A graduate’s experience at Enspiral Dev Academy
Enspiral Dev Academy is an 18 week web development programme based in Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand.
I stepped through Enspiral Dev Academy’s doors after graduating from 2 universities with a Masters in Computer Science, and 5 years non-technical work experience in the IT industry.
Even after years of studying and working in IT, I still didn’t have any clue of what I wanted to do in the industry. So I enrolled in the bootcamp, and Dev Academy became the first place that helped me to find my passion. It completely changed my career path.
To have a place that makes your career dreams come true may sound unrealistic, but there are quite a few absolutely down-to-earth principles that the bootcamp is based on, which help students reach their goals.
These are Integrity, Kindness and Effort, or ‘IKE’. Everything is done with IKE at Dev Academy, and students are expected to reflect the same values. This means that we can work extremely hard because we are in a supportive environment.
We gained real knowledge and skills by getting through the intensive 18 week course, creating project after project and working in a team every day, adjusting to today’s (and even tomorrow’s) industry needs. The Dev Academy curriculum is updated every cohort to be on the cutting edge of the technology, and this is one of the secrets of it’s success.
The next one, at the core of the bootcamp, is that the teachers are an incredible source of energy, motivation and inspiration. They weren’t teaching us how to code, but how to love coding.
The third element that I thought led to Dev Academy’s success was the atmosphere created by the Space Manager. This was very important for the overall experience. Every day we enjoyed our tidy, cozy, friendly space, and we always felt welcomed and comfortable, just like Dev Academy was our home.
Last but not least, Dev Academy creates strong network connections. This is one of the main keys for finding your place in the industry after graduation. The school hosts a few meetups, as well as helps to organise outside events, which makes meeting people from different companies a lot easier.
In the long run, for me, Dev Academy was a portal into the huge world of software development with endless opportunities for continuous career progression.
Dev Academy became the best learning experience I ever had. I believe that the future of IT education will follow bootcamps. While the universities I experienced gave students a lot of fundamental knowledge, bootcamps give us a sense of real-life industry.
If you’d like to disrupt your life and learn the the tools to become a junior web developer, apply now for the next Auckland or Wellington cohort, and design a lifestyle you love.
