Spent a year looking for a coding job with minimal support. I went into tech sales and now they want me to pay them the ISA. Seems like most students look for a job from 6 months to a year. A good portion of students(~25% rough est.) never get coding jobs and yet they're told to pay the ISA. I know at least 10 personally. Of course it's in the contract, but I signed it based on false statistics. They misconstrue outcomes to close the sale. Once you're signed in, they treat you like an indentured servant. The 98% job placement rate they claimed was false. You need to get a Software Engineering job in order to graduate. They refused to give me certification because I didn't get a coding job. When I signed up they said it was full-stack but it wasn't. We did 4 days of Javascript. I spent 3-4 months teaching myself front-end after the program. Also, they allegedly attained their ISA and became a school by fraudulent means. The link attached is a notice for them to stop admitting students and collecting ISA payments until a court ruling is made. https://www.bppe.ca.gov/enforcement/actions/holberton_emergency_20200124.pdf They don't tell you this when you sign up but everything is being recorded. Every room has microphones and high res cameras. You're being watched the whole time. If you question them or give any feedback that strays from the party line, you get threatened with expulsion by the founder(+ $85k debt and no coding job). There was no code of conduct stating what violations warrant expulsion. I asked for a fitness/stretching area when we moved to a giant campus and he scolded me like a middle schooler. I then asked for them to welcome feedback from their paying customers, and that's when he threatened me with expulsion. They seem to be more focused on investors and rapid growth than iterating on their product and providing optimal outcomes for their students. Since they can just make up any numbers they want, they have no incentive to care about students who fall between the cracks. They paid everyone in our cohort $50 Amazon gift cards to leave reviews. Anyone who left less than 5 stars was courted to raise their rating. Yes, I learned how to code and made some amazing friends there. For that I am grateful. It's just hard to justify that ISA when they half-deliver on promises, treat you like an indentured servant, and put people without coding jobs in debt without thinking twice. Now it's going global, and at the same time imploding in on it's own moral void. That's why I call it the WeWork of Bootcamps. read more

I had a good experience at Holberton School and was able to use my training to land jobs successfully after the first nine months. The founders have an extensive French tech network and in my case it played a significant role in helping me find my first job. As part of the first batch, I did not have to pay anything for my tuition, and I owe a lot to the founders for my current career. However, over time I feel myself grow more ambivalent about the school due to certain limitations. The founders certainly have good intentions but peer learning can be difficult to manage well, and creating a safe and inclusive environment is paramount to trying to make tech education more accessible, which is supposedly one of their higher goal. I think it's crucial that the founders earn and maintain the trust of their students through transparency and a better understanding of the true obstacles that underrepresented students in the tech industry face. Community management, understanding of cultural issues (put more clearly, the school is supposedly progressive but in reality they're not woke) and professionalism are all areas in which Holberton could improve. For full disclosure I most likely never would have considered attended Holberton if it cost me 18% of my salary for three years, mostly because I'm financially risk averse due to my financial background and the cost of living in San Francisco without a job for 9 months by itself was a significant investment on my part. I probably would've opted to try learn from resources on the web by myself. However, the education and training was good quality, and personally I benefit from the structure and guidance of a curriculum as well as the industry experience and advice of the school's many mentors. I liked the project-based model a lot more than the dry Intro to CS (/Java) class I took in college. You won't find many schools that even train you in sysadmin or devops, or put an emphasis on low-level learning, resourcefulness, soft skills and CS fundamentals like Holberton does. You'll spend a lot of your time at the school and form tight bonds with your peers; and the fact that the batches tend to be fairly gender and background diverse (a range of ages and some people fresh from high school, some career-changers) made it an enjoyable environment in some aspects. I want to warn that it can be hard to keep up with the curriculum unless you have a knack for math and science or have familiarized yourself a bit with CS in advance. As far as I know they haven't fully ironed out the peer learning yet so there tends to be two groups within a single cohort: one that can keep up with the material but tends to be preoccupied with advancing their own learning and earning all the points they can, and one that's struggling to keep up. A lot of people have dropped out because they can't keep up with the pace, unfortunately. However, there are some people without a CS background who managed to stick with the program and use it as the jumping pad for successful careers as software engineers. Try to talk to both to get an idea before you join the school. Job prospects seem to vary. Some people find a lucrative job soon afterwards, and some search for more than nine months without luck. Although engineers in general are highly competitive in the job market, it's still hard for junior engineers in the market right now. read more

Holberton School is an amazing place to learn full stack software engineering - from the fundamentals and low level software engineering to higher level programming. All assignments are project based and there are no traditional teachers. The students are expected to do their own research to learn the material to complete the projects. Instead of formal teachers, students are encouraged to first ask other students for help and teach each other. The school also helps prepare students for the soft skills they need as a programmer. There are days were the students practice interviewing through mock interviews with each other. There are also mentors who are available to do mock interviews with students once they are ready to start interviewing at companies for jobs and internships. Some of the projects are also done in groups, so students learn how to work together to complete the assignment. I am currently close to half way through the initial 9-months of the two year program. Some of my favorite things about the program are: - The staff is wonderful and genuinely care about the students. - Great network of mentors who work in the industry - Very diverse population of students - many people are changing careers, others are fresh out of college or high school - all learning programming - No payments up front - just once you get a job - Great space with plenty of whiteboards and variety of working arrangements (sitting and standing desks, study rooms, bean bags) For me, the only "con" I can think of is that it is very difficult to have a job while attending the school which means living on a budget. I don't really mind this as much, though, because I am having so much fun learning about software engineering and programming. read more

Amazing school. I moved from New York to San Francisco just to attend here. In today's information age, we are faced with the Paradox of Choice when it comes to our education. There's always a variety of courses that you can take online, college courses you can physically take, a multitude of books... In my opinion, it's hard to find a quality education when the barrier to entry is an inability to cut through the crap and really get to work on the interesting stuff. We are not given textbooks to sink hundreds of dollars in. We work with open source tools, and learn the way, in my opinion, Linux is meant to be learned. Personally, I was not expecting the low level curriculum to be this good. I had some minor experience with C before this, but it was riddled with unnecessary books, in spite of the fact that the classic good old books work just as well (and better, since the Kernighan & Ritchie classic is common knowledge in the industry.) Unfortunately, I believe that today's education has become a financial racket. I had to leave college when I realized I would have to borrow a lot of money, something I did not feel comfortable doing. As luck would have it, as part of the experimental first batch of students, I was not required to enter into a financial agreement with the school as they refined their curriculum. On the other hand, if I were an entering student, I think that the fact that the financial agreement requires no upfront cost, and the fact that it is capped temporally at 3 years really speaks to how serious this school is in ensuring your success; the security from the 3-year cap speaks volumes on the culture and nature of the school. They are interested in making money, but they are not interested in hounding you for your money for the rest of your life. My experience here leads me to believe that the faculty are honestly great people who also want to help their students intrinsically. I can only hope that this school's DNA does not get diluted in the future. Only time will tell. It's a great place so far. P.S. : If you are interested in low-level programming such as C and assembly, it's amazing that I can't even recall, even once, of using or even hearing of the monstrosity that is the scanf function. We code our own parsing here, and use system calls such as `write` and `read`, and really get insight as to how Linux really works. read more

By joining Holberton School as a student I learned how to learn by getting hands on experience through projects. The curriculam is prepared so that it makes the student to think algorithmically, even if he/she doesn't have a computer science background. Also, Holberton has mentors and instructors around the globe who are always ready to help. Mentors and cofounders help to find out successful job through connections. read more

I am currently a student at Holberton School. Holberton is a full-stack software engineering school. The aim of the school is to emulate the workplace as much as possible to ready us for careers in software engineering. The space is set up like a startup - one main open space that makes collaboration easy and accessible. Everything is project based - allowing us to get a feel for what it's like to work with deadlines. We are given limited guidance which forces us to use our resources, work with each other, and ultimately learn how to learn. This industry changes so quickly, it is no longer sufficient to learn a single langue or framework. We need to be agile and if we learn the fundamentals, new technologies that come along will be easy to pick up. The founders are honestly one of my favorite parts of this school. They are hard working and dedicated to this place. Each one of them has come from reputable companies like Apple, Linkedin, and Docker. They come with real-world knowledge and have been able to transfer that knowledge to the projects that they have personally curated. They are passionate about what they do, and it makes this school a great place to come every day. Seeing how hard they worked to get where they are today, makes us want to work all that much harder. The school is located in the heart of the finical district in downtown San Francisco. I can't think of a better place to learn this industry, and than amongst some of the most reputable tech companies of our generation. read more

I am reviewing Holberton School from two different perspectives: as a makeup artist, and as a visitor. I am a Northern California makeup artist and licensed Esthetician through my business #GlamMeUpLala and I was recently hired by Holberton School to be the makeup artist for an awesome project they were filming involving the staff, student body, and a member of their Board of Trustrees, NeYo, the singer. Charles, from their marketing team, was very professional, kind, and accommodating throughout the booking process. The San Francisco site is super captivating and modern, the building is an art piece in itself. The staff? Incredibly kind and professional. The students? beyond intelligent and ambitious. Speaking to each individual whilst doing their makeup, gave me time to really connect with them and share our stories, and I must say, they will definitely make Holberton proud! If you are interested in software engineering and diving into the world of coding, this school is for you. NeYo was such a pleasure to work with as well and the unique family bond he has with the school is clear to see. I really enjoyed being apart of that project and moment! If this school reaches out to you or you're interested in reaching out to them, whether it be for business ventures, job- related, or for your educational journey, I highly encourage it. There aren't enough stars to rate the great experience I had working with them and visiting the campus. INCREDIBLE is so fitting to describe the culture and vibe of this school! read more

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Holberton School has an amazing vision of fixing the education system. Their curriculum gives you challenging projects that teach you how to fix problems and build software.There are no teachers at Holberton School and the program teaches you how to learn instead of focusing on one specific technology. That makes a huge difference in how we address the projects and how we learn from it. The school highly focuses on peer learning and makes sure that you get the basics right. Their coursework, with plenty of hands-on projects, is just what anyone would need to transform themselves into a full stack software developer. I am currently a student at Holberton School. In the first year, we covered algorithm, low-level programming, front-end, back-end, sys-admin and devops. In the second year, the program gets more intense and one can choose to focus either on System programming and Algorithms or Web Stack programming. I love the challenging projects and fear to miss the fun in either track and opted for both ;) . On top of those tech tracks, we also train on soft-skills like networking, public speaking and writing which gives us more confidence and also a huge advantage vs tech-only developers. I am hooked by the program! Coming to the no of opportunities one receives, we get a ton!. In my case, I got a chance to work as one of the data scientists in a project for the NASA Frontier Development Lab 2016 program which was hosted at SETI Institute. read more

Holberton is setting the standard for training new software engineers with a two-year program that can take anyone, no experience required, and make them an impeccable Full-Stack Software Engineer. I was coding and working with peers on the first day at Holberton. This was a refreshing change for me after years of dreading going to class in public schools where my daily objective was to sit down and listen to a topic I was scarcely interested in. Holberton has overwhelmingly embraced project-based and peer learning and it creates a natural way to learn that I have never experienced before. At Holberton you'll learn the most from your peers and mentors while working on projects and that will give you a tangible edge when you go to get an internship or job. Having the opportunity to learn from project-based learning with my peers surpasses sitting in a classroom lecture any day. There are no upfront costs to study at Holberton. The school charges a percentage of your internship salary and your salary once you find a job. You'll still need to find and afford your own accommodations in or around San Francisco for the duration you are attending the school on site. This was a challenge that I found exceedingly difficult and at times it affected my ability to be at the school because I was looking for a place to live. Holberton has taken a step in the right direction and is working with companies like Google, Accenture, Scality, and CloudNow to help students defray living expenses. A great thing a new school can do is set themselves up to be able to adapt to what their students need and Holberton is exceeding at doing that. I was in batch 0 that started in January of 2016. Since my batch started, the school has made many improvements to projects based on feedback from students. Additionally, Holberton has worked to improve interactions with experienced mentors in the community. New students are only going to have more opportunities to exceed with Holberton. TLDR: If you want to be a Full-Stack Software Engineer, the elite program Holberton has to offer is exactly what you need. read more

As a current student of Holberton School I can't rave enough about this place. The founders have established an almost perfect environment to learn how to be a software engineer. The school is located blocks away from Yahoo, Slack, LinkedIn, Salesforce, and many many more of some of the best tech companies. It truly feels like a tech startup when you enter the building with all types of seating/standing work spaces. Students have access to meeting rooms and plenty of whiteboards. I chose Holberton over a four year CS degree because I felt like it was the better value both money and time wise. No money upfront means the school is truly committed to making sure that every student has the real-world skills necessary to compete in today's job market. After 4 months of study I'm very pleased with my decision. 1. Holberton school's list of mentors is impressive. They represent a range of tech companies both in and out of the San Francisco area. They are accessible and active in all things Holberton. As a student I genuinely feel that Holberton's mentors care about helping students succeed. In 3 short months I've met a number of them and attended conferences, meetups, and events through mentor invites. 2. The curriculum is challenging. You will learn and be given support when extra help is needed. The peer learning model is excellent for learning how to work as a team and how to support your peers. This skill set can be used anywhere in life 3. While studying at Holberton you will be consumed with learning software engineering. In 9 short months you will learn a wealth of information. I've been told the Holberton curriculum equates to a four year CS degree and it feels like it. You will learn how to learn fast, prioritize your time, and juggle tasks in a safe environment. 4. You will learn more than just code. You will learn about systems, best practice, business, public speaking and networking. The only bad thing about Holberton is the vast amount of information you are exposed to and expected to assimilate. It can feel overwhelming but definitely prepares you for a challenging software engineer job. read more

I have been a student at Holberton for about a year. Before I came to this school, I knew virtually nothing about coding or how an operating system works internally. Now I feel I can confidentially say I possess that knowledge in addition to acquiring the priceless skill of independent learning with a large support system to aid in the process. Holberton's model of learning is palpable in everything that they are from the students to the setup; covered wall to wall in whiteboards and bean bags to lounge in comfortably when writing your code. It is in all these ways and more that Holberton successfully converts ambitious people with little technical knowledge into potential candidates for sought after companies like Apple and Google. read more

Pros Peer learning Project-based, hands-on Full-stack curriculum Network of industry experts Staff and mentors care about students Projects prepare you well for professional life Cons Inaugural batch faced a trial and error approach Being lucky enough to be selected for Holberton School's first batch, I agree with many reviews of my fellow schoolmates regarding peer and project-based learning. Along with their vast network of experts working in the tech industry, project-based peer learning make up the school's strengths. The fact that the curriculum is full-stack (meaning, containing low-level programming, algorithms and data structures, web development, sysadmin and devops projects) is also a great advantage. The majority of the projects we worked on proved quite helpful for my first professional experience in IT; first as an SRE trainee, and now as a developer (I was originally interested in both roles, and later decided to focus on backend development). Some examples of these useful projects include building your own API for a website in the style of AirBnb while storing your data in a MySQL database, using Docker, load-balancing your servers. Do not underestimate the power of C. I believe practicing coding in C makes you a better programmer, or, as John Carmack puts it: "Low-level programming is good for the programmer's soul". In my humble opinion, the financial and personal investments to attend Holberton School pay off, as it was surprisingly easy for me to land a job after finishing the first year (at vente-privee.com, a European 3 billion dollar revenue company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vente-privee.com). You should know that I had no experience in programming prior to joining Holberton! Another positive point is that the staff and mentors do care about the students, you see this consistently as they regularly keep in touch with you (ensuring you ask for help and that you get the help you need, making sure you are ok, and not just projects-wise, also in your personal life ie settling in the bay area). The only downside I can find is that my batch being the first one, the staff could not have any previous experience with managing this disruptive type of school (which pretty much works like a startup, where everyone is encouraged to bring in new ideas). Consequently, they had to revise and adapt some of the projects that were deemed not very helpful (though one can say that it helped learning either way, and that in the workplace you might also face projects being abandoned or modified along the way). Even that disadvantage had a plus side; being the inaugural batch made us feel special, and the staff certainly took extra care of us! read more

Holberton School is an amazing experiment that turns education on its head. Traditional schools have information gurus who may not have real world experience, disseminating information in lectures. Holberton School gives students projects to complete. The students also receive the support of mentors who are currently employed in tech companies around the World. Holberton School is not so much a school as a community of learners. I'd encourage anyone thinking about a career in software engineering to consider Holberton. You'll have to work hard, but you'll learn so much about yourself and make some amazing friends along the way. read more

TL;DR Holberton is an incredibly rewarding but also challenging experience that will whip you into a full-stack software engineer in a short amount of time. I was in the very first batch of Holberton students, and right from the beginning, it was obvious that the school was something special. From the physical space, to the payment model, to their commitment to diversity and inclusion, everything about it is designed to fulfill its mission of creating high-quality software engineers to fill the serious need in the industry. To do that, they've done away with the fluff that fills 4-year university programs, teachers, and lectures and created a jam-packed project-based curriculum that forces you to really engage with the ideas and topics you'll actually need on the job. And the curriculum stays relevant - the staff is always taking feedback from students and mentors to see what's working, what's not, what new industry tools and standards are, so that students are really getting the most from their time. The network of mentors is another distinguishing feature. Guidance from people actually working in the tech industry is invaluable, and Holberton students get it in spades. Some mentors are active through online chat, some give presentations or workshops on their topics of expertise, and others come to the school just to help out. In any case, students get to ask questions and start building those connections right off the bat. The school environment is also really great. The staff is super supportive, and their passion for the school and students is obvious in everything they do. And the other students, from your batch or the ones above, are possibly your greatest resource. Peer learning is one of the most important aspects of Holberton, and just being surrounded by what's become the Holberton family makes the entire experience that much more enjoyable and rewarding. Overall, Holberton is a really excellent choice if you're self-motivated, hard-working, and looking to jump into the tech industry, but need a little extra guidance and support. I was able to find a full-time job after only 8 months in the program, so clearly they're doing something right :) read more

My wife and I moved from Indiana to California so I could be part of the first 'batch' at Holberton School. I had a strong interest in moving from a help desk role to software engineering. However, I needed to go from tinkering around with code skills I had learned on my own to being able to produce production-ready code. Holberton offered the chance to connect with and learn from mentors working for companies such as Google, LinkedIn, Dropbox, and Salesforce. I took the leap, and I can honestly say that I have not regretted taking that risk. Holberton provides challenging projects whether you are just getting started or have learned a thing or two on your own. The goal is to learn how to learn with other students in a fast-paced, growing industry. Because of the experience I gained at the school, I work for a major tech company in Silicon Valley. It's crazy to think how much has changed in just under two years. read more

Holberton is simply the best school for learning how to learn. The approach they take to teach you is the right one. They don't hold your hand and they don't tell you what to do. You have to manage your own time and decide what you want to learn. They have their main curriculum you complete and mandatory exerices you have to do and form there the world is your oyster. There are many different ways to solve a problem and many different approaches, they will make you find the edge cases yourself and ask your peers for help more often than you might think. Setting up a environment where everyone feels like they are a part of something great. Everyday you learn something new and on the day that you don't you get to learn more about your batch peers and spend time in SF surrounded by tech and conferences you can attend to for free (Holberton gives free passes to lots of them). From Fireside chats with senior engineers working at Netflix and Instacart coming to speak to students about their experiences all the way to the knowledgeable Guillaume that is there to challenge you and answer all the abstract questions you might have. Its one of the best places ever to learn anything tech related and I cannot commend it enough. One of the best decisions I have ever made. read more