“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

David Yang, one of Fullstack/Grace Hopper’s co-founders, brought up this quote during his parting words to my cohort as we graduated. It resonated so strongly with me and sums up how I feel about attending Grace Hopper. Despite having majored in computer science as an undergraduate, I never felt confident enough in my skills as a programmer to pursue an engineering career. In addition to the practical skills necessary to land a software engineering job in 2019, Grace Hopper provided a supportive, nurturing environment unlike any I’d experienced before. It was such an incredibly inspiring and fulfilling experience and I can’t recommend it highly enough!

February 10, 2019

I had some computer science background from school and had just graduated, but there was a 2 year gap between my last front-end engineering internship, so it was hard to talk about an experience from so long ago, without more recent work experience or projects having to do with web development. I decided to do the bootcamp because it was hard to get an internship having already graduated from college. I was at a crossroads. I knew enough to get a contracting position, where I would be trained for a few weeks, but would have to give a certain percentage of my earnings to the company for a year and a half, with very limited vacation time and benefits. I decided to pay the deposit for the program so that I could get an education that was more geared towards Software Engineering. Also, I figured I could acquire a salary of at least $100,000 with more benefits in just a few months. And that’s what ended up happening!

Although, I wasn’t really challenged given my background, I really appreciated the workshops and the lectures on the technologies I’d never used before, or dabbled with in the past, because I picked up on it very quickly. I took a quiz on PluralSight, and because of the curriculum, we were at the start of the “Expert” level for React.

I also liked their focus on having us understand what types of problems the technologies we were taught, were solving. We had amazing teachers, and I was lucky to be part of a supportive, and amazing cohort!

If you have a similar background, but want to be taken more seriously as a Full-stack Engineer, I recommend this program.

Finally, I got a lot of feedback on my resume, LinkedIn profile, and my responses to behavioral questions. These were all things I had trouble with on my own. In the alumni slack channel, everyone is so ready to help each other and give input. We set up a community where we could ask each other anything. Such as input on an email to a recruiter, or peoples’ favorite resources for studying algorithms. It’s a great and supportive community. It improved my confidence as a candidate because I was more prepared.

February 17, 2019

Why I LOVED GHA – I made some amazing friendships in my cohort. Since graduating, I’ve hung out at least one of my classmates every week, and we have monthly get togethers where most of our cohort shows up. They’re the most amazing group of women. I love them so much!

The curriculum – The GHA program is definitely the best educational experience I’ve ever had. I have many friends in tech recruiting who recognize GHA and want to hire grads from this program. It’s one of the reasons I chose GHA. This bootcamp knows the skills that are growing in demand and that’s what they teach you. One thing I wish I personally did was prep more before I joined, even before Foundations, because I always felt like I was playing catch up at every point. I loved my instructors, they are so knowledgeable and really want you to succeed. If anyone senses you’re struggling they will do everything they can to help you understand the material better. By the end, I completed three projects that I can show to employers, and worked in agile methodology so I have something to talk about during interviews. Before this program, I would never have imagined being able to make any of these projects, but I did! And it was a good time too.

Something they can improve on – interview prep. I’m on the fence about saying this, since the job search is always a crapshoot, but I really wished this program took interview prep more seriously. We were taught the basic approach to white boarding, practiced hard questions 2 times a week in senior phase without much context, and had a 30 min mock technical before hiring day which is like 1/50th of how much time you should actually practice. My personal interview prep took place the weeks after graduation, at real interviews and through supplemental online interview prep courses. I received 2 job offers through hiring day though so I can’t totally complain, but there were definitely some great opportunities I missed due to my lack of preparation.

March 10, 2019

I attended the Grace Hopper (all women) division of Fullstack Academy. I couldn’t imagine a better environment to not only to learn but to completely change careers. I had a huge support network, between my three dozen classmates, half a dozen fellows, the instuctors, directors, and career success team. Additionally, the curriculum is up to date with the current frameworks and technologies most widely used in the industry–javascript, react, redux–which I feel gives me an edge both interviewing and once on the job. I just signed a job offer at an amazing company yesterday, 2 months after graduation, and couldn’t be happier

March 15, 2019

The Grace Hopper Program at Fullstack Academy changed my life. One month after I finished bootcamp, I found my dream job as a Full Stack Software Engineer. Corey and Geoff were the best instructors I could’ve asked for — they made the rigorous curriculum fun and interesting, and were always happy to answer questions. Natalie in Career Services was incredibly helpful during the stressful time of finding a job post-bootcamp, and I am grateful these folks were there to hold my hand.

I was surprised at how quickly I was able to contribute once on the job, thanks to Grace Hopper/Fullstack! I added to the massive codebase of my company within the first two days of working there, and I am confident that I will be able to solve whatever problem is thrown at me. It is a testament to the strength of the curriculum that we are at the three-month mark since we graduated and most of my cohort has received at least one offer.

Not only did I become a competent software engineer after this program, I also have a strong network of fellow female engineers. I am so glad I chose Grace Hopper!

April 9, 2019

The Grace Hopper program has been absolutely one of the most unique learning environments I’ve been in. It is fast-paced, and they expect you to work hard. The first six weeks were FULL of lectures and it was a bit of information overload. But the remainder of the course was much more project-based, and expands thoroughly upon the topics covered in the lectures. The staff and instructors are very willing and available to answer questions, but it is entirely up to you to ask the questions and get the help you need. They do not coddle people, but they will always set aside time if you ask.
My cohort was ~30 women who were overall very solid teammates and great people to work with, some of which I would consider wonderful friends. The projects are team-focused, and communication skills are essential.
The challenge for me is staying motivated and focused, as it can feel overwhelming at times. However, if i had been self-studying for the same amount of time as the program, I would have NEVER accomplished even close to what I was able to produce within this school. I was pushed beyond what I thought I was capable of, and I am forever changed and thankful for it.
So glad to recommend this program to any women or non-binary people looking to break into web development and programming.

April 15, 2019

Prior to the Grace Hopper Program, I was in a position where my job has become stagnant and going to work was a drag. I had interests in coding but never thought it would be possible to become an engineer. I thought to myself, people go to school for 4 years to learn this stuff. However, after attending the Boot Camp Prep course at Fullstack Academy, it occurred to me that the road to becoming an engineer wasn’t as impossible as I had thought. (I attended the month-long Boot Camp Prep class because I had no prior knowledge with programming and to attend Fullstack’s actual boot camp you will need some knowledge of code.)

The actual Bootcamp was 17 weeks long and it flew by. I had many amazing instructors during my time at Grace Hopper. (Shout outs to, Geoff, Jess, Brian, Ben, and David.) Every single person I interacted with was supportive and brilliant. There were times during the program where it was very stressful and I had doubts about my ability to code. The material we were learning was extremely difficult and hard to grasp. But because of Fullstack’s no asshole policy and supportive environment, we were able to pull through and developed quite the camaraderie. Not only were we taught how to code, but we were also taught how to continue to learn and grow our technical knowledge base.

Now that I have graduated from the program and on my way to my first engineering job, all I can say is, why didn’t I make this jump sooner?

July 18, 2019