Codeworks

Very good bootcamp, very comprehensive, provides all the necessary tools to enter the workforce. It is a very tough and intense training in terms of pace, but you are truly immersed in conditions similar to those of a real company.
Pros
-Students are consistently encouraged to find solutions on their own in order to learn how to find information independently, but when they get stuck, the instructors are immediately available. 
-The training content is very comprehensive and provides all the tools to qualify for both front-end and back-end job positions. Students leave with a strong knowledge of JavaScript following this training because the technical learning is very in-depth. 
-Students are perfectly trained to pass job interviews, and the level of knowledge acquired during the training is entirely sufficient to answer interview questions.
Cons
Lack of professional networking with companies. 

From day one at Codeworks, I felt confident in my choice. The bootcamp was intense, but the curriculum was both challenging and engaging, pushing us to improve at every step. A standout feature for me was the selective entry process. Getting in isn't easy – you have to pass a series of interviews. This means everyone is really committed to learning, which creates a fantastic environment where everyone is eager to spend long hours together, six days a week, fully immersed in tech.

The curriculum itself was impressive. It covered a broad spectrum, from the basics of JavaScript to more complex topics like working with databases and the latest in web development. The hands-on approach, with daily practical problems, exercises, and projects, along with weekly assessments, mirrored real-world work experience closely.

I also really appreciated the collaborative atmosphere at Codeworks. Working on substantial projects with other students didn't just boost my technical skills; it also refined my teamwork and communication abilities. This part of the program did an excellent job simulating a small tech team environment.
Furthermore, the career support provided by Codeworks at the end of the course also played a crucial role in my journey. From resume building to interview preparation, the team was committed to ensuring we were industry-ready by the end of the course.
Overall, my experience at Codeworks was second to none. It provided me with the skills, confidence, and network to kickstart my career in Software Development. I would highly recommend Codeworks to anyone looking to break into the tech industry.

Joining the Codeworks Software Engineering Immersive was one of the best decisions I have made. It is a course designed for the most motivated developers and pushes the students limits. I chose it after conducting extensive research, speaking with previous graduates, and comparing the programs of various similar bootcamps. I found the program to be very complete, with updates as technologies evolve. The instructors, all very skilled, push students to learn by motivating them to work independently while also providing help, striking the ideal balance. Moreover, the job assistance, refined over the years, helps in achieving the best outcomes. Codeworks helped me take a huge step in my career and find an ideal job.

I recently completed the Codeworks bootcamp in Berlin, and overall, it was a gratifying experience. The highlight? Securing a job post-bootcamp – a testament to the program's effectiveness.

Positives:
Job Success: Delighted to report that I've successfully transitioned into a new role.

• Community: The people at Codeworks made the journey enjoyable. Lucky to have been surrounded by such a supportive and friendly cohort.

Areas for Improvement:
Instructor Support: While the instructors were friendly, there were moments when assistance with coding challenges was limited. There's room for improvement in this aspect.

• Curriculum: Adequate but not flawless. Some refinements could enhance the learning experience.

Experience Overview:
Intensity: Be prepared for an intense workload. It's a challenging program that demands dedication.

• Personal Approach: A nice touch is the consideration for individuals' feelings. Thoughtfulness in communication was appreciated.

In conclusion, Codeworks in Berlin was a valuable experience. It's not without its imperfections, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. Grateful for the journey and excited for the next chapter!

A long but honest review. If I could do it again, I would choose somewhere else.  To give this company a little credit, you do actually learn quite a bit during your time in the course, and most of the instructors were friendly and knowledgeable, but not enough to compensate for the financial or emotional costs, especially when it comes from a company who cares so little about their students and you have to supplement a third of their lectures for clearer/more instructional videos on YouTube.   Not to mention when things do not go according to plan, the company takes advantage of the students exhausted mental states to avoid taking responsibility/care of their students in favor of looking after their bottom line.   They are also finding it harder to get and retain staff anymore, also related to upper management.
 
 STUDENT-INSTRUCTOR
 To start, when I first joined the bootcamp I specifically chose to pay the extra 2K for in person because I wanted the in person teaching and to be physically there with other students to work with.  All you get is the ability to work with students in person and an instructor you can ask questions to, but they are not actually teaching in person.  All the lectures are videos you watch online, all the exercise and daily problem reviews are online as well.  What I expected to be a max 6 - 1 student - teacher ratio in person was actually 40 - 1 ratio online.  Now all instructors are generally available to help while you work on exercises if you put in a "help-request" and you can get more personalized instruction but even then, it is only a roughly 1-in-5 chance you get the on campus instructor as opposed to more online instruction which, again, is fine, but not what I wanted, not what I paid for, and usually not as effective for me.  This is not even counting Saturdays when there are no in-person instructors and fewer online instructors and it was not uncommon to have to wait up to 45 min or an hour for someone to respond to your help-request.
 
 This structure was not what I expected out the gate, then add to that with my cohort they tried to push more people through the admittance process than normal so we ended up with the largest cohort in their history, but no extra instructors (as far as I'm aware) which only exacerbated the problem, though it made them more money.  All the students across both my initial cohort and the following felt the instruction was lacking as a result despite friendliness/knowledge of some of the instructors.  
 
 COURSE MATERIAL
 The course material itself also leaves a lot to be desired.  The course is split into two halves, the first more dedicated to lectures/exercises, the second to projects and portfolio building.  Most of the lectures are in the first half of the course and for the first three weeks, the lectures do a pretty solid job, you may need to look elsewhere for help on occasion, but their "have you read the docs?" philosophy of answering questions starts to fall after that.  The last 3 weeks of the first half lectures start to be less clear, and while there is the opportunity to ask questions in the review right after, but with the questionable student teacher ratios this is when students start consistently feeling like they are being left behind as there isn't time for all questions to be asked, or big groups online intimidating people from asking what they feel is a "dumb question" they can just find online.  and this is when we all start turning to YouTube tutorials.  The few lectures that remain for the second half of the course are atrocious, and every student looks for better instruction elsewhere online.  To their credit, they are re-filming some of them, but that doesn't guarantee they will be any better nor does that help current students.
 
 CAREER ASSISTANCE
 As for career assistance and the percent of people who have found jobs in their time frame, those numbers look better than most other companies, but they are also heavily skewed, I think maybe about 2/3 of the people in my initial cohort and the next actually found jobs in the tech in the first three months.  They throw in a lot of unspoken caveats as to how they define it, such as "actively looking", which has vague meaning, that changes depending on where you are from and up to their discretion whether you count you in their numbers.  The actual Career Counselor is great and provides a lot of links and tips etc., but honestly, if you pick a cheaper bootcamp, you can use some of the thousands you save to pay a few hundred for a private career counselor, get the same things and have spent less.  The fact you have it for life through codeworks doesn't make a difference because after you have your first job with some experience under your belt, recruiters will find you regardless.  There is also the alumni chat group on slack, but it is dead/useless, there is maybe one post a month for a job new grads don't qualify for and a few memes or posts about codeworks.  You will get more out of investing in your LinkedIn network.
 
 COMPANY-STUDENT RELATIONS
 This portion is a bit more personal and does not happen to all students, but highlights the lack of compassion of upper management in this company and that this is a business first, educational institution second, and a school that cares for its students when it’s convenient.  To me and the rest of the students in the April 2023 Barcelona Cohort, it was the last straw and the reason we actively recommend you look elsewhere for a bootcamp.  Three weeks into the second half of the course, when we were working on all of our big projects, someone came onto campus and stole every students’ laptop, the laptop of an alumni, and the company owned laptop of an instructor.   Very quickly, the basic initial steps were taken, police and insurances called, they were not going to replace our laptops, but managed to borrow laptops from family and friends of staff/students so we could finish the last few weeks of the course at least, but that was the extent of it.  That was all they were going to do.  Had this been a solitary incident where one person was robbed, that is one thing and I can see this being enough, but it was.  The entire student body of the Barcelona campus and then some had their laptops stolen, which I feel warrants more of a response from an education institution.  
 
 We, the students, sent an email a few days later asking for some sort of recompense for the event beyond just being able to use borrowed laptops.  We lost our notes and our exercises with no time to replace/redo them seeing as codeworks revokes your access to that material a week after your course ends.  We lost valuable days to work on the big project (which is supposed to serve as our big selling point when job hunting).  The laptops that were borrowed did help by the mere fact we had them, but we were not allowed to take them off campus, they were slower, and older, some so old they didn't support everything we were working on forcing us to learn an entirely new system (beyond having to do the standard set up for the course) just to use them.   While Career counseling is available, we would not be able to make use of it because we had to return the laptops when the course ended and while it is possible to apply on your phone, it is more of a hassle, especially when it comes to editing resumes and cover letters, and it would be impossible to do any technical interview or coding challenge given without a laptop, so the career counseling was kind of a moot point.  We initially asked for access to lectures and exercises and our laptops replaced, which even I agree the laptops was too much, but what we figured there would be negotiation and we really just wanted 10% of our tuition back as with the access to lectures and exercises considering, through no fault of students or company, this was now simply not the education nor experience we paid for nor was it what Codeworks advertises.
 
 The CEO and upper management got us all on a video call two days later and basically just said no to all of it because it was not their responsibility as they had not actually stolen the laptops, and a restaurant would not replace your laptop if it was stolen there.  But again, we pointed out, this was not one person in a public place, this was an entire student body, in a private, password required location that your staff watches over.  They next said they are an educational institution and their primary concern is our education, not protecting our items, nor could they afford it, it would put them "in the red".  We did not believe him, but we pivoted back to our lost notes and getting access to lectures and exercises at which point the CEO essentially called us all stupid for not having backups of our notes because "its 2023 and who doesn't have their computers backed up in 2023? I have all of my stuff backed up and I always make sure it is locked in a locker or locked room when I'm not around.  This is on you all. Why should we cover your mistakes?"   Gaslighting us about students not having the same level of laptop security as the CEO of a multimillion-dollar company with staff and student data they are required to keep secure as opposed to notes.   And for a company whose primary concern is our education, regardless of whether someone "should have notes backed up" when the first response to "We lost all our notes" is "that's not our problem, you should have had backups" and not "Those are important to your education with us, let’s see how we can get those replaced", your words don't match your actions.  
 
 We eventually settled on they would give us 150 Euros OR we could rent the laptops for up three months after the course, they sent us a zip file with the exercises (not the lectures) and we could set up one group session with an instructor during the week after the course ended to ask any questions.  We didn't like it, but it was something and we were at least getting notes, so we agreed and asked them to email it to us.  In the email, they added a little note at the bottom.  "You have 48 hours to agree to these terms or we will discuss your concerns and your departure from the course."  which translates to "agree or we are kicking you out, right after you have had your laptop stolen"  They would refund us the pro-rated amount the remaining days of the course (which had we all decided to leave after the threat, would have been more than just giving us all 10%) and we would lose access to all after course items such as the alumni chat and career counseling.   We mentioned this and they said it would still put them in the red, but they would be done with it.  We did all agree to stay (which we assume they were banking on because studying 70 hours a week for 12 weeks is stressful for all students let alone when you add the stress of getting your laptop stolen at a coding bootcamp, most of us in a foreign country and we were all just burnt out and tired of arguing) but then, what do you know, 6 weeks later, they announced a scholarship program to fully pay for 10 students attendance.  They found money to pay for 10 people entirely, but they somehow could not afford our 10% refund, which total would have been less than the tuition of 1 student.  Other staff even suggested/argued for our 10%, but the 3 upper management hard-lined it.  They are turning what was once a good educational institution into a money machine and it is hurting the students.

Pros:- Comprehensive Curriculum: The bootcamp covered both front-end and back-end technologies comprehensively, ensuring a holistic understanding of full-stack development.- Hands-on Projects: Real-world projects were integrated throughout the course, allowing me to apply the learned concepts in a practical setting.- Diverse Teaching Methods: The bootcamp employed a variety of teaching methods, including lectures, interactive exercises, and Q&A sessions, catering to different learning styles.- Peer Interaction: Collaborative group projects and discussion forums promoted active engagement and peer learning.- Career Support: Post-bootcamp support, including resume reviews and interview prep, significantly boosted my confidence in job hunting.

Cons:- Inconsistent Instructor Experience: While most educators had extensive industry experience and were adept at explaining complex topics, some were recent graduates of the program themselves and lacked deeper industry experience.- Pace: The bootcamp's fast-paced nature might be challenging for some, necessitating considerable self-study.- Time Commitment: Given the intensive curriculum, balancing the bootcamp with other personal or professional commitments was occasionally tough.- Cost: While the bootcamp offered a wealth of knowledge, the tuition might be on the higher side for some.

Overall, the bootcamp provided a solid foundation in full-stack development. Despite certain challenges, the depth of content and quality of instruction made it a worthwhile investment for my career growth. Admittedly, it can be somewhat costly and demands a full-time commitment, but the payoff is significant. The program equips students with the skills needed to secure a junior position in a company, and the best part is that anyone can succeed. In just about six months—spanning the application phase, a one-month pre-course, and a three-month main course—you can transition from a novice to a competent web developer, complete with a small portfolio. It's important to understand that although the tuition might appear high, the quality and depth of the content provided match the price. However, the true depth of your learning will HEAVILY DEPEND on your own commitment and motivation. Reflecting on my journey, while I am happy with the outcomes of this bootcamp, should I begin again, I'd also explore other alternatives, potentially seeking more affordable options or those with a greater emphasis on projects. (more than 3)

I enrolled in the Codeworks Software Engineering Immersive Course after receiving a recommendation while searching for an on-site coding bootcamp. Despite the highly competitive job market, I was able to secure a job within approximately three months of graduating.  The curriculum is very practical, covering technologies widely used by many tech companies. It provides an immersive learning environment that allows you to fully engage with the material. The instructors are readily available to provide direct answers to your questions whenever needed. 

The course was highly intensive, with classes lasting 12 hours a day, six days a week. The fast-paced nature of the curriculum lead me to  dedicate some of my weekends to reviewing the material in order to keep up. It was a challenging journey, but one of the rewards I gained from this course was the confidence to quickly acquire new skills.  It was like, learning how to learn. 

I recently graduated from Codeworks Software Engineering Bootcamp, and I can't emphasize enough how transformative this experience has been for me. I joined the bootcamp with a strong desire to transition into the tech industry, and Codeworks exceeded my expectations in every way.


The curriculum at Codeworks is meticulously designed and constantly updated to reflect the latest industry trends. From JavaScript and React to Node.js and GraphQL, the coursework covered a broad spectrum of technologies. The depth of the material challenged me, but the well-structured curriculum made it accessible.


The instructors at Codeworks are top-notch. They are not only experts in their fields but also fantastic educators who genuinely care about your success. They provided timely feedback and were always available to answer questions or provide guidance.


One of the standout features of Codeworks is the emphasis on hands-on project work. I had the opportunity to work on real-world projects, which significantly boosted my confidence and allowed me to build a robust portfolio. These projects showcased my skills and became instrumental during job interviews.


Collaborating with my talented peers was a highlight of my time at Codeworks. The bootcamp fosters a culture of collaboration and teamwork, and I learned as much from my classmates as I did from the curriculum. It was a diverse and supportive community that I'm grateful to have been a part of.


Codeworks provides excellent job assistance and placement services. They offered resume workshops, mock interviews, and invaluable connections to tech companies. I was thrilled to secure a job shortly after graduating, thanks to the career support I received.


The bootcamp's learning environment, whether in-person or remote, was conducive to focused learning. The facilities were well-equipped, and the online platform was seamless and user-friendly.


Throughout my journey at Codeworks, I faced challenges that pushed me out of my comfort zone. However, these challenges were instrumental in my growth as a software engineer. I learned to embrace problem-solving and adapt to new technologies quickly.


The Codeworks community is tight-knit and continues to be a valuable resource even after graduation. Networking events and alumni connections have expanded my professional network and opened doors to exciting opportunities.


In conclusion, my experience at Codeworks Software Engineering Bootcamp has been nothing short of exceptional. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking to kickstart or advance their career in tech. It's a place where dedication meets opportunity, and it has set me on a path to a fulfilling career as a software engineer.

PROs: Topics of study are relevant for the industry at the moment, the tools you learn are applicable to a wide range of full-stack/FE/BE developer positions. Lectures and exercises are well structured. Very competent instructors. Good career follow-up and support. Access to a wide network of developers. Most students show up every morning with an open mindset and are willing to be collaborative and to support each other. You will learn A LOT.

CONs: INTENSE. 12 hrs a day for 12 weeks, requires a huge commitment, you can't do anything on the side (barely have time to sleep, eat or workout) xD so you have to plan your day, your meals and your time off. Impossible to have another job/internship on the side or any other sort of commitment that require any time/energy from you. You need to be healthy! Missing a few lectures will set you back cause it is extremely fast paced. Come with the right mindset, frustration and failure will be part of it and you still need to be professional and be a good team player :) 

Codeworks in my opinion is really best programming bootcamp. Worth every penny spent. It is hard, super hard and fast pace (sometimes overwhelming fast!), and push you out of your comfort zone! But you can find out that you are capable to learn a massive amount of knowledge in very short time and then find a job after! 
They teach you how to learn in a fast way to be on top with the market trends and new programs. All you need is willing (really willing) to learn. So if that is your goal, then honestly thats the best thing you can find out there.

I loved my time at Codeworks. It is a rare thing to wake up feeling like your excited about all the new things you're going to learn. For me, Codeworks was like this every day for 3 months straight. Due to the exclusive nature of the entrance requirements, you are more or less guaranteed to be working with and around a group of incredibly smart people, and due to this there are few times in my life when I’ve felt more intellectually stimulated. This, combined with a well thought out curriculum and a great support system, results in learning more in a shorter space of time than I previously would have thought possible.
ProsThe great curriculum and efficient teaching methodologies ensure that at the end of the course you feel, and in fact are, uniquely prepared to face the challenge of your first job in the tech world. The excellent post-graduation job search system ensures that you maximise this potential.
ConsIt's unfathomably intense, and the burnout at the end is pretty harsh. Essentially, expect to have nothing else in your life for three months. If you can manage that it is certainly worth it. However, if not then perhaps rethink if a bootcamp is really what you want to be doing.

I had an amazing experience with Codeworks and would absolutely recommend it to anyone seeking a wonderful learning opportunity. While the immersive course was certainly challenging, the instructors were always there to provide support and guidance whenever I struggled. I truly appreciated the thorough admissions process and pre-course, which ensured that I was well-prepared for success, even as a complete beginner. Codeworks fostered a culture of integrity and professionalism, yet it also had a welcoming and laid-back atmosphere that valued enjoyment and the fun of learning. Overall, my time with Codeworks was a really positive experience and I cant believe how much I gained and learned from it looking back. I gave the overall experience 4 stars because of the nature of learning in such a fast paced environment, this was hard for me.