Eleven Fifty Academy

Why a bootcamp?
I was career switching and had debated the traditional route of a masters or going back for another bachelors in computer science/tech  but ultimately I decided on a bootcamp. This was of course after several false starts of trying to teach myself via online tutorials only. Teaching myself proved difficult when managing not knowing what to study and where to start with so many free learning sources out their. A bootcamp was also more time and cost effective. Being a career switcher I needed something that fit into my work schedule and wasn’t going to monopolize my time(over years versus months) and money. After visiting the campus several times and several discussions I decided on the JavaScript 12 week bootcamp.


Why Eleven  Fifty?
So the previous question answers why a bootcamp but why the Eleven Fifty Academy bootcamp? I had done a free coding class at Eleven Fifty years prior to my official application. Eleven Fifty was still in its infancy and I couldn’t get a grasp on how as a beginner I would grow and develop. It wasn’t until years later I revisited their campus and saw how much they grew not only in their learning curriculum and goals but also their student services. They have a team of people dedicated who want to help you land a job. They provide feedback on resumes, mock interviews, provide introductions to companies and people who may be able to help land a job. They want you to succeed. Eleven Fifty is also a non-profit organization and that sat well with me. 

Why it was successful?
It’s one thing to restate all the points the school offers. You can get this and more on their website. The main question people have is, “does it work?” This of course like any desired goal is, what you put in is what you get out. What’s great about Eleven Fifty is that they test that desire by testing your grit. How they do this is teach you a base level of knowledge and then for subsequent assignments they challenge you to use this knowledge and then some. These challenges force you to research, pair program, test and retest ideas outside of the standard following replication steps. I learned more by struggling to get something to work than I did when replicating proven steps. Eleven Fifty provides you the opportunity to challenge yourself. If you’re willing to be uncomfortable and challenge yourself then this program could work for you.

In the end I landed several interviews and was super excited to take a position with a company that was on my radar for sometime. It was an entry level Software Support Engineer but I couldn’t be more happy with my decisions to get here and the Eleven Fifty community. 

Eleven Fifty was quite the rewarding experience. I came forth with a small background in coding. Nothing major, other than a small intro to HTML class that I've taken at a university. I felt the rate of what I was learning at college to be slow, and expensive! I made the decision to check out EFA (Eleven Fifty Academy), and it was life changing! Enrolling in their Web Dev course, I was able to take my skills beyond my expectations. In 6 months, I was able to soak in and demonstrate about 2 years worth of knowledge! 
Learning and applying the uses of modern web technologies to create production grade websites. The staff is courteous in providing you with support and resources along the way. They also have a great career services team, that helps tremendously in getting you job-ready. Highly recommended to anyone who wishes to develop new skills, or to those who are seeking out a change in their career.

 

Course: Intro to iOS- Crash course-style learning, good for introducing a person to a lot of information at once in a short period of time. Very knowledged/skilled instructors that teach practice instead of just theory in a field-submersive environment, where the student is always in the code doing it themselves. Instructors not only teach, but work it in their career and have years (some with decades) of experience in programming and the business of it.

Welcoming environment for beginners like me- never felt out of place. Definitely worth looking into!

 

Course: Intro to iOS- Crash course-style learning, good for introducing a person to a lot of information at once in a short period of time. Very knowledged/skilled instructors that teach practice instead of just theory in a field-submersive environment, where the student is always in the code doing it themselves. Instructors not only teach, but work it in their career and have years (some with decades) of experience in programming and the business of it.

Welcoming environment for beginners like me- never felt out of place. Definitely worth looking into!

After I had applied to Eleven Fifty Academy and spoken with a representative, a staff member arranged for me to have an admission meeting with Alex on July 23rd on Zoom at 6:30 PM EST … he never showed up (I waited for 30 minutes). Consequently, I rescheduled an appointment for August 5th at 3:30 PM EST … once again, he never showed up. So, I called and left a message on his personal office phone; he never called me back. 

Mind you, I was told by Eleven Fifty staff members that Alex was well informed on July 23rd, and on August 5th that he had an appointment with me. 

Alex Volyk, if you did not want to speak to me or did not have adequate time on your schedule then you should have been honest about it from the beginning. Instead, you opted to waste my time.

Disclaimer - I had left 5 stars for Instructors and Curriculum in the rating section because Course Report wouldn't allow me to choose Not Applicable for those categories. 

I took an iOS Bootcamp in 2014 with Eleven Fifty Academy. We were using Swift, and created three apps during the course. The instructors were great, and really made sure everyone was understanding the curriculum. I felt extremely comfortable and confident after. When I returned to school, I definitely had a leg up to my peers with my coding experience. I graduated with a computer science major, but don't think I had a course at my college that compared to what I learned in this bootcamp.