Ironhack

I started to study Higher Technician in Computer Network Systems Management in 2010 and it was during this period when I discover the world of programming and I was totally hooked.  After that, I was working as full stack web developer in a marketing online agency where I had to face many challenges.  One day I realized that I need to stop and continue learning. My main goal was to  improve my skills developing scalable, maintainable and well tested web applications. That day, was the day I found Ironhack and I left my job to begin a new adventure.

 

From my point of view, Ironhack is the best course to start a career in web development. You will learn not only all the best practices and all the technologies required and used by the leading companies, but also you will be involved in a great and different experience where teachers and classmates work and practice together to get the best from every hour.

 

Teachers are all excellent professionals with a huge working experience so learn from them has been a pleasure and a great opportunity.

 

All eight weeks of the Bootcamp have been very intense but the hardest week for me was the second one, when I discover how to do TDD and it was very challenging.

 

Finally, doing a final project where you can practice everything you have learned is essential. In my case, I was working in a learning platform called “Skillstep” where you can create your own learning tracks. To introduce a project at the Demo day was not my goal, so I decided to focus in learn better how to do specific parts of my application and it was good choice. Whether you want only to learn or you have an entrepreneurial profile and you want to know how to develop your project, you will find no better place.

Career support after Ironhack is excellent also, and the “Career Week” a good opportunity to get  a good job. Thanks to a coding challenge sponsored by a company that we did last week, I am waiting to close a job offer only a couple of weeks after graduating, so I couldn't be happier at this moment.

When I first learned about Ironhack, I knew everyone is capable of coding. I tried to learn how to code by myself, but I felt lost in the huge programmer’s world. Ironhack was my guide to obtaining a full web development toolbox. The classroom based learning environment is ideal to improve your skills and to achieve your career objectives. After some weeks of intense work, a rollercoaster of feelings and many hours working with great teachers and mentors, I find myself comfortable around languages and technical resources to grow up any web business idea. Ironhack is the absolute platform to start your developer career.

I am a photographer who wanted to change the course of my career, so I started to experiment with many disciplines and ended up discovering that coding was something that I liked and I was good at. At first I was trying to learn by myself, but when I found Ironhack and the way they understood education, I didn’t hesitate and applied for it.

During the bootcamp I met a different approach to learning that was really different from what I’ve seen during all my years of being a student. The way that the syllabus of the course is developed is impressive. In Ironhack the focus is in the feedback of the students, improving the quality of the materials week by week.

Thanks to their methodology centered in doing things over heavy theory, working with your classmates and helping each other and the excellent selection of professionals programmers who also know how to teach, in the end you know more than two programming languages. You learn to learn. You make your basic principles that will lead your future career as a web developer.

Would I recommend Ironhack? Of course.

Ironhack's bootcamps are short in time and long in contents. I don't think they are for everyone. You mut be properly motivated for it. Thats why Ironhack has a selection process to be sure you are a good candidate.
They also have a scholarship program for the proper candidates.

Trying to complete these contents in 2 months means to work on it from 9am to 9pm every day during the bootcamp. In my case for example I accomplished Ironhack’s bootcamp with the following contents (more or less) in 8 weeks:

    •    Week 1
    ◦    The basics
    ◦    HTML, CSS, JS
    ◦    Responsive design
    ◦    Browser development tools

    •    Week 2: Start coding!
    ◦    Git, Github, Gist
    ◦    Intro programming and algorithms
    ◦    Coding in Ruby on Rails
    ◦    First test spec

    •    Week 3: Clean code
    ◦    Designing web apps and clean code
    ◦    Data and relationships with Rails
    ◦    Using MVC with Rails

    •    Week 4: The agile way
    ◦    Agile management
    ◦    Writing tests
    ◦    Forms and gems
    ◦    Deployment of the app

    •    Week 5: Javascript time
    ◦    Client Side Javascript
    ◦    Integrating common APIs
    ◦    Advanced frontend with SASS and HAML

    •    Week 6: Getting serious
    ◦    Monitoring, performance, real stats
    ◦    Advanced Ruby on Rails
    ◦    Applying caching
    ◦    Securing things

    •    Week 7 & 8: The end
    ◦    Advanced Workshops
    ◦    Final Project
    ◦    Demo Day

During two months you can do nothing but coding. That means you cannot work during the bootcamp.

Does it worth?
Absolutely. It’s hard, expensive and sometimes stressand, but it's also funny and the reward is amazing. 
Teachers are very skilled people they will push for a fast learning path, so you will learn in a way you could never imagine before. In quantity and in quality
Besides, you will meet a lot of interesting people with the same concerns than you, and they enjoy his profession like you do.

If you work hard you will be prepared for the next step in your career’s evolution to a better job or just to do it better where you are.
My personal experience is that thanks to Ironhack and my hard work, I reached all my goals in 3 months.

My experience at Ironhack was very positive one. As a minority and female with limited coding experience, I was doubtful at the beginning if I could complete the program. However, after 8 weeks, I not only completed the program, but also was able to develop a web application from scratch. 

Before Ironhack, I was in business, doing completely unrelated to programming. I even had a great fear for anything technology. One day I decided to cast off my fear of tech and started learning how to code. Though I was studying dilligently, it was very inefficient. As a responsible adult with responsibilities to fulfill, I thought going to school and learn "how to learn coding" in a short amount of time seemed efficient than reading posts after posts on stackoverflow.  And, I am glad to tell you that I made the right decision. 

What makes Ironhack very unique was people - my classmates, the teachers and the staff. My classmates were from all walks of life and open-minded, which made me feel ok to ask even seemingly silly questions in the class. I still hang out with some of my classmates even after the program ended.

The teachers were great, too. Though some classes and the curriculum have rooms for improvement such as installing some programs prior to the cohort begins, the lead teacher, with knowlege, passion for coding and teaching, patience and care for each one of us, made my learning experience the excelent one. 

The staff. I decided to attend Ironhack because of the staff. Everyone was always thinking about how to create an open and comfortable environment and make the learning experience fun. They provided us many opportunites like happy hour, beach BBQ, and pinada smashing (to release our stress) for us to socialize and have some break. They also set up a weekly meeting where students can provide feedback and share our thoughts. People there were "real."

Lastly, Ironhack provided great job assistance. Of course, I had to do 99% of the work following their strategic advice, but they set up interviews with companies (I received a job offer from one of them), provided useful resources and followed up with me on the phone almost weekly for practical advice and encouragement. As a result, I received a few job offers and am currently working for a growing tech company (where my colleagues know the Ironhack lead instructor).

Ironhack really changed my life. 

There are many schools out there with different emphasis but I think the value of going to a coding school is to build skills, confidence and knowledge to continuously learn new technologies. Like myself, many coding school students will probably end up learning something new or maybe unrelated to what they have learned at school. Then, my recommendation is to go to a place like Ironhack where you interact with good people in a good envionment where your learning experience will be joyful. 

 

Ironhack has been an unforgettable experience for me and that I would most definitely recommend it to anyone really serious about learning how to code! To take full advantage of Ironhack it is important that students come with a minimum level of coding knowledge so do take the pre-work seriously.

I have been a professional developer for the last 27 years. Now I lead a my own company that develops products mainly for clients in the hospitality sector in the Balearic Islands.

For a long time I have wanted to update my skillset and learn web-based programming languages and knew it would be really hard unless I went on a “spiritual retreat”. Ironhack has certainly exceeded my expectations. Loved the fast pace of the course, my fellow Ironhackers and how much the instructors cared!

I studied photography and audiovisual communications after that. So I worked in different media outlets such as TV channels and photography studios to end up in marketing. I spent a lot of time in front of a computer without finding a motivation until I found out about Ironhack.

Up until that moment, my contact with web programming was limited to small wordpress retouches. I had learned the little I knew though online tutorials. Truthfully, I soon noticed that I was learning fast and that I enjoyed coding a lot therefore I decided to give the bootcamp a try.

During the 8 weeks, Ironhack absorbed every bit of my time. We immersed ourselves in new technologies and methodologies. Since the beginning everyone was really keen on sharing their knowledge with the rest of the group and on helping other out. Teachers and mentors were also of a lot of help, they showed infinite patience and were always available.

2 months don’t seem like a lot of time, however I was astonished of the amount of new things I was able to learn. I found specially useful the mini-projects we got assigned each day and the extra motivation of being selected among the best projects in order to present at the Hackshow.

Ironhack definitely prepares you to jump into the professional developers job market. I am not just saying this. I finish classes on a friday and on the following monday I was already working at Quipu, a startup led by one of our instructors. Currently I am coding in Rails and experimenting with other frameworks such as EmberJS.

If you like web development and you want to make a living out of it and you don’t want to spend at least 4 years going to university and you often get stuck learning by yourself, a bootcamp if definitely the answer. I am 100% satisfied with Ironhack so I can only recommend this great experience to anyone thinking about it.

Currently I am a Telecommunications Engineering student at Universidad de Vigo, a degree that covers a wide variety of topics but does not go in depth into web programming, which is what I am really passionate about. For this reason, I decided to take a break from University to enroll at Ironhack. I wanted to take some time to focus on learning what I enjoy the most, and do so while having fun and surrounded by motivated peers.

The curriculum was very well organized, starting off with some basic programming concepts, building up the level of difficulty gradually and covering coding best practices and clean code. Their methodology help you structure complex problems (you end up seeing the hidden woods behind the trees) The whole learning process is led by expert programmers and instructors, practitioners that are currently working with the latest technologies. They taught us what’s most valuable from a professional's perspective.

Everything you learn is enhanced by an exceptional group of international and very motivated buddies. To me it was really important to meet such a group of motivated students with whom I shared a passion for technology and coding in particular.

As if the above mentioned was not enough, Ironhack really goes out it’s way to make sure students have the best educational experience of their lives! I would say that this commitment to their students is what makes Ironhack different. Their help goes well beyond the 8 weeks of in person education. They provide great support making sure you reach the right coding level before you start the bootcamp and then, after the Hackshow, Ironhack staff really makes sure you are ready for the job market. In my case I was able to get a bunch of job interviews through Ironhack and ended up accepting one from a great startup in HAMBURG. That’s right, I am starting an adventure in Germany!

After my experience at Ironhack there is only one question to solve, would I recommend Ironhack to others? The answer is absolutely yes! Whether you have a tech background or you don't, Ironhack is the answer if what you are looking for is to start working in the IT sector.

I studied Physics in Munich and after several internships in business, I decided to become an entrepreneur. I am currently studying applied physics in a masters degree, however, I wanted to learn some hands-on skills in programming so that is why I decided to look for a way to learn in which I could do it effectively.

 

I chose Ironhack because to me it seemed the most professional and intensive coding school in Europe, so I decided to to move to Barcelona for the two months of this years Winter-Web-Bootcamp.

 

The bootcamp is special in many ways: It offers a broad horizon in both technical and social level. It teaches state of the art methodologies in Web-Development, but also brings together people with very diverse backgrounds.

 

At Ironhack, there is a strong sense of community: We often worked together in pairs and met many interesting people at talks about development/technology or business in the evening. I would recommend the bootcamp for anyone, seeking to boost their career with an additional key-skill. The career department of Ironhack trains their students very well and offers great support in finding work-opportunities.

 

During the final 2 weeks I built an idea I had in mind. I found Ironhack’s instructors super helpful. They gave me a guideline on how to build the minimum viable product (the product that would just be enough), and helped in the planning, making it realistic. Furthermore they helped me, solving countless technical issues, ranging from the design to the database-structure.

 

The project also benefited from the inspiring and productive working atmosphere at Ironhack, where students help each other and solve challenges together.

 

In all, I think that for non-natural programmers or want-to-be´s, being able to learn coding in such a short time period is just an incredible chance and Ironhack definitely delivers!

What I got out of my experience with Ironhack was invaluable.  I learned a great deal about myself, made friends with wonderful people from all walks of life, and came out with a solid understanding of the web development landscape.

I decided to join Ironhack because I wanted to learn more about web programming and gain a new skill. My job as a consultant consisted of working, communicating, and at times leading developers so I thought getting a leg up in coding would be beneficial in my day to day activities at work.  I knew I needed to become code literate and I knew that the best way for me to really learn programming would be to attend a course, to throw myself into the deep end.

Into the deep end I went. My experience wasn’t all butterflies and rainbows. It was probably one of the toughest experiences of my life. There is a ton of content and it is constantly changing.  It is a very rigorous curriculum with an aggressive timeline designed to really challenge you.  It put my ego to the test, it made me feel dumb at times, and frustrated in others.  The first week and a half I felt like I had been knocked down, but this was done intentionally, which I appreciated after the fact.  It got me into gear and forced me to adopt a “can do” attitude.  From a personal development standpoint the program helped me learn how to better overcome difficult situations, how to ask for help, and to really understand how detrimental negative self-talk can be to ones progress. From a technical development standpoint I was amazed at how much I learned and how much I was able to accomplish.

I think what really differentiates Ironhack from other schools is their amazing team and their culture of  “ the customer is always right”.  I really loved and was really impressed by the constant feedback loop they incorporated into their system.  It felt like a very intimate experience because they cared about my concerns, my thoughts, and most importantly my progress.  They wanted to make sure I was getting everything I was expecting out of the program; an attitude that was adopted by all of the faculty and staff.  Overall the instructors were superb. They were experts in their field, good instructors, and always extremely helpful and very respectful. 

When I joined Ironhack last summer (2014) at their Barcelona Campus I was 17 years old. I joined Ironhack straight out of highschool looking to gain proficiency in modern programming languages so that I could work at a product company.

 

When I was around 15 I started to like everything related to web design and later applications for iOS devices. Soon that interest lead me to begin playing around. I also spent a lot of time learning how to make an iOS app by learning objective-c listening to postcast and reading blog posts. As my final high-school research I made a website and IOS application about my city.

 

After graduating from high-school, as I enjoyed programming so much, I wanted to study Computer Science. However I became very disappointed when I saw that students only came in contact with code on the 3rd year at university and that the subjects taught there are very introductory and about outdated technologies. That’s when I started looking for other options, I found Ironhack and enrolled before beginning university.

 

The methodology at Ironhack is very hands on. We built many little products during the bootcamp that helped me ground and implement many important coding concepts. In addition, most of the time we used Pair Programming (when two students work together on the same project, one program while the other observes and then they switch positions) I really found learning from my peers very useful and effective.

 

My cohort was a very heterogeneous, friendly, fun and very united group. The best moments were when we went out to eat and Friday afternoon when we had a more relaxed coding&beers sessions. I had and still have a very close relationship with my classmates and teachers. Ironhack is all about community!

 

Teachers were not professors, they were an equal partner guiding you and helped with everything you needed to understand. They weren’t follow the role of a normal teacher, they were like a partner. The classes were very pleasant and made you the day short.

 

After Ironhack, I started my Computer Science degree and in my spare time I continue working at my project called Goslost and I keep in touch with my final project’s mentor. I am hoping Goslost to be fully operational soon!

 

In all, Ironhack was a great experience that changed what I thought about education and that has given me an incredible and useful  skill set and a very strong network in the local startup and developer scene. I would recommend it to anyone that is serious about coding!