Codeworks

The bootcamp is pretty intense. A lot of hours and it goes fast. It doesn't go deep on anything but it gives you the tools to do it on your own. 
It is a lot of money but if you are in Germany you can go with the Bildungsgutschein and then it is totally worth it.

I would advise to learn to code on your own before joining because of the fast pace. I've seen colleagues struggling with frameworks because they didn't deeply understand the basics. Not because the basics are not explained, but because it is too fast to absorb everything.

Nevertheless, it delivers what it promises: 5 weeks after graduation I got a job as a full stack developer. Two of my colleagues also got a job in that time frame. All of us had some previous experience in the industry.

The support they give you after graduation to find the job is really good. They help you to tweek your CV to get more interviews and the do a weekly follow up to check what is working and what is not.

I would have loved to learn about Clean Architechture and not only go through the surface of the MVC pattern.

I recently graduated from Codeworks on July 8th, and I can't emphasize enough how pivotal this experience has been for my growth as a software developer. The program was well-structured, with a meticulous curriculum tailored to give students the tools and knowledge necessary for the real world of coding. The educators were not only knowledgeable but incredibly supportive, ensuring that each student grasped the concepts being taught. I came into the bootcamp with expectations and left with them greatly surpassed.

Codeworks is an exceptional bootcamp that offers a rigorous and immersive learning experience. Their unique admissions process, including several interviews and a focus on basic knowledge, ensures a high-quality cohort of students. Throughout the course the instructors were fantastic, always available to provide support and guidance. The program's pace is intense, but it allows for tremendous growth in a short period.

The course is well-structured, with exercises building upon previous material, leading to a comprehensive understanding of full-stack development. While the remote option is convenient, being on-site is recommended for the full experience and the opportunity to meet like-minded individuals. Codeworks doesn't just leave you after graduation; their excellent job assistance team supports you in your job search journey and helps alleviate impostor syndrome.

Many graduates have successfully found jobs shortly after completing the program, a testament to the effectiveness of Codeworks' approach and the quality of their curriculum. Codeworks is a top choice for aspiring developers looking to accelerate their careers in the tech industry.

Codeworks promise the world. They somehow fabricate statistics on their website that suggest near 100% employment rate, however that isn't true of my cohort nor the previous one. 

Let's start with the 'lectures'. The lectures are a daily video of about 10 minutes. They are vague and uninformative. Sometimes they are just adverts for databases taken directly from the manufacturers. After that you have a Q&A with a tutor over Zoom. As the company seem to pride themselves on their small class sizes you may be surprised to find that although you may only have a few people in your class ALL live instructions is done with everybody studying the course at that moment. Everybody in London, Berlin, Barcelona and anybody studying online will all be in the same Zoom call. Making the class size incredibly large sometimes upwards of 30 students. 

Then there's the 'tutors'. It may also surprise you to find that the tutors are almost all ex Codeworks students who have recently finished the course and have no teaching or industry experience. Some of whom are actually good. Many of whom are understandably, given their experience, completely out of their depth and clueless. When asking for help you will often be met with responses that are completely unhelpful, such as, 'I didn't complete that exercise when I was on the course' or 'have you read the documentation?'. 

The curriculum is okay. You will be forced to teach yourself relational and non-relational databases and you will be sent to Angular and React's free online tuition so you can teach yourself those as part of the course as well. There's some very basic teaching of sorting algorithms where the video lectures are ripped directly from Youtube. 

Honestly, this course is a complete money grab. The lectures they record themselves are so poor that in the end they resorted to taking free resources from Youtube. The content is so poor that instead of teaching you the most popular front-end frameworks they just direct you to, yes you guessed it, free online resources. It's overpriced and underwhelming. I would recommend anyone thinking about doing this course not do so. It is incredibly expensive for what they give. I'm surprised they legally get away with the claims on their website. 

After graduating last year I can say Codeworks is the way to go. Specially if you're switching careers from inside the IT world. If you're not coming from IT it'll be a bit tougher, but still worth the ride. When you're switching careers, time matters a lot. Other less immersive bootcamps may be cheaper but at the end of the day your time is money, and being able to go through the course topics in depth and in such little ''real world time'' makes it for me. If you add the customized support you'll get from instructors and the personalized career support at the end... It's an easy choice.

In 2022, I attended this bootcamp at the London campus, which had a rigorous application process. Prospective students were required to complete an introductory course (if new to coding), pass a technical interview, and complete a pre-course consisting of three repositories with different tasks. I spent a month before the course completing the last requirement.
The course itself was divided into two parts: learning and doing. The first six weeks focused on technical theory and completing daily assignments either alone or in pairs. While the curriculum could benefit from some improvements, overall, the tutors were available 12 hours a day and provided necessary help to students. However, I found this part of the course to be especially stressful.
The second part of the course involved working on various applications, beginning with solo work and then progressing to legacy projects (refactoring other students' code and writing tests) and final projects. Although this part of the course was also stressful, I found it more enjoyable than the first part because I was able to use my knowledge to build cool things.
Overall, while the bootcamp was challenging, it provided a valuable learning experience, and I appreciated the supportive tutors and emphasis on practical applications. I would recommend it to anyone serious about going into software engineering and wanting a strong push in the form of guidance to help them with this goal. I changed my career in 6 months (last to new job).

I really didn't expect that I'd be able to turn my career around in only 4 months, but with Codeworks I did. I had to borrow the money to afford the tuition fee, but it is easily the best investment I've ever made. I had been using HTML and CSS for a few years, but my JavaScript knowledge was very minimal (even after doing a couple of online intro courses). I have experience in design but had been a teacher for the previous few years and to be honest, I felt like I just about scraped through the pre-course without fully understanding how and what I was doing with JavaScript (the pre-course is structured with recommended online reading and some practical elements). 

I was a bit worried I wouldn't be able to keep up when it came to the intensive element. During the first two weeks, I still felt the same and was beginning to think if I was able to forge a career out of this. 

But around Week 3, when things became a bit more practical as a oppose to theoretical, I felt like everything began to make sense. I want to emphasise that at times you may feel lost, or just about keeping up with all the new information but not really understanding it, but it does eventually begin to make sense and now I've managed to find a job within a month of finishing the course. This has only been possible by a really supportive environment (instructors and peers), amazing curriculum and extremely helpful job support. They say 'trust the process' and you should! 

It's been a completely lifechanging experience for me which has opened a myriad of new opportunities and allowed me to find remote, flexible work that pays more than double my previous salary, allowing me to have a much better work/life balance. 

I'd 100% recommend this to anyone who is willing to put the effort in on their side and looking to begin a career in coding and if you're thinking about doing the course but are worried about the cost of it; beg, steal and borrow - it will be a worthwhile investment for sure

The process to get into the bootcamp is an extensive one that took a month to get through, with simple tech interviews, a pre-course, as well as a front end website you have to complete all before you join the actual bootcamp. I will say these were a good filter to determine whether you are actually set out to be a software engineer and have the mindset of constant learning under timelines and pressure (I say that but i had a classmate that couldn't access a 2d array in his 4th week of the course)(he dropped out soon after). So is the 3% thing true? I doubt it tbh (This also ties in to my other points later). As for the course itself, its divided into two parts with the first part being a daily learning/exercise driven ciricculum and the second being a project driven one. 

As for my thoughts on the ciricculum, the teaching style, and finally whether its worth the hefty price tag (they've recently increased it so its really really expensive now):
The course itself, while is up to date with recent trends in the tech world, could feel a bit rushed. At the end of the day, you only have 1.5 months to go over a HUGE amount of learning objectives - with front-end frame works, backend frameworks,  and data structures  - it can be extremely overwheming. If you fall behind in the important bits of this course, you will feel like you are drowning because the course is a learn-by-doing kind of teaching style. You only have lectures for 1 hour AT MOST at the start of the day giving you a brief rundown of the concept, before you have to do the given exercise of the day.  While there are instructors to help you, they often just run you through the entire solution to the exercise at the end of day/topic (yes you have help support during the exercise but they only try to point you to the right direction). This sucks sometimes. Becuase, if you come from a non-technical background, getting flooded with minimal teaching material while being thrown into the deep end and then being given the solutions after 2 days mean YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND IT before you move onto the other stuff. Or else, you will fall behind and simply not get your money's worth for the course. So in order for you to maximize learning, it requires 1. you absorb materials easily and quickly 2. PRAY you have good coursemates that can explain you some of the concepts that you might not understand. 

As for the second half of the course, its quite good. No complaints there. You do three projects and those go on your cv.

Job search is also amazing as you have job support right after you graduate. Mireria Soler, she is the GOAT and deserves all the pay rises in the world!!!!!! 

TLDR: Is it worth it? I got a job within 1 month so I guess it's worth it now? But if you're short on cash, Ima be real, you should skip this one and use the CRAZY AMOUNT of free resources online.