Juno College of Technology

I started my HackerYou experience in the summer of 2016 when I took the part-time Web Development course, from there I transitioned into the full-time immersive bootcamp. I was a relative newbie to the coding world and HY was essential in helping me to break through the barriers of getting started and really understanding the material. I am still learning everyday since finishing the bootcamp but that is part of what makes this a special experience. There is always new stuff to learn. I finished the bootcamp with a wealth of knowledge and a great portfolio that has already found me work and new contacts in the industry. The community is amazing, so supportive and passionate. I couldn't have done it without all the support. Currently I am freelancing and considering my options as it hasn't been too long since finishing. 

Attending HackerYou is one of the best decisions I've ever made. I was a bit nervous going into it - I didn't have any prior coding experience, but I started out taking part-time web dev in the evenings with Anne Thomas, who was great. I learned a lot even just in part-time, and quit my retail job in January 2016 to attend the full-time immersive program. I loved it. It's a great environment to learn in - the instructors are knowledgeable and enthusiastic, as are the alumni, and the students in my cohort were incredibly supportive throughout this admittedly intense experience and became good friends. The community surrounding HackerYou is truly impressive. I got a job just shy of three months out of bootcamp (coaching through the job search process lasts as long as it takes you to find a job, which is super valuable), and I'm now working as a front-end developer at Rogers with lots of other HackerYou grads. I really feel like I learned solid skills that I can continue improving long past the length of the course. 

My coding journey with HackerYou began when I enrolled in their Spring 2014 Part-Time Web Development courses. Before attending HackerYou, I had spent many hours assessing other courses and bootcamps in the city. Although they all seemed qualified in their own right, I decided HackerYou was the best fit for what I wanted out of my education and career.

After I took HackerYou's part-time web development course, I had such an amazing experience with the staff and instruction that I ended up taking their Fall 2014 Part-Time JavaScript & jQuery, Spring 2015 Part-time Design and Fall 2015 Full-time Web Development Immersive courses. I'm so grateful I made the decision to study with HackerYou and my return on investment was immediate.

Here's what helped me decide HackerYou was for me:

The Community:
I can't say enough good things about this phenomenal community! I know it sounds a little cheesy, but the genuine sincerity and friendliness of students here has had a direct impact on the betterment of my life. Graduates of the bootcamp immersive can still keep in touch with each other by messaging or slinging memes on Slack with previous alumni. Every Friday during a bootcamp cohort, there's "Show And Tell" which allows students the opportunity to practise their presentation and public speaking skills. They also invite alumni to attend which gives them the chance to learn something new and to stay connected to the community.

The Learning Space:
HackerYou's learning environment is bright, modern and spacious. The classrooms are set up with a projector at the front where the instructor lectures, and are always kept tidy and clean. There's a good amount of work space; meeting rooms, tables, couches for students to socialize or cozy up in a corner nook for some head-down coding time. They are also pet-friendly and in my opinion, their relaxed, casual, social learning environment is hard to beat. When a course's end is near, they hold a "Demo Night" event and invite the public, who get to see what projects students built during their time there.

The Instructors:
This is what sold it for me. I noticed a huge difference in teaching quality while sitting in at other bootcamps. HackerYou definitely has exceptional teaching staff. They have a knack for explaining things in simple terms, but keep the lessons engaging and fun. Their enthusiasm is contagious and a beginner's question is never stupid or ignored. You'll never get an instructor patronizing you or putting you down. All the instructors I've taken classes with, had a great sense of humour, and care deeply about their student's learning and well-being. I've even seen them explain a concept multiple times in different ways until a student gets an "ah-ha!" moment.

HackerYou was by far the best place to take my education to the next level, and I even made some awesome friends along the way!

Taking the HackerYou coding bootcamp this past fall was one of the best decisions I ever made for myself. I was immediately taken with the community surrounding the school. All of the staff and my instructors were really down to earth and seemed to genuinely enjoy each other. I really enjoyed that alumni are super invested in the community as well, so there is a large pool of people to draw support from. 

In addition to that, we got to make some really cool things and it was beneficial to have a lot of opportunities to be creative while learning... Making an art of it really helped bring the material to life. 

I'm now working at a super cool agency where I am continuing to learn and develop my skills and working on projects that I'm genuinely excited about. HackerYou was able to connect me with my new job and I couldn't be happier!

I took the HackerYou web development immersice course in the summer of 2015 and before the 9 week program was over I had 2 job offers.  I'm now a web developer working for an agency and couldn't be happier!

I researched coding bootcamps for years before attending HackerYou and I regret waiting so long!  The classroom is beautiful and in the perfect location. The entire staff is incredibly funny, sweet and caring. The instructors are knowledge, fun and patient. And your classmates will be friends for life.

Best yet, CEO Heather Payne makes it her mission to get everyone a job upon ocmpletion of the course.  And let me tell you, her knowledge and advice is worth the tuition fees alone.  She helped me negotiate a salary $10,000/year over what I would have asked for.  Thanks Heather!

I met the HackerYou CEO Heather two years ago and listening to her describe her goals and plans for HY convinced me that I really needed to see this place for myself. I took the p/t Intro to Web Development course in Winter 14/15 and my instructor Drew was a dream. The content was equal parts interesting and challenging. There was always mentors available and it really encouraged me to start using my personal time to experiment and push to limits of what I had learned. I returned in Summer 2015 to take the f/t immersive Bootcamp. The team in the office do a phenominal job of listening to and getting to know each person there to help them maximize the gains from the coursework. I came away from it after 9 weeks with a portfolio I was really proud of and within 2 weeks of finishing I had landed my first job. The most valuable thing that you can get out of HackerYou is being part of the alumni community. Alumni volunteer to be mentors, bootcamp buddies, and to come back and give feedback and guidance to current students. The community is active, and incredibly supportive.

For most students of HackerYou, their journey of learning web and software development didn't begin on the first day of class and as anyone in the industry will tell you, it doesn't end there either. What HackYou does is empower you with the technical and problem solving skills that allow you to grow beyond the program. I started to learn to code in isolation, but was always wondering: how quickly was I really progressing, was I learning the most modern and in-demand frameworks, and was I filling my head up with outdated knowledge? The Full Time Front-End Immersive program, which I took in Fall 216, allows you to gauge your progress against 30 other highly motivated students. They adapt and change their curriculum to reflect the skills the industry is looking for right now. They'll teach you what you may encounter as legacy code in the wild and how new approaches are simplifying and modernizing older methods of doing things. The hands-on, project based program has given me a solid foundation for my future. I am in contact with a wide network of friends, colleagues and industry professionals that I met during my time at HackerYou. Heather and the instructors have been available for help and support during and after the completion of the program. I am confident in saying their help has been invaluable to my success. At my current job as a Front End Web Developer in Toronto, we view graduates of HackerYou's various programs as quick learners who'll seamlessly integrate into our working environment. I would happily recommend HackerYou to both prospective students and employers.

HackerYou is more than a coding school. It's an inclusive community that creates welcoming spaces for people to learn how to code and feel challenged in an encouraging and supportive environment. It's also a community of some of my best friends in the whole world. That's what HackerYou is to me. I started my HackerYou journey by taking a part-time Intro to HTML & CSS evening course that made me fall in love with front-end web development. Soon after that I dropped my career in marketing and jumped feet first into the first front-end development Bootcamp at HackerYou in January of 2014. Since that time I've also taken HackerYou's Design course and Full Stack Course. I've also mentored for 5 other part-time classes at HackerYou and have seen the HackerYou community flourish over the years into what it is today. At HackerYou I had excellent teachers, experts in their domain for each of the courses I took there. My bootcamp instructor Wes Bos is one of the leading coding instructors anywhere on the planet. He's still at HackerYou teaching JS and WordPress classes. I studied design with the amazing design team behind Studio Function and Learned React from an amazing app developer and teacher, Ryan Brunner. My learning experiences at HY were first and foremost shaped by these brilliant teachers. Then I went on to mentor for other wonderful HY instructors like Ryan Christiani who has knowledge and patience in equal and huge amounts, Ann Thomas and Drew Minns, both passionate and joyous about code and very skilled. 

The mentors at HackerYou are the other core part of the support team behind you when you take a class or a bootcamp. Mentors at HackerYou are always dedicated and compassionate, often past graduates who understand well what students are going through. 

Then there was the unparalleled support of Heather Payne who has been my mentor and greatest cheerleader since day one as I navigated the stormy waters of freelancing and building my own business over the past three years. Nobody fights as hard as Heather to ensure HackerYou grads' success in the industry upon graduation and I wouldn't have had the courage to get as far as I have as an entrepreneur without Heather's support. Three years since graduation, I still feel I can count on her for support. 

Lastly, and most importantly, HackerYou is made up of the great people who have taken the classes and bootcamps. HackerYou alumni and the HackerYou space are like a home away from home for me. I am in contact with HY students via slack every day. They are my life line when it comes to any coding or business challenge I encounter. I also see them often when I visit HackerYou for events and workshops, or when I hang out at the Alumni Lounge. Nothing beats sitting down with a fellow grad and chatting about anything and everything. This community is HY's greatest asset and worth almost as much as the knowledge you gain from the bootcamp and classes.

HackerYou gave me the skills to start my own business as a developer. I have made my living independently based on my skills acquired at the bootcamp and part-time classes for the past three years. The HY bootcamp was the best education investment of my life. 

A year ago I was looking for a career change and, having always had an interest in coding, I decided to take the Spring 2016 HackerYou Immersive Front-end bootcamp. The experience was very positive for me during and after the bootcamp. I am now employed as a full time Front-end developer and most importantly - I love my job.

Here are some of the key reasons why I would recommend HackerYou:

(1) The organization puts a great deal of effort in making sure you get out of their program with the required skills (HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc.) and profile in order to be successful in the web development sector. As long as you follow the process, you will find a (great) job once you get out.
(2) The bootcamp is very well structured in terms of learning and instructors/mentors availability, which enables you to learn fast without feeling overwhelmed.
(3) During bootcamp, you will create a portfolio of websites (responsive design, JQuery projects, API project, etc), which is a great asset once you begin job hunting.
(4) The HackerYou community is a very strong one. Alumni will help you with technical questions, will help you keep a perspective on things and will share their experience post-bootcamp with you.
(5) Most importantly: I had a blast doing the bootcamp, had a blast working on the assignments and discovering my new passion for web development, had a blast making new friends  & would absolutely do it again.

...And a year later, I am now back for more, as I am currently taking the Full Stack web Development part-time class. Just do it, you won't regret it.

Last year, I was enrolled in HackerYou's part-time web development course, and I still reminisce about how great that experience was -- and I don't just mean the course curriculum itself! I learned a lot during the 12-week course, even though I came with a solid understanding of HTML and CSS. The pace of learning was great, and I think that most (if not all) of the students would agree. Regardless of our skill level / knowledge base, no one was left behind and everyone was engaged and interested in what was happening. 

Anne Thomas was our lead instructor -- I can't say enough good things about her! She was a huge source of motivation, corny jokes (wholly appreciated by all of us) and someone that we could look up at as aspiring developers. I learned a lot from Anne and found her to be very approachable and responsive in person, as well as over e-mail.

Finally, I think what I appreciated the most about the course was the supportive community. Students were very positive and it was an unintimidating learning environment where making mistakes was definitely OK! 

If I hadn't moved to the West Coast and enrolled in a bootcamp here, there is no question that I would have applied to HackerYou's bootcamp! The part-time course showed me that this is something that I wish to explore further!! Thanks HY and congrats on becoming accredited :)