact dates as the learning experience appears to be so bespoke that they will add days to modules if they think we're not getting it rather than moving on. First week also included classic ice breakers, some involving basic html. 
Start using lots of new programs, Discord, CodeSandbox, GitHub, and VS Code are the main ones. It might be worth looking into them beforehand as learning so much at once boggles the mind, but the leaders are extremely helpful with troubleshooting. All these programs are free.
The modules are set out as several weeks of learning with small daily exercises, then several weeks of solo projects. The course leaders are available pretty much all the time. You're not isolated in the learning experience and do feel part of a class as you regularly pair up with other students for mini exercises.
There is daily opportunities for one-to-ones which further add to the bespoke experience of the course. The access to materials is also brilliant.
Misc info:
They recommend you to not have a job alongside the course, I work as a freelance designer doing approx 5-10 hours a week which I currently don't find a problem. 
They don't work bank holidays! So although 6 months without a day off seems like a long time you can squeeze in a few breaks.
At the end of each week there is a "feelings" session and optional social.
I can't comment on the career assistance yet as only 6 weeks in, but opportunities to attend special events and guest speakers seem promising, I'll attempt to update my review at a later date.

Overall:Feel lucky and relieved that this course has turned out to be pretty amazing. Excited to see where I'm at in 6 months! Would definitely recommend to anyone needing a career change.