Katherine Navarro

Review of HackerYou

As an HTML/CSS developer, I have often mulled over...

As an HTML/CSS developer, I have often mulled over learning JavaScript. This past summer, I finally took the leap and enrolled in the part-time JavaScript Fundamentals and Advanced courses at HackerYou.

I chose HackerYou because my daughter is an alumna and I was a first-hand witness to her excellent learning experience when she did the Web Dev course. HackerYou prepared her well for a web development career and gave her confidence to step into the tech world. She enjoyed the HY community so much that after finishing the program, she went back to mentor in a few courses.

Now, I can personally say that it was, indeed, an amazing learning experience! To start, HY is a very welcoming environment. Every HY staff I met was nice. My instructors and mentor (Jordan, Trudy, and Garrett) were knowledgeable and very accommodating; they always made sure no one got left behind in class. I liked the relaxed, but well-structured classes. I never felt uncomfortable asking questions.

The code-alongs were very engaging and I liked that they explained what each snippet of code does. I also learned a lot about the coding process the analysis, the pseudocode, how to approach the solution, the valuable side comments, the real-world tips things you don t get when you do an online course.

The projects allowed us to not only apply what we ve learned but also to challenge ourselves by doing more than what was required. I was amazed at what I accomplished after only several classes into the course. It was definitely very fulfilling to have completed the final project (API)!

At the beginning of the course, I was worried that I might not be able to grasp JS at my age, especially because the lessons were fast-paced. I m glad that I took the leap and challenged myself! It felt good to learn a new skill over the summer!

Now that the course is over, I plan to continue doing JS exercises and small personal projects. If I don t get a chance to try my hand at JS at work, at least I can read and understand some of the code other developers wrote and learn from them. The many $, {}, (), [] aren t foreign to me anymore!