The Firehose Project

Beginning the journey

I was a stay at home mom with a love of learning. I had my degree in applied math but never pursued a career due to family obligations. However, after choosing to homeschool my kids, I decided to start learning right alongside them.... Read More I wanted to get into something that would continually challenge me and then stumbled into coding. I did some independent learning using online tutorials, Codecademy, and The Odin Project. After working through those and still desiring a deeper understanding and a little more guidance, I signed up for a beginners course in web development. I came out of that with being able to implement the basics and even more of a curiosity for the workings of it all. So I began searching for a more in depth training option. I read through reviews on CourseReport and similar sites. I narrowed it down to two options - The Viking Code School and the Firehose Project. After emailing back and forth with Marco from the FirehoseProject and getting my questions answered very honestly by him, I chose to go with them for two main reasons. First, Marco was honest about where I could/would be at the end of the apprenticeship. He admitted that although they have a solid program, it was up to me how much or little I got out of the program. Secondly, the setup of the program allowed me to continue to work from home, homeschool my kids, and dedicate as much time as I could to coding.

The takeaway

As I read through the other reviews, many of the others hit on some key takeaways from the Firehose Project. Algorithms, practice coding and pushing live Ruby/Rails apps, mentor/pair programming, community...these are all some very important aspects of what Firehose is all about. However, the main takeaway for me was how to apply learning to any programming language that I chose. Yes, I went in wanting to learn Ruby/Rails and become a Rails developer. However, by the time I finished, I felt capable of learning any language put in front of me. I was eager to jump into Python, being an applied math major that felt like the next step. So I decided to jump in and learn other languages and the more in depth concepts of Ruby/Rails. Where I would have felt intimidated in another language, I now knew how to learn, how to work through the difficult ideas, and where to look for help when I just couldn't figure it out.

The outcome

So after all that hard work and countless pre 5am coding sessions, just to get coding time without kids tugging at me, where exactly am I? Well, I finished up my apprenticeship the end of August. I had numerous rejection letters, numerous single interviews, and an interview process that lasted several weeks with my "dream" company that ended in a rejection. Then I went into my last interview interviewing for a Rails developer position and was asked if I'd be willing to train in iOS development. Since that was what I took away from the Firehose project, the ability to learn and be confident in my abilities, of course I was willing. So they assigned me a week long challenge to develop an iOS app as they specified. It was difficult but I got through it and I made it fully functional as they had requested. I submitted it on a Thursday and by the following Tuesday I had an offer! It was really an amazing experience and I am extremely excited to be starting this new journey!

My advice to you

I highly recommend the Firehose Project. They have great mentors, a great community, a great curriculum... but most of all, they have a way of teaching/mentoring that just throws you in the thick of it all. They force you to take responsibility for your own learning and how far you can take the program. They are there to help you through it all BUT you have to push yourself to the limits! It really is a great program that took one who was an extreme introvert that lacked confidence and helped me learn to be a capable, outgoing developer!

3 Things Every (good) Developer Needs to Know

I started my first job as a developer right after the firehose bootcamp and was
lucky to observe a team of really experienced professionals at the new company.
Thinking about what makes a developer a good one... Read More I came to the conclusion that
firehose taught me just about everything a good developer needs to know.

Divide and conquer
The whole learning experience of firehose is based on projects with increasing
complexity. Each and every step in the development process is broken down so one
can easily follow through and understand the required steps. The knowledge gets acquired gradually and with the experience one’s confidence grows as well.

My daily tasks as a developer require this exact skill. Breaking down the problem into tiny and manageable pieces and learn new things on the way. Through trial and error you finally arrive at a suitable solution.

Be humble and work with people
Our knowledge as an individual is really finite. I think that our combined knowledge as group or company is near to infinite. There are times when you don’t know what the next step is or how to tackle an even simple problem. Here comes the magic of being humble and working with other people. By being humble I mean not being afraid to acknowledge that you don’t know something and ask others. So far every time it yielded a better and/or quicker solution and a sense of being part of something bigger than yourself.

This experience was a cornerstone of the firehose training as well. Weekly office hours were the highlight of each weeks’ learning process. While going through the material on your own every one encountered similar problems others did only 1-2 week prior. It is a valuable time to share one’s perspective on the assignments and learnings as well.

But this team experience got even stronger and more valuable when working on the group project. The group project is a perfect simulation of the future work environment. You are not restricted to the assignments everyone needs to get through anymore. You are on your own, but as a team. As a team you decide where the project will go (which by the way may or may not be the case on the real job - thats what the product manager may do for you) but more importantly you start to think about the implementation of the new unknown. Real questions start popping up and your team is the place to go to aks for a second opinion and feedback.

Have a mentor
I recently finished reading a very interesting book: “Self Leadership and The One Minute Manager” by Ken Blanchard. One of the ideas presented in the book was that on different stages we all need a different leadership style to help us grow. Basically there are four skill development stages and four corresponding leadership styles:

Low Competence / High Comitement needs Directing
Low-some Competence / Low commitment needs Coaching/Mentoring
Moderate-high Compentece / Variable Commitment needs Supporting
High Competence / HIgh Commitment needs Delegating

Without going too deep into the theory, here is how it translated for me in my firehose process.

Before beginning the course I certainly was on the first level. My commitment had no limits and the competence was pretty low. You dive into the learning process and celebrate your first results (the first app is done within a few days and it feels great). But then real problems kick in, self doubt comes up and works against you. Thats exactly the time when your mentor comes into the game and guides you (directing) through the learning process. On the next stage he gives you valuable feedback on how to learn better and what to focus on practicing.

Why is it important for a developer? Well, development is a skill and a craft in one. We have to learn form the best and study from the mistakes of others. A mentor is someone who has the needed perspective on where you are and is able to guide you through the learning process and point out the connections you just didn’t see before.

To sum it up - chunking the problems into small pieces, working as a team and asking questions and having a trusted mentor who will support you in your growth are in my opinion the things which help being a good developer. The firehose bootcamp certainly incorporated all of them for me and helped me continue those practices not only on my job but in other areas of my life as well.

Thanks guys.

The year is 2016, and navigating between the plethora of coding bootcamps can feel as nerve-racking as settling on a programming language. Some prestigious camps promise a virtually guaranteed job and an alluring 6 figure salary upon graduation, but these... Read More programs often cost the tuition of a full year of a state college and require complete devotion and relocation for a period of 3-5 months. For those that can not afford this luxury, the online bootcamp serves as a comparable experience as an intensive period focused on learning and growing your programming skills. After much research and investigation, I settled upon the fantastic The Firehose Project online bootcamp, and shortly upon graduating I secured a job in a field that not only challenges me but brings excitement to work.

The Firehose Project is a three month intensive bootcamp that changed my life for the better. To say I simply learned a marketable skill set would be to completely ignore the true gains from the program. One of the unique benefits of the program is the pairing of a seasoned mentor who has ample history in working within the industry. 10 sessions of 1 hour length on whatever topic you wish to pry open, and these mentors are beyond knowledgeable. My sessions ranged from improving my resume and helping with job searching to thinking through complex algorithms to tackling coding katas, and this is only a sample of topics covered. I learned much more than the basics of Rails and Ruby with my mentor, and was able to discover my true passion within web development thanks to his help.

In addition to the topnotch mentorship, the community and educational experience is really second to none. Beginners will learn the ins and outs of Ruby on Rails, Javascript, and Ruby, and be able to start building interesting web applications within days of starting the program. The curriculum is very oriented to project building backed by a VERY active slack community that chimes in with helping new students uncover their issues.

The program really exceeded my expectations, and I think is the best value on the market for a coding camp, but you must prepare yourself to truly absorb and live the life of a programmer for these 3 months. I put in the hard work, and the program prepared me well for my current job as a Front End Developer in Portland, OR. As with any educational pursuit, you get what you invest in the program. I would recommend that in addition to all the great resources provided within the program to also explore some of the popular books on programming in Ruby and Javascript. These helped me reinforce ideas and clarify certain aspects that remained murky during my ascent to hirable programmer.



The Firehose Project was the best investment I’ve made in my life, and I am in debt to the people and community that make it so special. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone on the fence, and please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.

NOTE: The curriculum has been updated from 15 weeks to a 6 month format.

For those who are financially or logistically unable to attend a full-time in-classroom or virtual classroom program but still want to get as close to the level of rigor and quality... Read More of those programs, this is a great alternative.

Who will have a 5 star experience with this program?
- People who are certain they want to become a professional web developers or launch a web-based entrepreneurial project.
- People who have the courage to ask questions, even when it makes them feel like they might "look stupid" or make someone uncomfortable.
- People who are self-motivated. You are not in a classroom, so there is no one who can see you 8-14 hours per day and tell you to pick it up or to notice that you are frustrated or upset. You need to be able to keep yourself on schedule and seek out help, guidance, and intellectual or emotional encouragement when you need it.
- People who can handle dealing with problems they don't know the answer to. If you have never been humbled by software engineering, you haven't been working on tough problems. Everyone gets in deep water at some point. You have to be able to learn how to break problems down, do research, and ask for help when needed without letting your ego get in the way.
- People who are willing to help out fellow students, contribute to the community, and be kind. If you get easily frustrated with people who are less knowledgable or less intelligent than you are, you won't have a very pleasant experiencing while pair-programming or working on group projects.

What are the weaknesses of the program?
- This is not a classroom or virtual classroom program - This should be obvious but it is still worth mentioning. If you can't get motivated to code without having a team right there with you or watching you, you won't be able to work in any program with this format. That doesn't make you a bad person, it just means a classroom or virtual classroom program is a better choice for you.
- Remote admissions and admissions standards - This is not a program designed to exclusively cater to the wealthy and unencumbered by life responsibilities or to people already skilled in web development or a related field. The admissions standards are based around passion, having a good attitude, and showing that you can learn some basic HTML, CSS, design, Ruby, and how to deploy a website. By definition, the audience will be broader and people who are not fully committed to the program could certainly fake their way in. Every bootcamp has to make a trade off of some sort on admissions and there is really no perfect solution.
- Time coordination - Even though this is a convenient, online program, I would highly recommended you insure that you can make the Office Hours, which, as of this writing, are held on Wednesdays at 6PM EST, US. If you are interested in joining an agile group project team, I would also recommend you make yourself as available as possible during evenings EST US time on weekdays and daytime on weekends. Since admissions is rolling, if you apply to and are accepted to join the agile group project, you may have to start 1-2 weeks before or after week 8. You will still get all the mentor sessions but it may cause inconvenience in your schedule.
- You have to be self motivated - I know I've mentioned this, but unless you ask questions, tell people when are you feeling a lack of confidence, or when something isn't working out, they will never know. If something isn't working out with a mentor or you have been stuck on a tough coding challenge for a long time and grinding, you have to speak up. I would also highly recommend completing at least one additional solo project during the course to test yourself and have more to show prospective employers than just your capstone project.
- There is a lot of material to cover to become a proficient web developer - I studied full-time and logged just shy of 800 hours during the program without running out of material. There are definitely a lot of students who work during the program and have success. I would just caution you to be really certain you will spend a minimum of 25 hours per week on the program unless you already have an education or experience in a related field.
- Don't expect to be a software engineering ninja by the end of the program - This should go without saying for any web development bootcamp. A web development bootcamp can take someone who is truly brilliant or has prior, related training to the level of mid-level developer at best. Most people will graduate any web development bootcamp at the level of a junior developer. After the program, you will have to seek out information outside of the curriculum to keep growing and round out your weaknesses (they will be happy to tell you where to look and continue answering questions). People who worked throughout the program and only spent 15 hours per week may need an additional month or two of self-study to get there. You will get out of this program what you put in. Have honest expectations and consider a different field if you are only in it for the money. There are plenty of easier and smarter ways to get rich than solving tough engineering problems all day.
- No Hiring Network, etc. - I know some bootcamps have hiring networks of recruiters, demo days, etc. This one does not.

What comes with the program and what are it's strengths?
- 1 hour long mentor session per week with a personal mentor and 1 hour (often longer) group mentor session per week with the founders, that they call Office Hours.
- An additional mentor session per week during the apprenticeship portion of the program from weeks 8 to completion. During this period you will either join an agile group project, join an open-source group project, or do an entrepreneurial solo project.
- Computer Science Basics - You will work on well-known algorithms and data structures, lots of tough coding challenges, and learn core concepts like OOP, how the internet works, and web application designs concepts.
- Project-based Learning - You will work through tutorials and documentation to build web applications with less and less information laid out as you go through the program. You will also have quizzes on basic, practical web application tasks in which you will build small applications or pieces of them.
- Community - You have a forum for questions, a Slack channel full of awesome students, alumni, mentors, and staff who want to get to know you and help you, and Google+ community. I never had to wait long for help. I would usually ask a question when I was about to take a break to make a cup of coffee. While there is no officially guaranteed answer time for questions, I don't ever recall not at least receiving a response by the time I returned to my computer.
- Basic Job Prep - Resume review, an overview and challenge problems for technical interviews, a number of articles on how to approach job search, how to speak to humans, etc.
- Lifetime access to the website content, Slack channel, and Google+ community.
- Responsive staff that acts on feedback. During the time I was in the program there was a pair-programming room added to the Slack channel, and multiple updates to the curriculum based on student feedback.
- Learn the Ruby on Rails stack, Git, best practices like TDD, web development tools, etc.
- Ken Mazaika is a beast. He answers about 8 bajillion questions per day, must work over 80 hours per week, is nice to people, and seems to really enjoy it.

I am a graduate of theFireHoseProject. This was by far one of the best investments I've ever made in myself.

First, here's all little background on myself.
I was a manager at a gym. I knew NOTHING about website stuff. I started making small edits to our... Read More gyms website because it was so outdated. I quickly started reading everything I could about HTML because I realized that I could potentially make our website look awesome. After making our gym's CrossFit website from scratch, I signed up for some community college classes because I wanted to learn more.

That was the extent of my coding knowledge when I looked at theFireHoseProject.

1. Why I'm glad I signed up
The main reason why I signed up with theFireHoseProject was because they had an "entrepreneur" track focused on building your own app. I thought this would be a great way to work on my fitness app idea. The other option was to do a group project where you are paired up with other Firehosers making a really cool app. At the time this didn't interest me.

When it came time to choose which track I wanted to pursue, Ken and Marco (the founders of theFireHoseProject) talked with me about my goals and it became clear that the group project was actually a much better decision for me. I reluctantly agreed to do the group project. The one thought that stood out to me was "Wow, Ken and Marco actually care about my best interests and aren't going to let me slip through the cracks".
I am sooooooooo glad I listened to them. I learned so much on the group project. I would have missed out on so much if I tried to work solo on my own fitness app. I felt very "job" ready in the sense that I got comfortable writing solid Ruby code and testing my features through TDD.

2. What you won't get anywhere else:
I admit that I don't know what the "other" coding bootcamps are like. I'm guessing their lessons are equally fun and exciting and easy to understand (otherwise they'd be out of business), but I'm pretty sure they won't have a community forum like theFireHoseProject. This forum is like a mini StackOverFlow site, but better because I have a connection to all these people. Everyone on the forums is an awesome, cool, and truly good human being. Even as an alumni, I still remain active on this channel. I plan to help out other Firehosers as much as I can. I would not be surprised at all if future job opportunities or startups come from this forum.
I also appreciate that I still have access to the curriculum and any updates that are made to the curriculum. There have been several times that I went back to the curriculum to remake some of the web app projects so that I could solidify my understanding of certain concepts.

3. Am I employed yet?
Yes! I won't paint a rosy picture and tell you I got hired right away. But I knew it wouldn't be rosy since the Firehose Project does a great job in prepping me for the job search and telling me what it would entail. I sent out well over 100 resumes, had around 20 phone interviews, and 5 coding interviews. I actually got hired by two companies after 4 months of interviewing and I'm happily working at a company in Columbus Ohio.

If your main focus is on getting a job as a web developer or build websites, then you should do the Firehose Project!

PS. feel free to check out my github repo: https://github.com/davidslee101

It was hour number 8 of looking at the same computer screen and scrolling through the text to see if I had missed an important detail. I had not. I was stuck. I had admitted I was stuck hours before then began redrawing the same numbers and diagrams on... Read More the white board I had erased three times before. Frustrated was an understatement. I then looked at my dog who was hungrily eyeing the almonds on my desk and began to explain to him (for the fifth time) what I was trying to accomplish. He was rewarded for his patience but his kind ear did nothing to help my predicament.

The above anecdote underscores (to me at least) the challenge and purpose of learning a new skill. I would eventually solve the algorithm and move onto a new problem but I always remember the struggle of being stuck, the steps I took to make progress and the ‘ah-ha’ moment when all the pieces came together.

I am not a programmer by trade nor do I have what many would consider a classical technical background, e.g. engineering, mathematics or computer science. Rather, I am just a man who grew tired of relying on flakey developers to ‘make the magic happen’ and wanted more than to be on the outside looking in. Thus, I vowed to learn the trade.

My search for the right development program started with in-person “bootcamps” that ran 3-6 months in major metropolitan locations and cost nearly $30,000 irrespective of room, board and the lost wages of being in school. Being a high risk gamble, those options proved cost prohibitive and I moved on to online apprenticeships which offered similar curriculum but with the added advantage of being remote, done at my leisure and far more cost effective.

After prospecting six different programs, I narrowed my choice down to two: Bloc.io and theFirehoseProject. Each presented different advantages and disadvantages and the cost was (nearly) similar enough to warrant a full examination. I initially chose Bloc.io due to their customizable length of programs, higher amount of mentor meetings and what appeared to be denser curriculum. It took nearly three months of disappointment and frustration before I finally threw up my hands and transferred to theFirehoseProject to finish my coding education. In order to explain the sequence of events that led to both choices, I feel it is incumbent upon me to contextualize the differences in each respective program.

Curriculum

the Firehose Project

Ken Mazaika and Marco Morawec (co-founders of Firehose) have a rather unique approach to teaching the fundamentals of web development. Rather than create a foundation piecemeal, they put you immediately into the driver’s seat of application development and include explanatory pieces of information at the exact moment when you need it (like MVC architecture, Object Oriented Programming, API integrations, etc.). Throughout the program they also include rather difficult and advanced algorithmic problems that force one to think beyond the typical CRUD applications (like the simple apps I was building over at Bloc). Creating several complex applications and solving the algorithmic challenges serve as preparation for the group project at the end of your program that teaches all aspects of Git, pair programming, JavaScript and several other important technical skills. Since the curriculum is non-linear, a student can direct his or her efforts towards the topic they find the most stimulating and build from there. You are required to complete some preliminary development work before other more difficult aspects are available but this is for one’s own good as man must crawl before he or she can walk.

Bloc.io

Bloc has a similar focus with some key differences. Mainly, Bloc uses step-by-step tutorials and questions to walk one through the fundamentals of beginning to code. Depending on the speed at which you learn, this can be a good way to ramp up your knowledge before diving into full-on application development. If, however, you find applied knowledge more useful than regimented modules, you might find this aspect both frustrating and regressive. (Most of the skills I gleaned from these sections could be found on a site like codewars.com or rubymonk.com. This is not to say it was not helpful to learn!) Bloc then takes a similar approach to Firehose and offers a series of CRUD apps that teach very specific pieces of knowledge. These apps provide a lot of useful features (API knowledge, rake tasks, Stripe API integration) but are somewhat lacking in terms of Test Driven Development and expanded knowledge, like algorithms or advanced usage of GitHub.

Mentor Sessions

This was a particular sticking point for me, as I tend to rely heavily on lecture material and in-class demonstrations to help clarify new information. But, as I learned the hard way, it is not the number of mentor sessions provided, but the quality and investment of the mentor.

the Firehose Project

Given the fixed length of the program, Firehose allots 12 mentor sessions or one per week starting on the second week of your program after you have already constructed and launched your first web application. I bristled at first as Bloc promises nearly triple the number of mentor sessions during your apprenticeship. However, while this might seem like an impediment, it actually forces a student to find solutions through diagramming, Googling or trial and error. Since this type of self-guided discovery comprises 90% of computer programming, absence of oversight turned out to be a blessing as opposed to a curse. Further, the quality of the Firehose mentor sessions proved far superior to Bloc. I lucked out and had Ken Mazaika (one of the co-founders) as my mentor and he was an incredible resource. As opposed to ‘driving’ while I watched, he constantly challenged me to think about what I was trying to do and why I was doing it rather than just showing me how do it. As a former attorney in training with an overly analytical mind, I needed to see the reasoning behind the code and this proved to be the impetus for me learning the methods. Finally, though we would constantly run over on the allotted time for our mentor session, Ken would make sure I had all of my questions answered and would point me in the direction of places where I could expand my study of a particular concept we covered that day.

Bloc.io

As much as I enjoyed the dynamic with my mentor, the quality of sessions did not match what I was expecting. We would meet twice a week to discuss my questions, but often times I was left watching as he produced the code. Given my inexperience in the world of computer programming, this approach did very little to help my growth. I would leave the sessions without having resolved the questions I initially presented to my mentor, as I would need clarification on a lot of the concepts we covered during that call. Furthermore, if I would ask about a particular piece of information I had uncovered during my self-guided coding, I was told to disregard the question if my mentor did not find it valuable. I will admit that some of my questions may have been elementary but only through understanding outdated information does one realize why the question is inferior. The timing aspect also proved to be frustrating as my mentor would frequently arrive tardy to our scheduled session due to a previous call and had to jump off early to attend to another student. I would sometimes feel like a burden when asking questions via e-mail and eventually resorted to leveraging other developers in lieu of reaching out to my mentor.

Cost

the Firehose Project

TheFirehoseProject is either $4,000 up-front for a full stack development apprenticeship or $4,500 with several payment plans available.

Bloc.io

Bloc is $5,000 regardless of your payment plan. You can, however, qualify for a ‘scholarship’ if they deem you to be eligible.
* It is worth mentioning that Bloc charges a $500 cancellation fee if you cancel your membership after a month into the program. I learned this the hard way. TheFirehoseProject did not charge such a fee.

Partner Programming

the Firehose Project

TheFirehoseProject has two main areas which are of use for people looking to enter a career as a web developer. There are weekly ‘office hours’ that bring all students into a community video chat with Ken, Marco and other guest mentors to discuss issues students have encountered. This allows an open forum for both general inquiries and specific technical questions. It also provides students an opportunity to interact with one another which is nice given that most of your coding will take place in isolation.

The final 4 weeks of the program are dedicated to a mentor-lead group project which involved a lot of advanced coding skills (“how do I write code to validate check-mate?”), heavy use of Test Driven Development and a lot of technical pair programming with other students on your team. The group project has been incredibly helpful for understanding the real world web application development process for a novice like myself.

Bloc.io

Bloc, at least while I was enrolled, had pseudo-office hours where one mentor would answer questions from students in a chat room. Often times, the mentor would not be in attendance as I was informed that Bloc was no longer using this feature. Since there was no group project, I never used pair programming until I transferred schools.

These four main points of comparison are what I used to rank the programs before enrolling. As mentioned, initially Bloc seemed like the better option given its higher rate of mentor interaction and the somewhat nominal difference in cost.

However, the difference in Curriculum and Mentor Quality, Real World Pair-Programming and Cost made my transfer to theFirehoseProject easy.

Sometimes the appearance of the school is just that: only an appearance. I suggest fully vetting both programs (if you are prospecting online schools) and talk to alumni from both to answer any questions you might have.

In sum, I am very happy with my choice of switching over to theFirehoseProject, despite the financial impact of transferring schools. But most importantly I now have the skills that I need and feel ready to work as a junior web developer.

Sometimes you need to make one step to change your hole life.

When I started the Firehose project bootcamp I didn’t know how it will all end after 12 weeks of coding.

There were lots of difficulties such as huge difference in timezone, luck of coding knowledge... Read More and practice at the beginning, and general it was scary to try something new. But anyway I decided to try it, and it was super interesting during all 12 weeks.

And now after over 1 year of graduation from the Firehose Project and 8 month working as PHP developer I’m really thankful to Marco, Ken, Frederick - my personal mentor, Travis - our team mentor and to all my teammates: Jonathan, Takehiro, Adam and Ronny.

This 12 weeks in the Firehose Project gave me more coding and life experience than 4 years in university. By the way about my background before the Firehose Project - my speciality is «Automation and Control» and I worked as an engineer in local company. Being an engineer might be interesting too, but it wasn’t my dream job.

I don’t want to repeat others the Firehose Project students reviews about want you will learn, you can always check the curriculum there http://www.thefirehoseproject.com. I just want to mention most valuable lessons that I have learned during my education:

1. You will learn how to find right solution own your own. Googling is our everything, but don’t forget to spent time for reading code and understanding it. Don’t just copy and paste.
During your mentor session you will learn how to ask RIGHT QUESTIONS to your Senior mentor - it’s very important skill for Junior Developer.
2. You will be more responsible for what you are writing. You can’t write code as you wish - you are part of the team and you have to follow the rules, otherwise someone will spent his time to correct your code. And it is not cool … Group project is super interesting, especially if you will spend it practicing pair programming with your teammates. Spend as much time as you can practicing it - you will learn something new from them and you can always share you knowledge and experience with them.
3. There is always something to strive for: the uniqueness of been web - developer is that there lots of ways where you can find yourself, there lots of new staff appears everyday, lots of programming languages, frameworks and you can always learn something new.
4. the Firehose Project is your first step to web - dev. If you spent enough time on practicing you will have good results. You have to clearly understand that you need a time and practice to become Middle or Senior Developer, there is a lot of things that you don’t know, but it is ok, don’t panic just continue moving forward.

Now about how I started my carrier as a web - developer. As told earlier, I was looking for my dream job. Dream job is not just what you are doing everyday, but also people, who works this you, general atmosphere in office. Lots of factors influence on your attitude to your job and it’s very important to find people who are also passionated about what they are doing.

In my case, after graduation from the Firehose project, I spend 2 month searching for job, it might sound not very optimistic, but in our reality there are lots of developer without any real experience (same was I and maybe you) and if you want to be noticed you have to understand this fact and start think different while you are in search of job. Be honest with yourself about your coding skills, don’t embellish them in your CV. I was interviewed more than 40 times. Of course it is not very pleasant to hear refusal, but you have to find profit even from them. I was asked lots of questions, the answers to which I didn’t know, but after each interview I spent time searching for answers. In my CV I wrote about my coding journey with the Firehose Project, I wrote that i super passionate about programming and ready to start working as trainee.

It is not the question about money when you start your carrier as a programer.

I was honest with my future employer and he saw my serious mood to become cool web - developer. And now I’m working in one of the best company in Kazakhstan, with great colleagues. After few month Senior - developer - his name is Alex, who was checking CVs told me that he insisted on that I was accepted to work, because from 150 CVs I was only one who told the truth about programming skills and did something in the beginning of my carrier (participated in the Firehose Project bootcamp) and he saw my serious attitude and my passion. By the way, now he is my good friend and my mentor. With his help I found out about local coding community and now I’m participating in all meet-ups and conference.

Even now I understand how much I don’t know, but it will be super interesting journey.

Again, I want to give thanks to Marko and Ken - for creating such great community, Frederick - for sharing his experience with me, my teammates and our mentor Travis - for helping and support and also for being good team.

I joined the Firehose Project in December 2015 and recently graduated. The program itself is fantastic and has been a crucial part of my own transition into software engineering. I recently was able to get an offer for a full-time coding job and I owe... Read More that almost entirely to the Firehose program.

There are a lot of good bootcamp programs out there but what sets Firehose apart is the personal attention you get from the two founders - Ken and Marco. I lost count of the number of time I sent Ken an email/posted in the forums and got a reply directly within an hour. Seriously...if it was between 9-5 Mon-Fri...I would post a question or send an email and receive a reply within an hour almost every time. This happened consistently for the entire program. I got an unbelievable amount of personal attention.

There are some challenges to the program since the curriculum is entirely online, which means there's a lot of coding on your own and following written/video tutorials. However! there is a very active and supportive Slack community of fellow students and alumni who are always willing to help out with bug troubleshooting/pair programming, or to just shoot the breeze if you're feeling particularly lonesome.

There is also a detailed and helpful section on job preparation - the program presents many common interview coding challenges, and offers a lot of tips on how to apply and prepare for coding related jobs (algorithm problems, resume feedback, resources to find answers to common questions like XOR etc). As far as actually seeking out companies and applying to them...Firehose leaves that up to you as a student, as they do not have a final 'demo-day,' or direct relationships with any recruiters.

Overall, I have only good things to say about FP. It offers an incredible amount of value for the price and does an excellent job at walking you through some computer science fundamentals as well as nitty-gritty app-building. To anyone who is considering a software bootcamp, I'd highly recommend.

It’s been almost a year since I enrolled and started down the path to change my career with the Firehose Project. Back in early 2015, I knew I wanted to transition my career into the tech industry, but I didn’t know exactly how. I had just completed my... Read More CompTIA A+ certification, a process that made me realize I would prefer being a developer to being an IT professional. The only problem: developers need to have a degree in Computer Science, right? I couldn’t afford to go back to University for another 4 year degree in either time or money. Shortly after desparing that I could never become a developer, something amazing happened: I was introduced to programming bootcamps.

I attended an info session for Bloc in April 2015 that really pumped me up. I could become a developer without having to spend 4 years in Univeristy and tens of thousands of dollars on tuition! My son was just 1.5 months old at this point, and he needed the time that I would otherswise have to spend working on bootcamp curriculum. I promised myself I would join a bootcamp in September 2015, when my son would be 6 months old. I spent the intervening months researching the bootcamp I would join. The Most Epic Guide to Online Coding Bootcamps, Ever by Laurence Bradford coupled with Course Report helped me make a difficult call. While many other bootcamps seemed like they were good, the Firehose Project stood out because they taught algorithms in addition to the regular Rails curriculum. In the end, I chose Firehose because:

1. The curriculum covered computer science fundamentals in addition to web development, keeping the changing framework material grounded in unchanging fundamental material and giving me a deeper understanding of how the frameworks work;
2. The time commitment (15 weeks, at that time) was shorter than other bootcamps, but didn’t skimp on ground covered; and
3. The price ($4,000, at that time) was more affordable than other bootcamps.

During my 15 weeks, I learned a ton at a surprising pace: literally drinking from a firehose. Some of the best moments include:

1. Building the first tutorial application, Splurty. Firehose is set up to give you quick wins, providing motivation to continue learning. It felt so good getting my development environment set up, generating a new Rails application, writing my first MVC code, typing rails server, and seeing the results instantly in my browser. Even more so when I could share what I built after getting it running on Heroku.

2. The sessions I had with my mentor, Jeff, were informative, challenging, and really, really fun. I prepared questions throughout the week as I went through the course material, and Jeff would go over everything with me on Sunday evenings. He went out of his way to be helpful to me, often going over the alloted 1 hour time period we had. Jeff is a really great mentor and developer – he never ceased to amaze me with his deep knowledge of practically any question that I could throw at him. I can trace many of my major successes to our sessions. I’m sure that the other Firehose mentors are of equal caliber.

3. The group project at the end of the program was worth the cost of the entire course. Being put into a group of 4 other developers and told to build a chess application from scratch together was an awesome experience. From going deeper into the Rails API and building out a database structure (including using single table inheritance), to pair programming with multiple members of the team using Screenhero, to solving complex problems and testing our solutions with TDD, this project had it all. It really gave me the opportunity to stretch my new developer wings and gain the confidence necessary to be able to go out into the world and present myself as a capable junior developer when it came time to look for jobs. Our team mentor, Travis, was a fantastic teacher and obviously very passionate about coding, and the weekly standups we had with him were great.

After graduation, I was supported by both Jeff and Travis, receiving feedback and advice about building my resume and how to ace the interview. Just a few months later, I achieved my goal and became a professional developer.

In the months since starting my job, I’ve learned a ton more and have improved my skills a hundredfold. And because of the fantastic foundation that the Firehose Project gave me, I’m confident that I’ll continue to learn more and grow to be a better developer.

I graduated from the Firehose Project earlier this year and had a great experience! Ken and Marco do a fantastic job and are incredibly dedicated. Each lesson has a built-in Q&A which you can consult as you work. If your question hasn't been previously... Read More asked and answered, you can post one with a screenshot and description of the problem/link to your code on github and someone from the team will respond almost instantly-- it never takes them more than a couple of hours to get back to you, no matter the time of the day or day of the week.

That way, you're never stuck with a stubborn error message or broken code and can progress throughout the week outside of your mentor sessions and office hours. I also liked the way a good number of self-directed lessons are sprinkled throughout the tutorials to keep you on your toes and challenge you to learn faster.

The algorithm challenges also push you along in your journey to become a web developer. They understandly will take time to solve but with help from office hours and your mentor, you will get through them and be more prepared for the technical aspect of job interviews.

Another great feature is Ken and Marco's dedication to continually reviewing the course content for opportunities to improve. For instance, they revamped the chapter on TDD in a way that vastly improves students' skills and practice with Test Driven Development. Since access to the course content remains after graduation, alumni were also notified of the change so we can now go back to work through the lessons and benefit from the change.

Finally, I'll say that with everything you get, the program is really reasonably priced and gives you great value for your money.

I highly recommend the Firehose Project!