Makers Academy

I graduated from Makers in mid-August 2016. At the time of writing this, I have accepted one of the three job offers I have been made and am about to start working as a professional developer after only 6 months since I decided to change my career and... Read More do something I love.

Makers Academy is an amazing environment for learning, helping you develop fundamental skills that make a great developer rather than teaching a specific language or framework. Their career staff is extremely helpful, assisting everyone to find the right job for them.

If you know you want to have a career as a software developer and are looking for reasons to join or not to join Makers, just look at the biggest deliverable, which is how many people who studied here have then gone on to get a job as software developer (relatively) soon after finishing; that should give you confidence that anyone who wants to can make it and Makers is the best way to get there!!

In summary, just do it!

I'm really happy with my decision to go to Makers Academy - really happy. It's quite a big deal to quit a career and to start out completely fresh in something else but that is what I did and I couldn't be more pleased with my decision.

The course is fantastic... Read More and the instructors are all great and very knowledgable. They create an atmosphere which is just perfect to learn in. It's quite a fine balance as Makers walks the very thin line between giving you the space to grow by yourself whilst keeping you pointed in the right direction.

If I was going to make any criticism it would be that sometimes Makeres ered on the side of giving us too much space and maybe a bit more structure would have made people feel a bit more comfortable. Saying that though the whole course really is amazing and it is incrediable to look back at quite how much I learnt in whats really a very short amount of time.

A great foundation to kick-start my new career as a juniour developer!

If you have an interest in programming/development (especially web development) at all, I highly recommend this course. I took the an early version of the "Ronin"/"Remote" course and moved to London to get a job once it was over.

The course is structured... Read More in such a way that you learn a massive amount in a very short space of time, following the Makers course but largely teaching yourself, sharing knowledge and learning from your peers. This might sound strange but learning-by-doing really works, and the experience simulates the workplace, meaning you hit the ground running when you get a job.
I was nervous about the amount of Ruby on the course before I started - I didn't know if it had any commercial value - but it is an excellent language to learn, particularly for a beginner.
I knew I wanted to learn Node.js going in, and though there wasn't much Node coverage on the course there was enough freedom that I crowbarred some in. That did prove to be invaluable.

Downsides - I suspect this varies from cohort to cohort but I'd have liked just a little bit more steering and more code reviews from Makers staff. Job hunting at the end is also a bit of a game, it was very London-centric when I was there, at times it felt a bit political and not entirely transparent. My biggest word of advice would be this: be proactive in finding work yourself, don't wait for it to fall in your lap or for Makers to simply hand you a job. Be resilient. I was looking for 3 months after finishing and this really wasn't unusual at the time.

I left Makers looking for a job where I could pair program with and learn from senior devs in an "Agile" environment, and a job which would afford me a decent work/life balance. I wasn't too fussed what programming language I worked with as long as those things were taken care of. I got all this and more. I'm working for a fantastic company in London, mainly (but not exclusively) programming in Java - not a language taught on the course - and I can hardly call my work a "job" at all.

So I usually don't write reviews for much but I know this is a huge decision for some and when I was doing my research I was always wishing there were more reviews (especially for some of the online bootcamps). So I'm about to finish up Makers Academy... Read More Ronin, which is now Makers Academy Remote and wanted to write this while it was still fresh. Sorry for the length but I tried to be as in depth as possible.

TL;DR- Makers Academy Remote has been an amazing experience. They have a lot of positives and a few downsides for people not in London or willing to move to London. Despite that, I was able to get a job offer on Friday of week 10 and in the US starting the Tuesday after the course finishes. I’d definitely recommend Makers Remote to anyone who knows they want to get into Ruby and can dedicate the time and effort to the class. Makers is growing so they're starting to have more reach in the job placement/help department.

My time at Makers has been a little different from my classmates. I'm in the US so with the time difference it's been rough. For the last 12 weeks, I've had to get up at 3:30-4:00 am every day, and when I visited my family on the West Coast, I was waking up at 12:30-1:00am. Going into this class, I was nervous for that reason alone but I knew if I did a self-paced bootcamp that I wouldn't accomplish as much in 12 weeks (I'd have an excuse to delay or put off work). I was fortunate enough to have a 3 month break from work due to my work schedule but that meant I was on a time crunch for the course. I went into the course hoping for a job shortly after graduating knowing if I didn’t, I’d need to go back to my current position. So now that you know what my situation was when I chose Makers, I guess I'll go over why I chose Makers Ronin.

I did my research for probably 6-7 months before I decided on one. I went back and forth between in person and remote courses. I was accepted into 6 or 7 bootcamps that had some pretty rigorous application processes and some low acceptance rates. I actually paid a reservation fee for one but then decided on Makers Ronin because of a few things. First was timing. I needed to start before a certain date so I could finish the bootcamp before I had to go back to work if I didn’t get a developing job. Second was price. There was a huge price difference, especially if you opt for in person bootcamp. I did it from my home and didn't have to pay extra for room and board. That helped tremendously. Compared to other online (Launch Academy, Learn.co) bootcamps it was probably similar if you finish them in 3-4 months. I’m not sure how doable that is with self-paced, I tried finding out but they were just too new when I was applying to bootcamps. Third (as stated before) it wasn't a self-paced course. I know myself. Had I done a self-paced bootcamp, I would have skipped school for the slightest reason. "Oh it's a full moon tonight, I can't do school…” “Gosh darn it, it’s the Asiatic Sparrow-Hawk’s migratory season, guess I’ll stop school for 2 months…" Makers kept me on track to finish in 12 weeks. It was rough given the time difference but doable. Fourth reason was their results. At the time I was doing my research, they were showing, or at least advertising, some pretty incredible results for both in-person and Ronin. It was hard not to do the class since it was everything I wanted and then some. So those are the reasons why I chose it.

Most of those reasons held true and some deviated from my expectations slightly. The deviations mostly were in the job department and basically the whole reason most go to a bootcamp. Most of us do the bootcamps to get a job or help our current career. So first, and it's not really Makers fault at all, is since they're based out of London, their connections are mostly in London. They're slowly branching out to other parts of the world but haven't quite reached the wonderful US of A. So that was extremely nerve wracking. Basically if I didn't want to move to London or the few other European locations (which I didn't), I was on my own for available jobs. I didn’t have the connections that knew what Makers Academy was or sometimes even bootcamps in general. I know there have been a few, not sure how many, Americans that have done the Remote course. I was never given any information on if they received job offers or not, so that was another scary part. I was basically going into this not knowing if I'd be able to get a job at my location. Another deviation was the job report for remoters. What we were told initially was slightly different from what we were told during the class. If I remember correctly they basically told us that if you're not in London, your chances of getting a job drastically decrease. Somewhat expected but still scary. The percentages provided that time weren't as great as they made it seemed when I first started the class. Also, when they were telling us about the results, they informed us that they had one cohort where no one got a job but they took full responsibility for that. Not sure if it was because of the curriculum or coaches or what. The results did seem to be increasing with every cohort but I felt as if they skewed the results to their favor. When someone has to justify why they’re only counting certain people for their results, it gets me wondering what the results really are. This is just my opinion about the information they provided us during the course, it could be off. You might want to ask them for the job placement results for each and every remote cohort. Could help your decision based on your location. They still have really good results and as I said before, they’re getting better with every cohort. We’re not yet at the hiring week where they give pointers about your resumé (CV) and how to deal with interviews and such. I’m sure it’s helpful and I plan to learn a lot from it for future job interviews.

As far as the curriculum goes, I feel it was everything they promoted. Now I’m not sure if this learning style is for everyone. It's very fast paced and a firehose of information. They do a workshop in the morning and then we break off into pairs for a weekly project. On the weekends we had solo projects that were fun and challenging. They are very hands-off because they’re trying to simulate a dev shop as much as possible, well that’s how they sell it at least. If we had a question that we couldn’t find or get answered someway, the instructor was willing to step in and guide us but still never giving a direct answer. It can be extremely frustrating at times when you just want to know the answer but I can see the value in that. Towards the end of the course, it was almost like completely giving up on life if I had to ask the coach for help. I would do everything I could to get the answer without asking him. The majority of the answers are on stack overflow, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to make it work with your code. We’ll see just how helpful it all was when I start my job. Some of the curriculum seemed to be incomplete or pieced together from different versions. It was a huge pain for some of the challenges and as you can imagine, quite frustrating. Their curriculum is open-sourced so it’s constantly being updated and changed for the better. So what I went through won’t be the same as the next cohort and so on. I do believe they have a pretty solid curriculum, not sure all my classmates will agree but that’s how I feel at least.

I’d say the biggest thing when it comes to their curriculum and getting a job is to make sure that Ruby is a popular language in the area you want to work. After starting the class, I quickly realized that I was in a .Net/Java heavy area with very few Ruby companies even in the area. So that drastically lowered my chances of getting a job. Makers Ronin has been great and I’m glad I did it. I met a lot of people, learned a lot (to say the least) and now have a skill under my belt that would have taken a lot longer had I done it on my own. To put it in perspective, I met a guy who was doing the Free Code Camp to try and learn. He started about 6 month before me and after 4 to 5 weeks of Makers, I already knew more than he did. I’m not sure how dedicated he was to the Free Code Camp but that’s part of being on a self-paced curriculum compared to one that’s not. I’d most definitely recommend Makers Remote to someone if their goals line up with Makers’ curriculum. It’s not for everyone, that’s for sure but if you dedicate 12 weeks out of your life to finish the course and make sure you remain enthusiastic along the way, I believe you’ll do fine and enjoy it.

My results: I received a job offer on the Friday of week 10 of the course for a local company who uses Ruby on Rails. I had an interview Tuesday of week 11 with another company and possibly another later in the week or early next week with yet another company. I start my job the Tuesday after we finish the course which is awesome. To have a job before graduating is a great feeling. I’d say the most valuable piece of advice given to me was to get involved in the local developer community. We have a pretty active one where I’m at. I went to as many meetings as I could, messaged and emailed multiple managers and other developers telling them about my past experiences and what I was doing with the bootcamp. That probably helped more than anything. I had a lot of responses and a few that, as stated earlier, led to interviews and an offer. Good luck with whatever bootcamp you decide on, there are a lot of good ones out there, you just need to decide on which one lines up with your goals and expectations.

Makers Academy doesn't just teach you to code, it also makes you very employable by instilling best practices in coding and the work environment. Having been taught Agile Practices, TDD and XP among other things i believe gave me a leg up over other candidates... Read More when job hunting and helped me stand out. A great environment to learn with and meet such a wide variety of people from such differing backgrounds. Money well spent and memories firmly set in stone.

Honestly, I couldn't say a bad word about the course. It was tough, but as would be expected from an intensive boot camp. I learned so much that I couldn't possibly even list the stack in a paragraph. The most important thing I learned, however, was the... Read More confidence that I can learn anything. Maker's academy is a web development course - including front end and back end development. We could choose to learn what we wanted, and were given freedom to develop in whichever direction we wished. My final project ended up being a cross-platform app, and I ended up getting a job in iOS native development a few months after the course. When I started the job I knew nothing about iOS development, but I knew, thanks to Makers that I could learn anything, and I had grown knowing that asking questions and not knowing the answer right away is fine, normal, and part of the experience. Even those who have been developing for decades don't know everything - this is the fun of development. It takes time to overcome the fear of "not knowing anything" and "new things," but Makers academy left me with the logic knowledge that is underneath every language one could want to learn, and also gave me the tools I needed to know I am a developer. Everyone at Makers is supportive and will literally go well out of their way to help you learn and find a job at the end. It's a fun environment - free beers to drink, beautiful building, and lots of people to help you, and learn with too! Every day I thank Makers for helping me find the career I love so much, and the network of people that I hold so dear.

Thank you Makers!

This review might be useful for those thinking of joining Makers Academy remotely from another european country. I am from Spain and I lived in Cambridge for a year and a half before joining Makers. At the beginning I was looking for an on-site bootcamp... Read More in London, but when I discovered the Makers Academy remote bootcamp I decided to change my plans. I joined the couse, packed all my stuffs and left the U.K. I didn't even have to go to the MA offices (I have actually never been there), everything from the very start was arranged using skype, emails and Slack.

I went back to Cádiz, my home town city in Spain as it was easier for me in terms of housing and money and I accomplished the whole course from there without any impediment. Actually it was fantastic enjoying the course while being in my sunny city. I never had the feeling I could have learnt more if I would have been in London.

It is a really intense course and you really need to be 100% focused on it. From 9am to 6-7pm I was coding online with my pair partner. The fact that you are pair programming really push you to do your best everyday. The philosophy of the course is that you have to be autonomous from the beginning which I think it helps in the long run. Don't expect long technical explanations. People asks questions at the meeting, but then you and your partner have to code and try to solve the problems on your own before asking for help . Sometimes you need to stop and read part of a book or watch some videos about a subject but this is something you do on your own.

The negative aspect of not being in London comes when the course is finished and you have to start the job hunting stage. It is obviusly a handicap. London in one of the most important cities in the world and is full of professional opportunities. MA is based in London and most of their partner companies are based in the UK, but I know they are doing a big effort to expand their influence. However, sometimes you can be warned of a position in Spain, Belgium or other european country. They don't do magic, they will help you as much as they can but at the end you have to find the job. My personal experience is that by showing all the projects you have developed during the course people get interested in knowing more about you.

I am now working in Paris as a junior developer, it took me about 3 month to get my job after finishing the course. Sometimes I think of myself 9 months ago before joining Makers Academy, when I was doing a job I didn't like. It just brings a smile on my face.

I always knew I was fascinated by computers and the logical process in which they work and with the world becoming more and more reliant upon technology & software systems there was no better time to get into the industry. Makers Academy was the perfect... Read More stepping stone into the world of computers where I was surrounded by peers who genuinely wanted to learn, staff & coaches who exude the same passion and excitement I now have and very relevant material that applies to a real life working tech environment. I had high expectations joining Makers but they were completely blown away and I'm still thoroughly impressed by how much what I learned during my time there is helping me now working as a software developer!

At the time of writing this review, I've just completed three days at my new workplace as a full stack engineer. The self-realisation is still setting in that I'm no longer on the course (I graduated in April and started working in June) and I'm actually... Read More coding for a living!

I enrolled on Ronin (January 2016 cohort) and I can honestly say that both my ROI and EV from taking this course are quite something! I was one of two Roniners chosen to produce a weekly video log series to document our individual experiences - these can be found on MA's youtube page, if you're interested in hearing my thoughts during the course. Shout out to Jordan for giving me this unique opportunity, thanks for believing in me!

My experience on the Ronin course has completely changed my perspective on learning. Credit goes to Sam Morgan, the Ronin facilitator whose coaching put me on the correct path of a growth mindset, which in my opinion is a fundamental requirement to getting the most out of the course and knowing how to overcome the inevitable difficulties when faced with learning so many new languages and concepts in such a short period of time. It was at Makers that I discovered that the joys and pains of coding are not mutually exclusive, and that's the reason why I found it immensely rewarding.

Prior to Makers, I had tried to teach myself coding for a career change at the start of 2015. I'll spare you the details but I figured that the quickest route to success is to surround yourself with similarly motivated people, work alongside them with the knowledge and support from an experienced coach. Sure, all the information is out there on the web but time is money and you'll also save yourself a lot of frustration from going down the wrong paths (bad coding habits are the toughest to unlearn).

That's why Makers Academy is so great - I got to pair program regularly with a diverse group of people - so many shared experiences (mostly good and some bad) that are like mini life-lessons to learn from. Upon reflection, I wouldn't want to change anything - the last time I'd worked in a team was 2008, and the long period in between was a solitary existence as a professional online poker player. Hence why this course was literally a game changer for me.

Some opinions on the course curriculum - overall it's very good but far from perfect, and is constantly evolving (mostly for the better). I would say that the coaches aren't afraid of experimentation, however student feedback is always taken into consideration and their efforts are always coming from a place of Kaizen (continuous improvement). Emphasis is placed on understanding and not finishing the material/challenges; there's always time to do that afterwards (especially during the job hunting period, where the challenges are modelled very similar to real company tech tests).

Finally, some words on the post course careers support. I took the time to attend the careers fair on the last day alongside a few other Roniners based around London, and from talking to some of their hiring partners directly, I was invited for an interview the very next week - although unsuccessful, I was impressed by the quick turnaround made by this particular company. The careers team were good in that they constantly gave me opportunities to take tech tests for companies suiting my criteria - in this regard I made the effort to keep them updated on my search efforts. Fortunately I managed to be successful early on in my job hunt - I remember it being the second job I applied to - and I have Ruben to thank for helping me during the post offer phase.

Ultimately, I feel that Ronin and Makers Academy has far exceeded my original expectations. The 12 weeks that I have experienced have been life changing for me, and the memories and lessons learned will stay with me throughout my career. Thank you so much!