Makers Academy

This sixteen week course will provide you with all the skills you need to land your first developer job. The first four weeks make up a pre-course which teaches you the basics of coding. If you have free time during this period I'd strongly recommend to keep learning to build up as much of a foundation as you can as once the main course begins it is intense. The subsequent twelve weeks were a blur, you develop so many skills during this time you'll be amazed when you look back. There is a focus on pair programming, self led learning, mental well-being and team projects. Excellent coaches are always on hand to support you, both technical and personally. I'd highly recommend Makers to anyone wanting to change their career! Read less

This bootcamp will teach you how to develop a growth mindset. Studying with a partner will give you the confidence to communicate what you've learned, but you'll also learn not to be hesitant to ask questions when you don't understand something. These are extremely valuable abilities to have while applying for jobs.
There is a lot of technical and emotional help available if you ask for it, so don't expect too many lectures and be prepared to do some extra self-study. The EQ curriculum is what makes a big difference, and the career team will help you apply for your first job in the best way possible. 
Great Slack community from which you will benefit and may contribute, as their quote goes, "once a Maker, always a Maker." Read less

I've been to university before that, and I have to say that I have learned more in 4 months at Makers than my 2 years at university, hands down. The programme is condensed, not for the faint of heart and anyone planning to do that part time (we were working 70h/week) but it is so worth it and absolutely guaranteed to get you a good first position in tech ! 
I was able to learn so much so fast thanks to the coaches who are absolute angels and very understanding of your everyday struggles, but also thanks to the whole cohort. One treasure you will gain out of this experience is the people you've shared it with, they will be your teachers and sometimes your students and you will grow so much more thanks to sharing that experience with 20+ other people. 
All in all, I highly recommend Makers as a bootcamp choice if you're in London, it's an amazing opportunity for change and growth :)  Read less

It's an **intense** 16 weeks course and even more challenging when you have 2 young children and doing this on the tail end of your maternity leave! The curriculum is good. I'd suggest more materials for certain concepts in Javascript and functional programming. The coaches were supportive, in both technical and emotional wellbeing. Post-course was a bonus! I couldn't attend sessions since I returned to full-time work, however I received support from my cohort and coaches around my time. Multi-tasking between working full-time, being a mum of 2, consolidating and job searching was very challenging but I managed to get a job offer through Makers hiring partner within 2 months post-course. Very grateful for the support throughout my journey

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I heard about Makers through a couple of colleagues who got amazing jobs soon after completing the course. I used to be a Web Designer so I had a bit of knowledge in terms of HTML / CSS already but it really wasn't all that necessary to complete the course.
I was on the August cohort, which was a fully remote cohort. You'd think it would have lowered the quality of the experience to have it remote, but it really did not. The first day we received all our Makers goodies by post, and had lots of social events online to get to know each other, so it really went smoothly.
I learnt all about Object Oriented programming and TDD development during Makers Academy, which was very different from everything I encountered so far but made a lot more sense compared to the development process I had witnessed previously.
I also learnt how to collaborate efficiently and handle version control within a team of developers.
I completed quite a few team projects, and the whole experience truly was eye-opening about what I had missed from my previous jobs, especially the collaboration, sharing of knowledge within a team and continued learning while working. The best part of Makers really is your cohort and learning / supporting each other. Read less

I started the course with almost zero initial knowledge in software and it felt like a jump with a parachute. It was super exciting and motivating. A way of learning which is collaborative, ever-changing, very dynamic but also mindful. The focus is very much on finding your own path of learning while interacting with others. When the 12 weeks finish the career-searching phase begins. And the support given to me at this stage was absolutely brilliant! I found a job with the help of the Makers Careers team and now working in a very well-respected company. Read less

Overall, a great experience that I would recommend to anyone wanting to switch careers into tech. The course consists mostly of pairing and group-work, so I recommend looking elsewhere if you don't play well with others. The rest of the time is for self-led learning, and some coach-led workshops. The coaches are great, very supportive, knowledgeable and held us to a high standard of code quality. One draw back though is that the coaches will not give you much in the way of individual support or attention unless you ask for it - you may notice a small, vocal minority getting the majority of the coaches attention because of this.  Read less

This is an intense and expensive course.  It is a worthwhile investment if you want to find the 'quick' way into the world of software (however do be prepared to not have that software job for several months after the course - I picked up part time work to cover my expenses during the job hunt and eventually landed a role after 4 months, which was earlier than most).
The 4 weeks pre-course is relatively tough but can just about be done whilst holding down a full time job.  The main 12 weeks of the course is very intense and participants should commit fully to this.  Also, when studying the codecademy course beforehand, I will point out that 'Lambdas' and 'Procs' have never cropped up for me since.
I spent the entire 16 weeks feeling out of my depth, but in a good way - whenever I looked back on previous work I was confident with my abilities regarding that topic.  It is also easy to feel that others are progressing more than you, but remember that you will be progressing more than others, and in the wide scheme of things everyone knows barely anything compared to a professional software developer.
There are a lot of online resources available for students during the course (sometimes too much!), but the students who excel the most appeared to be those who would constantly communicate with both the coaches and other students.  This can feel daunting at first, but you'll soon get used to asking for help and having someone point out that a word in your code has a small typo!  Proactivity is also a must - there are some weeks where you are left to your own devices and it is easy to take the foot off the pedal... beware!  Give yourself plenty of down time so that you can crush it during office hours.
During the job hunt, the resources available are excellent, but very much in a 'you get out what you put in' manner.  There are coaches available to help you prepare for tech tests, write applications etc. along with Makers linking up with hiring partners to advertise roles to you.  You just need to be proactive about engaging with the resources to get the most out of them.
Finally, I would say that you should try coding yourself a lot before committing to this course, even paying a few £'s to have a go at an online class.  It's a big commitment to make so make sure you would be willing to do it as a career i.e. screen time, chair time etc.  Also, reach out to previous Makers students.  I have had several people contact me through LinkedIn and have had several calls with these people to discuss their expectations.
For me, if your finances and personal situation allows for it, and you have found coding to be compelling and interesting, then you should give serious thought to signing up to this course. Read less

+ Great support during/post course
+ Invaluable resources available throughout your journey
+ Amazing sense of community
+ Resources available on mindfulness and EQ
+ Yoga
- Remote learning needs polishing (would have preferred on site learning)
- Javascript sections feel rushed and could do with better resources
- £8k is a big investment especially for remote learning

If you get accepted, prepare for a challenging but rewarding 16 weeks! Read less

Pros:
- Huge amount of resources available during the course (you can choose the topics you want to focus on).
- Post course careers support (writing CVs, cover letters and building up necessary skills for a job).
- Hiring partners give access to jobs specifically targeting bootcamp graduates.

Cons:
-  A lot of work during the course, especially if you go in with zero experience (I'd recommend spending time to learn basic syntax and be able to write simple script eg. on codewars) Read less

I really enjoyed my time at Makers Academy. You learn so much and it’s great that you can get in with very little coding knowledge.
It’s an intense course where you learn new things every day and can be draining but Makers offer great support and are genuinely passionate about mental well-being. 
I did the remote course which was good but I feel I would’ve benefited more from being there in person so if you have the chance to do the course on campus I would say do that. Read less

Makers has a well-defined program, which works through the various facets of software development in an organised way. There are extensive banks of learning exercises, along with good access to coaches. I would say that there is space for some additional resources that teach you the topic, rather than just provide exercises for you to practice it.
The decision to use Ruby as the primary language is sensible in many ways - it is a straightforward language, and, with the addition of Sinatra or Rails, allows you to build websites. However there didn't seem to be many junior developer roles in Ruby. The course also teaches JavaScript, by translation from Ruby, and encourages students to branch out to new languages/frameworks for their final projects.
The after-course support from the careers team is where Makers really shines. Help is available for graduates to consolidate their learning, apply for jobs or interview for jobs, with regular workshops run for each. There are also careers coaches available for 1:1 advice and support. The coaches are interested in graduates as individuals, and focus on helping them to understand and display their most marketable skills.
I learnt so much on the course! Read less

I undertook the Makers course as my career was stagnating. I learnt so much in a challenging and engaging environment and Makers go above and beyond to make sure the new entrants of the white, male world of tech are diverse and know to be inclusive. Even though it was remote I felt connected and have made lots of new friends and perhaps most importantly am now employed within three months of completion! Read less

Pros:
- Enforces habits and rituals of engineering environments that it would be really hard to achieve self-led (e.g. diagramming, TDD, BDD, Agile, CICD). My technical interview questions were based on these! 
- Amazing emotional support - they want you to challenge yourself but to also practice self-care above all else which is excellent.
- Great people; both coaches and jobhunting team - every one who works there is smart, so supportive and keen to help you succeed.
- Really is a transformative experience. I knew next-to-nothing about software developing in November, enrolled in February and then got my first dev job in May - three weeks out of the bootcamp, with a Makers hiring partner. Not everyone has been that lucky though and some have been searching a long time for the right role. 
- Alumni community is amazing. 

Cons:
- Zoom fatigue: you pair every afternoon for 3-4 hours which can be exhausting, and there are a lot of group projects. Also there is little time for you to do self-led learning (which is my personal preference).
- Syllabus needs a bit of love - the links are out of date on a lot of the curriculum.  Read less

I started this course with only two weeks of experience in coding, and now, 5 months later I'm about to start my first role as a software developer. 
Pros:
- The coaches are great, super helpful and keen to ensure you've understood the concepts but you need to reach out and ask for help.
- You are in a cohort with like-minded people of all abilities so you'll find yourself sometimes learning from others or taking on a teacher-role. 
- The job-hunting support is great, lots of workshops on offer with great career coaches. 
Cons:
- The curriculum could use an update, especially the front-end material. We spent about 7 weeks on Ruby/Rails, 2 weeks on Javascript, 1 week on consolidating and 2 weeks on the final project. The 4-week pre course material was also on Ruby. I think a bit more of a back-end/front-end balance would make graduates truly feel like full-stack developers.  Read less

 The coaches were excellent throughout, very patient and forthcoming whenever I reached out to them (in the designated times to do so). At times it felt like the course was moving at breakneck speed however I felt fully supported throughout and enjoyed every second. I met some amazing people and built lasting relationships with cohort members to take with me into industry.
After the course ended I was amazed by the partnerships team who provided excellent feedback in regards to my applications. The internal hiring system was infinitely more effective (and ultimately rewarding) than spending hours trawling through LinkedIn and other job boards (which I did do and had some success with). The feedback I received on my applications was very insightful and helpful, by the careers team members and coaches alike and led to me receiving an offer from an industry leading company.
The Alumni network was also incredible and I cannot wait to give back to those who enrolled at Makers to change their career/life.
Also I landed a job in a language not formally covered by the course and this is super typical so do not think you will be pigeon holed by the course material.  Read less

I went to Makers so I could get a job as a developer within 5 months - and that happened, even during Covid! For this reason, despite the fact that there were things that certainly could have been better (support from coaches & curriculum), I was still able to achieve my end goal, and will soon be starting at a very famous company - with room to grow and develop and a decent starting salary!

There were certainly some aspects that were infuriating - Makers focus on "self-learning", but the lack of direction from the coaches is frustrating when you've paid to be taught - not to constantly learn independently (which you can do for free). As annoying as this felt, at the end of the course, when you get that job, it's worth it! There are certainly things that could have been better and I'm not sure what the coaches are doing to only be available in the mornings, but to be honest, Makers opens the door to a lot of large companies with BIG names. The career coaching team were epic  - the advice before interviews was great, and they were always happy to help. In summary, the experience wasn't what I imagined, but who cares when it leads to a job in coding - in the end of the day, that's what we're here for - and that's what Makers does.

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Makers is a great option for those wanting to transition into tech. The 12 week course is fast paced but comprehensive and designed not only to teach you how to code, but how to learn in general.
The hands-off teaching style from the coaches encourages you to be more independent and find answers on your own or reach out for help within your cohort. The careers team are excellent and provide as much support as you require with things like interview prep, improving your CV and even one to one coaching. Overall the Makers staff are super positive and always willing to help.
I highly recommend Makers to anyone willing to put the hard work in, it's totally worth it! Read less

Makers provides a great learning environment for a wide variety of people with the willingness to learn. The ways that they do this are through skills workshops, independent learning time and pairing time. One of the most important aspects being pairing which is an opportunity to sit down and code on a task together with someone else which provides you with a different perspective to coding independently. 
The opportunity to work in teams and practice agile methodologies is invaluable as this is what many companies are currently using or moving towards. The coaches are very helpful and open to questions which makes the workshops fun and useful. The culture is one which also aims to promote mental health awareness through daily meditation and regular yoga sessions.
Some problems were with job hunting. Due to the unfortunate circumstances there was quite a lot of reduced support including the removal of the careers fairs. It also didn't help that they added pressure towards job hunters by tightening rulings in the job offer guarantee.
Overall, there were some struggles on the job-hunting side of things due to the unfortunate circumstances of COVID-19 but I really enjoyed the course and it has provided me with invaluable experiences.  Read less

Fast paced and lots of learning so be ready for that, but importantly they facilitate this with a productive and positive environment.
Great coaching, you get out what you put in.
Great careers advice and service... again take advantage of the services and their advice and you'll get a job no problem. They provide support after the course until you get a job you can't put a price on that! Read less