Craft Academy

I was looking for a valuable bootcamp to get back into the Software Development industry (after 4 years out of it). After looking around I came across Craft Academy, and I did the right choice.
I believe in big "classrooms" it's hard to focus on each student, with Craft Academy you'll get direct help from the coaches and you won't feel abandoned.
The time span is short, but a lot is learnt and you're pushed further your limits, to the point you won't believe how much you were able to learn. Of course the main drive will be your passion for coding and your hard work. Without it, you will not be able to take the most out of any bootcamp.
You will struggle, you will may feel lost at times, but struggle will make you grow. If you'll find yourself in a dead end, the coaches will guide you towards the right way.
Here you are taught the agile methodologies, pair programming, Test Driven Development... A lot of things I never heard before. You're thrown into an agile environment, you'll collaborate with your team mates in order to develop great applications. You'll inspire each other and your confidence as a developer will grow.
The bootcamp is provided with a Preparatory course, which will be crucial for you to learn the basics before getting started.
My advice is to not underestimate the Preparatory course and start working hard from the start. 12 weeks will fly, and if you solidify the basics you'll have a better experience through the bootcamp.
Changing your career is possible. It's up to us doing the hard work and make it happen. With the right guide, like this bootcamp, we can achieve our dreams. My dream is to evolve my career in software development and make a living out of it.

There are many web developer bootcamps to choose from, but this one is special. Like so many things in life, what you get out of it is based on what you put in, but at CA the curriculum, the instructors, and the collaboration (hello pair programming!) with the other students is an incredibly potent mix that gives you so much, way more than what you put in. Now don't get me wrong. I've never worked this hard in my life, but I've not also never experienced such rewards. 

A few things on the job hunt that follows: Being able to do Test Driven Development, which I understand is no guarantee with many coding schools, with the same ease as writing a for loop is an amazing confidence boost. Having done three months of project based work using agile methodologies is further evidence that you can hit the ground running, no matter where you land. I would also add that agile methodologies give you more than just a feather in your job hunting cap. It's actually useful in tackling so many complex problems outside of software development. As a final personal note, I want to also say that it's incredibly nice to look at all these job listings and see my CA skillset be so sought after: exactly what I was looking for to achieve a career adjustment.

TLDR: 
Pros: Amazing experience whose difficulty is only eclipsed by its rewards. 
Cons: You won't do anything else for all 12 weeks (but let's face it, that's sort of the point).

Where to begin?

A little backstory, I worked in the corporate world of buying and purchasing, long days working as a middle man between different departments, dealing with issues etc etc etc.... either way I hit the proverbial wall and was on sick leave for better part of half a year.

I did a lot of searching during the latter part of this time, I wasn't enjoying my job, I was anxious about going back and didn't want to end up in the same place again. Light bulb moment, I like computers, I should work with them, did some online courses, seems like fun, lets see what's actually out there. Low and behold Craft Academy turns up in my google search. Within a month of applying I am starting the prep course, the part time bit of the pie you get to eat before devouring the whole thing.

Issue with that pie is it comes with a baseball bat to defend itself, and it fights hard. First two weeks you're in Ruby some basic challenges but you and your paring partner are there a few days in left to work your way through 2 challenges that week. Looking back now, a simple task, then not so much.

This is a pattern that continues through the boot camp, it pushes you to your limits to the point that you fail, those failures are some of the most important lessons during the boot camp. Things don't always work out a typo here and there some back ticks should be use instead of quotation marks. Lessons that make you pay attention to details and learn for next time. I wouldn't say I enjoyed failing, because failing sucks, but what those failures created was a detail orientated developer than can quickly go back and see what's gone wrong.

On to the substance of the course:

What you learn

Vanilla and React JS, HTML, CSS just to name some on the front-end, the back-end you're in Ruby using Rails, everything is catered to speed and learning, you've got 12 weeks got no time to learn complicated syntax. Ruby on Rails may not be super popular anymore of be the in language. But it's easy to get to grips with, fast to get up and running and except for making sure all the 'ends' are in the correct place not much more than the odd comma here and there. It's simple to read and works very well with database languages like Postgresql.

You get to learn about version control, super valuable, more complicated than it seems and a must listen. This will save you more times than Thomas curses at an issue he is having :) Super important and a very easy thing to mess up in the beginning. Now I don't think I could ever work without version control. A fantastic tool that all devs and future devs should use.

Agile a way of working that speaks to me, work as small teams, deliver often, work with your client (here's to you Billy Ray). I was at first skeptical to the pair programming had a hard time understanding how it would work, but also a hard time not wanting to let go of a problem that could turn up. Now pair programming again is something I don't think I could live without. It's fun, efficient and productive.

The Team

Thomas and Emma who were my coaches during my time were fantastic, knowledgeable, helpful, patient and fun. They made the experience for the most part great. You'll have your frustrations when the same pull request has been sent back 5 times to fix something, but they do it to help you learn and grow as developers.

My teammates we also great, we were all guys, so we all had that moment of working out who was who in that first meeting. But through the camp we built a bond like I've had very few times in my life.

Wrapping up

If you get this far in my review then you are probably interested in the course. It's expensive, there is no getting around that, the knowledge you get  is worth it though. Does it take all your time, yes it does, pretty sure my son forgot who I was there for a little while. Friends, family, outside you won't see them for a while. It's all worth it, at the other end you'll come out a better person and be a Junior Fullstack developer. 

To quote Shia LaBeouf 'Just do it' you won't regret it. 

  

Like many I choose this bootcamp to change career and get into web development. I had basic experience in programming, I new what is variable, array, loop etc. and could manipulate them on basic level. However software development is much more than just hacking away, I new that it should incorporate some workflow and you should follow some standards to be successful, that's why I decided to spend very considerable sum of money for me, to enter this bootcamp and never regretted it.
 
Learning Curve:
It is not a school or University.. not at all! And I like it much better! Curriculum is laser-focused on what you NEED to know to build web applications, literally 0% BS. Every minor detail that in the beginning seemed not important came into play later in bootcamp. Learning curve is not linear - it is exponential. In the beginning they hold your hand through challenges they throw at you. As you progress they slowly take that away. In the end you forget that there was any documentation, you rely solely on yourself and your peers.  If you give everything you have, you will be surprised how much you've learned and how natural the knowledge is after the bootcamp. I would say in regular tempo and regular approach it would take much longer to acquire similar skill set. The price for that, is that it takes ALL YOUR TIME. Forget about family and friends for 3 month, you will be coding all day long, with no weekends.
 
Curriculum:
As I said, there is no BS. Focus is on what is necessary for web development, but it is more than just learning different languages. For example in the beginning you will learn Git for version control! HTML, CSS, vanilla JavaScript and Ruby come later. It may seem strange, but it is what I value most about this bootcamp - you learn how to be a professional: naming standards, clean code, write your tests first, have good Git game and more. And you start practicing it from day 1. In the beginning it feels like too much. In school you are given theory first and than you practice it, here you start practicing right away, following the same flow you will be using on your last project. It is hard, but rewarding. Now I have no idea how you can code without Git or Test Driven Development (you write tests before implementation), it is in my blood and it makes me a better developer. 
You will learn modern libraries and frameworks like React, React Native and Ruby on Rails to rapidly build professional applications. They will also show that if you will need something more hyped like Python and NodeJS it is not that different and can be learned very quickly. Let me stress again, languages are not everything (in case you don't see the one you want to learn), the professional flow is what you are paying for.
 
Teamwork:
I'll be honest. I am shy and introverted person, the ability to work in a team and confidence boost that this bootcamp has given me is of immense value. You will work in horizontal team where every one is responsible for planing the application, delivering features on front and back end, doing devops (deploying application etc.) and presenting finished result to a client. You will not code alone, always in pairs. It may seem scary but it is fun and it increases productivity immensely. Other reviewers mentioned personal growth as one of major factors of this bootcamp, and it is so for me also.

Final Thoughts:
It was hard and it was expensive. But it is worth it. If you are serious about getting into coding and you don't want to spend several years in University, I cannot imagine a better place that Craft Academy to do it. As a final thing, in our last project we were doing application for real client, real startup in Gothenburg, and they loved it! Check Craft Academy Youtube for that. Good Luck! 

To me, Craft Academy was a perfect match. The super high intensity, the clear pragmatic focus, the fine red thread throughout the course, the great coaches, and an awesome team made this boot camp one of the best decisions I've ever made. 

I could come with many anecdotes or renditions of my time at Craft, but I think one of the most important realizations that I can pass down is that this boot camp provides the foundation, the boundaries, and the motivation - but you are the one who has to put in the work.
If you are curious, open to the process, and in it to win it, you'll have an awesome experience.

Cheers  🍺 

I recently completed the boot camp and this is a crazy feeling. It was hard but fun journey and it has been a lot of ups and downs during the boot camp. But with the support of our coaches we made it. 

The program is very intensive and you don't get what's going on from the start, but after first weeks you get used to the working tempo and realize that all is going on the right way. You start to understand whats happening, you start to create things that you never thought you could do before and that was awesome! 

We learned front end and back end using test driven development. This helps you to build your application with the skills you have and have a clean code without errors when using TDD. Not all the developers nowadays know how to test so this makes you be more visible while searching for jobs.

One other benefit of this program was pair programming, this was good experience for my future to work in teams and cooperate with your teammates using Agile way of coding.

I would say everyone can change their career and become a developer if you choose this boot camp. It is a hard education but it gives you a lot. 

Why I chose Craft Academy:
I found Craft Academy after I began learning Python through books. I realised the most efficient way of learning was repetition, practice and having some sort of a mentor. I wasn't wanting to spend 4 or so years to get a degree in a field where it's possible to show knowledge without paper. I was looking for an environment where I could work in a team and work in real life situations and projects. Craft Academy offered all the things I was looking for.

Curriculum:
The curriculum and process of learning can be very efficient, getting introduced and taught about a certain topic/language, then using what you've learnt within a project. There is a lot that goes into the 12 weeks and various processes that you are taught to follow early on on the camp. You really need to have full dedication to this Bootcamp with as little distractions as possible, it's close to 3 months of hell but you can learn a lot. Something to also mention is that a majority of the time you're split up in teams such as Team A and Team B with 4/5 members each and Team A splits further into pairs of 2/3 so it's up to you to learn whatever you miss out from the other pair. Same goes for learning from from Team A to Team B, both teams do thing's differently so it's possible to learn even more if you have the time.

Who should do this?
Regarding knowledge, anyone should do this, if you have a passion or interest for development this type of course is for you. I cannot stress this enough, you neeed to be fully free for this course, it is incredibly time consuming and mentally draining at times.
I would also say being comfortable with English is a big plus, theres a lot of theory, reading and talking done and it would be tiring to have to always thing twice as much.

Would I do it again?
I'd purely do it again just to learn all the things I missed out on. I'm happy with what I've learnt in such a short period but I feel there was too much that I missed or just didn't have the time to get to.

Overall thoughts:
Great curriculum and content, pretty decent support from coaches, can be very stressful depending how you handle it but if I look at my first project compared to my last and current projects I'd say it's worth it for the overall experience and knowledge.

Before l attended to the boot camp. What l had in my mind was, is 100k really worth a 4 months education. Will l learn much and be able to get a job offer once l am done? I am sure whoever reads this thinking about joining thinks the same. Let me tell you that this is really worth it. 

I recently finished the boot camp and honestly l feel so proud and happy over myself for doing this. It was such a hard journey and it has been a lot of ups and downs during the boot camp. But with the teachers support and how dedicated they are for you to succeed, we all made it. 

You learn more than you know. It goes in such an intensive pace that you never have the time to take in and think about how much you have learned. I realized that when l was done with the education. From not knowing anything about coding to knowing how to build my own application using front end and back end.
That they use a test driven approach is also such a bonus that they taught. Not every company uses that and it will sure be something extra you will have to offer in the future. 

I would really recommend anyone out there that are interested in starting a new career as a developer. It is a hard education but it gives you a lot. I graduated 3 weeks ago and l have already got calls from companies that got interested of how much we learned at Craft Academy. 

I learnt a lot during these past weeks and I really can chime in with the choir when they say that it is a fast pace and you have to really "Live" coding during these weeks. But it is rewarding in the end, and for me landed me my first coding job at my current workplace where I before worked as a QA.

Since I knew some programming (Mainly HTML, CSS and some Javascript) before applying I think I had an easier time during this bootcamp than some, and to some degree I recommend having that. It will allow you to quicker start sprinting along this bootcamp curriculum than someone that has no idea what coding is. But if you are eager to learn I saw plenty of people doing just as well as I did.

One of the best moments for me was doing the larger assignments where I got lucky and ended up with a great gang of guys with the same sense of humour. Since there basically is no free time during this bootcamp, it's imperative that you end up with like minds that work well together. We ended up doing the final project together, and that really helped keep the motivation up during the last 2 weeks of the bootcamp where we basically coded from 8 to 22 to get it done.

I do want to stress that, THERE IS NO FREE TIME during these 3 months. And don't underestimate that. As a husband and a father I felt it was hard to neglect my loved ones at home during this time, and that weighed on me. So if you have kids, take that in mind.

The positives:

• Learning Javascript and React. This is why I was here, and I loved how much you get to work with it. 
• Even if you focus more on learning the frontend parts, like me, you still get the understanding and you know what the backend does.
• We got to make mobile apps! I worked with the Ionic framework and that was easy to develop with.
• We learnt to work in small agile teams (sort of) doing all the scrum activities like stand-ups, requirement analysis, retrospectives etc.
• We were pushed to prove to ourselves that we know what we're doing by DELIVERING projects.
• Lots of nice contacts from your fellow students. You should use those to help each other to get a job. Very valuable!
• I learnt a lot, and in the end it landed me a job! And isn't that what we're all aiming at?

So, to the negatives:

• The curriculum changed after we applied, were we where promised to learn React Native. This was one of the reasong to why I went for this bootcamp instead of perhaps Technigo. Instead we got to work with Ionic which is fine and all but it's not as well established (easy to get a job) as React Native. In the end we got to test it out during the bootcamp, but not enough and it felt like an after thought since we had been complaining. 
• Learning Ruby for the backend instead of something more in demand like Node.js, that would have helped us get a job easier. Yes, it was easy to get into, and that's most likely why we got to learn JS and React as much as we did. But there's not much demand for Ruby(o.R). It's a shame.
• Some students got waaaaay more help than others. And by that I mean, 24/7 assistance from some coaches, even on weekends. It was frustrating seeing that favouritism when you were struggling on your own project and no coach is to be found.

So to conclude:
You eat shit sleep code. 
You won't have time to see your friends or family. 
You will feel like a thanks giving turkey being stuffed with knowledge. 
You get to take responsibility for your own learning.
You will meet new friends in the same position as you. 
...and in the end you'll get a t-shirt that says Junior Fullstack Web Developer.

After wondering, where can i go to learn coding while picking up some soft skills and good coding practices, I came across Craft Academy. Their curriculum didn't only focus on teaching me to code, it was design perfectly to make me job ready by the time i was finished with the course. I was taught the best practices to use when coding. I was taught to use agile methodologies and test driven approach when developing softwares. I was given great job assistance. They modelled their curriculum to feel like a real world simulation. There was constant tech interviews and new projects to develop. I got the opportunity to work in groups doing pair programming which is also a valuable skill to have.
The coaches gave good guidance and was there every step of the way ensuring we are picking up the necessary skills. The demos were interactive and so i was allowed to ask questions as soon as i was getting confused. Needless to say, the experience was great one, they made a very rough journey feel smooth.

I was working in marketing as CRM Specialist for quite some time. In the beginning, I was quite challenged and had a great team. I was kind of an all-rounder regarding creative and technical tasks as well as analytics and business strategies. But after 4 years I realized it's not challenging anymore and the career steps I could take in that field are limited. 
I've decided to push my technical and creative skills to the next level and do the coding bootcamp Craft Academy. I knew some web development and JavaScript beforehand, this was quite helpful for me but don't be afraid if you have no prior knowledge, the whole course is designed for people with no experience with coding whatsoever.

The course is divided into two parts 4 weeks of preparatory and 12 weeks of the main course. I suggest you practice Ruby and JavaScript during the first 4 weeks as much as possible because 12 weeks will be very intense, you will barely find time go over basics again. You gotta be a quick learner during the course, develop your way of learning things efficiently.

It's important to know that this is not just a coding course. There are many currently used industry concepts that are being taught such as Behaviour Driven Development, Test Driven Development, and Agile Scrum Web Development. Learning these concepts(and many others) and learning how a web developer approach design challenges or problems will make you ready for taking part in a real web development team. At the end of the bootcamp you will have enough knowledge to start your career in the tech industry. But you should not stop coding ever, web development is always changing you need to keep your skills sharp even after you finish the bootcamp.

There are few individual projects but most importantly many group/pair projects. Nowadays, lone web developers don't exist anymore in tech companies, it is now a norm to work in web development project groups. Craft Academy teaches you how to work in groups as web developers and deliver minimum viable products in a given time.

The coaches strive you to succeed, they can become hard critics on your code but remember that your code is not you, you shouldn't take criticism personally. And ask a lot of questions to them, they will help you anyway they can. Be sure to listen to their soft skill and hard skill suggestions, you will receive lots of valuable insights.

You must know that you need to give your full attention to this bootcamp for 12 weeks. You must spend your evenings and weekends coding if you want to be a truly successful developer at the end of the bootcamp.

I'm very amazed by how much I've learned in 12 weeks. Most importantly I learned many marketable skills to kickstart my job search in the tech industry.

Don't hesitate to contact them if you have other questions about the bootcamp