The Firehose Project

I am on my sixth week at the Firehose Project, and so far I am really enjoying it. I had spent a few weeks researching bootcamps, including here on CourseReport. I wanted online and part-time.

There were two main reasons I was sold on Firehose:

1. The free two-week bootcamp prep course. I got sucked into it because the curriculum is so well-written. I figured they must be confident in the quality of their curriculum to offer this wonderful prep course for free, and that really impressed me. 
2. The agile team project. This showed me that they really value teaching how to work as a developer beyond just the coding itself. (This is also true as they get you into reading and writing blogs.)

My one concern before starting was that one mentor session per week wouldn't be enough. Now that I'm in the bootcamp, I have personally found that one per week is just right for me. I don't know that everyone will feel the same way -- I think this really depends on each person's learning style, so it's important to really know yours when making this decision.

There's a lot of material to conquer. I spend 25+ hours per week (on the accelerated track). But finishing a project or a challenge is so satisfying, and after almost six full weeks, I already feel confident that I can create basic web applications. Also, the community is active and friendly. There's plenty of support and general discussion in the forums, office hours, Slack, and Google+.

I haven't started the job assistance stuff yet, so I can't comment on that. But so far, I am very happy with Firehose.

There are a lot of bootcamps out there, but not a lot of good ones that are fully online. I joined the FirehoseProject last year and it was a life changing experience. Prior to joining the bootcamp, I had experience with HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I joined because I needed to move beyond the basics. Firehose will help you review those 3 skills but will teach you a lot more. Algorithms and Ruby on Rails. 

The best part of the bootcamp is that they teach you both of these two skills. Not just a website but a web applicaiton, and critical thinking. My goal to land a position and after hard work I finally did. I honestly give credit to Firehose and the push that this community gave to me.

I started The Firehose Project in Feb. 2017 with the intention to change careers and develop my existing programming skills to a professional level. Before I joined the programm, I did a lot of research on what would be the best coding bootcamp for me, and I was straight away overwhelmed with the options that I had. So after spending a good 2 weeks going through reviews, blog posts and even starting some of the free coding camps out there, I decided to go all in. I quite my job as an Engineer and started the Firehose Project.

It soon turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made in my professional career so far.

The reason for choosing the Firehose Project were mostly related to their preperation course and a personal interview before the actual course started. I could ask all the questions I had to a 'real person' (not only watching a recorded Youtube video as with some other boot camps out there) and got a good idea of what the real course would look like by going through the preparation. In addition to that, The Firehose Project's curriculum included not only lessons about Ruby, jQuery, CSS/HTML etc. but also hours and hours on algorithms andTest Driven Development (TDD). 

I am now in the last 2 weeks of the course and currently involved in a remote agile team project. After endless hours of coding, mentorship and reminders from my wife to eat, shower and sleep, I can now say: Through The Firehose Project, my passion for coding transformed from an initial spark into a wild fire. Looking back, I never would have thought that I learn as much as I did within just a couple of month. Thanks to the two founders Ken and Marco who are constantly helping their students (via weekly office hours, slack chat as well as via email and as mentors), I am now confident not only to enter the real life coding world (and they even prepare you for that with a big job preperation at the end of the course) but have also already started to help out other coding students.

If you asked me if I chose them again , I'd say: without hesitation!

I have been only using Firehose for a little over a week. I have tried other bootcamps and the thing that sets this apart is the communication and philosophy the Firehose staff use to keep future programmers engaged and also supported when hitting the wall...and sooner or later you hit the wall when learning to program. The fact that I was often supported as well as given positive reinforcement was great and made bette rby the fact that if I had a question it was almost answered before I asked it. I think there are many good and some great coding schools out there but the ones that communicate actively as well as push in the positive way and direction are the ones that shine. So far my experience with Firehose has been extremely positive and it keeps me working through the prep work feeling that if I go furthur I will be well supported in leaning all I need to learn...and some things they will make me awrae I need to learn. 

 

 

 

 

Before joining the boot camp prep program at Firehose I already had some programming background, nothing serious but still. I also studied HTLM back in school quite a long time ago. So far I have only completed the HTML part and am just diving into Ruby which I'm really looking forward to.

What I must say is that in these 2 hours of watching HTML tutorials I've probably learned more than in 20-25h at school. It's qiute a simple task if you know basics of programing and might be a bit challenging if you don't. But it is definitely enjoyable and I absolutely love the format and pace of the videos. Barely any theory, straight to practice.

I must add that I have participated in several other online coding courses related to Java, C, Python and whatnot. And trust me this is the only one that got me on hook. For the first time I don't want to dump the course after a couple of lessons.

Definitely would do it again.

P.S. I recieved feedback to my code sumbissions within couple of minutes and it wasn't some automated copy-paste e-mail. So good work on that Firehose, makes me feel more like in class.

I really appreciate my experience from the Firehose Project (FHP). I have no background with computers or computer science, so joining this bootcamp was my first experience with all these things. The staff is always good at responding to questions. Within the curriculum, there are always ways of getting help, so anyone new should never be afraid to ask for help. Having weekly mentor sessions is part of what makes this program really awesome. I had a mentor who loved mentoring and would be happy to go over the one hour allotment. The group project at the end is a great experience learning to work with others. I think that the job prep section is a good resource, but they don't actually have jobs posted. So in the aspect of job assistance I didn't rate them high. FHP has recently started a advance course section for those who complete the program and want to keep learning. I think this a great resource for people like me who need help getting more experience to land a job. As a new developer, the most important thing I learned is to keep learning. I choose FHP because of the time flexibility of the curriculum and the price was good for me. Many of the other camps I looked at charge much more. The curriculum can be done at your own pace, but they have a recommended pace if you want to keep up with the program. Finally, to highlight what I think are FHP best attributes: ability to go at your own pace, mentors sessions, group project, and price.

I am impressed!

At the moment I am going through their free prep work.  I will tell this, I have never seen something like that before(and I have been looking around for about a year). They are on it; the amount of support they provide is mind blowing. Ken and Marco are the owners of the school; they are also the ones providing the mentorship. If you are serious about a Web Developer career or just looking to get a little knowledge as a newbie; go ahead and just check their free prep work(There is nothing like them out there!). You will thank me later!

I am currently taking the free prep course at The Firehose Project, which is a prerequisite to the full program. I was not sure whether I would have any aptitude for coding, and this prep course is giving me exactly what I needed: an idea of what is involved in being a developer. I am impressed with everything I have seen so far from the team at The Firehose Project. They are helpful, quick to respond to questions, and encouraging. Furthermore, I learned the Firehose teaching team has a background teaching real-world CS courses in college classrooms. This experience is evident. Lessons are designed well; the explanations are clear and easy to assimilate, and anticipate my questions / problems before they occur. This program is geared toward giving students the tools they need not only to be great at coding but also to know how to successfully navigate the resources and community that exist around coding, and to be ready for interviews and teamwork within a work environment, and that part really sold it for me. Very professional program and people.

I am an attorney learning programming for my own purposes -- not to get a new job. So my review is focused on whether I am learning what I need to know and not so much on placement.  I have been in the program for about 4 months.  I have made a simple bio page and three apps -- each of which uses HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Ruby and Rails.  One also uses Javascript. More JS is coming in the next few lessons. There is a lot of concentrated learning ahead.

The program materials and videos are very good. I give them a solid B (and I'm a tough grader). I definitely needed to stop and think, sometimes go to third party materials, to ensure I understood what was being taught.  Sometimes I became frustrated, angry, annoyed, and lost.

Where The Firehose Project really shines though -- and I really think this is critical for an online course -- is the speed at which I was able to get support when I was having problems (which was often).  I would post a question to the lesson questions page and always received an answer within a couple hours -- often within 30 minutes -- day and night.  The coverage was very impressive.  

My guess is if you can afford the time to be in a full time in person bootcamp, that is the best. But for me (and I am guessing for lots of people), that is not an option. The Firehose Project is a solid, worthy option. I'm getting my money's worth and learning what I need to learn.

Michael Burnstein

michael@burnstein.com

My first contact with programming was through this firehose bootcamp prep-course. The lessons waste no time and get you writting your first code almost immediately. The videos are and activities are concise and informative and you have the freedom to go as fast or slow as you want. Not only were the firehouse instructors friendly and helpful, most of my questions were answered, by reading the comments section of the activity, before they were even asked. I would highly recommend this course to anyone considering programming and am looking forward to continuing on my own personal journey.