Holberton School

For an overview, the program started with basic low level programing (C) that helped people gradually understand and familiarize concepts and knowledges in the field (pointers, algos, etc.). From what I've noticed, students, even the ones who are totally... Read More fresh to programming, were able to pick up new techs rapidly. The main focus of the last part of the curriculum was to build the full stack of a web application with a modern framework - something you can brag about in an interview.

The program is stressful. Although you get lots of help from your peers or staffs (there weren't "teachers" to hold your hands), eventually you can expect to find answers and understand them on your own to solve your problems, not very differently than a real decent swe. If you prefer university-like lecture-style learning, don't even consider.

Tech industry represents, in the modern world, a delicated border line between the biggest opportunity to close the inequality gap ... Or make it bigger. This is why it is imperative to create new ways to learn and aquire experience on that sector and... Read More that supose an effort to decentralize all the knowledge in computer science and expand it into new frontiers and contexts. Holberton School has made a bet in my country (Colombia) trusting in the people and their skills to start a biggest project that allows the country to get in on the tech industry, with all the latin american context implied. It is not necesarily a big act, but it represents an opportunity to change the mind of the people, and also change many social issues on the country, based on a different way of education.

Indeed, Holberton school is an excellent way to learn how to code properly. It is out of the traditional academic process: no teachers, just you and your peers. It seems to be a bad idea on a country with a traditional-learning way, but it is not just works but also is a succesful experience. Too hard too. The learning is based on the relationships with your peers and mentors, on good habits and on proactivity. Is to put your hard and soft skills to become a real professional. The program consists of nine months of "basic" formation, followed by six months of job practice (as an internship) and, finally, nine months of specialization.

The campus, in Colombia, is a nice place and grants you everything you need to do each project. It is not specifically designed to developers, but it is a nice space that has the very basics and more to be comfortable and productive at the same time. It is open 24/7, so you can live there (It's a joke the part of live there). It has also coffee, tea or water as you like, fridge and even TV. If you have no computer, they also provide you one (Mac or laptop).

The job opportunities goes hand in hand with the high quality formation and the real needs in the global market. In Colombia, those needs are specially covered, and Holberton have a plus in the formation: They also teaches you how to take an excellent job interview and how to be competitive with the skills that you've been learning.

The curriculum is the perfect way to how to learn to code, and grants you real tools to learn a lot even in the job world. From the very basics, the curriculum is ordered and based on the market, but also it is deep enough in complex scenarios.

Finally, I have to say that Holberton become in more than just an academy. Is an space that grants you contacts on the industry, great friends and partners, trust in your acts and on your skills, and a complex family ties.

I've been at Holberton School three months and a few weeks at cohort 8 and I'm glad to be here. We're the first cohort in Bogotá, also, and my impressions of Holberton School are mostly positive. The routine here helps to catch up with the common workflow... Read More for coding, and this is specially useful if this is your first encounter with any programming language.

For most of my friends who works in the tech field, facing C the three first months was weird because of its complexity, but our project forces us to think in a variety of options to solve some tasks (I even see them as quests sometimes). The work environment here is great and you can find people really skilled at programming and people who is newbie on this field.

I really enjoyed all the Unix commands component and, despite all my struggles with C, I think it was amazing for my problem-solving skills. It's hard, that's true, but it has been an amazing ride. We don't have formal instructors and maybe for people more used to formal education, this can be a deal breaker. Instead of teachers, we have support of other fellow students, our mentor or students of the same cohort but in other locations and most of the times, we get the help we need and we understand as the tasks goes.

I think we've received support from all the staff, even in personal situations which affects our performance. Holberton is home for a lot of students here and I'm glad to be here.

Tasks go quickly and it's hard to be up to date but most workflow on the tech field goes at that rhythm, it's exhausting but it fills you with energy at the same time. Be aware of how far you've learned in three months is gratifying. At this moment we're facing Python and it's cool how your problem solving skills gets stronger every day, a little bit. If you're in Bogota and you want to study a really intensive coding programming, Holberton can be your option.

I am from cohort 0 from Bogota Colombia and I just can say. if you are a person who wants to learn/improve your tech skills Holberton is the perfect place for you, therefore, you have to be willing to learn from scratch in a high-level.
Honestly, I learned... Read More more in three months here than a year in a traditional school.
Holberton has a disruptive method is not centralized only en tech skills also the program make you improve your social skills and make you learn how to work into a team.
They have an amazing curriculum you will learn about low-level programming, algorithms, high-level programming, Devops and more.
highly recommended

My experience at Holberton has been mostly positive. I will say that it is a commitment, and that I had to cut out various social aspects of my life to finish projects, but if you go into the program with the mindset of devoting large portions of your... Read More time to it, you'll be good to go.

The content and projects were challenging and covered a wide spectrum in the realm of software engineering. I've attended one other coding bootcamp in SF and found it to be lacking in content and depth compared to Holberton. Even my college degree felt like a cakewalk compared to some of the projects I had to work through during the program.

Another great aspect of the program is that it's okay to fail at something or not meet a deadline because you have the ability to resubmit the project after meeting with your peers and discussing the project. Peer learning is a huge aspect of the program, and it really helps to learn from your peers / see different methods of thinking and problem solving.

Overall, I recommend this program to anyone who has the time and drive to really dedicate themselves to it. It can be difficult, time consuming, and exhausting, but ultimately worth it.

I love the self-training, learn the number of things I could find in reputable sources, I tried really hard to find something good enough to take as my professional route when I was close to taking my decision to be an entire autodidact. I meet Holberton,... Read More read the syllabus and feel secure that I finally could say, I find it, I found what I was looking for, the best way to learn the best technical abilities and engineer thinking, adding the possibility to interact with other extraordinary people in the tech industry, until the sun of today I still think the same, based on my experience I recommend Holberton School.

I have been here for two months (first cohort in Colombia) and all I have to say is that I consider a precious gem all the knowledge I have acquired. It is a really hard and intensive program, there is no doubt of it. Since first day, you will be told... Read More that projects won't be easy and it will get harder and harder over the time. However, the knowledge and skills you receive in exchange make the hard work worth. In this program you will have to read a lot and develop the self-learning skill. You will be challenged to develop the team work skill as well. Finally, after two months, I can take a look back at the beginning and I can say I learned a lot from C and GNU/Linux besides the soft-skills I have developed. Best decision if you want to become a software engineer who also knows how to work in teams, share your ideas, etc.

I joined the first cohort of Holberton Colombia in Bogotá in January and I can honestly say I have learned more in a month and a half than I could learn in a semester of university. This model is very disruptive for a country that is used to paying favors... Read More with jobs, because it gives us the tools to get to the top with only the knowledge we earn.

The peer learning days are a very good way to share knowledge between students with different levels of expertise, the refinery puts all of that knowledge to the test at the same time that it makes us practice English, and the stand up activities keep us focused and get us out of our comfort zone.

Most of all, in Holberton I have found family. I have only known these people for less than 2 months and I know they have my back, and I have theirs. We are a very strong cohort and very good friends. I'm excited to see where Holberton takes us!!

I can't review the job support section yet because I'm only on my first trimester of Holberton, but I know they will help us get the best jobs available!

After experiencing the Bogota, Colombia first cohort I decided to quit and I consider theres a local administration problem. Here’s why:

1. Something that might be false advertising, given that the promo attracted people by advertising salaries that are... Read More way off the reality of the country. In Colombia the average salary of a programmer is around 3 to 4 million pesos month (1000 to 1350USD) according to the official statistics. The advertised “average” salaries were 8-11 million. This statement was removed from the main site but might still live in old promos.

2. We saw very nice pictures of the US campuses, however for the Bogota version we found that the school rented the second and third floor of an old house used for shared offices, with a kitchen as small as 3x1 meters and a bathroom about 4x2 meters (for 60 people initially admitted that soon lowered to 45). We had stand ups at the first floor but were told we couldn’t stay because they were used for the shared offices of Seedspace (the actual owners). Sometimes the water got in, as it’s an old house, even near the servers.

3. We were told we would have mentors, but mentors are actually people in the tech industry telling us their stories not helping with the process. There aren’t TAs in Colombia. The person that was hired to help us was actually doing the challenges at the same time with the students, so sometimes he just couldn’t.

4. There’s no such thing as an ISA here, instead we require a joint debtor and to sign a black promissory note. They told us the joint debtor wouldn’t be actually charged of any debt, but by signing the person is legally responsible (I mean, they say no, legally it might). However, in the contract a debt collector company was included to check upon credit history, taxes, payments to social security (and other official or private sources) of BOTH the student and the joint debtor.

5. Some of the Holberton principles didn’t live as expected.

6. We would only be charged after making 3 millions/mo (the actual average salary) or more, for a minimum payment of 21.7 millions to 75 millions. The issue is that the 21m can be the cost of a master degree at a good university with teachers.

These were the reasons why I abandoned Holberton after being admitted, as I didn’t think the price justified what we got.

Thing I liked:

1. Projects (programming challenges) however for that price I’d rather choose a cheaper alternative and an online full stack degree.
2. Be able to connect with US students and share knowledge.
3. The school activity were students interviewed each other in pairs to improve skills.
4. Had to speak in English in most activities so it’s good practice.

Having gone through traditional university at NYU as an econ major, worked in the tech industry, and started my own startup, it was not easy to get an interview for any junior/intern developer position in tech. However, I was eventually able to get an... Read More iOS contract job at an early stage startup that took a chance on me for 3-4 months.

It was after this iOS contract job that I started evaluating possible options for 1-2 year long coding schools (not a bootcamp, but not a traditional university) where I can grok foundational CS concepts (and their practical applications), build my own professional network, prepare for interviews, and, most importantly, learn how to learn. When trying to find a school that fit these criteria, I happened upon Holberton. It not only satisfied these criteria, but they were free upfront and would only charge me once I got a high-paying software engineering job through the ISA model. After doing my due diligence about the program and the people behind it, I was convinced and moved my life from NYC to SF.

Year 1 was really tough, but I couldn’t have built those programming/CS muscles without the continuous cycle of “struggling, getting into a good rhythm, and drastically ratcheting up the difficulty.” Having been in the tech industry for a little while before Holberton, my favorite parts of the program were that it: incorporated peer-learning in a way that properly simulates what it’s actually like to work on a team, made everything project-based so that you were able to apply concepts in relevant scenarios, and did not have any formal teachers spoon-feed you knowledge. 

That being said, Holberton staff and TAs are always available if you do need help. However, as a student, you’re expected to use the resources that are given on projects, your peers around you, and Google to try to solve the problem at hand before “moving up the ladder.” If you’re asking your boss (technical or non-technical) a question that you can easily figure out through Google, you’re wasting her time. If you’re asking your boss a very-well framed, specific question that you’ve racked your brain over and thoroughly researched through Google and your peers, but couldn’t find the answer you were looking for, then you’re saving everyone’s time by asking the person high enough on the chain who probably does know what issues you’re having.

I loved how Holberton approached education so much that, even after having ~10 interviews, I decided to immediately take the full-time offer at Holberton as their newest software engineer at the time. It’s almost been a year that I’ve been working here at Holberton and I’ve been learning at that same insane pace as I was as a student.

If you have any questions about the program, feel free to tweet me @srinitude!