Lucas Silbernagel

Review of HackerYou

Long story short: Juno helped me make a career cha...

Long story short: Juno helped me make a career change and get hired as a front-end developer during the COVID-19 pandemic!

In university I studied anthropology and French. I planned to work in academia, but after completing a Master's degree in anthropology I realized that this was not a viable option due to the overly competitive job market and the increasing trend of hiring contract faculty instead of full-time positions. I worked briefly in a sales role at a tech company in Toronto, and then for over 3 years in a customer service role at a call centre.

While working at the call centre, I enrolled in the part-time introduction to web development course at Juno College in October 2019. I had dabbled in building websites in the past, and I wanted to see if a career change into web development was the right move for me. I chose Juno because of the great reviews online, as well as for financial reasons: if I enrolled in the 9-week bootcamp, the cost of the web development course would be deducted from my bootcamp tuition. At the time, Juno was also the only bootcamp that offered the option of an Income Sharing Agreement, i.e. having the cost of the bootcamp deducted as a percentage of your pay when you are hired as a developer.

I really enjoyed the web development course, so after much deliberation I applied and was accepted for the bootcamp beginning in February 2020, as well as the 2 week full-time JavaScript course running just before it. I quit my job at the call centre, and my journey began! After having taken three courses at Juno so far (Web Development, JavaScript, and Bootcamp) I can say that I am absolutely thrilled with my experience. Here are some of the highlights:

-The course materials are cutting-edge, easy to understand, and constantly being updated. As a Juno graduate, you have access to the course materials for life, even as they continue to be updated!
-The instructors are all fantastic. Experienced, knowledgeable, patient, funny, understanding, friendly, engaging, and passionate are the main adjectives that come to mind.
-The Career Services team really knows what they are doing. During and after bootcamp, they provide tips and guidance on how to get your first job as a developer. This process is very thorough, and I was really impressed by how they hold your hand through becoming part of the tech community, building a personal brand, and successfully marketing yourself to stand out to employers. Similar to the course materials, they are always looking for ways to improve and give their graduates an edge in the job market.
-The community of students, alumni, instructors, and Juno staff is super friendly, welcoming, inclusive, and all-around great. I made so many new friends!

Three weeks into my bootcamp, COVID-19 struck and all Ontario schools closed. Initially Juno proposed that we immediately continue classes remotely, but there was backlash from many of my classmates who had concerns about the quality of a remote bootcamp and their ability to take part from home. Juno listened to this feedback and decided to pause bootcamp for three weeks, hoping that the crisis would blow over by then. Unfortunately the pandemic situation worsened, but over the three week break Juno prepared a seamless transition to remote learning, and have since made significant accommodations to do right by their students. The three weeks also gave us as students more time to prepare for the new reality. This is just one example of how accommodating Juno is, how they can nimbly make changes and improvements when necessary, and how they always put their students first!

My last day of bootcamp was May 15th 2020, and in July of 2020 I was hired as a Front-End Developer at Greenpeace Canada! It speaks volumes that Juno College was able to help me achieve this even during a pandemic, and I am forever grateful. I look forward to taking more courses at Juno as I continue to level up my skills :)