Codeworks - London

James Chamberlain

I signed up for Codeworks' Software Engineering Immersive course after deciding to switch careers. Doing so was one of the best decisions of my life. Within three weeks of finishing the course I secured my first role as a developer.

After deciding that I'd apply to study with Codeworks, I was fortunate enough to be able to spend three months preparing for the course full-time. If you have other responsibilities, you should perhaps plan to give yourself at least 6 months to complete the application process and pre-course materials. The admissions team are all really friendly and can help advise based on your personal situation.

The course itself is split into two six week sections, with a short break in-between. The first half of the course consists of daily exercises and coding challenges and are supported by short lectures, code reviews, and study materials. A typical day starts with a code challenge and then dives straight into lectures and a Q&A session. You'll spend most of the day coding alongside a partner to solve a tough exercise and at the end of the day review a solution with an instructor. During my cohort they were experimenting with delivering lectures via pre-recorded video. Whilst video lectures are a good idea, this first iteration wasn't great. That said, you soon come to see that the lectures are a tiny part of the learning experience.

Codeworks' teaching philosophy follows the firehose method. You will be exposed to so many ideas and new technologies so quickly at times it will feel extremely overwhelming. All I can say is put your trust in the methodology and in your instructors. Get comfortable with feeling out of your depth and confused - that's partially the point! You're being trained to encounter difficult concepts and seek out the information you need in order to understand and apply them. Weekly assessments will help you identify areas that you need to work on, and guidance is only ever a help request away. All of the instructors were extremely friendly and were fantastic at helping you find answers and process difficult concepts.

Following the first six weeks, you'll have a week off. During this break, you'll likely spend the first half sleeping and the second half preparing for your first senior project. The second half of the course consists of three projects. With these you'll have the opportunity to build an app from scratch all by yourself, to review, test, and improve someone else's project in a pair, and finally to work in a team to deliver a more ambitious application. I would fully recommend doing the entire 12 week course as every project teaches you something slightly different. I found this invaluable when talking about my experience in job interviews.

In the final week you'll start preparing for your job hunt. Once the course ends you'll want to keep up this momentum and start applying. I'd recommend that you plan to make time for the job hunt - keep a month free after the course ends. My job hunt ended up being almost as intense as the course. There's a careers advisor on hand to help provide advice and motivation during this phase.

I originally felt nervous about signing up for a bootcamp. Even with Codeworks' competitive pricing, it was still the largest sum of money I've ever spent. Following an unpredictable year of freelance work, I couldn't afford for this course not to result in a job. I can now confidently say that all that nervousness was unnecessary. Codeworks prepares you extremely well for the current job market, though you get as much out of the course as you put in.

If you are both willing and able to push yourself harder than you ever have done before, can afford to commit to a challenging and exhausting few months, and bring plenty of enthusiasm and positivity I can't recommend it enough. It's tough but it's worth it. If you're completely new to coding and unsure whether it's for you, I'd recommend trying out Harvard's free CS50x course - it'll put you in a good place to start your Codeworks application!

Đorđe Simović

Hi everyone, my name is Djordje and I was a Codeworks remote student in the begining of 2021.
Before the bootcamp I was a flight attended, and I was a bit skeptical that in 3 month you can learn that much, even without any coding background. But, I was wrong. Pre-course and the course prepare you, and teach you so much, that now in my job I have more or less the same knowledge as the people who are working for a year. It is really intense bootcamp where you won't be able to do anything else, but code, for 12 weeks. You will read, study, write and dream code. You will be coding for 6 days a week, and 12 hours per day and you need to be ready for this both physically and mentally. Even the aplication process and pre-course are really demanding in a way that you will need to make a small game before the bootcamp. The teachers are excellent, always trying to give you the best answers and solutions. Even if sometimes seems that you are stuck, and some things are super confusing, the curriculum is made in that way, that in the end everything makes sense. By the end of 3 month, you will be prepared to search for a job with 3 real-life projects in your CV.
I was able to find a job in less than a month after finishing the bootcamp and without any pre-knowledge in the field. I am really satisfied with the knowledge and support I got. All recommendations! 10/10

Baiju Joseph

I started the program as a novice in JavaScript. The induction to the program was tough. I had to go through an initial test which I was able to clear only at the 3rd attempt. Once in, there was an elaborate pre-course assignment which would certify my credentials for the course. I was successful at that and from there on, the journey was unbelievable. I was able to absorb a lot of JS based technologies which would later on help me land myself a job as a software developer. the curriculum was meticulously designed, had a lot of modern and recently introduced concepts which would keep me abreast with the latest technologies, the TAs were awesome, and their support was outstanding. I was able to do 3 projects while at the course, which helped me gain a practical understanding of the technologies I would later on use, while also giving me confidence to go out and explore possibilities with different tech stacks myself. The after course career mentoring was also great and helped me a lot to understand how recruiters would ideally view people with my levels of skills. I would rate the overall experience very highly and would be happy to recommend it to others thinking about switching careers or starting a new career in tech.

Maria Lukyanova

Highly recommend this bootcamp if you want to learn latest tech stack for Web Development and restart your career. Successfully found a job within 2 month after completion!

Matt Haddon

Steep learning curve and a fantastic experience working with very bright and friendly people. I found a great coding job shortly after finishing. Thanks Codeworks!

Malcolm Wilkie

I have only good things to say about my time at Codeworks. Lots of awesome people dedicated to making you a better programmer and giving you all the tools you need to make a real difference in a company on day 1.

Caroline Victor-Pujebet

Best Bootcamp in my opinion. The curriculum and classes are highly qualitative and the support from the teachers is amazing. Crazy intense but definitely worth it!

Marzena Gromowska

Best programming bootcamp out there!! Massive support, worth every penny 🙂