Before attending Hack Reactor, I had anxiety and imposter syndrome. I wasn't sure if I was able to…read moresucceed in computer science. However, after the first day of the program I was immediately supported by the HR faculty and my cohort mates. Every Hacker in Residence (HiR) who had gone through the program before had a similar story and experience to what we were going through and assisted us with understanding and kindness. The instructors were always encouraging and extremely knowledgable. By the end of the program, many of my peers had become some of my best friends.
THE COURSE
The program consisted of two halves. The first half consisted of JavaScript and computer science fundamentals such as Big O Notation, JS 'this' binding, and functional patterns. Some concepts were picked up faster by certain people, which caused a positive feedback loop of assistance between peers. An extremely important skill that was hammered into us was autonomous learning. Even though HiRs were readily available to assist us, they supported us attempting to search for answers on our own because this is an extremely valuable skill to have as a software engineer. And unlike many other fields of study, computer science and web development resources are bountiful and easily searchable.
The second half of the course consisted of two projects where we were split into groups of 3-5. During this time, we gradually increased the amount of interview practice along with learning some industry practices and technologies. Some valuable technologies/concepts they had taught us were that of Docker containerization, system design, AWS tools, and Agile Methodologies. This portion of the course was essentially a ramp up to let us out into the real world. Autonomy and time management was a key portion because of the freedom gained in the second half of the course, so self discipline and motivation is definitely key. If you did not have the motivation and self discipline to apply yourself in this part of the course, you were more likely to not absorb the material. Since it is largely self-motivated, several people who were not as focused struggled in this aspect.
The last week of the course consisted of job coaching from resume/cover letter writing to behavioral interview practice and even as far as negotiating a job offer. This instilled an extremely high level of confidence in my job search process and helped me interview.
I would also like to state that not all of the technologies and format may be correct if you were to attend now. Hack Reactor rapidly iterates their curriculum to keep up with the changing demand of skills in the web development field. One such change is the implementation of Docker. When we had an alumni panel, one of the alumni had stated that Docker was not incorporated into the curriculum when he attended the program a year before I had attended. With this, you can confidently be reassured that Hack Reactor are constantly on the lookout to make you the most desirable software engineer possible.
OVERALL
Why did I remove a star? Unfortunately, not many of my cohort mates were as lucky as me - someone else mentioned it already, but Los Angeles is not a great market for junior devs. If you are considering HR, I highly recommend you expand your job search to be outside of LA. I found a job because I moved to Seattle which had more junior dev openings than LA. Another cohort mate was able to find one in Boston.
The 2nd half of the program, since it was largely self driven, felt like we were all headless chickens trying to program. I sincerely wish they could have taught us more in the time since a lot of time was wasted. Upper management for the LA HR group was also lackluster and felt disconnected from the group as a result.
Overall, I would highly recommend Hack Reactor as a coding bootcamp. I gained so much confidence in myself both technically and socially because of this software engineering immersive, and have even obtained a job as a software engineer within the average time expected of a Hack Reactor grad (3 months).
WHO IS HR FOR?
Attend HR if you are able to be self-driven, motivated, and have a strong work ethic and passion for coding. I do not recommend this course if you are coming in half-assed and are expecting a fat paycheck to be handed to you at the end of the course. Many of my cohort mates and I have had to slave away for months applying, interviewing, and coding to be successful. Although HR does try its best to help you get a job, at the end of the day, that will be up to you on how much you want to apply yourself and how much you're willing to sacrifice sleep to succeed. There is only so much HR can do for you. They can teach you the skills, but the rest is up to you.
