BrainStation

I took the full time immersive web development course winter 2016. It was one of the best decisions I made. Before I began the course I planned on taking online bootcamps so I studied a bit of Javascript on my own and had a solid basic understanding of the language. But I decided on Brainstation because of the curriculum. They teach the JS frameworks throughout which makes it a bit easier than having to learn Ruby AND JS for example. 

I knew I liked programming but I didn't know what to study on my own, hence why I decided to take the course. Suffice to say, I got maximum value out of the course and have to really applaud the instructors and organizers, they put tremendous effort into ensuring you come out of the course with an arsenal of skills. There was always extra projects / challenges to tackle if you finished early or ahead of schedule and the instructors and TAs are tireless in helping out. Fantastic atmosphere, fantastic learning space as well. If you are planning on getting into this field, Brainstation is a no brainer. But I do suggest you familiarize yourself with some material beforehand, spend as much time as you can learning JS and doing practice problems as it will let you focus on utilizing the tools you know to build things instead of learning to use the tools. 

The course is paced well for any type of learner, slow or fast. You will build projects for every major topic and thats where the magic happens. The more ambitious your attempt, the more value you will get out of the course. The projects are also managed by the staff to mimic real world environments, ie. agile development with sprint plans etc. Job prep is also included in the tail end of the course. You will get a sense of what is required for interviews, the importance of an online presence, personal projects and contributions etc. We were also interviewed by the parent company's technical director as a practice exercise. I was lucky enough to land a second interview and an internship position sometime after the course. 

I did however spend all my weekends working on course material and trying to build different things based on what we learned thus far. In the final 2 weeks where the entirety of the course was focused on individual final projects, I spent over 9hrs a day working on my web app. Brainstation won't guarantee any % of graduates landing jobs but if you invest a signifcant amount of time and effort into creating a small portfolio while you are doing the course, you will have a very good chance of being hired for a junior role somewhere in the city, I am confident of that. Brainstation provided a platform to dive deep into this field and extract maximum value and knowledge in a relative short span. Although I come from a technical background and have a slight inclination to technical topics, I believe anyone willing to put 100% energy into this can come out of it with as much value or more than I have. Excellent staff, excellent support, excellent course material. 

For more than half a year I had been trying to learn how to code online. 

There are dozens of pretty decent resources out there, and I knew people who managed to get certificates and start coding after all. But, unfortunately, for me it was extremely hard to A. find time and B. has someone to monitor my progress to assure the commitment. That’s when I knew I needed something drastic: I needed a bootcamp.

Once I narrowed down the geographic factor to Florida, it was very easy for me to choose Wyncode. Not only because of the positive reviews online, but mostly because I knew they were here first and had an established presence and connections that I needed to begin my new career afterwards.

If you are considering a bootcamp right now, I suggest, you go to one of the Wyncode open houses and see for yourself: lots of reviews here mention great team and assistance, so I won’t say more; but another thing that was mostly important for me was that Wyncode teaches you variety of skills apart from programming, which can be crucial for finding a tech-job. They teach you how to work in a team and take on different roles: scrum, front-end, back-end. You will have a huge network of developers, business owners and just tech-writers, if you take advantage of Wyncode’s regular events and meet-ups. Wyncoders are also extremely friendly and there is a special bond among most of them regardless the Cohort.

I was lucky to experience myself and witness the personal involvement of the whole team including the co-founders Juha and Jo in finding jobs for graduates after the course. That was very important for me: to find a job and enter the tech-world.

Studying is not easy. In fact, it’s pretty demanding. If you want to maximize results: be ready to devote all your life for at least 2 month to the program, otherwise, it can be very difficult to catch up and super easy to fall-off and get discouraged. Apart from the course itself, you will have to find your own ways to learn and explore to stay on top of the game. But it will be so much easier, once you go through Wyncode, to navigate what and where you need to research. You will learn to learn, they say at school. And for a programmer, product/project manager, tech writer, business founder or whoever you decide to be afterwards (the possibilities are vast): there is never an end to learning.

One more thing, if you have an app idea, and want to create a successful start-up, Wyncode is the perfect place to go. They always support each and every start-up that comes out of the classroom. It is their pride and honour to be as helpful as possible and match you up with the right people.

I do not work for Wyncode and was NOT paid for writing the review. I just went. Studied. Struggled. Survived. And loved it.

Prior to my experience at Wyncode, I was a Pre-Medical Student. After spending the majority of my upper level academic life studying the natural sciences, I decided it was time for a change as I was no longer happy with my academic direction. I was fortunate enough to find Wyncode. This enticed me to take a complete chance and change the path I was on. However, everyone chooses to take this jump for different reasons, I wanted to be able to have some sort of creative outlet in what was to be my career. 

Wyncode is 9 weeks of bliss and difficulty. This experience will push you to the limit, specifically if you have no programming experience prior to Wyncode. These 9 weeks will force you to walk a contrasting line. You will have moments of complete happiness when you are able to understand, conceptualize, and implement new ideas and practices. However, you will have moments of absolute frustration, anger, and anxiety when you approach tasks and objectives that don't make sense at the time. 

This difficulty is normal, coding/programming is difficult. It isnt meant to be easy, you will need to give everything you have to this program to be successful and get what you want out of it. You will be given new concepts to build on everyday, you will hear terms that you have never heard of, and you will be explained ways to implement all of this in ways that will require practice to develop fluidity. For the 9 weeks, you will have to put certaine routines on hold, you will have to remove yourself from the familiar comfort zone you were previously residing in. You will have to change your mindset, you will need to ask everything of yourself. 

With that said, I believe Wyncode to be a great and a beautiful place to learn this unique skill. Wyncode provides the environment and staff to make sure that this transition and learning curve are taken on as smoothly as possible. Wyncode's Miami campus employs a gentleman by the name of Ed Toro. He could be one of the most well versed educators in his craft. His true value lives in his patience and his desire to see every person who walks in those doors understand and learn. When Ed is not available, Wyncode schedules teaching assistants everyday, even on weekends. These are individules that will spend more than just 5 minutes with a student. They don't get tired of multiple questions and they want to see you succeed. They are there every weekend for projects and for every syntax error along the way. Every individual deserves some sort of recognition on this post, every instructor/teaching assistant who stays after hours for the greater good of the cohort, each one that answers a slack message at 1 AM, these are the people you will be fortunate enough to learn from and grow with.

Wyncode's curriculum is heavily based around Ruby and its most well known framework, Rails. You will spend a better part of 4 to 5 weeks on this subject matter. There will be one week in between Ruby and Rails that will be dedicated to HTML and CSS. Following this area of the curriculum you will encounter JavaScript. I appreciated the curriculum as a whole for building some sort of infrastructure for my programming life but I do believe more attention should be placed on JavaScript. Wyncode's curriculum currently and going forward will not make you a senior developer or a intermediate developer. Your knowledge will be very limited as it is only 9 weeks, but Wyncode TEACHES YOU HOW TO LEARN. This will be the most valuable lesson you will learn. 

When it comes to job assistance, the first thing that gets noted is that people will assist you. Rita will go in the trenches for you, she will put you in positions to get the job, but you must GET the job for yourself. IT WILL NOT BE EASY. NO ONE IS GOING TO HAND YOU OR GET YOU A JOB. YOU WILL HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF. This should not be a shock, Rita will tell you this, Jo and Juha will tell you this, every Wyncoder prior to you will tell you this. If you don't grind, it will be noticed. If you don't work hard it will be noticed. Push yourself to get a job with intensity. 

I would recommend this experience to anyone who has the desire to learn how to program/code. It will be worth it at the finish. 

If you have any questions feel free to ask me at my email rodneyeperez@gmail.com.

Some background:

I came into this course with no previous experience in coding. I was a history major in college. I did not go to any pitch days and didn't know what I was getting into. I joined because I wanted a career and life change. Wyncode will require your full undivided attention.

Course:

You learn Ruby, HTML/CSS, then you move on to Rails, learn javascript, and learn concepts of test driven development. You also learn Agile and other Lean startup practices

Instructor:

My instructor was Auston Bunson. I'll say I wish all my college professors were as dedicated to making sure everyone learned as he was. He was open to feedback and worked hard to make sure you were a proficient coder. He is a brilliant guy and if you were a job you’d be very lucky to have him as a senior. I know a lot of people would say he goes too quickly or isn’t a good teach but I’ll go ahead and challenge them by saying that they were probably not very good students. Did they ask questions, did they do all the assignments, did Auston ever turn anyone away from asking their question? I think you will find that they tried to cut some corners.

Job Placement:

Getting a job isn't easy. In any field, it is hard. You have to interview you have to do coding challenges. Wyncode does try to make it easy as possible though. They host tech events for you to make people, introduce you to people hiring, give you practice interviews. They do as much as they can. I don't see any college going this far. Rita tries to prepare as much as possible. My own personal experience is that I wouldn’t have a job in this field without Wyncode introducing me to my future boss at pitch day.

My Thoughts:

Anyone that comes in with the mentality that this course is going to teach them everything or make it easy to do anything is not going to benifit in my opinion. You have to put in the work and really dedicate yourself to being a self learner and self starter. Wyncode gives you so much to get where you want to go a lot faster. If it came with no classes but just the Wyncode community it would be worth it. They are willing to answer any questions at any time of day help you with anything and are just great people. I would recommend this course over any amount of college. These people actually care if you succeed or not.

If you have any questions feel free to ask me at my email rodneyeperez@gmail.com.

I have been thinking about and preparing to post an honest and objective review for the past few days now.  Then I saw what someone kindly wrote 4/21/16 and I realized I couldn't have said it better myself.

Be thankfully for their detailed and lengthy review because it gives you a very good idea of how the program is in its entirety.  I am glad I did Wyncode overall, the miami beach location and people were great but do I think it is worth 10,000?  No.  The "wyncode fam" is warm and welcoming and I really enjoy some of the friendships I made there, but in the nicest way possible, I joined wyncode to learn to code.. not to make friends. They need to have proprietary corriculum to work off of in class.. not some external resources they "suggest"

But I will stop there because below it is stated perfectly.

I had heard a lot of great news about Wyncode before signing up, and I'm really glad I made the leap of faith! The tremendous amount of support provided is incredible. The instructors are very knowledgeable, helpful, and approachable. I always felt like I had a village supporting me. On top of that Wyncode introduced me to the fast growing Miami tech community. I've met CEO's, CTO's, entrepreneurs, developers, VC's, angel investors, Facebook executives, Google executives, the head of the eMerge America's conference, and the list goes on. I really feel like I'm a part of something bigger. Not only do I know several members of the community by name, but Wyncode also did a great job of putting me in front several great companies through their interview process. The director of hiring partnerships, Rita, is amazing! She really hustles! She helped me get several interviews as well as helped me negotiate my salary. Every step of the way you can tell Wyncode cares. 

I come from a traditional education backgroud and having graduated from one of the top universities in the country (with loads of debt)- the results from 9 weeks, compared to 4 years are astonishing. My first job after Wyncode gave me a higher salary than I could attain with my college degree. 

Now all that being said-Straight up-Wyncode is really hard, no one is going to put in the work for you. No one is going to spend the endless hours staying up late coding for you. No one is going to fill out dozens and dozens of applications for you. No one is going to make phone calls, or drag you out of bed to go to networking events. No one, not Wyncode, not Harvard, no one but YOU. That's the key difference between successful people and people who make excuses- If you expect a hand out, then reconsider Wyncode, in fact, reconsider your approach to success. 

Honestly not worth it. Teaching yourself will save you money and emotional distress. the program is underdeveloped. There are great resources online you can use that are equivalent, if not better, to the wyncode program. Wyncode is very misleading in how they portray themselves. Job assistance is sitting around and talking about what you did that week. Basically a group therapy session about unemployment. The job search is daunting and the best advice we get is to HUSTLE. There are not many connections you can make through wyncode. The cohort i participated in had wynterviews with companies that are not even hiring... best advice is to go somewhere else or self teach. 

Did you ever watch The Truman Show? Well, that's Wyncode.  They will promise you everything and anything you want to hear, a starting salary of $60,000-$70,000, endless demand, ect ect.  They will promise you 93% employment rate after graduation, these are their numbers, good luck!  Btw, if you can't find a job they will hire you as a Teaching Assistant, for 4 hours a few times a week, and pay you a little more than minimum wage. But hey, you are employed and in the 93%!
Oh, and forget about the yoga, kayaking, jogging outings they promise.  These are plain and simple LIES.
The founders Juha and Johanna Mikkola will buy you with fist bumps, smiles, endless "your're awesome, you hustled, you're amazing" and a whole lot of one on one PR (and they're good at it!) and whoops, you coughed up $10,000, with if your lucky, 15% interest rate or more.  I wasn't so lucky.  One more thing, their online ratings are good because very often they raffle a free iWatch for whomever gives them good ratings.
Rita Rovira, the Director of Hiring Partnerships is also not innocent.  She will sweet talk the hell out of you.  She can certainly talk the talk, walking the walk? That's a different story... Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those bitter individuals who wants to take revenge.  I did have a good time, made great friends, and the teaching staff are awesome.  I just want you to make an educated decision and know what to expect because everything you learn there can be learned online for $30 or even free.

Like most people I spent a long time looking up reviews and trying to find out if going to a coding bootcamp was the right choice for me. After months of deliberating on where to go and if I could afford it, I decided to attend Wyncode. One of biggest factors in my decision was the positive reviews the school had. This was a great decision! Between instructors and TAs, I was able to be challenged while receiving the right balance of help and being pushed to struggle on my own. The atmosphere is fantastic and everyone is motivated and encouraging. Overall this was the right choice for me and allowing me to break into a field I enjoy every day.

Wyncode has been one of the best experiences of my life. I attended cohort 8 in Wynwood.

The classes are held in the Lab Miami. The place is outstanding. A lot of tech startups and businesses and also like minded people interested in tech, development and entrepreneurship. There are daily events in the lab, most of them which you can attend for free. Another thing I want to point out is free coffee/tea/energy drinks and kind bars 24/7. 

The Lead Instructor is Ed Toro. He is amazing. He is kind and friendly and as a developer ninja, he knows EVERYTHINg. His lessons are the best. He makes it easier to understand difficult topics and complex problems and he makes sure everyone gets what he is saying. I will be forever thankful for everything I learnt from him.

Ed is not the only instructor, we had two other instructors (The amazing Tim and Joe) that went above and beyond to help us understand topics and hard homework. We also had Bryce as a guest lecturer, he is another developer Ninja and his lectures were also fun and helpful. It didn't stop there. We had an average of two  T.A.s a day including Saturdays and Sundays. They were mostly Wyncode alums and several senior developers. The T.As were especially helpful with homework. They never give you the answer  but they guide you on the right direction and they give great advice on the Miami Tech ecosystem and what to expect after pitch day. 

Matt and Sean were also a great help for me. Matt is in charge of the campus and he is amazing at it. Everything is organized and ready for us. I reached out to Matt several times to ask him questions and he always had an answer or a solution. I don't know how he does it!

Sean A.K.A Superman was not as often at the Lab but he was a slack away, always giving suggestions and was always open to questions from us. 

The Curriculum is very good, roughly  two weeks of Ruby, one week on CSS & HTML , one of javascript,  three weeks on rails and two on the final project.

The lessons start at 10.a.m. We have a morning and an afternoon lesson. Sometimes we have hacking sessions or live coding. Two or three times a week we have guest speakers and on Fridays, we have a soft skill workshop with Rita Rovira. 

The job assistance is very good. Rita is on top of things and after a lot of interviews and Wynterviews  got hired two weeks after graduating. 

I came to Wyncode without knowing what a command line was. 9 weeks later I have all the skills that I need to start my journey as a developer. 

Thank you Jo and Juha, you are great and have an amazing thing going on. You are not only building the future of tech in South Florida, you are building the most supportive and amazing community that I have ever been 

Wyncode helped me change life paths and get back to following my passion of computers and development! The whole experience was great! From the TAs to our teacher (Damon, the man!) to the supporting staff to General Provision (our space) it really made my Wyncode experience unforgettable. I did have a background in tech but decided to take on Wyncode because I wanted a kick-start into the tech world (mainly just a job). We had "wyn"terviews throughout the cohort and that's where I met my current employer, Modernizing Medicine. I absolutely LOVE it here and I would have never had the chance without the valuable information and skills I learned at Wyncode. Thank you!