Coder Academy

My return to programming has been made much easier with the help of the Coder Factory. I had been previously a developer for over 6 years but I ended up changing careers for a while. However, recently fell in love with programming again. I needed to right motivation and spark to get back into the industry, and decided to enrol in the Web App Development course at the Coder Factory. It's been 9 weeks and I'm loving it. The course in the first two months I was comfortable with but in this final part, we are focusing on the needs of the projects of each student, which helps to acquire knowledge about solutions in a diversity of subjects. I recommend for programmers who want to upgrade their skills and for those starting out who don't understand anything about programming, as the content has been taught in a simple, clear and effective way.

The 6 month Coder Factory Academy fast-track course is a great experience from start to finish. The course content is modern and relevant. Throughout the course we were introduced to many technologies, frameworks and tools, all of which I have since used and relied on as a working professional web developer.

The teachers and supporting staff are extremely knowledgeable and are only too happy to answer questions and explain concepts in detail. They encourage creativity and provoke thought from their students. Throughout the course we also had a huge number of industry professionals and mentors come in for a chat, answer our questions and give valuable industry insight.

Additionally, I was blown away with the level of support received at the end of the course in gaining employment. I feel this is an invaluable aspect of the course that can sometimes be overlooked. To have reputable contacts fighting for you to get work makes that first step into employment well within reach, and graduating with a Diploma of Software Engineering helps a lot also.

Acquiring the skills needed to become a web-developer can be daunting due to it being such a broad industry, but by doing the Coder Factory 6 month fast-track course, and by being driven and self-productive, I have no doubt that anyone can successfully become a working web-developer.

 

The CoderFactory Academy 6-month bootcamp is an intensive and thorough introduction to full-stack web development. I was part of the first cohort and recently graduated. I found the experience to be both thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding. I have also found work as a junior developer on graduating.

The course covers an array of skills that will give you the knowledge and tools you need to become employable as a full-stack web developer, or begin working on your own startup ideas.

The course begins with an overview of computer science, including some basics on computer hardware as it relates to software development. From there it quickly transitions to HTML and CSS, before moving to programming fundamentals with an emphasis on Ruby. The majority of the course, particularly in the begining, is based around creating full-stack web applications using Ruby on Rails. The scope is broad, and covers everything from the database layer, through to the front-end interface.

There is plenty of advice on how to use databases, including SQL and noSQL, building a CRUD application, and creating elegant UX/UI design. There is also scope, throughout the course, to pick up trending technologies like Angular and React.

Towards the end of the course, you are encouraged to broaden your skills toward your particular strengths and passion. I focused heavily on NodeJS and ReactJS, and was well supported by the team.

Another strength of the course is the interaction you will get with developers within the industry, which I found provided valuable insights. Most importantly, the teachers and fellow students are fantastic fun to be around, and were one of the most valuable assets of the course. In particular Pete Argent, Trent Shields, Dan Siepen, and Steph Schaffer were fantastic as teachers and mentors throughout the course, and were invaluable in preparing me for working as a developer upon graduation. My fellow students were also a fantastic bunch from a broad range of backgrounds, and I doubt I would have been successful without their support. I have come out of the course with great friends and good memories.

In the end, the course is what you make it. Hard work and a good attitude will go a long way toward preparing you for work as a developer. The CoderFactory Academy is the perfect place for you if you are ready to put in the effort. The support and knowledge they provide will give you what you need to succeed. Cannot recommend them highly enough.

I'm currently attending the Part-Time Web App Developer Course and it is by far the best web development course I have experienced, mainly for these reasons:

- Students are given after-hours support via Slack

- The latest web development technologies are taught with best practices (already teaching Rails 5!)

- Unlike most bootcamps, the teachers go into the necessary Comp Sci theory to produce better developers.

- I've also seen other students who have missed classes be given the opportunity to catch up via 1-on-1 instruction after classes!

- We're given the best resources out there in order to develop our skills outside class, along with detailed class notes for each lesson so we can prepare ourselves for next class.

I just completed the 1Q15 Master's Class at Coder Foundry.  If you want to jump-start your career, this is your place.  It is a professional environment that leaks integrity from the top down.  We learned ASP.net, javascript, CSS, HTML5, AngularJS and related in a Visual Studio environment.  The instructors provide direction, and rather than hand-holding they encourage you to develop problem solving skills that will extend beyond the course.

Check out Coder Foundry if you are serious about upgrading your skills and getting a great job.

 the course structure has big problem! their lesson only teach part of full stack, so after class you still can't finish a whole full stack website individually and  have to do research by yourself. 
 They used to say they did not prefer front-end or back-end, but the fact is that they completely ignored front-end teaching and only taught CSS skills for 2 weeks in the first semester, and then did not involve front-end teaching. it should be said that they are institutions that tend to back-end teaching. 
In the last term, the course arrangement was very unreasonable and the course content was rushed, so students have many problems in the final project.
So if you don't have a certain programming foundation, it's not the best choose for you! there are many students drop out the course. And another important point that there are lots of dramas happened during the class, coding not working properly and plugs install problems happen all the time. 
For assignment, in the academy requirement 100-200 words for each question, but teacher will tell you that requirement only reach to pass level, you have to submit 300-400words each question if you want to get D or HD. So all students spend lots of time to do these research and still need to do practices.
Before you plan to register for classes, you must think carefully, academy say they will guarantee offer you  internship opportunities after finish the course, but in fact not everyone can get the internship, and academy will ask you to wait or try to find job by yourself, but it's very difficult for people who just finish course without any experiences. 
maybe it's only happen on me.... but just let everyone know about that before you make the decision. 

Just a heads up for those people reading through these reviews, I'd like to suggest taking them with a grain of salt. I've spoken with a number of these people leaving reviews throughout the course and they've said many things which leaves me baffled as to why they would leave 5 star reviews. I imagine it's a combination of them forgetting how they felt throughout the course, just being happy now that they are nearing its completion, or being concerned that there will be negative ramifications if they leave a negative (or accurate) review.

Pros:

- I've learnt a lot and am ultimately happy I've done the course.
- I've been placed into an internship at a great company which could set me up for moving into the industry.
- Met great people throughout the course
- The teachers make themselves easily available to message any day of the week if you have any questions about the content (although I feel like this could also lead to burnout as they don't necessarily take as much time away from the course as they need to).
- Feedback was recieved and action taken when people were unhappy with a number of things (so this means the below cons may have been mitigated somewhat). However, this took a long time to happen and numerous complaints and discomfort during classtimes (it was clear the lead teacher had read negative feedback and made a number of passive agressive and self-deprecating comments as a result).

Cons:
- Course content was all over the place with no clear structure of what was going on from day to day.
- A teacher was let go during the course. I'd speculate that that was in relation to his behaviour in class, lack of willingness to record videos of the lectures, and general attitude. During the teachers deterioration, the number of students showing up to class dropped significantly because people found it more useful trying to self-learn (I understand that self-learning is a part of becoming a web developer but I signed up to the course so I didn't have to purchase additional online courses.)
- CSS teaching was really disappointing, at that point I considered leaving the course because we were just told to play online CSS games and were just watching videos in class (we could do this at home).
- The teachers were clairly unhappy with how management operated in Sydney, which as a student I didn't need to be exposed to. Would have been more professional to deal with it in meetings rather than being vocal about it in class (which distracted from the reason we were here).
- Communication from those providing job assistance was lacklustre. We were provided example CVs hours before we were told we needed to submit our own (and the examples didn't relate exactly to our situation because they were post-internship CVs and we were applying for our internships). I'm about to start my internship in a week and do not have the email of the person I will be working for and am not even sure what time I will be starting (the job assistance has however told me they have scheduled an email for next week).
- Mentor talks were hit and miss and we were often convinced to show up to class without them saying what for (this is because they often weren't great).
- Teachers suggested we do a number of things just to tick boxes rather than put a positive spin on the fact that we were learning skills that might be useful. Discrete maths was just something we "needed to remember for the test" but it cost us a lot of money to be here so I'd prefer they emphasise the fact that this could be useful in software development.
- The way people were assigned to internships seemed like a lucky dip with people who I know are capable web developers not receiving any interviews while others recieved 3.

My time at Coder Academy was one of the best experiences of my life! I made life long friends, got employed but most importantly I rediscovered my passion for learning. 

Before going to Coder Academy, I was working a job that I had no passion for, or was challenged in. I had finished University and thought I can't be doing this for the rest of my life. I had no idea on how to code, or even the mindset you should take when tackling these big problems. My friend was a developer and I was always interested in the problems they solved, so I decided to give Coder Academy a real go.

In my opinion, Coder Academy really separates itself from the pack for 4 key reasons. 
1) The staff are amazing, and really care about you as a person and want you to succeed. One of the annoying things about finishing is I don't see them as much as I use to!
2) You will be surrounded by like minded people who you really learn from and grow with. This sort of environment will expedite your learning! 
3) 27 Weeks instead of 12 weeks like other bootcamps. In my opinion the concepts you cover cannot be absorbed in 12 weeks and I really enjoyed the longer time. 
4) The internship! I was not hired where I interned,  however the learning experience was fantastic. Lucky enough I was able to get a job after because of the contacts provided for me by Coder Academy. 

You get what you put in, and if you truly immerse yourself in this experience I guarantee you will not be disappointed. Ask lots of questions! Go to meet-ups! Go to Hackathons! You are in a place where your learning is number one priority and if you make it yours then good things will naturally follow.  

Overall, the course will not teach you everything about coding, but that's not what is important. What is important is learning how to learn and loving it, since that's what your life will be as a developer.  This is a fantastic launching pad for your career and I wish anyone who does it good luck and to have fun!