Hack Reactor

I cannot thank Hack Reactor Remote enough. At every stage, HRR provided the support I needed while keeping things very transparent about where I could improve. 

My journey with Hack Reactor was an extensive one, all the way from the prep course till now, after landing my ideal job as a software engineer. HRR is tough...but well worth it. If you're ready to go "all in" then HRR is for you. The community is close-knit and emphasizes both great soft skills and great technical skills. I admire that HRR stays up to date with the curriculum, always updating and curating fearlessly. The entire instruction team (Hailey, Annah, Robin, and Cody) does a stellar job of communicating with the students to make sure they're progressing on pace. After graduation, the job support counselors also guide you through the job search process, and they're very attentive about finding opportunities that are tailored for your interests. My counselor was Nicole and she was such a key part of the process. Overall, amazing!

Hack reactor was an amazing program, and I can attribute my success in the field to it. It was fun, and intense, and I distinctly remember it being a work hard, get rewarded type of scenario. The instructors were fantastic, and the curriculum really taught you what you needed to know to succeed as an engineer in the valley. As grateful to the program as I am for what I learned there, what really amazes me is the support I continue to get from its Alumni Director, Marlene Tang.

Marlene is truly a lighthouse in the dark when it comes to actually functioning as a software engineer in the industry. Sure, Hack Reactor had gotten me in the door, but Marlene not only keeps me in the building, she pushes me to climb to the top. She gives support in working, learning, growing, promoting... you name it, she's there. Recently, I left my previous company and started looking for my next home. I brought it up, and as usual, without hesitation, she dove right in, set up meetings with companies, reviewed resumes, emails, and made sure I stayed on track. I just signed my offer, and she was a huge part of it. All I had to do was study! I honestly don't know how she does it all with an ever growing network of Alumni.

In addition to being a tremendous resource when you reach out to her, Marlene actively reaches out to the Alumni network to collect feedback and make it even better. She is ever present and if for some reason a HR graduate forgot about the immense support system available to them, it won't be long before Marlene is there to offer her precious time and energy.

All in all, Hack Reactor was an amazing experience and I'll never forget it. The real start of the show, and the one thing that continues to provide immense value on a consistent basis is it's extremely dedicated Alumni Director, Marlene, and her superhuman program. I can't emphasize enough that this is the one thing that puts Hack Reactor leaps and bounds ahead competition. Whether you're thinking about which boot camp to go to, or are currently a student, or have graduated long ago, you can rest assured that Marlene will take care of you.

var TLDR = ‘Hack Reactor > App Academy && Austin > San Francisco’;

My journey to becoming a Software Engineer began almost a year ago. It started with choosing which program to attend... that can be overwhelming. After a lot of research; I literally read every review I could find on App Academy and Hack Reactor. I decided to attend App Academy’s bootcamp prep course in San Francisco. The prep course wasn’t terrible, but I definitely don’t think it’s worth $3K I paid for it.

App Academy does offer a deferred payment option where you only pay for your tuition after you graduate and get a job. That seems pretty cool initially. Then I found out that if you fail two of their assessments you get kicked out of the program forever. For me that meant I would have to start all over at a different bootcamp (don’t quote me on this, but I heard anything under 90% on a test is a failing score). I just didn’t like that methodology.

After completing App Academy's bootcamp prep program I went to an info session for Hack Reactor in SF. I immediately felt like it was a better environment. I also liked the fact that the program was split into two phases with a technical assessment taken at the end of the first phase. If you don’t pass then you just repeat the first phase again. I decided to sign up for HR’s bootcamp prep course which is called SSP. It was a MUCH better experience for me overall and it’s only $250! It’s 100% remote, but that was actually one of the best things about it. You learn how to teach yourself and when you get stuck there’s always an instructor available to get on zoom with you and walk through your cod. After completing SSP I scheduled a technical interview and was accepted, but only to the extended program. I scheduled a retake for next week and was accepted into the HRATX40 cohort.

The great thing about Hack Reactor is that they are a part of https://cirr.org (App Academy is not as transparent about their data). CIRR is a non profit organization which provides a standardized system for measuring and reporting student outcomes for multiple bootcamps. I was surprised to find out that SF grads didn’t get jobs that fast. SF is the center of the world for tech, but this also makes it EXTREMELY competitive. This data played a significant role in my decision to attend the Austin campus. Fortunately for me I had a friend in Austin who decided to go through the program with me. So in February I packed up my bags and moved to Austin and start the program.

Hack Reactor is an intense program. Expect to spend at least seventy hours a week there. That being said I genuinely enjoyed being their every day. I can’t possibly descibe to you in words how incredible the staff at the Austin campus are. They go above and beyond to empower you to succeed. I can’t say enough great things about Linden, Zubair, Justin, and Nick.

Now let's talk numbers. There are twelve of us in my cohort. Three of them accepted Software Engineering Immersive Resident positions at HR before they finished the program. It’s been a little over a month since we graduated and only one person hasn’t received an offer yet. Offers for full time positions have ranged from $70k to $120k with the average being somewhere around $80k. That goes a long way living in Austin though. I’m currently writing this upon completing my first week as an Associate Software Engineer at a well funded startup in ATX. This program changed my life and it will change yours too.

Hack Reactor will change your life! I can't recommend this program enough, every single member of the staff is an amazing person that I'd be more than happy to maintain a connection with.

BE WARNED: This course is intense! You're going to be going about 70 hours a week for nearly 3 months straight. You'll probably constantly feel like you're behind, but making it all the way through is amazing! I'll never look back to my old life, attending Hack Reactor was the best decision I ever made.

TL;DR: Hack Reactor deserves its reputation as the best software engineering program on the market.

I'll talk briefly about three aspects of my experience: instructors/staff, curriculum, and career support.

From the paid prep course I took, all the way through the career support post-graduation, my instructors and coaches were absolutely top-notch. In any interaction with Robin (tech mentor), his respect for the students' investment is deeply evident: He is always extremely prepared. His skills and his ability to articulate them are razor sharp, and always current. And his teaching approach displays a keen instinct--he knows what you have within you, and he won't let you get away with anything less. He also won't let you drown. Annah (lead counselor) similarly does an excellent job balancing encouragement with accountability. She is meticulous about tracking your progress and your setbacks and being proactive to resolve them with you. Very early in the program, she makes it clear that you don't need to worry about your progress; she's taking care of that, and will keep you abreast of any pitfalls to watch for--you can save your mental energy for wrestling the immensely challenging material. Together, they make a stellar pair, and I cannot recommend them highly enough.

As for the curriculum: it is indeed immensely challenging. You will ride an emotional roller coaster, in whose plunging valleys you'll question your life choices, and on whose soaring peaks you will bask in the exhilaration of rapid, explosive personal growth. Hack Reactor is as much a bootcamp in time management, morale management, self-care, asking for help, and sheer grit as it is a bootcamp in software engineering. Over and over through those 12 weeks, you will look backward in abject shock at the heights to which you've grown in 2 weeks, then a month, then 6 weeks, then 12. What felt infuriatingly arcane and out-of-reach only days ago is suddenly crystal clear. Suddenly, you can make a full-stack app from scratch. Suddenly, new technologies aren't the least bit intimidating; you're totally assured of your own ability to learn them, quickly. And on the subject of the difficulty, I should mention: it's a level playing field. Everyone in my cohort came from diverse backgrounds, including computer science, music, mathematics, theater, law, painting, and medicine. Though our individual strengths and weaknesses matched up differently with different parts of the material, every last one of us had to struggle and wrestle and fight our way through--a shared experience which forged deep bonds amongst all of us.

Finally, career support. Put simply, it's outstanding. My career counselor was truly passionate about her job, and so, so good at it. Like a true coach, she pushed me to overcome the (sometimes excruciating) social anxiety of negotiation, she helped me reframe my perspective about self-marketing, she knew where to offer a pep talk and where to call me out on BS. The offer she helped me secure is honestly beyond my wildest dreams. I could not be more thankful for both the technical excellence Hack Reactor gave me, and the coaching she gave me to leverage that excellence in the real world.

I hope my glowing review doesn't read as improbable--Hack Reactor is not perfect. I ran into frustrations with curriculum organization, as well as some of the staff, including some frustrations which were non-trivial. However, my feedback was openly requested and graciously accepted, and I've seen the staff prove that meaningful changes are made to the program based upon student feedback. That's as much as you could ask of any program--especially one which prides itself on being ever-growing, ever-iterating, ever-improving.

If you're considering a career change into software engineering, Hack Reactor is the best investment you can make in yourself. Their outcomes stats paint a clear picture of excellence, and I'm ecstatic to be a new brushstroke of that picture. If you have questions about any part of the experience--prep, price, difficulty, job hunt experience, etc--I'd love to talk! Send me a message.

Let me state this ahead of time, if you are not capable of giving Hack Reactor 100% then do yourself a favor and save your money. Otherwise, if you are willing to devote 13 weeks to the program without any distractions and possibly another 6 months for the job search, then feel free to read about my experience with the Remote program at Hack Reactor.

Hack Reactor does its best job to express that the program itself is not for an absolute greenhorn. They will be expecting you to be at 20% once the program begins. They will then assist you from 20% to 90%.

THEY WILL NOT HOLD YOUR HAND.
They will lead you and assist you when you need help, but they will never just hand you the answer. They will make sure you've exhausted all of your resources before pointing you in the right direction. This is for your best interest, as it teaches you how to learn at an advanced pace and to appreciate the field.

YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF WHAT YOU GET OUT OF THIS PROGRAM.
From the moment you begin to the end of your job hunt, you have to be 100% dedicated. There are people who can complete the program by just doing the bare minimum, but that is not doing the program or you any justice. You have to be willing to isolate yourself from the world to focus solely on the program. Ask questions, read articles, explore related topics, break things, and find the multiple ways to fix what you broke. Jump into the many rabbit holes that they may present to you, and especially the ones that you find yourself. By the end of it you will be thanking yourself for fully committing to the program.

Again, I can't express how important it is for you to give it 100%. If you can make that promise then I highly recommend Hack Reactor, specifically the Remote program. You get a similar experience as those on campus, but with an added opportunity of working with people from all over the world, and not just those from the U.S. The program itself is grueling, but I can promise you that in the end it will all be worth it as long as you give it you all. You owe it to yourself to not skip out on any of the many tools Hack Reactor offers you.

I did Hack Reactor Remote from July-October, 2018. This was by far the most intensive training program I have ever been through and this is coming from a guy who worked on 2 master's degrees simultaneously in grad school (seriously don't do 2 degrees at once). After graduating from Hack Reactor I spent 5 months job searching before landing multiple offers and ultimately accepting a role with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in their Technical Apprentice program. Without a doubt Hack Reactor accelerated my programming skills, but more importantly it required me to build things as a team or during pair programming. This may come as a surprise to some, but software engineering is all about team work. The image of a lone wolf programmer hacking away in a dimly lit cave surrounded by empty cans of monster energy is just a myth. Real-world software requires you to work well with others, communicate, resolve conflicts, and learn how to use version control effectively (hint: learn how to use git).

Life at Hack Reactor 
The actual program is intense and you will absolutely need to put everything else in your life on hold. The schedule is 6 days a week and many of us would also spend Sunday reviewing material in preparation for the next week. The day officially ends at 8pm, but I would usually continue working til about 10pm or 11pm on average. This program is not like sitting through a semester in college, you will be required to eat, breathe, and dream about code. I won't sugar coat things, I felt burned out about halfway through the program (in hindsight I should have forced myself to take Sundays off), but thanks to the incredible staff they really lifted my spirits and encouraged me to keep pushing forward. I'm incredibly grateful for their moral support during the program. The good news is, while it's a lot of work, it's also incredibly fun and you'll hopefully make some great friends along the way. My cohort still meets up once a month informally and we regularly chat with each other over slack along with thousands of other alumni. It's a very strong alumni network to be a part of and it's very common for alumni to refer others at their company.

Job Search 
I won't sugar coat this part either, the job search is incredibly hard. Everyone, and I mean everyone experiences rejection along the way. You will get discouraged after sending out application after application only to get an automated rejection or to never hear anything at all. Don't get me wrong, there is extremely high demand for software engineers, the problem is most companies want experienced developers with a few years under their belt. Hack Reactor provides you with a career coach during your job search. I personally think the career coach brings 50% of the total value to the program. Her advice and help with negotiations was incredibly important. You also form job search groups with your peers so that you can study together and share advice/experiences with coding interviews.

Final Tips/Advice 
I have three things that you should do prior to Hack Reactor. 
1) Get your finances in order. You will need to expect to be jobless for at least 6 - 9 months (I'm counting the 3 months of training here). While some of my peers landed jobs immediately, the bulk of us took around 4 - 5 months to land jobs, and some took even longer than that. The more time you have for the job search the better otherwise you may have to take a position less desirable or worse- drop out of the job search all together. Don't do this to yourself, you worked too hard to get to this point, so make sure you have the savings/loans to get you through 6 - 9 months of unemployment. The interview process at tech companies (especially big ones like Google/Amazon) are slow and have multiple stages (recruiter screens, technical phone screens, on-sites, leadership interviews etc.). 
2) Study hard prior to starting Hack Reactor. I would recommend going through the Free Code Camp curriculum (https://www.freecodecamp.org/) and doing practice problems on Code Wars and maybe LeetCode. Because Hack Reactor covers a lot of ground in such a short time period, I find that I grasp the material much better the second time that I am exposed to it. In short, build yourself a solid programming foundation before you start the program and you will fare much better. It also probably wouldn't hurt to start learning about common Data Structures, Algorithms, and Big O notation (important stuff for coding interviews later on). 
3) Relocate to a tech hub. I moved from Hawaii to Seattle and I firmly believe that if I had stayed in Hawaii I would not have successfully broken into the tech industry. Tech jobs are concentrated around key cities such as Seattle, Bay Area (SF + Palo Alto), L.A., Austin, New York, D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, and Denver. If you do not currently live near a tech hub, I would highly recommend that you consider moving to one either before or after you go through Hack Reactor.

Final Verdict 
Hack Reactor is absolutely worth it. As someone who decided to do both a CS degree and Hack Reactor they both have their merits, but in terms of learning practical programming skills that you will be able to apply immediately, Hack Reactor wins hands down. To use a workout analogy, think of a coding bootcamp as akin to doing intense HIIT training. You spend less time doing it, but due to the intensity of the program you accelerate your learning rate. Or here's another one, say you wanted to learn a foreign language, what is more statistically successful- taking a Spanish class 3 days a week at your local university for an hour or saying to hell with it and moving to Spain for 3 months and speaking only Spanish? The immersion option is always much more optimal for the amount of time invested.

The TLDR version is that I attended Hack Reactor Remote (July - Oct 2018), and 5 months after graduating I started my new job as a Google Software Engineer. I highly recommend Hack Reactor.

PREP: I didn’t know any Javascript. I didn’t even know what terms like full stack meant. I did Hack Reactor's full time Structured Study Program for about a month prior to getting into Hack Reactor. I had to learn quite a bit to even be ready to apply to the program, and SSP gave me the structure, support, and resources I needed to make it into Hack Reactor.

HACK REACTOR: This program is not for the weak, but it works! I studied 9am-10pm 6 days a week for 3 months. The staff is really knowledgeable and compassionate. I fully expected the intense program to feel torturous, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was actually quite fun and pleasant. Although it was incredibly challenging and some days I felt discouraged, overall I really enjoyed the program and the people. I learned so much through lectures, Q&A sessions, videos, pair programming, team projects, reading documentation, and just googling stuff. The second half is less structured than the first and more like a real world work experience. After 3 months, I could build full stack web applications, I had learned how to teach myself new technologies, I learned how to debug and find answers, I had a pretty good understanding of data structures and algorithms, I knew a bit about system design, and I had gotten some practice for technical interviews under my belt. 

REMOTE: I live in the Bay Area, but I decided to do the remote program rather than commute to San Francisco every day. I loved it! I studied from the comfort of my own home but got to collaborate with my cohort around the world through video calls and other tools. We got to know one another and work together in many of the same ways that you would in a physical classroom. During the last week several of us met up IRL in San Francisco. 

JOB SEARCH: My career coach was amazing! Hack Reactor helped me with my resume, behavioral interview questions, technical interviews, and even negotiation. It was nice to have a career coach (as well as my cohort mates and other alumni) to ask questions and get encouragement even after graduating. The job search is hard and frustrating because you get rejected, and some companies aren’t even willing to give you a technical challenge because you don’t have X years of experience. I continued studying after graduation in order to do better in interviews. I mostly studied data structures and algorithms and practice interview problems. In the end I got a job and pay better than I could have imagined. 

Hack Reactor changed my life, and I’m really enjoying my new career. 

Hack Reactor LA was a really worthwhile investment me for me. I thought the curiculum and environment were excellent. That said, it is a huge investment, and like with any major expenditure, you should do lots of your own due dilligence about the pros, cons, and alternatives before making a decision.

In the run-up to attending, I used LinkedIn to reach out to people who had been through the program. These one-on-one conversations were by far the most informative part of my research. I'm happy to be a resource for you! Just reach out on LinkedIn :). I can also put you in touch with others I know from HRLA so you can hear a wider range of experiences.

BEFORE YOU READ: If you are not a diligent, self-motivated person, or if you think you can just easily get 100k+ salary right after you finish the bootcamp, then don’t even bother go to ANY bootcamps. But if you think you have the determination to take the challenges, read my SUPER HONEST review below. If you do read, please read it all. I know it’s long but they are useful information

Q1: Can I get a job after the bootcamp? Will I waste all my money and time going to bootcamp? This is the most frequently asked question and I will answer this first.

A: I graduated from Hack Reactor (Los Angeles) in September 2018 and landed a job in Downtown L.A on November 2018. There are people saying L.A has few openings for new developers. Yes, that is true but there are still tons of opportunities, you just don’t touch the opportunities that easily. And that also means you have less competition.

If the way you are looking for jobs is just sending resume on Indeed, you will have a super HARD time looking for a job. You need to connect with people! Go on linkedin, connect developers and recruiter, keep sending greetings (Hack Reactor will teach you all the career stuff in the last week entire week), go to meetups, go to tech events.

Another thing is don’t always look for Junior Devs, start as an Intern (even unpaid), put your self-ego down a little bit even you finish one of the best bootcamps in the country. I am pretty sure an intern’s skill level in a tech company can easily beat the top students in your cohort. Many companies are looking for Interns to do the easy but annoying tasks! I can 100% ensure you will learn a lot more doing those ‘easy but annoying tasks’ than learning from Udemy at your place!

Q2: How is Hack Reactor? Is the material good? Is it a good bootcamp?

A: It’s 100% a good bootcamp and the people who get in the boot camp are smart (you have to pass the interview and finish pre-course to get in). You have junior phase to give you foundation about Javascript and Node.js (database, React, Express server, async operations,data structure, etc). You have to pass an exam to continue the 2nd half of the course (you will pass if you study hard).

The 2nd half the course is project-base, one frontend and one backend. You will learn database optimization, AWS, Docker, Load Balancer, Agile Methodology, etc. THIS IS THE TIME YOU NEED TO WORK EXTRA HARD! Remember to take notes and get through as many possible tasks as you can! EMPLOYERS LOVE TO HEAR YOUR WAR STORIES IN THE PROJECTS! NOT JUST YOU LEARNED HOW TO BUILD A FULL STACK APP!

Q3: I heard some people say there is not much supervising, especially during the project phase, is that a bad sign?

A: NOT AT ALL! Tech Mentors will check all your work and there will be exams. Additionally, in your real developer job, YOU ARE MOSTLY ON YOUR OWN! Your supervisor will just give you a task and not much information to guide you through. Even you may work on group projects, NO ONE WILL WORK ON THE SAME TASK! People will work on different pieces and merge them together. Many real developers spend almost 50% of their time researching. Hack Reactor will train you to do that by only giving few instructions.

When I was in the boot camp, I was desperate for help and kinda think Hack Reactor is doing a bad job teaching without telling me the answer. However, when I got into the industry, I finally understand why they do this -- to train you to be independent, figuring out stuff on your own. I can also 100% ensure if you always ask for help after you get a job, you will be fired because people will see you as not independent.

SOME OTHER INFO ABOUT HACK REACTOR

They are always changing their course material to suit the most updated technology. They do a townhall every week to gather comments / criticism / advice from all students and they will try their best to change the operation based on people’s opinion.

Overall, I will 100% recommend Hack Reactor if you really prepare to work hard. If you can work super hard in Hack Reactor and reaching out to people in the industry after graduation, I am sure you can get your foot in the developer industry!