Makers Academy

Makers ethos is to teach people how to learn rather than teaching them everything there is to know about software development. They deliver this brilliantly. Having undertaken two different courses using both approaches, I can safely say that this approach to learning is preferable. This is because the self-learning element is central to becoming a good software engineer in an ever moving industry and will allow me to continue to develop long after the boot camp finished. The course itself featured 7 weeks of learning modules, each building upon the previous ones knowledge and skill. The final 5 weeks was split up into 3 self led team projects. I found all 12 weeks to be beneficial but with some previous programming knowledge, I particularly enjoyed the team projects as we were able to use all core development skills in a real working environment. I would recommend this course to anyone who is looking to kickstart their career in software development as it gives you all the core skills that you need to grow and flourish in the work place.

I joined Makers with no coding experience, and in 3 months I've learn an enormous amount. Not only I've gained a technical knowledge, but I was also introduced to agile processes and the ways teams operate. Makers have mental coaches, so there is always someone to help you if you find the course(or life) too challenging. Makers prepare you for your new career very well, the course is very well organised and the coaches are extremely professional. I recommend this course to anyone who wants to build a career as a software engineer. On the first day at my workplace I was able to use the skills I've gained during this bootcamp. Makers is the place to start :)

Pros: 
-Taught how to learn, not just given the answer but guided in the right direction and suggested things to try.
-Very supportive coaches that were always happy to help.
-Taught how to pair program, work in an agile team, and solo program.
-Learnt a wide variety of skills (command line, git, searching solutions online, databases, HTTP requests, programming concepts such as arrays, 
 methods, OOP, etc), which are proving very useful in the workplace.
-Extras such as meditation and yoga.

Cons:
-Spent too long on Ruby and not enough time on the more difficult languages used in the project weeks and then in the workplace.
-Not enough resources available from Makers during project weeks when you start working with languages other than ruby.
-Not always enough coaches for the amount of students which could lead to being stuck without support for a time.

Overall a great experience, went in with minimal coding experience and left having learnt loads and made many friends. Would recommend the course if you are looking to start a career in software development and have minimal coding experience.

Makers helped me realise my dream of becoming a developer.

I really my time at makers. I have met a lot of people who I know I will remain friends with. They have put a lot of effort into making the whole place a positive place to be. They are not purely focussed on coding and they offer things outside of code like yoga, meditation, pizza nights with games, kareoke and more. They have an aim to make you a more well-arounded emplyable developer rather than just a technical champion.

In terms of the coding, the process eases you into the process but each week you are more entrusted to work with less structure and build things as part of groups following the processes you have been taught throughout. Support was still there if needed. I really liked this way of working.

Although I can see the benefits to learning Ruby as a first language due to the way it reads plus the syntax is more forgiving. However it seems maybe Rails/Ruby aren't as relevent in the job world as they once were and the course spends alot of time focussing on them. However we did cover Javascript and some React. And final projects you can choose your own tech stack which meant you can go wild do things like use Python!

They have a big careers team and they have loads of partnerships with all sorts of companies from brand new starts ups to big American companies. Companies come into to give talks and they have careers fairs too.

You can learn the code and technical stuff yourself online. But they teach you things like coding as part of a team and using team processes to developing apps. Which is obviously beneficial for getting a job as real world dev. It is awesome, the fact they have all this careers support and will help you find a job.

The staff at Makers provide a wholistic approach to learning. The coaches are always available for support whether this is in terms of writing better code or personal well-being. There is a very friendly atmosphere with an reliance on self learning. The 16 weeks are well structured, learning the basics in Ruby and applying it to other languages such as Javascript (and another language of your choice for the final project). At the end of the 16 weeks I feel as though I can quickly pick up new languages and apply what I've learnt to produce a decent product.

The topics were well structured and I thought that the pace was good. Our cohort started with Ruby before moving on to using Javascript and Java, with Postgresql for databases. Building a solid understanding of Ruby before moving to other languages meant that we were able to learn new languages quickly, which is a skill that will definitely be useful in the future. Other very useful things we learnt included the ability to use TDD and to program in a team, which will really help in our roles. There was great support from the coaches and the rest of my cohort, and I learnt a lot in a very short amount of time all while having fun!

I was part of the apprenticeship side of the academy and have just completed the 3 month upfront boot camp. The course is mainly structured around ruby but in my opinion the course is about teaching you how to program in any language and transfer your knowledge to any programming language you may need to work on in the future. We also focused on different languages such as JavaScript and java, we also learnt TDD.

We would spend the week learning a new module with regular zoom calls (my cohort was remote) and there was lots of support on slack if we needed it. At the end of the week we would complete a Friday challenge which we had no guidance to see if we can put what we have learnt in to practise on our own.

On completion of each module we would fill in a feedback form so the coaches could see how we were feeling and if we needed any support and if we did they would come and talk to us to see what they could do to better support us.

Overall I would rate the boot camp 5 stars, the only thing I would say needs improving is pairing for remote cohorts as its more difficult pairing remotely.

This course was challenging, engaging and fun, it gave me the opportunity to build on/solidify my knowledge from my previous education during the first 4 weeks (procedural programming and OOD), in a whole new programming language. Then I got to learn a brand new skill, web development, where you get given set apps to make, then can make your own one at the end!

You don't just do front-end JavaScript, you get to learn a full stack with first Ruby backend and then my cohort did it with Java, both with a PostGres database using PostGres's sql for queries. So you get to learn a whole stack in two languages! I thought this was really beneficial as it's always good to be able to program in multiple languages. In addition, the techniques for learning a new language are transferable for every language.

I really liked the coaching style, you don't get spoon fed, you have time to work it out for yourself, but the support is there if you need it, not only from Stack Overflow, but also from the coaches and even the rest of your cohort!

The fact you collaborate on all tasks and projects gives you the opportunity to develop your teamwork and communication skills which are just as important as your technical ability. You communicate with Slack and Zoom. Slack for like a chat room and Zoom for video calls and screen sharing. I found both apps really easy to use and very helpful throughout the course.

The whole course was laid out very well and allowed for someone with zero experience to really build up a knowledge base of different languages and the syntax involved in writing them, coding methodologies, concepts and best practises, work life balance, useful 3rd party software's and how to work remotely and as a team with fellow developers to create projects and collaborative code bases. I also thought that the support from the coaches throughout the course was excellent , not being spoon fed anything but being pointed in the correct direction to work things out on my own really assisted me in consolidating the information in my head.

Makers Academy is the best learning experience I ever got in my life! I got full support during the whole duration of the course and I felt like each day I develop my soft and hard skills even more. There is nothing you can not learn while being in the Makers building. There is something about the way the teach you how to think that makes everything click in the alright time. The small pieces of software engineering that you learn at the begging of the course start to fit perfectly together somewhere in the middle of the course and you feel like you really can building anything. That doesn't mean that you know everything - this is not possible - but it means that you have a correct mindset to break down all the problems that you meet on your way while building a product and you can solve it step by step. 

 

PROS: 

- pair-programming,

- supportive environment, 

- the best community 

- a very mature approach to teaching coding and to students, everything works perfectly without you even noticing

- constantly feeling like I improve myself

- there is always a space to fail and try again 

 

CONS:

- NONE

 

The tech industry has a bad habit of exulting the lone developer, the person who shuts themselves away from other people to emerge from solitude with elite skills or a perfect product. Whilst this image is slowly changing you can have the stereotype duely shattered by attending Makers.
I started the course with a bit of narrow tech experience and a desire to expand my stack to the full version. Even during the precourse we were encouraged to start collaborating, through pair programming with mentors or self organising meet ups for the cohort. The course continued with this principle without no single day spent working solo. This environment took my desire to learn and supercharged it, it improved my learning process, how to share that knowledge and all in a space where people were excited to share new knowledge with me.

You will pick up new technical skills, and by any measure it will be a large amount. Along side that you will be well equiped for the career which comes after.

Makers is intense, hard and fun, but rewarding doesn't come close to expressing the feeling you will have both when you finish and when you find a job.

Why I chose Makers: Once I had visited Makers I felt almost drawn to it. Unlike most (or maybe all?) of the other bootcamps, Makers was offering one course, available in one location. This gave me the feeling that their angle was more "we will do one thing but do it better than anybody else" than "we will offer a huge range of things across many places in the world". Although drawn to it, exactly what that "thing" is didn't become fully clear until doing the course and after finishing, so I will attempt to describe it here:

1. Intimate - one course in one location has an intimate we're-all-in-this-together feel to it. Every 4 weeks a new cohort starts, so around you there are people simultaneously at varying stages of the course. The feeling instilled is that these people are not your competitors, but rather your peers. People willing to help you with any aspect of the experience, be it coding or indeed emotional support that you need.

2. Holistic - Makers is NOT about coding coding coding, it is about the whole picture - your well-being, your readiness for your first job, your ability to work with others and your ability to take an unknown concept and know how to approach it and understand it. Software development is a career in which you will never stop learning. Being aware that this is the case, and knowing how to manage it is paramount to success. In addition, the 2nd half of the course is set up to imitate what dya to day work life might be like - Agile methodologies, team work, XP values, advanced use of Git. It is not only about TDD (test-driven development) and OO (object orientated) principles. This means that by the time you're attending interviews, you are prepared with first hand experience you can use to show off your skills.

3. End-to-end support - From onboarding to pre-course to full-time course to the job hunt, Makers is equipped to offer help with whatever aspect is troubling you. Dana, the well-being officer, is fantastic for advice on all things not coding, and the coaches are all on hand, approachable and supportive in everything else. Once you have finished the course, the careers team are an incredible group of people who work extrememly hard to help you find work.

4. Makers leads by example - everything is learning and feedback contributes in a major way to improvement. Makers is constantly checking and re-checking their processes, improving things off the back of feedback, and providing feedback whenever sought. If you can buy into and do this too, you will be a successful coder.

Finally, it's a lot of fun!

Makers is an intense bootcamp. It requires you to be self-motivated, prepared to learn and explore for yourself and not rely on being spoon fed. If you are willing to put in that effort, and are not deterred when you come up against a bit of a wall, then Makers could be the course for you.

It is worth noting that the key thing that you learn at Makers is a process, not any particular language. This can lead to some frustrations along the way, but once it clicks you are left with a skill that is far more valuable than proficiency in one language - you are left with a proven method of learning any language. This approach means that you shouldn't end up being fazed by new problems - just apply the process and you can do it!

I did not have any serious coding experience before undertaking the course, instead having had a ten year career in an unrelated field. The prospect of starting a new career at 38 was both exciting and a little daunting. The careers team at Makers were brilliant, both before I had any interviews and then in helping me prepare once I had an interview. In my case, I had a six-month gap between completing the course and starting to job hunt (self-granted paternity leave!), and the team were always available to check in with and then to reassure me that all would not be lost once I started the job hunt.

I decided at the beginning of 2019 to leave my career as a criminal solicitor and attempt to become a software developer instead. I knew absolutely zero about coding so it was quite a big step for me. 

Fast forward 5 months and I'm now about to start my first role as a software developer so Makers has certainly done the job, and to be honest I never thought I'd be in this position so quickly. 

The course was intense and requires a lot of work, both onsite at Makers and in your free time, so you can't sign up half-heartedly. However, because of this you do learn a crazy amount in a short period of time. I enjoyed every day of the course and haven't once regretted my decision to leave my previous job. In addition to being a great learning experience, it was also really fun. I met some great people in my cohort and there was a lot of socialising which meant that our group projects towards the end of the course didn't feel like work at all. The standard of work that our cohort produced by the end of the 12 weeks was pretty impressive.

I feel that some of the course materials are slightly outdated (which I imagine is difficult to avoid with coding languages that dip in and out of popularity constantly), but it meant that I felt a bit on the backfoot when it came to interviews and I wasn't using the most up to date version of javascript for example. I would advise any new starters to find out whether there is a more modern version of the language you're learning, which is used in the industry, and to brush up on that as well as what you learn at Makers. 

At one point we were told that we should expect to find a job within 3-6 months after completing the course which terrified a few people, but it turns out a good handful of our cohort had jobs within 4 weeks. However, I would advise budgeting for the full 6 months, or having a back-up plan,  just in case. The careers team are very helpful and supportive and the careers fair which is held every month generates some good opportunities. 

IMO the things that work most in Makers' favour are:
- careers support
- behaviours practiced during the course
- momentum of exposure to technical content
- the community

Most important is behaviours, you will leave Makers with plenty of experience working in successful and challenging team/pair situations, and hours of pairing and collaboration on tech projects.  Doing these things well and with purpose I think is one of the hardest things to achieve learning on your own, and additional support from Dana the Joy Officer at Makers is excellent.

The curriculum gives students wide exposure to a range of technologies and tools _quickly_.  A lot of students felt like this learning style was too fast and surface level understanding.  It's only 12 weeks!

My experience at Makers was heavily impacted by my cohort. If you are not lucky to have open diligent learners around you there may be additional challenges to be ready for.  Students should be prepared for self-directed learning; Makers doesn't 'teach' you to code - pro-actively get what you need from the coaches to meet your goals.

I attended Makers as a Fellow: there were no course fees, and I found a job on the Pathway which is a fixed salary 12month contract with a Makers hiring partner.  I wouldn't do it a second time!!  But, I would recommend the fellowship to those getting started in coding careers.