Hackbright Academy

I took the part time program while I was working. The classes are Tuesday and Thursday 6-9pm and Saturday 10-6pm. We pair programmed for the first half of the class and the second half we worked on building a full stack program. Python, JS, Flask, Bootstrap, jquery, PostgreSQL and SQL are some of the things we learned during the course. Lectures are given at the beginning of the course and labs exercises are given after to practice what we learned. There are also career lectures, field trips to companies and endless amout of support from the staff and classmates, not to mention we get assigned two mentors!

You can do impossible when you have passion and are supported by a great learning environment.

Hackbright helped me to make my dream come true.

After 12 years in Technical Recruiting and hiring hundreds of software engineers I decided to give myself a chance to become a software engineer myself. When I was looking for a software engineering bootcamp, I was super picky as I wanted to choose the best one and I ended up with Hackbright. They met all my requirements:

1. Curriculum.  - during the course, we covered most critical skills and tools required to be a software engineer, including version control, the Linux command line, relational databases, web frameworks, AJAX/JQuery, and front-end frameworks. We also covered broader essential software engineering topics like debugging, pair programming, code reviews, core computer science concepts (including runtime analysis, recursion, and advanced data structures, such as linked lists, graphs, and trees), and technical whiteboarding.

2. Practical skills - each student was working on her project. Each of us built her web-application from scratch. By doing that we went through each step of Product Life-Cycle Development - DB design, back-end, front-end, implementation, debugging, testing, UX-design. During the project time, our instructors used Agile software development approach - we had two sprints, MVP and daily scrums.

3. Learning environment - supportive, encouraging, motivational and has a lot of fun! Our instructors created an open and collaborative environment. Sometimes I didn't feel I am on a lecture; it was more like a team discussion. New topics were clearly explained and questions were patiently answered. 

4. Success stories -  I carefully reviewed the Hackbright job report. I was impressed by the program completion rate  ( 99%) and average time to land the first job after the program. Last two weeks of the program are focused on job search techniques and tools. Hackbright also gave us a great tool of how to live after Hackbright :) (sounds funny, but so relevant) - how to organize your daily routine to keep learning, practicing and job searching. For me, it took two months to land a software engineer job. 

It was challenging and fun, and a piece of my heart will always stay with this fantastic school.  I would highly recommend this program to anyone who is looking for a way to become a software engineer. 

Coming from an education background (HS science teacher) Hackbright Academy was an easy choice. When I was weighing my options for bootcamp programs, there were some I came across that threatened to kick student's out based on repeated low assessment scores. A concept that seemed very possible for me at the time. When I inquired about Hackbright's policy on low assessment scores, I was told that their approach was to initiate a conversation about what could be improved upon (whether that be more frequent advisor check-ins, modifying study habits, making better use of mentors, etc). Hackbright's student centered program made it the easy and right choice for me.

 I was so impressed with the quality of instruction throughout the course. My instructors were passionate, knowledgable, and open to feedback. Their patience for questions seemed never-ending. As for the greater Hackbright community, I was encouraged and supported throughout the 12 weeks and beyond. The career services Hackbright provides really prepared me to enter the post-Hackbright abyss, and I actually ended up landing a job through their internal job board. I would highly recommend this program to anyone wanting to transition to a career in Software Engineering.

Before I started Hackbright, I was skeptical. It seemed like a lot of money with no guarantee of successfully landing a job. However, I stuck with the program and graduated about three months ago. It paid off - I was hired as a software engineer several weeks ago!

For me, the most valuable aspect of Hackbright is the community. The staff, instructors, fellow students, mentors, and alumnae are incredible. The alum network is amazing, and the staff really does their best to support you. I loved everyone in my cohort and I know I've made friends for life! 

Pros:
The Curriculum: Python, Javascript, SQL, Git and a great selection of frameworks! There is also a good amount of interview prep and whiteboarding practice.
The Community: Instructors and mentors are amazing, the staff is supportive, fellow students and alumnae are incredible! 
Hackbright Connections: Companies love Hackbright! There are many events, study sessions, interview prep discounts, hack-a-thons, networking opportunities, and job opportunities that are exclusive to Hackbright Alum! 

Cons: 
Cost: It's expensive! However, there are some scholarships available: https://hackbrightacademy.com/blog/announcing-the-code-reddit-scholarship/
Pace: If you have prior coding experience, the pace of the program might feel slow. If you are brand new, it will feel fast and overwhelming. Also, Pair Programming is a huge part of Hackbright, so you will occasionally work with people who are not at the same skill level as you
Bay Area Only: If you want to work outside the Bay Area after Hackbright, you will greatly limit your network and job opportunities

General Expectations:
If you are considering attending a coding boot camp, you should:
1) Have enough money for the program, money for housing and food during the program, and money for housing and food for possibly up to 6+ months to a year after the program ends while you are searching for a job.
2) Genuinely LOVE to code - you should have 20+ hours coding experience before applying to the full-time program. You don't have to be an expert, but you need some experience. 
3) Realize that graduating from a boot camp is NOT a job guarantee - you will need to spend a lot of time and energy post-program networking, refining and developing skills to get a job. It could take up to a year! In my experience, the post-Hackbright work was more challenging than the program itself. 
4) Understand your first job probably will NOT be your dream job! I know several Hackbrighters that have ended up at companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google, but they were either accepted to an apprentice program, had prior experience, or they worked at other jobs first. The first job you get might not be at your dream company, but it will be a great experience! 
5) Know that there is a lot of competition for entry-level jobs and apprentice positions! Hackbright does post apprentice and junior level positions on the job portal, but there are a lot of people applying to jobs that require less than experience.
6) Accept that you will not have a social life for 3 months - Personally, I spent 40 hours a week at Hackbright, 1-3 hours doing homework and working on my project each night, and occasionally up to 10 hours every weekend working on assessments or your project.
7) Acknowledge that you will keep learning after Hackbright and continue to learn on the job. The learning never stops!

I honestly believe Hackbright is the best decision I've ever made - If you want to be a software engineer, GO TO HACKBRIGHT!

Attending Hackbright Academy was the best decision I have made (besides getting my dogs, of course). I had tried going back to university in Florida to pursue a degree in software engineering--I got through a year of taking classes part-time before becoming fed up with how little useful information I had learned and how long it had taken. I heard about Hackbright and was impressed with their curriculum, reviews, and graduate statistics, so I quit my job and moved across the country to attend.

While attending Hackbright, I was continuously blown away by the amount of practical information they were able to instill in us in such a short amount of time. The biggest learning tool for me was the individual project that each student creates. Developing a web application from scratch was an exciting way to go over the technologies and tools we had learned while also exploring new ones.

The education team and support staff are some of the most knowledgeable, genuinely helpful people I've ever met in an education environment. Everyone is super accessable and really seems to care about the success of each student. I was offered a software engineering position very quickly after graduation because Hackbright's curriculum really does make its students competitive in the job market, and they also spend a good amount of time preparing its students for the ever-daunting technical interviews. I would recommend this program to anyone who is interested in a software engineering/web development career.

I came to Hackbright with some experience with coding and computer science. I had dabbled in many different programming languages and technical applications through working at a couple tech startups, online tutorials, and a CS class in college.

I was initially attracted to the curriculum. Bottom line, it’s legit! Hackbright teaches Python as the core language and Javascript second. Hackbright was the only program I found that focused on backend and full-stack web development which aligns with my career interests. I had already started learning Python and wanted to continue to master it. Another aspect of the curriculum that stood out as unique was that we covered more typical CS concepts such as data structures and algorithms that someone would learn as a CS major. I think this puts me on a more equal playing field with CS majors during interviews and on the job. We also covered a bunch of “need to knows” for the software engineering industry like:how the web works, version control, testing, React, and machine learning.

The other main factor in my decision was the schedule. I wanted to do a part-time program. From my past experiences, I knew that I learn best if there is time between classes to allow information to soak in before moving on to the next topic (especially if the topics build on each other!). Since I was in no rush to complete my program, this worked for me.

Although I was in the inaugural cohort in this 24-week format, I was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly the program ran. The instructors were accommodating to our schedules with assessments, advising meetings, and additional office hours during project time (especially since all of us were working full-time).

It was a very collaborative and supportive learning environment among my classmates and instructors. Everyone there genuinely wants to see you succeed (throughout the program and beyond)! It was great to have an advisor who is aware of how things are going. There are also assessments twice a month to help solidify your understanding and identify gaps in knowledge. Hackbright takes feedback seriously. They have a survey after every lecture to let them know what worked and what didn’t. You also receive feedback on your assessments based on your understanding of concepts and your coding style.

After each lecture, there are lab exercises completed in pairs. What’s great is that you get to apply the concepts right away and are able to ask questions about things you thought you understood. Beyond checking your understanding of concepts, through pair programming I learned skills in technical communication, working with others, self-confidence, and was exposed to different problem-solving strategies and programming styles. I think these are all important skills for the workplace since you’ll likely be working as part of an engineering team.

During the second half of the program you build your own web app. Having a project that you can say, “I designed and built this whole thing” gave me a sense of accomplishment and allowed me to see firsthand how much I had learned over the six months. Plus, since I made every decision and wrote every line of code I now have a project in my portfolio that I can explain in depth to a future employer.

Overall, I loved my Hackbright experience. I definitely learned the skills to be a successful software engineer. I am proud to be part of a group of diverse, intelligent and driven female software engineers.

I have a non-traditional, non-traditional background, graduating with a CS degree and then deciding to go into a bootcamp, but I can honestly say that Hackbright has made the decision worth it. Hackbright gave me what my CS department at uni couldn't, a supportive and empowering network meant for my growth and post-graduation success.

In terms of content, Hackbright focuses on the prepping women to be full-stack engineers so you learn both backend and frontend concepts. It is a little more focused on the backend as the first half of the program is spent learning Python and databases with frontend Javascript lectures nearing the busy project weeks.

Lectures are packed with information and well laid out. Instructors are friendly, encouraging, and always open to questions. Instrcutors also hold plenty of office hours to answer any questions, programming related or not. They provide an enormous amount of technical and moral support. Hackbright also has field trips for their students and has plenty of opportunities to network with engineers in the field. They have designated "Career Coffee" lectures every week to help you with the not-so intuitive skills and resources needed to be successful during your job search post-bootcamp.

All in all, I felt like Hackbright had an incredibly wholesome approach to the "software engineering bootcamp" and I came out of the camp feeling well-prepared and ready to tackle the job search with an added bonus of an incredible group of like-minded and supportive friends.

I enrolled in Hackbright's full-stack bootcamp after completing their Python prep course. I had done some self-learning prior to that but the prep course gave me the confidence in their curriculum and their guidance to dive into a job transition that I had been hesitant about prior to that. A bootcamp is a big investment both financially and in terms of the time and energy required, but after testing the waters with Hackbright's prep course, I was completelly sold.

With Hackbright, I found that coding could be fun and done in a supportive, non-competitive environment where everyone was excited to share ideas and see one another succeed. I also felt confident enough in my newfound skills to start applying them at work almost as soon as we covered them in class (I was enrolled in the 24-week Part-Time Bootcamp, so I was employed full-time throughout), which meant I got to have some real-world experience of writing code and seeing it work in a job environment even before I graduated.

Some elements of the bootcamp did feel a bit awkward; for example the instructors were relatively junior, and not all had much direct experience either as instructors or working as professional software developers or engineers themselves. I think this was largely because of the challenge of finding instructors whose schedules could work around the odd hours of the Part-Time Bootcamp may have limited the pool of instructors who were available. That said, they were all lovely, personable people who were willing to go above and beyond to find the answers to questions if they didn't immediately know them, and I think the curriculum was sufficiently solidly constructed that the material we covered did not suffer overmuch. Another (possible) negative was that some of the job-hunting resources and events felt a little cookie-cutter and poorly timed. However, I think this was largely because they were still figuring out how to adjust the syllabus to make sense in the brand new 24-week format (e.g., our project demo night happened long before we were ready to start seriously networking or applying for anything). Regardless, I felt that the majority of the career-support resources, such as site visits, guest speakers, and whiteboarding with real live engineers in real live partner company offices were by far the most helpful aspects of the bootcamp, as they gave us the chance to interact with potential future colleagues and be treated as peers, which was tremendously confidence-boosting.

The place where Hackbright really shines, however, is in the community of women who surround it. Every single alumna we spoke to, every single current student we interacted with (across all courses and campuses), and every single instructor or admin at Hackbright (many of whom are alumnae themselves), was thoughtful, encouraging, and frankly, loving. I am not normally a very sentimental person, but the community of women at Hackbright is the perfect antidote to much of the negativity around tech and diversity initiatives that has been in the public dialogue lately. I feel inspired to give back as much as I have gotten, and hope to stay involved with the great work Hackbright is doing moving forward.

I won't beat around the bush--completing a bootcamp is HARD, especially if you have a life or a job outside of class that you can't step away from. But if you have the passion and the discipline to get yourself ready, ask for the help and resources you need, and to keep knocking away at it week after week, you will be amazed at how quickly you can learn and the awesome things you can build. There are many ways to learn coding, but there are not very many ways to connect yourself with an amazing community that can help you carry yourself forward at every stage of your engineering career. Hackbright is both!

I absolutely loved my time at Hackbright. It was a unique experience to be in a room full of inspiring women who enjoyed solving problems as much as I do. The instructors really cared about their students' success, and would consistently go the extra mile to make sure you mastered a concept. Above all - it was fun! I looked forward to coming to class everyday. 

The curriculum is good, but what's even better is the emphasis on grooming you for the work force as a software engineer. At Hackbright you learn things you never even thought about during your self study, such as testing and following style guides. Going into Hackbright, you vaguely understand the importance of good variable names and writing notes. After Hackbright you can't help but cringe when you see a function with a missing docstring. 

Another reason I would recommend Hackbright over many other bootcamps is because of their superb mentor matching program. Each student gets paired with two mentors. Each mentor has agreed to donate at least 1 hour/week of their time to the student, and must have person software engineering job experience. My mentors proved invaluable in solidifying some of the more abstract concepts. They also practiced whiteboarding with me, helped me plan my project, and offered suggestions and inspiration. Both of them kept working with me for months after Hackbright ended, which kept my moral high during the difficult job hunt period. Whether you decide to go with Hackbright or not, make sure you choose a program that offers this type of mentorship! A lot can be learned through diligent self-study, but there are so many items that are made 100x easier by having a good mentor.

Hackbright offers an incredibly supportive environment, and this doesn't stop after graduation. The career team schedules one-on-one meetings with each student, and encourage you to schedule as many meetings with them as you want. There definitely is a lot self-motivation needed to keep up with the work necessary to find a job after graduating, but they are there with you every step of the way. Hackbright also sets up various networking events to help the students meet the right people to get them jobs.

Hackbright gives enough foundation and exposure to concepts to teach its students how to continue their education. Even before you secure a job as one, you leave Hackbright a software engineer.

Prior to attending Hackbright, I had been at a co-ed (mainly male) coding program that lacked the education and career support I needed to succeed as a software engineer. I ended up choosing Hackbright because of the post-grad support and emphasis on balance. There is a technical mentor on staff twice a week, career staff available to help, study sessions every month to continue learning, an amazing alumnae, and many career events. The importance of balance in the program was huge, because I truly believe you cannot learn without some type of balance. We were often told not to stay up until the crack of dawn cramming CS topics. I found their way of teaching most effective for myself to solidify web development and computer science.

I did not realize until during the program, I would make long-lasting connections with my cohort mates and staff. I always had someone from the ed staff to turn to for technical issues and emotional support during this hard journey. I was able to go to my advisor for any questions or concerns related to curriculum, personal matters, imposter syndrome, and career advice. The career team was able to help us prepare during the program and after on the job hunt. The field trips we were able to attend really helped solidify what I was looking for in a company and what the industry was like by meeting many other engineers, particularly women in the industry. The mentorship program is not perfect, but I was lucky to have an amazing mentor that provided technical and emotional support. Overall, I would highly suggest Hackbright to someone looking to break into the industry who knows they need support during/after the program and balance/guidance. 

Hackbright surpassed my expectations in all aspects. The curriculum was well developed, giving us a solid understanding of Python, JavaScript, and CS fundamentals that can be built upon later after graduating and while studying for job interviews. We each built impressive projects that could be put on our resume and discussed during interviews, which definitely helps since we don't have prior software engineering work experience.

Hackbright took us on company visits, which helped to give us insights into what it would be like to work in tech and also helped expand our professional network. We were also matched with mentors who work in the tech industry to help us throughout and even after the program. 

Career support was more than I expected, more than I recieved in the two universities I had attended previously. Additionally, the alumni network is large, pretty spread out (not just restricted to the Bay Area), and super helpful. Every alum I have contacted to ask about job opportunities has been responsive, encouraging and supportive. I graduated Hackbright with a strong sense of what my next steps should be in terms of how to approach the job search and what projects/technologies to work on next. Thanks to the amazing career support, I was able to receive my first job offer less than a month after graduating.