Choosing a London based coding bootcamp
At the ripe old age of 30, I’ve decided it’s time to change careers and become a developer. At this stage I have minimal coding skills, and am about as self-motivated as Dory from Finding Nemo, so while there are infinite resources online, teaching myself isn’t a great option.
My background is not at all techy; I studied complementary medicine, have worked in Public Transport ticketing for years, and most recently work in a Minister’s office for the State Government. I’ve always had an interest in computers and the web, but never really acted on it.
A few months ago, my husband and I decided to move to London, and I figured this would be a perfect time to reinvent myself. I’m about to turn 31, and while that isn’t that old, I don’t have any interest in doing a four year computer science degree, which would involve working in a field I’m not passionate about to pay the rent for four more years.
So I started researching London based boot camps. My launching off point was course report. On reading through the different ones and the reviews, I narrowed it down to Founders and Coders, We Got Coders, and Makers Academy. I also had General Assembly on the backburner, as I’ve done their Front End Web Development course here in Melbourne, but that didn’t make my top three, as I wanted to try something different.
What really impressed me about Founders and Coders is that their program is free, and they only make money when you get a job. That shows me that they are really, really invested in their graduates, because they are investing a lot of resources into someone, it would be terrible if they didn’t get hired. What turned me ‘off’ a little, is that it is 16 weeks, so that’s extra time without being able to make money, and that you need to get a job through them at the end; even if you find it yourself, you need to make an arrangement with them, so that Founders and Coders can be paid — I don’t think that’s unreasonable, but made me a bit nervous. The other consideration is that the are extremely competitive to get in, since the course is free, and at that stage I hadn’t even started my learning process.
We Got Coders seems like an awesome course. It is about 45 minutes on the train outside of central London, but most people who do the course live on campus. One of the greatest things is that you get 12 weeks of paid work experience once you have finished your course. This would have been my number one choice under different circumstances, but being in London with my husband, I wouldn’t be able to live on campus (or even if we could, it wouldn’t be fair to him to live there), so I’d need to commute, and the idea of commuting an hour and a half each day for an intensive bootcamp was a deal breaker.
The last one in my top three was Makers Academy, ‘Europe’s leading Web Developer bootcamp’ (self proclaimed); another highly selective course, their website says 1 in 10 get in. This is going to sound crazy, but I just had the best feeling about this one. All of these courses I looked at had positive reviews, but these ones just seemed passionate. It sounds like Makers Academy students, staff and graduates are part of a community; something want to be part of when moving to a strange new country. From an employment perspective, Makers Academy gets a placement fee if you take a job with one of their hiring partners; so it is in their best interest to make you job ready. The other thing is that there were a lot of blogs about people’s experiences with Makers (they actually encourage blogging about your experience) so I was able to immerse myself with information before even making the decision to apply. Makers Academy has two options, an on campus course, and a remote course (Ronin). Though I’m quite the introvert, I don’t think I could be at home for three months straight, so even though it’s significantly more expensive, I chose the on campus course.
As indicated above, I ended up applying for Makers Academy. The application process is pretty straightforward, you put in some info about yourself, your motivations, and your background. I got an email the next day inviting me for an interview.
My next post, is all about my interview prep, and the interview itself.
