iO Academy

As someone with a computer science degree I worried the course wouldn't provide me with the challenge I needed. How wrong I was! The course was intense, packed full of information and side projects, so much so that I coded late into the night most of the week (for fun and to get the most of the course, not a requirement!) Most importantly it gave me the tools to navigate an extremely complex industry with confidence, teaching good working practices and enforcing a doctrine of work-life balance. All in all I would say the course was a winner for me, my career and my general well being. I would highly recommend it! 

I absolutely loved the course at iO academy. I had looked at quite a few different bootcamps before I decided for this one, and have never regretted the choice for a moment. What made me decide for iO academy was mainly the small classes (only 8 people), and I do think it made all the difference. With classes that small everyone always had the support they needed, and we all really got to know each other. Since the course is definitely not always easy, it was amazing to have such a nice group of people that could help each other through the tough bits.
The support from iO academy was great. We had several teachers and they were all extremely knowledgeable. Towards the end of the course you get a lot of support with the job search as well; they help you out with your cv, portfolio website etc. I was lucky enough to get a job immediately after the course ended. I'm really loving the work and everything I was taught at iO academy has proven itself more than useful already. I really think they did very well with the curriculum and taught us everything you need to know to start your first developer job.

TL, DR - Course good, got job. Believe the hype.

Prior to joining iO Academy (then Mayden Academy), I had no previous development experience other than a few HTML/CSS courses on freeCodeCamp. I'd been working in tech support/retail for longer than I would have liked and needed a change. I'd spent weeks trawling through forums, watching countless YouTube videos espousing (and demonising) bootcamps vs self taught vs university and reading reviews on websites like this one, and after weighing up my options, a bootcamp seemed like the best choice for me.

So, why iO?

• Small cohort sizes. The benefits of this in hindsight have been: more personal teaching, comradery/community and preparation for post-iO life.
• Non-code stuff. Being familiar with Scrum and following the rituals of daily standups, sprint reviews, merge requests (etc) made the transition into my first developer role that much less daunting, and is a huge benefit over going the self-taught/university course route. You don't know to learn what you don't know!
• Easy payment options. Not really having a nest egg to fall back on, the option to pay once employed was a huge plus. Being shorter than a transitional degre
• Support finding a job. The academy Slack job's channel was incredibly hlpful during the search for my first role, and trainers really went above and beyond, helping with my CV, portfolio, tech interviews and just generaly being there for a chat if things were stressful.

Despite the difficulties incurred by Covid, the iO Academy team were nothing but outstanding and professional. The trainers are knowledgable, personable and managed to simultaneously make the single most intense course of my life into the most enjoyable one.

The term "life changing" is thrown around a lot, but this course truly is. Thanks again iO team!

Misc tips:

• Do as much of the pre-course work as possible. Familiarising yourself with some of the vocabulary used will make things easier later.
• Ask for help when you need it (you will need it).

I have been ummming and arring for many years whether I should step into software development.  I was apprehensive about bootcamps in general but I do not regret joining and completing the iO Academy full stack development course.   Our coach Charlie is a great and has the patience for stupid questions!  We completed a number of team projects in an agile environment to get you prepared for the real world. We also had many talks from ex-students and also from engineers from Mayden which they are attached to.

My other advice is to make sure you cover all the pre-course requirements so that concepts are not so foreign when you join the cohort and keep adding projects to your portfolio along the way.

The course at iO Academy has enabled me to transition from a completely unrelated career into tech. Before the course I was an estate agent and had very little coding experience - 5 months later and I have received multiple job offers from really exciting companies. Something I never thought possible beforehand. If you are worried that you may not have any relevant experience, or your technical skills aren't up to scratch, then don't be. This is what you are paying for - and iO will bring you up to speed. Companies you interview for after the course care about your passion, enthusiasm and current skills far more than previous employment. 

The curriculum is curated to give you a solid foundation from which to specialise further. It also caters to different skill levels and the trainers manage to keep those more advanced busy by supplying them with 'stretch goals'. You are exposed to a multitude of different technologies encompassing the full web-development life cycle. This means that you discover more about what you enjoy and the type of position you might choose after the course. In one interview I had, the interviewer mentioned that he was impressed by how much the course covered. The certified Scrum Master certification is a huge competitive advantage as many companies adopt agile methodologies. 

The best part about the course though is the people, both trainers and fellow students. Firstly, your fellow students will go through the same meticulous process as you and this ensures that everybody has similar aspirations, despite coming from wildly different backgrounds. This creates a really fun, tight-knit group of people who are wishing for each other to succeed and will continue to be friends long after the course. 

Secondly, the trainers are all fantastic and are desperate for you to succeed. I was lucky enough to have Charlie for my course who completely made the experience for all of us. He was so welcoming, knowledgeable and encouraging and immediately put us all at ease. The type of bloke who is hard not to like and you want to go for a few pints with. Since the course has finished, he's helped me with job applications etc and really gone above and beyond. We were also lucky enough to be taught by Ash and Rayna and different stages of the course who were amazing and managed to fill Charlie's big shoes. Shout out also to Margaret and Sophie who helped with everything from the onboarding process to editing my CV. 

Overall, an incredible opportunity which will genuinely change your career trajectory in a matter of months. The 4 months is intense, but you will make friendships and massively improve your technical skills. Afterwards, the world's your oyster. 

This was the biggest thing I have committed to in my life so far, and I would do it all again. Coming from a career unrelated to the software developer industry I thought I would be unteachable, but I was wrong. Applying to iO Academy was the best decision I've made, not only did I learn amazing languages & skills, I met fantastic people. The trainers all have insane knowledge and they give so much of their time & commitment to us. The reviews I read before & after applying confirmed for me this was 100% the right decision, so I hope my review also helps others in my position. This was so much fun, if you are considering iO Academy you will not regret your choice. Thank you to all the trainers & staff at iO Academy.

Overall iO boto camp course was excellent,  they offered an incredibly well-structured curriculum that always kept an eye on employability and real-world skills.  Weekly guest lectures gave a sense of the breadth of employment possibilities and project weeks gave a real sense of working on existing codebases and delivering the product within the scrum framework. 
A slight overfocus on front end web development stuff and we didn't get onto the exciting React stuff until right at the end but other wise perfect.
during the course I had an accident that required emergency spinal surgery that meant I took a couple of weeks off to recover. After this, Mike the head of the school, gave me one on one tuition to get me back up to speed. I felt this went above and beyond in terms of student support and made finishing the course despite my accident possible. Incredible levels of care and attention paid to students. 

Curriculum
The curriculum at iO academy is extremely well curated and constantly tweaked to provide students with the most demanded practical skills in industry. It is structured in such a way that enables even a complete novice like myself, to build fundamental skills quickly. Despite covering A LOT of ground in 16 weeks, it also dives deep enough into concepts to allow a necessary understanding - a balance well struck.

The course is a blend of theory and project weeks where you will predominantly complete group projects in a Scrum team. These sprints conclude with sprint reviews, allowing the whole team to present their work to sometimes over 30 people. This aspect of the course helps to supplement the scrum master certification - CSM training (included in the course) with the practical experience of implementing Agile methodologies.

Instructors
One of the defining features of the iO experience is that one instructor will lead your tuition throughout the course. I found that this really helped me to build good rapport with not only the tutor, but with classmates too, as it creates familiarity, trust and continuity within the group interactions throughout. The strong relationships built allowed me to feel comfortable asking what I thought could seem like ‘stupid questions’ (never the case - always important to ask). In fact we were constantly encouraged and challenged with daily recaps to ensure that all students really did understand concepts before we moved on. The patient and thorough answers to my ‘stupid questions’ were definitely moments of key learning when the ‘penny dropped’ and concepts clicked into place.

There are also guest lectures throughout to mix up the learning experience, definitely another well thought out feature of the course.

Job assistance
There is a dedicated day towards the latter part of the course to help ready students to apply for jobs. It covers everything from cv/covering letter workshop, getting your portfolio up to scratch and hosted on their servers, to what to expect during the different stages of application processes. There is ongoing assistance to help you make the strongest applications and to put you in the best position to find a job.   

iO host hiring evenings where they invite hiring partners to meet you, creating a semi-formal opportunity for you to get in front of employers and ask them questions about the company and positions.

There is also a constant feed of filtered jobs aggregated from various job boards as well as pre-advertised job opportunities passed on through the vast network of alumni and tutors. The positions are always screened for relevance to iO grad experience levels and offer a reliable source of opportunity without the overload of hundreds of non-relevant postings, often found on job boards.

I managed to secure a job with a competitive salary within the 1st week of graduating from iO! Testament to the world class bootcamp experience you can expect from iO.

Overall experience
I cannot fault iO. The value for money/return on investment outstrips any other educational experience by a long shot. The genuine culture of support and encouragement, as well as inclusivity is the perfect environment for anyone who wants to kick start a successful career in tech. 

I would and HAVE recommended the course to my nearest and dearest! 

I had a great experience at the academy  and am so glad that I made the decision to do the course.  The way the curriculum was structured meant that you worked on a team project to consolidate the week of learning. You were able to practise the theory during each of the 6 or so projects which was invaluable. The tutors were caring and responsive to different learning styles. I come from a non-coding background but started teaching myself the basics of web development about a year before I started the course which really helped my understanding especially during project week.  The learning never stops, but thanks to the IO academy bootcamp and the team (special shout out to our trainer Ash), it gave me a solid foundation on which to build on and I was offered my first developer job a week after finishing which was amazing!