The Firehose Project

I graduated from Firehose over two years ago, and I've been working full time as a software engineer ever since. I worked as hard as I could during my time at Firehose and I left with a job within a month after graduating. I've seen how much the program has grown since then, offering students new, updated materials and additional sections. I loved my time at Firehose, I still keep in touch with my mentor and I'm active in the community to encourage others. I was intimidated when joining and thinking I'd have a hard time adjusting to working on complicated problems, but by the time I was ready for mentor sessions on a freelance project my questions had turned from "how do I do this?" to "is there a way I could refactor this to be better?" I've been doing great at my job ever since graduating. I've routinely been told that I'm knowledgable beyond the years of my experience. The only two things I have to thank for those compliments are my time at Firehose and the hard work I put in while learning here!

The Firehose Project is a great way to learn code! You learn by building apps, which is something you lack if you try learning code on your own, and it makes what you're learning immediately relevant. I especially love that they also teach algorithms, one of the unique features of the Firehose Project. I come from a math background, and I was thrilled to find I could put my problem-solving skills to use!

They also have plenty of support.  Everytime I've left a question for a lesson, I've gotten a response within an hour! You also have a mentor, and Ken and Marco hold weekly office hour sessions.  They are great about getting every question answered even if we go over on time occasionally. 

When I first started the bootcamp at Firehose, I was a little skiddish about the quality of training I was about to receive. I mean, come on, nothing for free is usually worth anything, right? Not the case with Firehose; I have learned more in just a day with their bootcamp than I did an entire semester of Intro to Programming. That says and means a lot!

​I loved the first portion of the bootcamp as it hit every learning skill imaginable. I was listening to Ken, then watching him do what he was explaining and of course hands on myself. I would recommend that for the other portions of the bootcamp. If not all the way through, at least every two or three classes.

​I highly recommend the Firehose bootcamp. I believe my first attempt into programming pushed me away, but this is drawing me back into it.

 

 

I'm currently in the third track and so far, the course has been great! The first track/prep made learning Ruby basics smooth and easy. Moreover, Ruby is easier to learn, if you've learned other languages such as JavaScript. After the prep track, you instantly jump into building your first web app, which is awesome. It exposes you to the fundamentals of what it takes to build your own web app. I'm looking forward to whatever else I am going to learn moving forward. Moreover, the instructors and my mentor have been really helpful and quick in responding to my questions. I highly recommend firehose to anyone who wants to become a software developer or even is interested in building web apps!

*Note* (This is a modern take on my 2015 review from Quora. I am a 2014 alumni from The Firehose Project camp)

The year is 2017, and navigating between the plethora of coding bootcamps can feel as nerve-racking as settling on a programming language. Some prestigious camps promise a virtually guaranteed job and an alluring 6 figure salary upon graduation, but these programs often cost the tuition of a full year of a state college and require complete devotion and relocation for a period of 3-5 months. For those that can not afford this luxury, the online bootcamp serves as a comparable experience as an intensive period focused on learning and growing your programming skills. After much research and investigation, I settled upon the fantastic Firehose Project online bootcamp, and shortly upon graduating in 2014 (3 months) I secured a job in a field that not only challenges me but brings excitement to work.

Now as a more seasoned developer I have been interviews for final round positions from top tier tech giants like Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet (basically Google + partners). Make no mistake, the journey only begins as a graduate of a coding bootcamp, and I put in lots of personal hours and a few full time positions to get where I am today.

You want to be selective and find one that dedicates personal time to honing in on the craft, to pair you with proven professionals that can wade through the intimidating language of tech and dispell myths that you have to be some super genius or mathematical prodigy to excel in this industry. FAR from it. What stood out to me about TFP is the weekly pairing sessions you'd get with a proven professional from the industry. You are the director here, and you can really focus on whatever deficiency or issue you're facing to your hearts content. One week can be about esoteric algorithms, the next about closures, the following modern javascript. Truly you are the master of your own destiny in these sessions, and from my experience and what I've heard from others TFP brings a staff of EXCELLENT mentors to the table. This is 1 on 1 training, not lecture style like most camps, and it makes a world of difference.

Dedication is truly the most important factor to excelling in the programming world and in a bootcamp too, and programming requires so little prerequisite knowledge basically anyone can join the industry, even those without college degrees or anyone looking for a career change that pays handsomely over time.

Now to describe a bit about what to expect from The Firehose Project. The camp lasts three month and is intensive as you should expect, but an intensity that has the power to change your life for the better. To say I simply learned a marketable skill set would be to completely ignore the true gains from the program. One of the unique benefits of the program is the pairing of a seasoned mentor who has ample history in working within the industry. 10 sessions of 1 hour length on whatever topic you wish to pry open, and these mentors are some of the best in the industry. My sessions ranged from improving my resume and helping with job searching to thinking through complex algorithms to tackling coding katas (small isolated coding problems to expand upon a core concept in the programming language), and this is only a sample of topics covered. I learned much more than the basics of Ruby, Rails, and Javascript with my mentor, and was able to discover my true passion within web development thanks to his help, which by the way is Front End Development.

In addition to the topnotch mentorship, the community and educational experience is really second to none. Beginners will learn the ins and outs of Ruby on Rails, Javascript, and Ruby, and be able to start building interesting web applications within days of starting the program. The curriculum is very oriented to project building backed by a VERY active slack community that chimes in with helping new students uncover their issues. People share resources, articles they read, supplimentary courses they purchased daily on slack channels, and this only amplifies the base knowledge provided by the core curriculum. Truly the gains are about as limitless as the time you have to study and learn.

The program really exceeded my expectations, and I think is the best value on the market for a coding camp, but you must prepare yourself to truly absorb and live the life of a programmer for these 3 months. I put in the hard work, and the program prepared me well for my current job as a Front End React Specialist in the PNW. As with any educational pursuit, you get what you invest in the program. I would recommend that in addition to all the great resources provided within the program to also explore some of the popular books on programming in Javascript and React. These two areas are EXPLODING in popularity and will make you that much more competitive in the job search. These helped me reinforce ideas and clarify certain aspects that remained murky during my ascent to hirable programmer.



The Firehose Project was the best investment I’ve made in my life, and I am in debt to the people and community that make it so special. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone on the fence, and please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.

I've been a student with theFirehoseProject and I highly recommend them. Marco and Ken are the founders but are also among the most dedicated and enthusiastic teachers I have ever had (in any subject at any type of school). 

Their method of teaching programming is the only one that has worked for me. I've tried stuff like Treehouse, Codeacademy, and even in-person classes at Startup Institute, and I would always hit a "wall" where it seemed like the difficulty of coding all of the sudden just ramped up exponentially. 

However, learning with theFirehoseProject made everything flow naturally and seamlessly - and anything I didn't get, they took as long as needed to make sure I understood it. You can tell they really care about what they're doing, and the students that they teach.

Pros:

• Reasonable pacing (often a problem with bootcamps)
• Flexibility to pause and explore outside resources at any point due to online, self-study format
• Great mentors!
• Reasonable price

Cons:

• Written content often skipped over more nuanced/complex aspects of the coursework

Overall Assessment: There's a LOT of programming content online, so if you're fine with doing some of your own research to supplement the content in the course, this is a great program. And to be honest, you should be fine with this prospect because it's a key part of being a programmer that will never go away if you want to become and remain really skilled.

I have tried various coding courses, but The Firehose Project's course material is unparalleled. I learned so much just in the intro course, alone! The Firehose Project explains concepts in a much clearer manner than any courses I have tried in the past, so I am very glad I decided to join the full program.

Something I really appreciate about the Firehose Project is that you do not have to jump though hoops and spend weeks trying to craft the perfect application to get accepted into the program. All you need to do is complete their free two-week intro course, which they believe is proof enough that you are ready to join the program. The Firehose Project will take you as you are and help you learn :) 

Learning to code can sometimes be super difficult and isolating, but The Firehose team creates a very warm and welcoming environment (which was apparent to me even before I signed up for the full course--Marco was so kind and patient when I asked him a ton of questions before I signed up, haha), that is very conducive to learning, so you never feel alone/stuck. There is a strong sense of community here and it is very apparent to me that the Firehose team really cares about each of their students and their progress.

I just graduated from the Firehose Project and through building projects, completing coding challenges and quizzes, one-on-one mentor sessions, and attending office hours led by Marco and Ken, I still can't believe how much I have learned in just a few months. I had very minimal coding experience before I started the course, but now I have built 5 functioning apps, solved very challenging algorithms problems, AND I worked on a remote team to build a chess game application.

I highly recommend The Firehose Project to anyone considering learning how to code! :)