BrainStation

 

I graduated from a good university with an Economics and Business degree, having done multiple internships in Private Equity. I wasn’t feeling fulfilled in the internship when they offered me to join full-time, I hated the hours, and I didn’t feel like I was really contributing as much as I could have. So I took a leap of faith, moved back to Miami, and joined Wyncode September after my college graduation and I can say that without a doubt it was the BEST decision I have ever made. 

Thanks to Wyncode, I wake up every morning feeling so lucky that I found my passion for coding. At my job, I get to work with people who are crazy awesome, super smart, and really care about the work they’re producing and the people they’re working with. 

 

- Instructor: Our instructor, Ed, was incredible (MIT Grad, knows his stuff really well). His lectures feel like your listening to a story, and he provides lots of context and history to make the lectures stick (and fun to listen to, too!) One of the best teachers I’ve ever had, both in high school and undergraduate. He also fills his lectures with things to pay attention to that hiring partners may be looking for, or advice for negotiating your first offer. He’s an all around great guy and I feel lucky and proud to have had him as a teacher everyday for 9 weeks.

- TA’s: Sean was beyond incredible. I would wait lines to talk to Sean because he was just so thorough at explaining concepts and helping track down bugs (and teaching you what to look for when tracking them down). We also have about 12 other TA’s that rotate (~3/day) that come from 3:30-9pm every day (even on weekdends) which helps immensely. 

- Program Length: 9 weeks is enough given that you will learn everything on the job. You get a great foundation on HOW to learn, as well as the fundamental understanding of how programming languages and technologies work and fit together. Don’t worry about the languages your going to learn or not learn because in the end each company does things so differently it won’t matter. What matters is the ability to learn new technologies and the more you learn the easier it comes. Also, languages all go by the same logic, syntax changes, so you will be able to pick up new languages fairly easily with a bit of practice. (I got hired to develop in Go and Dart)

- Job Hunt: Over 10 Wynterviews on campus, where hiring partners COME TO YOU for interviews. Literally, does not get better than this. I got hired as a Developer for a startup just a few days after my graduation and starting working one week later. Rita, the Director of Hiring Partnerships, really cares about finding jobs that fits each students individual needs and pushes for what is best for Wyncode grads. She has a huge reach in the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale Tech community and is constantly looking and attempting to gain more hiring partners for Wyncode.

- Community: Wyncode is the power house of South Florida’s coding school communities. We have such an active Slack Channel (internal messaging application) where hundreds of current students, graduates, and TA’s post tons of help, information, and gifs to motivate each other and push each other to grow daily. The alumni at Wyncode was surprisingly the most helpful I’ve ever encountered. Because they are working at so many different firms, they have opened doors for prospective and current students like never before! Take advantage and meet as many as you can! There will be plenty of opportunities like BBQ’s, Go-kart racing, at the LAB, etc.

- Growing: Wyncode is built as an agile company, meaning they do weekly retrospectives and daily standups to review how the school is doing (lectures, community engagement, student needs, etc.) and respond rapidly to requests and feedback. I have never been in an environment that really change in response to feedback which is a huge plus and gives students a huge advantage when it comes to learning. The school is growing and opening their third branch in Miami Beach, a testament to their success. They were also the first coding school to be licensed by the Department of Education! The school is only getting better.

- The truth: If you don’t bust your ass everyday coding (even weekends) you will be doing yourself a huge disfavor. It is only 9 weeks, so you do not have time to slack off. Cancel your life for 9 weeks, don’t bring problems or issues into the program because you will not do well. Wyncode is not easy, coding is not easy, life is not easy. So if you don’t bring passion, sweat, and tears with a positive attitude, don’t join. If you can, don’t think twice. The only option is Wyncode. 

I am a recent graduate from BrainStation Web Development Immersive program ! I must say that it was pretty awesome ! and now I have the skills to develop a web app from front to back.

I went with BrainStation because of the curriculum, languages and frameworks thought and the industry professionals that were teaching it. Also you will be learning upcoming frameworks such as  AngularJs and NodeJs, which are starting to pick up traction in the tech industry !

Also BrainStation is fuelled by Konrad Group which is a digital agency and being immersed within the company allowed for networking opportunities. Our classes were in there brand new innovation hub, located at 460 king St west. Which gives you access to a brand new building and new startups! 

The BrainStation User Experience Design Course was a great introductory / mid-level UX course. The instructor provided real-life applications and examples of the theory being presented week-to-week. Students also had to apply the concepts learned in class to a personal project. The content also seemed to be up-to-date and spoke to a number fresh / relevant concepts in UX.

Advice to future students...

• If you're thinking of taking this course / have applied.. start thinking of a potential personal project as early as you can. This helps capture the most value out of the course, as UX and user-centered design is as much about the process as it is a final product / application - so having an idea in your head early helps focus your efforts.
• Apply yourself (on your own time) into using design tools like Sketch, InVision and Balsamiq. These tools are mentioned throughout the course, but this is definitely not a workshop on "how to use InVision" (nor should it be). One suggestion I have for BrainStation would be to negotiate with these software providers and get a preferred rate or include the license with the course.

Whether you're a student, you're early into a UX career or looking to expand your skills to seek out UX job opportunities, this is a great course to get you on your way.

 

The digital marketing course advertises itself on being taught by industry professionals instead of teachers out of the loop. While this has its it's advantages, it also means most of the content isn't taught in a way that induces learning. Of the several lecturers and dozen lectures, only a couple had actual actionable and valuable information. If you have any experience in marketing you probably won't find this worth the cost. Their end of term presentation was also graded by someone with no marketing background and provided no useful or actionable feedback

I decided to change my life and learn to code, and thanks to Wyncode and their amazing staff, I was able to do so in a mere 9 weeks. 

Don't get me wrong, 9 weeks may sound like a short amout of time, but the amount of knowledge and experience I acquired at Wyncode you really can't put a price on it. 

Prior to joining Wyncode, I was the Sr. Executive IT Recruiter at my former employer, an award winning recruitment and staffing firm here in Miami, FL. The last 6 months of work I wasn't really happy with the idea of my success being reliant on so many outside factors that I wasn't in control of. During my time as a recruiter, specifically within the IT space, I built many relationships and friendships with software & web developers of all kinds and got really curious as to what it was that they do all day, but more specifically why they were so in demand. 

I had known about Wyncode for quite some time and had attended a few of their Pitch Days. I was really impressed by what I saw. I asked myself, how were these folks able to build a full-stack web application in 2 weeks without any prior coding experience? It seemed that this was an impossible task that there would be no way on Earth that I'd be able to complete. After some soul-searching and evaluation I decided that the recruiter life wasn't for me anymore and decided to take a leap of faith and enroll in Wyncode's 7th cohort. 

I have to say that the Wyncode experience was the best and worst 9 weeks of my life. From the beginning you are fully immersed into Web Development and placed completely out of your comfort zone. Since day 1, I trusted that the Wyncode staff would have my best interest at heart and I knew that things would work out...basically, I fully trusted in their curriculum, structure, and workflow. 

They always above and beyond the call of duty in terms of teaching me how to learn again and provided me with the solid foundation to hit the ground running after completion of the 9 weeks. Not only did Wyncode provide me with the solid foundation of tools to get out there and start coding, but also assisted me 100% in job placement after the cohort has completed. 

A note to future Wyncoders out there, it's all about the relationships you build that will get you placed afterwards. Whether it's through the many hiring partners that interviewed me through Wyncode's amazing services or through relationships you build on your own, it's all about how you sell yourself and your work ethic. Through the 9 weeks of intense learning, you are conditioned to feel confident about yourself and everything you've learned. You may not realize it the time, but you know more than you think you know. It's all about being positive and selling yourself to prospective employers, which Wyncode does almost too good of a job training you in that aspect as well. 

It's not all about Wyncode teaching you all the tech skills, but also teaching the business acumen necessary to market yourself and get hired as soon as possible. Luckily for me, I was hired the last day of Wyncode's 7th cohort by an amazing dev shop and am currently their only Jr. Developer working in the same working space as Wyncode. It's not about what's out there and available in terms of developer roles(which the supply is way fewer than the demand...which s a great thing)...it's about carving out a position for yourself like I did. I now have the opportunity to learn many different technologies from a crack-team of Sr. developers and stay close to the Wyncode family. You're not just a student at Wyncode, you're a family member and their network and reputation for producing quality full-stack developers is second to none. 

I couldnt be happier with my experience at Wyncode. I recommend anyone who wants to learn to code, change your life, and enroll in a coding bootcamp to definitely join Wyncode. You won't be sorry. :)

 

P.S. Special shout-out to Juha Mikkola, Johanna Mikkola, Ed Toro, Matt Campbell, Rita Rovira, Sean Selleck, Gabe Noboa, and the rest of the Wyncode staff for making my time at Wyncode a remarkable and amazing experience. 

The content covered is relevant and interesting. I really like appreciate that  our final project is based on a real life problem that we need to solve. This requires us to apply the knowledge we've been learning each week. Before I took the classe, I read that the class size was small and I was really looking forward to it because it  fosters better learning. Unfortunately I was enrolled in one of the biggest classes they ever had. That makes a big difference because I found that a large group didn't offer much time for an engaging conversation about the topics covered. It could have been more dynamic with a smaller group. Overall the course addressess topics that are constantly changing. The reading material is interesting and I recommend they continue sharing more reading material that add value to the lessons learned that week. I would have loved to have had an in depth hands on approach to dealing with topics like paid search for example. On the other hand each week we learn from different instructors with expertise of the topic covered. They are passionate and available to talk to us one-on-one if we have any questions.

The course is great so far! The contest is relevant to a large group of such a diverse student base. However, some of the topics I feel require more attention than others. For example, in the first couple of classes, there was a lot of overview on what a brand is (which I'd hope the class already knows), and, while I understand it's important to touch on for brand voice/tone on social, lot of time was focused on how to reply to customers on Twitter. I wish this time could've been used to go into topics like paid social media advertising in more depth, as I feel like we only got to just scrape the surface. Looking forward to learning more analytical skills! 

 

 

When I decided to go to a coding bootcamp I only did so after a lot of soul searching and research. I had a very good executive level job but I was board out of my mind and knew I couldn't keep doing this for another 20 years. I had always been into computers and technology in general so after researching code schools I thought I could be a good fit especially since I couldn't afford the time needed to go back to school and get another BS in computer science. Wyncode was not my first pick for code schools. Why?. I didn't know they existed. When I originally looked at code schools found a highly rated school in Boston and after applying and getting accepted I was ready to commit until one afternoon I did another google search and to my surprise a new code school in Miami only a few months old came up. I quickly looked into them and went down and spoke to the Co-founders . After that meeting and realize I could go spend 3 months in the winter in Boston or 3 months in sunny Miami. Glad I picked Miami. 

The coarse itself was taught by a very smart and knowledgable instructor. I didn't have a background in coding and had only taken a very basic programing elective while in college. I found that although some of the concepts were difficult to pickup the information was well presented. The last 2 weeks are by far the hardest and you feel very overwhelmed by all that you "should" have learned and you feel you didn't. Looking back a year later I realized I learned and grasped a lot more than I thought at the time. Bootcamps are intense and for good reason. Programing is difficult. It takes a person who is committed to learn and put in the time to get better.  Im glad I took this journey to change my life and learn to code.

Wyncode has created a awesome network and the staff is dedicated to being part of the Miami tech ecosystem. The placement program is extremely useful and the school is truly dedicated to helping the students and the hiring partners get the most out of the program. I would say that the connections they have in the tech community alone are worth the price of the course. 

I'm glad I made the choice to attend a bootcamp, even more so Wyncode. Its been a great experience and working in the startup community in Miami has been a wonderful life changing experience that I wouldn't change for anything.

I am a seasoned entrepreneur with a solid background in accounting, management/team building, and some traditional marketing.  After spending 10's of thousands of dollars on hiring developers for mobile and website applications, I realized that in order for my company to succeed and survive, I would need to become it's Tech Founder and opted for a bootcamp learning experience.  

The nine week intensive Wyncode web development course was hard for me since I was about 30 years older than most of the participants.  The combination of great instructor, personal attention from teacher's assistants and the collaborative culture amoungst the cohort colleagues, helped me finish the experience and accomplish my goal of learning the basics of computer programming.  

My original intent for taking the course was to acquire the knowledge necessary to be able to do most of the work myself with little or no outside hired help.   Fortunately, I was exposed to some tremendous talent and realized that my company could thrive faster and better by hiring someone to share the web and app development load.  I hired a very talented and mission driven young woman with whom worked with on a couple of projects during the cohort.  Without the knowledge I learned and the experience I had of working with this person on bootcamp projects, I would not have made the wise decision to bring her on as a partner developer.  We are five months out from our Wyncode experience.  We have taught ourselves two new programming languages in addition to the ones we learned at Wyncode.  We have redone the original website, started several mobile apps, figured out a coding methodology for a mobile interactive toy with a provisional patent, and  will be crowdsourcing our new product in January of 2016.  I highly recommend any startup entrepreneur developing a tech heavy business to strongly consider attending attending a Wyncode bootcamp AND to hire Wyncoders to help you in your journey.

 

I can whole heartidly say that Wyncode changed my life. I spent a couple of months dabbling in code, taking computer classes on line and in school, but I felt like I was missing something. I wanted to gain a skillset that was applicable to every day life, personally and professionally.

Wyncode delivered above and beyond my expectations. 

I honestly don't know where I'd be had I not invested in the course! It was the best investment I could have ever made, and now I have an extremely well paying job + working with the community to teach younger girls how to code- it's a dream! The knowledge and insight from our head instructor Ed is unmatchable (he really knows everything) and the Wyncode family is always a message away when you need help.

I want to personally thank Jo and Juha (+ the rest of the squad) for making the move to Miami and creating such an amazing institution- Wyncode, YOU THA ONE! 

I spent a couple months trying to teach myself to code with CodeAcademy and Treehouse. They were great for getting an idea of what coding is and making sure that it was something that I would actually enjoy. But I, like most people, hit a point where those resources alone are not enough. I started looking for help and stumbled across Wyncode. I was quite skeptical that a 9 week program could prepare me for a job in software development, so I started doing my homework. I started here on coursereport. Then, I went to their open house and their pitch night. I asked current students about their experiences. I asked instructors about the curriculum. I asked hiring partners if they were satisfied with the quality of their Wyncode grads. I couldn't find a single negative thing about the program as hard as I tried, so I took the plunge.

What a journey! I found the nine weeks to be tough but quite manageable, and I find myself looking back missing the days spent in the LAB with my cohort. The course is challenging and fun at the same time. You learn not only how to code, but how to tie different technologies together. You learn how and where to find solutions. You get practice presenting and talking in front of a group and working with a team. You get career advice and guidance that never ends. You get plugged into a massive and constantly growing network of developers who become not only professional resources, but also great friends. It's looking like Wyncode Alum are poised to take over the South Florida tech scence.

So I came out from the 9 weeks with multiple job opportunities, even being the infant developer that I was. Don't go into this course thinking you'll come out an expert. You will come out just barely knowing enough to scrape by, but it's enough, and with your new network surrounding you, the opportunities are numerous. I'm now getting paid to learn and strengthen my skillset, and I can wear flip-flops to work. I highly recommend this course to anyone who is motivated, enjoys learning new things, and wants to change their professional life. 

Wyncode is a great place to immerse yourself and have a great team of dedicated people helping you, even after finishing your cohort. I was lucky enough to be part of the first cohort and it was a great experience.

I was not planning on becoming a developer after I finished Wyncode. So for three months after Wyncode I was working at my old job. When I decided to become a full-time developer, Wyncode helped me find a job, which was great. 

The curriculum has expanded since the first cohort and it has changed as per the request of the hiring partners. I am aware of this because my wife was part of one of the later cohorts. 

Wyncode helps anybody that wants to put in the time and effort.

 

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When I decided I wanted a career in technology I was really considering my options.  I always considered myself as a great self learner and I was not opposed burning through a few books and work on a few projects and hope to someday find someone to higher me. I also considered a formal CS degree, but that takes a lot more resources.  When I heard about Wyncode I was immediately intrigued by the idea.  The curriculum is very well thought out and very well delivered.  The Wyncode team gives you all the resources +more for you to give you the best education experience. The team is 110% committed to your success and even takes the time to listen to you tell them how to do their job better. 

Even after you're through with the classes your experience is not over.  They have the best Job assistance you could ask for.  I was able land my first Job 3 weeks after my last class. As many of the other Wyncoders will tell you, it was the best thing to happen to my career.  Nothing can replace the network of people I've developed by becoming a part of the Wyncode family.

I'm taking digital marketing at brainstation. I'm really enjoying it so far and learning a lot. I personally could go a tiny bit slower at times (i don't have much experience) but the instructors are understanding and are available for one-on-one clarification each class. so i'm not finding it too difficult to follow. better to have too much info than too little. what i really like about the course is the people. the instructors are really friendly and insightful and networking with the other students is an awesome added benefit. 

Looking forward to the second half. 

After two long years of computer engineering and zero lines of code written i decided to make one of the best decisions of my life and i joined Wyncode. I know that right now you're probably thinking the program is too expensive or that is not gonna work, I was in your place and i know its a very big decision but let me tell you that it is worth every single penny. Wyncode is gonna give you the tools you need to become a developer and get that job that you always wanted.    The part that I love the most is the culture, it is something different and amazing, everyone is eager to learn and help each other from your classmates to the instructors. By the end of the course you will be part of an amazing family that is constantly growing, giving you great friends and connections all over the place. It's hard to come out with the exact words to describe the excitement and gratitude for Wyncode, but one thing I am 100% sure is that i would do it again.     Andres Rojas Software Engineer at Touchrate