Dev Academy

I'd say it's OK, but sure is overpriced. Main head tutor is great, but TA's are very average. The pace is very fast.
Imagine watching a YouTube recipe of how to make 5 course gourmet meal, but with x5 speed - that's now it feels.
Gonna learn a lot on your... Read More own before you go there and especially after. Wasted 10k on what probably is worth not more than 4-5k.
Lovely people, but you are just a number for them.

It’s been said that software development is both an art and a science. It’s an art because it takes skill, patience, and repeated practice to master. And just like art, software development has the potential to produce works of beauty. It’s also a science... Read More because it’s a systematic body of knowledge that is inherently logical, structured, and interrelated in its parts. And just like science, software development has the potential to produce technology bordering on the magical.

Knowing this, imagine therefore how excited I felt when I boarded a plane on August 26, 2016, in San Francisco, California, to fly to Wellington—New Zealand’s up-and-coming tech capital. There, over the course of the next two months, I would dedicate myself to the study of software development at an organization called Enspiral Dev Academy. Thus began one of the greatest adventures of my life—and one I will always remember, for it has altered the course of my life.

I’ve loved computers as far back as I can remember. In the 80’s, while other children were drawing doodles with crayons and paper, I would “draw” pictures on one of the first Macintosh computers (I was fortunate enough to have had one at home), dedicate these drawings to my parents using a five-year old’s spelling and grammar, and then properly print and hand the drawings to them; and when I was 14, I created a functional word processor using QuickBASIC. But even though computers remained a significant part of my life experience, I didn’t make software development the main focus of my adult life; meanwhile, the skills I eventually did acquire were largely self-taught. As a result, I had become under-skilled in an area that was becoming more in-demand than ever before.

So it was no coincidence, then, that I chose to enroll in the Enspiral Dev Academy (EDA) software developer bootcamp, since EDA itself has its roots in another collaborative business model that appeals to my sensibilities called Enspiral, a “virtual and physical network of companies and professionals brought together by a set of shared values and a passion for positive social impact.” Since, to me, the key to success in business and in life lies in the spirit of collaboration, I resonated with Enspiral’s heart and mission. Thus, the choice for EDA became a straightforward one. I also discovered that EDA is more affordable than some other software development programs in the U.S., even if you factor in the cost of the flight and local accommodations.

It takes great skill to teach software development in such a way that the artistic as well as the scientific elements of this craft are fully passed on and embedded into the student’s consciousness. A holistic curriculum that trains body, mind, and heart, has, in my experience, the potential to not only properly teach a craft, but also to become a transformative, life-changing experience in the process.

But what exactly does a holistic software development program consist of? In addition to our already packed software development curriculum, we had semi-weekly yoga classes, daily mindfulness meditations, several daily group check-ins, weekly engineering empathy sessions, integrated team dynamic lessons, as well as a school-wide commitment to integrity, kindness, and effort. Rather than being a distraction from learning how to actually code, the emphasis on holistic learning helped me learn more. As a matter of fact, I’ve learned more in these nine weeks than I have in over ten years as a self-taught software developer. I personally found the holistic curriculum at EDA to be incredibly effective.

However, one doesn’t need to know how to code in order to attend the Enspiral Dev Academy bootcamp: Many of my fellow classmates had never touched a single line of code prior to beginning their 9-week remote preparatory course that immediately preceded the 9-week Wellington-based bootcamp. By the end of the course, I was in awe at how well we all knew how to craft a fully-functioning web app. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that the most important qualities a student can bring to the program aren’t previous skills, but an openness to new experiences as well as a willingness to absorb new information.

Bootcamp is not for the faint-of-heart, however. You’ll have to really want to learn to code, because it’s that intense desire that’ll get you through the day, each and every day. For example, shortly upon my arrival in Aotearoa (the Māori name for New Zealand) I tore my right knee meniscus and got tendonitis in the right ankle; as a result I was experiencing acute pain and was on crutches for much of my time there (fortunately, intensive care units in Aotearoa are free for those with accidents); I also caught the flu. Yet nothing dissuaded me from making the most of my time there, precisely because I had had this burning desire to learn and absorb new information.

It was during that time that I also fell in love with Wellington’s coffee culture: I would have one or two flat whites each morning (the Kiwi equivalent to a latte)—with almond milk and a side of coconut oil, bulletproof coffee-style for sustained energy—to help me get through the day. Little treats and rewards like that encouraged me to keep going, even when the going got tough.

The spirit of teamwork and passion of EDA’s instructors was also evident: I could tell that they not only lived to code and coded for a living, but also loved to collaboratively work together and freely share their knowledge. Having them as role models made the transition from student to graduate significantly easier (thanks, Simon Tegg, Piet Geursen, mix irving, Joseph Quested, Sarrah Jayne, et al!)

Now that I’m back in California, what happened seems a little bit like a strange dream: Did I really just learn how to code in a lovely, far away country full of kind people… did that really just happen? Yet, when I connect with my fellow teammates or open the now familiar Atom code editor and look at code, I remember that this all really did happen, and that I really do know how to code. Tears are coming to my eyes as I’m writing this: By having learned how to code, I was given a gift of immense value, for this gift can help me build the startup I’ve been wanting to build for many years, provide a stable financial source for future social endeavors, and support loved ones for the rest of my life.

Also published here: https://medium.com/enspiral-tales/full-stack-software-developer-bootcamp-at-enspiral-dev-academy-6e9fbdac1974

What a waste of money and time. Trainers were poor and all the talk before the course started about being job ready was all false. Have gone with an international qualification now online and the support is 10 times better (try out learningpeople.com.au)... Read More - have learnt more in the first two months than I did with Dev Academy. Asked for a refund and they wouldn't give it to me.

Hello,
I second the comments of many people before me. Instead of $11,000 NZD it is worth more like $5,000. I think a lot of people in EDA mean well, but results count, and EDA has very limited contacts as far as getting people a job is concerned. EDA's... Read More website says 86% of people that graduated more than 4 months ago are working as developers. Knowing my own cohert that was certainly not true. Out of approx 10 people, 2 got a job. EDA should publish the response rate of the survey. I think most people who haven't found gainful employment find it painful to answer the survey.

The rest of the people are 'inactive'. They might be employed alright, but not in software development. I would caution against borrowing the $11,000. It is a lot of money to pay back especially if one can't get a job quickly enough.

As with most things you get what you put in. If you decide to do it, I would suggest working hard. Half of my cohort were allowed to go through all the phases of bootcamp despite a severe lack of understanding and evidence to show they were working hard. In a project team, you'd be the only one who'd have knowledge on how to do the project. The rest of the people were just being dragged along.

On the positive side, I saw teachers put in long hours, and I admire that they believe they can make a positive difference to the traditional education model. Yoga and meditation were alright.

EDA is not NZQA certified. You don't get a degree, if that's important to you.

Good luck :)

Well, I read all this, and as EDA grad I want to add my 5 cents.

EDA advertising has 2 big promises:
1) That you will be learn how to code from ‘zero to junior’ in 18 weeks.
2) That you will be able to get a job in a short period of time after graduation... Read More through their extensive ‘partner network’.

I wasn't too much interested in the first, because I had IT experience under my belt, though I didn’t mind refreshing my skillset. What was really interesting to me, is the second promise.

But let's jump into details. I was taught by the DevBootcamp licensed curriculum, in the Ruby programming language, which EDA had implemented in their programme.

Phase 0 was easy, but I never actually got any feedback. It was ok for me, ‘cause I can understand myself if I am doing alright, but half of my cohort obviously weren’t prepared enough after it, because they failed to complete exercises similar to phase 0, and didn't understand concepts that they were supposed to understand by the course authors.
Phase 1 was easy as well, I managed to finish all necessary tasks, and was even able to finish additional ones, but other people in my cohort were not able to finish even compulsory curriculum tasks (as it was designed by Dev Bootcamp), but were allowed to continue phase 1 as if we weren’t in a bootcamp, but some ‘children's playground’.

Hi, EDA peeps, do you know it's called a ‘bootcamp’ in the USA for a reason??? People are supposed to 'sweat' while learning and getting things done, not moved along without understanding and attaining the ability to code. At the end of the day, big companies which you called ‘partners’ have tech interviews for grads, where they ask them typical problem solving tasks to complete, and those tasks were the part of phase 1, that half of my cohort were unable to do properly, and you haven't bothered to point it out to them and teach them, and made them rollback like you should of.

The other part of my cohort, who were able to teach themselves, moved ahead reasonably well, but there was a common understanding, that you didn’t need to work hard to move forward which was evidently discouraging for the more technically capable people in our group.

And again, I haven't got any review of my code during the whole of phase 1.
By course design we were supposed to read additional articles and books, but only me and another guy had done it, the others moved along without a clear understanding of the basics, and again, nobody bothered to check that. On phase 2, I clearly saw that personal projects, which were supposed to be key to proceeding to phase 3, were not made by half of the cohort again. Finally, I got one code review for my code, for a 1 personal project from 3 that were submitted.

Group projects were a Mess:
1) Because half of the cohort weren’t prepared properly( you either had to spend time explaining basics to people, or code on your own)
2) Because tasks in groups were not split properly(we weren't on a project management course; at least once or twice, tasks should've been split by TAs or teachers)
3) Because the idea of doing the stuff you wanted to learn on a group project was really counterproductive (people neither learnt stuff, nor polished skills that they had).

My last group project was a bit better, because 2 people finally rolled back, and the other 2 least prepared people were doing another project, so my group was able to finish a prototype in a reasonably good state. The other group were unable to do that.
So, then we graduated, at least 2 people from my cohort were not able to code, though they definitely had a lot of potential in them, they were not prepared properly.

TA's were a joke mostly, though teachers were great. I bet that strong students from my cohort, including myself, understand development better than most of the TA's (and imho as long as all TA's are former graduates, it shows the level of EDA preparation, or lack thereof). Maybe only Dan Lewis was able to provide sound advice, but he was quite busy with actual contracting jobs most of the time.

So, in terms of ‘learning experience’, EDA is actually not that great. And, just as a ‘chain is as strong as the weakest link’, EDAs quality of education is judged by it’s least prepared student who comes to an interview, and evidently it's not great quality.
So, I believe that EDA fails to deliver that promise of learning to code in 18 weeks from zero to junior for many students, even if they don't understand that.

Careers week and career support was the main thing I came to EDA for, because I often fail in selling myself, and gosh, how stupid I was. I expected that there would be actual partnerships with big tech players, that EDA could recommend us, and help to get an actual job/internship. On the first day of careers week we went through the cards on the trello board, and Rohan told us which company is good in his opinion, and which is not, giving the impression that companies are waiting in a line for us, and we can actually select where we can go.

In fact, most of the companies that were marked as companies with jobs were on a hiring freeze, and contacts which we were supposed to be there, either didn’t reply, or were not serious leads (I bet that half of the people who were marked as ‘contacts’ already worked for places other than was stated in corresponding trello cards, i.e. these were old leads).
The only positive impression from EDA job support is Ruth Mcdavitt, who actually knows some people and can make an introduction, if you are lucky. But she is quite busy with her own project, ‘Summer of Tech, and EDA is just a side gig for her.

I am often wondering how many actual grads get jobs straight after Bootcamp with the companies that they called ‘partners’, for example, TradeMe, Xero, PartsTrader, etc…

The EDA site states: "...We’re with you until you land that first job' http://www.devacademy.co.nz/careers/. By no means that statement is true. When you are not their ‘success story’, you become a burden to them, and they don't bother to speak with so-called ‘partners’ about you. So basically - you are on your own, and EDA fails to deliver its second big promise - that you are going to get a job. I don't believe in their stats about 81% of people who get a job within 3 months after the bootcamp, based on recent cohorts (that could only be if you only count people who started to work as TA's for EDA, people who gave up looking for a software developer job and got another day job, and people who got a job in the IT industry, but not as a software developer). People like Steven Brown, Richard Garcia... looked for a job for ages.

The EDA bootcamp wasn't hard to me, but those months after EDA that I spent looking for my first software developer job - that was one of the hardest times in my life. I almost fell into depression which was devastating it was for me personally. Now that I work as a dev, I’m fine, but all that time after EDA I lived on borrowed money, and I have accumulated a large amount of debt still to this date which I obviously have to pay back...

They also have a promise for employers, that people, who come through EDA are good team players. I think they fail with that as well. Because of differences between skill levels amongst people in your cohort, we had quite bad team dynamics, and I have seen much better team work in my life to be honest.

The yoga lessons were alright, in fact it's one of the most positive things about the course, Sarah is a great teacher, but yoga lessons were supposed to unite the team, and in fact it divided us - those who did yoga, and those who spent their time in the 2 other rooms coding or doing something else. Meditation lessons were useless, some time after EDA, I downloaded the Headspace App, and in no time I “grok it”, but I was unable to do that there.

So, long story short, if you have industry connections yourself, if you have a spare 11k, and if you are good at learning on your own, you may go and spend some time there, because they are actually nice people. But if you lack any of these - don't waste your time, you can do better at other places. If you don’t have the money - learn on your own, you won’t miss much from their team experience. Do a course at Udacity nanodegree/Coursera, they are well structured. If you don't have industry connections - don't expect any help from EDA, you will have to make those connections on your own anyway, so it’s better to choose other schools that do have actual industry partners. And if you are not good at learning on your own - better go and get a classical uni education, it's usually a good way to help with your learning goals.

With the wave of 'learn to code' being the skill set that's encouraged in the future, we have seen a trend of bootcamps jump onboard and promise to turn you from zero to hero in the space of 18 weeks, but I would warn people to not just jump on the bandwagon... Read More whilst you spend a dump truck of savings ($11k and up) for these courses.

Personally I think it's a very risky thing - spending $11k of hard earned money on a course that's has no governmental oversight or auditing of curriculum, practices etc...As a private company, these coding bootcamps aren't regulated by stringent Government oversight which protects consumers (Read this:http://www.fastcompany.com/3025896/california-orders-coding-bootcamps-to-stop-enrollment-and-issue-refunds)...it's too much of an 'all or nothing' approach to getting a foot in the door of the tech industry, either you spend a tonne of money in a short intensive period of time and get a job or you don't. Buyer Beware.

TL;DR: "A Fast Company feature on hack schools last month found that the field is largely unregulated, with many different teaching styles, curricula, and hiring practices across the board. It is not uncommon, for example, for coding bootcamps to hire alums to lead the classroom."

Anyway, back to Dev Academy specifically - Yes I found the course fairly intensive. It was an 18 week bootcamp, split between offline (phase 0) and the actual bootcamp (9 weeks onsite coding with your cohort).

Phase 0 - Offsite, online learning:
I would rank this as mostly 'ok' and yes we learnt a lot in that period, but I think there were some shaky aspects such as lack of marking our work (i.e. feedback)...in fact this was never given, so you could have gone through this phase without really knowing if you were meeting tutor expectations or falling behind other students in your cohort. Frankly this is unacceptable - especially as it exists to prepare us for bootcamp, which I felt underprepared for in some respects technically. There were good parts, I liked the regular google hangouts checkins to see where people were at and we the use of Slack to get support from other cohort members and tutors.
We learnt basic HTML, CSS and Javascript (including react frameworks etc...)

Phase 1 - Bootcamp:
I had very high expectations for this as it was the 'real deal' of the course whereby we would learn industry tools and best practises. Again very intensive and we learnt a lot in a short space of time. Sometimes the pedagogy was a bit 'hit and miss'....Each day began with a one hour lecture with a bit of code review (from the previous day), this was good and our tutor was excellent and professional and answered questions mostly well, other tutors I noticed were too friendly to others (cute females shall I say?)...I guess if you're the person who likes deep diving and figuring things out with minimal supervision or fundamental explanation of concepts at the very start, then Dev Academy suits your style, but I don't think this framework suits all learning types and it didn't mine. Buyer Beware.

I would say that in fairness if I did try coding by myself without the support of others in my cohort and/or professional tutorial support then I would have given up....Going through an intense course where they 'held my hand' definitely accelerated my learning and gave me the mental paradigm to push through solving problems, so I give them credit for that, they deserve that.

The last week was 'careers week' which was super relaxed, with us bringing out our CVs and getting them up to speed, followed by an overview of companies that we could apply for. Honestly this is what it boils down to - getting a junior dev position in the industry. Unfortunately this is where Dev Academy sorely falls short. Their advertising gives the impression that they have these 'industry partners' and an infrastructure to help get you a job. The gap between their advertising and reality is stark - don't fall for that like I did and don't believe any bootcamps job stats unless they have been independently audited by an external organisation. (Dev Academy says that their student outcomes are 81% within 4 months, but that's dubious and I reckon it's really more like 30-40%....I gather this because when they first came out 2 years ago, they used to give live jobs stats for each cohort and I think it progressively got bad, so they probably got rid of that because it's bad PR to charge $11k and have bad job stats...Buyer Beware.

Check out the Way Back Machine(an Archive record of known sites on the web and their history):

http://web.archive.org/web/20150113020941/http://devacademy.co.nz/program/

It would be difficult to fight this in court and get my hard earned money back, having signed a very cleverly written contract whereby Dev Academy holds no responsibility for getting you a job. Ok, fine I get that - no school or institute can guarantee you a job, and I firmly believe you have to earn your keep. But don't advertise on Facebook and on other online mediums promoting this false promise that you have these industry contacts with 'partners' which gives applicants the impression that you will at least provide the infrastructure to get a job with these people. Buyer Beware.

All we have is a Trello Board with Companies and job leads that hasn't been significantly updated at least a year ago, and I suspect most of those leads are dried up by now. A 'careers' channel that gets a job or half a job (think part time 10 - 15 hours a week) every 2 weeks that everyone fights for.... come on seriously...Buyer Beware.

The best way that I've honestly come across from personal experience is going to events and networking with people - I've busted my ass to get my own leads without EDA's support and that's what makes me angry and feel let down. Buyer Beware.

TL; DR: If you are well networked within the Tech industry and have spent a significant of time coding in your personal time, it may be worth doing this kind of course because you could potentially get in industry much faster then a computer science degree (again $11k, no job guarantee, no real 'job support')...
However if you're a total beginner coder without good existing networks then have a really good think about it, I'm not saying it's impossible, just go into it with open eyes and ask EDA the hard questions about job support and use Google (google search "name of bootcamp + review") will bring up relevant course review sites like this amongst others.

Anyway, happy coding!

This course is way over priced for what is offered and be wary of their advertising. They count graduates employed by Dev Academy (on a casual basis as tutors) and grads employed in jobs unrelated to ICT as 'employed'.

Unless you have previous coding experience... Read More or have another skill that a dev company will want then you're unlikely to come out of this with the technical skills and theoretical knowledge required to secure an entry level dev role.

Hopefully things have changed since I went through the programme but during my time there it was poorly organised. I did the C# stream and the majority of our course content had not been converted from Ruby. As a result the C# tutor spent a lot of his time converting the Ruby exercises to C#.

Totally agree with the comment from another reviewer about "many recruiting 'partners' had no knowledge they were being labelled as such".

Overall I'd say you'd be better off investing your time and money else where.

I came to bootcamp as a career change, like many others. My experience in coding was beginner -self taught on-line.
The first, self-directed 9 weeks of the course was mainly on-line tutorials, with minimal support or meaningful feedback. Some support from... Read More tutors was there, but when some of the instructions were vague, it was hard to get clarification on where to start on a challenge.

The focus on the basics was good, a good balance of mindfulness and building up technical knowledge and skills gradually. There could have been more emphasis and support on working with algorithms that would be needed, or understood more fully, in the next 9 weeks.

The second nine weeks on-site was full on for the first three weeks, getting progressively less and less structured. There was a great emphasis on pair programming at the start, and we all gained confidence in tackling challenges individually after that.

The hardest part for me was dealing emotionally with the skill difference that emerged within the group. This environment is very different from school. There is no pass or fail, only an accumulation of experiences with the tools of tech, and how to work with humans productively (or not). The biggest thing was letting go of the comparison habit. I am what I am, and that is always changing.

I had some really good experiences working with peers to bash out projects. I think we covered some good ground with various JavaScript technologies. Having a crack at React and Redux was good, it gave me confidence to tackle other platforms post-bootcamp.

The biggest asset I've come away with I think is that I can now approach problems as a problem solving coder. There are various structures and techniques that help me tackle problems. That confidence in being able to systematically work through a bug is invaluable.

The curriculum was good, but some of the group sought harder challenges. I thought it stretched me a lot, and covered some good ground. Some of the instructions could have been clearer, and some of the lectures could have benefitted from breaking down concepts into smaller chunks maybe? Hard to say that, as we wouldn't have gotten through as much material if we'd lingered on simple concepts.

Lightning talks were invaluable, short prep, 5 min talks with no notes and immediate feedback on verbal ticks and quality of presentation. Great experience in talking about tech to an audience of potential non-tech-ies.

The job support was focussed, but less intense. Great advice, and support, pulling together a CV, interviewing techniques and some background on the local tech community. It fell short however of introductions to industry players, or leads into actual work places. That's where it's been hard so far. Looking for any kind of work is hard on the ego, wanting someone to give you a break. It feels like a balance between putting yourself out there, and working on personal projects that will hopefully help you 'make your own luck'. There is a connection missing from companies looking for junior developers, and us graduates.

There were good talks and sessions on Engineering Empathy, but there was push-back from some in the group that meant that I didn't get as much from it as hoped possibly? One particularly good session was on diversity, or the lack of it in the tech industry. i really want to follow up on this, as a person from a minority section of society.

All in all, I have learnt and experienced two to three years of trying to teach myself to code, in the space of four months.

Awesome, and Hard.

I came to bootcamp as a career change, like many others. My experience in coding was beginner -self taught on-line.
The first, self-directed 9 weeks of the course was mainly on-line tutorials, with minimal support or meaningful feedback. Some support from... Read More tutors was there, but when some of the instructions were vague, it was hard to get clarification on where to start on a challenge.

The focus on the basics was good, a good balance of mindfulness and building up technical knowledge and skills gradually. There could have been more emphasis and support on working with algorithms that would be needed, or understood more fully, in the next 9 weeks.

The second nine weeks on-site was full on for the first three weeks, getting progressively less and less structured. There was a great emphasis on pair programming at the start, and we all gained confidence in tackling challenges individually after that.

The hardest part for me was dealing emotionally with the skill difference that emerged within the group. This environment is very different from school. There is no pass or fail, only an accumulation of experiences with the tools of tech, and how to work with humans productively (or not). The biggest thing was letting go of the comparison habit. I am what I am, and that is always changing.

I had some really good experiences working with peers to bash out projects. I think we covered some good ground with various JavaScript technologies. Having a crack at React and Redux was good, it gave me confidence to tackle other platforms post-bootcamp.

The biggest asset I've come away with I think is that I can now approach problems as a problem solving coder. There are various structures and techniques that help me tackle problems. That confidence in being able to systematically work through a bug is invaluable.

The curriculum was good, but some of the group sought harder challenges. I thought it stretched me a lot, and covered some good ground. Some of the instructions could have been clearer, and some of the lectures could have benefitted from breaking down concepts into smaller chunks maybe? Hard to say that, as we wouldn't have gotten through as much material if we'd lingered on simple concepts.

Lightning talks were invaluable, short prep, 5 min talks with no notes and immediate feedback on verbal ticks and quality of presentation. Great experience in talking about tech to an audience of potential non-tech-ies.

The job support was focussed, but less intense. Great advice, and support, pulling together a CV, interviewing techniques and some background on the local tech community. It fell short however of introductions to industry players, or leads into actual work places. That's where it's been hard so far. Looking for any kind of work is hard on the ego, wanting someone to give you a break. It feels like a balance between putting yourself out there, and working on personal projects that will hopefully help you 'make your own luck'. There is a connection missing from companies looking for junior developers, and us graduates.

There were good talks and sessions on Engineering Empathy, but there was push-back from some in the group that meant that I didn't get as much from it as hoped possibly? One particularly good session was on diversity, or the lack of it in the tech industry. i really want to follow up on this, as a person from a minority section of society.

All in all, I have learnt and experienced two to three years of trying to teach myself to code, in the space of four months.

Awesome, and Hard.