Just under a year ago I signed up to the CareerFoundry Full Stack Web Development bootcamp and have since managed to get a job as a web developer (I'll write more about that on another post). As I went through the course I wrote some notes and thoughts about it so here is my review of the course (written prior to a positive outcome for me!)
Prior to signing up to the course I did plenty of research around the various bootcamps (and deciding that giving up my job wasn't an option). In the end I went for the CareerFoundry Full Stack Web Development Course.
Why I Chose CareerFoundry
- It was remote and self-paced - This meant I could work it around my full time job.
- The reviews I could find of the Web Development course were good.
- The price made it an affordable option (at the time it was £3000 with upfront payment discounts making mine £2500 although I believe this has now increased to £5000).
- The material focused on JavaScript and a MERN (MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js) stack which is a up-to-date approach and enabled me to really learn one programming language (JavaScript) in depth rather than touch upon lots of different ones.
- You are given a tutor and mentor throughout the course who both work in tech, you also get a career coach when you complete the course.
- The Job Guarantee was transparent. Many bootcamps offer a 'job guarantee' but the CareerFoundry one felt like it was written to reassure students of the effectiveness of the course rather than providing so many hoops to jump through no-one would ever qualify for a refund!
The Learning Platform & Course Content
As the course if fully remote you complete your bootcamp using CareerFoundry's online platform. This platform is easy to use and shows you goals (such as how many sections you need to complete each week). The majority of the lessons are text-based and are laid out really well, each one has a step-by-step task at the end and these seem to get less prescribed as time goes on requiring you to put some of your new skills to good use and learn all about problem solving too. Typically your tutor marks most your work and provides feedback and a pass/needs more work and your mentor marks the final project of each section...you also have Skype calls throughout with your mentor too.
The content as a whole is excellent and I found that I learnt a lot, there's also lots of 'if you'd like to learn more follow this...' links which enable you to go deeper. For me, the pace was spot-on and other than the Redux section which completely confused me I found the whole thing was explained and presented really well. The great thing about having a tutor is that when you get stuck you can reach out to them.
The Extras
The Full Stack Web Development course also offers some extras beyond the material of the course itself.
- Mentor/Tutor - Both of these people are there to help you and already work in the industry. I ended up changing mentors halfway through but both were really good. My only piece of feedback for CareerFoundry would be that some more guidance for both students and mentors around what these calls should entail would be really helpful for making the most of them.
- Slack - CareerFoundry offer a Slack community for students past and present. I found that I didn't really use this as the majority of the discussions were around the UX/UI courses rather than Web Development but they were nice to have.
- Career Course - Halfway through your main course you gain access to the career course. This course talks you through things like telling your story as a career changer, helps you write a CV and cover letter, shares good places to apply for jobs, helps you create a good LinkedIn profile and offers some interview advice. As part of this course you have a mentor who offers feedback on your submissions and can tailor their advice when you start applying for roles. My career mentor was excellent and I certainly owe some of my success coming out the course to him.
Summary
Overall I would certainly recommend the CareerFoundry Full Stack Web Development course. The communication from CareerFoundry was great, the course content was really good and they constantly related the content and principals into the workplace which made you feel like you were preparing to put your coding into practice as you went along. I also felt like they didn't try and spoon-feed you everything but helped build your confidence in reading documentation, Googling and learning new things (skills that have really helped me as I've continued my learning after the course).
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