Coder Academy

6 months out of Coder Academy Sydney now, and have to say they delivered on everything they promised. Having witnessed 95% of the class now working as professional developers, I felt obligated to write a review. 

Being in the industry now for a short time, it amazes me how impressed developers from a more traditional background are with the quality of coders coming out of the Coder Academy Bootcamp. A recruiter at my work now exclusively seeks out resumes from Coder Academy and has hired 5 people from the course. 

The staff are friendly, the teachers experienced and the course seems to attract a dynamic range of great people from a whole lot of backgrounds who are keen to learn and connect. 

I've made some great friends and no longer dread Mondays. What more could you ask for?

Coder Academy will teach and assist you in learning in very relevant technical skills that are appiled in the real world. If you're not sure if you are "smart" enough to learn coding, this course is for you. 

The learning envrioment is amazing extremely chilled and accomodating. Teachers at Coder understand how difficult it is at the beginning stages and are very patient and accomodating to answer any qestions you have. 

Here are some things that you will definitley gain at the end of the bootcamp:

• Technical skills that are relevant and in demand in the real world
• Meet new amazing people that will become your friends for life
• Real world experience via internships provided by Coder Academy
• Confidence in your own ability to achieve anything

I would highly recommend anyone who is on the fence about doing a bootcamp at Coder Academy to just GO for it! it is a life changer.

Initially, I was a bit skeptical about the quality and price of this course. But 5 months later, we have just finished our last term and I don't have any regrets. I found the course content was great and really applicable to starting a career in a new field.

The educators are great and supportive, we have learnt so much over a short span of time thanks to the practical projects and exercises we are given. I also enjoyed the other topics incorporated like mindfulness and interview skills, which are helpful for building your overall skill-base as a developer. Learning and coding can be draining energy-wise so having that mindfulness practice can really help with your productivity.

I would highly recommend the Fast Track Bootcamp to anyone looking to change their career, it's intense but very rewarding.

Coder Academy far exceeded all my expectations. The teachers and all the staff are fantastic, I was lucky to be in a great group of students and I learnt a ridiculous amount in such a short amount of time. The workload is definitely large, especially towards the end, and the timeframe is quite short (even though it's a longer course than most) but they definitely try their best to make you feel job ready. Group work does get hard at times, but you don't often work solo on a large project in the industry so I think the experience is worthwhile.

I have just graduated from the Sydney Coder Academy Fast-track web deveopment course. This course has been very influential in changing my perspective on the process of studying, getting experience and getting a job.

The course covers a very wide range of skills, and can be quite intense. Skills are updated to the latest industry standards (with some things changing from one cohort to the next, which has a distinct advantage over a 3-4 year uni degree, in which a lot of the information you learn may be irellevant by the end. The immersion into coding 9-5, monday to friday, ensures that students' mindframes are firmly rooted in programming. The friendships gained here are very important to me, and it is hard not to bond with people over these 6 months, as you are with them all the time.

The course also has a good focus on networking, going to meetups and otherwise immersing yourself in the industry, which I found to be a valuable asset in getting out there and meeting potential employers.

Coder Academy's fast track bootcamp promises to teach you to be a full-stack web developer in 6 months. It does that, but I thought the course could have been better. I'll start with the good, and then get onto my gripes.

The cirriculum is well designed. You start with Ruby, a good language for beginners, for a few weeks. Just when you a feeling overwhelmed, they teach HTML and CSS, which provides relief, and then its onto Ruby on Rails. After that, its onto Javascript and MERN stack.

The instructors are good, for the most part. In my course we had issues with our lead teacher, but he was eventually replaced towards the end. Both the replacement teacher, and the subsitute teacher we had were excellent. The assistents were great, if a little overworked.

Now for the bad.

Too many frills. During the course we were given multiple afternoon sessions on mindfulness, and assertiveness/positivity. This isn't something that should be included in the course. We're paying Coder Academy to teach us to code, not meditate. Given that students are studying full time through the entire 6 months, I would have liked none of the self-help stuff, and less of the course costs. The Latin woman who took us through the assertiveness "training" (or whatever it was called) was atrocious.

To much pair programming, and group assignments. CA were reallly pushing pair programming during my study there. I prefer learning on my own, rather than working with another person. If the other person knows more than you, or less that you, it slows down one person from being able to learn at their own speed. Obviously its good to talk with other students and discuss solutions/ideas, but it should be infomal. Also its just plain distracting having someone look over your shoulder when you are trying to code.

The main term projects were done in groups of 2, then 3, then 4. In the batch before us, the students did the assignments individually. This would have been preferable, as the group projects inevitably end up in drama and conflict. Its easier for the staff to assist the groups, but harder on the students. Maybe keeping assignments to pairs would be a good compromise. CA will argue that they are getting you "job ready" by doing this, but student projects aren't the same as work projects, as you can't get fired, and there isn't a boss in a student project.

The classroom is pretty small with all the students (hope you aren't claustraphobic), and you'll need to get all your own equipment, adding to the cost of the course. 

Afterwards, CA did help me find a job. But be aware that it will be very hard for you to get a job as a junior dev, after you graduate.