Flatiron School

This prep course is really good, i have really basic knowledge in php, c++, and I haven’t program in years. This is the first time i get in touch with ruby and JavaScript and this course has been great, easy to understand, very detailed and the instructors... Read More work really hard to help you whenever you have a questions, with a good actitud Really complete. Totally recommended!

Flatiron School's data science prep course is a fantastic tool for anyone considering starting a career in the field. The course starts with python basics, and then covers simple plotting tools and machine learning algorithms. I found the prep to be particularly... Read More useful for putting techniques into practice after I had learned them in books. There is a very vibrant community around the school and help is easy to get from various slack channels as well as the online platform. Perhaps most importantly it is FREE, and has far more content than similar free offerings at dataquest for example.

Flatiron had me hooked from the moment I started the free online prep Bootcamp course. From there I enrolled in the online full-stack web development program. I went from knowing very little HTML, to being able to create full-stack web applications. I... Read More wasn't able to afford to quit my job, so I loved the flexibility of being able to go at my own pace. Since I was working full time, it took me longer than most (15 months), but I appreciated that I didn't feel rushed. The curriculum was set up in such a great way, it built upon the previous lessons and taught you the nitty gritty before you learned the "easy" way to do it. This course is hard for a reason, you learn the ins and outs of coding and apply it to real life situations (pushing all your labs and projects to Github). I couldn't speak high enough regards to Flatiron, everyone I interacted with was passionate about coding, and only wants you to succeed. I enjoyed my time with the instructors as well as my career coach. As I was on my final project, I added profiles on job placement sites. I went on several interviews as I was finishing up my final project without even applying. And before I even graduated I had an offer for my dream job. If you are passionate about coding and have the discipline this is the perfect program for you.

Best decision I ever made was completing the in-person program.

I freelanced as a web designer/developer for several years, and I hit a plateau on what I could learn online. I interviewed for full-time dev jobs and faced rejection after rejection. Everyone said my... Read More foundation was solid but I didn't have enough experience.

This was the closest thing to on-the-job training I could find. From Day 1 I was surprised to discover how little I knew about programming after all the Udemy-type courses I completed. Flatiron School exposed and then filled in the gaps.


Talking about code all day with other people of varying skill levels brought me from codealong/copy-and-paste type of programming to actual understanding and fluency. I learned how to learn about coding, which is a skill unto itself.


At Flatiron School I got experience working with other developers and reasoning about code. They taught us how to think like programmers, and then they provided effective resources for actually landing a job.


In my post-Flatiron job search I managed to completely avoid the soul-crushing trap of submitting resumes into the nether-world of online portals. They got me comfortable going to developer meetups, which quickly led to interviews and then offers. It wasn't immediate, but it was swift.

Oh oh oh- and on the job I accepted, their counter-offer was more than I asked for. Can't make that up. I'd say that probably symbolizes my entire Flatiron School experience.

I will never have another 15 weeks like those I spent at Flatiron, nor will my life be the same after graduating from the program! The school draws together all the best aspects of learning-- the curriculum is very challenging, but achievable; the school's... Read More culture promotes friendship, collaboration, and connections; the material and instruction is relevant now and also prepares you for a lifetime of learning. Lastly a shoutout to Career Services who holds your hand throughout the job search process with expertise and attentiveness, at a level you rarely find in any service as an adult.

Here's my experience in bullet points:
- FREE: other bootcamp preps that I was considering cost multiple thousands
- fully supported: the ask a question feature is there to help you whenever you get stuck
- intuitive content
- user friendly interface
- many... Read More hours of learning available in both javascript and ruby
- successfully prepared me for my technical interview, which yielded admittance into the software immersive program

Though the lessons vary in quality, I was very happy overall with my Flatiron School experience. I got good value out of both the Bootcamp Prep and the Online Full Stack Web Developer course: with just my scholarship and a whole year of free WeWork hot... Read More desk membership, I actually came out ahead financially. Add on top of that the enormous value Flatiron School provides in terms of career coaching and, most importantly, training in how to work as a software engineer (it's not just about coding! It's also about learning how to talk about code, collaborate with others, decipher documentation, etc.).

OUTCOMES

I was able to land a job just a month after graduating - delayed only by the month-long vacation I took to celebrate my graduation.

Plus, Flatiron provides you with great resources post-graduation too. Graduates get free access to all their curriculums forever, not just the one you enrolled in. I now have access to courses on algorithms, mobile development, Java, node.js, and the ever-evolving curriculum on full stack web development.

CAVEATS

Note, however, that passing each Flatiron lab doesn't guarantee a job. Flatiron School is just the beginning of a lifelong journey of mastery. It's important to go beyond your current curriculum: do more than the bare minimum on final projects, learn about algorithms, learn about deployment, and to keep working on outside projects to practice coding, learn new techniques, and hone your problem-solving skills. Meet people who are already software engineers and ask them questions - sometimes the documentation for an API or library are wrong, leave out too much context, or just aren't written clearly.

Another way to put it is: you get what you put in. Flatiron provides resources, but as an online student with no one watching over you, you need to be self-motivated enough to actually use them and ask questions. The instructors available to chat online or through study groups and web conferences are all knowledgeable and friendly, but you have to reach out to them. They can't read your mind to know how they can help you.

COST

Of all the bootcamps I checkout out on Coursereport and Switchup, Flatiron seemed like it would provide the best bang for the buck. Caveat: I was awarded a scholarship that halved my tuition, drastically undercutting any of the other bootcamps I looked at, even if I qualified for any of their measly scholarships. I also preferred Flatiron's upfront monthly payments instead of what other school do, which is to let you pay nothing while you're in school but then give up 10-20% of your first 1-2 years' salary when you get a job. Yeesh. With the salaries I see in the SF Bay Area, it was cheaper for me to pay a max of 12 x $1500 (I was only going to give myself a year to finish) instead of losing 10-20% of what I expected to be a 90k average annual salary for the first 2 years of my career.

PEDAGOGY

I thought the amount of structure was just right. The lessons were modular so I could work around my full-time job and other obligations, yet regular check-ins, engagement strategies (like the "you're on a 10-day hot streak" notice on your dashboard), and of course, the pain of monthly tuition payments, kept me committed to finishing the course as fast as possible.

Some of the lessons can be cryptic - particularly the ones on React, Redux, and Closures in Javascript. But maybe that was intentional? After all, they want you to learn to use the docs - something you'll be doing a lot on the job (even the senior engineers still do it). Anyhow, I ended up doing some Codecademy lessons on React to help me get through the React section. Sometimes I just need to hear the same thing said a different way in order to really get it.

As for their career prep, I loved my coach Shari! She was so friendly, compassionate, yet brutally honest like a good friend. She gave me just the kind of feedback I needed to polish my resume and perform better in my interviews. No one's ever told me what I could improve during interviews - HR never seems to never have time to explain why you were rejected. It was refreshing to finally get a thorough review from an HR pro with decades of experience.

CONCLUSION

Overall, I recommend Flatiron School to anyone that is...

1) looking to learn programming

2) and does not give up easily

3) but needs a little bit of structure to stay focused (they cannot learn just by cobbling together the loads of free lessons and resources available online)

4) and has saved up some money to invest in themselves

I found the prep work assigned prior to my technical interview to be engaging and pedagogically sound. The learn.co platform for Jupyter notebooks, integrated with Github, is the best coding interface I've used on a website. It was great to be able to... Read More ask (and answer!) questions in a dedicated forum for the course or on a more general Slack channel.

I originally planned to attend the on-campus program in NYC, but I am very happy to have taken the online program route. I was able to follow the curriculum at my pace, and best of all, only paid $4,500 compared to the $15,000 if I would have taken it... Read More on-campus. The instructors and overall curriulum is outstanding! I went from having very little programming knowledge to being able to create a full stack website from the comfort of my home. The entire program took four months to complete, and with the help of their career services team, I was employed 1.5 months after graduation. Thanks to Flatiron School, I was able to transition into a developer role and double my salary. It is the best decision that I've made, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in a coding bootcamp.

Attending Flatiron School was the best decision I have ever made. The discovery that coding is my passion and destined career path came long delayed, after I had graduated with a degree and pursued a career in finance. The idea that I could transition... Read More into the tech world through a "bootcamp" within a matter of months as opposed to going back to school was truly unbelievable and unrealistic. However, after due diligence of research on coding bootcamps and discovering that this is in fact a thing that people do...I decided it was worth a shot and began extending my research to find the right program for me.

After several days of debating between several different programs within NYC, I finally chose Flatiron's Online Web Developer Immersive course. This decision was mainly influenced by financial and logistical factors. Firstly, I could not afford to quit my job to attend a full-time on-campus course, so an online self-paced program was ideal. Further, the cost of this program was absolutely unbeatable. I compare to App Academy, which was the first program I looked into and almost ended up joining, that averaged to a cost of $17,000. In total, Flatiron School ended up costing me less than $3000 and it was the best $3000 ever spent.

I ended up finishing the course in just a little over 3 months, but this was a result of committing 45+ hours a week on-top of my full-time job. This may sound crazy...committing this much time to a course on top of a full-time job, but I attribute my ability to do this fully to Flatiron and the way that they design their curriculum. It never felt like a chore to me and I truly enjoyed going through the coursework. I would spend 8+ straight hours going through the coursework not even realizing how much time had passed.

That said, it must be noted that the course was certainly very challenging. There were moments where I almost thought that it was too hard and that I wasn't cut out for this career path after all. However, the support/guidance of the online instructors always shut these doubts down as they were always able to help me work through whatever learning rut I was in and I was always able to get over each hurdle and continue through the progression of the course.

The online instructor assistance was very effective. There were times that I would have to wait in a queue for a screenshare in order to get assistance on whatever issue I was experiencing, but I never felt that I had to wait an unreasonable amount of time. The instructors always remained on the screenshare/call until my issue was resolved and questions were answered. They also made sure to guide me to discovering a resolution/answer on my own, rather than just telling me the answer which in my personal opinion is the best way to learn.

Now to the most important part..how much I learned and how it translated to getting an actual job as a developer. Well for starters, I went from not knowing a single coding language or anything to do with coding at all, to being able to build a robust web application on my own, with a React/Redux front-end and Rails backend API in three months. Even so, upon reaching this success endpoint, I still wasn't sure what this meant as it relates to getting hired.

Initially the job search process was a little bit discouraging. It seemed like almost every developer job I came across was a senior role, requesting candidates with 3+ years of experience. However, I didn't let this hinder my process and just applied for any opportunity that I could. And with that....I landed my first role before I had even officially graduated from Flatiron School, with an $85k salary.

My first role (which I am still currently in), is actually a temp-to-hire position (I was hired as a 'short-term-employee'). The idea here is that bootcamp grads are a "risky hire", so it is common for these grads to be hired on a contract-to-perm basis in order to be vetted for their skills/knowledge. This is a completely understandable thought-process/strategy, and much much better than the scenario I have read countless times on forums discussing coding bootcamps, which suggest that most tech camps won't even read the resume of a bootcamp grad and that bootcamp grads are not taken seriously. These claims are completely false; while I have no doubt that there are tech companies out there that will throw away a resume of a bootcamp grad, there are also many many that won't. In fact, the company that I work for, which is very small (about 30 people total), has two other Flatiron grads currently working there!

All things considered, my experience at Flatiron was nothing short of ideal. To be able to completely change my career within a matter of months, without taking a pay cut, without spending thousands of dollars on coursework and without ever going through a state of unemployment is a bit unfathomable but this is the exact scenario that I lived through. That said, I must say that this is NOT for everyone. I believe that I am able to share this success story because I already came from a fairly analytical background and while I did not have any experience coding, my prior job involved a lot of financial modeling in Excel and a lot of analytical thinking/problem solving. I believe these skills are very transferable to coding as being a good coder in my opinion has less to do with knowing a coding language and more to do with one's thought process and knowing how to think analytically and problem-solve. This is a learned skill, certainly, but it comes naturally more to some than others. And with that I would strongly suggest anyone considering a coding bootcamp to be sure that coding is right for them, because if it is not, it would be unrealistic to expect the same successful outcome, which would have little to do with Flatiron School itself and more so with the individual's ability to master the coursework.

In sum, I honestly have nothing negative to say about Flatiron School and highly recommend to anyone that's confident about their decision to transition their career into tech. For the first time in my life I can actually say I love what I do. I look forward to going to work every day and I enjoy every minute I spend at work. This is a very very foreign thought to me as it comes after years of being miserable in my career and beginning to accept the idea that work is meant to be an unhappy place. I owe it to Flatiron for changing my life and giving me the opportunity to finally be happy in my career and be exactly where I belong.