Launch Academy

I was in a rather dead end career path and a friend and former Launcher convinced me to go to Launch. This was the best choice I have made in a long time.
The course work was challenging and relevant to the current work market. Mentorship was amazing... Read More with friendly and knowledgeable staff. The whole experience felt like a giant family working together to teach and learn together. I was challenged and encouraged to break out of comfort zones.

I would highly recommend Launch Academy to anyone who is looking for a bootcamp.

I attended the spring 2016 Launch Academy onsite intensive.

tl;dr:
I don't regret attending the program, but I would never again spend $15k without guaranteed job placement.

Pros:
1). The EEs/Mentors are good people.
2). Chinatown in Boston has good food... Read More and opportunities to hear and speak Mandarin.
3). Fellow cohort members were awesome. I now have a network of cool newbie Rubyists.

Cons:
1). An unacceptable amount of typos and/or inaccuracies present in curriculum exercises.
2). Too often heard "Google is your friend!" when the answer bedeviled the EE on the Slack-based question queue; though my Google-fu is on point now from months of flexing ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ.

In hindsight...
I should've paid closer attention to facts.

I've listed factual questions about the program/process that aren't answered beforehand, but that speak to the experience (and the organization itself) more accurately than any review I've come across.

1). Applicants:
- How many people applied?
- How many were rejected and why? (Read https://goo.gl/CYkG0N)
- How many applicants were admitted to the pre-onsite, "ignition" curriculum?

2). Ignition:
- From the ignition group (Read https://goo.gl/747xKV), how many were admitted to the onsite?
*With the stated 1-to-1 correlation of successful ignition completion to successful graduates, why not guarantee graduates job placement?

3). Onsite:
- From the onsite group, how many graduated and were presented to hiring partners at career day?
*Do all onsite students graduate? What happens to those who don't?
*Why would a staffing firm be among the hiring partners on Career Day?
*How is the relationship between Launch and the hiring partners structured?

4). Post-Launch:
- How many Launchers, grads and non-grads, are employed?
- On average, how soon are they hired?
- Demographic data on who gets hired in Boston.

It's crazy to think that 6 months ago I decided to quit my job to change careers and become a software engineer. I researched several other bootcamps, both online and onsite, and Launch was by far the most well-regarded, both from online reviews and personal... Read More success stories. As with anything in life, you get out of it what you put in. You really have to devote your entire life to learning while you're onsite, including most nights and weekends. Sometimes it's tough, but if you truly want to be a software engineer, it's easy to focus and remind yourself that it will be over in a maximum of 10 weeks. That said, those 10 weeks of intense work may very well be the most fun you've had in a long time, as was the case for me.

The curriculum in my cohort focused on Ruby(/Rails) and React. We were the first cohort to receive the React curriculum, and I thought most of it was very well thought out, especially for a framework that's still quite new. I found several of the challenges throughout the program to be quite difficult, while the rest came naturally through the curriculum's mix of reading and exercises. The one thing I would have liked to see is an interactive lesson tool (similar to Code Academy, etc) that would have helped break up long articles and videos. It would have been nice, especially in the beginning, to get more immediate feedback on assignments and exercises.

Now onto the job part, it was honestly more difficult than I expected it to be. This was also the first time I'd looked for a job since I was a senior in college, but I suppose I expected more companies to be open to hiring junior devs from a bootcamp. The career services team at Launch is fantastic, but it's really up to you to apply to jobs and ace interviews. They can get you interviews at hiring partners, but the rest is really up to you, and as I mentioned before, you get out what you put into it. I had many interviews that went well, but I was often rejected because the company claimed they didn't have enough time or resources to take on someone without any real experience. It's the reality you'll have to face, and you need to be willing to put in the work to eventually find that job that you've spent months preparing for. In the end, I was able to use my network and land an engineering job at my previous company. Were it not for those connections, I may still be looking for the right fit (I was also being very picky, while you may be willing to take any role to get your foot in the door). Don't let any of this scare you, but I want to pass along realistic expectations since mine were a bit further away from reality when I decided to change my career. Also note that this job scenario would apply for any bootcamp you are considering, and is not a negative of Launch Academy itself.

Overall, I highly recommend Launch Academy to anyone looking to change careers or even just learn to code. I would do it all over again 100 times if I could.

Deciding to go to Launch Academy has been one of the best decisions of my life. The instructors, and general atmosphere are wonderful, and supportive. There are times when they encourage you to push yourself, and you will, but always doing so knowing... Read More that there is a safety net if you need help. You will doubt yourself, and wonder if you can really do this. The staff is very supportive through those times of doubt. I did have some coding experience before coming to the program, and I feel that definitely made my experience easier than for other people, but I know a lot of people there who came in with no experience, and flourished. There is also a mini-job fair, and post-grad career support that is wonderful. The whole experience is very tailored to helping you realistically find a job.

As for cons, I would say that you really need to dedicate your life for the time that you are doing Launch. There is an 8-week online intensive before the on-site program. Both parts really require you to put aside what is going on in your life, and focus solely on learning. The 8-week isn't as bad as on-site, but the estimated time they say the activities will take are not accurate, and they will take longer. The other con (sometimes), is that they are always experimenting with curriculum, and the program in general. Sometimes this means things are a little uncertain/unclear in terms of how things are going to be done. I don't think it ever negatively impacted the experience, but if you are looking for a rigid highly pre-determined program this bootcamp is not for you as sometimes you will be going with the flow. Again, this is sometimes a con, but the program focuses almost exclusively on practical development, and there is very little theory. While I, personally, liked this approach, you need to understand that will be gaps in what you learn in that area.

Overall, I think Launch Academy is great, and for anyone looking get into junior development I would highly recommend it. The program is not easy, and requires a lot of hard work, but it is very rewarding, and was a wonderful experience.

It's intensive, fast-paced, and often stressful, but the outcome is superior to most other bootcamps. The instructors are incredible and extremely knowledgable without being too over-the-top. Career services is very serious and does an excellent job--I... Read More feel like those coming out of Launch will have a much higher chance of getting a job right out of the gate. They expect a lot from you, but don't chastise you for missing a beat or making a mistake. The 9 weeks beforehand gives students a much more solid understanding of Ruby before arriving, so more time on-campus can be spent learning Rails and JavaScript frameworks. Launch puts a lot of emphasis on continuous integration and TDD, things most tech employers are looking for.

Launch Academy was probably the best gamble I ever made. Yes, it's a lot of money. Yes, if you have a job, you leave it. You put all your eggs in one basket.

But it's a good basket. A really good basket.

The instructors are the bomb. The curriculum is cool.... Read More The exercises are fun.

The cultural environment of Launch Academy is so awesome, it's insane. This was one of the most stressful things I have ever done, and I still am sad to leave because being there was just that awesome.

If you want to make a career change into web development, this is how you do it.

Advice I wish I had taken more to heart:

If you have no computer science / programming / whathaveyou background, and maybe, even if you do, this is going to be really, really stressful. It's a lot of work. A LOT. You will drop almost everything else to do this. And depending on your personality, you might forget to take breaks, even though they're going to tell you to take them, even though they're going to tell you that burnout is one of this industrie's biggest problems. Take. Breaks. They call it bootcamp for a reason. Every time you think the workload can't increase, it will. Beware the burnout. You are going to be given more resources than you can possibly process in this short amount of time. You are not expected to actually process all of them. You need to create your own work life balance, or you will crack.

**This review is a work in progress as I'm currently going through the program**

I am part of the first cohort for Launch Academy's new Online bootcamp (which launched on 1/11/16). To date, I haven't found any reviews about this particular program (there... Read More are many for the On Campus bootcamp), so I wanted to share my experience thus far, in case you were considering this as an option.

If you have any questions or want to chat further about the program, send me an email at gerry[dot]aaron[at]gmail[dot]com.

As of 1/24/16:
TLDR: I highly recommend the course so far. I've found the guided material and gradual progression immensely helpful for learning, while having mentors and other students persistently "around" allows for more rapid problem solving, less frustration, and very little of the isolated feeling I experienced while self-teaching.
To begin, I have wanted to learn how to code for a few years now. In November of 2015, I made the decision to pursue learning to code as a full-time endeavor, with the aim of making a career switch (my background is in startups in sales/ marketing roles). I began by self-teaching Ruby for about 6 weeks, and dabbled with JS for 2; I have been coding each day, treating it much like a FT job. Very quickly, I realized this journey is fraught with challenges, which I'll elaborate on below. However, through this experience (and struggle), I've come to a profound realization: I love coding!*

(*And I was able to learn this directly without first ponying up money, hurray internet!)

So, why did I decide to do Launch Academy Online?
Well, it starts with some of the challenges I faced in self-teaching. I'll boil these down to the top 3 (for me):
Progress is inconsistent: I found many (free) online guides/ courses had inconsistent jumps in the progression of material. Things would be humming along, then I'd reach something that would be way over my head. I'd spend hours, or days, learning about the concept, looking to Stack Overflow or other guides/ tutorials, etc. to help fill in the gaps... I'd eventually figure it out, and then go back to the original course. I understand this emulates real world problem solving, but in trying to learn the fundamentals, this was incredibly taxing and consistently halted momentum.

Overwhelming amount of material: There are A TON of guides/ courses/ tutorials online; It is hard to know what works well for your learning style without trying it. I found I don't like video-based lectures or in-browser coding, I'd rather "build things," and emulate real programming (I liked "Learn Ruby The Hard Way" a lot). Likewise, I spent much time trying different options. I also had to force myself to trust some of the magic of Ruby, because otherwise I would spend way too much time on things that weren't that important to understand at this stage of learning.
Isolating: I underestimated how lonely it would feel to go on the journey alone. While I tried The Odin Project and FreeCode Camp (for my foray into JS), and knew there were other students working on the material at the same time, it was rare to find people at the same stage as you to converse with/ who could help answer your questions. To be clear, I think these are great courses with a robust and growing community, but with everyone being at different stages and doing it for varying reasons, it didn't have a team-like environment (which I guess I'm looking for).

From there, I decided to do a coding bootcamp. I researched different On Campus options in NYC, Boulder, Portland (OR), Boston, etc. (cities where I'm interested in working), and online options such as Bloc, Thinkful, and others. I did my due diligence of reading reviews, talking with alumni and teachers, developed my own grading rubric, and weighed the pros and cons of time and cost requirements.

After all was said and done, I chose Launch Academy Online for a few reasons:
- On Campus had great reviews, and the two alums I spoke with raved about it (I figured the curriculum, and teaching methodology would translate well online).
- Dan Pickett (Co-Founder) answered all the questions I had, was responsive to my emails, offered a lot of support while I was self-teaching, shared resources, etc. (all prior to my signing up)
- I would be a part of the first cohort, and figured they'd want to make sure we were successful.
- Much cheaper than on campus options, and allowed me more flexibility to do the work when I want/ am available.

Here's my experience so far:
- The curriculum is great! There are 11 Phases in total, each focused on discrete, related concepts. In each Phase, there are 30-40 exercises, which incrementally progress in complexity, which means you are learning by doing, and consistently reinforcing themes.
- Mentors are generally available during the day via Slack, and there is a designated Office Hour period each day specifically staffed by a Mentor. Additionally, fellow students are online, who you can chat with throughout the day.
- As a bonus, every day there is a live workshop led by Dan, where he does a deeper dive into a concept. These are supplemental, and generally offer helpful tidbits, as well as insight into how an experienced coder thinks about approaching problems.
- Weekly 1-on-1's with designated mentor is helpful. I've only had 1 so far, but in the future, I plan on discussing alternate ways of solving exercises, discussing concepts not covered/ more advanced material, using the time to peer program, etc.
- Fellow students are engaged, active, and very willing to help.
- The program is very new, so they are constantly seeking feedback in order to make updates/ improvements. I've seen minor changes so far, and am curious to see how this translates as the program progresses.

I reviewed multiple bootcamps before attending and even sampled the FireHose project before ultimately deciding to attend Launch Academy. Overall, I am satisfied with the program and my experience there, with some hiccups and qualifications. Note that... Read More if I could have chosen a half star, I would have opted for 3.5 vs. 3.

First, let me know that the program bills itself as 10 weeks, but in reality it is longer than that as there is a part-time, 8 week online pre-work phase called "ignition", which serves to provide a foundation for you. I also believe it is an opportunity for the Launch staff to ensure that you are ready for the onsite portion, as there is a graded (or at least reviewed) assignment at the end of each phase that provides insight into your progress (or lack thereof).

I ought to mention that I did very well through the online portion of the program and therefore started the onsite with the expectation that, although not easy, I would have no issues continuing to do the same for the remainder of the program. I got off to a rocky start, though, and didn't settle into really feeling comfortable until the last week before we started our group projects. One of the really valuable things that I learned was that I was not as well suited to this program as I believed I was going in. By that, I mean that I have all of the traits that really benefit coders: curiosity, tenacity and a desire to figure things out (problem solving!), but I don't learn in the way that Launch Academy is designed to teach....give a sense of the overall picture and just enough information/resources to set the student on the right path. You have to learn to ask yourself the right questions and search in the right places and put the pieces together. Launch's screening process does a really good job of selecting students for whom this teaching style works, so I have to believe I am an anomaly. That is, I made it through the selection process even though I'm don't thrive in that type of learning environment.

In the end, I did learn a lot and am now at the stage where I understand the pieces and can put them all together. But getting there was a struggle and required quite a bit of time and support outside of the program as well as coaching and support from the instructors onsite. Which brings me to why I felt the need to downgrade my overall score.

Instructor/Experience Engineer support: Each member of the instructional staff brings many things to the table and has areas of expertise, but the overall experience level is quite varied (albeit everyone is absolutely competent to teach the curriculum). It can be challenging to adjust to the differing teaching and communication styles (welcome to the modern workplace!). There simply are not even instructional staff to provide the level of support that you are paying for. You are encouraged to use the question queue, but not early and often enough, in my opinion. And the help you get when someone is responding varies considerably as well. You get a maximum of 20 minutes of 1:1 time each week - if that! There were some weeks where there were not enough slots on the schedule for the 36 students to each have 1:1 time. Eventually, you get comfortable with your peers to start (and keep) asking questions of each other, but I really feel that if the program is going to rely on that interaction to substitute for the inadequate instructor time for individual support, they need to formalize that process in some way.

Career support: You'll notice that even though students who had no issues with the curriculum identify this as an issue. There is now a second person who works with the Director of Talent, but it is still inadequate for the number of current (and former students). And if you are one of the students who doesn't meet the requirements for participation in career day (they don't give you enough of that information up front) - or decide you don't want to participate - then you get even less support. You get time with the assistant, not the Director, and you don't get the practice that everyone else does with their elevator pitch and presentation skills. I'm not sure what the rationale for that is, but it surely makes you feel like a second class citizen. Because you paid for the same level of career support as everyone else (which, granted, is minimal), but you don't get it. At this point, I feel like requesting partial refund. I know that only a small portion of the cohort will receive offers from the career day, so don't see that as a big loss, but I'm obviously still bitter about the fact that you are treated unfairly in other respects with regard to preparation for job hunting.

Curriculum: Launch Academy is doing a terrific job of constantly revising the curriculum to reflect industry needs and trends. Javascript is becoming a larger part of the course (as it should) and the curriculum is even more ambitious and thorough with each cohort. That said, it can be very uneven, with some portions feeling as though they were slapped together in a hurry or only half-baked. Thankfully, Launch urges students to provide feedback throughout the course and they really do seem to listen and incorporate said feedback.

Overall, well done. I encourage potential students to really push to see for themselves how everything works and be sure their learning style and needs are being met before committing. I can't say I regret attending Launch Academy, but do wish I had understood the onsite experience better before doing so.

6 Months After Graduating:

Everyday there is a reference back to something I learned at Launch Academy. The day to day workflow of working in a Ruby web stack is very similar to what I learned at LA. Our engineering team practices test driven development,... Read More another core competency of Launch. Even the environment of Mission Control(the physical space of Launch) mimics the open floor collaborative environment that I currently work in. In addition to the parallels between Launch Academy and career after Launch, I was fortunate enough to have been able to make enough mistakes in a learning environment of LA (dropping production databases, losing git branches, overwriting entire repos) where the cost was low that I didn't lose my company any money.

At Backupify I started as an Associate Software Engineer, where I worked on several projects (upgrading API's/rails, refactoring code, making systems improvements, rewriting tests, customer bugs/requests) which were very manageable task for a young developer. After 2 months, started getting mentoring opportunities to bring brand new engineers up to speed on our technology. I was able to leverage my experience with mentoring my peers at Launch to help bring these new teams members up to speed quickly. After 6 months with this team, I was promoted to Software Engineer and Team Lead managing 3 engineers.

All of this was possible because I had worked hard to meet the day to day challenges of Launch Academy and learn as much as I possibly could. I am truly thankful for the great patience, knowledge, and experience of the mentors and of the staff of Launch Academy. I look forward to a continued professional relationship with all of my co-Launchers past, present and future.

I would highly recommend this program to anyone that is serious about making a career change into software engineering.