Ironhack

My experience at Ironhack was intense, with thankfully more ups then downs, and I leave confident that I'm ready to start as a Junior Web Developer in the market.

The first weeks were certainly very overwhelming for me, who never seen nothing regarding code until starting to study the "pre-work" that we had, weeks before the Bootcamp even started. The team informed us about the intensity and the challenges we would face, and they were very right! However, they were always following us to let us know we were not alone. 

The idea to have projects at the end of every module is great to solidify our knowledge and give us confidence that we can built awesome stuff, as well as start working on our portfolio and have something to tell recruiters when the time comes.

The teachers were very supportive and pushed us a lot during classes, in a way we had to face every challenge ahead of us, but knowing that we would have great people to support us. 

One of the main focus of the Bootcamp is to get us ready for the market. We had several different workshops about building our CVs and LinkedIn profiles, practising for regular and technical interviews and great opportunities to visit companies and see offices and developer teams in action. It is something really interesting that hyped us to get out there and start applying for jobs!

Overall, those were 10 weeks that changed my life. It changed my way of facing problems, working in teams, dealing with pressure, organise myself and gave me many tools to work as a web developer, with technologies and languages that are up to date with what the market asks.

I would definitively recommend this experience for those who are ready to invest time and effort to change their careers and get into this world.

The Ironhack Bootcamp was one of the wisest choices I have made. It was super intense and I was dead beat when it was over but it WAS worth it.

I recommend it to someone who is a career changer, just like me. Since Lisbon is a new Ironhack campus, they are learning by doing(as we are) and we were the first Bootcamp for Web Development.

We finished the Bootcamp with three projects we can show around to employers and after a hiring fair which I believe is one of the strongest points of Ironhack, compared to other Bootcamps I've heard about. THey are really committed and they stay on top of the students even after the Bootcamp is over to make sure everyone is already on the way t a life as a developer!

I recommend the staff, which is amazing and always worried about getting the most out of the students and the program. They are caring and listen to our worries. They really put their hearts into it. 

For a more complete feedback of my experience I wrote a couple of medium articles, on how were the first weeks and some of the projects:

https://medium.com/@carlarsmendes/my-path-towards-web-development-686151bafba6

https://medium.com/@carlarsmendes/the-two-weeks-of-the-bootcamp-and-the-first-project-432df4fc27d2

https://medium.com/@carlarsmendes/the-second-project-of-ironhacks-web-dev-bootcamp-76b1d6f7daee

Being a former journalist, I made a long research before deciding to attend the first web dev bootcamp of Ironhack in Lisbon in March 2019. Making a career change is a complex move and I wanted to be sure that I was choosing the best course to help me get where I wanted professionally. Now that I have graduated, I can say with absolute certainty that Ironhack was the best choice I could've made. I had great teachers and amazing fellow students, awesome support from the Ironhack crew and the career services team, that is such an important part of the bootcamp that I cannot stress enough how important it was for me to know it existed before making my final choice to do this bootcamp with Ironhack. The curriculum they offer is definitely the best among the bootcamps in Portugal. If you're searching for a life-changing experience, learning by doing and entering the job market knowing that you have learned the best and most up-to-date technologies, I highly recommend investing your time and money in this bootcamp.

The Web Development bootcamp at Ironhack is a very challenging yet rewarding program. I had some professional experience with front-end development before Ironhack, but was completely unfamiliar with the MERN stack. Our instructor, Niko, did a great job during the 9 weeks; answering all of our questions and helping us when we got stuck. The course is very hands-on and project oriented. You start with basic HTML/CSS and then move on to Express.js and React.js. Students build a portfolio which they later showcase to potential employers. 

Once you graduate, Ironhack helps you find a job with their Career Services program. Daniel Brito is the man and helps you with everything; from what to wear to the interview, to how to correctly format your resume. With his guidance and a portfolio the opportunities are endless!

If you are looking to transition into technology I recommend this program!

Ironhack has been a great  experience for me. I am coming from Mechanical engineering background with no experience in coding at all. The program is definitely immersive and demanding, but when you have great "Front-End"  (Instructor, TA's) , and amazing "Back-End" (Career manager, program manager and many more), your path to success as Full-Stack -Developer is guarantee.
The curriculum also includes career workshops which include technical interviews preparation, how to build a winning resume, how to update your Linkedin profile and many more valuable information and tips that are really important for your success in this market.

I came to Ironhack with a little previous programming experience in both Java and JavaScript, so I knew what I was getting myself into. Ironhack's tech stack (MERN - MongoDB, Express, React, NodeJS) is modern and frequently used in the industry.

The staff was nice and the classroom environment was good for learning. Niko, our instructor, knows his stuff. 

The real difference, however was in the Career Services. Our Career Services manager, Brito, was excellent! He setup and managed the hiring fair with 20+ companies, some large and some small.

Without the career services, I wouldn't be where I am today - a Front-End Web Developer at Carnival Cruise Line!

A big thanks to Niko, Brito, Alex, Jess, Lisa, and every Ironhacker that made this bootcamp possible!

I started Ironhack with very basic knowledge of web development and coding and left with a solid foundation on which I plan to continue building on. With the help of supportive staff and a well structured curriculum you will learn A LOT in two months, provided you put in the extra effort to really drill down the concepts during and after class.

The course covers the most up to date technologies to ensure we learn skillsets the job market is searching for. The Placements Manager, Brito, did an excellent job preparing us for the job search and puts a lot of effort into getting students that first job after Ironhack. 

My story is similar to many Ironhackers. I had a decent career prior to taking a long sabbatical to travel.  I taught myself the basics of coding but breaking into the development world, as a self-taught Jr Developer, can be difficult.  My time at Ironhack taught me how to polish my portfolio, create a winning LinkedIn profile and how to approach finding a job in the “real world.” It worked great! I was busy getting my development environment set up for my new job as we were trying to finish our final projects. Needless to say it was rewarding. Tiring, but rewarding. My teacher was new to teaching so I will give him a lot of slack for understanding, teaching style, preparation and professionalism. Being able to self-teach and research documentation are both important skills so learning that is critical anyhow. I’m all about self improvement and learning new skills but when it comes down to it, it’s about getting work. Ironhack delivered. As a note: The hiring network tends to be local to the school so choose a location in a market that you want to work in. The career fair that Brito put together was unbelievable. There was a feeding-frenzy of local companies (20+) looking to hire in a well orchestrated event. The companies ranged the gamut from Citrix and Royal Caribbean to small startups. Ironhack campuses are all over the world so there is bound to be a place for you to enjoy, while you get your foot in the door of the dev world. Once you get your first dvelopment job it is much easier to find another position that is in another market. Bottom line, if you do your best, know how to learn and stay focused you will both enjoy your time and end up getting work. I want to thank the whole Ironhack team and also want to thank Brito personally. He was a pleasure to work with and a HUGE help!!!

Worked as a photo editor in medias for five years before switching to code.

Had a previous degree in Fine Arts and photography. Have no computer science degree, did online courses and tutorials for some months before going to Ironhack, out of curiosity and to be sure it's my thing.

I wanted to get some formal code teaching and carrieer advice to go pro so I was looking into bootcamps in Paris.

Since I am a rather skeptical person and tend not to believe comments etc.. I went to see a hackshow (student showcasing their final projects) and talked in person with graduated students who landed jobs, exceptions who didn't. Also did the same with other bootcamps and found Ironhack was the best fit for me.

Ironhack helped me through all the necessary steps to achieve my goal to land a fulltime job as a dev.

They helped me with financing the bootcamp, kept me on track during the prework and then put me with amazing students who all wanted to change their life like me. I met motivated and positive people to learn and work with.

The teaching and curriculum was amazing, very rich ! I never felt bore, always found class, ressources and exercises to go deeper and challenge myself with.

The difficulty raises progressively and teacher and assistants were very available thourgh the whole bootcamp. Pair programming garantee homogenous level between students, helped us to learn how to communicate about code and helped me to success further objectives than when coding on my own.

Also I believe the curriculum is understandable from different levels, every one learnt, from people with no coding experience to engineers with some obvious previous experience.

Solid carrier advice and coaching was given during all the bootcamp to assist us and get us ready to the job market which is a furnace. They made job dating sessions and put us in touch with tech job recruiters to help us with the first contacts.

Secured a fulltime job in less than 3 weeks after graduation, would do the bootcamp  2 times in a row for the fun and the impact it had on my life !

Ironhack helped me with 80% of the thing, 20% (or more!!) has to be self motivation and commitment to what you're doing.

I would recommeænd it to anyone who want to get serious education, a professionnal environment to grow and push limits 🎯.