SPICED Academy

I went to Spiced-Academy last April-June and I should say that it is right up there on my list of " The best decisions I've made". Prior to attending the bootcamp, I've been studying in a University as a Software Engineer but I felt that I wasn't learning enough. The school is theory heavy and you learn little on the practical side. I did my research and found about Spiced. After talking to Shilpa, I decided to enroll and boy I did it right. Before starting the bootcamp, they will give you a homework and for future students, pay attention to the homework and do your research before hand. Most students get problem during the first couple of weeks because they're in the state of shock. If you prepare enough, you won't experience this coding stuporous state. :)

The mentors are really good. They are always there and if you get stuck at something, they can help you but try to do it first before you ask, that way you are sure you're not asking a stupid question.

The course is very intensive and even after you get home, you will have to do some study or exercises so be ready to dedicate your time, you are in Berlin to learn and not as a tourist. Make friends because it will make your life so much easier.

If your only purpose is to land a job as a developer after you graduate, this is not for you. There is no assurance that you will get a job when you graduate. If you like coding and you want to learn (and you are 100% sure of that) then this course is for you.

Overall the experience is tantamount to nothing. The things I learned in 2 years in school is nothing compare to what I learned in 3 months in this bootcamp.

I also attended the first Data Science cohort and I can fully support the positive comments made below by Konstantin. The course at SPICED Academy was very valuable and intensive likewise. We got more than just a brief hands-on introduction on each topic as often seen before in online courses. Kristian was awesome at teaching and he fostered our abilites to code steadily. He always took into consideration what the participants were interested in and set the focus within the main topics variable and very encouraging. The curriculum was very concise and Kristian was always capable of making a clear connection between the topics covered and the tech stack used.

After graduation we now know a lot more about clean, well-structured and object-oriented coding in Python and respective frameworks, and about getting a project from development to employment. We have also got a profound understanding of the underlying theories of both supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques, when to use them and how to evaluate them in the right manner. All in all, it has been the course I was looking for. I got everything at hand I need to know to dive deeper in any Data Science related topic and I feel well prepared for future work. Beside the course itself I think that it`s been a nice working environment with plenty of pleasant people to talk with and to share experiences.

I have been trying to learn to code for a long time, however alone I was jumping all over the place and never focused on one technology long enough to start a career as a programmer. I came to SPICED with some knowledge of basic JavaScript, however I have never written a full app, just some small console programms. I found the Curriculum of the course very nicely put together, that allows students to build up upon their skills and teaching the things that get you hired. I also liked career workshops that helped me to craft a nice american-style CV that I was not ashamed to send to companies.

If you want to change career I would recommend a bootcamp, however be warned that a bootcamp is not for everyone - I really advice you to prepare with some free online courses, I think it's not stressed enough by SPICED. Maybe you're one of those who grasp new things quickly, but I won't bet on that especially if you're paying for the bootcamp from your own pocket.

I attended the Full Stack Bootcamp at SPICED Academy between Sept.17 and Nov.17.

The experience was hard, I worked every single day for 3 months, between 10 and 12 hrs a day, I suffered under stress and banged my head against the laptop when I couldn't figure out how to solve the problems. However, I did not regret any single minute of it. It was an extremely gratifying time, where I changed from my old me to this new me that I am right now (professionally speaking :-) ).

The curriculum at SPICED goes gradually from learining basic Javascript, HTML and CSS stuff during the first half of the course, to managing both the frontend and backend of relatively complex apps. I found the exercises and projects to be very well designed to learn more and more difficult concepts gradually. At the end, when you get into the final project, which you choose and design on your own, I felt like I had really learnt a lot. I found myself being able to architect and build the idea I had in mind.

The atmosphere at SPICED was great, I went very gladly to school every day, looking forward to meet my classmates, the teachers, the school team and the students from other cohorts. I hold the teachers (Dave and Matt), as well as the other employees of the school (Shilpa, Paul and the CEO Frederik) in the highest regard for the job they do running the place. Besides their professionalism, they were always extremely freindly and helpful, always taking care of us making sure we had the best time possible at school. My classmates were also amazing people. We developed a great and tight relationship and learnt to work together, help each other and count on one another when needed. The body of students at SPICED is amazingly diverse, coming from all corners of the world, but somehow they all turn out to be really great and funny people. We worked and studied together, but we also played together, partied together, ate together, chilled together... As the weeks went by I found myself more and more comfortable at school and it began to feel almost like a big family.

Thanks to the preparation I received at SPICED I am to say that I was able to find an entry-level position pretty quickly after the bootcamp. Within just two months, even with Christimas and New Years in between, I got offered a paid internship as Fullstack Developer. Currently (Mar.18) I am beginning my second month of internship, I am learning tons of stuff, frontend and backend, and there is much more to come. If everything goes well I will be hired as junior developer right after the internship. As far as I know, all the students from my cohort that graduated with me have landed a job as developers of various levels.

I can say that my life has completely changed after doing the bootcamp at SPICED. Before I had a job where I was terribly unhappy and which I could not see myself performing any single day more. Now, after some months of hard but gratifying work, I have a job with great prospects, in a firm which offers me a chance to learn and grow, and with a team I cherish and admire.

If you are not affraid of a challenge, if you are ready to work hard for a certain period of time and you are looking for a change in your life, do not hesitate and take part in SPICED Academy's program. You will not regret it a single day!

Before I came to SPICED I graduated in Communication Sciences and Sociology at University and had almost no experience at all in programming. 6 weeks after the graduation, I land a 12 months internship as Junior Software Developer. 

When I decided to enroll I was sceptical about how much it is possible to learn in 12 weeks with no prior experience. Today I can say that I am amazed on how much I learned at SPICED. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't an easy journey, I had to work a lot but everything is made for you to success if you put the right amount of work.

First, the teachers are amazing. I think there is a well balanced teaching team between Matt, David and now Ivana. They know what you will experience and they will push you out of your limits so that you will progress fast and learn the right skills to get a job. 

The job assistance teached by Shilpa is really usefull! I started with very little professional experience and had no idea on how to behave in front of interviewers and after the training and the advices we got, I felt more confident in my interviews and I was able to set my goals in order to find the right position for me. 

Finally, I would advice anyone that is ready to work hard to change his carreer path to study at SPICED!

Before i came to spiced i had been studying towards a degree in computer science. I knew alot of theoretical stuff, and had a little experience with some languages, but i did't feel i was ready to get a job.

Over 12 weeks at Spiced, i learn a huge amount about full stack web development. 4 weeks after graduating, i received two job offers, and i'm now working as a junior javascript developer. 

The ciriculum was great. I got alot of support from the teachers and other staff members, and my classmates were awesome. 

Although i had been studying before signing up to Spiced,  some of my classmates had never coded before, and went on to make amazing apps. Regardless of your current experience level, if you work hard, and your prepared to leave your comort zone, you'll be amazed at what you're capable off after graduating.

Learning coding at SPICED was such a great experience! You work together with like-minded people and learn from the great teachers at SPICED - your goal: to learn how to code for the web in a professional capacity.

I graduated SPICED in September 2017. 6 weeks later I got a job as a Full Stack Software Developer. In just 4.5 months I basically turned my life around. But don't expect to just cruise through it - you will only truly succeed if you put yourself into it 100%.

The 3 months at SPICED felt like a true bootcamp experience for me - I didn't have much time for anything else, but it was 100% worth it for me. The great staff members and the helpful teachers were always there to help.

All things considered: If you want to learn how to code and are dedicated to that cause, then go for it. You won't regret it!

Being a student at SPICED was such a great experience. You will have a great place to work, a cohort of like-minded people who have the same goals as you and great teachers to give you a well-rounded education. 

I graduated from the course in November 2017 and got a developer job only a few weeks after graduating. I would recommend everyone with the right mindset to apply for the course to become a web developer.

Be prepared to work hard. You should be willing to put in extra work. It will not be enough to just work the minimum required hours. This is a commitment for 3 months and you should use this time to put in 100% of your energy. If this is what you are looking for SPICED is the right place for you.

The curriculum will provide everything you need to understand what full-stack JavaScript development is about and you will be able to create applications with a lot of great features. I would still recommend everyone who is interested to do some coding before joining - both in order to be sure about your goal to become a developer and to have a basic overview once you start.

To sum up, SPICED was an awesome experience and I really learned a lot. I can only recommend joining the Bootcamp!

I graduated from Spiced Academy's full stack developers course eight weeks ago, and today I have signed a contract as a Frontend developer at an established start-up in Berlin. I feel that Spiced Academy's course was very relevant and up to date and that  the curriculum prepared me well for the technical questions that came up during the interviews. I would not have landed this job without Spiced Academy. 

The course is fast moving and you do need to be somewhat self-reliant. The lectures and course notes are clear and well organised and guide you in completing the exercises and projects but you a given a lot of freedom in your approach to the solutions. It was important to ask for help when stuck as the instructors do not always check in with you. I liked this style of teaching as I feel it is more realistic of the real world and increased my confidence of tackling technically challenging  problems by myself, although it may not suit everyone.  When I did need additional help, both instructors, David and Matt, were approachable, friendly and extremely supportive. I was impressed with their  knowledge and like their different approaches to problem solving and teaching. I learnt a lot from both.

The first half of the course focus on learning the basic and fundamentals of web development. There is a lot of information to learn and I didn't realise at the time how important so of it was. During the second half of the course, the projects become bigger and what we had learnt in the first half came together and I felt like a full stack developer. I found that the projects from the second half gave me a good portfolio to put on my GitHub to showcase my abilities but most to the technical questions in the job interviews were based on what we had learnt in the first half of the course.  .

I had completed a couple of free online coding courses  before joining spiced and this definitely helped and I would recommend this. However, without Spiced I think I would have struggled to know what I should be focused on learning and I would have struggle to stay motivated. I definitely would not have learnt so much in such a short time.

My favourite part of the course were the React projects, my least favourite part of the course was the Backbone project. However, having said that, the interviewers seemed to like that I had knowledge of an older library such as Backbone and could compare working in it with the more modern React. For that reason alone I am now glad it was included in the curriculum.

I am in my late 30's and I was concern that my age may be an issue as tech is a young person's game. During the course, my age was not an issue at all and all ages mixed well together. Afterwards, during the job hunt,  I do believe I possibly did not progress with some job application because of my age, however where I was offered an interview I was told that they saw my age as a positive and liked that I had previous experience in a different field.

The career works shops was more relevant for people that have not had much experience in the job hunt process so a lot of it I already knew  but I did take away some good tips that helped  during the job search and it was also a useful refresher and motivational component. 

My cohort was also amazing people from many different countries and I am glad to have had this experience with. They made it easy to stay motivated through the 12 weeks and the job search.

In summary I found the course to be fun, interesting, challenging, relevant and believe it offers good value for money.  However, it is hard work and you will need to take responsibility for your own learning and success. I would not hesitate to do it over again. 

I have a background in HR and I had worked in couple of tech startups and in IT consultant resourcing. I however realised I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of software development and be able to code myself. I was already living in Berlin and I was researching the different bootcamp opportunities here. I soon noticed that SPICED and its Full Stack Web Development program would be the best option because of its interesting and encompassing curriculum and the positive reviews I read about it.

I haven´t regret my decision a single moment. I could never have been able to believe how much you can learn in only 12 weeks. I still remember watching the previous cohorts´ final projects and thinking I could never be able to build anything like that. But as the 12 weeks passed I noticed I had grown from someone who was struggling with Codeacademy´s exercises to being able to create full stack web applications. Many thanks to the excellent teachers David and Matt!

If you are determined, willing to work hard and want to learn to code in a supportive and encouraging environment, SPICED is the right place for you.

I had studied product design and wanted to go from making physical products to software. I did a bit of studying on my own through codecademy and such but had a hard time keeping up my own pace and knowing what to do next. I started looking at developer boot camps and SPICED caught my attention, I was a bit causious as I didn't believe that three months was enough time to fully learn what was promised but decided to reach out and book a meeting with Shilpa. She was happy to meet me and answer any and all questions i had, i got to meet with the teachers and even sit in on one of the lectures.

I made the decision to do the course and since the first day I haven't looked back. David and Matt, the two teachers are competent and willing to help at all times, the curriculum feels tailored for the job and is constantly updated to match the fast changing job market. The career workshops helps prepare you for getting a job when you graduate and most importantly, SPICED feels like a little family, you spend 8-10 hours a day in school so having a good atmosphere and work environment is very important.

If you feel willing and ready to really dive inte coding then this course is for you. With that said i wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wants to take a lot of days off or keep a job on the side, the course really is full-time!