Flatiron School

Ok, after the first week of the free Flatiron coding bootcamp, I thought I'd share my candid thoughts regarding what I've learned/observed so far. But before I get into the details, you should know that as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, I'm all about the "processes....good, bad and ugly.  So, with that said, here's where my head is at regarding my experience to date.

Without a doubt, from day one I was intimated with even the thought of participating in any coding training and given Flatiron's reputation for being top-shelf (meaning "challenging"), that made it even worse. I wasn't totally convinced that (given what was going to be expected of me over these next few months), I was ready for this program.

Well, week one has indeed been challenging - but manageable. It takes a very real sense of commitment and devotion from the student to put the hours of work in each day in order to keep things moving along. You really have got to want to do this.  But with the pain - comes the gain.

The Readme guidance with each lesson requires a good bit of concentration, so when you decide to do the Flatiron program, make sure you have a study location that is quiet and you can really get into this material without being disturbed.

The labs that you'll work on is where the "rubber really meets the road" and this is where I've spent the majority of my time so far. As frustrated as I've been at times, when needed, I kept on going back to the previous course material until the "ah hah" moment would occur.

And here's the best part about my entire experience so far. The technical advisors (and at times, other students) have been quite good at responding to my needs. They know how to take the challenges/questions you have at the moment and without providing a solution right out of the gate, they help you think things out and work through your issue/questions. In my opinion, that's the true learning process in a nutshell - helping the student to help themselves. 

AND this is REAL-TIME Q & A technical advising going on....and not like some other programs where you fire off an email and then wait for hours for a response!

In summary, after Week 1, I'm quite pleased with my Flatiron experience.  I have a lot of work to do before I complete the Full Stack Development course, but with each day, my confidence is growing and little by little, it's starting to make sense.  Remember, in the tech world, you get what you pay for.  Give return on your investment (ROI) some serious consideration when selecting a boot camp.  I did, and the logical conclusion for me was the Flatiron program. 

Also, how many coding bootcamps offer a Data Sciences component, as an alternative to the Full Stack coursework?  I'm willing to bet you'll use 2-3 fingers (if that many) when doing your due diligence.  You get what you pay for.

I'm glad I'm here.

I have spent time on various online free web development courses, and this is by far the best one I have encountered.  I like the structure of going back and forth between reading about a topic, and then implementing your new knowledge.  It also builds very well, adding skills as you go along, allowing you to complete a whole project piece by piece, rather than just teaching a bunch of disconnected skills.  Additionally, instructors from FlatIron School are incredibly helpful if you get stuck, and super responsive.  I never waited for more than 2 minutes to get feedback or assistance, whether it was just a text chat or a screenshare to help me work through my problem.  I highly recommend this bootcamp prep course to everyone.  Even if you have no intention of going to a bootcamp, you will get something out of it!

Overall had a great experience with Flatiron's online web developer course. My objective was to learn the relevant skills to land me a job as a software developer, and the Flatiron curriculum filled the bill.

No bootcamp is going to automatically/easily land you a job after graduation. After graduating, you will likely need to hustle just as hard or harder than you did during the bootcamp. That said, Flatiron's curriculum sufficiently taught me the skills to land a very competitive sofware developer role. 

An excellent program that was well paced and fostered a great community. The program was extremely job focused, every student got a career coach and there were lessons on things like managing a resume and fixing your linkedin. The tech stack was as thorough as it could be for 15 weeks, btu there was a definite emphasis on HOW to learn, so that when you get a job, you'll know what to focus on when learning a new stack. 

100% recomended if you're serious about getting a job quickly. I really enjoyed my time there and will miss everyone. 

I had spent seven months learning Swift on my own and working around in Xcode and I knew it was time for me to get some serious training. With so many options out there, I wasn't sure what would be the next step. Flatiron's Bootcamp Prep course provided me with an essential link between exploring code on my own to learning how to be a software engineer. In the Bootcamp online and even screen-sharing of your code is available all day long and into the night, the course is well-rounded to introduce to many aspects of actually working as a software engineer and lastly it really prepares you for what their Bootcamp. If you're on the fence, do the Bootcamp Prep! You don’t have anything to lose.

I completed the data science bootcamp prep course in preparation for the data science immersive course at Flatiron. The course provided a great introduction to Python as well as other statistical and mathematical concepts important to data science. While certain portions were a bit fast paced for a beginner, Flatiron provides teachers to answer questions you have a long the way. Would definitely recommend this course for anyone interested in data science without much prior coding or math background. 

I partook in Flatiron schools online coding bootcamp via learn. I initially worked while working on the course and I enjoyed the flexiability it provided for me to both work and learn coding. The course is structured in a way that you develop a core foundation of a topic before moving on to more advanced items. After completing the course I had the opportunity to work with a career coach from flatiron. We had weekly meetings to catch up on my progress of finding my next role. The tips my coach provided were invaluable, from drafting thank you letters to Cultural mock interviews. Aside from the coaches, Flatiron school has a career team who actively sources employers and presenting it to us via slack/email or even networking events. All in all it was a great experience and would recommend it. 

Flatiron's Bootcamp Prep was great! I only got about halfway thru since I eventually got accepted into their immersive program and have been working on prepwork since.

I've done other bootcamp prep, and honestly, Flatiron's was the best. I'm not just saying that. They had great support when I was stuck, the directions were clear, the user interface was user friendly and easy to work with, and they did a great job of prepping me for what was to come. I mean, I got into the program and worked hard, so they must be doing something right. I've had a few Ruby friends complain about the drudgery of learning JS, but I actually enjoyed it via Flatiron's Bootcamp Prep.

I used my notes to build a basic website for my wife on her birthday. Minimal knowledge and embedded html and css in the same file, but nonetheless, I had several friends and family members impressed with the site...all from the info I learned in the bootcamp prep.

All my experience with Access Labs has been great so far and I'm super excited to be starting the Software Engineering Immersive in a few weeks! Highly recommend!!!!

Coming from background in media and communications, coding was something I never really saw myself getting into. However, my brother kept telling me I would love it if I just tried it, and boy, was he right! I started off with the free bootcamp prep course and I truly couldn't have asked for a better intro to software development. What I liked most about the way this course was designed, was how it put aside all that technical jargon (that scared the living daylight out of me) and instead, it talks you through coding as if it was your friend/brother/partner talking to you. And that's what made me continue with the course, until I finished - and actually applied (and got admitted) into the immersive in-person program! 

Flatiron's Bootcamp Prep Course uses learn.co platform to facilitate the bootcamp prep material. One of the coolest features is the "ask a question" button. If you ever get stuck/are feeling frustrated/need guidance/etc, you just click on the button, type in your question, and you get immediate response. You get personalized help (even get paired up with a technical coach if you need to talk through the issue and/or screenshare) and the Socratic method is used so well that they guide you through answering your own questions. I found this feature and the response methods used as critical to reinforcing my learning, enabling indepth understanding and boosting my confidence as a student.

The Flatiron schools prep course is a great intro to coding. The prep course teaches you the basics of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Ruby. At the end of each section you are tested on what you've learned so far through their in browser IDE. A great feature of the prep course is that you are able to ask fellow students and instructors questions if there is a lab you need help with. Responses are pretty quick but all depends on how busy they are. You can expect a response in no more than 5 minutes. Which is ok, while you're waiting you might figure out what you did wrong! 

Overall it is a great experience for anyone that wants to try coding or see what its about. Best of all, its free. All you need to start is Google Chrome and an internet connection to start. If you're up to the challenge, you can sign up for the course at Learn.co. 

Sincerely,

Chris

Flatiron had me hooked from the moment I started the free online prep Bootcamp course. From there I enrolled in the online full-stack web development program. I went from knowing very little HTML, to being able to create full-stack web applications. I wasn't able to afford to quit my job, so I loved the flexibility of being able to go at my own pace. Since I was working full time, it took me longer than most (15 months), but I appreciated that I didn't feel rushed. The curriculum was set up in such a great way, it built upon the previous lessons and taught you the nitty gritty before you learned the "easy" way to do it. This course is hard for a reason, you learn the ins and outs of coding and apply it to real life situations (pushing all your labs and projects to Github). I couldn't speak high enough regards to Flatiron, everyone I interacted with was passionate about coding, and only wants you to succeed. I enjoyed my time with the instructors as well as my career coach. As I was on my final project, I slowly started to apply for jobs. I went on several interviews as I was finishing up my project, and before I even graduated I had an offer for my dream job.  If you are passionate about coding and have the discipline this is the perfect program for you.

Flatiron was one of the best experiences I'we had in a long while. It was very challenging and also very fun for me. The instructors were great, the curriculum was tough, and the people that I've met there were nothing less then amazing.

Everybody there makes sure to explain anything you are having troubles with, even in the middle of lectures the instructors would break and ask if there was anything unclear, or even if you interupt them while they are teaching they will take their time with you and explain everything.

After you graduate the career services and your own career coach that Flatiron provides, make sure you are ready to start searching by helping you in any way they can, which includes writing emails, coming up with a good elevator pitch, and writing up your resume. They also look for posible job opportunities and help spread out the word about you (they send your resume to employers). But they can only do so much, It's up to you to learn and do your best in the search ahead, and impress employers with your knowledge.

The only thing that I would add to this amazing experience and make it better, are better chairs for students, other than that my overall experience was awesome! I feel like I definitely made the right choice.

I graduated from the online full stack web development course, and now I'm working for the Flatiron School in person as a Technical Coaching Fellow. I learned a ton from the course, and got a lot of value from periodic code reviews from instructors on projects. Having studied to become a teacher before getting into code, I have a great opportunity now to combine the two, and do what Iove. I'm proud to have graduated from the Flatiron School, and I'm even more proud to work for them now, and help as many students as I can to learn and reach their potential.

Attending Flatiron School was the best decision I have ever made. The discovery that coding is my passion and destined career path came long delayed, after I had graduated with a degree and pursued a career in finance. The idea that I could transition into the tech world through a "bootcamp" within a matter of months as opposed to going back to school was truly unbelievable and unrealistic. However, after due diligence of research on coding bootcamps and discovering that this is in fact a thing that people do...I decided it was worth a shot and began extending my research to find the right program for me. 

After several days of debating between several different programs within NYC, I finally chose Flatiron's Online Web Developer Immersive course. This decision was mainly influenced by financial and logistical factors. Firstly, I could not afford to quit my job to attend a full-time on-campus course, so an online self-paced program was ideal. Further, the cost of this program was absolutely unbeatable. I compare to App Academy, which was the first program I looked into and almost ended up joining, that averaged to a cost of $17,000. In total, Flatiron School ended up costing me less than $3000 and it was the best $3000 ever spent. 

I ended up finishing the course in just a little over 3 months, but this was a result of committing 45+ hours a week on-top of my full-time job. This may sound crazy...committing this much time to a course on top of a full-time job, but I attribute my ability to do this fully to Flatiron and the way that they design their curriculum. It never felt like a chore to me and I truly enjoyed going through the coursework. I would spend 8+ straight hours going through the coursework not even realizing how much time had passed. 

That said, it must be noted that the course was certainly very challenging. There were moments where I almost thought that it was too hard and that I wasn't cut out for this career path after all. However, the support/guidance of the online instructors always shut these doubts down as they were always able to help me work through whatever learning rut I was in and I was always able to get over each hurdle and continue through the progression of the course. 

The online instructor assistance was very effective. There were times that I would have to wait in a queue for a screenshare in order to get assistance on whatever issue I was experiencing, but I never felt that I had to wait an unreasonable amount of time. The instructors always remained on the screenshare/call until my issue was resolved and questions were answered. They also made sure to guide me to discovering a resolution/answer on my own, rather than just telling me the answer which in my personal opinion is the best way to learn. 

Now to the most important part..how much I learned and how it translated to getting an actual job as a developer. Well for starters, I went from not knowing a single coding language or anything to do with coding at all, to being able to build a robust web application on my own, with a React/Redux front-end and Rails backend API in three months. Even so, upon reaching this success endpoint, I still wasn't sure what this meant as it relates to getting hired. 

Initially the job search process was a little bit discouraging. It seemed like almost every developer job I came across was a senior role, requesting candidates with 3+ years of experience. However, I didn't let this hinder my process and just applied for any opportunity that I could. And with that....I landed my first role before I had even officially graduated from Flatiron School, with an $85k salary. 

My first role (which I am still currently in), is actually a temp-to-hire position (I was hired as a 'short-term-employee'). The idea here is that bootcamp grads are a "risky hire", so it is common for these grads to be hired on a contract-to-perm basis in order to be vetted for their skills/knowledge. This is a completely understandable thought-process/strategy, and much much better than the scenario I have read countless times on forums discussing coding bootcamps, which suggest that most tech camps won't even read the resume of a bootcamp grad and that bootcamp grads are not taken seriously. These claims are completely false; while I have no doubt that there are tech companies out there that will throw away a resume of a bootcamp grad, there are also many many that won't. In fact, the company that I work for, which is very small (about 30 people total), has two other Flatiron grads currently working there!

All things considered, my experience at Flatiron was nothing short of ideal. To be able to completely change my career within a matter of months, without taking a pay cut, without spending thousands of dollars on coursework and without ever going through a state of unemployment is a bit unfathomable but this is the exact scenario that I lived through. That said, I must say that this is NOT for everyone. I believe that I am able to share this success story because I already came from a fairly analytical background and while I did not have any experience coding, my prior job involved a lot of financial modeling in Excel and a lot of analytical thinking/problem solving. I believe these skills are very transferable to coding as being a good coder in my opinion has less to do with knowing a coding language and more to do with one's thought process and knowing how to think analytically and problem-solve. This is a learned skill, certainly, but it comes naturally more to some than others. And with that I would strongly suggest anyone considering a coding bootcamp to be sure that coding is right for them, because if it is not, it would be unrealistic to expect the same successful outcome, which would have little to do with Flatiron School itself and more so with the individual's ability to master the coursework. 

In sum, I honestly have nothing negative to say about Flatiron School and highly recommend to anyone that's confident about their decision to transition their career into tech. For the first time in my life I can actually say I love what I do. I look forward to going to work every day and I enjoy every minute I spend at work. This is a very very foreign thought to me as it comes after years of being miserable in my career and beginning to accept the idea that work is meant to be an unhappy place. I owe it to Flatiron for changing my life and giving me the opportunity to finally be happy in my career and be exactly where I belong. 

I found The Flatiron School's Bootcamp Prep course to be a great introduction to Javascript, Ruby and HTML. The course is free and there is a very strong community that helps you with any questions you may have. I found the support extremely helpful as they are able to screenshare so you really understand how to solve any issues that may come up. I do not know of any other bootcamps that offer such a supportive resource for everyone for free. This was a big factor in me ultiatmely deciding to apply to their onsite immersive bootcamp.

After finishing the prep course you are able to build a command line interface program that plays tic-tac-toe and another to play a rock dodging game. I was able to take what I learned from this prep course and program a Towers of Hanoi game in the command line interface on my own which was very cool. The javascript I learned also allowed me to do a little bit of web scraping from websites. 

I highly recommend this course for those just starting out. You'll learn a great deal of basic programming skills across two different languages.

I've been accepted to the Flatiron School in-person NYC software engineering program and am super excited to begin the course in the coming weeks.

I participated in their accelerated bootcamp prep program (ABCP) as part of my application preparation, and then completed some additional modules from their regular, non-accelerated bootcamp course as well. The ABCP course was amazing in that it included live classroom sessions with a really great Flatiron instructor. You could either attend it in-person at their NYC campus, or participate remotely (which I did). The learning material both online and in the live classes was comprehensive and thorough, especially considering how tough the very early stages of learning coding fundamentals can be. I went on to complete some supplementary learning on my own after the prep course, and I found that what I learned in the prep course really helped me there.

The admissions process was amazing. At every stage I received *very* timely responses, from my initial application submission, to scheduling my interviews, and admission and scholarship decisions. Both the interviewers were tremendously kind and helpful. The whole experience made me even more excited about Flatiron's culture and approach towards collaboration in learning.