DevelopMe_

I began DevelopMe's full stack coding fellowship in early 2019 as a reasonably tech-literate ex-teacher, but with no practical coding experience whatsoever. With the support of DM's tutors and staff, over the next three months I learnt the fundamentals of programming, got on overview of the different disciplines that make up the development industry and, most importantly, acquired the skill, knowledge and confidence necessary to continue developing as a coder independently beyond the scope of the course. The clue's in the name see. 

To say that enrolling on DM's bootcamp positively affected my life is an understatement. I'm now entering my 9th month as a front-end developer for a really exciting e-commerce business; it's a job that challenges me intellectually and creatively, and provides me with a great work/life balance: something that seemed almost unachievable only a year and a half ago. 

So, thank you DevelopMe_ ! If you're thinking about getting into web-development, look no further.

I did a lot of research before signing up for the bootcamp as this was a huge decision for me to make. Being in my 40’s with a family and changing career was a pretty daunting, and I was concerned that it would be difficult for me to find work but it turned out this has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made!

The teachers on the course were amazing and it was great to be taught by people with real experience in the industry, who knew what you really needed to know to get a job on graduation. There was also a classroom assistant who was fantastic and always there to help.

They also assigned each student an industry mentor which was great, and gave a real insight into the industry. I still meet up with my mentor since graduating for a beer and a chat!

The support to find work was great as well; preparing us with mock interviews and then helping to get actual job interviews.

Overall the bootcamp has amazing teachers, a great curriculum and fantastic job assistance. I thoroughly recommend it. Go for it, you won’t regret it!!

I would wholeheartedly recommend DevelopMe to anyone who is looking to become a web developer/work in the tech sector. The material is interesting, fun and relevant, and the teachers truly are experts in their fields. You get a chance to try a bit of everything, to see what suits your own preferences best. The support you get throughout the course is of the highest quality, and the individual 1 on 1's each week are so helpful in getting a solid understanding of how you are doing and where you want to go.

The benefits of studying at DevelopMe go beyond just learning the material - it's also an amazing opportunity to meet people who already work in the industry, network and build rapport in a safe and supported environment. The support continues when you finish the  course, as DevelopMe will do their best to match each student with relevant job opportunities and coach you on how to handle the interviews. This made the whole interview process significantly less daunting!

Overall, DevelopMe is an absolutely amazing opportunity to change your career and enter the tech sector with a solid support network behind you - I can't recommend them highly enough.

I recently completed the bootcamp at DevelopMe, and I would recommend it to someone who's insterested in programming/web development. At first, I was apprehensive, and I wasn't sure if it was going to be the right thing for me. I had some self study under my belt in Python, which isn't covered on the course, so I had some worries that I wouldn't get on well with the languages in the syllabus. Well, I attended an open evening and decided to take the plunge. I was given a pre-course preparation syllabus to work through, and I dedicated a lot of time to completing it before the course began, which I feel really paid off. I found that my worries were unfounded, really, as it wasn't necessarily Python I was interested in, but the process programming. I also wasn't sure if web development was going to be right for me, but in reality, working with programming languages was the thing that interested me, rather than the difference between 'software developer' and 'web developer'.

Once I was on the course itself, I have to say that it felt great to be in the learning environment. The teachers were all great: concepts were explained very clearly and were always followed up with a hefty amount of practical challenges that consolidated everything very well. If anyone ever had any difficulties, the teachers were great about going over things again, helping people understand, and making sure everyone was up to speed in order to move on to the next part. Learning programming languages can be confusing at times, but the moments of satisfaction when you solve a problem are far more rewarding than the frustration of not getting things can be. If you feel like you have the kind of mind that likes to get stuck into a problem and feel motivated to work through something until you figure out how to solve it, then you will probably get on well with the course.

The syllabus was pretty wide, giving us experience of a wide range of technologies which we could choose from to implement a final project at the end. Once we had completed the projects, we were set up with interviews by the course organisers, and our projects were sent to the employers so that they could see what we had created. The support during the interview process seemed great. Each person was set up with ~4 interviews, with continued support after that, meaning that if those interviews didn't lead to anything, they continue to set you up with more. That said, companies seem pretty keen to hire developers, and several companies already have a few past graduates, and continue to come back to hire fresh graduates from the course.

Now, I've been working at a web development agency for 3 months, and things are going great! I'm continuing to learn a lot, and the job is much more fulfilling than anything I've done in the past. If you've been dabbling in code, and find it's the kind of thing that really draws you in, and you can lose yourself for hours solving problems and fixing bugs and implementing things, then you might be coming from a similar place as I did, and will really benefit from taking a fast-track approach to get you into the industry like this.

I've recently finished the Coding Fellowship (12-week coding bootcamp) at DevelopMe. This comprehensive course is taught by professionals with years of experience in the industry. Its curriculum is regularly revised and updated to be in step with the latest trends and technologies.

The class is formed of a small group of selected students. Along with the instructors and the assistants, this creates a strong sense of community in which you feel comfortable and gives you an excellent opportunity to learn from your classmates as well. Everybody starts with a relatively different level of knowledge but the course presents a challenge to all at their respective level.

I've personally decided to go for a career change seeking a more flexible lifestyle which also stimulates my creativity. Coming from a completely unrelated background (retail, customer service), and being English my second language, this course represented a huge challenge for me. I was not sure if I was ready to do it but they help you get ready with a list of lectures and online lessons to go through before starting. This way you'll get familiar with some fundamental technologies which are essential for the course.

There were tough times but I've always counted on the support from the team. And I mean real support:
-they have always been there to talk about my performance, to reassure me and give me ideas about what to do to work on the areas I was concerned.
-1 to 1 feedback sessions that take place every Friday in which they highlight your improvements and point at the areas that need more attention so you know what to focus on. Also, at these feedback sessions, they do want to hear about your own needs so they could better help you. If they can do something, they will not hesitate to carry it out.

Right after finishing the course, they got me four interviews in different companies and sent me the details of a 5th company, in which I've got an interview by showing them the projects I'd built during the course. So 5 interviews in total, which resulted in 2 job offers. I couldn't believe it! A year ago I was wondering what to do with my life, and then after the course, I even had the privilege of choosing where my first dev job was going to be. And that's only my own story, but my other 8 classmates also land a job right after this course. That's why I cannot recommend DevelopMe strongly enough.

You'll surely face a challenging time at some points (and if by any chance you don't, you should be trying harder!) but keep going and trust them. Trust their experience. Trust their knowledge. They really want you to succeed and they will put all their effort into it. And so, you will.

I have recently completed the 12 week full stack web development bootcamp as a part of the winter 2019 cohort.

 

After 12 years working in an entirely unrelated sector and being in my mid thirties I was unsure whether I’d be able to transition into web development in 12 weeks. The combination of the teachers, teaching assistants and well thought through curriculum enabled me to learn so much more than I thought possible.  I worked through as much of the pre-course study as I could (I would advise any other prospective students to do the same) but I would never have imagined that I’d be able to work with so many frameworks and libraries and produce such complex work so quickly.

 

The curriculum is constantly updated to keep up with the most current libraries and working practices and the teachers vary so that you were always being taught by someone with real life industry experience. The teaching was a blend of lectures, challenges and  both solo and group projects that meant you had plenty of time working alone and with others. Within our cohort there was a lot of peer support as well as being helped by the staff. I found analysing and bug fixing other peoples code really helpful for improving my own.

 

I would advise making the most of the opportunities outside of the classroom. Mentoring was worthwhile. I found making contacts in the industry really helpful and encouraging. There is also support available for preparing for job interviews. Every Friday there is a one-to-one feedback session where you receive feedback on your progress and any areas you should focus on or spend some time studying. This is also an opportunity to feed back on the course, something that they take very seriously and noticeably acted upon which was great to see.

 

The course was a rollercoaster of challenges, frustration, eureka moments, occasionally feeling at an utter loss and deep satisfaction when I finally got whatever concept had stumped me/found the bug/got the damn thing to work. It has given me a real desire to keep learning and improving my knowledge and expanding my skills.

 

I’m currently waiting to start a role as a developer and am very happy that I decided to take the leap.

After 18 years working in secretarial and personal assistant roles in various sectors, I began considering my next career move and had been looking into web development for a while.  I had completed a few home learning courses in HTML and CSS and watched various online tutorials but it was the Develop Me bootcamp that enabled me to accomplish my career change.  

I was starting to fear that in my late 30s, it was too late to change career and that I would be out of my depth and competing with university leavers but was assured that none of these were the case.  There were students older and younger than me from various backgrounds, with different skill sets to offer and it became clear that age wasn’t even a factor. 

The course is 12 weeks long with a different subject covered every week.  It was intensive and challenging, with a lot of information to take in but at the same time very rewarding and enjoyable.  The tutors throughout the course are specialised in their topics and so information is relevant and up to date. 

All of the staff were supportive, friendly and approachable and there are weekly 1:1 catch up meetings with all the students for regular feedback and an opportunity to discuss anything.  The class had 10 students in it which was an ideal number for paired and group work tasks and still lots of opportunity for individual assistance and support from the staff. 
Everyone is provided with a key to access the classroom so there was opportunity to go in early or at the weekend if you wanted to. 

In the second half of the course each student was given contact details to their own mentors, all of which were people that work in the tech sector and have lots of knowledge and experience to pass on.  I found this immensely helpful as extra support with getting my CV prepared and gaining an insight from someone who has had a long career in this sector.

The students in my group all bonded really well together and many breaktime and lunchtime games of table tennis were enjoyed by all!

Towards the end of the course we were prepared for interviews and put forward for various work placements.  

I am now 7 months into my first application developer role and am incredibly happy there.  There have been many moments along the way where I have felt out of my depth as there is so much to learn and so many different directions you can go in, but when I think back to where I was and what I was doing a year ago, I realise I have come a very long way, achieved and learnt a lot, met so many fantastic people.

I highly recommend the Develop Me course and thank the staff for all their support in my career change.

As a full time working professional, my only option was to do a part time course if I wanted to learn web development in a classroom environment, so I was very happy to have found DevelopMe! It worked perfectly around my schedule, provided a small class to learn in (there were 5 of us), and the course covered enough to get me started with my learning and continue on my own following the course... Now I’m just waiting for them to do a JavaScript course (hint hint)! 

Thanks to the course I’m now able to build modern responsive websites, and code without too many bad habits (which I would have picked up with self-learning for sure)!

I throughly enjoyed my experience at DevelopMe and would definately reccomend the course to anyone interested in getting into web development.

Before I started the course I was looking for a change in career and was trying to break into web development. I was completing online courses to gain some skills, but I felt I needed a more in depth method of learning before I was compfortable finding a job in the industry. So after attending a taster session I signed up for the the course, and I'm very glad I did.

The entire course was extremely engaging (and brain melting at times), and all of the teachers that lead the different sections of the course were excellent. The staff at DevelopMe are helpful, friendly and knowledgable, and all though the course itself was mentally intense, the atmosphere was always relaxed and inclusive.

The monetary , time, and mental investment into the course was significant, but now being a few months into my first front-end developer job, it has proven to be well worth it.

The Coding Fellowship is not just for career changers, it’s also a great opportunity for self-taught developers to update their skills and to keep up with the industry standards. It’s an intense and challenging 12 week bootcamp that requires hard work and full commitment, but at the end you will be rewarded with job interviews and great opportunities to really start your career as a developer. Bristol is full of great tech companies, which makes this bootcamp even better, as DevelopMe is well known and valued in Bristol’s tech scene.

Within 3 months you will learn the most important skills to become a web developer. The content of the bootcamp is well designed and the instructors are just amazing, always available and willing to help you with any questions you might have. As the class sizes are small (we had 10), you will get very personalized support when needed and they are checking on your progress weekly on one-on-one meetings. DevelopMe is also very open for suggestions and they are constantly updating the content to remain up to date with the industry.

In class there was a teaching assistant available to give you extra help and DevelopMe will pair you up with a mentor, who will advice you outside of the classroom. You will also get great support for job interviews and technical challenges to stand out from the crowd, all personalized just for you.

I got hired by a well established tech company in Bristol just few weeks after the course, so I couldn’t be happier with the bootcamp. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to make a career change to web development or to improve their coding skills. And yes, it’s well worth the money!