Fullstack Academy

During my time at FullStack Academy, the course seemed very daunting and difficult to overcome. The course is very fast-paced and during the full time class, it will most definitely take up your full time. While going through this course, the instructors would give either part of or the whole lesson depending on what they are teaching that day. Then the instructors would send you off into different zoom rooms (called it breakout rooms) to complete challenges and other schoolwork they had assigned. The problems we were given were pretty difficult and sometimes hard to understand. But there is so many tools in place to help you find the answers you need. Instructors, mentors, even other classmates would pop around the rooms helping out the team so we all could get the work done. The rewarding part was when you were able to solve the problems without any help and be able to help everyone else in the room find the solution. Like I said, this course seems difficult and hard but it really is the best feeling when things start to click and you are able to solve all the problems given 

Although it may have been a great bootcamp at one time, it is not anymore. Staff shortages, 1 instructor per cohort, calendars that are now pdf vs. Google calendar, disorganization on a huge level. It is the fyre festival of bootcamps. It was sold by the founders and purchased in 2018 by zovio (formerly bridgepoint education) and has had a recent change in management 6  months ago. It seems to be cutting costs anywhere possible and stretching instructors to their breaking point. Many quitting.  

The good: Fullstack Academy offers an immersive cybersecurity bootcamp that is well worth the time spent doing it. The instructors are patient and will walk you through the most basic of tasks, all the way up to configuring VPCs in AWS with load balancing and Remote-Access VPNs. If you have any technical abilities at all, the course should not be difficult to complete. 
Heed this warning: Adjust your expectations as you consider signing up for this bootcamp. If you're expecting to land a job during/immediately after the course, you most likely will not. The majority of my network from the cohort that I finished 3 months ago still don't have jobs in the field. If you're an IT guy looking to expand into IT security, this would be great for you. If you're a Linux/Windows SysAdmin, highschool senior, etc. with time on your hands and don't need to get a job immediately after the course is over, this would be great for you. If you have bills to pay and mouths to feed, you're less than marketable without prior in-field experience. 
Conclusion: The instructors are great, and as a noob, you'll learn a ton. Just don't expect to work in-field anytime soon. 

I would highly recommend Fullstack Academy for those seeking a career in software engineering. As for my background, I graduated university with a B.S. in computer science, but had no related work experience, even internships. After months of zero replies from numerous job applications, I decided to take this coding bootcamp. It mainly covered JavaScript and React with a focus on front-end, but I was able to get a decent amount of experience on back-end technologies and concepts as well. It's very fast paced and can easily get overwhelming from time to time, but they all come back together towards the end of junior phase. Senior phase is when the excitement begins as you get to build creative project with fellow cohort-mates. I liked how it was up to us to explore new technologies this phase as it really opened up my eyes to realize what tools are out there within our reach. It took me about 2 months after graduation to finally secure my first career in software engineering, and the job hunting skills that  our career coaches have taught us really helped me all the way. It may be intimidating at first, but it definitely pays off as it did for me. 

Full Stack Web Development Online Training

Full Stack Web Development is nothing but complete designing of both websites and applications where the developers need to work from frontend to backend development. With our Full Stack Web Development Course, you will become an expert in all the aspects of web development such as Java, .NET, MEAN Stack and Python. In Frontend you are able to learn – HTML, HMTL5, CSS3, Bootstrap, JavaScript and jQuery whereas in Backend – Node.js, Meteor.js, Angular 2,4&5, PHP and Ruby on Rails and finally in Database – MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, CouchDB and Apache Cassandr Website: https://bit.ly/37p8r4p

It's a wonderful program for individuals who already have basic understanding of programming such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I say this do to the fact this program is only 3 to 6 months so there's only time to touch the surface of each of these languages, I feel for individuals that have never touch code and are complete beginners would find this program overwhelming and difficult to understand at times, beginning projects are pre written meaning mostly just copy paste into your code editor such as  "VSCode"  which didn't help me being a" hands on learner" "means I learn by typing each letter" this made it difficult for me to understand how I was making projects at times and what websites I was creating or why I needed the code I was using to make them with. Therefore making it harder for me to apply the knowledge to my own projects later and it's wasn't until towards the end of the course that we finally put together a website of our own but by this time, it was hard to recall the past knowledge from weeks before or even know what files you need for different projects or which code needs to be in what files! and it's around this time that "before class hours" go from 3 day a week to just 1 day a week but I could reach out to each teacher on slack are ask for visiting hours if needed sometimes hope this helps.

I had an overall very positive experience at Fullstack Academy. I got into their WDF program which is part of a partnership with the city and is 100% tuition free, so bear in mind that the fact that I got to go for free may have made my perception a little rosier than it would otherwise be. That being said, if I had to do it all over and pay the full cost for this coding bootcamp, I absolutely would (especially their Grace Hopper program, which has deferred tuition). I just got my first coding-related job 4 months after graduating and I'll be making almost triple my previous annual salary, so the cost is definitely worth it in my opinion. 

The two main instructors that I had at Fullstack are amazing. Sarah especially is incredibly effective at communicating very complex topics clearly in a short amount of time. Going through a coding bootcamp, you have to absorb a crazy amount of information very quickly and it's difficult to keep up no matter how good you are, but having great instructors is essential to making it more manageable. Being able to deliver massive amounts of information to beginners in a way that is digestible takes a lot of talent, and I'm impressed by both Sarah and Orlando for doing it so well. All the fellows who acted as teaching assistants were also amazingly supportive and helpful.

The curriculum overall was very good. We started off learning coding basics in JavaScript for about a month, and then moved on to learning the PERN tech stack, which includes PostgreSQL, Express, React, and Node.js. There were some workshops that I think were not as clear as they could have been, and some other workshops that stood out as being brilliantly written and organized (shout out to Finn who made a couple of those A+ workshops). The workshops were made to be worked on in pairs, with one person sharing their screen as they type code, and the other person giving directions on how to approach the problem. The idea of "pair programming" is central to Fullstack's education model. I did get social burnout sometimes from pair programming so much, but for the most part I liked it and found it to be very effective.

There was lots of career success support during and after the bootcamp but I think my cohort got extra support especially after graduation because we were in the WDF program. I underestimated how important career success support was, and I think a lot of people tend to do that. It's not unusual to graduate bootcamp with imposter syndrome but getting coaching, resume reviews, and interview prep definitely helped me counteract those feelings of self-doubt.

Going through this bootcamp was extremely challenging but great instructors and classmates made it fun and manageable. You learn a LOT in a very short amount of time, you WILL have to study on your own time during and after the program to fill in knowledge gaps, but overall it's well worth the cost and the effort! Although there are lots of free resources out there, I wouldn't have been able to learn how to code like this from scratch on my own. Now that I have a solid base of coding knowledge and have "learned how to learn" so to speak, I feel like I can make better use of other resources too.

I recently graduated from the Grace Hopper Program at Fullstack Academy and I had an amazing experience. Even though the entire course was remote, I was able to gain the skills necessary to get plenty of interviews and job offers as a software engineer after graduation. I was also able to form meaningful friendships with my classmates and professional connections with the instructors. I think the main thing to know if you're considering any bootcamp is that people won't hold your hand the whole time. You have to be a motivated, self-starter in order to put in the work during the course and put the work into applying for jobs. Super worth it though, I successfully changed careers from something I hated into something I now love.

I did the Grace Hopper Program at Fullstack Academy. I thought the experience was overall very worthwhile and made a huge impact on my career choice. In terms of pros, they have a great curriculum with everything you need to begin as a software engineer and a very welcoming community including staff and other students. On the other hand, being well prepared for the job doesn't mean well prepared for interviews. I felt that the last few weeks of the curriculum were not concrete or taught as smoothly. This was the time when the focus was on algorithms and data structures. I think it would've helped to have more preparation in that area because Fullstack offered Launch day. Launch day pairs students with employers and gets them the first interview. Upon doing well on these interviews, students move to the next round with those companies and if they aren't well prepared to interview right out of boot camp these will be wasted opportunities. Of course, there will be more interview opportunities after graduating but note that graduates will need to spend significant time on their own in technical interview preparation.

I highly recommend Grace Hopper for
1. The community - everyone from instructors, staff and students operate under a no asshole rule but they go beyond that. People go out of their way to help each other out.
2. The learning opportunities - the instructors are subject matter experts that love their craft, which makes learning really fun. The material is also highly relevant to the course and to the real world - I received an amazing job that is using the tech stack we learned at Grace Hopper.
I'm so happy with my decision and highly recommend it for anyone else who wants to pursue a career in coding!

I loved my time at fullstack. It was an incredibly challenging experience and I totally white-knuckled my way through. They do provide an abundance of academic support as well as career counseling and social-support as well. I was very impressed with the diverse group of students they admitted to the program. Everyone came from a different background, and they were all very friendly and intelligent. I have made life-long friends and we continue to ask each other questions, and provide support for one another.

Pros:
-Structured class setting with minimal lectures and lots of hands-on work
-Great workshops that don't hold your hands
-Great setting for working with others whether it's pair exercises or group projects
-Great instructors who are always available to help
-Awesome career day that really helped get you prepared for more serious interviews down the line

Cons:
-The pacing of the course could use some work. e.g. REACTOs (practice technical interviews) are more of an after-thought in the current set up when they are so crucial for the job search
-Based on my experience, the weaker students are generally grouped with the stronger students for group projects, giving little incentive to demonstrate that you are a top student; almost better to just do the bare minimum on the Junior phase.

I don't regret going to FSA. I have an engineering job as a result of what I learned at the program, but a few things rubbed me the wrong way. I'm going to focus mostly on negatives because I haven't read some of my biggest concerns in other reviews. Also, apologies for the rambling and disorganization below, I acknowledge the structure of my review could be better.

Fullstack Academy is not equipped properly to handle everyone of all levels

I think they removed this from their website, but they use to state that everyone from all backgrounds would benefit from going to FSA, even seasoned programmers who want to brush up their skills. Some people with programming experience, especially seniors, would pull their teeth out with the amount of pair programming the bootcamp forces you to do. I personally wish they did less pair programming. They immediately alienate people with programming experience in the first week by doing a long workshop on why pair programming is the best way to learn. FSA tries to prove the point that pairing beginners with beginners leads to the most amount of growth, but they fail to discuss intermediate and expert level programmers paired with beginners. The beginners obviously learn a lot from people with more experience, but, ultimately, the people with the most experience get dragged down a little by less experienced partners. You're not supposed to finish every workshop, but some of the more knowledgeable people would benefit more from finishing the workshop all the way through, and doing the extra credit, instead of teaching their partner the workshop. FSA recommends finishing the workshops at home anyway, but it could feel like class time is wasted time. This applies to both experienced programmers and fast learners who end up becoming the top of the class.

I think FSA needs to work on a way to better balance the curriculum for beginners, those with a background in programming, and fast learners. The curriculum is great for computer science graduates because a lot of universities do not teach full stack technologies or web dev, however, workshops and especially group projects can be painful when you're not supposed to move on if your partner does not understand what's going on. I'm not saying person who is struggling should be left in the dust, I'm saying it's just not ideal scenario for both parties, and I do not believe that FSA handles the students who struggle the most appropriately, but I'll talk about that in a later section. FSA has to rely on pair programming due to not having enough resources (teachers and teaching assistants) to support every student during a workshop.

Those with a CS degree also want to do a bootcamp like FSA because they want help in building a portfolio for job hunting, so the second half of the program sounds incredibly appealing. FSA gives you a ton of code and knowledge of a stack that you can leverage to build your own projects, but it's difficult to produce a decently functional app in the short amount of time you're given if you have to code along with someone who is struggling. Yes, you can work on the app after you've graduated but some people want to immediately dive into the job hunt once the program ends. I witnessed a couple students do the entire project for the rest of their team, which really sucks for the people who didn't actually end up doing the project because they can't even explain the code. In this scenario, I think it would be better to match students of similar levels for projects so everyone will learn together (as FSA even stated at the beginning of the program).

Additionally, there's a little bit of a toxic culture towards individuals who have a computer science degree or had a programming job. This is not only specific to FSA, I have encountered other bootcampers who express the same sentiment. FSA's curriculum is great for CS degree graduates who were never taught full-stack technologies. Despite these graduates not knowing web dev, other students talked about the experienced people and asked "why are they even in this program?", or put down computer science majors for not knowing the same things bootcampers know. It was enough to make me feel uncomfortable and that reaction is unwelcoming to students who do have a CS degree. It's one thing to say you accomplished something without a four year degree, but it's another thing to put someone else down for it.

FSA does not provide enough support for the top strugglers

As mentioned earlier above. FSA should be more strict with who passes junior phase. The strugglers would really benefit from redoing the first phase (which is a possibility) instead of FSA expecting other students to educate the struggler during the final phase when these other students are already past that point and want to start developing applications. Someone from my cohort didn't finish and understand the last project before senior phase, had redo the project, and somehow "passed" even though they still did not understand React and Redux in senior phase. FSA threw them on a team for the first project, and expected the rest of the team to catch the person up with pair programming. This person ended up even more left behind because the team wanted to have a working app. It's not a great situation for everyone involved and is a great diservice to the person who's struggling.

There are not enough teaching assistants, not long enough office hours, and class sizes are way too big. My cohort size was around 40 students, which FSA mislead me about when I was applying. I asked several times how big classes are and they either gave me a non-answer (it fluctuates with the seasons) or told me about 20. I was not expecting that class size. Students do not get enough attention or resources amongst large class sizes. Increasing the class sizes also floods the market with even more junior dev job seekers, so it's even more difficult to get an engineering job.

FSA is misleading about their outcomes

I'm not a big fan of the fact that they showcase success stories and companies who have hired graduates from the first year or two of FSA, when bootcamps were probably at their peak. They also do not explicitly state how many people get non-software engineer jobs like product management, support engineer, or solution constultant. Not all graduates land programming jobs, quite a few end up in a form of a technical role that does not involve coding. FSA also links to out of date CIRR reports that have higher success rates.

FSA spends too much time on "sharing your feelings" and "bonding" events/workshops

Someone did mention this in another review, and I also felt the same way. You are forced to go to lunch with a group every week to share your highs and lows. There are retrospectives where you compliment other people in the class for something they did well. Sometimes FSA ends the day early for bonding activities with other classmates or fellows. It felt like wasted time when I paid so much, and FSA already moves too fast and doesn't spend enough time on certain topics. Also, somewhat related, everyone is an adult, but I felt like I was being treated as a child by how certain FSA staff talked to the class.

 

 

If you’re thinking about a boot camp, go to Fullstack. That’s the gist of this. Boot camps won’t totally prepare you, but they do a pretty good job, and you should get ahead of this as much as possible because there might be a job bubble coming if there already isn’t one. 

Students: They clearly care about who they let in to the cohort. Most students are kind, sociable, and chill. Some are especially decent. A couple are bummers, but the ratio is outstanding. Everyone stops what they’re doing to help each other out. I have made great friends from Fullstack. I was someone who was going in thinking “this will be cool but these aren’t going to be my people”. They will be your people. If you're thinking of changing careers or adding a skillset, the student body alone is a reason to choose Fullstack.

Company + Personnel: Fullstack is scrappy, mostly transparent, and they take you seriously. The instructors are good, super smart, and very kind. They're completely sincere and straight forward with you. Only the people whose job it is to be obtuse will be obtuse, and even then they do their best to no be, and for the most part, understand that’s sort of their function within the structure of the company. People here work hard to show that they care. The fellows (the student teachers) range from being brilliant and kind to being NOT the best engineers ever but still very kind. They are all wonderful and committed to being helpful. This is a reflection of the student body again, and the commitment to a stellar culture. The recent Bridgewater purchase of Fullstack makes me nervous, but I doubt they'll interfere too much with how the company is run for now. Just look out for that, I guess.

Education: I know JavaScript. That's just true. I understand most things about it at a fundamental level. I have a stack I can code in. I felt fully supported the whole time, with tons of opportunity for extra help and practice even after school was out. The exams were tough but fair. I have made more than one app since graduating, like, got it up and running by myself. They were dinky toy apps, and most were used for interview projects, but I can do that now. It's wild. It will be brutal, it will be fast paced, but seriously trust the process. You'll see a lot of people say that, and they're right. The process won't help you get a job, but it will allow you to learn a lot very quickly.

All that said, there’s a lot more to learn, and relearn, and relearn. You will still be a junior when you leave. You graduate an engineer in that you can engineer things, but you’re going to be very confused looking at a large codebase, you’re going to forget a lot of what you learned, and you’re going to feel stupid but you’re not! They teach you well, so you’ll be able to brush up on what you forgot. It's 3 months though. Take it easy on yourself. You are pretty much job ready, and that's amazing.

Most importantly — despite their best efforts, unless you have a BS in Computer Science or general experience with CS, you will lack those CS fundamentals and algorithm skills. If you can help it, spend a couple hours a week practicing algorithms before the second half of the program where you will practice more frequently. It’ll be a lot less rough when you get out of the program that way.

Diversity + Culture: The environment is great. Fullstack is pretty progressive regarding identity politics so that's really nice. I mean, not everyone who is there totally gets it, but everyone is very friendly and I knew at least one trans person who had a solid experience at Grace Hopper, and I know there were other NB folks who did well there. There is still a lack of diversity mostly in gender and sexuality in the Fullstack cohorts. Mostly dudes, mostly white, with a few SEA and EA guys (my cohort had one queer person and no black people). Almost no women because they usually go to GH, which can make it a bit of a boys club, but the environment does a great job preventing that from happening (GH helps too, you interact with your sister cohort quite a bit). GH had a lot more overall diversity.

But yeah, just reemphasizing that the culture is overall really great. Very surprised how cool everyone was. They clearly care a lot.

Other thoughts:

The whole boot camp thing is nuts. You go in there, and you're learning a hundred new things a day, and they're trying to give you theory but also trying to make sure you can actually get something up and running so you have projects on your resume by the time you graduate, and they spend a good amount of time practicing whiteboarding problems but it isn't enough, and you're meeting new people, and you're working 60+ hours a week, and you're not seeing any of your friends and family (or if you are, not that often) and it's just bananas. Fullstack is pretty great, and there will be people who are better at identifying specific negatives about the program. I had a good time, I did well for myself, any flaws I saw seemed to be no fault of theirs as much as it was the fault of boot camps as a whole. I think if you have a different background or you're a different kind of person, maybe Fullstack isn't right for you. I don't know. Read other reviews, they helped me a lot when I was deciding.

You're almost definitely not going to come out of this interview ready. Some of you will, because some of you are wired for this. God bless. Most of you will not, and you'll probably take a very high paying hybrid role (sales + engineering usually) and do quite well for yourself. There just aren't as many junior roles out there right now. The industry is starting to grow wise to the fact that they can avoid hiring new engineers by just paying seniors more money to create systems that do junior work for them. Yes it is unfair, but that's how this works right now. There are a ton of great folks in software though looking to mentor people. Find them -- they will help you. Unless you have a lot of natural talent (and even if you do), it's going to be a long road. A handful of folks from my cohort got jobs after a normal amount of time (3 - 4 months), but a majority are still looking (4 - 5 months in right now).

None of this boot camp stuff is sustainable, but it is available right now, and it is totally feasible that you leave Fullstack with a high paying job in the tech space. Also, if you come from a relatively privileged background, and you're young, and you don't have a lot of direction, just do it. Nothing out there is going to fulfill you right now, but you'll be able to get some direction in your life towards a discipline that pays well with tons of flexibility, you'll get out in front of the incoming automation wave,  and you can maybe even have some time and energy and capital after all of this to eventually do something you like for a living that isn't actively contributing to the siphoning of wealth from the bottom to the top. I don't know.

If any of this sounds appealing to you go to Fullstack. If I sound like someone who thinks like you go to Fullstack. It’s probably the best boot camp around.

TL;DR

The education I received from Grace Hopper Academy was invaluable and provided me with the tools I needed to obtain a job in the field and progress my career. Moreover, I established very strong friendships that benefit me both personally and professionally. If I could do it again I absolutely would, but would strongly recommend managing expectations - not all aspects of this program are great.

Grace Hopper Academy:

Grace Hopper Academy is a specific cohort of the Fullstack Academy school, specifically the all women’s program. The curriculum is the same, there is often intermingling, and teachers rotate through all cohorts.

Comparison to Other Bootcamps:

I take as many opportunities as I can to speak with graduates from other programs - App Academy, General Assembly, Recurse Center, Hack Reactor, Hackbright Academy, etc. The impression I get is that Recurse Center is only a good option if you are very self-motivated, independent, and have a solid foundational knowledge. Otherwise, Hackbright Academy and Fullstack Academy / Grace Hopper seem the best options. Most feedback on others have been a bit negative.

The Curriculum:

Most bootcamps seem to focus on Python, Ruby, Javascript - usually in a mixture. Grace Hopper teaches full stack javascript, currently focusing on their "NERD" stack (Node.js, Express.js, React, and Databases using SQL). Only focusing on Javascript allows the program to do a deep dive into the language that already owns the front-end and is being increasingly adopted for back-end. I would recommend this approach to most others, but would be hard pressed to decide between Javascript and Python. 

The school takes feedback seriously when it comes to the curriculum, and are constantly aiming to keep it up to date with where the industry is going.

The depth in which computer science concepts (data structures, data types, algorithms) were covered was adequate for understanding questions in entry level interviews, and certainly provides a solid foundation from which to easily continue learning.

Teachers vary in competency, but by and large are good.  Just because they are an instructor there does not mean they are knowledgeable on everything or even good at instruction. There seems to be an issue here with a culture of, “We are here to help! But also, no one helped me so figure it out for yourself.” It can be a bit jarring. If you have made it through the process to get into this program, odds are you are not the type of personality that just wants knowledge handed to or problems solved for you. Expect this type of dismissal sometimes when raising questions, and push further when you are told to just look it up online (as if you haven’t already).

Bootcamp Prep (BCP):

Unsure of if this still exists or if the details are current: BCP's tuition rolled $350 towards the overall tuition of the program. This is a great incentive to take it. If you are coming from no background in programming or computer science, this is likely necessary at a minimum. 

The Program Schedule:

• Builders:

At the discretion of the fellow that interviews you, you may need to take Builders, the precursor to Foundations. I would recommend asking to take it either way, because it’s very useful and provides more time to get your computer set up to their specifications. This does not cost extra, but does mean that your work starts two weeks prior to Foundations.

• Foundations:

A part time, remote program which covers javascript fundamentals. If possible, I recommend treating this as full time. The better you do here and the more you understand, the easier the main program will be. If you continue to work during this, it will be manageable but hectic. This lasts 4-5 weeks. You will have time slots to ask fellows questions. I recommend utilizing these times and asking as much as possible. Some concepts may be tricky.

• Junior Phase: 

Junior phase is the first half of the program - 6 weeks. Class sizes are really big compared to when they began this program. Originally being more like 16 people, now class sizes are mid to high 30s. Most days consist of a review Q&A a half hour prior to class beginning at 10:00 AM, lecture, a solo assignment, and pair programming guided projects. The pair programming is an integral part of the curriculum, and it will be something you do every day. Focus less on finishing the project and more on understanding everything with your partner before moving on to a next step. The pairs are randomized, and you can (and should) provide feedback after each pairing. This will become relevant in Senior Phase.

Your cohort will have a handful of fellows, which are students who just graduated and circle back through the program as the next cohorts mentors. Keep this in mind for perspective on their knowledge level. Classes have two or three teachers that cycle through on different topics, so there is less rapport built with specific teachers than before when there was a pair assigned to a cohort. 

• Review week (“Async Week”): 

Depending on when your cohort begins in the year, this may be a week or a month (for example, December holidays makes this a month). This is a week you work remotely again. There is enough to do that I would recommend treating it as if school is not on break. While this entire program is very demanding of 3-4 months of your life, my perspective is to lean into it because it is so short and you should take advantage of everything. 

This week will have you working on making a boilerplate and understanding OAuth. Boilerplate will be good to understand in your future career, because projects can often jump off a stock boilerplate codebase. OAuth is pretty important to understand, so keep at it this week.

Instructors use this period to determine who will replay Junior Phase (with additional tuition charged). Two from my cohort were replays from the previous cohort and two replayed into the next cohort. Seems like 0-3 is average.

• Senior Phase: 

Junior Phase pair programming reviews and ratings come into play heavily in Senior Phase. There will be four major projects: 

------> Presentation
A video or blog post on a specific topic you researched. 

------> Grace Shopper
A week and a half e-commerce website project with a group of four. This group is based on your ratings from Junior Phase. This project incorporates MVP (Minimal Viable Product) stages and code review with instructors.

------> Stackathon
A solo project lasting a half week and weekend. Hit the ground running and ensure you have a good direction with your instructor before the weekend comes and you won’t have access to assistance. Some instructors may not have experience or knowledge of mobile development, so be careful what project you choose.

------> Capstone
A two and a half week project with a group of four. This is group is based on your ratings of all students in a survey taken after Grace Shopper. By now you may understand more the importance of doing this. You pick the technologies to use, but the more technologies you try to cram into this project, the worse off you will be - both on a technical struggle standpoint, as well as when you need to speak about your projects in interviews in the future. Hiring managers will care much more about how you attempted to solve interesting problems on an unfinished app than a super simple, shiny game built on Unity. 

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The group members for Grace Shopper and Capstone can make or break your time there, so take rating pairings seriously.

I’d recommend keeping a list of ideas and researching interesting concepts for the Presentation, Stackathon, and Capstone starting in Junior Phase (Async Week at the latest). This will allow you to have plenty of input in how these go. Moreover, Senior Phase moves very fast so the sooner you finish the Presentation - which there is no class time allotted for - the better you’ll be. I would recommend doing this in Async Week.

Almost every day is begun with a REACTO (Read back for understanding, Examples/Edgecases, Assess/Approach, Code, Test, Optimize) problem or the occasional lecture. REACTO is this school’s approach to algorithm and coding interview preparation.  You will be paired randomly with someone for a week and switch off each day on being the interviewer and the interviewee. The problems can be quite difficult, and I personally used this time to, again, focus less on finishing the problem and more on working with my partner to understand as much of it as possible. REACTOs done here are, on average, on par in difficulty that interviews provide. 

The work involved with presentation of the Capstone seems somewhat relevant to product management and pitching ideas. However, the format is off to me. You spend too much time making a video and script for a presentation as if the app you make is full, finished, and worth presenting. You will certainly never show this video to any potential employers. I would recommend focusing more on thinking and practicing (with your group) talking points on interesting code or design you used, problems you came across, how you did or would solve them, and so on.

Launch Day: 

This is a hiring day in which companies come to campus for a mini career-fair which includes both Grace Hopper and Fullstack Academy cohorts. Somewhere around 4-10 from my cohort accepted offers within two months from companies they initially met on Launch Day. It’s merely an intro, an initial point of contact. Some companies may not be hiring but come anyway. Some may be hiring in 3-6 months. Some may be hiring for other cities like Boston. Some may be only hiring customer-facing, non-technical roles. These are things to keep in mind.

The roster for this day varies, but there are strong partnerships with some that come often (American Express, JP Morgan Chase, Simon Data as examples). You are assigned to four companies and have little say in who they are. Still, there is a networking session after in which you can approach anyone. I recommend taking advantage of that, and even trying to catch someone before it starts.

Value:

Fullstack Academy: $17,910

Grace Hopper: $19,610

These are not low numbers, to be sure. Contrary to their marketing, the Grace Hopper absolutely does have upfront cost in the form of a $3,000 deposit due before beginning. The final total after graduation is somewhere around $16,600. Note that BCP tuition may be deducted here. Monthly payments after accepting an offer will be along the lines of $1,800 for nine months.

With the three (or four) months of full time commitment, $3,000 deposit, two to four months (on average) of job searching after, this is a huge investment and is out of reach for a lot of people. Sure, the tuition repayment for Grace Hopper makes it slightly easier for women to take this route, but not by much. If you cannot afford a full 10 months off without income, this probably won’t be an option for you.

The CIRR report they show is usually dated by a year or two. Cohort graduates near mine, ending in the second half of 2018, saw in the $70k - $100k range - typically ~$85k. With that result, it seems quite clear as being worth it. I do not see or hear any stories of people going through this and exiting the industry after (even after 2-5 years). I know myself, and self study would not have been nearly as adequate to set me up for success.

You’ll make an excellent network of peers and friends and have so many resources to take advantage of once you begin.

Career Counselors:

This is a good example of how parts of this program can be helpful for those with little to no experience in a certain area. If you have gone through career changes, job interviews, networking, etc. there is quite a bit here that can feel very dumbed down or a downright hinderance. Keeping the perspective in mind that they are providing a really solid framework and tools available if needed will help you not be disappointed in the lack of depth. Sometimes, there doesn’t actually need to be depth, and sometimes there is only so much they can do to help you. Which leads to the problem of expectations. Do not allow this or other bootcamp’s marketing to shape your expectations into thinking that after this program you’ll be handed a job or it will be super easy.

That said, I will reiterate that they do provide a lot of resources and framework.

There is a career counselor dedicated to you when you graduate, but they have dozens of other graduates to help as well. Still, they were relatively available.  I felt they were inconveniently unavailable the day I received an offer. Interpersonally, I felt quite disappointed with the career success staff. The habits and guidelines they propose for the job search are a great start, but should only be used if you are not actively in the interview process with one or more companies that need more attention.

Job Search: 

This will be brutal. Expect to not get an offer for at least three months. You can get lucky, you can know or meet the right person. But do not expect that you’ll stand out to any company in any way. Too many people underestimate how rough this will be, how much rejection you will face, and how long it will take to get even one offer.

Hit the ground running and have a strategy for this time period. You need quality, but you also need quantity. Those from my cohort that applied to only a couple places a month are really struggling. The career counselors have a guideline they propose for this, and I’d recommend that as a starting point. 

Another point is know what you want. You can certainly get an offer for a tech support role or a client-facing role that doesn’t actually touch any code except when they let you for half a day on Fridays. But know what you’re willing to do and what you want to do. Keep in mind that the first job is the hardest to find by far, and once you have one the next will be easier. Stepping stones.

Alumni Network:

You will certainly make strong connections in your immediate cohort. I would recommend interacting with your Seniors and Juniors to triple that exposure. There is a dedicated alumni slack workspace. 

I feel confident that the network I have established from this program will help me moving forward. Moreover, it appears that most graduates from bootcamp programs are very receptive to one another. Traditional computer science graduates are hit or miss.

This will end up being on you to be a part of the change in the industry which has its fair share of gatekeeping.

Grace Hopper Moving Forward:

Like many trade schools, this has some potential problems with lowering admission requirements and diluting the reputation in pursuit of profit. As of right now, I did not find this to be the definite case. Moreover, the impression I receive from other bootcamps is that Fullstack Academy is the best when it comes to this.

The 14 weeks onsite at FullStack were intense, challenging and very thorough  The instructors are deeply knowledgable (and very patient).    The curiculllum was clearly set out at the beginning of each phase.  Pair programming and test driven development kept things interesting daily. Workshops and test were challenging and really helped motivate me.   There are several bigger projects as you progress through the course and they really helped increase my understanding and enthusiam for software development.