The Firehose Project

What can I say about the Firehose Project? Well if you are looking for pros and cons of the program, this review is probably not the one you are looking for. Try as I might, I am hard pressed to find a single thing I didn’t like about the program.  

I was searching for an immersive apprenticeship sort of program, to really push me into learning something new, something challenging and something rewarding.  What I got was so much more than that.  All the things you are searching for in a coding boot camp are present with the Firehose project so I won’t go into great detail about that. Their website does a great job of laying that out for you. What they didn’t tell me, and what I was most surprised by, was the community that comes with the program.  An entire community of coders and hackers all working together to learn a new skill, to share their knowledge and to lift each other up, I’ve never seen anything like it.  I have a couple degrees from a couple universities and I’ve never felt more of a sense of academic community than I did at the Firehose Project.  

One of the great benefits of this program was being paired with a mentor. I was able to Skype an hour a week with my own personal mentor, who is in place to help you work on coding challenges and give you someone to bounce questions and ideas off of.  Your mentor is also available to help you bring your ideas to life and to give you industry advice.   Going into this program, I really thought my mentor was going to be the only personal connection I would have, but I was mistaken.  Ken and Marco are really great facilitators.  I was not expecting how involved and accessible they would be.  If I had a coding problem or a question they were always quick to respond and talk me through whatever challenge I was having, or answer my questions.  They explained things in a way that made sense to me, and really pushed my level of learning beyond what I thought possible in 15 short weeks.

This program is hard, it challenged me in ways I never dreamed possible, but it rewarded me in more ways than I could have imagined. I am more than happy with my entire experience with the Firehose Project and I feel like I got way more than I bargained for in the process.   I drank from the firehose, and not only did I survive, but I thrived.

before beginning firehose's program, i did an enormous amount of research in order to decide whether a) they were a reputable/capable program, b) whether a remote program as opposed to an in-person intensive bootcamp was a wise decision, and c) whether students/former students of firehose who came from radically different backgrounds (namely, the humanities) felt as though they were fully grasping the material as taught by firehose and enjoying it at the same time. 

given this criteria, i landed on firehose after speaking with admissions officers at numerous programs, including firehose. i live in NYC, so there's plenty of programs offered in-person, and i'll admit i initially took it for granted that i would be going to a bootcamp because i didn't even realize that there was another option. the more i thought about this, though, and read former students' reviews of their experiences, the more i came to conclude that a learning environment that defaults on an 80+ hour/week model for 3 months was a surefire way to burn me out on the material. i'm quick to learn concepts, but by that same token, i am coming at all of this from a field of study that isn't predominately in the maths/computer sciences and i frankly don't believe that my learning style (or anyone's learning style for that matter) is best served by such a relentless onslaught of information. it only seemed reasonable to then infer that this enormous stress of time in combination with a cohort of small peers could further compound the problem by adding in an inadvertent element of competition since so many gravitate towards this industry in hopes of entering a high-paying jobs market. this is not to knock in-person programs wholesale, i've heard many have great experiences - but i found in my research that the good/bad experiences were just-so: there wasn't much room for grey area. and i found it rather troubling that so many of the courses weren't instructed by those working in the industry per-se, but recent graduates of that very program.

so, i branched out my search into remote programs. i initially looked at bloc, but given teh scope of that program many sentiments seemed to echo a lack of personal attention and the self-study was perhaps working as more of a disadvantage. it was sort of by happenstance that i stumbled upon firehose, and the more i read about it and the student/graduate reviews i read, the more i became confident that their program was not just the most individually attentive, but that their course *material* was most in-line with present industry standards and their emphasis on data structures and algorithmic coursework was a big draw that spoke to the program not simply being another 'code factory' where people leave and know how to execute functions they've memorized, but not have a fundamental grasp on why they're doing it in the first place.

if i was going to dedicate 6 months of my life to learning how to program, i wanted to be ready to enter a job and not feel like i was still going to have to re-learn everything in the context of a specific application all over again. firehose actively structures their program so that as you learn you're building up a portfolio that you can show employers, and that the program is over a 6 month duration, you can exhibit this portfolio with that time spent clearly illustrated. it's not something hastily thrown together at the end of a three month spree.

the one on one mentoring with an industry professional was what made me pull the trigger, though, and i'm happy to report that after 1.5 months of being in the program my experience mirrors and often exceeds my hopes for it. i have a fantastic mentor i meet with once a week who walks me through questions i have and instructs on everything from fundamental concepts to highly specific niche issues. this is more helpful to me than a lecture environment where only certain concerns are aired. i was a bit worried that meeting only once a week wouldn't be enough, but it's actually just right - the videos for instruction, the slack integration with others in the program, and the projects you're tasted with are a pretty full-time endeavor. and as you work, it's great to be able to note the things you want to discuss with your mentor to go over.

i've already gotten so much out of this program, and i'm very much indebted to what, in my honest view, comes across as a genuine concern and enthusiasm for coding and firehose students' success.

i encourage anyone who is interested and believes a remote program is the right fit for them to give firehose a chance.  

I am not finished with the Firehose Project curriculum yet. I am in week 5 to be exact and so far it has been an awesome experience. I've already made three web apps in just 5 weeks! One of those is a website for my brother who is the Tennis Director at a tennis country club. The app allows tennis instructors to post lessons and users can sign up for those lessons. As soon as someone signs up, the instructor gets an email. This alone has proved to me that The Firehose Project is worth the time and money. Having the knowledge to build a website for family and friends is very empowering and exciting. 

For the last year I have been trying to teach myself web programming. I tried books, Codecademy and a Udemy course but I struggled to stay motivated. Sometimes researching a coding error, I got from following tutorials would take hours and I had no one I could ask for help. This was really frustrating but I did not want to give up on learning how to code. I realized the only way for me to learn Ruby on Rails would be with the help of a coding bootcamp. I applied to a coding bootcamp in Miami and got in! But after researching for affordable housing options and not finding anything affordable I decided not to go. I did more research on course report and found The Firehose Project. 

One of the best things about Firehose is that it's all online so I didn't have to move to another city. They also offer students 2 free weeks of Ruby programming lessons on their platform. During this 2-week period I asked questions in lesson forums and got replies within 10 to 15 minutes. Students can ask questions through the lesson forum, office hours, mentor sessions and on their slack channel. So far all my questions and problems have been answered! Before Firehose I would sometimes spend 3 to 4 hours working on fixing some coding errors so I REALLY appreciate the Firehose team for answering my questions in a timely manner.  

During office hours you get to meet and ask questions to the cofounders of The Firehose Project, Ken Mazaika and Marco Morawec. They are both really cool, but from my experience interacting with Ken more, he is AWESOME! Last week when I was working on one of the curriculum projects, it was about 10pm when I asked a question on the lesson's forum and he took the time to make a video to help me with image storage on Amazon Web Services. That was amazing and really nice of him to spend almost half an hour helping me with this issue. I really appreciated it because honestly I didn't think anyone was going to reply until morning the next day and at the time I was very frustrated after trying several times to get image upload to work without success. With his help I was finally able to get the image uploading feature to work in my app. 

I also think the lessons are much better written than anything else I have used to learn programming. They guide you on how to build the projects while also explaining how everything works. I'm learning a lot more from The Firehose Project than I was learning on my own. At this point in the program I really feel like I am getting my money's worth so a big THANK YOU to the Firehose Team for putting me on the right track. I hope to update this review when I am completely finished with the program.

Before enrolling in a bootcamp, I did a TON of research. After teaching myself front-end development over the 3 years before Firehose, I knew exactly what I wanted for a full stack education.

At first, I was hesitant to enroll in a remote bootcamp. Being in Boston, there are a ton of local, onsite options, so I started looking there. Unfortunately, none of them had a substantial curriculum. Most were very simple 3-month introductions to web frameworks and tools.

I started looking online and came across a few good options. At the time, none of them did anything with algorithms or computer science fundamentals. In addition, Firehose is still the only one that offers an agile group project, which was one of the best learning experiences of the entire curriculum.

The group project, along with the computer science fundamentals, for less than any of the other options was a no brainer. In addition, they are constantly improving their curriculum and adding new features. Firehose is a leader in the bootcamp space and it seems the others are starting to take notice. 

In the end, enrolling in the Firehose Project was the right decision and I had a great experience. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a comprehensive full stack web development education.

Software engineering is tough and you have to learn a lot of things on the fly, and that's the approach that Firehose takes. Their curriculum starts off very easy then begins to ramp up quickly. Each application builds off the last application you built and by the end of the course you are working with JS, admin dashboards, and other more complex aspects of web development. Throughout the course, you will have challenges which will force you to look outside the coursework and search for answers like you are on the job, these increase in difficulty throughout the course and help you learn how to navigate stack overflow and other coding question boards.

One of the best aspects of Firehose is the 1-1 mentorship. You have 12 hours of 1 on 1 time with a senior level developer where you can pair program, ask questions, or work on something you're having trouble with. This aspect of the program is one of the things that makes Firehose so great. I used a lot of this time to work on my ruby coding knowledge, pair programming with my mentor, and learning how to solve the complex algorithm challenges you see in many job interviews. 

If you ever are having problems or have any questions, everyone at Firehose, including the founders, are very accessible and are there to help you. There was never a time where I felt that I was in this endeavor alone.

Firehose gave me the foundation to get my first software engineering role. If you are willing to put the time and effort in, Firehose can help you make the jump into the software engineering world. 

This was an excellent course.  The content of the course was made easy to understand but it covered a lot of ground.  The curriculum was focused on practicality -- getting projects up and running so you could see your results how well you actually learned things.  Plus, the content was very up-to-date.  I received a job offer mid-course and the course subject matter was as current, if not more so, than where I started working.  In addition, the mentors were great and very responsive to any questions no matter how seemingly simple. Can't recommend it enough. 

It’s been about seven months since I started the Firehose Project in April. When I started, I was a college student with virtually no coding skills and now I have a job working as a mobile engineer working at a startup and I’m loving it. In this Firehose Project review, I’ll tell you the all of the things I loved and a couple of the things I didn’t like about the Firehose Project.

There are several metrics that any bootcamp should be measured by to determine if they’re worth the money: technology, staff, tuition, mentorship, community, projects, group projects, job preparation, convenience, and curriculum.

The Firehose Project is an online software engineer bootcamp (aka coding bootcamp). The technology stack that’s taught at the Firehose Project is Ruby on Rails, Twitter Bootstrap, JavaScript, PostgreSQL, jQuery, GitHub, Agile Methodologies, HTML/CSS, JSON, Linux, AWS S3, and more.

The Ruby language is where most of the emphasis is put when learning throughout the curriculum of the Firehose Project. Although, Ruby is not the most in-demand language, it is a beautiful language that is great for beginners and noobs to learn.

The syntax of Ruby is simple and almost English-like, which makes the learning curve that much easier for beginners and noobs to pick up important programming concepts (syntax, object-oriented design principles, etc.). Sometimes, language can be a hinderance on your ability to learn software development because software development isn’t only restricted to the language. Software development involves design principles, best practices, agile methodologies, and more.

Starting off with Ruby makes learning software development that much easier and I think for that reason, it’s a great choice for learning.

The only downfall to learning in Ruby is that even though there are an abundance of Ruby positions, there are more in other languages. However, if you can program well in Ruby, then you can probably transfer those skills over to any other programming language with relative ease.

At the Firehose Project, there’s also one track devoted to learning JavaScript but JavaScript isn’t the main emphasis for the entirety of the coding bootcamp. In addition, you learn many other technologies that are important for developing shippable web apps, which means you become a more well-rounded software developer overall.

I have never met a cluster of so many good-hearted people in one place. I love the staff at the Firehose Project; they’re great. They are genuinely supportive and they genuinely want you to succeed and grow.

This is important because there are lots of coding bootcamps out there that don’t give a rat’s ass about you and just want your money.

You won’t find that at the Firehose Project. Even though it’s a relatively small team, each staff member has a good heart and is honest. This is one of the biggest factors that led me to joining the Firehose Project seven months ago. After reading through their blog (great blog by the way), it was easy to tell that the Firehose Project was genuine and transparent.

Another factor that got me to join was that I couldn’t find one reasonably negative review. I searched online through and through and I couldn’t find anything. This stood out because many of the other coding bootcamps that I had researched had negative reviews so keep that in mind.

Rest assured, if you decide to join the Firehose Project, you’ll be in good and caring hands.

Most coding bootcamps are going to cost you four to five figures. Anything less than that and you should probably save your money. Hack Reactor, for example, is $19,780 for onsite and $17,780 for the remote online option.

Firehose Project, on the other hand, is more affordable and won’t set you back nearly as much. At the time when I signed up, tuition was $4,500, but ever since then, the Firehose Project has added more and the price has moved up to a $6,500 for a 24 week plan and $8,500 for a 44 week slow-pace plan.

With everything you’re getting, you really can’t beat the price. If you’re considering  another coding bootcamp that is cheaper than that, do your research and make sure that it’s just as high quality.

One of the best parts about the Firehose Project that I took for granted at the time was the mentorship. At the beginning of the program, you’re connected to a mentor that mentors you once every week for one hour for the rest of the program.

I can’t speak on behalf of the other mentors, but my mentor was kind and supportive. The fact that you’re connected to a senior software engineer is a great way to set you down the right path.

Having a mentor with you is great because your mentor will help you establish good software development habits from the get-go. Also, if you have any bad practices, your mentor will let you know and set you right.

On top of that, your mentor will be there to support you when things get tough on your coding journey.

Having someone there to guide you is a huge help and will help guide you in the right direction from the beginning when your habits are beginning to form.

At the Firehose Project, the staff wants you to get a job and is proud of their student alumni. That’s the situation you want because the incentives are properly aligned in a way that works well for you.

After you finish the main curriculum, there’s a job track that has 36 lessons geared specifically towards getting a job. Each of the job lessons gave insight into important job preparation and interview concepts that any software developer should be aware of.

The lessons range from resume reviews to computer science principles that are brought up during interviews. Personally, I wish the computer science principles would have been taught throughout the course like with the algorithm challenges. Instead, you’re forced to cram all of the information at the end of the curriculum while you’re finishing your group project and you’re sending out resumes.

Another thing that I wish there would have been was a GitHub review. Not having a good-looking and well-fashioned GitHub portfolio can only hurt you.This small fix would have definitely helped but it didn’t stop me.

In addition, throughout the entirety of the main curriculum, there are also algorithm challenges which are also important for a lot of job interviews. I liked that the Firehose Project dispersed the algorithm challenges throughout the course instead of all at the end. This allows you, as a student, to gradually build up your algorithm skills as you grow your development skills.

Regardless of my gripes, I do think that overall, the Firehose Project gives you a blueprint for success (I’m living proof) that will help you land you a job any way. Alone, getting a job is tough, but with the Firehose Project, it’s a hell of a lot simpler.

One of the best parts of the Firehose Project has to be the community. When you sign up for the Firehose Project, you’re given access to the Firehose Project Google Plus channel along with access to the Firehose Project Slack channel.

Over the course of your journey, you get acquainted not only with great mentors but also great peers. Posting is encouraged on the Google Plus channel and students are always sharing great stories on their journey.

Also, the Slack channel is a great place to go to if you need help or if you’re stuck on a challenge. With several mentors always browsing the Slack channel, you’re almost guaranteed to get help on problems that you need help with.

I used to message Ken Mazaika, the CTO of the Firehose Project, about challenges I was stuck on all the time (thanks for all the help Ken) and he would graciously help me. Honestly, this made me love the Firehose Project even more because he took the time out of his busy day to give me a helpful and descriptive responses.

Also, students are always posting on the #general channel where a lot of good posts are shared all of the time.

The community is also a great place to make friends and connect with other Firehosers. I’ve met a couple of other Firehosers in real life and still keep in touch with them. Overall, the community is very receptive to you and you almost always have people that are there to support you.

The support at the Firehose Project is fantastic. Whenever you have a problem that you’re stuck on that’s giving you problems, you have a myriad of options at your disposal.

For instance, you have support from your mentors every week. If there’s a concept or problem that you need more help explaining, you can always take it to your mentor at the end of the week or you can reach your mentor via email.

You also can post any questions that you may have on the Firehose Project Slack channel that’s filled with other students that are working on the same curriculum as you are. On top of that, there are a handful of Firehose graduates that browse the Slack channel and offer help too.

One last form of support is reaching out to your mentors on Slack. Whenever I had a problem that I needed more explaining, most of the time I reached out to Ken Mazaika directly on Slack. Unfortunately, I don’t think this option is available anymore because Ken has a lot more on his plate but you always have the option of reaching out directly to your mentors.

Projects, projects, projects. This is where most of your growth of a developer will happen. This is the 80/20 of your software development skill set.

I’ve tried options like Lynda where they teach you in a lecture-like style and that doesn’t cut it when it comes to learning software development. You need a real-world application of developing software, not just theory and lecture slides.

At the Firehose Project, most of the curriculum is project-based. This means that for each track in the curriculum, you are working on a project that you build yourself with guided assistance from the Firehose Project.

Of course, I wish that the Firehose Project didn’t do so much hand-holding all the time but getting it right is a difficult balancing act. There are other online resources like Udacity that take the opposite approach and they have hardly any hand holding at all. The bad thing about this is that sometimes you find yourself trying to make leaps that you’re not prepared for.

There are a total of seven project-based tracks and each incrementally introduces more complexity so that you grow along with the curriculum. The additional benefit is that as you progress through each track and project, you add more projects to your portfolio so it’s a win-win.

This wouldn’t be a Firehose Project review if I didn’t cover the group project. The group project is, without a doubt, one of the best parts of the Firehose Project.

The group project happens towards the end of your online coding bootcamp journey and you’re paired with a group of other students that are at the same stage as you in your journey along with a group mentor. Usually the group mentors are software engineers that are already working at companies themselves.

Every week, there’s a standup where each of the group members of the project are assigned tasks in order to gradually build the grand finale chess app.

The chess app is fairly complex because you and your group mates are responsible for coding and designing all of the logic for the rules. This means you’re designing algorithms for the different chess pieces, the game rules, and more.

Working on the group project is also really fun too. Over the month period that you’re working on your chess app, you have the opportunity to make new friends and honestly I had a lot of fun working with my group mates.

Overall, the group project is meant to be a real-life simulation of what it’s like to be a software developer at a professional company. The group project teaches you about the importance of communication, pair-programming, code reviews, and using GitHub.

When you’re shopping around for bootcamps it always comes down to online vs onsite. Onsite almost always costs more because you most likely won’t be able to work a job (opportunity cost) and onsite bootcamps cost more because of more onsite expenses on the bootcamp’s part (leases, staff, etc.).

At the Firehose Project, you can keep your job while working on the curriculum. Now, don’t think that just because you can do an online coding bootcamp on the side means you should half-ass it. You can technically half-ass it but if you do, you’ll just be wasting your money. You get out what you put in.

The biggest advantage that an onsite coding bootcamp has over an online coding bootcamp is social pressure. When you’re in house at an onsite coding bootcamp, you’re in an environment that’s more geared for learning since you’re surrounded by your peers that socially pressure you to work. You’re more unlikely to slack off at an onsite coding bootcamp than you are at an online bootcamp.

If you decide to go down the online path, be wary. You must be disciplined because there most likely won’t be anyone there to motivate you to work except yourself. I worked at least three hours everyday on the curriculum and I’ve met people that did even more than that. If you don’t think you have what it takes to succeed at an online bootcamp, then you may want to evaluate your options.

However, if you’re up for the challenge, then an online coding bootcamp is the better way to go.

To find out my final consensus on the Firehose Project, read more at Redpillprogramming.com

Before going through The Firehose Project's curriculum, I was working in advertising & decided it wasn't for me. I started teaching myself JavaScript, Python, HTML, etc., using all the free/low cost online resources out there. Seeing as I was all over the place and not really building anything, I decided to look up bootcamps for a more structured learning path. After researching many onsite and online bootcamps, I decided to go with The Firehose Project for several reasons: low cost, remote-ness, weekly mentor meetings, and their algorithms/data structure part of the curriculum. 

During the program, you build 3 Rails applications with the help of the curriculum and your mentor. I believe now they have more applications since I graduated and I can continue to learn the new stuff since I have access to that as well(woo hoo!). The applications are great for understanding Rails' MVC architecture, learning how to handle errors, test driven development, and getting experience with Git, GitHub, Heroku, continuous integration/deployment. The mentor sessions are extremely valuable because you are held accountable for your progress by a professional developer who challenges you every single week. One hugely important part of the curriculum is learning algorithms and data structures as you build the applications. These are not only an important part of becoming a well-rounded developer, but most likely will come in handy when applying/interviewing for jobs. Another great part of the curriculum is the group project in which you build a chess game with other students using the Scrum method which again, comes in handy when applying/interviewing for jobs.

After the program, I landed a Software Engineering internship at a big tech company in San Diego. There, I applied everything I learned through the Firehose Project, especially using Git, GitHub, working in an Agile/Scrum environment, testing, and learning how to learn new technologies. I am now actively looking and interviewing for my first Software job & I am not kidding when I say I look over the Firehose Project's algorithm & data structure lessons/challenges to help me prepare. 

I recommend the Firehose Project if you are looking for a strong base to start your career in software/web development! Everything is what you make of it, so don't just go through the curriculum thinking you'll find a job right after. Ken makes sure to highlight this in many of his blog posts: go to meetups, network, don't just learn all the things. Work hard & you will see results. 

Happy coding!

I loved my experience with the Firehose Project. The program delivers everything it boasts at a very affordable rate, but the community is what really makes it standout for me. The founders are very active and continously working with alumni and current students on improving the experience and expanding the curriculum. The mentors, in my experience, all have an avid interest in taking each student where they want to go academically. You'll have no trouble finding like-minded peers and helpful advice and troubleshooting, not to mention likely making some new friends in the process. 

The teaching method was very practical for me. The lessons have a good balance of guided tutorials and self-guided challenges.  Most importantly, the method focuses on teaching you how to solve problems yourself and encourages you to come up with other solutions and variations with the apps you create. The remote friendly and self-pacing aspects of the coursework provided a comfortable atmosphere.

Finally, I will conclude by summarizing my experience as 'worth every penny'. That said, you will get out what put into it. Don't expect to be handheld through everything and walk away with a shiny new job. All the resources you need are there, but meeting only the minimum requirements will get you minimum results. If you are willing to get engaged, ask questions, make mistakes, try new things, and push yourself then this course and the community will get you where you want to go.

 

Before joing The Firehose Project I was working as a software developer at a CAD/CAM manufacturing software company working mostly in C++. This was my first software job and it was a good starting experience. However, after working there for a couple years I decided I wanted to make a bit of a career change. I wanted to try my hand at web development.

I had a played around a little bit with web development in my sparetime through things like Codecademy and CodeSchoolI, never really fully investing in it but now I was commited. I started looking around at different coding bootcamps to see what could help me get the experience I needed. It was a little overwhelming since there seemed to be so many programs out there. After reading through a ton of reviews and looking at a bunch of course websites however, I felt that The Firehose Project, with its mentoring sessions, dedication to programming fundementals, strong community and online format was the right fit for me. So I decided to give the free 2 week intro course a try. Durring the intro course I was really impressed with not only the content of the courses but the personal interactions I had with the staff, including the founders Ken and Marco themselves, which really impressed me. After that I was sold and signed up for the full course.

After starting the full course I continued to be impressed by the The Firehose Project team and community. Right from the start you are welcomed right into the community, I got positive welcome messages from staff and fellow students and it really help things get off on the right foot. You never need to worry about being left out in the cold, whether it is using slack to communicate with the community, going to office hours with Ken and Marco or working one-on-one with your mentor you always feel like there is someone ready to help you out our just chat with when you need.

The course work itself was very thorough and really help build upon and exand my limited web development knowledge. It puts you right into the thick of things getting your hands dirty by building out fully functional apps. It is focused on learning by doing, which I feel, for me, is the best way to learn. Even when doing the first app, despite it be a smaller, simpler app, you get exposed to all that goes into creating a web app and it only gets better from there. Then on top of the hands on experience of building real apps they also introduce you to basic and advance coding practices through video lessons as well as algorithim challenges. All in all, there is a wealth of programming knowledge contained in the course work and the best part is that they are continuing to expand upon that and you will have access to all of it even after graduating.

Even with all those great resources to learn from, I dont' think it would have been nearly as effective if it weren't for the mentor sessions. Those were easily my favorite, and I feel the most benficial, part of the course. Each week you get to have a 1 hour 1-on-1 session with a senior web developer to work on pretty much whatever you want. It's amazing how much you can learn during these sessions. I remember spending a lot of time working on algorithms with my mentor and it really help accelerate my learning. I not only was able to complete all of the challenges but we even went beyond what was in the course and explored even more advance algorithms and get started on a personal project. I was also able to really improve my coding style durring these sessions by having Sean(my mentor) review my code. He help me understand how to better break down comlex problems into small clean pieces of code. I really owe a lot to Sean and all the help he gave me. Even after I had graduated I still kept in conntact with him and got help preparing my resume and getting job hunting advice. Again, I feel like the mentoring sessions are strongest part of this course.

The next best thing though had to be the group project. You essentially get to feel what it would be like to work on a web development team as a remote developer. You have weekly team meetings with your senior devloper/team lead where you and the other team members discuss what you've been working, issues you might be facing as well as making new assignments for the next week. You gain a ton of useful real world experience such as having good communication between teammates through things like slack, doing pair programming and working with GitHub, doing pull requests and code reviews. It was a great experience that really help me get the feel for how a real web developer job might be. I had a ton of fun and really felt like part of a team.

Alright so all those things are good and all but, it doesn't really mean much if you can't actually get a job. Luckily The Firehose Project has a lot resources for helping you out with that as well. They cover everything from resume, to technical interview questions to networking. There are also a number of article and videos from past students talking about their job hunting experiences that were super helpful. As mentioned before I also got some help from my mentor in preparing my resume and also worked with one of my former group project teammates to find possible job leads and to talk through technical interview questions with. Though they might not specifically go out and find jobs openings for you they do give you a lot of resources to work with and will be there to help with whatever questions or concerns you might have.

About 2 months after graduating from the program I was able to land a job in my home town as software developer for a little company working with fruit packing companies. It is a little bit of an interesting situation, because I not only will be doing some web development but I also will get to use my C++ experience and hopefully build upon that as well. I sadly won't be working with Rails in this current job but I will be exposed to several new laguages and technologies which will hopefully just build upon the things I already have learned. Though I am still looking and hoping to find a Rails and/or Javascript position I feel like this will be a good experience and give me a little more exposure to the different types of web technologies out there. In the mean time I am hoping to start working on some of my own side projects to continue to build up the skills I need to land my dream job. 

In addition to working at this new job I also continue to be part of The Firehose community by helping out as a volunteer student ambassador, helping students in the lesson forums when they run into problems. So if you end up joining and are ever run into a problem durring the course we might just bump into eachother.

In conclusion, I just want to say that I was and still am very impressed with what Ken and Marco are building at The Firehose Project. It is a great course that only continues to get better as new improvements to the UI and new additions to the curriculum are added. This, built on top of an incredible community of both friendly and super smart people really make The Firehose Project amazing. So if you are looking for a coding bootcamp to help you get into web development (or just software in general) I highly recommed you give The Firehose Project a try.

Cliche at this point, but I have to say I never thought I'd be a developer. It seemed impossible, nerdy(yes.) and incredibly complicated. I went through every online resource and even signed up and paid for Thinkful's Front End Program. While my mentor was very nice and professional, the course was dense and I felt like a guinea pig. I figured I'd give their career plan a shot but things came up and I had to postpone. After doing a little bit of research, I found The Firehose Project. What an interesting name! And they have a 2 week free intro? These guys must be confident in the outcome! I might as well give it a try.

You know that feeling you get when you finally find a book you like and can't put it down? That's how I felt with the intro. Immediately felt empowered and wanted to finish it. My plans after work were no longer "I can't wait to get home and find out what Kimmy Schmidt has been up to" or "Hey let's grab dinner and gossip about work!". Nope. I was looking forward to coming home to my loops.

To give you a good example. I give up a lot when things get hard. I get excited with a fake feeling of accomplishment when I talk about a plan, but then I feel like it's aleady accomplished. I look for excuses a lot and tell myself I learn that thing later. Now 1 Month has passed and I have already deployed 3 websites, learned a great deal about OOP, Aced 2 quizzes and about to Ace a 3rd one. On top of that, I'm currently working on a tool for my team at work. Hopefully I'll hit The Project's requirements for the Chess Game. From what I saw, it teaches and helps you hone the skills you need to shine in the real world.

Who do I have to thank? My mentor Dave. He's awesome. He's direct and tells me when I'm slacking off. He knows I have absolutely nothing to gain from him sugarcoating things. He never gives me the answer and makes me think. He, himself is an amazing thinker and programmer. I'm so thankful that they paired me up with him.

Sure I was crushing hard on The Project after Marco sent me a novel explaining how FHP works. But the cherry on top was coming accross this article: http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2016/03/18/how-this-boston-coding-bootcamp-plans-to-aid-europes-refugee-crisis/

The refugee situation has been so important to me and to know that I'm part of a community that cares with more than just words and tweets made me love FHP even more.

Anyway. I wrote a lot. I never even Yelp. If you're thinking about FHP, don't hesitate. You'll learn everything you need to know to get started. And even better, you'll learn with confidence.

Expect an update in about 2 months!

I joined the Firehose Project in December 2015 and recently graduated. The program itself is fantastic and has been a crucial part of my own transition into software engineering. I recently was able to get an offer for a full-time coding job and I owe that almost entirely to the Firehose program.

There are a lot of good bootcamp programs out there but what sets Firehose apart is the personal attention you get from the two founders - Ken and Marco. I lost count of the number of time I sent Ken an email/posted in the forums and got a reply directly within an hour. Seriously...if it was between 9-5 Mon-Fri...I would post a question or send an email and receive a reply within an hour almost every time. This happened consistently for the entire program. I got an unbelievable amount of personal attention. 

There are some challenges to the program since the curriculum is entirely online, which means there's a lot of coding on your own and following written/video tutorials. However! there is a very active and supportive Slack community of fellow students and alumni who are always willing to help out with bug troubleshooting/pair programming, or to just shoot the breeze if you're feeling particularly lonesome. 

There is also a detailed and helpful section on job preparation - the program presents many common interview coding challenges, and offers a lot of tips on how to apply and prepare for coding related jobs (algorithm problems, resume feedback, resources to find answers to common questions like XOR etc). As far as actually seeking out companies and applying to them...Firehose leaves that up to you as a student, as they do not have a final 'demo-day,' or direct relationships with any recruiters.

Overall, I have only good things to say about FP. It offers an incredible amount of value for the price and does an excellent job at walking you through computer science fundamentals as well as nitty-gritty app-building. To anyone who is considering a software bootcamp, I'd highly reccomend.