Makers academy

Discussion in 'Employment & Jobs' started by gauru, Jul 26, 2015.

  1. gauru

    gauru Gauru

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    hi ...I just want to know you guys opinion of makers academy. ...here is the link...
    Www. .makersacademy. Com
    Brief snapshot of what they do
    ..they take £8000 for three month course in IT
    ...1 in 10 applicant gets selected for the course( as the site says)
    ...after the course they help you get entery level roles on Development
    ...course is very intensive approx 60 hours per week
    ....you build a portfolio during this time basically using ruby and other languages
    ...no previous knowledge of development is required
     
    WIP: A+
  2. dmarsh
    Honorary Member 500 Likes Award

    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    Why would you need it if you've already completed a computer science degree ?

    Loads free or low cost Ruby, Javascript, HTML and CSS tutorials around. There are countless millions of websites.

    https://www.codeschool.com/
    https://www.coursera.org/course/webapplications
    https://www.codecademy.com/
    http://www.pluralsight.com/
    http://www.lynda.com/Ruby-training-tutorials/303-0.html
    https://www.edx.org/course/learn-html5-w3c-w3cx-html5-1x

    The resources around are endless, you're simply not looking or applying yourself, you think there is an easy fix, the reality is you have to want it and work hard, other people aren't always going to be there solve your problems, you need to become more resourceful.

    Learn to use google to find things, search for Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), Computer Based Training (CBT), HTML5, Javascript, Angular, Node.js.

    ruby or beginning web dev

    Your degree should have given you a foundation and some confidence, some skills with technology and learning, its time to apply those skills.

    If you want to meet like minded people, did you even look at the meetup website ? Did you go to any meetups ?

    Why ask for advice if you aren't prepared to listen or take action ?

    The course you listed looks ok, its an unnecessary expense for someone with a computer degree. You should be able to self study and get similar or better results.

    There's no magic shortcut, you have to put the work in.
     
    Last edited: Jul 26, 2015
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  3. Juelz

    Juelz Gigabyte Poster

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    Hi mate

    I really wouldn't bother, you have a CS degree.. I dont see how this would benefit you, as you said they help you to find a job not give you one. All they would really do is give you aloada job adds you could have found yourself. Why not try to go freelance and buildup a portfolio.. Do abit of free work if you have to. If you think you lack the knowledge then use tutorial of YouTube. It seems you're looking for an easy route but there isn't one..
     
  4. Kitkatninja
    Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    Kitkatninja aka me, myself & I Moderator

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    Sorry £8000? You can almost get a Masters degree for that amount...

    It may work for some, but as you've asked us our opinions. I wouldn't as you're not guaranteed a job at the end of it, added to that, I've seen entry level jobs start off at £12k. But hey, that's just my opinion...
     
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  5. Apexes

    Apexes Gigabyte Poster

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    Don't do it.

    I got suckered into a similar course when i was 17 and got screwed over.

    avoid avoid avoid
     
    Certifications: 70-243 MCTS: ConfigMgr 2012 | MCSE: Private Cloud
  6. gauru

    gauru Gauru

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    thanks for all the advice....but I am still undecided....Is this really the easy route
    £ 8000 payment
    1 month pre course preparation self study
    3-4 months course with at least 9-10 hours per day and a minimum 9am-6pm at the center; if you do this with a team you are surely going to upgrade your knowledge

    I am going for a interview there on 4 August....and see what they tell me....before attending the interview i am supposed to complete the ruby course on codeacademy and read first 8 chapter of 'Learn to program by Chris pine'...i ll keep you guys update
     
    WIP: A+
  7. dmarsh
    Honorary Member 500 Likes Award

    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    So firstly I'd be concerned that if a 3 year degree wasn't enough for you to pick stuff up, surely there's an underlying problem with effort ?

    Secondly know that if you take this course for £8000, its not done and complete, career sorted, you've simply taken the first step on a 10,000 mile journey...

    You need to be prepared for a marathon, that means training everyday for years, not weeks. Most developers never stop learning. I've been studying for 23 years and I'm still learning.

    You won't be able to afford £8000 per step, so somewhere along the way you are going to have to become self reliant.

    Thirdly you asked for a weekend course for no money, this is a full time course for a LOT of money.

    When the course finishes you are going to have to go home, and start writing code alone, a lot of code, everyday, as much as you can manage. So why not start now ?

    I'd even argue that if you don't enjoy coding alone now for free, just for kicks, you probably shouldn't even consider a career as a software developer. Doing it professionally is often a lot less fun, and if you don't have that initial passion for it, its most likely a waste of time.

    Good developers often go home after eight hours coding in the office, and pick up their keyboard and start knocking out code on a personal project. Ask yourself, are you that passionate?

    Finally to answer your question, yes a boot-camp is the 'easy' route compared to self study. I study 6-8 hours alone some evenings after work, its normal for this job.
     
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2015
  8. Apexes

    Apexes Gigabyte Poster

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    I went on one of these when i was 17, the company was called ICSLondon.

    Started us off on programming C# and Javascript, classes were fairly good. But then sent us to "Work from Home" with tutor support 24/7 - didn't get any of it. not a single bit. After we did that class they weren't interested in any of us, and communication disappeared.

    i wasted 6k on it - I've always regretted it.

    Just because they have 9-10 hours a day of learning doesn't mean you just pick up coding and development, and if they place you as a junior developer after 3 months into a job role paying between £25 - £40k - i will eat my hat, in fact - i'll wee on my hat first, and then i'll eat it.

    1 in 10 applications is BS - they accept anyone who's willing to pay the 8k

    I'm biased by having a bad experience, but regardless. keep your 8k and self study, you can get so much in terms of education and qualifications for that amount of money, you don't need to give it to this scam of a business
     
    Certifications: 70-243 MCTS: ConfigMgr 2012 | MCSE: Private Cloud
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  9. Coupe2T

    Coupe2T Megabyte Poster

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    Personally I wouldn't do it either. Where did you earn your degree? I'm surprised you are even considering this given that you already have a degree under your belt?

    Why do you feel the need to do this as well? I would suggest that this is aimed more at people with much less knowledge and experience, and as such I am not convinced on the amount of benefit you will get out of it.

    When you go for the interview then they will tell you what they think you want to hear. They are going to be salesman after all. I would also question the "1 in 10 are accepted" statement, a number of training companies have done this in the past that I know of when in fact, pretty much everyone who is willing to pay the costs is accepted.

    Not saying the training they provide wont be decent, it may well be, but I would certainly be asking for a full itinerary on what will be covered and when and so forth, as much of it you may already know, and so you might end up spending 8k for minimal additional knowledge.
     
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  10. gauru

    gauru Gauru

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    thank you guys...I know all of you wish me well....but just to upgrade your information, I had acquired a Computer science degree way back in 2003...so I am kind of lost about how to start..i did enjoy to program that time....after that I had worked in sales ...and did two years full time MBA marketing along the way
     
    WIP: A+
  11. dmarsh
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    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    I acquired my degree in 1995, I learnt COBOL, ADA, Smalltalk, C++, 80x86, SQL and Fortran at college. How does that alter matters ?

    Congrats on the MBA, Sales and Marketing are quite different fields to development. The two don't normally mix.

    What coding have you done in the last 12 years ?
     
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2015
  12. gauru

    gauru Gauru

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    I have not done any coding since 2004-05...before that i made a few simple desktop programs using java and databases (such as record storing and processing) But I hope you do not think that as I have not shown any inclination to programming after that makes me ineligible for a career in this field.
     
    WIP: A+
  13. dmarsh
    Honorary Member 500 Likes Award

    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    Its the first question you will get asked at interview, 10 years not programming after getting a degree isn't going to look good.

    If anything it means you're going to have to have loads of recent programs and progress to show people to really blow their socks off.

    You're also going to have to take a junior developer or graduate developer role, its likely that earnings will be considerably less than sales and marketing roles.
     
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2015
  14. zxspectrum

    zxspectrum Terabyte Poster Forum Leader Gold Member

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    Save your money, there are lots of free resources on the web which people have already mentioned, £8 k is a lot of money. Dont get me wrong in what I say here, but that is one massive gap from getting a degree to not doing any coding since? It took me ages to get my foot in the door but in the meantime I did work for friends and voluntary work experience in Schools and universities as i was that desperate to get into IT.

    And as some people have pointed out it wont just be a quick get some certificate and its happy days, you will constantly need to evolve and update your skills, I often also find myself remoting in from home to carry on with a big issue, which has resulted in being noticed by management, which id the brown stuff ever hit the fan in the case of redundancies, I may be thought of in a better light.

    Ed
     
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  15. gauru

    gauru Gauru

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    "If anything it means you're going to have to have loads of recent programs and progress to show people to really blow their socks off."

    This is what I want to achieve....just looking for how best to do it.
    @zxspectrum - I think of IT as a career change; I'll not be banking on my graduation degree but on recent projects which hopefully I will create
     
    WIP: A+
  16. SimonD
    Honorary Member

    SimonD Terabyte Poster

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    Don't waste your money, listen if you're looking at a career change then you're much better off saving the money and using it for the massive pay drop you're going to have when starting from the bottom of the ladder.

    Find a decent entry level position that will accept a junior developer role and learn on the job, paying large sums of money for training at this stage isn't going to get your foot in the door, it's just going to lose you large sums of money for no good reason.

    Time and again we have seen people come here for advice, get offered that advice and then completely ignore it and just do what they want, if you want our advice, listen to it, take it on board and adhere to it, if you don't actually want our advice don't ask, ignore and then complain months down the line that you're £x amount out of pocket and that you wish you hadn't done it.

    The gist of the advice given here is don't do the course, it's a waste of your money.
     
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  17. gauru

    gauru Gauru

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    Guys you would be happy to know that I have cancelled the interview with makers academy. ...I am going to build a Java desktop application - a normal calculator. I would go on building increasingly complex/large programs in Java. After a certain level I plan to branch out to other related languages.what do you guys think?
     
    WIP: A+
  18. Coupe2T

    Coupe2T Megabyte Poster

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    I think there is a bit of a shift away from Java at the moment, certainly from a web based front end at least. I don't think Edge or the new version of Chrome run Java now, so depending what sort of development you are looking at getting into be mindful of technologies currently in use and where it is moving.

    That said I am in no way attached to any sort of development role, so I am not overly sure where it is myself, but just make sure you are looking at the right languages to learn for moving forward.
     
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  19. dmarsh
    Honorary Member 500 Likes Award

    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    Sure knock-up a calculator in Java as a start.

    Your chances of getting a job with Java alone are slim, every year another 20,000+ computer graduates that 'know Java' will hit the market. Then there are 20 years of experienced Java developers that exist. Its a very competitive industry.

    You need to :

    1. Have skills people want
    2. Differentiate yourself

    Most people try to do this by knowing the most or being the best, its unlikely either of these is going to work for you going up against Java programmers with 10+ years experience. I would therefore pick a niche and specialise.

    Consider Scala, Go or Python. JavaScript, Angular and Node. Android or Swift. Then write something interesting in them, Blog about it or take it to interview.

    Chrome no longer supports the Java Applet NPAPI plugin by default (it can be re-enabled), other NPAPI plugins like Silverlight (C#) will also lose support. People had already given up writing applets years ago. Java is not big in the thick client space, it never really took off on the desktop. Google do not see NPAPI plugins have a future and I suspect they dont want to spend money supporting them, as they introduce issues about security, stability and performance into the browser.
    http://blog.chromium.org/2014/11/the-final-countdown-for-npapi.html

    Google now have Google Native Client (NaCl) which is their preferred plugin model.

    Many people were under tested at uni, if you weren't in the top 30% of your CS class, again I'd say you are most likely wasting your time.
    http://www.software.ac.uk/blog/2013-10-31-whats-wrong-computer-scientists#comment-10492
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2015
  20. Juelz

    Juelz Gigabyte Poster

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    Pretty much agree with whats been said. Good choice canceling that "interview" (sales pitch). Best you can do is refresh yourself on what you learnt on your CS degree by looking at tutorials etc, give Udemy ago they usually have sales on their courses. The dev world is competition stiff mate but if its what you want then go for the it.

    Good luck
     
    dmarsh likes this.

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