The Iron Yard

A crazy, rewarding experience. Before I officially enrolled in the program, the campus director and instructor were very open and willing to answer my questions. They were up front and honest about what to expect and what I should do to prepare and get the most out of it. For instance I really appreciated being given pre-work to work through ahead of time— it made things go more smoothly the first few weeks and got me in the right mindset (you wouldn’t run a marathon without stretching beforehand, right?).

Of course the course itself was difficult, but I did sign up for a challenge, and with that much to cover in a short amount of time it’d be unreasonable to expect lengthy explanations of every detail (again, we were forewarned). It’s a shift in learning style but it’s one that will serve us well in the future. The instructor made himself very available to help us out if we felt lost (he talked me down from the proverbial ledge on more than one occasion). Lectures sometimes wandered away from the main topics, but this was often due to a student’s line of questioning— while that could be frustrating, it speaks to the instructor’s desire to make sure we felt comfortable speaking up if we had a question.

At the end of the course I felt far more prepared for the job hunt than I ever have before. The campus director passed along a ton of job postings and gave us a lot of great examples for cover letters, resumes, and portfolios; she was quick to give us helpful feedback and advice on the aforementioned and on networking/reaching out to possible employers. We went through mock interviews and got feedback quickly, which made me feel more comfortable with what to expect in a real interview experience.

tl;dr: Yes, it’s a challenge, no, you won’t be spoon-fed. The fast pace may not be a good fit for everyone (and that’s okay) but if you prepare yourself and keep at it then it’ll work for you. I tried to self-teach before and there is absolutely no way I could have gotten myself to this level in the same amount of time. That's not to say I've mastered everything, but I do know I’m prepared to start a career as a developer and to keep learning as I go.

The nature of this profession, software engineering, is learning by doing. It is not enough to read books and go through free online courses. You have to use that knowledge to build things and keep coding.

Learning how to learn is the most important take away.

This is what The Iron Yard is good at. They prepare you for the working world, where the learning never stops anyway. I believe that one's success through this bootcamp, and through life for that matter, depends largely on the attitude you bring and how you handle challenging situations. The outcome is a direct result of your own ability (and willingness) to rise to the challenge and step out of your comfort zone.

Transformation. That's what attending a bootcamp is about.

If you go through military bootcamp, the staff sergeant expects you to be able to give him 50 pushups on day one. He won't teach you how to do it, you should already know how. Similarly, in a coding bootcamp, you should come prepared. If you come in expecting to be spoon-fed all the answers, this or any other bootcamp is not for you. There is a reason its called bootcamp and not classes or school.

The Iron Yard does a great job of setting you up to succeed in the program and in a professional environment. The required pre-work are only some of the basic things one should know coming in. Like doing 50 pushups. Its impossible to teach everyone the same thing and expect every single student to understand the material the way that the best student in class understood it. And in this ever changing industry, learning how to learn is your best bet and it will take you far. Perhaps even farther than that best student in class.

And when you come out of bootcamp, hopefully you're a better, wiser, more humble person than you were on day one and that you've made some lifelong friends along the way. After all, its not everyday that you're surrounded by like-minded smart people. Cherish it and own the experience.

Fantastic experience. The dedicated staff ensured a friendly and productive environment as they took us from beginers to junior developers. The coursework as strenuous and I honestly felt like quitting about once every two weeks, but my stubborness wouldn't let me. In the end they taught more than how to program. The more important skills they taught were how to learn on your own and how to work effectively in a group environment. Group projects were the greatest asset to this program. The instructors were knowledgable and willing to help other students that weren't in their personal class. As a backend student I had no problem getting assistance from the front end instructors and vice versa. Fantastic experience. Even though I've graduated, they still help me while I'm on the job hunt. You will get out of this course what you put into it.

Don't fall for the marketing ploy, they expect students to do a ton of pre-work before taking the class.  Although they advertise that they can take a complete beginner to a junior developer.  My class started with 8 students, only 4 of us will graduate, thankfully, we didn't have to pay the 12k because the campus didn't have their license yet.  The first cohort seems to have faired much better than my cohort, maybe they had some experience.  The instructor is a nice guy, but he doesn't know how to teach, his lectures are unorganized and he loses the class as he goes down rabbit holes.  Unless you have 12k to waste, I would recommend you take full advantage of all the free resources available online or enrolled in treehouse or code academy.  I met some really great people, I especially enjoyed Fridays were we would unwind.  

They will teach you to code, and you'll meet some great people. BUT, I don't think the program content is worth the $12,000 price. Here's why:

1. Many lessons involved learning from Google docs, or simply copied online FREE lessons (Code School or Code Academy, Treehouse, etc.). Many times after lecture, students spent hours going through these anyway to get more help, or a more thorough explanation. The strongest students in the class get treated like free TAs even though they also paid the same amount to be there. There was little to no 1:1 time with instructor to provide personalized guidance or advice. 

2. The amount that the staff's personal lives was allowed to interfere with curriculum was frustrating. People get sick, kids get sick, and bad weather happens. In all these cases we either didn't have class, or were redirected to a FREE online resource or not given additional material at all. There was no backup plan to cover these days to keep us moving forward. In a 12 week program I think we had about 6 missed class days for various reasons  ($1200 value in lost class/instructor time per student). 

3. Lack of resources. For $12k I expected more. More personalized guidance and advice, more post-grad resources and certainly more job assistance. As an alumnus, I continue getting emails to help out current students, be a mentor, etc. These are great ideas, but how can you charge so much for a program then expect alumni to provide the services and resources for free? The whole program felt a bit like "winging it". Students had to take out garbage and do dishes...in a program that cost them $200/day.

4. The job guarantee doesn't apply anymore. Their "job assistance" is not all that useful. Some students get mock interviews, but it wasn't tracked or scheduled in advance so some folks got to practice multiple times and others not at all. The post-graduation guidance is "apply for 10 jobs a week". Fine, but in a small city there aren't always 10 entry-level jobs posted in any given week. I expected them to be a little more proactive in notifying students of opportunities. Also, students who had all but stopped attending class were allowed to "graduate" and participate in demo day along side students who had been consistent all along.  

The one good thing about my experience was my instructor. He really knew his stuff and tried to help us as much as he could. In the same breath, even he had issues with The Iron Yard "Leadership"/Management. My 2 main issues with the program is that I received 0 job finding assistance and I cannot fathom a logical explanation for the cost of the class.

I busted my ass everyday in class, learned the material and did my entire job search on my own. I sat down and applied to about 60 places and got a job by myself. Do not believe their main selling point of "We even help you get a job." That's bullshit. 

On top of that the class costs $10,000. For 10K times a class of lets say 15, we sat at cheap IKEA tables, brought our own computers, and used a bunch of free software. And if you're lucky the campus directors will hand you one tshirt before the course is over. Nothing about my experience could have explained my class bringing The Iron Yard $150,000. Spending that amount of money for 12 weeks of school was more expensive than 12 weeks of Out of State college tuition. It just doesn't make sense.

I suggest learning what you can for free, then picking a program that gives you what you need for the best value. Avoid the scams.

I'd advise anyone thinking about enrolling in this bootcamp course to first look up free resources on the web.  I spent over 2 and a half thousand on a Ruby on Rails course with TIY and at the end my only positive from the experience was this realisation: "Now you've blown this money, do whatever is necessary to learn this stuff on your own or elsewhere".  So please, don't make the mistake I made (unless you have tons of dosh to blow.

No offence to the tutors, they know their stuff.  But TIY from my experience is a money making scam; those who've had a different experience have been luckier than I have.

I've since found these resources below to be much much more valuable than the time and money I spent with TIY 

http://7in7.crashlearner.com/  - free

https://www.udemy.com/draft/415482/learn  - free

https://www.udemy.com/pro-rubyonrails/learn - $8

http://www.littlewebhut.com/ - free

http://www.justinweiss.com/ - free

http://www.youtube.com - free

There's so many more free and cheap resources out there, but you get the drift.  Spend £2500.00 on some marketing hype or invest some time and less than £10.00 online?  You do the math!

I loved being at The Iron Yard. I learn best when I get up and sit in a classroom, so TIY was exactly what I was looking for. I live in an area that doesn't have a lot of tech opportunities, so TIY ended up being the cheapest option. A big part of TIY (and many other programs/jobs) is that you get out what you put in. I worked hard and was able to snag a good job a few weeks after the program. My teacher was amazing and always there to answer questions or give help. I also loved my Campus Director - they ended up getting me the job I have now.

I was lucky enough to be apart of a cohort that was small, so we all worked together pretty well. However, since we were a small group, there were a few people who were accepted into the program that seemed to be less dedicated than others. However, I'm sure there are people like that at every cohort.

I loved my experience at TIY and I would recommend it to people who want a classroom approach when it comes to learning how to code. It's important to note that each Iron Yard campus is different, so if anyone is looking to apply I would check out the campus first. Regardless, I loved my campus and the people there - my life has changed for the better, and I can't thank them enough.

My Background -  I was just a regular guy with a wide background. I knew a lot of things, but one thing i didn't know is what i wanted to do with my life in regards to a career. Then my fiance heard about these guys. I looked them up and called them up and came in for a tour/interview. The at the time school director was a little high on the expected salary for graduates, said something about $75,000/yr starting out. I didn't believe him but i already made that much as a machinist and it wasn't worth it for me to stay in that field. DON'T DO SOMETHING YOU DON'T LOVE OR ENJOY!! So i missed the semester/class that was coming up since i needed to save up to get by the 12 weeks of no job. Yes, you read that right, no job for 12 weeks. So i waited for the Jan. 2015 class, and i did the "required" pre-work beforehand. NOTE: You don't have to finish all of this pre-work, because it is what you will be learning in the first few weeks. But let me tell you that even if you do the pre-work, you will not actually learn it. The pre-work serves as an introduction but the codecademy classes and tutorials out there don't actually teach you how it works, it just shows you how to do it, in the same sense that i can tell you "how to paint", which is by dipping a brush into paint and then dragging it across the paper in this direction. That is codecademy, walking you through to show you how to code. But an instructor will go in and tell you about the brush strokes and how a different shade of pink will bring out the darkness of that purple. I'm not an artist but you get what im trying to explain. 

Enter The Iron Yard - I did my pre-work for HTML & CSS and then started the javascript but only got to 25%. So my first two weeks were pretty laid back. I had an introduction to HTML & CSS and was able to better learn the "brush strokes" of HTML & CSS. Then we got into Javascript. And the first part is more of a handheld walk on an unsteady, yet stable bridge. You run into a problem and ask Matt, "Oh, just do this instead." Got it! Go sit back down and keep working. Then you start doing these assignments and you ask for help and even though you got your answer, and go back to your desk and keep working, it feels like you're still lost on what the assignment even is. That's when you start questioning if that crappy job you had before was better than these long hours you're spending every day just to figure out how to get that soundcloud or Etsy app to work. Then you get to the end of the learning part of school, and you hit the last three weeks. Final project. This is the moment of truth, the moment that shows who stayed up until/past midnight every night learning how to make those ajax requests. You demo, science fair style, so you will be speaking a lot. Make sure you drink plenty of water. 

Life After - I wasn't the best developer out of my co-hort, but not the worst and it took me 5 weeks to get hired. I'm a designer/developer, i build websites and i wouldn't be where i'm at if it wasn't for Matt and Brian. So just as you have read it in a few other reviews, if you put the time in and work through those hard nights, you too can say the same thing. Don't expect to pay $12,000 to be handed a job. There are a ton of developer jobs out there, but you have to know what you're doing. Already as it is, a lot of companies are looking for Computer Science degrees, and you will have to prove you can at least keep up with them. So if you're ready to really learn and move into that better job, this is the place that can help you.

Just like everyone else looking for a new career, I was sucked in by their promise of turning anyone into a highly sought after, well paid developer. I read some bad reviews but decided to try it anyways because of the few good reviews stating that the person's success was dependent solely on the amount they were willing to dedicate to learning. The Iron Yard says that anyone can attend even if they have zero experience with coding. So because of this I was expecting to be taught everything from A to Z but that was no where near the truth. Before the course begins you must complete some prework which consists of learning everything you can about html/css/javascript/jquery on your own, so pretty much more than half of what you are paying $12,000 for THEM to teach you. Then once the course begins, their teachings consists of mostly skimming through what you should have learned on your own on codeacademy, lectures, and only a few examples here and there. The schedule was a complete joke, only 4-5 hours a day were dedicated to actual teaching and the rest was what they call "lab time" which is their fancy way of saying you can stay in the classroom and work on your assignments. For the $12,000 you pay them, the only things of value you are getting are: a blue-print of what you must learn to be a front end developer, access to a room with wifi, people to answer any questions you may have, and somewhat of a community of other developers. Their "job assistance" is pretty much spamming every employer until one of them bites. None of this is worth even half of what they charge to attend, the only reason they get away with it is because there are not many other options.

If you are thinking about attending the houston location I will save you $12,000 of your hard earned money. All you have to do is go to the codeacademy website and complete the FREE courses. Then google node.js, backbone.js, react.js, heroku, and REST. No joke this makes up their entire course. The only things you need now are wifi and someone to answer any questions you may have (this is where google comes in). Even better, all of this can be learned for free by watching YouTube videos, you just need to know what to search for (like i said, simply google what a front end developer must know).

The only positive thing I can say about the Houston location is that the people are really nice, but that's it.

If you can afford to take 12wks off from work, which you'd have to do to attend, then do that and use online resources to teach yourself. Don't be pulled into this scheme. This place will promise you the moon and doesn't even deliver a rock. They will blatantly lie about job opportunities when you start and by the end of the course they are scrambling to get anyone to take a second look at students. Employers aren't fooled or interested in hiring people from here unless you want to work for free or little pay as an intern. They will pass anyone that pays their ridiculous fees. Parking isn't included so you spend a ton of money on that. If some people in the class are behind you'll end up staying in the same curriculum. They make up the curriculum and it's usually unorganized. They don't even check your work after you do it. They depend on students to teach each other more than teachers. If you're one of the people that understands how to do something you'll be expected to teach and pull up the stragglers on your free time. 

The people I attended with barely can find work - the heads of the class mostly did internships, and the other ones that did find some work started off at closer to 25,000 a year, not the promised 75,000 to 100,000. The only people that really benefit from this already have a good base in coding and they don't benefit $12,000+ from it. It's a lie that they can take you from not understanding coding to being a developer but either way you'll get a passing certificate. You'll regret going here if you're unlucky enough to join.