Nology

My experience at _Nology has been incredible! I started the course with very little knowledge of software development and tech stacks. I had been looking into becoming a developer since being made redundant due to Covid as I was unhappy in my career. I knew after the taster session with _Nology that this was the course for me. This course has given me the skills and experience to land my first Junior Developer role, I've just finished my 12 week training with a portfolio of work and a React client project to show future employers and I couldn't be happier. 

I can't thank the coaches and team enough! If you're looking for a bootcamp which will really help you learn and land your first Junior Developer role I would seriously consider Nology! 

After spending time as an Engineer, changing to Software Development really felt like the right way to go.
If a career change is what you want, and you enjoy a challenge, Nology is the course for you.
The coaches are awesome, they are knowledgeable, kind, helpful, and fun. Every day on the course doesn't feel like a chore, it feels like playtime at school with your mates!
Nology didn't let COVID get in the way of teaching, by doing everything remote, they have found the perfect balance between formal education and informal communication with colleagues. I loved every minute of it and feel super ready for the next stage.

I got a good vibe from _nology as soon as I discovered them, thanks to their super-friendly admissions people. Unlike some courses, where I was facing several weeks' worth of prepatory work before even getting to the technical interview interview, I was able to get the ball rolling very quickly with _nology. They took the time to have a full conversation with me to figure out whether I'd be a good fit for the course, and then arranged for me to spend an hour with a software development coach, who very quickly sussed out exactly how much (or how little?) had learned through independent study, and worked with me through some coding challenges that definitely stretched me, but achievable. I really enjoyed the session and was offered a place on the next intake shortly afterwards.

Once I'd signed up, there was a sensible amount of prepatory work to do before the course started—enough to feel prepared, but not so much that I was racing to get it finished, and I was able to work through it at my own pace.

The course itself was an awesome experience—even though it was fully remote, the coaches did a great job of bringing the group together, giving us pair programming tasks and even one-on-one sessions when we needed them. The rapport that I was able to develop with the coaches and classmates kept me engaged and focused, and was a big part of keeping me motivated through such a steep learning curve.

The curriculum itself was super interesting and engaging, and it was really exciting to learn something every day that I knew I'd be using in my career in just a few months' time. While many bootcamps teach broadly similar coding principles, the specific tech stack I trained on had some key differences to some of the other bootcamps I looked at, and when I was applying for jobs I noticed that this ws much more in line with the jobs market. _nology really do a great job of keeping up to date with trends in the industry.

There are so many great things about _nology, but the absolute highlight for me was the client project. _nology's partnerships team did a great job of attracting some really interesting pro bono projects, and the clients came and pitched their app to the trainees. Once we had chosen a project that would be achievable yet challenging, we then got to work building a full stack web app from scratch. I was part of a team of 11 trainees, and we worked hard over four weeks, following industry best practices, and using the tech stack we were being trained on, to build a ticketing system with different levels of user access, functionality to raise and assign tickets, send messages, attached files, and close tickets. It was daunting at the very start, but the coaches really know what they're doing here—four weeks of hard work and solid learning later, I looked back at what we had built as a team and was just so impressed and proud of us! It was an absolutely brilliant piece of work to go on my developer portfolio as it demonstrated so many key learning outcomes, and it looked absolutely brilliant too. Perhaps more importantly, I got a great sense of achievement from it personally and professionally, and it was a great boost to my confidence when I started my job search, knowing that I had this project under my belt.

Towards the end of the course, the focus was 100% on employability. We did a really wide variety of practice tech tests, had thorough grounding in interview topics and techniques, and even got to experience a mock interview with one-on-one feedback afterwards interviews. As any job applicant knows, this sort of personalized feedback is a huge help and very hard to come by usually, so it was great to have a practice run before even finishing the course. The coaches tailored our coursework towards projects that would give us the best possible portfolios, and in the final week they even ran some value-add sessions on bits of tech outside the core focus of the course, which I found really useful in being able to have a real breadth of knowledge to draw on in interviews, in addition to the sheer depth of knowledge from the previous eleven weeks.

Every week we had "mentoring" sessions, where _nology would bring in someone from the tech industry to talk to the trainees, generally sharing with us about their career and experience of life in the technology industry. It was always a fascinating insight into real life as a developer, and most mentors offered thoughtful advice for people like me just starting out in the industry. Engaging with the mentors and with _nology's network on LinkedIn was also a great way to see what was going on in the market once my job search started, which was great for me as I had no background in tech.

The virtual graduation ceremony was a nice touch, and I must say virtually accepting my certificate via webcam in a video conference call was a joyous and most memorable experience!

I was very fortunate to accept a job offer after just a four-week job hunt following the course. I felt confident and prepared in the interview thanks to all the interview prep I had done with _nology, and it was an amazing feeling to have all that hard work pay off when the offer came through.

Definitely the best decision I've ever made, and I can't recommend _nology enough!

_nology provides a very competitive package to students.  A well-balanced programme, including real-life project experience, soft skills, mentoring, industry focus as well as a good choice of the latest tech and coding concepts that are most likely to set you up well for that first role.  My course was fully remote due to the pandemic, however the enthusiasm of the coaches was quite infectious and there was a good supportive and friendly atmosphere amongst fellow students and coaches.  

I'm sure if you've done your research, you've already read a million times that bootcamps are intensive... but just to say it again, they really are and this one is no exception!  Unless you've got quite a bit of coding experience under your belt already, it is probably going to feel really hard.  There is a lot of new information entering your brain very fast, and you're expected to put your learning into practice straight away (which is the best thing you can do as a learner).  At times you will feel like hitting your head against the wall (I was told to be honest on here!). It is important to make sure that you a really up for the challenge, and in fact the application process of _nology really delved into my reasons for wanting to do the course and checked that it would be a good fit for me in terms of teaching, learning and resilience.   

One thing that particularly impressed me was the agile way in which the course was run. The coaches asked for feedback and content/course structure was amended to suit the needs of the group.  It was clear that the coaches really cared about everyone reaching their full potential.  I also really liked the fact that the choice of which client project to do was given to us, including interviewing various potential product owners.  

After graduating, _nology and Opus assisted us in our quest for jobs, but unfortunately the market was quite slow due to the pandemic and it was much more difficult for our cohort (and the one before us) to secure jobs as quickly as previous cohorts had done.  However the team persisted and helped me to secure a job, 3 and half months after the end of my course, with a company I am really excited to work for.

Having previously believed that you needed a computer science degree to work as a developer, I was initially sceptical at the prospect of being able to acquire skills to be developer in three months. However, after attending a taster session back in February and speaking with some current students I decided to take the plunge.

This turned out to be a fantastic decision as 4 months after starting the course I landed a job as a Software Engineer! In retrospect it wasn't any one aspect, but the whole package that made the course so great: 

• Teaching - all the coaches were really great at teaching important concepts and walking through code-alongs, as well as equipping students with the skills that they'd need to find the right answers independently. They were also able to share important nuggets learned from their own work in the industry. 
• Projects - learning is cemented by building projects using the skills learned. The highlight was the opportunity to work on an MVP project for a real client, which provided a solid framework for what to expect from a job as a developer. 
• Speakers - We would regularly receive talks from people in the industry, where we'd learn what engineering managers were looking for or important learnings from recent graduates. 
• Job skills - there's also a focus on preparing to work in a software team, including agile working, how to work with others, giving presentations and interview prep. 
• Teamwork - though fully-remote, there was still a great sense of camaraderie amongst coaches and students, and loads of chances to pair program. 
• Pre and post-course support - Aside from the course itself, the pre and post-course support was also excellent and I really enjoyed working with all the staff at _nology.

In summary, if you want to change careers and move into tech, _nology is a great place to start!

I decided to complete the _nology course in order to move careers after leaving school and initially training to become an accountant. What I wanted from the bootcamp was the technical skills that the industry was demanding to pair with my interview/professional skills... and _nology certainly delivered. The coaches taught me the most up to date tech and I was then able to put that into practice straight away with tonnes of mini challenges that tested if my understanding was as good as I thought it was! The highlight of the course for me was the client project where I got to do real client work and deliver an application that was then included in the pitch deck of the founders who were pitching for their seed round of investment. 

For anyone looking to get into tech, I would definitely recommend the _nology course. Although it is very fast paced and immersive, the quality of the coaching and working with other trainees really helps to create a collaborative and engaging learning environment where you start to see your skills progress day by day. Although the course was fully remote, the course was still delivered at a really high quality and I have gone from having no coding experience to starting my first tech role in just a matter of months.

Ollie, Shea, Matt and Sam are brilliant coaches. Each of them have their own style of teaching and are very supportive, not only in helping us consolidate our knowledge, but also feel more confident in applying our skills. They all showed a genuine care for helping us improve and understand each concept and I couldn't have asked for more from them.

From the recruitment side of things, Bella was fantastic in updating us weekly on how the market is looking and suggesting roles that we might be interested in. She was very approachable and supportive during my interview process and showed dedication in finding the right roles.

I'm excited to start my career in tech but it would not have been possible without everyone at _nology. The course really is the whole package and I cannot recommend it enough.

I attended the Jan-April 2020 _nology Front End Development course (Bristol intake), of which ~50% had to be delivered remotely due to the Covid-19 lockdown. The transition to remote working was handled expertly despite short notice by the course facilitators, and overall I could not speak more highly of the course content or delivery, particularly of the trainers Shea and Matt. I enjoyed my time on the course, and was able to secure my first position as a software developer just days before the course ended, despite and extremely difficult jobs market. I am confident the skills I have derived from the course will stand me in good stead moving forward in my new job and new career.

After finishing my degree in German and Philosophy, I attended the third cohort at Nology. To cut it short, the course took me from having close to no coding experience to landing a role as a software engineer in just three months.  
Everyone on my cohort had wildly different backgrounds which contributed to a great learning environment. Furthermore, I was surprised to find out that there didn't seem to be any correlation between STEM background and coding aptitude (Before attending I was worried that STEM grads would be way ahead of humanists such as me). In fact, Nology made great coders out of everyone on my cohort no matter their educational background and everyone landed a job in development. 
Lastly, it is important to stress that a three-month coding transformation doesn't happen by itself. It is hard work. Thus, to get the most out of Nology one has to commit 100%. This means long working hours and many evenings in front of the computer. However, if you don't shy away from hard work, Nology is an ideal place to help you embark on a career in tech. For me, it has been both a rewarding and life-defining experience. 

I’ve just finished a 12-week course at Nology. It’s been an amazing experience and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in starting a career in software development. 

The course is quite intense, 40+ hours a week and an expectation to catch up on concepts and work on personal projects in your spare time. However, none of this was too much as there was a lot of support from the trainers, and the challenges we were set were a lot of fun to complete. 

I was impressed that the course didn’t just focus on coding but every aspect of becoming a great developer. For example, we had a week on soft-skills, numerous sessions on career development and interview preparation, and frequent visits from tech CEOs who we could ask questions to. The course is also connected to Opus Recruitment, so through that, we were all set up with interviews in the final week of the course . 2 weeks after finishing I’ve just accepted an offer for a junior developer role in Bath!

 

I took part in the 3rd intake. Right from the start you can see how much work has been put into it and how they are constantly finding ways to improve. This are 3 months where you can push yourself the most and have someone with expertise guide all your efforts into the best direction possible. It will give you back as much as you put in, so use the time wisely. Their aim is clear from the beginning; make you a great developer. And they will treat you as such from the start. It will give real life experience, with a real project and you'll be part of a team who is willing to put as much effort, or eve more, as you. You may not end up working with the tech they teach, but they will have given you the tools to learn any new tech you get thrown.