SPICED Academy

I entered SPICED Academy a couple of months after graduating from a bachelor's of economics. I am passionate about development economics and technology and I want to work in social entrepreneurship. I had been trying to learn how to code for a long time, so I chose a bootcamp for an intense learning environment, and I decided on Berlin both because I adore the city and because its tech scene is thriving (and it's great for beginners, so many meetups!). I fell on SPICED by chance but it’s after my Skype call with Shilpa, the Director of Programs and Community, that I knew SPICED was the right fit for me.

I wasn’t wrong. Frederik (SPICED CEO), David (Head Coach), Matt (Coach), Paul (Marketing Manager) and previously mentioned Shilpa, have managed to create an inclusive, supportive and superior learning environment, where any student with the right motivation can grow and excel. I have gotten so much more out of SPICED than I had even hoped to. I still cannot believe I managed to create 4 quality Full Sack Applications, using JavaScript, Node.js, Express.js, PostgreSQL, Angular.js, React.js and many more! I have to say, I went home exhausted every evening, and had a couple of coding dreams... It’s an intense 12 weeks! But I finished the day proud of what I had achieved, and excited about what I’d learn the next morning.

I believe that the most important thing about SPICED is the quality of teaching, as it is the reason you would choose a bootcamp over an online course. David and Matt are incredible teachers and form a great team. They were always there for us if we needed them, whether it was for a quick question, or to save us after a couple of frustrating hours facing a bug we were initially determined to solve ourselves. Other than learning a programming language from scratch, I realised that my problem solving skills immensely improved too. Following David and Matt’s example, we slowly learn how to identify where the problem comes from and how best to solve it, and soon enough you know why your app is crashing, on your own! Another key skill you learn is simply how to learn on your own - which is something that you will have to continuously do as a developer.

Another thing I loved about SPICED was its community. The cohorts are small and cohesive. Your classmates come from very different backgrounds and countries, but everyone sticks together and helps each-other during the bootcamp and even beyond the 12 weeks. I have made friends and good memories during my time at SPICED, and now away from Berlin I miss our well-deserved beers and a chats on Fridays.

Overall, I recommend SPICED because of:

• Its quality instructors.
• Its curriculum that teaches the best practices to be a good programmer.
• The care and work they put into improving themselves and making each student’s experience the best it could be.
• Their career workshops that help you be more self-aware, confident and job-ready.
• And finally because you want to take your first steps as a Full Stack Developer in a kind and caring family.

 

Before SPICED, I had been working in the Berlin tech/startup scene for about two years as a journalist. After a startup I was working for went under, I knew I wanted to expand my knowledge and find a new comfort in the industry. I stumbled across SPICED by chance, but I'm so glad that I did. 

I'm not going to lie to you. My time at SPICED was frustrating, exhausting and emotionally draining... but it was also equally fulfilling, rewarding and empowering. Learning a new skill can be rough, especially if you're starting from literally nothing. Fortunately, you're immersed in a supportive environment throughout the entire process. The cohorts are small, so it's easy to become close and ask for help from your classmates - plus David and Matt are always there if you get stuck. 

Having worked in Berlin tech before, I didn't think that I needed the career workshop part of the program - but I was totally wrong. Shilpa was such a valuable asset to my success post-SPICED, helping me craft my career story and pitch my skills to potential employers. While I decided to accept a role in technical writing, I had also received multiple interviews and offers for Frontend and JavaScript developer positions. All of this happened within weeks of my graduation. 

That's why, for the most part, SPICED receives top marks from me. But not everything is perfect, so there are some downsides: SPICED is still a growing community, so the network you gain is pretty small compared to other big boot camps like General Assembly. This is changing, and there are some alums trying to plan meetups for graduates and current students outside of official SPICED events. I also wish there had been more on pair programming, testing or other workflow aspects of development within the curriculum. But hey, there's only so much you can do in 12 weeks! 

Overall though, 12/10 would suffer through it again. 

I am a musician from France, and decided to join the full-stack course at the SPICED Academy in April 2017. I just finished the course and I'm now focused on finding a job in France. 

I was a beginner and was wondering what we could learn in just 12 weeks. I had now idea about front-end, back-end, databases and large concepts of web development so that was really a new start for me... And we learnt a lot ! That's crazy, I feel now prepared to find a job of developer, and this is because of the amazing work of Shilpa, David, Matt, Frederik and Paul.

In a cosy atmosphere, Matt and David were very involved and passionate teachers, extremely supportive, giving me more confidence. They were always available to help, and I really enjoyed the content of the course. Big point for me : I see all the time on the jobs offer the languages and frameworks we learnt, and I have the feeling that part of the course is useful in the daily like of a developer.

I had to work a lot during my experience at SPICED, to don't feel overwhelmed by all the new technologies, concepts that we had to use everyday. Obviously, 12 weeks of coding doesn't make you an experienced programer, so you will have to keep being curious, working on new projects, all the time, but it's an habit you can easily take during the course, because it's a part of Matt and David's pedagogy.

As I was not used to look for a job, to write a CV and a cover letter, the career workshop was super useful for me and I learnt a lot from Shilpa and everybody's experience. I still using all the tools, tips, and references she gave us, for finding a job that fits with your expectations, and I'm already seeing the positive results.

During those three months, I learnt something I wanted to learn since a long time, and I had way more than what I expected. I also met amazing people, teachers, other students, that I consider now as friends and I will keep tons of good remember of my experience there.

That's why I give the max rate for the SPICED Academy !

I've been a tech recruiter in Silicon Valley (with companies such as Facebook) for many years and I must say that if you've been wanting to start a career in web development while wanting to explore new cultures, there's no better place to be than the Spiced Academy. Spiced has some of the best curriculum and teachers focused on critical thinking/fundamental skills needed in both interviews and when on the job. They'll help you go from knowing very little about the digital world to securely programming your own ideas in less time than a typical college internship. After graduating, they'll help you to successfully navigate the exploding Berlin tech scene. 

Probably the best thing about Spiced is its Javascript focused curriculum (the most popular tech stack amongst startups, yet not bootcamps for some reason) along with a teacher who seems to have solved every issue in web development. He's passionate about passing on this knowledge and helping students learn from their mistakes. This is not just another for-profit coding school that seem to be popping up in every city. Spiced is committed to producing an academic structure that prepares students to tackle any challenge they see with curiosity and courage. It's an attitude that I'd always look for when hiring for software developers in the past. 

Lastly, Spiced is a great way to get introduced to a new city and make new friends. There are hosted meetups, hackathons, and happy hours to get to know one another and the larger community. If you're looking for a reasonably priced entry into a new career in a fun, vibrant, international city, the Spiced Academy is the place to be. 

I am an architect but a couple of years ago I became very interested in computer science and coding. I decided it was something I definitely wanted to learn, but I couldn't find the will to do it by myself online, nor the time to take a university degree.

After reviewing several bootcamps both in the US and in the EU, I finally found the right one! Much better than anything in London, Barcelona, Madrid... Why?

- First of all, they have a great professional team. Everyone, from the CTO to the teaching assistants will be there to help you and give you advice.

- Second, they have a great curriculum: for the first time in my education life I was learning actual USEFUL stuff. Things companies require the moment you start applying for a job. And it's not a few weeks, it's actual months, so we go deep into everything we learn. 

- Third, they have a great space in Berlin, really beautiful offices full of light, space to work, a really nice kitchen...

- Last, but not least, the price. It's an investment, and it's much cheaper than all the american bootcamps, and quite well priced among the europeans. If you work hard on it -and they'll make it easy- you can get a job after graduation in a matter of weeks!

Looking back, I can say it was one of the best choices of my career. Completely worth it!

 

My time at SPICED Academy was wonderful, not only because of the tools acquired for data analysis, which have made me more competitive professionally, but also because of the professional growth!
The incredible support of the teachers, their commitment to teach and accompany me in every part of the process made me acquire tools that I never imagined I would have.
I highly recommend this course and this academy. I can confirm that even if you do not have knowledge in programming or data analysis, you will acquire them in the Bootcamp under the best guidance and with a very human and committed staff.

I participated in a Data Science bootcamp from the Spiced Academy. Due to the very well prepared teaching material, exciting hands-on exercises, detailed and clear technical instructions, good teaching sessions, and a positive and supportive atmosphere, it was a very good experience, I wouldn't like to miss. The example exercises are interesting and provide the needed, extensive hands-on training. The topics covered provide the foundations for beginning your own projects. Furthermore, I could directly build on a lot of the things I learned in the bootcamp in my subsequent Data Scientist position. Beside the course material there were extra challenging tasks, allowing you to further extend your skills, if desired. As the course was fully online, I thought that sitting for 12-weeks in front of the computer would feel like a long time, but the contrary was the case. It was never boring and every morning I was looking forward to the classes. In conclusion, if you want to learn Data Science hands-on in a good atmosphere, I can really recommend this course!

I will start off by saying I am very happy with my experience at SPICED Academy's Data Science Bootcamp, because I learned as much as one can about the topic in the period of 12 weeks (any more and my head would have exploded) and I felt like I was among close friends with the other students, teachers and staff there.

I was accepted to 3 data science bootcamps overall, but I decided for SPICED Academy for 3 reasons:
- I got great feedback from alumni
- The material is at my level and is up-to-date (I watched a sample lecture before joining)
- They have a dedicated careers team to help build my CV and job-search strategy (I found most other bootcamps to have little-to-no support on the job-hunt)

Each week I completed one project which centered around one or a few topics. Every project has a couple of building blocks (like modeling, visualization, then deployment) and if you only complete part of it that's perfectly okay. At the end of the week you discuss your progress with the class which is very chill but also a great moment to learn from others. 

For the final project, I had only about 10 days to complete so as you can imagine it was not the most impressive thing I could do (other bootcamps typically allocate 4 weeks to final project) but I choose to have more class time over a more impressive final project because I knew I had time after the bootcamp to complete impressive projects. Others did more impressive things than I did, so it's not impossible.

The teachers mostly come from PhD background and have industry experience, so they know what they are talking about. Some of the teaching assistants are still getting the hang of it, and that would be my only minus point.

Other bootcamps (like Data Science Retreat) give the impression of being more technical, but the SPICED Academy bootcamp was at the exact right level for me, someone with an Economics + Analytics background without experience working in a technical field who wants to get a job as a Junior Data Scientist.

 I was lucky and happy to be able to experience the 12 week Full Stack Web Development Bootcamp at Spiced Academy. I found the course was lay out in a very structured and logical way. You dont just learn the the easiest method to get to solve a problem but are encouraged to find your own way. The instructors at Spiced give you all the tools you need as a basic tool kit to not only solve course tasks but being able to get to viable solutions for the time after the bootcamp. 

The instructors in general have been super helpful, always having an ear for you and very competent. Taking this course really changed my life and I was even able to build my own digital business after my graduation. Thanks again to Spiced and all the people contributing. 

I had already been working as a test automation engineer and was seeking new challenges, when I decided to join Spiced Academy.  I had done online courses previously but Spiced Academy's full-stack program fast-tracked my learning. It gave me structure and focus, and my instructors were my most valuable resource. Though some topics were difficult, I never felt lost thanks to the help of my instructors and my cohort. They offered insights without spoon-feeding, and encouraged me to consider different approaches and solutions to problems presented. 

It is important to understand that one's progress in the bootcamp and afterwards is self-driven. Spiced Academy's curriculum provides key information for web development but my most important takeaway from the bootcamp (and my instructors) is an approach to learning that tries to balance effectively navigating a fast-evolving tech landscape while encouraging deeper understanding of a particular technology.  Everyone in tech accepts that continuous learning is part of the job, and with Spiced Academy,  I learned how to do this more effectively.