Hackbright Academy

As someone who already had a job in tech and knew a fair bit about some of the topics, it was still a fantastic learning experience. 

There's lots of material out there, but it's very hard to assemble it into a sequence that results in a fully-functioning app this fast. I was consistently impressed that each lab asked us to do something I had no idea how to do and at the end of the hour, I could do it. Making the project forced me to understand how it all worked together. On top of that, there was a lot of time practicing white-boarding and computer science concepts--things I didn't realize I needed before enrolling. I was truly blown away by the apps the women in my cohort built in such a short time. 

It's incredibly difficult to create a curriculum that supports and challenges students from so many different backgrounds and experience levels, let alone one that gets every student in a cohort across the finish line. I've done a fair number of courses and certifications (~seven) and I would unhesitatingly recommend this one as forcing me to learn more than I would have been able to get through on my own in twice the time. It's possible to get through exercises and memorizing flashcards on your own, but it takes a carefully scaffolded set of challenges with quick feedback to build ability.

Students of any bootcamp should expect to spend six months on average after the camp building skills and projects while they conduct a job search. Hackbright is no different. They force you to update your resume, linkedin, github, etc. and help link you up with companies open to hiring bootcamp grads, but there's still a lot to learn to get to the level of a software engineer. Hackbright gives you the schema and support to be successful in getting there. 

Working in healthcare and information technology I wasn't challenged and looking for a new career path. I have a very demanding job and personal schedule,  and 5 kids so you can imagine how busy my life is. I had been interested in learning more about technology, specifically coding and software engineering. I decided to take the leap and in March of 2021, I applied for the Hackbright Academy Prep Course. This was my way of knowing this was the right program for me. Being with other women made the experience fun, engaging, and not as intimidating as being in a male-dominated Bootcamp. After completing the HB Prep Course I knew I wanted to apply for the Part-Time Software Engineering program - I just didn't know how I was going to manage the next 6 months of work, class, and kids. Well - I am glad I took the leap with the support of my family and can proudly say I graduated on January 13, 2022. 

The program was 3 days a week, Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6 PM-9 PM and Saturday from 10 AM-6 PM. We had several Saturdays off and due to our program running during the holidays we had several weekdays off as well. Which was big for me. You are allowed 3 missed days - which is also great. 

How it went - Ups and downs, at times I felt like I wasn't sure this was the path for me but that's only because what we were learning was so new to me and I didn't understand it. But ASK QUESTIONS! Make sure if you decide to take this leap you are not afraid to ask for help, clarification, or more details so you get the most out of your learning. The instructors and TA's won't know how to support you if you never raise your hand for help. And lean on your cohort mates, you spend 3 days a week with them, get to know them, engage with them and you will find that they are more than willing to help you succeed than you think. I was able to build positive relationships with all of my cohort mates through pair programming, mock interviews, coding challenges, and queue. The network of people I have been able to build from this experience will be integral to my future success. 

Plus - Hackbright Academy is one of the only accredited Software Engineering Bootcamps out there.  

What do you have to lose? If you have been thinking about applying - DO IT! 

I came here hoping to find a quality educative experience which would get me set up for software engineering. I quit my decent paying job doing very repetitive html work to learn software engineering. I ignored my gut instincts of good sense to join this program lol.

A few pros:
- if you need any guidance to keep you on track with learning, it’s great to a have A program to help you with it. I know I needed a program.
- we got to meet a few select companies that were “interested” in hiring Hackbright grads. Few of us were competitively ready enough for even apprentice positions.
- people are nice

Cons:
- a lot of cash to pay for dull PowerPoint slides and a handful of checked assignments. I have adhd though so it was hard to sit still for 2-3 hour segments of slides without getting to practice hands on.
- the teachers did not seem to take it seriously enough, a lot of toxic positivity when i could sense the quality of material was not up to par.
- the frameworks used are not what will help you get in the door of most companies. They are not modern. They act like it’s not important to have to learn a specific library but to show that you are a good learner. We all know that that is not a plight every single person can use to squeeze by to get a job.
- overall they did not respect the fact that people quit their jobs to take this class, and they could barely get any of our graduates into companies. I think a few of us had to give up. We just simply were not taught in depth enough or the right things to get us into companies, which SHOULD be the ultimate goal to getting us back on our feet.

I felt slightly taken advantage of, knowing this is a for profit company and that it has stripped all of my savings and I had to take out a private loan (which are the most difficult) instead of any kind of educative loan.

Luckily enough, I had a connection from BEFORE the program who was able to get me into a job using a strong amount of skills I had before the program. 

This program isn’t competitive enough. the economy isn’t THAT desperate for entry level eager-to-learn newbie engineers expecting 80k+ comp. This program is just not it. If you’re reading this, move on!

The Hackbright Academy program I attended was a full time, 12-week full stack web development bootcamp for women and people who are gender diverse. Their mission is to change the ratio within the job field and help create personalized paths to a software engineering career. Hackbright offers an online learning experience, however, still builds a community within the constraints of a screen. During the course we attended class from 10am-6pm Monday through Friday. We would split our time between lectures, pair-programming labs, lightning talks, and project time. The Hackbright instructors made sure no one fell behind by constantly checking in and making sure we were receiving the adequate support we needed. Every Friday, we would have team building time along with advice from the Outreach team on how we could prepare ourselves on being successful after the program in regards to the job search. 
Throughout the program we focused on core programming, data structures/APIs, and web technologies. The tech stack we primarily focused on was a combination of Python, Flask, CSS, HTML, React, AJAX/Jinja, Bootstrap & SQLAlchemy. 

In terms of preparing us for our job search after Hackbright, they did an amazing job. Nearing the end of the program, the academy sets up a Demo Night to show off our Independent Projects to major companies (Amazon, Walmart, Twilio, WePay, Dialoggbox). Personally, the week following graduation I was in communication with three companies and received two job offers the next Friday. 

I joined Hackbright to pivot my career with more of a technical emphasis and it did just that. Very appreciative of my time with the wonderful staff, instructors, and fellow Hackbright alums. 

TL;DR: If being in an all-women environment has value for you, there is no better option than Hackbright. Also, I only had to apply to two jobs to get an SWE role. Actually, I was offered both jobs, but chose the one I liked better. So, that's pretty fantastic ROI. The most important skills I gained from Hackbright were not technical ones (in fact, my job uses an entirely different stack than the bootcamp taught), but more how to think like an SWE and how to learn like an SWE. The lessons, labs, and projects taught me how to approach problems and how to solve them, and the experience gave me confidence that I could really do those things on the job.

Longer version: I researched multiple bootcamps before choosing Hackbright Academy. I was very drawn to the all-female (or female-identifying) cohorts, as that mattered to me in terms of my own level of comfort. That was, by far, the best part of my experience with Hackbright - meeting so many talented and capable women both in the cohort itself and through our teachers, TAs, and mentors. I feel like I would not have done as well in a mixed-gender educational environment.

My bootcamp was fully remote, and I think Hackbright did a nice job of making the virtual lessons as engaging as possible, and the instructors gave us regular breaks as well as trying to keep things interactive and fun. It was a full-time program, which was pretty intense, I have to admit. There was about an hour of homework most nights (after having done a full work day of classes/lessons/labs), and then longer homework and assessments on the weekends. The volume of work relaxed a little during project season, but not a ton, so you really have to make sure you have the time and energy to commit to the full-time program for those months.

My likes (aka what was great):

• Remote learning. They did it very well, and it was cool to meet and work with people from all over the country.
• Women-empowered experiences. Because most of the staff and instructors are also female, there were many built-in role models for us to see. Some of the presentations and discussions did touch on how to navigate a male-dominated industry (though there probably could have been even more of that, in my opinion)
• Building the cohort and relationships. We had mini-groups within the 22-woman cohort, as well as other pairings for labs and such. This allowed you to meet and get to know pretty much everyone. Additionally, each mini group hosted an end-of-week activity twice during the program, which was often a fun trivia game or something like that. I got to know my mini-group mates very well, and still am in touch with a couple of them. I also got to know several of the other women very well and am maintaining friendships and professional relationships with them. Because of the intensity of the program, you do feel like you know each other well, and it is nice to stay in touch!
• Python lessons. These foundational weeks and lessons were, by far, the strongest of the program. The instructors and TAs really knew their stuff on Python, and helped us get a solid foundation before branching off into other languages and other learning. Like I said above, my job doesn't use Python at all, but the learning process we used for Python really helped me build confidence in my ability to learn, and also helped me see that I could translate that learning and that process to other languages.
• Project season. The instructors and project advisors really force you to stay accountable and on track for your project, which I definitely needed. They also help you see what is a reasonable chunk of code to write, debug, and test within the sprints. It was amazing to me that our whole cohort was able to go from blank pages to fully functioning web apps in just a few weeks. So cool! And, you end up with a nice project to use in your portfolio or during job interviews (though, I admit that neither of my interviews cared at all about my project or even looked at it....)

My beefs (aka constructive feedback): 

• The instructional quality varied throughout the bootcamp, as there were many different instructors who worked with us on the various topics and lessons. Some instructors were simply AMAZING, and some...were not. No one was awful or mean or anything, but some just seemed to be better teachers or perhaps even to care more than others. Some also seemed to have deeper technical knowledge about what they were teaching than others.
• I would say that about 85-90% of the topics and lessons were very solidly planned, organized, and presented. There were a handful, though, that seemed almost like afterthoughts or that just were not the same quality of preparation and/or instruction as the other topics. Mostly, those were the soft skill-focused lessons and some of the lessons on testing (QA) and on Java, as well as group projects that just felt kind of "tossed together" at the last moment.
• The one-on-one stuff - advisor meetings, extra tutoring help, study hall time with the instructor, feedback sessions, career one-on-one, etc - was the most valuable time and information I got. (Ok, that's not a beef, I guess.) However, I think there wasn't enough of it. If that is where the bulk of the value is, then I think it could be a bit more frequent. We only had one feedback meeting in 3 months. Maybe they should be monthly instead. And, the 1-on-1 career stuff was awesome, but voluntary for sign up. It could be required to make sure everyone does it at least once. Advisor meetings were every other week, but I wish they had been weekly.
• Since Hackbright is part of a parent group that includes Dev Mountain (and maybe more bootcamps?), some of the staff are shared between multiple bootcamp programs, and so are some of the activities. For example, I went to one post-bootcamp hiring event that included students from non-Hackbright programs (but part of the parent group), and it was a bit shocking to experience the non-Hackbrighters in the hiring event. To be blunt, most of the hiring groups were male, and the male students (non-Hackbrighters) often dominated the virtual space with the hiring groups. Basically, it was hard for a girl to get a word in edgewise. Since I only did this one event, I don't know if Hackbright hosts more/separate women-only hiring events, but I kind of assume they are all combined to save on staffing time/demand and also to give potential employers the largest possible group of candidates. Nonetheless, it was jarring, and I wasn't fully prepared for the "man's world" hiring space after going through three months of female-empowered learning and career spaces.

Summary: As stated above, I think Hackbright excels in its niche of female-focused SWE learning and community building. I absolutely recommend it for that aspect, along with all the other value that is there in the program.

Coming to Hackbrigt has been an amazing experience overall.

Starting with the curriculum, I feel it has everything that you need to dive into the Software Engineering basics, and then taking it further until you are ready to make a full stack developed web app.

As soon as you finish with the Software Engineering course, Hackbright makes sure you are fully prepared to start looking for a full time job as a Software engineer, they give you tours with different hiring companies and you can have one-o-ones with hiring engineers to know about their hiring process.

Whiteboarding is another thing that I have learned at hackbright, which is truly helpful when you are going to be expected to do in every interview to get a job.

But the MOST IMPORTANT thing for me is the mission that Hackbright gives me, #ChangeTheRatio, and empowering other women that want to become a Software Engineer.

I have great things to say about this bootcamp,

I took the Part Time because I was working a full time job at the same time, and even though you are expected to do work after hours, its totally doable.

One of the things I liked the most about the course is that they not only prepare you into the technical aspect of Software Engineering, they also support you, give you advise and a whole week  dedicated completely to the job search that you are going to endure after finishing with the course.

Hackbright always made me feel empowered and the community as well as the instructors are amazing supporting you in every step of the course.

As a working adult and parent, it was a difficult decision to quit my full-time job and attend Hackbright. I made the switch strategically by first attending their weekend boot camp course and then their prep course to get a feel of how they structure their coursework and teaching style. From the very beginning, I was blown away by their supportive and nurturing environment. They are really passionate about changing the ratio in tech and this mission is reflected in everything they do(i.e. teaching approach, opportunities for women, mentorship, etc). I am forever grateful to have spent the past 5 months (prep program + full-time program) with amazing women who are on a mission to become awesome SOFTWARE ENGINEERS! The passion to learn is contagious at Hackbright and I love it!