Today, we are very excited to announce a brand new HackerYou program, as well as a few new additions to our team.
About our New Program We are now accepting applications to our second full-time bootcamp program, which will run from January 27th to March 28th, 2014. It's a "Front-End Web Development Immersive" and it's different from other bootcamps for a few reasons.
1. Front-end web development: Most bootcamps teach students Ruby on Rails. We did, too, at our first full-time bootcamp hosted by Shopify this summer. It was awesome - our students learned a ton, and most of them will be transitioning into new roles in the coming months. However, Rails isn't the only skill that's in demand. It's a good time to be a front-end developer. Plus, the ramp-up period for front-end developer isn't as steep. This means that the experience will be more enjoyable for you, and you'll have tons of exciting career-enhancing opportunities coming out the other side.
**2. Become a freelancer: **The career-enhancing opportunity that we'll be training you for, though, isn't a job at all. This program will train to you become an effective full-time freelancer. There are a few reasons for this. First, there is overwhelming demand for skilled freelancers right now, which means lots of opportunities for you. Freelancing is also a great way to start coding full-time, because there are opportunities at all levels, including more junior levels. Finally, we've been thinking a lot about all of the Ruby on Rails bootcamps that have been popping up, and we've been wondering what they'll be doing with all of their graduates. There are only so many companies that can take on junior Ruby on Rails developers. And they can each only take on so many. We feel that training people to become professional freelancers is not only going to be rewarding, fun and fruitful, but that it's also the responsible thing to do. The final reason we're going to train you to become an awesome freelancer? It's fun - there's nothing like running your own business, choosing your clients and making the decision for yourself as to how you spend your time.
3. Learn from the very best (or, meet our awesome new team members): We have assembled an awesome team to deliver our full-time front-end development bootcamp, and we couldn't be more excited about it. First, we have Wes Bos, who has come on board to lead our first full-time program in January 2014. We've been working with Wes as an instructor since November of 2011 and he's been leading sold-out HackerYou courses since we launched in June of 2012. Wes is a super talented developer, but he is also an incredible teacher. His experience at HackerYou means that he knows how to teach to this audience - he knows when he can go fast and when to slow down, he knows how to explain things in different ways so that everyone understands, and because his knowledge is so deep, he can create mini-lessons and exercises on the spot, in response to students' questions. During the program in January 2014, Wes's full-time priority will the the program and the students. But that's not all. We've hired the talented Brenna O'Brien on a full-time basis, as a full-time instructor and also as HackerYou's Lead Developer. Brenna is an incredibly talented developer and a great teacher, with a passion for improving education. Brenna will lead or mentor at all of HackerYou's full-time programs in 2014, creating some awesome consistency that will make the student experience even better. She'll also be available to help graduates as they take on their first major clients, by providing advice, doing code reviews or even partnering on projects. Brenna will also be working on a major web project this fall (it's a secret), and will regularly be working on opensource projects, sometimes with students and sometimes on her own. Brenna will also have plenty of time to continue leading and mentoring at Ladies Learning Code, Girls Learning Code and Kids Learning Code workshops.
4. Curriculum done right: We're not done. We've also hired Ahmed Omran, a developer, educator and HackerYou graduate to lead our team in designing curriculum and the student learning experience for our front-end bootcamp. Armed with a post-graduate bachelor's degree (B.Ed.) in Education and years of practical experience as a teacher, Ahmed will help us to ensure that our curriculum is best-in-class, includes carefully considered learning objectives, works for people with a variety of learning styles, and is reflective of other best practices related to curriculum and learning experience design.
5. We've been doing this for over two years: It's hard to believe, but we've been at this for over two years, first through Ladies Learning Code, and then with HackerYou starting in June 2012. Can anyone start a programming bootcamp? Sure. But can anyone succeed at it? We don't think so. This stuff isn't easy! When designing this program, and throughout the entire three- to five months that students will spend with us, we'll keep in mind everything we've learned from teaching technical skills to thousands of people across the country. We are experts at creating exceptional technical learning experiences that are also social, collaborative and fun. If you'd like a low commitment way to check us out, join us at a Ladies Learning Code workshop!
6. It's not a nine-week bootcamp, it's a five-month experience: Why are most bootcamp programs nine weeks? We don't know. So we're challenging that idea by creating a five-month experience for students. For nine weeks, you'll join us five days a week from 10 am to 6 pm to learn the technical and intangible skills you'll need to become a successful front-end freelancer. That's over 360 hours of learning, and includes 135+ hours of lessons from Wes. Then, you'll join us for a month of free co-working space where you'll continue to be mentored by Brenna O'Brien and others as you officially launch your freelance business and take on your first major clients. We’ll review your code, help you on the hard days, congratulate you on the good days and we’ll even send potential clients in your direction! Finally, top students will be invited to join HackerYou as Assistant Instructors for the Front-End Web Development Immersive cohort that runs from April 14th to June 13th, 2013 – and it’s a paid gig! It also turns your nine-week experience with us into a five-month program, and ensures that you know your stuff. After all, they say you don’t really know something unless you can teach it.
Questions?
If you have questions about our new program, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at info [at] hackeryou.com. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook. Ready to apply? Check out the course details here, or start your application now!