The Firehose Project

First off, I honestly think Firehose is one of the better options for Bootcamps and if any of my friends where thinking about it I would definitely recommend it to them. 11/10. That being said, I kind of do think that I got as much as I did out of it because I was lucky enough to be living with relatives during my time of study and didn't have to worry about expenses or housing. I'm not sure I would have been able to get as much as I did if I was working full-time or even a part-time job.

As for the good parts, I think the mentor system was amazing for my learning. Just being able to ask questions face-to-face really changed things. I know I could have asked in emails, but being able to ask questions as they come up in your head or being able to get further explanations right on the spot was amazing in my opinion. I also enjoyed that there was no real "thing" that we "had to do" (no pre-determined task) in the mentor sessiosn so I could come up with extra things not in the curriculum (questions about JavaScript frameworks i.e. React or build smaller side projects with external APIs) or things in the curriculum that I wanted to expand on. I also really enjoyed the self paced nature of the program. I could take time on certain things or speed past parts I already got a grasp on.

The group project was also an amazing experience. When I started it I really felt like I was using what I had learned in a "real" programming setting. The evolving code base was something really cool to experience. I would maybe put a little more guidance in the tasks. I felt as though we were really just free balling it and at some points no one really knew if they were doing things correctly. But maybe that's the point and figuring out how to work together is important. I however sort of wished we could get our code reviewed by the mentor who was leading the project, as most of us didn't have any coding experience and thus most of the time weren't able to give that good feedback and eventually devolved to just everyone saying "looks good to me". Honestly though as I started working at my company we basically do the same things we did in the group project (daily standups, weekly retrospectives, code reviews) so nothing really felt foriegn and I was able to get the ball rolling on day one. 

Lastly, I'm not sure if this belongs in the program but having a little guidance on how to read code would have been nice. Before ending the program I was trying to contribute to some open source projects online only to find myself really overwhelmed by what was happening. Even as I started work the code base was huge and there were many coding patterns (decorator objects, form objects) that I didn't understand and had to take time to learn. But again that might just be something that you learn on the job so I'm not entirely sure it belongs in the curriculum.

Overall, I got exactly what I wanted out of the program and enjoyed it thoroughly. I don't really understand why people online say bootcamps are a waste of time because I learned so much through firehose. It might be possible that people who give bad reviews didn't put any effort in because it does take some work but it is really worth it if you want to pursue this field as a career. 

I'm a recent graduate of the Firehose Project. I took the full-time course and graduated on time. I feel that the course was worth every penny, the quality of the instructional materials and the ability to get help in a timely manner made the course well worth it. You don't have to deal with outdated or old materials that the cadre have failed to make relevant or reflect the latest changes in code. If you're stuck there's a forum and slack channel to ask questions in and I don't believe that I had a single question that it took longer than an hour to get help with and none of the responses failed to fix the issues that I was dealing with.

I'm also enrolled in a traditional college CS course and I can say without a doubt the things that I've learned more in the 22 weeks of the project than I've learned in almost 3 years of school. I can't stress enough how fast you get up and running building applications and understanding concepts with this course. 

Mentor sessions are another great feature of the course, once a week you're able to meet with a mentor who's a professional in the software industry and ask questions about the course material, employment, pretty much anything. My mentor and I had a great working relationship and we plan to maintain contact now that I'm through with the course. 

The Firehose Project provides a ton of job placement advice and materials. While I personally am not actively hunting for a job in the software industry at the moment. I've known a number of graduates who've gone on to gain employment shortly after the course. That being said, these were incredibly motivated individuals who took the hustle to heart and started out griding applications as soon as they were able. 

To sum up, the Firehose Project was a great experience and I've experienced nothing but exceptional support throughout the entire program. 

Last year, when I was looking for a program that would work well for me, I had some specific requirements: a remotely accessible curriculum, good reviews of mentorship, and a price I could afford. Firehose met those requirements and the two-week trial gave me a feel for what I would be getting myself into.

The curriculum at Firehose starts off with the basics of Ruby on Rails (a healhty understanding of HTML and CSS would be a good idea), creating a database, and accessing that database to create a simple, dynamic website. Later lessons introduce you to Ruby Gems (a way to implement useful programs and libraries into your own project), interactive JavaScript (i.e. dynamic sorting), and common frameworks such as Bootstrap and jQuery. Despite the guided layout of the curriculum, there is plenty of room for customization on the student's end and readily available Ruby on Rails resources offer up limitless learning potential.

The greatest value I derived from the program was my weekly interaction with my mentor and the final 8-week team project. I used my mentor sessions to asks questions related to the curriculum, but also to delve into topics that were specifically interesting to me. It was enlightening to get a professional perspective from an experienced developer; I found his insight to be useful in determining what additional topics to study on my own. The team project was an eye-opening introduction into team dynamics, working towards a common goal, distributing workloads, and facing real challenges as they relate to software development.

I attended weekly office hours at the start and found the exposure to advanced questions a nice glance of what was to come. Each lesson module allows a student to post questions specific to that module and the Firehose staff are quick with responses.

Ultimately, Firehose gets you started on a path with great potential, but you will have to do the legwork. Even in my current role as a beginning developer, there is so much I'm still continuing to learn. Firehose was a great start to that.

I am doing quite a few prep courses! Firehose has been the best so far.  Nice intro to HTML + CSS and some ruby code.  There was a lot of flexibility in completing the prep so that was great because I work full-time in support at a start up.  

• The feedback is quick and easy to digest and apply. 
• The price point cannot be beat.
• Flexible plans to pay for it if you do not want to front the $$$$
• Full stack 
• Other courses available to expand on

I am not sure if they offer job assistance but I already work in the tech space so I do not really need that.

Signing up with Firehose Project program was the best decision I could have ever made regarding a step into a new career. Why The Firehose Project?

• A structured online platform. Website is clear and easy to follow. 
• Dive in method. Didn't spend a whole two weeks on explaining syntax, arrays, Boolean. Instead jumped right in and started coding with explanations along the way. 
• Mentor. Held my hand when needed and also pushed me forward with challenges. The mentor part of program was priceless. I'm a shy person but I really bonded with Mike. Meetings with mentor via videochat are weekly for an hour along with email communication in between whenever needed.
• Office Hours. Weekly the two owners have a video chat with students and help by explaining concepts in further detail.  Its was also a chance for a quiet student, as me, to hear other students struggle (like myself) and listen to them provide assistance, explanations and pointing us to other resources. Such a hands on approach by the owners demonstrates that you acquiring the knowledge and skills is important to them.
• Team Project. Wow I learned a lot about how to really use github and interact with others on a project. 
• Affordability compared to other online bootcamp schools, The Firehose Project was very affordable AND the mentor sessions alone were priceless !

I have a degree in biomedical engineering and as such have had some programing experience in c, c++ and MATLAB.  

This program is filling in some much needed gaps in my computer programing knowledge.  The code critiques/mentor sessions are invaluable and offer something that I didn't get in my coding classes at the University which were only concerned with the end result of the programs and offered no feedback on how to improve my code.

The weekly office hours are also very beneficial even if you don’t have a question yourself. Ken and Marco are extremely knowledgeable and I often gain additional insight into topics I am already comfortable with or get answers to questions I didn’t know I had until they were asked by someone else.

Overall I am very satisfied with my experience.