iO Academy

Summary: I got a certification in PHP recognised globally.

Having little experience with PHP since I joined Mayden this has been extremely helpful in furthering my own knowledge in the language. The Zend Certified Engineer exam requires a lot of studying the nuances of PHP and is extremely daunting as it covers the entire language. 

Thankfully the training made me more confident in developing PHP professionally as well as being prepared for the exam. Not only did I learn a lot, I also got a cerification that is recognised by industries globally.

I joined Mayden as a software developer in september last year. It was a career change for me as I had just graduated with an MEng in structural engineering. I had good problem solving and analytical skills from, but little knowledge of PHP.

I joined the academy for one month while they were taking the PHP modules. I was very impressed with the course.

There was a really good blend of theory and practice. We would spend one week being taught course content from the front, followed by one week with a group project. We would alternate like this the whole time. To drive, you need theory but also practice on the road. This brings the same approach to programming.

The main instructor spoke clearly, and at a very good pace. He was patient and would put care answering questions thoroughly, often typing code snippets, which were projected onto the board.

I marked the curriculum as 5 stars because I found that when I started programming there are so many technologies which interact to put together a web application. HTTP, Apache, HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Virtual Machines. When I was working here to start with I was learning PHP but I didn't know how it interacted with all the other techniologies. But the fact that the course is full stack really helped me to join the pieces together. 

I also wanted to mention a couple of intangibles. The first is the quality of the other applicants. It seems they recruit on ability but also passion. This made the time spent relationally rewarding as well as technically helpful. I met some really interesting people from a variety of backgrounds who really enjoyed what they were doing.

A final thing that really stood out to me, was the support given to the academy by the company as a whole. Often we would have a guest speaker, which would be a current Mayden developer. But people would even stop by to help from other departments without being asked.

If you want the quick review here it is: By attending the academy I now have a job as a software engineer. 

I cannot recommend the academy enough- all learning styles are accomodated, the content is well thought out and the teaching was clear and efficient. I attempted to learn this stuff on my own before the academy and I felt like I was banging my head against a wall, not knowing where to start, what to learn and constantly getting stuck and having no one to ask. Attending the academy 9-5 Monday to Friday and treating my learning as a job really helped focus my mind, immerse myself in the topic and be part of a positive learning environment with others that had the same goal. It also stopped me being lured in by my Xbox at home when trying to teach myself!

Before joining Mayden, I had been an office administrator for around 20 years. 

It wasn't fun. It wasn't well paid. Most of all, it was depressing. 

I wanted a job career that I enjoyed - I wanted to be happy about getting out of bed and going to work in the morning. 

Mayden offered the opportunity to achieve this - I didn't have the time left in my working life to study at OU. I didn't have the financial stability to drop out and go to Uni for 3 years. I needed a quicker solution. Enter Mike and the Mayden team...

The course was great. Tough, but great - the content is current and constantly evolving to be relevant and most of all, backed up by practical work - as Scrum teams on big, full stack projects for real World experience. Invaluable for a new portfolio of work!

It will be a long, tiring and mentally challenging four months, and you'll have to be prepared to put in the hours outside of the classroom, but it will be worth it. 

Mike and the Mayden team have been as helpful as they can be in finding a job after graduating and in the other alumni from the course, I have a support network of people in the same situation, with the same experience. 

Give it a try. You won't be disappointed...

As somebody with an academic background, but negligible experience with software, Mayden Academy was just what I needed.

The course provided me with the ability to write code in HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, and SQL in order to create interactive web applications. As well as these core technologies, we were taught many peripheral components of the development process, such as Git, making us far more than code-writing machines. This was done in an environment where questions were absolutely always welcomed, and answered thoughtfully; and if the answer wasn't known, then other's would be consulted until it was!

The learning took place in an active development environment, with the academy students forming an additional Scrum team. Doing it this way enabled us to prepare for what is ahead of us in our careers and to take examples from people who are doing it already.