Makers Academy

A lifelong dream has been realised, and I will soon be starting a new job as a developer with a company I've been able to apply to via Makers. Now I can give a review of the complete Makers experience.

What’s good

• Careers support: This was the main thing I was looking for when it came to choosing a bootcamp, and why I chose Makers. I fully approve of Maker's decision to grow their careers team and have nothing but good things to say about them.

• Holistic approach: Yes, you’ll learn to code, but more importantly for me were the things we didn't cover at university. You learn modern software development processes and to apply best practices: e.g. agile, TDD, and clean code. 

Why Makers is worth your money

The careers team, the learning environment, and the community. Besides providing some kind of structure for your learning, I choose to do a bootcamp for the immersion and community. Look out for the next Makers Q&A evening and Demo Day to see if Makers is right for you.

What you’ll learn

During the 4-week pre-course, you’ll learn the fundamentals of Ruby, as well as getting introduced to git and GitHub. Then during the 12-week onsite course, you have more Ruby, a little Rails, a little Javascript, and whatever your team decides to work with during your final projects.

After graduating, I found that almost every job on offer involved working in Javascript (and often React). I did feel disadvantaged compared to other bootcamps who cover Javascript and React in more depth. I would have liked more time spent on Javascript, introducing popular Javascript libraries and frameworks. I felt that my cohort’s coverage of Rails and Javascript was a bit rushed.

Even if a company says they’re not looking for specific proficiency, who do you think they’re more likely to choose given the choice between a candidate who knows the tech stack, and another candidate who doesn’t?

But I’ve put in the time to hone my Javascript skills after graduating, and I guess it's all worked out.

However, I do agree with the Makers approach and think that beginning with a decent grasp of the fundamentals is important. And then you can specialise to become T-shaped. 

Now is always the best time to join Makers

Makers is always learning and getting better. In my time here, I’ve witnessed how some things have changed for the better:

• The Fellowship is how I came to be at Makers. It means I didn’t have to pay and now, for newer Fellows, it’s better than ever. Apart from not having to pay, there’s now very little difference between the Fellowship route and the regular route into Makers. You still have to be hired through Makers but you’re no longer restricted to only the pathway roles (you become a Makers contractor), which are much less common and also open to everyone else.

• Reviews-as-a-service is a way for you to get expert feedback on your development process. It’s an hour-long and it’s done online through screen-sharing. You code a solution to a problem while demonstrating agile, TDD, clean code, and your ability to explain what you’re doing/thinking to someone else. It used to be that you had to “pass” your review before you could apply to jobs through Makers. Availability of review slots was scarcer and I felt that it was an artificial barrier to jobhunting. Now it’s as it should be: you submit your application for a role, attach review feedback if you have it, and it’s down to the Makers careers team whether you get shortlisted.

So if you enrol, I’m sure that by the time you make it onsite, there will be other things that have changed for the better.

Support during the course

When asked about my experience at Makers, I like to say that Makers taught me rather little but I did learn a huge amount. Being taught is a thing that is done to you. In learning you have agency and it is something you do for yourself. Makers is an environment that empowers self-driven learning. That’s what I’d be paying for.

Some may find it frustrating when it seems that coaches won’t give a straight answer. There’s a method to this apparent madness. It’s so that you can develop your own process for problem-solving, which you’ll need as a developer.

There’s great pastoral care from Dana, the Chief Joy Officer, who leads the daily meditation and twice-weekly yoga sessions, and is always available for a chat. I’ve always found our conversations helpful whenever I’ve needed an outside perspective or second opinion. I believe we also have Dana to thank for the recent improv workshop and karaoke night at Makers. I went to both and had lots of fun, and I'm looking forward to the next karaoke night

I will soon start my new career as a software developer with one of the hiring partners of Makers after meeting them at one of the monthly careers fairs held at the academy. This was a very satisfying and essential goal to achieve, but it's only part of the story. Through its comprehensive and intense curriculum the Makers course prepares you for your new career with many new skills set into your locker. Learning programming languages and frameworks comprise some of those, but complementing those are the the approaches to coding challenges and the fundamental processes and techniques you would follow in general.
It was the toughest intellectual challenge I have ever experienced but it was equally amazing and rewarding. It's not perfect, there are things that need to be changed or improved, but the staff are keen to listen to feedback and enagage with the students and alumni community. In fact the Makers community in general is another key aspect for me. During the course and continuing afterwards you really feel like you belong to something quite great. 

I really loved nearly everything about Makers. The curriculum is really challenging and you won't have time for much else during your time studying there - but it is really comprehensive and seems to prepare you well for life as a Junior Developer. The soft skills they teach are really excellent too - they teach you how to break down problems and how to continue teaching yourself new languages/frameworks. I think perhaps they could have included a bit more Javascript though or had a week focusing on learning React/new JS syntax - this was a pretty steep learning curve for me in a couple of interviews I had early on in the job hunt!

The coaches are very hands off but are really friendly when it comes to sitting down and helping you with something you don't understand. The careers team are excellent - they were really supportive throughout the entire job hunt and at each careers fair I attended there was a wide range of really interesting junior developer roles. Couldn't recommend Makers enough!

I have attended Makers Academy March-May 2019 and just received a job offer from a big tech consultancy. 

I have been choosing between several bootcamps, both in the UK and abroad. In London, I was choosing between Makers and FlatIron. I have asked people from my network who are in tech development to evaluate both in terms of curriculum and pretty much everyone told me that both are great (although there is a difference in the syllabus). 

I have chosen Makers because the vibe there was less 'corporate'. If you have experience working in tech companies, that will remind you of a cosy start-up and to be fair this is what I personally prefer. 

There is a big focus on soft skills - eg they teach you how to effectively communicate within the team, how to give and receive feedback (and not make it personal), how to manage your well-being and build resilience. There is also a daily meditation session and yoga twice a week, free for current students and alumni. Really helps you to get on with the course if I'm honest.

People at Makers are amazing and the community is very diverse. You will have a chance to meet people from very different backgrounds.  

80% of the course is independent learning - you are expected to set your own goals each week, although there is a ton of support material. 

Coaches are available and helpful but make sure you verbalise the question correctly - expect 'have you tried googling it?' as a popular response. 

Having worked in tech companies I must say that Makers seem to copy the best practices from the tech industry. 

After finishing the course and passing a review I have received a lot of support from the careers team as well as from the alumni community. 

Makers Academy works hard at maintaining a supportive environment that encourages personal and professional development. The primary focus is teaching you how to solve your own problems and show you what a developer looks like. They place an emphasis on pair programming and agile software development which allows knowledge sharing amongst students. Personally, I found this the most rewarding part of the course - just by having someone to discuss the problem with made it easier to solve. Prior to Makers I held a non-technical management role but this wasn't a hinderance for me. Within 16 weeks I had obtained valuable skills that landed me my first developer job. 

PROS 
*Excellent use of paired programming and agile development 
*Great community - You're a Maker for life and the alumni are always happy to answer any career/life questions. I've definitely made some friends for life on the course.
* Great on course support for stress management (bi-weekly yoga) and daily meditation 
*Job guarantee - if you follow the advice YOU WILL GET A JOB

CONS 
* Difficult to get coach feedback - I would have benefited from regular feedback on my projects
* Post-course support could be improved to ensure grads are staying motivated

If you want to change your career, learn coding and get a job as a Junior Developer,  Makers Academy will sort you out.

Pros:
- You learn pair-programming and how to effectively work in a team.
- You will work in an agile environment.
- You learn Test Driven Development and good code practices.
- Access to some brilliant coaches.
- Super friendly atmosphere and you will make friends quickly.
- 'Job Guarantee'  simply if you don't get a job within 6 months after the course you'll get your fees back. I was offered a job after 1 month and some of my colleagues even earlier.
- 'Hiring Partners' each month there is an internal careers fair. Employers attending are well known and established companies as well as small start ups you probably never heard of.  All of them are happy to hire Makers and after each fair you can apply to them via careers team provided you have completed the course.
- Once you become a Maker you're always one of them. There's a great support after the course especially from careers team who really want you to land a job.  You can still come in everyday like the course never ended, keep on coding, applying for jobs, getting professional advice on your CV or practicing interview questions, tech tests and many more.
- You are not anonymous. Companies know and continue hiring Makers Academy grads.
- Yoga classes are amazing !

Cons:
- Sizes of some cohorts.
- Make sure you know basic HTML/CSS/SASS as this is not covered.
- JavaScript challenges in Makers curriculum are not introducing ES6 or any other latest features.
Having said that half of the course is about team projects during which you are encouraged to fill this gaps.
You will decide what tech you want to use for these. At that point many teams decided to go with MERN stack instead of RoR.

I was previously a secondary school science teacher but decided to leave because I no longer felt like I was being intellectually challenge - moving into software development has definitely changed that! Makers provide an incredible environment for you to develop skills as a developer. An incredibly relaxed atmosphere where the focus is your technical and personal growth. The coaches provide great support, asking the right questions to help you find the answers you need. The code review process could do with some refining, it was a pretty big bottle neck at the time

This is a true life change opportunity. I had no prior knowledge/experience in this field and I made it. I strongly believe that with the right amount of effort everyone can go take advantage of this opportunity. Nothing will be given for free, it requires time and effort...if you think you can afford to invest time and effort in yourself then you'll be a perfect fit for this. 

My personal experience: I learnt a lot in 4 months time, alone it would have taken me at least the double of time and probably with not the same results. In one and a half month after the course I received my job offer from a great company through the Makers Hiring Partners.

Pros: 
- Great and stimulating environment;
- Teaching a process that companies out there are looking for;
- Skilled coaching team;
- Possibility to borrow a macbook in case you don't have one;
- A great building with second monitors for everyone, a nice ping pong table and a kitchen area;

Cons: 
- Even if you consider yourself a strong ping pong player, you'll find someone stronger than you there;
- Beers on friday night (is that a cons?! uhmmm).

I've really enjoyed my time at Makers and cannot recommend it enough to the ones thinking of joining a bootcamp. Now that I've attended a few hackathons and meetups, and having met some of the other bootcamp graduates, I'm more convinced that Makers is better. 

The philosophy at Makers isn't to teach you a certain technology stack, or framework. Instead, they focus on skills of learning how to learn. They do this with an explicit focus on your process, which leads to progress and results. The sylabbus is designed by some really intelligent people, and it shows because you're still thinking about the things you learn in week 1 when you finish the course (for eg: single responsibility principle) but at a much higher level. 

The careers support you get is also very professional and excellent. They will go above and beyond to make sure you have everything you need to go get yourself a job you really like.

To add to that, I've found the coaches and staff to be extremely helpful and friendly. You really feel it in the vibe and community here. Also, I've found that other Makers who might have graduated years ago will go out of their way to help you, give you advice or give you a job. They're also open and radically honest which really helps build trust. 

All makers also follow the principle of 'trust over fear', which means they trust one another more than doubt or fear them, which generally leads to happier people who want to do a good job and it shows. 

Those are the pros. Here are the cons. It can be difficult to get feedback from coaches and there aren't enough of them. This would be OK, except for the fact that your review process (the process by which you're allowed to apply for jobs through the careers team) depends on getting coach feedback. This is not the coaches fault by any means. 

If you're thinking of joining a bootcamp, just come to one of the demo days and speak to as many students as you can - it's not easy, and it's very intense but you will thank yourself for joining. 

Makers has gifted me with one of the most intense personal journeys I had ever experienced and it's not over yet. As I write, I'm a very recent graduate, about to start her job hunt. I am still coming to the office to get motivated everyday, but I already miss the vibes we had during the course. The academy is very young and friendly, the coaches are approachable, but not too much! They want you to struggle a bit first, to build solid basic skills and forge your ability to learn on your own, which is the actual golden potential we advertise once graduated. The community around you during the course is a real gem, both as a resource of knowledge and also socially speaking.
If I have to mention a con, I would say that the technologies learnt are not of the most popular ones, once one starts applying for jobs, however, as said above, the real goals of the course are having solid basic knowledge and knowing how to learn.
I have just started job hunting and the careers team is available for advices. They do a great job in getting companies in, to meet us. It is still very important to also apply to outside companies in order to get as many answers as possible.
In summary, I would recommend Makers Academy any day or the rest of my life.

TLDR: Tech is great, Makers is great. If you're reading this, change your career and join Makers already.

My previous career was in psychology. I left not because I hated it but because I did not feel fulfilled or challenged in the right way and I couldn't see myself doing it for the rest of my life. Leaving it and joining Makers was the best decision I've ever made. 

Pros:
- Great atmosphere to learn and challenge yourself. They seem to have nailed providing a relaxed environment that encourages you to work your hardest for yourself, not for anyone else.
- Coaches make you really think about the questions you're asking and help you understand the more fundamental issues with whatever your problem is. This can be frustrating at the time but when you're stuck alone on a problem with no one to ask for help, you'll appreciate it.
- The syllabus is excellent. The reasons I know this are 1) people interviewing me for jobs after Makers were often impressed by our experience and understanding of key concepts 2) I now feel completely comfortable picking up new technologies and attaining a job using them.
- The careers team are really something else. A lovely bunch of supportive, enthusiastic and knowledgeable people that go the extra mile every time to keep you motivated and ensure you land the job you're happy with.
- I'm not sure if it's because of the standards Makers set applicants but the vast vast majority of people I've met on this course have been well-grounded, smart and generally very fun to code and learn with.

Cons:
- Getting code reviews from coaches occasionally took an inordinate amount of time. I believe this was a consequence of implementing a Viva process with too few staff or too little organisation. They seem to be remedying this now so maybe it will be less of a problem for future cohorts.
- I think they could do with getting a couple more coaches in general to meet demand.

Having spent my time with a friend deciding what schools would be good for us to learn code, I really gravitated towards Makers and since I made the decision to join the course have not been disappointed. Am really happy with the community feel of the course and the willingness of not only the coaches to help improve you but members of your cohort as well. The 12 weeks can be intense at certain points, but once you have found a rhythm you are comfortable with, you will settle in quite quickly. The activities provided also are very helpful, and I never thought I would take to Yoga as well as I did.

The community feel doesn't stop after Makers and this has been a really great feeling. With them willing to help you by putting on Careers Fairs, as well as chances to meet and talk to other former Alumni really beneficial. Can not recommend it enough.