The Firehose Project

I decided to sign for TFP after doing a lot of research looking for the right online part time coding bootcamp for me, and decided for them after taking their free pre-course. I liked this preview a lot (and I took it before they improved it  a few months ago), specially the friendly feeling and how active and close their founders Ken and Marco seemed. That gave me a lot of confindence.

Overall, I’m really happy with my choice and most likely I would do the same choice today, but of course not everything is perfect, or at least lets say that there is room for improvement in some aspects.

The program focus on three different main points:

• Learning to craft webapps mostly via Rails.
• Learning to solve algorithms and learn about typical CS concept or data structures, mostly using Ruby.
• Software Engineering related topics: Agile, SCRUM, TDD etc. You get exposed to them via the final team Project.

To support this, you have one weekly session of an hour with a mentor (I was very happy with mine, by the way, a truly profesional software engineer with a lot of experience in industry and deep knowledge of a lot of technologies including some of the cutting-edge ones). There are also weekly sessions of office hours, and you can always ask Ken or the other guys in the staff who are always glad (and quick) to help-

You are tought how to create webapps via written lessons where you follow a walkthrough to create several apps each one more complex than the previous one, getting exposed both to Rails itself, specially how you can get things done more than how it works, and also to the gems and tools used by developers on a daily basis. You also get exposed to tools like the CLI or Github from minute one. In my opinión, this part of the curriculum is very well executed and the lessons are well designed in progressive complexity.

Regarding algorithms, there are assignments where you have to solve problems or work with data structures. This  is helpful specially for people looking for a career switch, since you learn about things you are going to probably be asked in a interview. You would typically try to solve the problem, and then whether you are able to do it on your own or not, you should check with your mentor to look for ways to refactor or improve. This is the part where you are supposed also to actually learn Ruby.

What I didn’t liked about how this part is planned is that you have to look for ways to improve your knowledge of the language outside the program, cause of the lack of an organized intermediate-advanced course in Ruby. It could be argued that being able to google for stuff and learn on your own is another needed skill, and this is true, but I feel like once you pay for a program, having to go outside to look for somehow basic and expected content about the language or the tools is dissapointing.

This is even more dissapointing given the fact that the pre-work have a pretty good introductory course to Ruby, that I really liked it. I found myself expecting something similar in the lessons, but there isn’t. This is extensive to how the key “theory” concepts are explained. You just have some short video series explaining concepts such as MVC and the basics of Rails, OOP programming, Intro to Javascript etc. In my point of view this is insufficient and this is the weakest point of the program by far. More written content to serve as a guide about the important topics should be a must, specially given the nature of the background most students have.

Lastly you get exposed to software engineering topics such as Agile methodologies in the Final Project. This experience is unvaluable, and something you can only have in a place like this, Granted, you can learn to code and craft apps for free if you are disciplined enough given the huge amount of free content there are outside nowadays, but you can’t have an experience like the Agile Team Project for sure for free. Along 7-8 weeks, you work with your team using Agile methodologies and being guided by a mentor that acts not as a teacher but as a team manager, assigning tasks and defining goals and timings while you make a complex app using all the knowledge you have by this momento, close to the end of the program, and using new tools and workflows where you could actually have a feeling of how it would be to work in a team of developers.

They also have a job assistance curriculum which I still didn't take since I'm not looking for a career change today, but recently they totally re-worked it adding a lot more content.

To summarize, what I liked:

• The healthy and friendly environment, staff deserves a 10/10 and community is also friendly.
• The walkthoughs where you actually build apps.
• The mentorship program.
• The value you get for your money (usually these programs with 1 on 1 mentorship are way more expensive)
• How fast and accurately the staff provides feedback or help.
• How they periodically improve the content.
• The Agile Team final Project.

What I didn’t like:

• If you want to understand and work the technologies, patterns or languages involved or actually learn in an intermediate-advanced level about them, you have to look for content outside. There is a lack of written content apart from the walkthoughs. The video series are not enough in my honest opinion, by far.

Overall though, as I said I'm glad with my experience.

I am about 10 weeks into the Firehose Project curriculum, and it's going great so far. The pacing of the lessons and the regular challenges and exercises are so helpful in solidifying the course materials. I particularly like the written lessons. It's much easier to re-read a sentence or explanation rather than rewinding a video. Finally, the combination of having a personal mentor as well as the important insistence on learning algorithms & computer science fundamentals is what makes Firehose superior to many other bootcamps that I investigated. 

Having a mentor allows you to keep moving through course materials by jotting down something that trips you up during a particular lesson and discussing deeper in a one on one meeting each week. This allows you to keep a steady pace in the lessons and using the mentor sessions to gain clarity on anything you might be confused about. Getting a solid foundation of CS topics are crucial as well. It's one thing to master some syntax, but without understanding how the individual pieces ladder up to efficient, consistent solutions to challenging problems, I imagine you'd have a really tough time landing a job after the program.

So far, I'm really satisfied with my decision to choose Firehose over the other camps on the market.

Note - I haven't gotten to the job assistance portion of the curriculum yet, so I'm not able to rate that at the moment. However, I know they recently revamped that piece and have created a full learning track dedicated to that process, so I'm looking forward to diving into that when the time comes.

I finished The Firehose Project bootcamp 2 years ago and I must say I would highly recommend this course, especially if you are looking for a flexible online course to fit your schedule.

The Experience: the mentor and the course

I had a great experience in the learning environment that was set up by the course. My mentor was not only very knowledgable but also a great teacher. He knows the subject matter very well and was able explain complex things to beginners.

On top of the 1-to-1 mentoring, the Firehose project also built a very supportive community through different forums (weekly office hours, online discussion groups, slack chats, team project, etc.) Students and alumini regularly interact and support each other in these forums. Much of it is down to the students, but the team at the Firehose Project has definitely been instrumental in intentially facilitating that supportive vibe. The different interactive opportunities have also grown substantially since I finished the course and the large network of alumni and students is really inspiring to see.

The Content

It is not until I started working and building projects for clients that I appreciated how much breadth and depth the curriculum covered. The deceptively simple apps that you get to build throughout the course covered a big range of complex technical requirements. The curriculum was also well structured into technical components that you need to learn. When I started building projects from scratch for myself or for clients, I was able to apply what I learned to build things with different requirements.

I like written contents because I can then progress at my own pace without being restricted by the "pace" of videos. Firehose's mix of written content, graphic illustrations, and video contents are well balanced. The style of the written content was very conversational-like, making it really easy to follow and understand.

The Firehose Project also continuously improve, update, and add to the curriculum, so as an alumni, regularly go back to the course content and learn about new topics.

Job Assistance

Throughout the course, you are given good amount of job searching preparation. For me, this mainly focused on the coding challenges that you might encounter during an interview and the team project to give you the experience of working collaboratively. 

You are being given quite a lot of flexibility of how you want to progress in the course. You can either take an "employment" route or a "start your own thing" route, or even both if you are willing to put in the work. Although there is a suggested pace, if you finish the course content sooner, it just means that you can embark on different challenges you and your mentor set for yourself.

I subsequently took a different bootcamp on Data Science with a similar model (self-pace content and mentor). By comparison, I think that The Firehose Project is outstanding. Not only the content is great, you really get a sense that The Firehose Project team cares about the students and always tries to make the learning and the experience better. Well done!

Excellent value for the money. Firehose offers a superb course for much cheaper than the other coding camps I looked at. The course begins with some basic coding and by the end you are building complex apps. I found everything easy to follow and when I got stuck there was plenty of support, from the slack channel to a ticket response system that is surprisingly fast, and also a weekly live video meeting hosted by Ken and Marco where students can ask questions and get help with what they are stuck on.

The mentor system is another high point of TFP. For one hour a week my mentor and I would discuss new concepts and go over things I was having trouble with via webcam. I found this extremely helpful and it adds a whole different layer to the learning experience.

The final project is the agile team project, where 4-5 students work together to build a complex web app under the guidance of a mentor team leader. This simulates what it is like to work on a team in the real world and brings new challenges, and it was a lot of fun. I found the experience valuable and it gave me a taste of what to expect in the workplace as a programmer.

Overall, I would highly recommend the Firehose Project. If you want to take a deep dive in ruby on rails and learn how to code, this is the place. There is a strong focus on learning how to code the right way, and this will help no matter what language you end up using. 

Looking through my experiences I have had in The Firehose Project, I know the journey is just beginning for me. I'd known for awhile that coding was in my mindset, but for a long time felt lost and stalled by all the seemingly endless routes to take. 

That all changed with this coding bootcamp.

This gives you real, hands on experience of what it is like to fully deploy working, quality web apps alongside great people that do so on a professional basis. It's given me a can-do attitude for a field that piques my interest to keep myself going, with quality communication being highly valued.

I've since landed a comfortable, variable-by-day position that uses many aspects that came to life going through the course, applied now in working extensively with databases both physically, and on the computer interface.

The mentors are personalized specifically to your case, so that check-ins with them are especially productive times. Every step taken feels meaningful.

There are also several community group channels to partake in with fellow Firehosers taking on the same work as you, along with weekly Office Hours for true live discussion. Exceptional work is going on behind the scenes here to make this all happen, and I am very happy to have joined The Firehose Project. They are there for you every step of the way and beyond.

I finished The Firehose Project’s curriculum in late October of 2016 and am extremely happy with the program and all that I learned throughout the 22-week course. Before deciding to enroll in a bootcamp, I had tried learning JavaScript and Ruby on my own, but never made any progress due to analysis paralysis around all the tutorials and material available for learning. One of the best aspects of the program is being able to set aside that thinking and follow their well planned out lessons, which teach you what you need to know, when you need to know it.

The curriculum is project-based, so you jump right into building a functioning Ruby on Rails web application, and continue with more web app projects that build on what you just learned. With algorithm challenges throughout the program and a focus on learning object-oriented programming, I felt like I received a great foundation in programming concepts. Getting an introduction to agile methodologies in the final group project turned out to be very valuable in the job search process — being able to talk about that experience played a large part in my landing an Associate Software Engineer position after finishing the course.

Between the course’s Slack channels, weekly office hours sessions and weekly calls with a senior developer-level mentor, there’s always someone available to help with questions. The curriculum is structured as written and video tutorials, so the entire program was very easy to fit into my lifestyle, which was very important to me. Students have lifetime access to the curriculum as well, which has already come in very handy when I needed to brush up on some JavaScript concepts. The Firehose Project turned out to be an incredibly smart investment in my personal development and I highly recommend the program.

I can’t say enough great things about Marco, Ken, and the Firehose Project. Thanks to everything I learned, I not only was confident enough to code the website for my law practice (monroemannlaw.com), personal brand (monroemann.com), and my not for profit, Break Diving (breakdiving.org), but I also learned enough to recruit and lead an all-volunteer coding team to build Break Diving’s Terms of Service Fairness Project hosted on Heroku at www.tosfairness.org. Oh, and I’m building websites for others now too, and teaching them how to code! While I had a bit of coding experience coming in to this program, nothing really made sense. Firehose brought everything together. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t applaud Ken, Marco, and Brita for offering me a special payment plan based on my current financial needs.  If you don’t think you can afford the program (yeah, it IS expensive), talk to Ken and Marco. Explain how passionate you are about the program. I know they will bend over backwards to try to accommodate you. And don’t give up until you figure out a way to finance it. I wouldn’t be the head of a growing coding team now were it not for what I learned at Firehose. Are many of the coders working under me much better a coder than I am? Hands down yes (and I’m learning from them). But The Firehose Project taught me enough that I can lead this team in their own language and actively contribute to the project as a junior full-stack developer. I tried many other online coding programs. None of them seemed to be as simply constructed, as cleanly presented, or as incredibly supportive as Firehose. Oh, and when you graduate, if you want to join Break Diving’s awesome coding team, you can apply at www.breakdiving.org/volunteer  We’ve got multiple exciting projects all in various stages of development.  We’d love to welcome you aboard. 

When I found the Firehose Project it was about the fifth bootcamp prep I had taken for a test run in as many days. I didn't mean to keep coming back to the lessons because I thought I wanted something with more JavaScript up-front, but the first section on HTML was so engaging that I stuck around for more. I've been "shopping" around, trying to find a bootcamp prep program that was both challeging but not impossible and the supportive nature of the online set-up was another unexpected bonus. I wish the videos continued into the other sections of the program, but other than that I highly recommend it.

Currently taking the "Free Bootcamp Prep" course." Doing this will pretty much let you know if this stuff is "for you" or not. It starts out with basic HTML and CSS and transitions you into learning Ruby, which is awsome stuff by the way. The way it is taught is perfection. When learning HTML and CSS, you are taught via video by Ken (CEO). Everything is explained with perfection and choice of words is great so that noobies are not left behind. I'm really happy i decided to take this up. I have always wanted to work with computers, and learn how to program, and here we are.

IF YOU HAVE ANY INTEREST in becoming a web developer/software engineer, please please please do not hesitate to take the "FREE Bootcamp Prep" course. The amount of content that is taught to you for free, it would be silly for anyone not to try it. Another massive plus to this is that Ken and Marco (CEOs) actually care about their students and their students futures, you are able to communicate with them, ask them questions, etc, that is a MAJOR PLUS.

 I plan on going through the "flexible program" (part time) as I work a full time job 8-10 hours a day and transition my career to being a full stack web developer. I will make sure to post another review in the future after I finish the part-time program.

Since I decided that I wanted to pursue education through The Firehose Project, I have been constantly surprised by the amount of prompt responses I have received from advisors and help from other students and teachers. I have been working through the Free Bootcamp Prep course to help prepare me for the program I chose. Everything is easy to navigate and I am excited to continue on. I was also very impressed by how easy it was to navigate through the financing options that are offered. I am excited to learn more and see what I can accomplish.

I have been a front-end web developer awhile ago when knockout.js was popular. I took different jobs inbetween and wanted to jump back to Web development as I realized that it is my passion. I wanted to understand the behind the scenes of front-end part of web development. So I started exploring my options. I learned that Ruby-on-Rails is fantastic framework for learning full stack. I decided to go with Firehose project, as they had mentor program which is lacking in many other programs.

I finished my course last year. I am happy that I took the course with them. These guys are awesome! There was always some one to answer your questions including Ken and Marco. I used to get clarifications to my questions within minutes. They have very good mentor program and support group which helped me keep going. They encourage you to ask questions and answer it with right amount of detail. They also have office hours. 

You will learn based on the amount of time and effort you put in each and every one of your projects. These projects will look great on your profile. The area where I live does not have that many opportunities for this technology. But whatever few interview calls I got is because of the projects I did during this course. If you have no work experiance, the group project will give a great exposure to the current agile methodology and CI.

I have just finished going through the prepwork at The Firehose Project. I would like to say how impressed I am with the amount of support I received while working through the prepwork, even though it was completely free. I have worked through another bootcamps(which i won't mention) prepwork and although the work itself was great and informative I did not have any support through it and therefore was unsure if the code I wrote was good, bad or ugly. 

I am looking forward to getting stuck into the full program at The Firehose Project and will come back here to write a full review!! Coming soon... to a web browser near you!

So I am one of those folks who are totally new to programming and decided that it would be a good plan to find a structured course with a mentor.  The learning curve has been tough thus far but I have found that if I keep reviewing the info they provide and just keep plugging away, I do start to figure things out eventually.  I think no matter what course you might sign up for there is a lot of vocabulary and new concepts to learn, so be prepared for your brain to hurt at times.
I have really appreciated that help is always there and is really quick to respond to one of those moments where I have exhausted trying to figure it out on my own.  I also really love having a mentor who I can ask all of my "stupid" questions to.

The Firehose project.  Where do I start?  I'm 1 month into the six month intensive.  Let me begin with an unpleasant prior experiences at a different school.  

Galvanize.  Horrible!  I took an introductory javascript course at their in person school in Boulder, CO.  To sum it up briefly, it was a horrible waste of time and money.  The in person schools are too expensive.  You can get an excellent education at the various online schools that are available.  Firehose is one of them.

FreeCodeCamp.  This is a safe place to start.  Or choose from the several other FREE online introductory programs.  It's free and the beginning of the course is a great way to introduce you to some of the most basic concepts.  Although it's great at introducing you to the basic concepts of programming, it doesn't explain in an intelligible way the more complex concepts.  Start with the easy stuff, and once you get to the point where you are about to pull your hair out, move on to something a little bit more polished and user friendly.  

Udemy.  This is another great place for beginners to start.  The courses are about $10 and they are extremely well done.  Again, once you get to the more complex concepts, you need to move on to a place that will slowly spoon feed you information in a clear and intelligible way.

That brings me to The Firehose Project.  After you have gotten your feet wet, and you have taken the free beginner's course at Firehose, you are ready to get serious.  I am enrolled in a 6 month intensive that covers topics ranging from CSS to complex algorithms.  I was hesitant to give a review so early into the curriculum, but I think it's safe to say that this is a great online school.  The curriculum is written in a way that is easy to understand.  I already built a couple of sites, and I'll start on my third one soon.  There is a forum at the bottom of every lesson where you can ask questions.  Ken, one of the mentors, usually gets back to me within 5 minutes, even if it's late at night.  That guy is the man.  I will be updating this review once I finish with the program.  For now, I give it 5/5 stars.  Save your money and go with Firehose.  Forget about the in person schools.  Most of them are a nightmare anyway.  Firehose has helped me understand many key concepts that have already allowed me to add some cool features to my sites.  This is an excellent choice for those of you who are really serious about becoming a software engineer.    

This is a great bootcamp.  Be prepared for a full 40 hrs/week and sometimes more (for the accelerated bootcamp).

I'm grateful for the access to great learning tools and the aptitude to enjoy them so much. I'm grateful I can afford them after being unemployed for almost two years now. I'm switching from Engineering back to coding after about an 11 year span in engineering work. I want more creativity, challenge and self-direction than is available in my previous work. The substantial pay cut is painful - zero pay now and surely low for my first junior coding roles - but I want the creativity vs. just "doing" and it will be worth the trade. The income will improve one day, but the enjoyment starts right away. I'm very grateful and excited about the change and the new opportunities.