Hack Reactor

If you're reading this, you're probably where I was 5 months ago. Trying to decide whether or not to enroll in a software engineer bootcamp and deciphering which one to pick. Well lucky for you, I can answer both those questions (see tldr).

Why did I choose Hack Reactor?

I did my due diligence. I reached out to my network, talked to friends in industry who referred me to bootcamp grads they know or work with. The majority of bootcampers I talked with were HR alumni, and had nothing but good things to say about the program. And a number of those HR graduates were now working at FAANG companies. Will HR get you a job at a FAANG company? Maybe. But my main takeaway from those conversations + now as an alumni myself, is that HR will give you the tools to be able to work anywhere you want and that is why I initially chose Hack Reactor and recommend you do too.

Loan vs ISA? 

I chose the loan route because of the "relatively" (lol) low interest rate on the loan (dec 2020). Most people in my cohort chose the ISA route. The ISA program is an awesome program (basically start paying back your tuition after landing a job in industry) and definitely a a great option. My advice, do the math. Figure out your total cost for the ISA vs a loan w/ interest, what your monthly payments will be, then weigh the pros and cons based on your situation. HR has partnerships with 2 different companies that make applying & getting accepted for a loan very easy (cosigner options available for those with little/no credit as well). I chose SkillsFund, and after being accepted for the loan they paid my tuition to HR directly, and I never had to worry about a thing.

The pros (listing things I think set HR apart from other programs)

• Interview prep - technical & behavioral, you'll know how to walk the walk, & they'll teach you how to talk the talk too.
• Career Services + Job Search Program (thanks Marah). Coaching on how to network, how to get referrals, how write a technical resume + cover letter, plus a program after the program to help you on your job search. A network of alumni who regularly post job opportunities at great companies + are potential networking opportunities. (I just attended a private info session with a former HR grad who works at Twitch).
• Hands-on practice for a real work environment. Pair programming, agile team environment, tickets, stand-ups, sprints etc. And all of these hone the soft skills you need for any workplace.
• Help Desk + Faculty. Each cohort has designated staff that are available during working hours + often times before and after. Shoutout to Hilary, Julian, Eric, Johnathon, Anthony, & Matthew <3 IN ADDITION, you also get Help Desk, basically a tool to schedule office hours with staff from across every HR campus. 1 on 1 help during the times you get stuck. And i mean it's fuckin fast. I think the longest I ever waited for someone to pick up my help desk request was 5 or 10 minutes. So you get great personalized guidance (technical & non technical) with you local staff, plus the ability to get 1 on 1 technical help from smart people across the country @ a moments notice.
• The program + curriculum itself it as well oiled machine. Lectures, sprints, projects all compound on each other, reinforcing concepts while introducing new ones at the same time. They teach HOW to learn, not just WHAT to learn, and that framework is extremely valueable.

The con (there's only 1 and it's my opinion so I will explain)

My only "con" would be that I personally felt like there wasn't enough focus on solo projects. Out of the entire 13 week program there was only one, dedicated two-day solo project, and one more "group" project that you could pass off as solo work on a portfolio. Now you can and will come out with plenty of project experience, and a number of GROUP projects you COULD put on your portfolio. However, in my opinion, the inclusion of group projects on your portfolio can open you up to some potential risk in the job search. Can you directly pinpoint the things you built on each project and justify why decisions by other team members were made? What if members of your group wrote really dogshit code? Do you want on your portfolio / github for a potential employer to see & immediately "no" pile you because of someone else's code? What happens if you get in an interview and are asked the question, "Why is this on your personal portfolio if you didn't create it by yourself?" or "Why is a certain part of this (that you didn't write) project done this way?" These are all things you will need to able to justify, and talk about in an interview. I'm not saying you can’t or shouldn’t include your group projects on your portfolio, or that "my way" is the right way. There plenty of people who include only their group projects on their portfolios. Just giving you my opinion and transparency. The takeaway, build something you like on the side, so when you graduate, you have something more to show than just group projects. That’s the great thing about Hack Reactor, by the end, if you can dream it you can build it.

If you made it this far congrats. I highly recommend Hack Reactor to anyone who is seriously considering it. It's by no means easy, but neither is being a Software Engineer, which is why they get paid big bucks right? But seriously, Hack Reactor will take you from zero to hero in 13 weeks if you put the work in.

In the middle of covid I made the decision to change careers after investing 5 years and a masters degree into my previous career.  Obviously I did not make this decision lightly.  I had a friend who went through Hack Reactor and he highly recommended it.  He also warned there is little hand holding and they pride themselves on churning out autonomous, gritty but team-oriented software engineers.  Four months from starting at Hack Reactor I was able to secure my dream job as a full-stack software engineer making $100,000 per year, already a higher salary than I was making in my previous career!  I highly recommend Hack Reactor and they have a Job Search Program when you are done with the immersive to help get you that job!

Great curriculum, especially the first phase of the immersive. The process involved:
-a pre-course section about programming-basics that lasted about a month (at $250, it's the best-priced prep-course you'll find in all the boot camps)
-a self-study section (1 month-long) once you were accepted
-a first phase of the immersive (6 weeks) split between the javascript specifics & coding some small apps 
-a second phase of the immersive (6 weeks) containing three big projects (an e-commerce page, a cloud infrastructure,  and a student-chosen project)
-a job-search preparation-week (setting up resumes, cover letters, etc.)
-a job-search support program (up to 21 weeks) containing talks & tech-interview-prep sessions.

During all of the preparation phase and the immersive, you have access to a helpdesk (generally composed of graduates) 6 days a week, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

Downsides/reproaches:
-The immersive program gives introductory tech-lectures at the beginning of every new sprint. Some of the dry-extract of the lectures can be very light on the content, with guest lecturers sometimes showing up without notes and just reacting to what they see on their slides. Though this doesn't take away from the rest of the program, I often left the lectures feeling hungry for more.
-the e-commerce-page project was too long and could have benefitted from concept-recaps. This is the only section in which we were left unsupported, which resulted in us being unable to complete the last section of the project. My cohort complained, and afaik the staff is updating the curriculum to fix the issue. 

To sum it up:
 At $19k, you're actually getting a lot more than just three months of training. On top of the tech skill, I feel like I came out of the program with a strong ability to autonomously figure out new tech in time-stressed environments, and I'm confident I'll be able to find a job in the upcoming weeks. 
I recommend Hack Reactor whole-heartedly and would take it again without hesitation. That being said, put your seatbelts on, and keep in mind that this program can't work without you giving it your 200%.

Like many people during the Covid-19 pandemic, I wanted to pick up a new skill to fill up my time. I slowly started picking up some Javascript and thought "Hey, maybe I can change careers with this route". I took Hack Reactor's Pre Course program which is free in order to gain some more knowledge and eventually tested into their Full-Time Software Engineering Immersive Program. With the amount of skills that I picked up in the pre course, I thought the program wouldn't be too difficult and I was wrong about that.

The immersive program was by far the most challenging program that I've been to, and the most fulfilling one that I've gotten the pleasure of accomplishing. If you asked me at the beginning of the program what a data structure was, or how could you scale a full-stack application, I wouldn't be able to answer you at all. Through those twelve weeks, I've learned many things about myself, and with the support from my cohort mates, technical mentors, technical lead, and pretty much all staff that I've encountered during my time at Hack Reactor, they've helped make it possible for me to grow into the software engineer that I can be proud of. 

Not only does Hack Reactor dive deep into the programming world, but they also help prepare you for job search by introducing networks and dedicating an entire week to prepare you for the next step after graduation. And for that, I am grateful that I suddenly came across this program and decided to stick with it. 

All in all, if you're someone who likes a challenge everyday for a 12-weeks/40hr-week program, Hack Reactor is the one for you. 

Hack Reactor provides just enough guidance while still allowing students to be curious and autonomous. You will learn certain concepts by completing two-day projects/sprints during the junior phase. During the senior phase you are put into teams and are tasked with completing 3 capstone projects. These projects put you in a simulated work environment that allows students to self-organize and get hands on experience with agile software development with limited guidance. I made the decision to switch careers and started learning JavaScript about 6 months before I started the immersive and I'm amazed at how much I've learned from the program. They did a great job of covering not only technical skills, but soft skills as well. The staff are wonderful and very much invested in your development and success.

I attended HR in 2018 at their SF campus. It was an experience for sure. I did not come from a CS background but had some experience doing QA at a small web dev shop. I will say that if you can / are willing to put in the time, Hack Reactor will support you. They will not hold your hand the entire time or even half that, but they will give you the resources and more importantly (at least in my case) the community to help you best leverage those resources. There was a common joke at the time that all of us had migrated to SF from far away places and paid a large amount of money to just sit in a room and struggle for 3 months. What that experience taught me is how to communicate thoughts to others in a relatable way, how to ask the right questions not only of others but also to google, and how to learn things quickly. I think these things are some of the most important skills that you can have going into the tech industry. HR will tell you to ask questions if you don't understand something, please do me a favor and listen to them when they say that. There is honestly no better space I've yet found to feel so comfortable not knowing the answer. 

At least when you're in person, the additional resources after you complete HR are incredibly noteworthy. At the SF campus, I could schedule mock interviews with other students and instructors, talk to career coaches, and get inspired to keep pushing as many of my cohortmates were also searching out of the base of operations that was located at the galvanize campus. 

I will not lie and say that it is easy. Sure it'll be easier for some, but not so much for others. I am others. I spent the next six months after graduating, juggling work and a job search in a foreign and expensive city with no contacts other than classmates. And I ended up finding work not in SF. It was a draining process. But I have to say it was worth it in the end once I'd finally accomplished what I'd set out to do. 

Enter 2020, I lost my first job to a reorganization and was back on the search in the middle of the pandemic. There is a whole network of people that I was able to contact via a HR alumni's slack group and an extremely talented alumni career coach that put me in touch with some alumni for interviews. When I finally was in the final stages of my negotiations with another company that same career coach gave excellent advice on how to properly negotiate for what I needed from my new employer. 

All in all, I think it's a worthwhile investment, but by no means is it a guarantee of success in a particular amount of time.

I went to Hack Reactor Remote Beta in the fall of 2015. I had no coding background and it was one of the hardest, and most rewarding things I've done. We worked 6 days a week, 11+ hours a day (a lot more during project phase). I graduated in December of 2015 and became a Hacker in Residence for a few months before starting my job search. I was able to land a job in about 2 months. 

When I came on the job, I expected it to be just like Hack Reactor, long days, very heads down. What I realized though, was that Hack Reactor made doing my job very easy. Since I was used to working so hard and having to solve unknown issues quickly to make it through, getting in on my first corporate job was pretty smooth sailing. I felt confident that whatever they gave me, I could figure out. It is still like that to this day. The skills I learned at Hack Reactor have translated into every area of my life!

I went from working menial jobs to a high paid software career extremely quickly and I'm so grateful. My career coach was amazing, the community of alumni is amazing, and I would recommend to anyone looking to get into the field quickly. You can absolutely learn on your own, but I found that the instruction and community was top notch and gave me a leg up on the job.

Hack Reactor was one of the most life-changing experiences of my life for the relationships I made and the life lessons it taught me. I joined Hack Reactor after the start of a successful career as a Management Consultant, and I already had a degree in Computer Science from a highly selective college. There was something that told me I just needed a life-change. 

What I found was really the most talented group of peers I ever come across. My cohort and the neighboring cohorts had some of the brightest people I met in my life coming from all walks of life. This diversity really pushed me to form great relationships that turned into life-long friendships and valuable career connections. This was my favorite part because my relationships with the staff (Marlene Tang and Blake) and my peers are the most valuable thing to me.

For a curriculum, I felt that HR taught me everything I needed to know to be a full-stack software engineer. It gave a high-profile startup in the autonomous car & IoT industry the confidence to make me their first software engineering hire, where I built the MVP for their fleet management app: the company now has a private valuation over $1B.

As I mentioned above, I also made lasting relationships with the staff Blake and Marlene Tang. Marlene looked out for everything and held people to be accountable to what they said they were going to do. Her care for each student is reflected in how much we all love her, and she is a driving force in keeping the alumni group together. 

While I only spent a short stint of my career as a software engineer, before moving onto Product and Founder, Hack Reactor was one of the most memorable experiences of my life and changed my already charmed life for the better.

I attended the Hack Reactor in-person software engineering immersive in late 2017, graduating in January 2018 and it was one of the best choices I ever made. At a high level: I got quality instruction, made lifelong friendships, and prepared to start in a brand new industry. Let's break it down:

The Challenges:

1. Programming is not for everyone. If you're looking at attending a bootcamp to get into the industry, so that you can make lots of money, then think again. Not everyone who graduates gets a job and not everyone who gets a job makes a huge salary, especially at first. Also, coding is a mind-numbing job if you don't already love it. If the prospect of spending days figuring out a tricky bug doesn't fill you with delight and excitement, this isn't the career for you.

2. Bootcamps are not for everyone. Learning at a bootcamp is like drinking from a firehose. You get a ton of information in a very short period of time and you have to do your best to slot it into your mental model at an insane speed. If you're the kind of person who needs to read every word in a book or understand every single line in a program before you're comfortable moving on, then this is not the kind of learning for you. You might do better with a part time program or courses through a university or community college. A full time bootcamp will cram a year or more of information into your brain in 3 months or less. Time to process is a luxury you will not have until after you graduate.

3. The hours are long and hard. You're present for a minimum of 11 hours.a day 5 days a week and 8 hours a day on the 6th day (63 hours minimum). That doesn't include after hours study time, which you will need if you want to succeed. If you can't commit to 80 hour weeks (plus commute), then this probably isn't the right option for you.

4. You get out of the program what you put in. If you do the minimum, skip days or exercises, and generally act like you're cool with getting just enough done to finish, then you're going to be woefully underprepared after graduation. There are some gatekeeping exercises to remove those who just can't keep up, but passing those isn't a measure of success, just survival. The staff and curriculum are very good, but they don't have the time to make you care. If you're not motivated to put in the necessary time and effort, you'll probably just be wasting your money.

5. Jobs are not guaranteed. Once you graduate, you have to find a job. While there are career coaches to help, they work with lots of new grads and most of the effort is up to you. Job hunting is a skill completely separate from coding -- there are lots of great engineers who interview very badly -- and you won't have the same benefit of the doubt or track record to point to when you're a new grad. Career changers actually tend to do better than recent college grads because they have previous experience they can point to and draw from, even if it's not engineering experience. Soft skills matter just as much as technical ones and they're largely transferable from previous careers.

The Benefits:

1. The instructors are great. We had some amazing instructors with lots of real-world engineering experience teaching us. They helped us debug our code and guided us on our projects. They put in long hours to make sure we understood recursion and sat with us while we figured out why Elasticache wouldn't run on the t2.micro we set up.

2. The curriculum is best in class. I know a lot of bootcamp grads (I'm married to one, in fact -- he's the one who convinced me to try this out) and HR grads regularly outperform the other bootcamps in the area. I graduated with a better knowledge of dev ops (CI/CD, AWS, Docker, etc.) than some mid-level full stack devs I knew at the time.

3. The alumni network is great. We have a Slack instance with more than 5000 alumni registered. While not everyone participates, there are lots of us who do. You get lively debate in the #bikeshedding channel, help in the #career-advice channel, and job leads in #whos-hiring. We have grads who are senior engineers who help the newbies, both with technical and life decisions. Many of us who didn't attend the program together (different campuses, different cohorts) have still become friends through the alumni network. (And this also helps you find jobs, especially after your first -- our friends are always going to be our strongest referrals and leads.)

It's been 2.5 years since I've graduated. I'm at my 2nd engineering job, which I love, doing work that I'm consistently happy about. I'm well paid and valued by my company and given lots of opportunities for continued education and growth. I can see a bright future for myself in this industry. It took a lot of hard work and some luck to get here, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. 

Does this mean that you should go to Hack Reactor? Only you can answer that. Attending a bootcamp is always a risk and hard work, while a requirement, is not a guarantee of success. But if you've truthfully looked at the 5 challenges above and believe that a coding bootcamp is the right choice for you, then there's no better place to do it than Hack Reactor.

I went through Hack Reactor's software engineering immersive program in 2015 and it was hands down the best decision I've ever made. The program is world class in terms of quality, structure, and preparing you to hit the ground running as a software engineer at your job on day 1. Not only did I develop the skills needed to hit the ground running but I met several of my closest friends that I'll have for the rest of my career and life. The alumni network has been valuable as well. Would highly recommend to anyone and if you're trying to get into software engineering the program is amazing. I found my job within weeks of graduating. It does take a lot of work and effort and I tell people that you get out of it what you put in which is relevant here. 

I graduated from Hack Reactor in 2015, and have since then worked at startups (Planet and Patreon), tech giants (Google), and even started my own company (Babylon House), and I can say with no reservations: Hack Reactor is the best of the best. The instruction is top notch, the leadership is excellent, and the alumni community, thanks to the endless energy and enthusiasm of Marlene Tang, is better than even an Ivy League school or Google. Had I a chance to go back in time and advise my high-school self, I wouldn't tell him to get a CS degree; I'd tell him about Hack Reactor.

Back when I had my mid-20s career crisis, I decided to narrow down the industries I was interested in to Tech and Real Estate. Discovered Tech was far easier to enter and earn high pay in, and it dominated the area that I live in, SF, so I chose Tech. I figured the most valuable skillset in Tech is programming, and the best coding bootcamp was HR, so I went to Hack Reactor. Google even paid for 2/3 of the cost due to our educational benefit, and the fact that I didn't leave long enough to lose my benefits, and then I came back to do a rotation as an engineer. HR had a great curriculum, teachers (Alan and Frank), impressive peers, and an extremely valuable outcomes team that taught me how to job search before and after my rotation was over. After my rotation was over and long after I graduated, I still got support from Marlene Fong on the outcomes team, even though she wasn't assigned to assist alumni, in order to find my new job at Adobe. HR is one big family in the end, and I'm so grateful to everyone I encountered along this journey for making my life possible.

Before Hack Reactor, I'd gone to some great schools for undergrad and grad school, but Hack Reactor provided some of the best instruction I've received and placed me among some of the smartest, most engaged classmates I've known. I loved my time there and have remained close to my classmates, who are working across some of the largest companies in the Bay Area and some of the coolest startups. 

I was impressed by how quickly my classmates and I found jobs--within a month or two. It's amazing to think about how much Hack Reactor was an inflection point in my life, when I learned to put together all of the things that fascinated me. That 3-month period and the tuition are easily some of the best investments I've made in myself--and this is after going to an ivy league school for undergrad and a top-14 law school. Learning to program takes a lot of self-guided study, but Hack Reactor taught me how to find what I needed in order to get started. I'm very grateful to the Hack Reactor program and its inspiring, energetic, and tight-knit community that stays with you after you graduate.

I attended Hack Reactor back in 2014 and had a great experience. It was quite a while ago so I can't really speak to the quality of the program now, but I will say that I have been very impressed with their alumni support. I went through a job search recently and I was not really sure how much support the alumni program would offer to someone who finished the program over 5 years ago. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Marlene Fong, the alumni director, was extremely helpful. Through her network, she was able to connect me with Hack Reactor alumni at companies I was interested in interviewing which led to me getting some first round interviews. When I started receiving offers, Marlene guided me through the negotiation process, going out of her way to help me even after her work hours. Her advice was invaluable and I can't thank her enough.

Nearly four years later, attending Hack Reactor has proven to be one of the best decisions I could have made for my career and personal life.  As time passes, I get to see the immense value of what the Hack Reactor community provides to its members and the marketplace of employers.

I went to Hack Reactor to level-up in my software engineering career.  As a junior developer and someone that benefits from a classroom environment, it was the perfect springboard to understanding programming concepts that eluded me during my year and half of 'on-the-job' training. Upon graduating with a combination of industry experience,  technical training, and job search support, Side, Inc. hired me as one of its founding engineers.  Within three and a half years, the company grew from four to nearly 125 people; from barely seed-funded, to well-funded series C.

Fast-forward nearly four years.  I hadn't interviewed. I am back on the job market for the first time since I graduated.   I let my interviewing skills and algorithm design skills atrophy.   I had been all in on the startup life and didn't invest time in my ability to re-enter the job market. I scarcely even updated my résume.  I didn't notice that I was making progress on developing an application for a company without at the same time keeping my tools sharp.

The time came to find another job.  Frankly, it was daunting.  It was at this moment that I called on my Hack Reactor network.  I reached out to cohort-mates, but more importantly, I reached out to the Alumni network through the Alumni director, Marlene Tang.  She was by far the most supportive resource available to get oriented in the job search.  I was able to reconnect with fellow grads who had recently returned to the job market.  I was even able to receive mentorship from another grad to help me with algorithms and whiteboarding, a skill which feels like it had all but disappeared. I received in-network leads of opportunities for which I could apply.  The Alumni director had a keen sense of who was where and could essentially facilitate matchmaking with companies that were looking.

In the end, I found a new opportunity that really is a dream job.  It so happens that it turned out to be one of the companies where another Hack Reactor grad was working.  I can't tell you how grateful I am for the ongoing perks of being part of the Hack Reactor community.  This next move is a big step in my career, unlocking doors to tracks that didn't exist before.

Interviewing is grueling, even if you are experienced and well-connected.  The interviewing process for engineers involves all sorts of assessments.  There are short, automated, timed coding challenges.  I have experienced technical trivia questionnaire and odd thought experiments.  I have spent hours on takehomes; I have devoted days to multi-session technical interviews; it is as though the list goes on.  It is tiring and discouraging.  I cannot overstate the privilege of having a support system like the Hack Reactor Alumni Network, and being able to work with someone like Marlene.

This relationship I invested in four years ago has made all the difference for me. The success I have experienced is in no small part due to the support of a fantastic community, led by a passionate, competent leader, Marlene Tang.  Thank you, Hack Reactor. Thank you, fellow grads, for being awesome people and making the community what it is.

I attended Hack Reactor back in early 2017 before Hack Reactor was acquired by Galvanize. 

Back in 2017, the program praised the concept of being an autonomous problem solver. I believe that this concept alone is what separates Hack Reactor from any other boot camp out there because of how well Hack Reactor simulates the 'on-the-job' experience without skimping out on the material to kick start your Software Engineering career. However, from my experience, I felt that the curriculum felt too short... Especially the career week portion of the curriculum. The job search is a grind and even with experience, it is hard to transition from job to job due to the market being saturated. Because there is a lot of competition at times, and because the hiring process is difficult, Hack Reactor provides life-time support for job assistance which I believe is what makes the investment worth it. I had the pleasure to work with Yu-lin and Marlene, and without them, I don't think I would have survived the job search let alone even attempt to apply to some of them due to the imposter syndrome that many would face during the search and even while on-the-job.

Hack Reactor is an exhilarating experience especially if the student attends the on-site cohort. You establish lifetime relationships with your cohort mates that can make or break your career and with continuous support, you are already ahead of the curve. I would highly recommend attending Hack Reactor for the experience if you are serious about becoming a Software Engineer, it is not for everyone but if this is something that has been on your mind, Hack Reactor is the place for you.
 

Review of Hack Reactor from 2016 Fall alumni

I tried for a while to self-teach coding. I knew of Hack Reactor, but hesitated to throw in the towel and fork over the tuition - I wish I hadn't waited as long as I did, I lost a lot of time. I did make progress on my own, but it was undirected, and at best, likely would have led to jobs which weren't very good in terms of learning, impact, or even work-life balanace.

1. Confidence - Their comittment to helping you stay motivated, and belaying fears of being unemployable after the program, is an indespensible part of the program. Many students suffer from imposter syndrome, especially those starting to code more or less for the first time, and HR's staff is not only great at handling this, but they have dedicated people who help manage this. It really helps a lot.

2. Alumni network - My brother attended HR as well, and he commented that the alumni network and support are worth the tuition alone. I agree: through HR, I have become a part of a network of highly motivated people in IT comprising of thousands of people - and it's constantly growing. This opens up tremendous opportunity for your career, and for people who don't have a network of coders (say from taking college classes or a previous job or two), looking to get into IT, this is very difficult to quantify,  and hard to build independantly.

3. Learning - The most important part of HR is what they teach you. Through this program, I got an understanding of different parts of the application layer - from database to server to client. The program is a little more geared towards front end, as we learned multiple JS frameworks, and everything was taught in Javascript (nodeJS for server, and SQL and Mongo for DB), but you get hands on experience in all parts of the stack, and have to hook everything up. The teaching is done exceptionally well: The course starts with lots of instruction, and transitions over time to fullt time hands on coding. The very first week, you work on coding sprints with your peers, to deliver assignments. The senior project at the end was extremely valuable. This combination of instruction, private support, and lots and lots of coding assignments, is the way to go. By the end, you deliver a fully functioning app, available to use through a public web address. This is direct evidence to others (and yourself) that you are employable.

Life after HR - I found a job within about 3 months (definitely under 4). I had the ability to learn everything I needed after the course for interviews, to build whatever potential employers wanted. It was a leg up, though still a lot of work. HR also helped me a lot with salary negotiation. But if you're looking to get into some of the best tech companies, or build useful stuff for customers at a fast paced startup, then hard work is an expecation anyway. This course prepares you for that as well. After my first job, the wonderful HR Alumni support network (directly employed by the institution) helped me land interviews in no time, and matched me to companies which matched my preferences. I had a 2nd job within weeks of starting my search, and have been very very happy with my current employment since.

One comment - This program is very challenging. I liken it to my last few months in my Engineering curriculum in college, during which we had to build an actual usable device for a company. Suffice it to say, it's rigorous. You're coding a lot, at least 6 days a week. But, you will get out of it what you put in. If you choose to do the bare minimum to contribute and pass the midterm assesment, that's what you'll get. If you choose to optimize your time, learn the most challenging stuff in painful detail, you will come out of it better.

I attended Hack Reactor in August-November 2015 (HR33), and then stayed for another cycle as an HIR (hacker-in-residence, essentially a TA for the next cohort). I got a job as a full-time programmer three weeks after finishing HIR, and had two other offers. I'm still in the field and am 1.5 years into my current job, and loving it.

The pros:

- I loved the teaching staff and the curriculum; Fred and Alan were some of the best instructors I've ever had. The tech mentor staff was also great and helped us in our day-to-day work; Beth was one of the best explainers and kept me sane.

- The Outcomes staff was amazing. Way more of the course than I had expected was devoted to interview prep and how to conduct a job hunt. Marlene was my guide, and she made sure I was applying to at least 5 jobs a day, and would hunt me down if I didn't! She will kick your resume and interviewing skills into shape, and she helped me negotiate through some tricky offer conversations, literally helping me compose emails to get me a higher salary.

- The curriculum was challenging and taught me just enough to get jobs. It was very rigorous (6 days a week, ~12 hours a day most days), but when you're with a bunch of other people going through the same thing, it's really fun.

 

The cons:

- When I was an HIR back in 2015, it seemed like they were effectively lowering the admissions bar by introducing the Fulcrum & related programs, which I assume was to get more "qualified" applicants through the door to make money. I genuinely believe that most people can learn to code, but not everyone can do it at a breakneck speed in just 3 months, and letting in people who are unlikely to succeed in a 12-week program is doing a disservice to the bootcamp, and an even greater one to the students themselves. I have no idea what admissions are like now, especially now that they've been acquired by Galvanize, so it's probably pretty different these days. It's hard for me to draw any conclusions, but when people ask me, "Should I go to a bootcamp?" I always tell them that they should do all the prep work on their own (without a program) and make sure they can pass the admissions test, because if they can't pass the admissions test on their own, I'd have a lot less confidence that they could make it through the program successfully (not to say students who do pre-programs can't be successful! Just that if you can't make it in without doing the program, it's an indication that you might struggle in the real thing).