DevelopMe_

Coding Fellowship, Bristol: Mar - Jun 2020

I am very pleased with my decision to study with DevelopMe_ as part of the Spring 2020 cohort. I had had some reservations regarding how things would proceed in light of lockdowns, but I in fact found myself immensely... Read More impressed with the way DevelopMe_ adapted to restrictions, and succeeded in delivering an immersive and personal experience despite the challenges of online teaching.

The curriculum itself and the technologies taught are thoughtfully chosen to teach a skillset thorough and broad enough to be job-ready and building your own projects alone in just 12 weeks, which is no mean feat. The instructors were able to strike an effective balance between supporting those who need help, and stretching those who did not. Without fail, everyone in the cohort graduated with a solid knowledge base in popular frameworks and languages providing them an excellent platform on which to start their job search.

Throughout the course, I felt engaged, challenged, and supported. The later weeks of the course I found particularly demanding, but this only added to the sense of satisfaction and achievement upon successfully building and presenting our final project at the end of the course. The instructors made themselves available throughout the course for whenever help was required, and DevelopMe_ even sent out care packages to get us through lockdown. As a cohort, we were able to meet up virtually outside the course, and were able to enjoy the social aspects of the course despite the restrictions.

There are many bootcamps out there, but DevelopMe_ stands out for three reasons:

1.. Instructors, Teaching:
They're knowledgable, personable, friendly, and approachable. Wed development is not a simple subject, yet the instructors are able to explain difficult concepts in a way that is methodical and comprehensible. There are thousands of YouTube tutorials out there on all sort of subjects pertaining to web development, but not a single one comes close to the thorough, up-to-date, and surprisingly straight-forward lessons these instructors are able to deliver.

2. Comprehensive Curriculum:
The course is extremely well-designed, and in retrospect is impressive in its ability to take a student from no-experience to Full Stack in 12 weeks. The course steadily progresses through programming concepts to specific languages, to specific frameworks. The cumulative nature of this learning means that difficult concepts dont feel quite as difficult, due to already possessing the prerequisite knowledge. By the end of the course, you will have skills broad enough such that if you have an idea - you already have the skills with which to build it.

3.. Personal touch, care, support:
Care packages, weekly one-on-ones, virtual social meetups, dedicated virtual rooms to drop in with a TA any time, practise interviews, and job support. There is a well established graduate community offering help, advice and support, and DevelopMe_ will continue to assist you even after you have finished the course.

Given the chance again, I would choose DeveloipMe_ Bristol again without hesitation. I would strongly recommend this course to anyone looking to get into web development, whether they be university graduates or career changers; or those looking to develop their web development knowledge.

How do I award 6 stars? Outstanding.

I underwent DevelopMe_'s coding fellowship determined to make a career move into web development, and that's exactly what the course allowed me to achieve. The level of support throughout the course is exceptional, and the amount of attention and help... Read More each student receives rivals any university. While some students came from tech backgrounds, if the pre coursework is completed, the course can easily take someone with no background in tech to the skill level of a junior developer. While COVID has meant that jobs are more thin, the course provided me with a foundation where I could confidently apply for junior roles.

The course is intense as you are constantly learning new things, but days are broken up with regular breaks, and you are made to feel more than comfortable with snacks sent to you and weekly one to one meetings. Highly recommended!

DevelopMe are doing a fantastic job raising the next generation of developers. I took the Full-Stack Web Development course and it was excellent! The tech-stack they teach is modern and relevant to the area so you can rest assured you will finish the... Read More course with the right skills and technologies to find a job.

I took the course between March and June 2020. Normally the course would take place in the classroom but due to covid-19 we had to do it remotely. Luckily, DevelopMe did an amazing job adapting to the difficult situation and all the teaching material and lectures were still delivered to high quality. The teachers are experts at their fields and the teaching-assistants are very knowledgeable and are always happy to help. Every week you will have a 1 to 1 session with one of the members of staff where they will give you an honest appraisal on how you are doing and will ask you for any feedback on how they can do things better.

Doing a coding bootcamp with DevelopMe has a lot of additional perks like sending parcels to our homes containing snacks of our choosing and stress management lectures to help you emotionally going through this intensive course. After finishing the course DevelopMe will do their best to arrange for you, as many interviews as possible with companies they work with, who they call "Hiring Partners". 2 weeks after finishing the course I was arranged an interview with a hiring partner which ended up employing me!

I completed the DevelopMe Coding Fellowship in June 2020. I found the course material and instructors to be excellent. The instructors were all experts in their field, and extremely knowledgeable. The instructors and teaching assistants were always available... Read More to help and worked hard to facilitate our learning. The course topics were very relevant to what is required in the current job market.

I took the course during the Covid-19 pandemic and the team at DevelopMe did a fantastic job of making the course work remotely. They even sent snacks to our homes!

Understandably given the environment caused by Covid-19 there seemed to be fewer hiring partners recruiting than normal after the course completion. However, I was very lucky to get a job with a hiring partner after completing the course.

I would recommend DevelopMe to anyone wanting to move to a career in tech.

DevelopMe was a fantastic experience. I felt very well supported throughout the entire bootcamp by both the Instructors and Teaching Assistants. You can tell they really care about their students and creating a positive community. This was especially... Read More important for me as I attended the bootcamp (remotely) during covid lockdown in Bristol. The quality of the instructors is top notch with most of them having over 10-15+ years of experience.

They have weekly 1-to-1s with different people from the course to check in, give you feedback on your performance, and for you to provide any feedback. They also arranged 2-3 group mental wellness sessions with an expert where we learned about dealing with stress and how the brain works. This was amazing!

The tech stack taught is modern and up to date. There are quite a few jobs around Bristol that match it as well. I ended up getting a job in a fairly different stack so don't feel like it locks you into that stack. You learn programming fundamentals and how to learn a language which are very important skills in the fast-changing world of web development.

Getting a job was the most difficult part of the process. I graduated at the end of June 2020, so not many companies were hiring junior developers. DevelopMe was supportive in providing guidance, resources, organizing a project to work on, and helping with connections. The projects done during the course were invaluable in discussing during the interview process. There was not much activity with hiring partners (I had 1 interview arranged by DevelopMe), but my understanding was that was mainly caused by covid. I was able to get 7 more interviews on my own and landed after 2mo of full-time job hunting.

Post-course you are part of the Alumni Slack channel which is a nice little community of fellow web developers. It's a great place to learn about new happenings in the industry or get help with a question you're really stuck on.

My experience of the Develop Me Coding Fellowship was fantastic. After becoming interested in coding through a friend, I contacted the school directly and had a great conversation with the founder Pete and was able to have an honest conversation and ask... Read More all the questions I had about the course. The level of support prior to the course beginning was fab - there are fortnightly virtual catch ups where you can ask questions and chat to alumni, the Slack channel is very active and members of the Develop Me team were easy to contact if you had any questions about the prep work. The prep work itself is very time consuming but incredibly helpful and definitely sets you up well for the coming months. Once the course had begun I was incredibly impressed by the quality of teaching from all of the teachers and very pleased with the balance between lectures and time to work on challenges, as well as opportunities to work individually and in groups. I completed the bootcamp virtually, however there was a great community feel on the course and all of my coursemates were lovely people who was I happy to see every day (albeit over webcam)! Finally, although I technically completed the course 2 weeks ago, the level of continued support from Develop Me has been wonderful as they put a lot of work into helping you get a job once the course is over - from mock interviews to sessions on how to write skills-based CVs, it has all been great. Over all I can't recommend this bootcamp enough - it was definitely the best decision I've made in my career so far and if you're ready to take the plunge into web development, I can't think of a better place to take the first step.

I discovered the course online after doing a lot of research into bootcamps for web development in Bristol, I went along to a coding fellowship bootcamp taster evening to see what it was all about. On the evening I met Pete and Oli running the course... Read More and made a little game as my first introduction to coding - and I was sold on doing the course.

I wanted a new direction in my career having previously worked in animation, despite loving my area of work, I wanted to learn something different and in demand. I discovered there was great need for skilled web developers and coding is something I have always been interested in so thought it was an area I should look into.

The course is a big investment of time, money and risk - but it was definitely worth it! I have enjoyed the intense learning experience and has opened my eyes to a new creative industry. The teaching was excellent - it was great to have various tutors each with their own skills, specialist knowledge and interests. Also the support from developme e.g. the 1 on 1s every week where we reflect on how that week's subject has gone were invaluable.

I have managed to get a job pretty soon after the course and am enjoying being a front end developer - I would recommend doing it.

I did a lot of research before signing up for the bootcamp as this was a huge decision for me to make. Being in my 40’s with a family and changing career was pretty daunting and I was concerned that it would be difficult for me to find work but it turned... Read More out this has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made!
The teachers on the course were fantastic and it was great to be taught by people with real experience in the industry, who knew what you really needed to know to get a job on graduation. There was also a classroom assistant who was great and always there to help.
They also assigned each student an industry mentor which was brilliant, and gave a real insight into the industry. I still meet up with my mentor since graduating for a beer and a chat!
The support to find work was great as well; preparing us with mock interviews and then helping to get actual job interviews.
Overall the bootcamp has amazing teachers, a great curriculum and fantastic job assistance. I thoroughly recommend it. Go for it, you won’t regret it!!

I did a lot of research before committing to the course, and really believe Develop Me is the best option in the South West. The support on the course was great, and I really think it's worth the money. All of the teachers were fantastic, and it's great... Read More to be taught by people who are actually working in the industry.
I considered going to university, but that would have been 3 years and cost a lot more ultimately! Instead, in a few months I've gone from working in a call centre to being a web developer! Best decision I made, and it has really changed my life.
I did a couple of part time courses first with other providers, which I would recommend, as I believe it helped me to do well on the Develop Me course, and make the most of it. I also did lots of online courses, but I do think you learn more with a teacher, and it's a bit more interesting too.
If you identify as a women/non-binary and are aged 18-23, or 18+ and completed studies in the past 2 years, I would highly recommend Code First: Girls. They run free beginners courses in Bristol (and around the country). It's really great prep for Develop Me and won't cost you a thing.

I completed the coding fellowship nearly two and a half years ago, so I hope this review provides the added benefit of some longer term perspective, having successfully transitioned into a rewarding career in tech as a result of completing this course.... Read More

The 12 weeks from start to finish were very intense, you will experience high and lows but I have no regrets about embarking on this course. It will provide you with the fundamentals you need to get started across a wide range of languages, at speed.

The best advice I can give to anyone considering enrolling would be to get to a comfortable level with the basics in your own time first (HTML, CSS, JavaScript and anything else that interests you), talk to developers, thoroughly research the industry and have a realistic target with regard to where you want to be by week 12. If you are prepared to put in the work (and the work IS tough) before, during and after the course you will be amazed by the amount of opportunities that will arise which may not have been possible in your previous or current career. Development is tough when starting out, it takes time, hard work and patience, so make sure you know fully know what to expect.

I was able to forge strong working relationships with all of the instructors on my course- they all have bags of experience, know everything there is to know about their specialisms and their support throughout was invaluable. The location and facilitates are good and you will undoubtedly make friends with your fellow students.

On a personal level, I forged a career in the data science route off the back of this course which wasn't directly covered on my cohorts curriculum, but that is what played best to my interests and strengths. That is one of the added benefits of this course; it will enable you to think about the different options available whilst giving you with the skills that employers will be looking for at entry level.

I would recommend the coding fellowship to anyone who is serious about starting out as a web developer or is perhaps looking to utilise the Dev role as a platform for a wider career in tech.