Juno College of Technology

Steady pace of instruction from the start, enthusiastic instructor and supportive mentors. Together this made the course completely engaging, esp. for someone who really did not fully understand what they had signed up for.
I completed the course confident... Read More and curious with what I learnt to proceed on to LEARN MORE!
Office hours were available for help on a regular basis, I wish I had used them more early on. I would have like more varied times for the office hours towards the end once we were working on our final project.
I found the class to be accessible and welcoming. Best choice I have made in a long time, thank you!

I attended Juno's part-time Web Development course (HTML + CSS) and would thoroughly recommend it! Even though the sessions were delivered virtually (due to COVID), the instructor and mentors delivered very engaging, interactive lessons and provided many... Read More opportunities for support (both in and out of class hours). I really appreciated Juno's inclusive community and was happily surprised with the amount of content that was covered. Looking forward to taking another course soon!

Long story short: Juno helped me make a career change and get hired as a front-end developer during the COVID-19 pandemic!

In university I studied anthropology and French. I planned to work in academia, but after completing a Master's degree in anthropology... Read More I realized that this was not a viable option due to the overly competitive job market and the increasing trend of hiring contract faculty instead of full-time positions. I worked briefly in a sales role at a tech company in Toronto, and then for over 3 years in a customer service role at a call centre.

While working at the call centre, I enrolled in the part-time introduction to web development course at Juno College in October 2019. I had dabbled in building websites in the past, and I wanted to see if a career change into web development was the right move for me. I chose Juno because of the great reviews online, as well as for financial reasons: if I enrolled in the 9-week bootcamp, the cost of the web development course would be deducted from my bootcamp tuition. At the time, Juno was also the only bootcamp that offered the option of an Income Sharing Agreement, i.e. having the cost of the bootcamp deducted as a percentage of your pay when you are hired as a developer.

I really enjoyed the web development course, so after much deliberation I applied and was accepted for the bootcamp beginning in February 2020, as well as the 2 week full-time JavaScript course running just before it. I quit my job at the call centre, and my journey began! After having taken three courses at Juno so far (Web Development, JavaScript, and Bootcamp) I can say that I am absolutely thrilled with my experience. Here are some of the highlights:

-The course materials are cutting-edge, easy to understand, and constantly being updated. As a Juno graduate, you have access to the course materials for life, even as they continue to be updated!
-The instructors are all fantastic. Experienced, knowledgeable, patient, funny, understanding, friendly, engaging, and passionate are the main adjectives that come to mind.
-The Career Services team really knows what they are doing. During and after bootcamp, they provide tips and guidance on how to get your first job as a developer. This process is very thorough, and I was really impressed by how they hold your hand through becoming part of the tech community, building a personal brand, and successfully marketing yourself to stand out to employers. Similar to the course materials, they are always looking for ways to improve and give their graduates an edge in the job market.
-The community of students, alumni, instructors, and Juno staff is super friendly, welcoming, inclusive, and all-around great. I made so many new friends!

Three weeks into my bootcamp, COVID-19 struck and all Ontario schools closed. Initially Juno proposed that we immediately continue classes remotely, but there was backlash from many of my classmates who had concerns about the quality of a remote bootcamp and their ability to take part from home. Juno listened to this feedback and decided to pause bootcamp for three weeks, hoping that the crisis would blow over by then. Unfortunately the pandemic situation worsened, but over the three week break Juno prepared a seamless transition to remote learning, and have since made significant accommodations to do right by their students. The three weeks also gave us as students more time to prepare for the new reality. This is just one example of how accommodating Juno is, how they can nimbly make changes and improvements when necessary, and how they always put their students first!

My last day of bootcamp was May 15th 2020, and in July of 2020 I was hired as a Front-End Developer at Greenpeace Canada! It speaks volumes that Juno College was able to help me achieve this even during a pandemic, and I am forever grateful. I look forward to taking more courses at Juno as I continue to level up my skills :)

Awesome educators, great content, perfect practice assignment and projects, open and welcoming learning environment, and after class support from mentors and Juno network. The program was beyond my expectations because I was not sure about the online... Read More format.

Without the incredible mentors and the support that I've received from everyone here I wouldn't have been able to realize my dream of being a full time technology evangelist. Juno really gave me wings to fly and the confidence to explore the world outside.... Read More
I was a full time Mom for last 6 years and was self-learning but I was never confident that I could be a bankable technologist. I must thank my good stars and good sense that prevailed that I finally decided to contact Juno. The moment I stepped into Juno, the atmosphere was so welcoming and I immediately fell in love with the community and decided to try Accelerated Web Development (before immersing myself in bootcamp). The educators/mentors were so welcoming and helpful and were always supportive. They made sure that all my doubts/questions are answered and took extra pain in making sure all of us understand the basics of web development right along with exposing us to the best practices and many more things like accessibility etc. Coming out of it was literally a life changing moment for me and I finally decided to take on the Web dev immersive (a.k.a Bootcamp). I wasn't able to crack the tech challenge but still I was encouraged and was given a very good and informative feedback on where I missed the mark. I re-appeared and this time learnt from my mistakes and cracked it and finally was a proud member of cohort23. The overall experience was amazing and the best part is the close knit community and endless support you get from this community. No matter what you do, where you work the alumni are always there to help you out and answer your questions. Their educators are world class and make sure they don't leave any stone unturned to help you succeed and to make you understand concepts. It just feels like a close knit family away from home. The curriculum is well built and is constantly updated based on industry needs and standards. Oh, the one point which made the entire difference was the Job Assistance. Everyone comes together to help you get a job and to prep you for the challenges the Job Search throws at you. You are exposed to lot of industry leaders and employees and it does help you to make fruitful connections. Please do visit them and you will thank yourself that you took that decision.

I really enjoyed my experience here! All the instructors were very helpful and it felt like they wanted to be there to help. The course material was taught very well and Ricardo made the class more interesting by giving examples from his personal life... Read More and adding his own twist into the class.
Overall, very enjoyable! Would definitely recommend for someone who wants to know more about UX!

My experience of the bootcamp wasn't great. And some of my cohort I've spoken to agree. Prospective students need to be aware that HY emails students to encourage us to leave a review on the bootcamp review websites for a chance to win a $$ gift card... Read More - and you have to put your name on the review to get the gift card.

The Pros:
- HackerYou has a strong reputation among the tech companies in Toronto that want to hire recent bootcamp grads and front-end devs. You'll learn that some don't.
- They really dive into HTML, CSS, design principles, accessibility and Responsive Web. Most bootcamps tend to skim through this, but HY actually ensures you have that foundation. This is their biggest strength.
- Highly enthusiastic alumni
- Beyond bootcamp, taught by Simon was incredible

The Cons:
- We did not cover JavaScript (for web development) during the bootcamp. There was at most 1 day of lessons on vanilla. The curriculum skipped right to jQuery and React.
Those of us bootcamp grads with JS-focused jobs taught ourselves outside HY or were extraordinarily lucky.
- Overly positive culture discourages criticism of the program and results in an increasingly weak bootcamp. This is the downside of cheerleader rah-rah alumni.
- Huge turnover and administrative changes during my cohort meant a weaker bootcamp than in previous years. Heather, the CEO, was described as a sort of secret weapon, but she is much less involved in the bootcamp than before, and it shows.
- All of this would be ok, if not for the much praised career support being so surprisingly mediocre. It consisted of the spreadsheet and instructions of how to apply for jobs, and any discussion following centered around those instructions. Most of my friends in the class say that HY had little role in their job search process. It's like they gave up on our cohort or were too oblivious to notice the huge cracks. There are several examples of this which I won't get into because I don't want the cult to figure out who I am.

HY bootcamp is considered the best front-end program. The reality is that all the other reputable bootcamps are full stack. It's the only game in Canada for front-end, but that does not make it a five-star program. I wouldn't discourage anyone from attending, because it does help. But know that you will have to do a lot of learning and hustling on your own, to a level that is heavily downplayed in the marketing.

Fresh out of university with a physics degree, I went back to work at Home Depot for over two years. Without a Masters or a PhD, it would've been tough finding a job that interested me. I hated the thought of going back to school for years, needing to... Read More take electives I didn't want to take, worrying about my average, and buying more textbooks.

HackerYou was the solution I needed. I took the part-time web development fundamentals course, which fit my retail store schedule, and then quit my job when I got into the bootcamp. Just a month and a half out of bootcamp I got a fantastic job as a web developer.

At HackerYou we learned industry-relevant languages, best practices, and tools that I use at my job every day. Even since my cohort ended in January, HackerYou has updated its curriculum with the most popular Javascript topics and latest tools for accessibility.

I loved that there was no massive lecture hall, no old professor teaching an outdated curriculum, and no competitive atmosphere. This school is welcoming and fun, something I didn't think could help me learn as much as I did. The instructors and mentors are top notch: they are as committed to every student's learning are they are their well-being. They will push you to do your best, but make sure you're taking care of yourself.

I also made amazing friends and invaluable connections all over the tech scene in Toronto from HackerYou's extensive network of alumni (who remain heavily involved in the HackerYou community - that says something).

My team at work is 100% HackerYou graduates and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I literally owe my career to this school, and highly recommend even trying out a free workshop just to see what it's like!!

I took the part-time Full-Stack Masterclass, which was a wonderful experience. The environment, instructors, and curriculum were all modern and of the highest quality. It was very hands-on which helps you implement your learning right away on-the-job.... Read More While the practical application of these concepts was the emphasis, we did spend some time on programming theory fundamentals. I wish we'd had more time to do a deeper dive there but the nature of a part-time course is there usually isn't enough time for that.

I'd highly recommend the course to those interested in leveling up their skills.

I took the part-time Web Dev course. The days were crammed full of information and we followed along with our online comprehensive class/lecture notes. They're online, but you lifetime access which is great. I took full day Saturdays option, but I realize... Read More I would've preferred to space out my lessons and exposure to new material to smaller, twice a week chunks (couldn't due to work). That said, the advantage of being there for several hours at a time gives you a different type of continuity and ability to synthesize new info during practice times. You also get to hang out more with your classmates during brakes and lunches. A full day class was more representative of how the immersive bootcamp would feel like, except it was totally chill. I did find breaks on the short side though, whether it was 5mins for coffee or the half hour lunch, but we were allowed to have drinks and food at our desks so that worked in order to cover enough material during the day. There were a couple of TAs to help out whenever someone is stuck during lectures or during exercises. Jenny was great and she conveyed the material in a really approachable way. You don't get much theory behind the concepts, but you get a really good working knowledge; and you're always encouraged to seek out more on your own and work on problem-solving skills, esp. through online resources. If you need additional help you also get optional extended hours to meet outside of classroom time. It covers HTML and CSS well, but for JS you'll have to take a separate course or continue on your own (you learn just enough to get you going and to start understanding the structure). I found the classroom layout a bit challenging, as the room was deep, so I always felt tired from trying to see properly on the projector screen; they'll zoom in as needed (or requested), but I kept coming in late for the 9am start so I was always sitting a bit back... my work doesn't ever even start before 10:30am, so it may sound ridiculous but 9am start time was rough for me. I once attended a workshop where the room was wide rather than deep, and they had two projector screens - that setup was really effective, and I hope HackerYou has similar rooms for bootcamp (I'm still considering that option!).