Hack Reactor

Hack Reactor was an amazing experience that I continue to draw from professionally and personally. The school not only teaches you how to develop but they also provide you with job assistance. I was part of the second cohort so the curriculum and class have changed but the spirit is the same. I would recommend the experience to anyone interested in workiing in the tech industry.

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Hack Reactor is one of the greatest decisions I have made in my career. It jump started me from 0 to 60 in just three months. Great support while learning javascript as well as on the job hunt. Wouldn't have been able to do it in such a short period of time wtihout them. Love the atmosphere and culture that they have built.

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I attended Hack Reactor in January 2014 and it was one of the best educational decisions I could have made.  HR has a fantastic all around software engineering curriculum with a focus on JavaScript.  

The lecture instructors are generally very helpful and always encourage the students to stop lecture when something is not understood.  The material is a cumulative reflection of all the students that have come before and evaluated its effectiveness, so the lectures are pretty much on point with delivery and the material covered.  You will learn more about JavaScript in a few weeks than you could teach yourself in a few years, easily. 

About the curriculum:

Every morning starts out with a toy problem to work on and a solution lecture.  They are questions and problems you will see in your technical interviews. 

There are a few weeks of 2 day sprints that encompass things a full-stack engineer might use on a day to day basis.  The curriculum does, as mentioned, change frequently but I think the general outline is still that you'll learn a couple front end frameworks, databases, server-side programming, deployment, testing. The sprints are fun and will have you building or solving something new every few days.  These are usually kicked off with a quick lecture to get you familiar with what you're about to be using but not meant to give away too much.  During sprints there is a help system that students can use to get "unstuck".  Help requests are answered by a variety of people including alumni, hackers-in-residence, staff, etc. 

There are two project periods where teams of students can either go offsite and work for a client on something they need done or work on a project of their own.  This is the real meat of the course and where you will learn a ton about engineering.  This experience varies depending on who you work for, who you work with and what your project is but in my opinion, you get what you paid for during this time period.  There is no substitute for actually building something substantial.  

Hack Reactor excels in Job Assistance.  There is a period of time dedicated to it in the program.  You will have professional help on resumes, interviewing techniques, technical interview questions, and social media.  You will participate in a hiring day with some super exciting Bay Area companies (we had apple, facebook, bigcommerce, a smattering of various stage start-ups, etc..) and get a chance to have a lightning talk with them and a social event after to get your foot in the door even further with those you liked most.  Hack Reactor will also continue to help you with getting a job long after your course is done and you will be welcomed into any hiring day events if you are needing to find a new job.

At the end, you'll be in a very marketable and employable position.  Most people have jobs within a month or so of graduation, some longer or shorter than that.  

All in all, if you're even thinking about applying, do it.  Hack Reactor is a solid choice and you will definitely not regret attending.

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While some from my cohort got jobs, I was one of the unlucky who did not.  After 9 plus months of looking for a job after graduating from the program (and 500 plus applications), Hack Reactor’s career services dropped me as a serviceable concern.  I was told that they had done their best with me, but that I was now on my own.  I could tell that the woman helping me job search was forlorn when sharing the news with me…but I 💯 percent felt disposable.  I do not blame her, in fact I think she was one of the few who genuinely tried to help me job search.  What’s more (and this still don’t sit right with me, detail on that below), I was chosen to be an SEIR (part time, short term instructor) for the subsequent cohort, which I spent 3 months doing before job searching.  I thought that meant that I knew my stuff and that I would certainly find a job.  However I learned that I was not chosen as an SEIR because of my aptitude, but because management was concerned that I needed more practice or otherwise would struggle to find a job, and that hiring me as an SEIR would automatically categorize my career outcome status as “found a job within 6 months”, whether or not I actually found a software job.  It was a safeguarding move to bolster their outcome statistics.  To be clear, getting a part time short term gig at your coding school should NOT be categorized as “found a job within 6 months”.   In short, it was a convenient choice for them.  Choosing me as an SEIR meant that I would not be a liability to their graduation statistics.  Seems like the better choice for ME would have been for me to repeat part of the course, or otherwise hear something brutally honest, but they are motivated by rushing people through the machine and then spitting them out with minimal impact to their own reputation.  There were good people there, but overall I would not recommend this program or company.  Sure, plenty of people get jobs, but there are plenty of others who spent 20k and got nothing to show for it except debt, a year of lost wages, and the realization that they had been naive in trusting a greedy company that keeps the door revolving by any means necessary.  Again, I know that some people find jobs after graduating, I am not disputing that some positive reviews are real, I’m sure they are.  I just know plenty who have given up job searching after 1 year and hundreds of applications.  All I’m saying is:  assess the risk, consider whether going to a bootcamp is your best move, and please do NOT assume that you are destined to find a job as a developer or software engineer.  Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t.  Read less

I left in the first week and received a full refund. The instructors kept pushing the students to participate and collaborate.  In my first week this often ended up with students "participating" by asking questions and the instructors letting it bleed into our lesson time.  And the questions were often students getting ahead of themselves and the answer would come later in the course (we're only in the first week!) The lead eventually said sometimes asking "Why?" gets in the way of productivity.  But still they let us ask and we ended up running out of time in our lesson.  After the lesson is a 15-minute break and the junior instructor was offering to stay to finish teaching us but the lead instructor insisted they have their break.  OK, so you can eat up 15 minutes of our class time but God forbid your precious break!  I think it's up to the instructor to set limits for both breaks and lesson times equally.

Another bone to pick with the participation.  They kept splitting us into groups of 3/4 for each lesson.  I hadn't had a chance to be with everyone, but tell me why I get put in the same group as a guy 4 times the first week in class -- once on the first day and THREE times on my last day? And having been with this man for three straight groups on my final day, it was disgusting to see him change personalities depending on who was in the group.  Seems from what I hear they vote for who gets to be a SEIR, and I believe them!  Everyone who had the opportunity to speak with my cohort that first week said the same narrative of you should ask questions, you should talk.  I agree, but when I have learned and can collaborate on that knowledge.  The first week should be to learn. Read less

As a former student of the Hack Reactor 19-week Bootcamp, I found that the program had some significant flaws. While I found the curriculum to be challenging and informative, the classroom experience was often chaotic and disorganized. One of the biggest issues I encountered was the sheer number of students in the program. With so many people vying for the instructors' attention, it was challenging to get the support and guidance I needed to succeed. While the instructors were willing to help when they could, there simply weren't enough of them to provide individual attention to every student. Unfortunately, this lack of personalized support left me feeling overwhelmed and frustrated at times. I often struggled to keep up with the fast-paced curriculum and found myself falling behind my peers. Despite my best efforts, I sometimes felt like I wasn't making progress or getting the feedback I needed to improve. Overall, I believe that the instructors at the Hack Reactor Coding Bootcamp are knowledgeable and dedicated to their craft. However, the sheer number of students in the program made it challenging for them to provide the individual attention and support that many of us needed to succeed. If you are considering this program, be prepared to be self-motivated and ready to do a lot of self-studying. Read less

I did the 19-week BootCamp with Hack Reactor/ Galvanize and it was pretty mediocre.- module 1 was quite useful, learned a lot about python and django - also the lecturers were decentbuilt a CRUD todos app using django in the backend - looked pretty bare bones- module 2 - changed to new lecturers- lectures were absolutely horrid and abominable - some of the lecturers didn't really know their material, the explorations were not concise and terribly structured - at this point, the seirs ( students from previous cohorts hired to help/increase their employment numbers - were somewhat helpful ) - explorations were poorly written and a lot of members in my cohort were struggling - practically worked as a group to learn the materialmodule 3 - seirs ( student TAs from previous cohorts - aid was nonexistent) - new lecturers - same as before - horrid bland lectures that didn't benefit students -basically you working on a project for 5 weeksI was appalled at the quality of career services - forcing you to lie on your resume and come up with false numbers to make your resume "better"To make matters worse for the next seirs they hired, they based on people's votes and votes from previous instructors. One of the seirs they hired and I kid you not, set up camp hogging the sier's time. When they would be done and asked to leave, they would jump to the next seir room.The majority of the time, I was forced to see other materials to supplement my learning. TBH, this program is absolutely garbage, save your money and just work on udemy videos because that's basically what you'll have to do. Read less

I, like many other people, joined this bootcamp because I researched the internet and read that Hack Reactor was one of the better bootcamps. I was wary of them prior, but I really wanted to escape my current career and I was motivated. After finishing this course, I have to say that I would NEVER recommend this bootcamp to anyone. The instructors are poor, inept, and are terrible at communication. They lecture you for about 2 hours a day and then leave you to your own devices for the rest of the day. They don't respond in a timely manner even though they aren't really doing much behind the scenes. The lectures are disjointed, off-topic, and I learned way more just looking online for tutorials. Hack Reactor's quality is not what it once was and it will continue to be worse and worse. Please don't be one of those people that get fooled by their brand name. Go learn coding somewhere else. Read less

I went to HR in 2021 for the online Software Engineering course as someone who was new to the industry. In my opinion, HR knew that I wasn't ready and still let me attend because either way, I signed the contract and I'd have to pay them. Anyway, here are a few good things that I remember while I was there. The material that you are going to be working through is solid and VERY tough. They give you about a month to go through JS fundamentals before you start the program. If you're new to programming, 1 month is a pretty short amount of time to learn JS fundamentals, DOM manipulation, jQuery, recursion, and so much more. If I had to do it again, I would learn all of the material before even starting the precourse. I really did like the precourse and the instructors there were very helpful. The actual program is a completely different monster and from day one you either sink or swim. My instructor was not really an instructor but did try very hard to teach me things. Unfortunately, I was sinking and they he it. I asked for help from their helpdesk and remember a time that one of them laughed at me out of the zoom breakout room because I didn't really know what I was doing. Screw that guy, I was new to programming and all helpdesk should have better people skills. The instructors or SEIRs had contradicting advice at times or just would flat-out lie about things. You really felt like you were drinking the Kool-Aid when they asked you to "trust the process". Every time I reached out to someone to let them know that I was struggling, I felt like they were documenting more reasons to just let me go from the program. Spoiler, that's exactly what they did. I also had fellow students who were drinking, smoking their vapes, or just straight-up cheating. One of my classmates literally had someone who was a software engineer at Reddit come in and "help" solve what we were working on. This guy just solved the problem and was the final nail in the coffin for me because I learned nothing that day. The worst week of all was what me and other students called "The React week". The staff accidentally gave us a repo that was not the introductory to React repo that they were supposed to give us. We had to build out an entire front-end app for a YouTube clone on DAY ONE?? Overall, it felt like they lost control of the cohort and it was complete chaos. It was too much for about 6 of us who were let go from the program and left with a bill of almost 9k to pay. Going to HR was a terrible experience, but I love software engineering and continued to grow since then. I've since gone to another Bootcamp and loved every minute of it. I'm currently working as a front-end engineer and couldn't be happier, but I really needed to put this behind me. I wish the best to anyone who read this and hope that HR has improved since my time there. Read less

This program was very intense and definitely not for everyone. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the fast-paced environment, the instructors, the staff, and my cohort mates. I was surprised with how much I learned in such a short amount of time and was very happy with where I was in my software engineering journey at the end of it. Read less

6 months ago I was a bartender earning minimum wage plus tips, struggling to get more than 25+ hours per week, with no prospects beyond a lifetime of service jobs and financial precarity.
I just got a job for a multinational with the title of Software Engineer, receiving wages that amount to $120K per year.

The intervening time was taken up by the Hack Reactor Software Engineering Immersive and the Hack Reactor SEI Resident program, where I learned, then taught what I had just learned. The 3 months of the program were some of the hardest in my life, and I spent the subsequent 3 months as a resident complementing what I had learned with new skills (React Native, GraphQL, etc...), toy problems and working on my own projects where I implemented those skills.

The Job Search Program that follows graduation is extremely useful for keeping you accountable, and in particular Career Services Manager Kevin is a beautiful human being who helped me prepare my job search materials and gave me the confidence boost I needed to apply to positions I didn't feel I was ready for.

I got a job offer within a month of graduating from the residency program.

My experience is not necessarily representative, this is one of those things where you get out what you put in, but I can't recommend it enough. Read less

I went into Hack Reactor Software Engineer Immersive Program with little to no experience in coding. I decided a new career path was for me. I met not only a lot of great and fantastic instructors but also, learned to work within groups of other individuals from all over the country. Within 3 months of graduating and with the Job Assistance from my career coach, I am now a Software Engineer and starting down my career as a Software Engineer.  Read less

The staff accused my husband of being disrespectful in communication with collaborators. During the virtual meeting, the staff continued saying that my husband didn't understand their words he had a language problem. My husband is a Ph.D. candidate and he got 320 on his GRE test, when he was being discriminated by the staff, he was furious. Then, they accused my husband again of being disrespectful. He felt that he cannot show his anger toward racist comments and attitudes. After the conversation, the staff demanded he to sign a form to let him make sure there will be no further report of disrespect and dismissiveness, otherwise he will be kicked out of the program. My husband is not willing to sign this document because he doesn't believe the staff who are racist can make the right judgment.   Read less

I have joined hack reactor Premium Prep course. And what I have learned is that. It is basically you are going to be talking with people at you one level of understanding and fight through the challenges and problems they give you. You will have the option to talk to a specialist about your problems and it could take up to 24h for them to respond. The way they work is just talking in front of a camera everyone is muted and after an hour they say bye and that is it. In the middle of their immersive program, you will be evaluated with an interview, and if you do not pass you will lose your spot. best case scenario you start the immersive from the beginning. I wud think you will be on the hook for the 25k if you are using ISA even if you are kicked off. Another thing that is very strange is that they say that the cohorts are around 300 people but when you look at their stats for graduates they have only 50.
where are those 250 people with ISA contracts going?  Read less

Hack Reactor was the perfect environment to learn as much as possible in the shortest amount of time. It is a boot camp in every sense of the word. You will be pushed to your limits, given assignments that seem impossible, and come out transformed. I have nothing but positive things to say about the program. The course material is fantastic, the sprints are well designed, the tech stack is industry-relevant and the projects teach real-world development methodologies.

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I quit my job as a healthcare consultant and enrolled in Hack Reactor with the goal of securing a job as a software engineer. While the cirriculum was only 3 months, I spent a few months preparing for the admissions interview before it started, and another month looking for a job after it ended. I didn't have a strong background in web development, and found that the in-person immersive program helped me learn the material faster than if I had done part-time or remote. The cirriculum is intense, but there's plenty of support from instructors, classmates, and career coaches to get you through the program if you're willing to put in the work.

I knew some folks that completed bootcamps around the same time, and I think what set my experience apart was the career support after the program had ended. Hack Reactor isn't just focused on teaching you software engineering fundamentals and web development best practices.They truly emphasize the job search process as another crucial part of the cirriculum.

My career coach Marlene helped me throughout every step of the way, from resume/linkedin review, to managing my application/interview metrics, and setting up mock interviews before phone screens and on-sites. She was available 24/7 to answer any questions, motivate me to send out applications, and help me negotiate a $10k salary increase for the offer I secured 4 weeks after graduation. What I appreciated the most, was that she made me apply to senior positions that I didn't believe I was qualified for (even though I was). She helped me land my dream job!

The outcomes team takes their job very seriously, and they'll expect you to do the same. I wasn't one of the strongest engineers in my cohort, but I had one of the best outcomes because of the incredible career support.

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The experience at Hack Reactor @ Galvanize will be one that I will never forget. From the instructors to the course material, supporting staff members to the campus, every aspect of this program came together to offer a supportive, learning enironvment essential to building the skills needed to code and become future developers. 

On top of learning how to build apps, I've made life-long friendships/mentors, and developed soft skills that will help me in my journey. I am very grateful I was offered the opporunity to learn thru this program.

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I was skeptical about coding bootcamps at first, but after Hack Reactor @ Galvanize, I saw for myself why it was such a highly-rated program.

One of my greatest personal takeaways from the program was how it fundamentally changed my outlook on learning, and really stretched the boundaries of what I previously thought was attainable. It still surprises me, up till today, how much I've managed to achieve in such a short amount of time. I can say with confidence that the curriculum preps you well in terms of technical skills, personal growth, and the job search that comes thereafter.

I think the outcomes of the program speak for themselves. I have finally secured a job I've only dreamed of in the past and my only regret is not taking the plunge sooner!

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