Flatiron School

I graduated from the online full stack web development course, and now I'm working for the Flatiron School in person as a Technical Coaching Fellow. I learned a ton from the course, and got a lot of value from periodic code reviews from instructors on projects. Having studied to become a teacher before getting into code, I have a great opportunity now to combine the two, and do what Iove. I'm proud to have graduated from the Flatiron School, and I'm even more proud to work for them now, and help as many students as I can to learn and reach their potential.

Attending Flatiron School was the best decision I have ever made. The discovery that coding is my passion and destined career path came long delayed, after I had graduated with a degree and pursued a career in finance. The idea that I could transition into the tech world through a "bootcamp" within a matter of months as opposed to going back to school was truly unbelievable and unrealistic. However, after due diligence of research on coding bootcamps and discovering that this is in fact a thing that people do...I decided it was worth a shot and began extending my research to find the right program for me. 

After several days of debating between several different programs within NYC, I finally chose Flatiron's Online Web Developer Immersive course. This decision was mainly influenced by financial and logistical factors. Firstly, I could not afford to quit my job to attend a full-time on-campus course, so an online self-paced program was ideal. Further, the cost of this program was absolutely unbeatable. I compare to App Academy, which was the first program I looked into and almost ended up joining, that averaged to a cost of $17,000. In total, Flatiron School ended up costing me less than $3000 and it was the best $3000 ever spent. 

I ended up finishing the course in just a little over 3 months, but this was a result of committing 45+ hours a week on-top of my full-time job. This may sound crazy...committing this much time to a course on top of a full-time job, but I attribute my ability to do this fully to Flatiron and the way that they design their curriculum. It never felt like a chore to me and I truly enjoyed going through the coursework. I would spend 8+ straight hours going through the coursework not even realizing how much time had passed. 

That said, it must be noted that the course was certainly very challenging. There were moments where I almost thought that it was too hard and that I wasn't cut out for this career path after all. However, the support/guidance of the online instructors always shut these doubts down as they were always able to help me work through whatever learning rut I was in and I was always able to get over each hurdle and continue through the progression of the course. 

The online instructor assistance was very effective. There were times that I would have to wait in a queue for a screenshare in order to get assistance on whatever issue I was experiencing, but I never felt that I had to wait an unreasonable amount of time. The instructors always remained on the screenshare/call until my issue was resolved and questions were answered. They also made sure to guide me to discovering a resolution/answer on my own, rather than just telling me the answer which in my personal opinion is the best way to learn. 

Now to the most important part..how much I learned and how it translated to getting an actual job as a developer. Well for starters, I went from not knowing a single coding language or anything to do with coding at all, to being able to build a robust web application on my own, with a React/Redux front-end and Rails backend API in three months. Even so, upon reaching this success endpoint, I still wasn't sure what this meant as it relates to getting hired. 

Initially the job search process was a little bit discouraging. It seemed like almost every developer job I came across was a senior role, requesting candidates with 3+ years of experience. However, I didn't let this hinder my process and just applied for any opportunity that I could. And with that....I landed my first role before I had even officially graduated from Flatiron School, with an $85k salary. 

My first role (which I am still currently in), is actually a temp-to-hire position (I was hired as a 'short-term-employee'). The idea here is that bootcamp grads are a "risky hire", so it is common for these grads to be hired on a contract-to-perm basis in order to be vetted for their skills/knowledge. This is a completely understandable thought-process/strategy, and much much better than the scenario I have read countless times on forums discussing coding bootcamps, which suggest that most tech camps won't even read the resume of a bootcamp grad and that bootcamp grads are not taken seriously. These claims are completely false; while I have no doubt that there are tech companies out there that will throw away a resume of a bootcamp grad, there are also many many that won't. In fact, the company that I work for, which is very small (about 30 people total), has two other Flatiron grads currently working there!

All things considered, my experience at Flatiron was nothing short of ideal. To be able to completely change my career within a matter of months, without taking a pay cut, without spending thousands of dollars on coursework and without ever going through a state of unemployment is a bit unfathomable but this is the exact scenario that I lived through. That said, I must say that this is NOT for everyone. I believe that I am able to share this success story because I already came from a fairly analytical background and while I did not have any experience coding, my prior job involved a lot of financial modeling in Excel and a lot of analytical thinking/problem solving. I believe these skills are very transferable to coding as being a good coder in my opinion has less to do with knowing a coding language and more to do with one's thought process and knowing how to think analytically and problem-solve. This is a learned skill, certainly, but it comes naturally more to some than others. And with that I would strongly suggest anyone considering a coding bootcamp to be sure that coding is right for them, because if it is not, it would be unrealistic to expect the same successful outcome, which would have little to do with Flatiron School itself and more so with the individual's ability to master the coursework. 

In sum, I honestly have nothing negative to say about Flatiron School and highly recommend to anyone that's confident about their decision to transition their career into tech. For the first time in my life I can actually say I love what I do. I look forward to going to work every day and I enjoy every minute I spend at work. This is a very very foreign thought to me as it comes after years of being miserable in my career and beginning to accept the idea that work is meant to be an unhappy place. I owe it to Flatiron for changing my life and giving me the opportunity to finally be happy in my career and be exactly where I belong. 

I found The Flatiron School's Bootcamp Prep course to be a great introduction to Javascript, Ruby and HTML. The course is free and there is a very strong community that helps you with any questions you may have. I found the support extremely helpful as they are able to screenshare so you really understand how to solve any issues that may come up. I do not know of any other bootcamps that offer such a supportive resource for everyone for free. This was a big factor in me ultiatmely deciding to apply to their onsite immersive bootcamp.

After finishing the prep course you are able to build a command line interface program that plays tic-tac-toe and another to play a rock dodging game. I was able to take what I learned from this prep course and program a Towers of Hanoi game in the command line interface on my own which was very cool. The javascript I learned also allowed me to do a little bit of web scraping from websites. 

I highly recommend this course for those just starting out. You'll learn a great deal of basic programming skills across two different languages.

I've been accepted to the Flatiron School in-person NYC software engineering program and am super excited to begin the course in the coming weeks.

I participated in their accelerated bootcamp prep program (ABCP) as part of my application preparation, and then completed some additional modules from their regular, non-accelerated bootcamp course as well. The ABCP course was amazing in that it included live classroom sessions with a really great Flatiron instructor. You could either attend it in-person at their NYC campus, or participate remotely (which I did). The learning material both online and in the live classes was comprehensive and thorough, especially considering how tough the very early stages of learning coding fundamentals can be. I went on to complete some supplementary learning on my own after the prep course, and I found that what I learned in the prep course really helped me there.

The admissions process was amazing. At every stage I received *very* timely responses, from my initial application submission, to scheduling my interviews, and admission and scholarship decisions. Both the interviewers were tremendously kind and helpful. The whole experience made me even more excited about Flatiron's culture and approach towards collaboration in learning.

When I had first encountered Flatiron School, through social media, I was a bit skeptical.  I had taken a programming course or two during high school and college.  I considered programming to be too complex and unrelatable to be understood.  I signed up for Flatiron School's free content out of a renewed interest in programming and, in part, whim. (Their advertisement was spiritually compelling.)  

After diving into JavaScript, I was impressed by how the content was explained, the logical order in which it was presented, the analogies they used that made complex concepts appear relatable and the integration of those concepts into coding challenges.  From then on, I was hooked.  And so, I applied to all of their free content.  

As of now, I have completed all of their free content, aside from Swift & iOS (I recently purchased my first Mac.)  I find it amazing that Flatiron School made all of this great content available for free.  Furthermore, they regularly host free On-Campus Study Sessions, Technical Talks & a showcase of Senior Projects.  Ever so often, they host a Q&A session with a Panel of Former Graduates.  The course content and the quality of people this school attracts convinced me that Flatiron School is something great that I'd love to be a part of.

I have been recently accepted to their On-Campus Immersive Software Engineering Program.  It's an exciting time for me and I expect nothing but great things to come.

A year ago, I sat voraciously reading reviews on various bootcamps based in NYC(or remote). I saw the awesome reviews of Fullstack Academy, Flatiron School, General Assembly, and App Academy. I thought to myself that there's no way there could be story after story of success and life changing events in the short amount of time given in a bootcamp. After careful consideration, and pain points applying to other schools, I decided to put my trust in Flatiron School.

I was way off about the success stories. Flatiron School is the real deal. Every single person on their staff believes that you have the ability to change your life and supports you in every way possible. I went through the Online Full Stack Web Developer program, and I learned SO MUCH. But, I struggled, and struggled, and leaned on my instructors, the community, the Flatiron Staff and they showed me how to get through it all. I learned how to deal with being overwhelmed, how to look up the things that I didi't know, and also I learned the right way to ask for help. From the staff, to the student community, you have genuine help and also people to commiserate with as well.

The entire online course is extensive. Everything is Test Driven Development, meaning that your job is to get your tests to pass for each lab. You must use Github every day, and by the end of it, you'll be so used to committing, and using GH, it'll be second nature. Flatiron teaches you to be able to develop applications from scratch and teach yourself anything you may not currently know. Avi Flombaum is the man and instills a curiousity in all the students at Flatiron School.

One minor issue with the curriculum, is their Front End Section(HTML, CSS, Responsive Design). You go through a long arduous section on dated approaches to front end. You build a Real Estate business website, but it becomes absolutely worthless after you complete the section. It would be much more impressive to end up with a portfolio website so that you can continue to work on it after you're done with that section of the curriculum. I would be much happier if this section was teaching CSS Grid, Flexbox and teaching you how to approach the design choices when building a site rather than solely taeching you the technical intracacies of HTML/CSS.

Overall though, Flatiron was an incredible experience and I wouldn't change my mind if I were to do it again. I met so many cool people, made friends and continue to meetup on campus to shoot the breeze / code. After a stellar job by their Career Services team, I accepted a Full Stack Dev position with a small company out of Brooklyn, NY. I start next week and I'm super excited!

I really mean it when I say Flatiron School changed my life, but not in the way that I expected. I thought I would go through the curriculum quickly, land an amazing job and be on with my life, but it was something much better than that. It really taught me to enjoy the journey, to be curious with your code, and to never stop learning. 

A big thank you to everyone at Flatiron who believe in their students and make our success, their success. It does not go unnoticed, that's for sure. I would love to one day return and work on Learn.co as a dev, but for now I'll spread my wings into the wild. 

Flatiron's Bootcamp Prep course is free, very easy to use, and integrates an IDE into the browser as part of their learning platform. The lessons are thorough and are succeeded by labs that test what you've learned. They have extremely knowledgeable technical coaches that help people in real time with any difficulties that might arise in passing the labs or understanding concepts.

Everyone I have encountered, from the technical coaches to the admissions advisors, have been a pleasure to get to know and make the process of learning as seamless as possible. I highly recommended this course, especially to those who are looking to apply to the Flatiron school.

I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of my experience at Flatiron. Every person I interacted with was incredibly kind and supportive. Flatiron has done something magical, combining a great education with an online community that values positivity. Both the coding curriculum and the career assistance place an emphasis on having a growth mindset, and it's remarkable and transformative to begin the program often needing help and then to become the person who can help others. Practically speaking, I finished the online course in about 6 months and accepted a great job about 6 weeks into my search. I was thrilled with the education, which isn't just about learning languages and frameworks but which is also about loving learning and thinking critically, and I'm thrilled with the outcome.

Just enrolled for one of the in-campus cohorts. The whole process from the admission process to the first day in class, was not only painless but empowering. One thing that stands out about Flatiron School is how passionate their staff is, honestly that was the main reason I decided to join. Everyone from the admission personel to the instructors and the students reflect the Flatiron values, and they all are invested in helping you succeed, getting to know you as a person and working with you every step of the way. They have managed to curate a community of people that are not only great coders but great people as well. Another thing that stands out is their innovative system of teaching, pushing you out of your comfort zone, but being supportive at the same time. I trully believe they have the best coding bootcamps and courses out there.

I graduated from Flatiron's School's Learn.co online program while working full time, and about four months later started working as a Developer. The curriculum and its labs, community, and career services made this a unique and effective program that helped me change careers and spend my days coding (which is the best!). The curriculum guided me through what I needed to learn, and the labs were difficult and challenging (loved that part of it). The community is a great place to get help when you get stuck, and get encouragement, and are almost always available. The career services are incredibly helpful and a part of the program that I can't say enough about (thank you again!). 

I am currently set to start with Flatiron in Washington DC, and I have been working through the pre-course work. I was previously accepted into two other coding schools, and I worked on some pre-work for each school before committing to Flatiron. Right from the start, I was able to see a clear difference in the quality of Flatiron's curriculum compared to other schools. It is very demanding and challenging, but there are always instructors available to help during their specified hours! They even do screen shares for more complicated issues! I have learned an incredible amount from working through the pre-course, and I couldn't be more pleased with my decision to attend Flatiron. HIGHLY recommend!