Code Fellows

In my prior review, I compared an investment in Code Fellows accelerator to an investment in a classic Burberry trench coat. To continue that analogy, let’s say that a few months later, I discovered that the lining on my coat started unraveling, which is unexpected for such a pricey item. Thus, I’m updating my review.
The Cliff Notes version: CF will teach you how to ship apps and how to ship them fast. It will not teach you how to be a good engineer. It will take you about 25% of the way to getting a job, the rest is up to you.
What Code Fellows does well (from my experience within the iOS Dev accelerator):
— Teach you how ship apps and how to ship them fast (we made 8 apps in 8 weeks, all of them are quite impressive and varied in functionality and types)
— Give you a taste of what’s it like to work as a developer (sort of). I learned a lot working with other developer wannabes and also with backend developers.
— Expose you to these things called data structures, algorithms, memory management, and blah blah… other skills that you don’t necessarily need to ship apps fast, but you actually need to build good, sustainable products.
— And most importantly, they still treat you as if you’re a student, even after you’ve long graduated. It’s like the good ol’ pension plan. It’s a little too good to be true and probably not sustainable if poorly managed.
— Give you the most up to date tools. Brad, the iOS instructor, is super passionate about his craft, so we learned the latest and greatest (WatchKit, Parse iOS SDK, etc).
— Screen incoming students well. I really liked the people in my development accelerator. Great diversity too.
What CF does not do:
— It doesn’t have a strong network… yet. If you ask most CF alumni, you’ll rarely find that they got their job from CF. CF is still a young company, establishing and expanding their networks in multiple cities. I think it would’ve been better if they had partnered with companies to get students working on real-​world projects (like GA does) or to get students hired as interns or apprentice (like Ada Developer Academy).
— It doesn’t teach you how to be a good engineer. The old project management adage is true: fast, cheap or good, pick two. In this case, pick one (fast). There needs to be a bit more structure in the lab/​homework part of the course. I wish I’d been tested on my knowledge of the topics discussed in lectures, either through an online quiz, HackerRank puzzle, etc. When I went to school here, the lab portion is pretty open: 4 hours to work on homework (with assistance from TA and instructor) or do whatever you want.
— It doesn’t train you to write beautiful code. This goes hand in hand with the previous point. I had a senior engineer look at my code, and it was embarrassing and insightful (thanks Aaron). I wish they’d put more emphasis on incorporating coding style guidelines when we were learning, but I’m not sure how much more stuff they could’ve crammed into our brain. It would also be helpful to learn about how to think like an engineer in a bit more systematic detail.
— Again, it’s a young company, so they’re still working kinks out. There are some things they could be a bit more buttoned up about. Unfortunately at $ 10k a class, I don’t think people are willing to tolerate much.
So there, my two cents on my classic Burberry trench coat. Would I do it again? Yes.