LEARN Academy

My time at LEARN Academy was one of the best experiences of my life honestly. I came into it expecting to be good. But it ended up being great! I knew it would be challenging, which it was. I knew it would be hard at times, and it was. And I knew it would be a lot to take in, in such a small amount of time, and it was. LEARN Academy and their instructors teach the content in way that makes it stick in your head. It is fast paced but as long as you are willing to put in the hard work and proper effort, you will pick it up very quickly. Additionally, LEARN has you develop applications to practice the content which really brings everything together. Working with other students in the cohort is one of the best ways to learn because you're all learning the same content, at the same time. One of the best things about LEARN is their career services. You are taken on a startup crawl in downtown San Diego so that you really get to see what tech companies are really like. After that, they help you practice technical interviews, real interviews, and prep you for your internship at the end of the cohort. Overall, LEARN Academy is the perfect bootcamp if you're looking to become a software developer. I came into it having went to another bootcamp a few years back and there really was no comparison. LEARN is a hundred times better than the bootcamp I went to before. I recommend LEARN Academy to anyone interested in getting into the industry! More...

Reviewed on Facebook

I came to LEARN to disrupt my mid-career boredom. There were a few bootcamp-style options, but I was drawn to LEARN for several reasons: the unique internship aspect of the program; a commitment to diversity I saw in their staff, alumni, and community involvement; their place at the center of an active tech community; and the fact that, because they are local, they would be in touch with the needs of San Diego employers. I'm over 40 and approach all new situations with skepticism. I started LEARN waiting to find out that it was all a sham, that I'd been taken for a ride, or that the level of learning was nothing I couldn't find in a few YouTube videos and I am SO happy to say I was wrong. All of what drew me to LEARN in the first place proved to be true. The educators are so passionate about the success of each student, as is the management - they have a reputation to uphold in this community, and that start with putting well-prepared program grads into the workforce. Beyond the tech curriculum and the amazing educators, two extremely valuable pieces of this program are the Career Services and the Internship. Students have real interviews with real companies, no smoke and mirrors. And the professional development portion of the curriculum combined with ongoing career services advice is WAY more than I ever got from NYU. More...

Reviewed on Facebook

Even though LEARN gave me the chance to make a career shift, it is the relationships with the people there that I cherish the most. I go by and visit every once in a while and find myself feeling like I never left. Both the staff and students foster a sense of community that makes you feel like you really are not alone and you will always have someone to help you if you ever need a hand. More...

Reviewed on Facebook

I am a software engineer and the founder multiple software companies in San Diego. After consistently taking LEARN interns, I can honestly say LEARN is one of the BEST places to learn programming in San Diego. They set you up with the right software tools and practices that took me YEARS to learn on my own. I seriously know computer science graduate students that don't know the stuff they are teaching. ANNNND... University takes 4 years + ~$50-200k. Bootcamp takes 4-6months + ~$10k. Both set you up to take a junior dev job where you can make >= $65k a year. Senior developers (~5 years+ experience) make around $120-200k. It's not easy, but it's a pretty DARN good investment! More...

Reviewed on Facebook

In my quest for a new career, what mattered to me the most in my journey consisted of two things: the resources and the people. Resources: The one month internship provided after three months of instruction served me greatly. It gave me the confidence I needed to know I could do this (programming) as a profession. I also found that this internship put me ahead of many other bootcamp graduates from other programs because it allowed me to demonstrate to employers that I wasn’t starting from scratch in terms of industry experience. Many of my peers have gone on to work for the very companies they interned at. The instructors were free with sharing their knowledge, not only of the curriculum, but of the industry and profession. This is invaluable in countless ways that are still benefitting me months after I have finished the program. The outreach coordinator and staff do an amazing job at helping you get exposed to the tech community and building your network. In fact, the internship process is a well-orchestrated series of events where local employers/organizations come to LEARN and presented about their organization. Everyone picks which companies they want to interview with and what follows after interviews is a matching process that results in you getting the internship you want. People: LEARN genuinely cares about you. I felt like I always had an entourage of people I could ask for assistance in anything: programming questions, networking, job-hunting, general well-being, etc. What I find amazing is, I know for a fact I’m not the only one who feels/felt this way. Changing careers is not easy. The LEARN staff knows it’s not easy, and they are seriously good at helping you have all the tools you need to make that change happen. Along the way, I’ve made great friends, found mentors, had a wonderfully positive experience I can always draw from, and became apart of a community that is downright cool. The collective mind here is vast, insightful, and generous—I wouldn’t trade the opportunity I had at LEARN for anything. Oh yeah, did that new career happen for me? It most certainly did. Thanks to LEARN, not long after finishing my internship, I found myself at LoanHero, a San Diego fin-tech startup making the waves, as a software developer! More...

Reviewed on Facebook