General Assembly

Personally I found the format for General Assembly's web development immersive extremely effective. The number of hours committed as part of the course forces you to focus on nothing but learning, or levelling up, your web development skills. However it's not just brute force transfer of information via presentation. In having a mixture of taught lessons to cover new topics, exercises in the afternoon to put that new found knowledge to work (and the chance to talk with teachers 1 to 1), and individual assignments in the evening to further practice & cement a concept.

Curriculum wise I think the areas covered are well chosen and have an appropriate bias to the real life skills you'll need as a software developer. One area I think could be improved is bringing testing in earlier - and give time to showing real examples of TDD from scratch - not just the concepts.

The teachers on my course are knowledgeable in their field, a great bunch to spend time with, and made themselves available to help students. GA is also a fun place to be. There are always interesting people around to chat with, when you have the time!

Enrolling in a course at General Assembly was arguably the decision that has had the quickest impact on my life. I had zero experience with tech outside of being an avid consumer of the Internet and its depths. The curriculum was well-suited to someone without prior knowledge. It does assume that you have the desire to learn, however. Most of the criticism I have heard is from those that were under the false impression that the course would make them experts at web development without any sort of effort on their part. This is not the case. For me, this was an important component of General Assembly - the course and its instructors showed me what was possible and through the projects, I was able to build my confidence to the point where I believed that I could build anything. That was true much before I believed it, though. General Assembly and its network of alumni, students and instructors imbued me with the confidence I needed to recover from what seemed like failures but were really just adjustments to my journey. I would recommend (and have done so) enrolling a course at General Assembly if you are serious about changing your career or adding valuable skills to your tool kit.

I graduated from the Web Development Immersive at General Assembly (campus Melbourne) and couldn't be more delighted. Course was relevant, fast-paced, well structured and it really taught me more than I could possibly imagine that I could learn in such a short time. The staff and the teachers at GA are the most amazing as well! Two weeks after the graduation I landed my first job as a junior developer. This course changed my life so I would be happy to recommend it to anyone - it will be the best decision of your life.

My background was computer science degree with a heavy emphasis on theory and not alot of web development. I had learned the basics of Ruby on rails through books but the course helped me understand fully the language and framework. The instructors were very helpful, passionate about coding and always available for help online or in person. The communication they used with Slack was extremely convenient. The course was fast paced and just as they instructors advised before starting, it needed to be done at a time in your life when not too much else was demanding. My only suggestion would have been to either add 2 more weeks to the course or subtract something in the beginning that was less important. The projects were challenging and went right along with the course material. The last few weeks of course were a tad bit rushed but I was so proud the last day of class when I stood and presented my application and it worked. It wasn't the prettiest but it indeed worked and I came up with each creative idea on my own. Definitely a good experience and I'd recommend to any other beginner or even intermediate developer.

Before starting General Assembly's full-time Web Development Immersive course I was a journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 

I'd taken an interest in data visualisation, and knew a little bit of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. But I didn't know enough to confidently use code in my day-to-day life as a digital journalist. I simply couldn't learn fast enough in my spare time, or without a classroom environment where I could ask for help.   I knew the course was expensive, and would require me to take unpaid leave from the ABC. But I'd spoken to a few graduates who assured me that it was worthwhile - that once graduating, I'd be able to code and use my new skills to be a better digital journalist.    I eventually decided to take the plunge. I built a little website on why online journalists should learn to code and pitched it to the ABC. They gave me unpaid leave, and $5,000 towards the cost of the course.    But about six weeks into the 12 week course, I resigned from the ABC.   I was having the time of my life. I had met an amazing group of people. My eyes had been opened to the tech industry. I was coding day and night, barely sleeping, running on caffeine and chocolate, but absolutely loving life. My instructor Joel Turnbull was incredibly talented - and hilarious. I loved every bit of the content that we covered. The General Assembly staff were amazing.   I made the decision to resign because I knew that in order to continue progressing my coding skills, I would need to be coding full-time, rather than trying to code on top of my usual day-to-day journalist responsibilities. I also wanted to be in a supportive environment where I could pair program and be mentored by a senior.   It didn't take me long to find my first job as a developer with a company called ansarada. During the course we studied Ruby on Rails and JavaScript. At ansarada I'm a back end developer writing C# and SQL. I've kept up my front-end skills on the side, and in a few weeks time I'll be moving to London to start a new job as a software engineer with Twitter.   Doing WDI and changing careers from journalism to web development was the best decision of my life. The tech community is like no other, and I'm so happy to be part of it. 

As a designer and in this modern world I needed to get my skills involved with web. I signed up for the 10-week part time course after following one of the one day workshops - 'Code in a Day'. Working full-time the night classes suited me just fine and only 2 classes a week was good, as it did not overwhelm me. Straight off the bat the course layout was great, pre-work that with a video tutorial took you through the basics steps and as each class progressed we would always relate back to what we learnt earlier to keep it refreshed in our brains. The pace was good and even when I personally fell a bit behind or had difficulty the instructors were quick to help and very understanding. Having materials accessible online is a huge benefit for at home studying and using 'Stack' as a communication source was resourceful. All in I've finish the 10 weeks confident, all be it not a pro of course, to continue on with my own studies and update my resume to include web skills. It’s real world knowledge and skills for the real world workers.

A little disclaimer - I continued to work at GA after my graduation as an Instructional Associate. I imagine this makes me slightly biased.

What the Web Dev Immersive course does is prepare students to become junior developers. This is something it does very well. The course focuses on Ruby (especially Rails) on the backend and HTML, CSS and Javascript (JQuery and some Angular) on the frontend.

The thing that I found most rewarding about GA's program was the accessibility of the instructional team and other support staff. This, coupled with our small class size, really helped me improve my skills rapidly and really get to know my classmates. In fact, I recently finished a freelance job in collaboration with one of those guys. It was a fantastic experience.

Finally, it is probably pertinent for me to add that as with all similar courses, you get out of the program what you put in. Students really get an opportunity to expand their skillset beyond what is in the syllabus if they choose to do so. In my time as Instructional Associate, and as a student, I really saw the difference passion and commitment can make in a program like this one.

I'm currently working in Hong Kong as a developer, taking full advantage of the geographically transferable skills that I now possess.

The User Experience Design Immersive Program was intensive and covered most of the common practices in the industry, it was more than good to prepare students for the real world experience. I would not say that the modules were completely thorough or in depth but you could not ask for more from a 10 week program. You have to do a lot of studying at your own time. Having said that, you will not believe what you accomplish in that short span. I enjoyed every bit of it. I enjoyed the pace, I loved the intensity of the course, the speed the programs were planned through the weeks, the culture they have created throughout the campus that made me feel so comfortable with everyone. We learned various techniques, we explored useful resources, we learnt to use multiple softwares, tools and applications. Our instructors were very supportive throughout the program and they guided us every step of the way. Moreover, the experience of being at General Assembly Seattle was amazing. From the moment you walk in that front door; the frontliners, the course producers, the instructors, career coaches and all the other students just make you feel as if you've been running the same race and there is no end to it. Perseverance, Determination, Confidence & Commitment are the tools that will get you through this course. 

So happy with the GA User Experience Design Immersive program in Seattle. The staff and instructors are fantastic people to work with. They have a lot of expertise to offer. The course is a major full time learning commitment but through the hands on projects and close advising of the instructors I feel I've gained more UX experience in 10 weeks than I thought would be possible. Also working with a great group of committed students helped me make some invaluable connections. Give it your all, you'll be thrilled by what you've learned, what you can do, and what is possible at the end of the 10 weeks in this program. 

I've taken several bootcamp classes and workshops, and am currently 6 weeks into the Digital Marketing Part Time program. The bootcamp classes are crash corses into a particular subject such as Google Analytics and Google AdWords tought by people who actually do this for a living! Well planned, really good use of my limited personal time, and tons of additional resources so you can continue to practice the tools and continue learning and fine tuning once class is done. I love the weekend bootcamp classes, even though they are during the summer. 

The Digital Marketing 10-week course is a great deal of information that is relevant to today's tech jobs! If you look up descriptions for digital marketing jobs you'll see a vast majority of these skills and tools you need that's covered in this course. I highly recommend. Pre-work and homework solidifies what you learn and additional resources are provided with each class. My instructors Kim and Quison are amazing, down to earth and very willing to put up with tons of questions! 

I browse General Assembly's website a few times a week to see what new classes and workshops and events they have that I can use to build my professional skillset. And gotta love the brain boosting oatmeal and constant hot coffee and tea on each of their floors. (super clean fridges and mini-kitchens too!)

I took the part-time Data Science course in the summer of 2014, and it changed my life for the better. As a non-programmer, I spent a significant time preparing for the class by doing all the pre-course work. I highly recommend it as the students that appeared to struggle in the class clearly didn't have any foundation in Python and hadn't completed all the tutorials. I really immersed myself in the projects and assignments, and came out of the class with a really strong foundation in Python and machine learning techniques. My teachers were supportive and found ways for me to encourage exploring beyond the course material. At the end of the class, I still might not have considered myself truly "proficient" in Python or machine learning, but I definitely got all the information I needed to self-learn. I think that is the true indicator of a good introductory course -- that you have a high level of confidence that you can continue learning on your own. All in all, I highly recommend and the GA space / environment / people are very warm and welcoming.

The Web Development Immersive class at General Assembly was a life-changer for me—this despite the fact that I'm already well down life's road. ; - ) Actually, it's no doubt because I'm beyond the average student age that I was able to take it all so seriously, and take so much from it. 

Granted, I did somewhat cherry-pick my favorite parts of coding—i.e., JavaScript, HTML, and CSS—but doing so was all to the good. Having a wide expanse of offerings during the three-month WDI class afforded me the opportunity to see where my interests and background were best suited, so that my nascent skills could grow in the right garden.

The GA campus itself is wonderfully conducive to learning; and the administrators are knowledgable, hardworking, and delightfully friendly. (BTW, I don't have any stars for Job Assistance yet because I have yet to take advantage of this service.)

As someone who'd spent about 3 years self-learning programming as a hobby, knew I wanted to transition to software/web development as a career, but didn't have much exposure to web development, the Web Development Immersive course put me in a position to capitalize on the great opportunity it presented. The curriculum was packed with useful exercises and well taught lessons by instructors that understood what they were teaching and were always willing to help ensure students had all the help they needed. Because this course covers so much information in a short time, it requires hard work to pay close attention, study and research to make sure you understand topics at a micro level. Understanding and completing exercises the right way is key to success; taking shortcuts is not advised. The multiple programming challenges each week were super helpful to hone programming chops while also further imprinting the content learned. Outcomes was great throughout and provided useful resources and advice on how to approach the job search/interview process. The GA employees I encountered (not limited to instructors) were super nice and left me feeling that they are good people. The course producer and instructors were always eager to listen to any constructive feedback given so that they can improve for current/future courses. Overall, I'd classify my experience in the Web Development Immersive as being excellent.

I am currently a product manager. I took the class to be more effective in my role, understand the products I'm working on better, and have fun on the side being able to build my own websites.

The class gave me those things and more. I refer to what I learned when talking to our engineering team about a feature, or when talking to our customers who are also Front End engineers.

Also, my instructors and classmates were impressive and I enjoyed getting to know them. I am still friends with one of the instructors. 

Interesting mix of backgrounds which made for great discussions in class. Awesome experience - thanks GA.

TL:DR - An epic summer, it was a great 3 months and i became a web developer. It was difficult, it was intense, at times stressful, but ultimately a lot of fun. And, i left with a job at a great startup in London's tech sector.

I chose General Assembly because the people were open, honest, were great teachers, very skilled developers and fun to be around. You'll be working there for 3months, fulltime, so you've got to enjoy it. 

It was a very hands-on course and focused on building good websites.  We started, from day one, using tools and techniques I now use on a daily basis as a web developer. There were computer science fundmentals, how to write good ruby and javascript code, and how to use modern tools to create complex websites. We learnt all of it because we actually created websites (and these were our portfolios to get a job).

General Assembly also put a huge amount of effort into giving students the best learning environment. There are tutors to help students in the evenings, after classes. There are experienced teachers, all of whom are active developers and know the latest technologies. And, their community is massive; you will gain a lot of contacts.

After much research and consideration I joined the GA WDI course in London in Spring 2014.  The course was incredibly intense - but we had a great set of teachers, an in class teaching assistant and past students who came by in the evenings to help out with homework. There was a huge amount to cover and it was intellectually and emotionally challenging - but there was always someone there to offer feedback or hear my and other students thoughts on the course. The work itself was interesting and there were different levels so that you could always push yourself to the limit.  The classes were a mixture of lectures, follow along coding sessions and free coding in groups of students.  Every day and weekend was finished off with homework which helped cement the days knowledge. The course did a great job of covering the skills necessary to get a job.

I had a great three months and still catch up with other students.  Since the course my career has gone very well. GA helped provide connections and meeting with companies hiring as well as tips on how to write a cv, perform in an interview and negotiate salary. These all helped getting the first job.  Even better was that there was help and advice on hand at any point.  Even after graduating they were around to offer tips and help students change jobs if they needed. I’m on my second job and am continuing to progress.

The course changed my career and life and to pay back I go back regularly to talk to past students and to help out where I can.  I can highly recommend GA WDI in terms of the people, the instructors and the overall quality.

While I did the course I wrote a blog and have followed that up with regular posts about my career and where I have got to which might be interesting for future students: http://mikemjharris.tumblr.com/