Makers Academy

A supportive and inclusive environment that helped me career switch into the tech. Self-directed learning allows you to personally and technically develop into the best version of yourself. The projects allowed us to mimic the work of junior developers,... Read More which really impressed interviewers and helped me land my current software developer role.

The Makers Academy course blends learning to code and learning to be a collaborative developer. These are not the same skills, and actually the second set is arguably more important to getting hired as a junior dev. If you wanted you could learn to code... Read More alone, using online tutorials, but there's no substitute for having to actually use those skills with other people to build something together. As we found out, a job in software is a team sport, and the course perfectly sets you up to make that career switch. They have fantastic people and culture at makers. The curriculum is well thought out and constantly updated, the coaching is quality, and the ongoing support after course end to help find a job is strong. It can be a challenge to fit in everything you want to get out of the course in the time you have, I personally could only spare about 40 hours per week and I think it would merit about 50, but you will be fine either way. Highly recommend.

The 12 week immersive course prepares you for learning things at a quick pace which is arguably the most important skill you need to succeed in software engineering. The thing that I didn't anticipate when signing up for this course is how much I'd value... Read More the team-working aspect of the course, it really simulates how it feels to work on real projects with others which is an invaluable experience in and of itself but especially when you begin interviewing. Some of the cons of the course are that it can be a little hard to get in contact with coaches, they do state that they are only available officially from 9am till 12pm for coaching as they have other duties as well so if you keep that in mind you should be ok - your coursemates should be able to help too. By far the best thing about Makers is the careers support you get to access after the course. The team are amazing, they are always there to help you and support you - they are all kind and lovely people and being around that fosters motivation and the kind of nurturing environment you need at this time. They also really do help you get a job whether that is through advice during coaching sessions when applying for external jobs or by finding companies that want to exclusively hire Makers students. Overall, I'd recommend this course if you want to get a job as a software engineer in potentially 13-16+ weeks.

My Makers journey was special, from learning and solidifying my understanding of certain concepts to meeting great people. The bootcamp is highly self dependent, so expect to manage the curriculum yourself. It’s intense and the coach support is always... Read More available. One key benefit to Makers is the coaching and career support once the course has finished. The team go above and beyond to help and ensure you’re doing the right things to land yourself a job. Overall it was a great experience and I would definitely recommend it for someone looking to move into development.

Makers is an incredible place to learn and th experience of being at makers has been a transformational experience. I came in as a customer service person and leave a developer. The course itself is very intense and not for the faint hearted! So be ready... Read More but for those that are able to persevere only good things can come out of it!

Being a Makers student was a great experience and exactly what I needed to start my career in Software. I got all the support I could need from the coaches, a lot of experience with both relevant tech in the industry (like Ruby, JavaScript, MongoDB, PostgreSQL... Read More and also testing frameworks) and also agile methodologies (daily pair programming and using agile approach during team projects). Another good thing to mention was the support you receive after you finish the course, with another team of coaches being there to support you in the process of getting a job, helping with creating your CV, preparing for interviews or just speaking with you about your concerns. Overall an experience I can definitely recommend to anyone who feels like getting into this industry. It is intense but fun.

Pros -A really helpful introduction to programming. -Uses a lot of job relevant tech (JavaScript, HTML, CSS, React, PostgreSQL, Mongodb). -There is a lot of group work and pairing, which is useful in preparing for a job. Cons -Unlike a traditional academic... Read More experience. -There should have been marked exercises/ assessments possibly to help steer a better learning path.

I have just finished Makers' 12 weeks full-time immersive coding bootcamp and I really enjoyed it. My aim was to change career and become a software developer. I already had some coding experience before the course, but a few people on the course also... Read More didn't have any experience. The best thing about the Makers course was the community of students with whom you go through the course together. You work in pairs or teams most days to solve coding problems and work through a very well designed curriculum. The focus of the learning is on understanding bigger coding concepts like Object Oriented Programming, Test-Driving and writing high quality code. And a huge focus is on becoming an independent learner and getting good at solving problems independently by looking things up or finding different ways of approaching a problem. All students start learning the language Ruby to understand basic concepts and become fluent in a language. Later, you switch to JavaScript and from then on I started really getting how to learn new languages quickly. Towards the end of the course you create two big engineering projects in teams of 3-6 students, which is very intensive but very fun and helps you put everything learned into practice or use your learning skills to pick up a new coding language and develop an app with that. You learn how to learn effectively as a team - just like in a coding job, to plan together, support each other, divide up work and merge it later. There is a number of great workshops during the course where coaches give you live examples of how a concept works, you can ask questions and see how an experienced coder approaches a problem. The coaches are all very friendly. If you are stuck - especially in the first weeks - there is always plenty of time to ask a coach for help. The coaches then often guide you towards how you could test your code to find the problem and look up a solution independently - this is really great, because you learn how to become independent. I completed the course as part of a remote cohort - that means I interacted with all the other students and the coaches mostly via zoom and the fantastic chat platform Slack. This worked really well and I don't think I would have learned more if I had been doing the course in person in the office in London. However, there was the opportunity on most days for people from the remote cohort also to go into the office an work from there, which I didn't use, as I don't live in London. Being in connection with the students and the coaches online everyday helped hold me accountable for my learning, so I coded about 7-10 hours every day and made really quick progress. Now, at the end of the course I feel I really understand how to write high-quality code and can call myself a software developer, although I haven't got a job yet. After the bootcamp is finished there is a dedicated careers team that will support you with the job hunt, help you learn how to write applications, CVs covering letters and prepare you for interviews with regular workshops. It seems they support you until you find a job - but I have only just graduated, so I can't say this from my own experience. Most other alumni I spoke to seem to have found a job as a junior developer within the first 3-4 months after graduating.

The Makers environment and community is incredible and highly supportive. Makers goes beyond just teaching you how to code - you also learn how to work, solve complex problems and communicate with others effectively. There is also a focus on your overall... Read More wellbeing and emotional intelligence. Makers tries to simulate a "real-world" environment as much as possible so you are fully prepared to work in the field. You learn the core fundamentals of coding which you can apply to any programming language you wish, and you "learn how to learn" so you can go on and keep improving yourself on your own. There's a good balance between Makers guidance and working things out on your own. Can't recommend Makers enough.

Being a Makers student is such a wonderful experience. Their holistic approach helps you become a software developer that not only has the technical skills to find a first position in the market, but that will also able to care for their wellbeing and... Read More show great communication and team-working abilities, as well as learning how to best learn anything they want to. It is an intense few months, but they are also very good fun!