Code Institute

The experience from the first interaction was just outstanding (even before joining the course). As I career changer it was really unsettling to know if the software development is the right path for me, I tried some small Coursera course but haven't gone far with it. 
I love the way you get to do a small challenges before joining in, just to see if:  1. You actually like it, 2. You are ok with the pace and time frame given. 
I read a lot of great reviews before deciding to join, and I am so glad I did. One thing is to promise and another to deliver. This boot camp definitely deliveres! 
You get so much support that it is unbelievable! 
You get:  
* Facilitator that checks in with you on a weekly basis; 
* Mentor who guides you throughout your project ( 3 insightful meetings per project) 
* Tutor support ( 90min a week ), this is on top of constant community support that you have access to.
*Access to amazing hackathons that just skyrocket your learning, 
*Job support ( webinars and announcement to openings - haven't used it yet as I am only half way there, but starting next week ) 
* ( Still have feeling I missed half of it) 
The course itself is well explained and focused on most up to date content. Often updated for accuracy and top of the game information! 
If you show up and do the work, this is a a joyful ride. It is hard, don't get me wrong ( for me with 2 young kids and part time job + I feel I need extra time to absorb the knowledge.) but it is so worth it !
Besides if it was easy, where is the pride I that, right. 
 I know I could probably do it by myself studying Coursera as I did for few months prior to this. But man, the speed I am doing it now is 10 times faster, the feeling of being part of something bigger than myself and having g people around d who understand the journey is a blessing, especially if you feel like you want to pull your hair out . 
Still, so so worth it!!! Thank you Code Institute and the team for making my career transition so fulfilling. 

Pros:

• I found the first four projects challenging and enjoyable. 
• The mentoring structure is excellent.
• Student care team was very helpful.
• A good deal of the course was well structured and informative, especially HTML and CSS content.
• I learnt a great deal overall.

Cons:

• Some of the content was poor. Design Thinking stands out as the worst and a quick search on slack will tell you most people skipped over this module entirely.
• Linking concepts in latter projects seemed a bit disjointed. The agile section shows you the preferred tool for implementing the methodology which in fairness was decent. Cut to lessons for e commerce project 5 and the instructor was using a spreadsheet.
• Project 5 was a let down for me. The content was outdated (Stripe card elements deprecated and JQuery) and the module content was not particularly engaging.

Overall the course is good. The Irish government paid for me to do it via Springboard so I can’t really comment on value for money. 

The course layout is not very well structured. Going from 1 coding language to the next. You're constantly doubting yourself if you study in the right way. Worst of all, if you start to get behind, it's basically over. There's not a lot of support. The time schedule is basically holy. It seems like they want you to finish the course as soon as possible so they can welcome new recruits. It's like a factory and you're the product. I'm very disappointed and regret spending all my money on this course.

Not for the faint-hearted, be prepared to put in some extra hours, hardest course have ever done.  Amazing experience!  Amazing learning curve...........great programme!  Be prepared to do extra research, do extra coding and connect with the mentor.  Mentor Daisy McGirr is an utter legend!  Could not have gotten through this without her dedication to excellence.  Also big Thank you to Helen Mill for being so kind and supportive.  Jim Morel kept us motivated and always there to lend a hand.  These folk are the real deal, it is what made Code Institute stand out for me......................(beside killer skill-set). Awesome........... :-)

I recently completed the the Diploma in Full Stack Development. It took me about 1 year to complete. I found the course fantastic from start to finish. The content and delivery was great. Be prepared to work hard - you have to put in the hours but it's well worth it. I did the course via UCD and got some support via Skillnet - I felt it was great value for money given the volume of the course. I did the course to upskill in programming rather than career change - I got exactly what I wanted out of it. I would highly recommend it.

I just completed Code Institute’s e-commerce path and the past year has been very impactful for me. The course was fully remote and I’ve been impressed throughout the course of how this was handled as it’s not easy to put together content, support, and networking opportunities for people across borders and in different time zones. 

I am very satisfied with the outcome, and although you can technically learn all of this via other (free) paths you will not have the same support, nor a diploma to show to future employers. The standards they expect you to follow are strict, but fair, and just the fact that you have the purchase of the course + expectations + deadlines weighing on you will push you to reach your goals. You have plenty of support and I never experienced poor or delayed feedback to my questions or concerns. After completing the course you have it on paper that you can create fully functional full stack e-commerce applications in line with university/industry standards.

The content is very engaging and helpful and they give you a clear path to your goal. They don’t teach you everything (you find out during the course that it would pretty much be impossible), but they give you the tools you need in videos, quizzes, and exercises, and they have a ton of slack groups that are really helpful. Also, they offer a lot of courses on LinkedIn, job hunting in general, and share job posts all over Europe every day.

About the negative:
On a personal note I started to feel the solitude a bit, but that we mostly due to me doing the course over a year. You can do it in a few months, and that would probably have been better. In any case you have to get used to mostly everything being via text or video, so whenever you have a questions you have to be prepared to be proactive, search the Slack forums for info, and always type out and post your problem(s) instead of explaining them in person. You get used to this, but if you do the course over a year you may start to miss face to face interactions.

Also be aware that the company is based in Dublin and the careers team is mostly engaged in the UK. They will share job posts from different countries but the majority of them are in the UK. This is just a little side note and did not subtract from all the other great content they had.

Overall:
I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who is interested in learning how to code. You start from scratch and work your way up to understand complicated flows to produce and realise a plethora of projects. I can only speak for myself but I at least feel confident in starting a junior developer position with the knowledge I now have.

Once you pay them the €6k, you are never seeing that money again. Even if you don't enjoy the course, or find it useful, you'll never see the money again.

Even the biggest guru's & scammers in the tech field selling courses like this give refunds at any time - because customers are the backbone of any business.

The minute you pay them, that $ is going straight back into their marketing budget so they can rope in another innocent person through their YouTube ads, get them on a sales call with a slimy salesperson - selling a fake dream.

The mentors they hire to help students are a joke. It's actually funny how bad they are. 

Code Institute makes a lot of promises but are yet to deliver. The content is subpar to a lot of free content on YouTube. 

There is a very little chance you will succeed from doing this course.