Fullstack Academy

Fullstack Academy can be best described in two words - life changing. For several years, I worked in Technology but in functional fields, while always being interested in and curious about building technology myself. However, I always felt an intimidation towards software development and in all honesty, some skepticism towards programs that seemingly turn you into a developer in a few months. I held on to my fear and doubts for a long time while a few of my friends went through the program and successfully became developers. One day, I decided that I didn't want to regret not trying and took the leap of faith and applied for Fullstack Academy after doing the bootcamp prep course, one of the best decisions I've ever made. I graduated from Fullstack in February this year and went through their Fellowship program for three months before working fulltime as a developer which I'm currently doing since the past four months. 

Just the fact that Fullstack Academy forces you to prepare with some coding experience and you need to interview and show your readiness for the program so that you're setup for success before getting in, tells you a lot about the quality of this program. That is what made the decision easy for me to apply here versus other bootcamps although it was a harder process. Once in the bootcamp, we all had to go through a 5 week remote course that gets us all on the same page as people are coming in with various backgrounds and experience levels. You think you have learned so much already, and then you get on campus and the next few months, you are all hands on deck, building different applications with incremental knowledge growth day by day.

You get to pair program with others a lot (where two people write code and solve problems together) so you're not on your own and get experience working with others and talking your thoughts out loud which is key. There is a ton of support offered from fellows (previously graduated students who serve as teaching assistants and mentors), instructor office hours, and more. There are minimal lectures and the curriculum is mostly based on writing code yourself which is why you learn a lot in a short amount of time. You're not alone, you're in a room full of people that are going through the same thing you are together. That is powerful and has a huge impact on your learning journey. You gain a crazy amount of knowledge in 3 months, more than you could ever imagine. Towards the end of the program, Fullstack also prepares you for the job hunt and supports you in preparing your resume, linked in, interviewing, etc. and keeps in touch for post-program job search support. In my cohort, almost everyone was able to land a job in three to six months.

Now that I am working as a developer and have been for the past four months, I have realized what Fullstack gave me even more. I am a Level 1 engineer at my company but am told that I am able to work on features at least one if not two levels above my level, all because Fullstack's program was that in depth to prepare me for that, both on the front end and back end. I started out fixing small bugs but quickly transitioned into building new front end features and writing services on the back end which has been so exciting. I highly highly recommend Fullstack Academy for anyone who is looking for a means to change your career and life, and go into a creative and stimulating field like software development with support and expertise from the best staff, instructors, peers, and mentors around.

I attended Fullstack’s Bootcamp Prep for exposure into coding schools plus an introduction to Javascript, and it proved to be a great experience all around. The instructors I had were both very knowledgeable, and good teachers on top of that, and they brought real world experience to the class — they were both graduates of Fullstack’s immersive program with day jobs in their new career (BCP is taught 4 nights/week for 4 weeks). We learned Javascript syntax, programming concepts, best practices, problem solving approaches … but there was so much more to this class. I felt I got so many insights into this new world that helped propel my learning efforts … industry tips, techniques and resources that I might not have discovered for a long time had I continued solely on the self-study track. This includes things like knowing which sites to go to for the most reliable information, and identifying resources that all Javascript developers should employ to their advantage. One of the best features of this class is that Fullstack allows students to maintain access to the really well-designed suite of workshop exercises indefinitely after taking the class. This was by far the most significant tool in my post-BCP continuing studies. Notably I reached out to one of my instructors months later with a question on my specific recursion code … and received a response!   There’s no better value than BCP and I recommend it to anyone looking for direction in their studies regardless of current level of proficiency. There is so much material presented in such a seamless manner, every committed student is going to learn heaps in this class and have fun doing it.

After looking into many Coding Bootcamps with the motivation of getting more "hands-on" experience so I could make a radical career change, I found at Full Stack everything I was looking for and decided to join. The result:  an amazing experience where I got to meet awesome and very smart people, where I got to learn a lot about the most up to date technologies for full stack web development and, where I felt like already working in the field since day 1.  

After graduating from Fullstack Academy and successfully landing my first position as a Software Engineer within a month, I was proud of myself for making such a great decision. Fullstack was the best/smartest investment I have ever made. 100% recommended! 

 

 

 

I travelled from out of town to attend, and prior to attendance had about 6 years of front end development experience, including a lot of AngularJS. The teaching staff was exceptional, the fellows were very helpful. Some of it was review for me but what I loved about that is even when thing were review I was able to dive a little deeper into nuances or get up to speed with new syntax. Didn't love parting with the tuition cost, and sure it's things that can be self taught... but I can't imagine learning as much as we did in 3 months and such a great community of other students and instructors alike. Worth the money and an experience I will always look back on fondly, and on top of all that made some truly great friends! I think the only thing I truly didn't enjoy was a day or two where alot of the day was spent going over LinkedIn or resumes. I understand that many greatly appreciate this, but it being required for all when the cost is as substantial as it is frustrated me. 

I still cannot believe how well designed and executed this program is. The curriculum is current and continuously being updated to ensure that it meets market needs and delivers the most cutting edge skill set. This is taken very seriously, so you can trust that what you're learning has been well thought out and planned. The structure of the curriculum itself is conducive to learning a lot in a short amount of time, which is largely driven by a perfect balance between lectures and immediately applying what you learned in workshops both individually and in pairs. In addition, the second half of this program is entirely dedicated to working on multi-day and multi-week projects to reinforce everything you learned prior and build on top of that knowledge. This not only results in knowing the stack very well, but more importantly, being able to independently learn new technologies  and know how and when to apply them. 

The quality of the instruction blew me away, truly. Shoutout to Geoff, Omri and Dakota! Way better than any professor I ever had at university. All teachers have a deep knowledge of the stack they're teaching  and know how to break down complex concepts and explain them clearly and concisely. Every lecture is well planned and delivered. Teachers are patient and 110% committed to ensuring every student succeeds. In fact, the entire staff at Fullstack is wholly committed to going above and beyond to meet each student's needs. 

The last 2 weeks have a huge focus on ensuring students are ready to start searching for jobs on the right foot upon completing the program. There is an entire career services team dedicated solely to this and whether you want to or not, they will make sure you are ready to job hunt. They will help with Linkedin, resume, portfolio, interview prep, and probably anything else you ask. 

As many reviews on here already mention, all of the above is contingent on you working very hard. There is only so much a bootcamp can do. Ultimately, you need to mentally prepare yourself for an intense but highly rewarding experience. Overall, highly recommend! 

I graduated from FSA in July 2018, and I am very happy with my experience and the outcomes of the program. The curriculum was very well structured, and prepares you for a lifetime of learning (which is very important in this industry). The instructors were very kind and willing to help. They had relevant experience and were always willing to shed light on specific aspects of working as a developer.

I received and accepted a job offer within 1 1/2 months of finishing the program, and I was able to connect with my employer through career services at FSA.

Before attending Fullstack Academy I was working as a chemical process engineer for a manufacturing company.  I enjoyed my job, but was definitely looking for a new challenge and wanted to find something that made me actually excited to go to work.  I had worked quite a bit in process controls programming and really, really enjoyed it.  In my last job I got a bit more exposure to writing VBA and working with contractors on database design and decided computer programming seemed like a great next career!

I began a programming certificate track at Northwestern and LOVED it, but decided it was too slow and didn’t go deep enough.  I then began considering going back for a second BS degree or a Masters, when I learned about bootcamps.  It seemed like the clear choice for me as a career changer who was really not interested in a few more years of school.  I applied to multiple programs in the area and decided that based on offered curriculum and general schedule and reputation, Fullstack was the right choice for me.

I AM SO GLAD I MADE THAT CHOICE.  I absolutely LOVED the instructors at Fullstack in Chicago, they had incredibly interesting real world experience and were able to explain things in a straightforward, easy to understand way.  I also really liked that they focused on helping you find the answer instead of just giving it to you, they seemed truly invested in your education and success.  I also really loved the cohort I was in, because the admissions process is a bit more selective than other programs, you get people who really want to learn and are willing to put in the work in the actual class.  Everyone was amazing and smart and helpful and it was a true team atmosphere.

The curriculum moves FAST and the coursework is very challenging, most of the time it felt like a tornado of information but at the end you somehow know what you are doing, it was crazy.

At the end of the program they host a “Launch Day” where they invite a few companies in to watch us present our capstone projects and have mini speed-dating like interviews with the students.  I ended up getting 2 job offers out of Launch Day and decided to join KnowledgeHound where I am currently working as a Full Stack Jr Software Engineer…using more python than javascript.  I feel like it was easy to pick up the new language and start contributing quickly.  My boss had planned on me working on a few smaller side projects for the first 3 months while I got up to speed, but I finished them all within the first 3 weeks and was able to join the main tech team on the major feature projects.  I’d say I was well prepared to get in and start adding value.  I do wish I had learned a bit more using the command line, but I actually think Fullstack added that to the curriculum the cohort after me.

The career assistance was kind of as expected I think?  I think if you are newer to the more professional job search it is incredibly helpful (many of my fellow classmates really, really thought the info was very useful), if you have gone through a few rounds of job searching it is not terribly groundbreaking…again, as expected.  Though there definitely is great insight into the tech hiring community, so I think there is added value for anyone.

After working in human resources for over five years, I realized I wasn’t finding my work fulfilling. I switched roles, switched companies, but I just wasn’t a fan of being on the sidelines as a support function. I’ve been casually coding as a hobby for a while and my family encouraged me to research how to make the switch from HR to software development. I knew I didn’t want to be out of the workforce for too long so the bootcamp route was perfect for me. I did lots of research in figuring out which Chicago-based bootcamp was for me and from what I saw, Fullstack was a step above the rest. Most bootcamps are three months long, but the admissions process and level of difficulty for Fullstack was much more advanced than the other bootcamps I looked into. To me this meant that by the time I graduated, I would be in a much better position to land the right role. I went through Bootcamp Prep and spent most nights and weekends learning how to code to really make sure this was the right move for me.

The immersive is broken into two phases - junior phase and senior phase. In junior phase, we learned the fullstack (Postgres, Express, Node, React, Redux) in just six weeks. The program is structured with very few lectures and more hands-on pair-programming, which is great. Everyday we built something new, learned different ways to debug, and overall learned how to think about the challenges of our work. As someone who doesn’t come from a technical background, junior phase was really challenging. I learned quickly to get comfortable with the feeling of being confused and overwhelmed. Thankfully the students in senior phase would reassure me to trust the process and keep at it. The curriculum is set up so students have enough touch points to the important concepts to ensure they stick, there’s checkpoints to make sure we’re keeping up with everything we’ve learned, and the Teaching Fellows do a great job of breaking down difficult concepts and guiding students when we got stuck. Senior phase was my favorite. We started every morning with white board questions that helped prep us for job interviews. During the six weeks of senior phase, I built four projects (an e-commerce site, a news analysis web tool, a texting chat bot, and a mobile app) that used all the information I learned in junior phase and then some. It really helped build my confidence and diversify my portfolio of work. We also got personalized career success help to prepare us for the interview process. I really valued the help I got, but coming from HR, I do think that career success is an area that could use a little more focus (and I know the Chicago campus is already working on it). That said, I had two offers within a month of graduating and really love the work I do now.

Overall, I loved my experience with Fullstack. It’s challenging and difficult, but so rewarding. If you’re seriously thinking about a career in software development, I would highly recommend it.

SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR PEOPLE CONSIDERING BOOTCAMPS: 

Be warned about General Assembly, Coding Dojo, or Northwestern bootcamps. These do not have good reputations. You may have a good outcome, but there are better options out there. 

Ask yourself some questions: 

• Can you get your company to pay for this? Can you get a scholarship to pay for this? 
• Do you really need to do an in-person, immersive bootcamp? Can you start taking on engineering projects at your current work? Even having one professional project in your portfolio will go a long way to helping you in the job search. 
• Is there a way for you to start learning more now on your own? Do you have to do this right now? You will get more out of FullStack the more you know already. 
• Do you actually like software engineering / programming? 
• Are you ready to work your ass off in bootcamp and then work twice as hard afterwards to get a job as a junior software developer when most companies are looking for people with more experience and might have negative connotations with bootcamp grads? 
• Have you talked to a student from the bootcamp that you want to go to in the during, right after, 3 months after, and 6 months after phase? 

Why I chose bootcamp: 

• I wanted a rapid change and was ready to be in an in-person environment after working from home for 3 years.
• I wanted to get paid to write code, and I wanted to make that change happen as fast as possible.

Why I chose FullStack: 

• Seemed like the best coding bootcamp option in Chicago. 
• Grace Hopper track meant I paid $3000 up front and then the rest later. 

What I wish I’d known about bootcamps before: 

• Job market is not geared towards people with bootcamp-type backgrounds, even though they are very prevalent. There are a ton of jobs for people with more experience, though, so I know that as soon as I get two years under my belt, the recruiters will be banging down my door. 
• The more you know going into bootcamp, the more you can get out of it. (I knew this, but still wanted to make a change. I’d been studying on my own for like a year or so before I went, but I wish I’d built some small projects and/or had more experience with computer science fundamentals. 

Advice to FullStack Chicago: 

• Be more selective. Do not let people in who do not actually love coding or would not try to learn this stuff on their own. Don't let in the get-rich-quickers. 
• Be more transparent. Telling students to "trust the process" when they put $15k + on the line and are taking a big risk is not helpful.
• Also, treat students like adults, because that's what we are. We should know why deadlines exist and the reasoning behind the structure of the program and its curriculum. 
• Care about your students more OR change your model so that you have fewer students or cohorts and can care more about them. 
• Do NOT market yourself as an easy way to career change and start making a bunch of money. Software engineering is NOT EASY. The people who will do the best are smart and driven and will use FullStack as a way to continue launching themselves somewhere that they already want to go.
• Double / triple / quadruple down on your diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. 

Did I get what I wanted? 

Yes. I think so. I only graduated a month ago and have a PT software engineering apprenticeship that I got through a connection from FullStack, so that's awesome. It'll be interesting to see where things go over the next several months and years. 

I kind of wish I'd been more patient and taken time to learn and do more on my own before a bootcamp, maybe taking on engineering projects at work, but I waited too long and then I was too eager to get out of there and make the change. 

I also kind of wish I'd bit the bullet and moved to NY for the Grace Hopper NY experience. It would have been awesome to get to work with more ladies (there were only 3 others in my cohort of 19). 

Would I do it again? Right now, I'm fairly happy with my experience. It was a good time, and I met some awesome people in my cohort, and I'm getting paid to code. Ask me again in a year what I think about it. The outlook may be rosier. 

So, while FullStack is not your software engineering fairy godmother and will not turn you into a programmer overnight, it can help highly motivated students get to where they want to go faster. 

Good luck!