Hack Reactor

TL;DR - If you are accepted into Hack Reactor and you are serious about making a career in software engineering, then any other choice is sub-optimal. And yes, you will get a job.

If you're reading this, then there's a good chance you're in the same position I was in a few months ago. I was someone who was very interested in making the career switch into software engineering, (previously taught high school math for 8 years) and wondered about coding bootcamps as a way to go since I wasn't in a position to go back to school for another formal degree. Like you're probably doing now, I was looking at the fact that literally every review for Hack Reactor was incredibly positive and glowing, and wondered if this could possibly be real. 

Long story short - it is most definitely real. There is a very good reason why Hack Reactor markets itself as an Advanced Software Engineering Immersive, rather than as a coding bootcamp. Hack Reactor doesn't teach you how to write code - anyone can learn to do that to some extent off "Hello World" tutorials on the internet. Hack Reactor teaches you real, industry-applicable software engineering principles, then puts you to work in building real projects alongside your incredibly supportive, driven, talented, and knowledgeable peers. 

I was part of the Remote Beta 7 cohort, and overall, I would have to say that it was an amazing experience. The quality of my peers in the cohort always pushed me to learn more, and everyone had a genuinely great time interacting and working with each other. The thing I was probably most surprised by was how connected I felt to everyone in the program, even though everything was done remotely. Between the countless hours spent together in Zoom lectures, Google Hangouts while working on sprints and projects, and shooting the breeze all day in Slack chat, I honestly think I probably got to know more people than I would have from doing the on-site program. So if anyone is worried that they would get a watered-down experience by doing the Remote program, I can assure you that is not at all true.

There are so many other great reviews on Hack Reactor that break down some of the details about the program that you might want to know, so I won't get into that. Instead, I'm going to answer the biggest question I had when deciding to take the plunge to leave my old career and take this leap of faith.

Will you get a job?

Hack Reactor will say, "We can't promise or guarantee any particular job outcomes." But just between you and me, YES YOU WILL GET A JOB! How do I know? I just graduated from HRR7 on September 26, and I had multiple offers to choose from, and finally signed with a company exactly 20 days after I started sending out applications. It still blows me away that less than 4 months ago, I had absolutely no professional software development experience, and yet this Monday I will be starting off as a mid-level software engineer. And while the exact timing of everyone's job search will differ, I know that my experience is not necessarily atypical. Hack Reactor gets results for their students, period.

If you're going to make this kind of investment in yourself, in terms of time/money/blood/sweat/tears, then you owe it to yourself to do Hack Reactor. There are many different choices out there, but there is not a better choice.

I recently graduated from Remote Beta and have begun the interview process.

Before the program, I was hacking together horrible bits of Javascript to get by at my previous job. I didn't have much programming experience, nor did I have a CS degree.

Yesterday, I had an interview with a tech company with very smart engineers. They asked difficult technical questions, two engineers at a time, for hours.

I killed it. I was absolutely amazed at how much I had learned in 3 months. Do not underestimate Hack Reactor - you will have to work very hard, but the amount of support given by HR staff and the feeling of community in the program is tremendous, and I'm convinced there's no better way to become a software developer.

I was originally hesitant to attend the bootcamp, especially with the price tag. I had enough saved up to attend the bootcamp but I was worried about affording to live in San Francisco. Luckily, I took the leap (and I'm 100% sure I made the right choice!).

I paid off the tuition with my savings and I crowdfunded a loan using WeFinance.co for my living expenses. Best (and toughest) 3 months of my life.

The people there were great, I learned a lot, and they have an AMAZING network. When people refer to it as the "Harvard of coding bootcamps" it's not an understatement. People who attend basically have their choice of jobs.

If you're on the fence, make the jump.

Hack Reactor is the power suit to your learning, allowing you to accomplish so much more than you could as a mere human. But don't be mistaken - you are very much the driver at all times. One of the most important deciding factors for being accepted into HR is the ability to learn independently and work through new challenges.

Don't expect things to be done for you. There are plenty of resources for technical help and team conflicts. HR provides all the controls and levers for you to use, but it is up to you to use them. At the end of the day, HR is not like a traditional school in that it is not obligated to force feed you knowledge. Based on my experience, HR has done a tremendous job of accepting students that can take responsibility for their education. For the most part, these are people that have been doing a fair bit of learning on their own for some time, so it's not a real surprise.

I had a great time knowing and working with all the super-smart students in my cohort. If you ever join HR, you will probably hear legends of this amazing cohort (probably not, but maybe). The best part is that the staff is constantly looking for ways to iterate on the program and improve it to make it better. Not only is HR a program to prepare software engineers for work, it is very much an ongoing engineering project in itself. Expect the unexpected, and be prepared to adapt - as you would when working in tech as a developer.

I haven't had experience with any other programs, so I can't compare HR to them. All I can say is that HR works. Plenty of peeps getting jobs, with or without prior professional programming experience.

Yes, this is going to be another glowing review, and there are so very many others that you can read to confirm, so I'm going to go ahead and speak nothing on the course content and job search support, which are nothing short of excellent. Instead I'm going to tell you about a different reason that you will be successful after going through the remote experience, the people. 

I'm not speaking solely of the staff, who are 100% invested in your personal growth and success both within the program and beyond, but also of the students who, though they must change from cohort to cohort, will always be the type of people you will love to collaborate with and learn from. Having peers that challenge and motivate you is one of the less touted features of the Hack Reactor experience, but one I believe to be very worthy of mention. 

As a final note, keep in mind that this review comes as the Remote program is still growing, therefore you can only expect your experience to be better than those who have come before you. The curriculum is constantly updated, and the alumni support is evolving as well. I'm certain that if you choose Remote Beta, you will not regret it.  

When deciding how best to advance my software engineering career, I faced many choices. Ultimately, I decided on the Advanced Software Engineering Immersive at Hack Reactor. After passing my second technical interview (yeah, it's to that level) and finishing my pre course work, I embarked on the best three months of solid, intensive learning. 

I set the bar high before I started. Hack Reactor just laughed as we passed the bar in the first few weeks. If you are passionate about coding as a lifestyle and want to make lifelong friends with your cohort-mates, class leads, tech mentors, and Hack Reactor staff, apply!

When I first applied to Hack Reactor, I was a little sceptical of all the claims made by HR in terms of job placement and experience. It was also a rather large financial commitment and so I was doubly concerned. But going in for the interview and seeing the school radically shifted all those perceptions. The place was a abuzz with activity and seemingly endless students working on cool stuff.

Going through the actual program was no different. It was easily one of the most challenging and productive 3 months of my life. It pushed me in new ways I honestly didn't know that I was capable of and without question think it was one of the best life decisions i've made. 

It's a pretty special place and I'm incredibly glad that I got to take a part in it!

Hack Reactor was my second computer science training experience. My first was getting my CS degree from CSU Hayward (now called CSU Eastbay). The breadth of material covered and the fostering of community and class bonding was excellent, however, I must admit the intensity was a bit high for me. Not having my Saturdays to myself for three months wore me out, but I survived. Be aware before joining that the pace is really quick and there is not as much review and follow-up on material that has been covered; if you fall behind, you'll need to catch up in the little remaining time you have with the mentors they offer or other resources you might find. This can be rather difficult. I was most impressed by how much job hunt / interviewing / resumé prep they offer, and the alumni resources are world-class. I learned a lot about working with teams of other developers, something that my college CS courses never taught me. Over-all, I recommend it, but only if you are hard working, work well with others, are very smart, and can endure this kind of environment.

Be aware that the cirriculum is JavaScript centric; while this positions you well for many of the jobs out there, and certainly teaches you enough CS, you may need to learn many other technologies such as Python or Ruby if what you're aiming for is the center of the web application development job distribution histogram.

TL;DR - this was the single greatest experience of my life. I have zero regrets and would do it all over again.

The overall goal of Hack Reactor is not to "get you a $105k+ job". The fact is, you are in charge of your destiny. Your education at Hack Reactor revolves around becoming an autonomous learner. Your goal is to learn software engineering, not memorize Javascript frameworks and libraries. 

For the first six weeks, you're going to deep dive into lectures and pair programming sprints. It's a total immersion in software engineering: you tackle data structures, algorithm challenges, MVC frameworks, servers, databases, deployment, and much more. If this seems overwhelming, don't be worry - we're in this together.

Your support comes in the form of the instruction staff, technical mentors, class shepherds and leads, and most importantly your fellow peers. For the last thirteen weeks (twelve + solo week), I have spent over 800 hours with the same ~64 peers. I have never felt more supported and engaged before.

The second half of your time is defined by three group projects and the most intense, informative, and useful job search preparation I have ever encountered. There's a very different dynamic between the first and second half portions of the course and a common complaint is the perception of a lack of support during it, but I feel like that's simply unreasonable -- especially when you have all of your peers to lean on. Your group projects are intended to simulate real world work environments and help you learn  workflow, deployment, testing, continuous integration, and overall working with a team.

The job search support at Hack Reactor is second to none. We spent several days working on our resumes, iterating over them and improving them over and over again. By the time I was finished, my resume looked so much better than when I started, and I like to think that I used to have a good grasp at writing resumes. There's a sprint where we do the same for cover letters. The support continues with mock interview sessions, endless whiteboarding, and lectures on jobs search and interview strategy. I feel like the job search support at Hack Reactor is worth the price of admission alone. 

I have officially spent twenty weeks on Hack Reactor's curriculum so far - eight on the pre-course, twelve on-site. I also started the first of my twelve-week residency with the program this week. I loved my experience so much and wanted to give back to this community. I'm excited for my peers who are well into their job search and can't wait to see where they end up within these next twelve weeks.

If you've read this far and are still thinking about attending Hack Reactor, just go for it. You're going to have the best time of your life while working towards a career change.