Byte Academy

Unlike most of the students, I actually graduated from here. They let people in without any coding experience whatsoever so that they can charge these unprepared students thousands of dollars even if they have to drop out on their first week. That's how this place makes a lot of money. The other way is to hire "instructors" straight from Ruby bootcamps and use previous students as TA's. No one here has real world experience as a professional Python/Django engineer. This is a big red flag that I should have acknowledged. Never attend any bootcamp that does not hire experienced people from the industry. 

If you manage to make it through the program, do not expect to get a job after. They keep telling you about all of their "partners" that are interested in hiring, but once you're on that stage, the only career help from their side is some 2 hour talk with their recruiter about how to write your resume. She'll tell you she'll send you open positions, but don't expect that to happen in real life. And if it actually does, it's just some BS job listings from the internet.

Also, they make all their TA's write five star reviews on top of all the five star reviews their marketing department wrote. Just keep that in mind when evaluating reviews.

You're better off paying a little more and going to one of the bigger players on the market. Or just learn on your own.

The FinTech part is just few hours on the second month where they will explain a bit of financial terminology and that's is all! There is nothing of FinTech at all.

The Python/Django program was created by an recent graduate from a Ruby/Rails bootcamp, not anyone with real knowledge or experience in Python nor Django. The is so many things missing or wrong in that curriculum that you are better doing some Python online classes for free on Edx or Udacity.

The job assistance is basically a meeting where they will show you a list of few sites with job listings(that you would get yourself in 1min looking for jobs online) and a resume assistance that will take 2 weeks to review your resume.

I would never recommend this bootcamp to anyone.

Lets start with the curriculum that was made by recent Ruby graduate students that got hired to develop a Python/Django curriculum. It is not just outdated but a lot of times show techniques that is plain wrong. NO ONE USES/KNOW DJANGO IN THERE. The place is a lie! None of the instructors has professional experience with Django so don't expect to learn market standard techniques.

The office is dirty, messy and loud and the place where the "classes" should happen is all the time having events. The job assistance is ridiculous. They create "new courses" as the market department please. If they see people are talking about fintech, they just name it fintech, if there is "medtech" in the news they call themselfs "medtech" bootcamp, and data-sci, so on... but the curriculum barely changes. It is just a tricky to catch students looking for a specialization on some trend market. The true, you wont get specialization at all. And you would learn more Python taking MIT courses available at EDX online.

Bottom line: DONT WASTE YOUR TIME NOR MONEY. Go to Python and Django meetups around the city and do some Python courses online at EDX/Udacity that you learn more and will save money.

This may be good given some time to grow.  In the meantime, this is a waste of money and time.  The good reviews are from staff, or have been requested by their marketing person.  They send out emails with incentives asking people to leave 5 star reviews on different sites.

You will get a brief "lesson" each day that does not actually teach you anything.  The projects are the same you would find if you did your own online search or used books.  The resources are much the same.  They pull together different external sources and tell you to work on the projects and ask questions.  Then you are left on your own. It would be more honest for them to say it's a place to go and program on your own if you feel the need to work out of a Manhattan office full-time.  Other than that, there is no value here.  You would learn more on your own, or with a bootcamp that actually teaches.

The instructors are immature.  The environment is small and loud.  People repeat sessions over and over until they finally "pass", or they leave the school.  They will ask for feedback, but instantly dismiss anything that is negative and turn it around on the students.  Good place to go if you are too excited about programming and feel the need to have someone put you down and strip the joy out of it.  The office is shared with the company's consultants and main staff.  If you insist on spending a lot of money for no instruction and a junior high hostile culture, at least go visit first and ask yourself if you can spend everyday in their limited shared facilities.

If you talk about getting work right out of the program you will be laughed at and told that is too ambitious.  The only grads I heard of that found work afterwards are the hostile TAs they hired to "teach".

There are so many well-established options out there with truthful published job placement numbers, and strong networks for referrals.  Please don't sign up here and get pushed out of the industry.  Places like this scare off people from tech that could actually be the next big thing.  Find a friendlier and more knowledgeable tribe that will help you launch your career.  I found a much better program and the difference is astounding.  Look over the good reviews and ask yourself if they are spinning the negatives that have been brought up.  They are.  Why would a review mention being left on your own as a positive?  Because it has been complained about and they are trying to squash the negative reviews and overwhelm this page with 5 stars to get the numbers up.  Their defense stance will be their undoing.  If they ever listen and make real changes then maybe the school will survive.

And by the way, if you are looking for a program that just lets you show up and code with no instruction, there are some on this site with good (real) reviews.  They beat this place in terms of having experts to talk to and having strong alumni networks.  If this place tries to sell you on any one feature ask yourself if it's real, and if it's enough of a pro to outweigh all the cons.  Visit/question more than one place before you sign up.  They ask you to hand over your credit card in person, even after they've already run it remotely.  This place wants your $$$$

After all that if you still go and have to leave, you may want to leave a truthful review so no one else gets scammed.  That may be enough for them to finally fix the place.  Financial tech is a great idea and it's a shame this is the only option in NYC.  They need to wake up.

This is being written for the benefit of those considering Byte as a coding bootcamp school.  TL;DR: It’s a fantastic program with dedicated, knowledgeable instructors, focusing on an industry (Finance and Banking) that is ripe for change. It is tough but you will learn a lot.

As I am in the middle of the three-month Byte program, I can only speak to my experiences and observations regarding the first half of the course. I expect to report on the whole experience after I am finished with the requirements. 
 

By way of background, I am a career-shifting finance professional, having been a portfolio manager both in NYC and Tokyo, Japan; along the way, I had picked up an MBA in Finance from a top tier university and a CFA charter.  As most of the finance and banking industry is, in essence, in the prediction business (Buy! This stock price will rise!) I felt it was important to build a skill-set around evidence-based (ie, data-driver) investments.  Programming (and data wrangling) is an increasingly needed core skill in an insights-driven arms race. A coding bootcamp like Byte was the solution for me.

Byte coursework is hard.  If you are like me and have not done any programming (beyond Visual Basic in Access and Excel), you should consider devoting a hundred and twenty hours or more preparing for the start of the program. 

This is important for a couple of reasons. Firstly, your cohort will just as likely be sprinkled with university Computer Science majors as it will be complete noobs. Secondly, you will get the most out of the course only if you are prepared to put a lot of effort in.  (CFA exam candidates will be able to relate to this.) 
 

That said, one of the bright spots in the program (from my perspective) is the quality of my instructor. The amount of effort I have seen my instructor put into preparing for our classes, and the dedication to guiding us through the blind spots of our knowledge is commendable.  From a user experience, I give Byte high marks – despite the program’s toughness, the staff is very approachable and always willing to help.

As a finance person, I have given my suggestions to management*** about the finance part of the bootcamp.  Certainly there are many opportunities for technology to contribute to the dis-integration of the industry and to improving services to a disenchanted client base.  There are more concrete opportunities for those disillusioned by the opaque pricing and bloated bureaucracies of large institutions.  A person armed with both finance and technical skills would be a potent force for change in the industry.  I am hoping many more people will see these opportunities in FinTech.
 

As a very young company, Byte is itself going through rapid change.  I have seen new courses being queued up (Med Tech, Data Science, a part time full stack program).  I have seen underperforming instructors culled from the roster. I have seen a continuing revision of the coursework materials.  I am hopeful these changes are for the better.  It is still very early innings.

As far as job assistance is concerned, I have seen companies visit us to pitch their platforms and their technologies, and have participated in a hackathon.  Networking opportunities are plentiful both at the Byte location and at company visits and meetups.
So, at this point, high marks for the overall experience, my instructor, the staff. I hope to comment on the Job Assistance portion in more detail after I am finished with the course. 

But I will end with a strong recommendation of Byte for anyone who is considering building up their programming skills to the point of being at least a junior developer candidate.

I chose Byte academy because it was the only bootcamp in NYC teaching Python. I quickly realized none of their instructors are competent in teaching it; all their teachers are hired straight from either their own bootcamp or Ruby bootcamps and they have zero real life work experience in what they teach. Typical day at Byte consists of a 15 to 30 min lecture in the morning and after that you are on your own. That was okay though, since especially in the Django part our instructor was so bad that he confused us more than helped. 

Personally I don't care about financial industry, but if I did and chose Byte because of their fintech orientation, I would have been very disappointed. They have a consultant that teaches basic consepts of finance in the second four week period, but that's really all you get (unless you think you're a fintech programmer after writing a simple terminal program where you create accounts and transactions).

Their career counseling is non-existent. They claim they have a lot of hiring partners, but after my graduation the only "assistance" I got from them was a two hour meeting with a woman they call their recruiter and, two weeks after my graduation, an email from that same woman with a list of links to pages like LinkedIn, Dice and Monster. Do not count on them helping you with getting a job.

I did give feedback to their CEO multiple times throughout the program and he seemed to be interested in it. However, absolutely nothing changed during my time there. 

If you decide to donate your $10,000 to Byte, make sure you're ok with paying just for a working space and an access to their repo. You will have to work really really hard to learn enough to be able to get a job after this program. Also, do not start this program without learning basic programming skills first. If you do, you won't make it and you will have to repeat or drop out.

The benefits of attending Byte Academy were obvious to me when I applied.  Nowhere else could I receive an education in both Python and FinTech, nor could my girlfriend get a $2,000 scholarship here just because she is a girl! I knew attending Byte Academy would be a great career decision, but I never realized just how enjoyable the 12 weeks at the boot camp would be.  First off, Byte Academy is in a fantastic location.  Located literally one block from Grand Central, I could easily commute to Byte whether I was staying in my house on the Lower East Side, or with my girlfriend in Secaucus.  Although the class sizes are small, the classrooms are spacious with an amazing view of the New York City skyline from the 35th floor.  My colleagues were all very hard working, and we bonded easily despite starting with different experience levels.  We had constant aid from professors, which created a very supportive and, in my opinion, unique working environment.  Not only have I made friends I plan  I’m staying in touch with, but also I have made business connections with people who I will work with in the finance industry.

Attending Byte Academy is the best investment I have ever made.  Byte Academy is ahead of the curve as far as coding classes and boot camps go.  Byte Academy does this by teaching Python, the most current and universal coding language, as well as teaching its students all about Fin-Tech.  The final project is so immersive and current that regardless of your experience, after 12 weeks at Byte Academy, you will have the knowledge and confidence to appeal to any employer that you set your sights on. After attending college for four years as an English Major, I was still unsure of what I wanted to do, and more importantly, unsure of how I would get a job.  Through the countless job interviews I’ve been through pre Bootcamp, I’ve learned that in the ever-adapting technological age, coding jobs, especially using Python (which seems to have a glut of programmers), are highly sought after, and will be for years.  Out of all of my friends from college, I have the most job security, and am surpassing the ones who received a job right after graduation in terms of salary.  I completely credit this to my time at Byte Academy.