London's only JavaScript bootcamp taught by professional developers

Fullstack Web Development with JavaScript

Next start date: 3rd December 2018 - 11 places remaining

Location: Clerkenwell, London

Length: 12 weeks

Hours: 9:30am to 6:00pm Monday to Friday with weekend take-home projects

Demo day: 22nd November 2018

Target audience: beginner - intermediate

Rating: ★★★★★ view all reviews

Median starting salary: £35,000

Fees: £5,000

Who is the course aimed at?

Our students come from all backgrounds and walks of life. What unites them is the desire to change careers and become software developers. Rather than just teach how to code, we cover the entire software development lifecycle. You will learn create an entire application yourself from scratch. We will cover Agile Methologies, Pair Programming, Test Driven Development and much more. As part of the grand finale, you will present your final project to our awesome hiring partners. Our last demo day was attended by FT,Deliveroo,Sainsbury's,Nested,Lyst,MatchesFashion,YLDand many more companies looking to hire our graduates. You could not get a better start to your career.

Why JavaScript?

And kudos to @dmitrigrabov for teaching the kind of js & nodejs skills that employers like @FT are crying out for

— Rhys Evans (@wheresrhys) April 13, 2018

There are countless programming languages for developers to choose from. Some like Ruby are easier to learn but now face limited demand in the industry. We focus specifically on JavaScript along with React library and Node framework. JavaScript is in the enviable position of being the ONLY programming language that runs natively in the browser. As a result, any web application that wants to provide users with a rich, interactive experience must use it.

React and Node

The React library makes it incredibly easy to create amazing interfaces while keeping code well structured, maintainable and performant.

Node is a framework which allows JavaScript to also be run on the server, which allows us to create a full-stack application using a single language. This allows developers to not only share code between the client and the server, but also makes development much easier since we can utilise the same skill set for both parts of the application. Historically, software development teams were split between front end and back end. Using the latest JavaScript technologies companies can now create entire features end-to-end using the same developers.

The future

The JavaScript language also keeps evolving. Functionality added in ES6, ES7 and ES8 standards have made it easier to write clean and robust code which is much simpler to work with. All the leading technology companies are now putting JavaScript at the center of their software development. If you want to acquire a skill set that will provide with a satisfying and future-proof career choice then you simply cannot choose a better course to make that happen for you.

Rather than focus on long theoretical lectures, we prefer to get stuck in and start writing code as soon as possible. As the course progresses, we will start to explore topics in greater depth, enabling you to build more elegant solutions to ever greater challenges.

We introduce each new topic with a brief workshop, where we explain how it works, provide a few examples and write some code together. After that we will provide you with exercises to reinforce your understanding and challenge you to solve some trickier problems with your new skills. Every few topics we will throw in a small project for you to build. The purpose of this is to unify everything you have learned so far and start thinking about apps as a whole rather than separate functions. The projects are also an opportunity for you to flex your creative muscles - not only will you be able to practise your design skills, but you will also be able to start using any technologies that we have not taught you. In many ways, we want this experience to be representative of the real world where you will get agile stories to implement and the exact implementation design will be up to you.

Each project will be followed by a group code review. This will be a chance for all the students to compare their approaches and learn from each other.

Methodologies

Pair Programming

Pair Programming will get you used to working with others, much like you would in a real job. Working with a partner will also encourage you to discuss and explain your code and working. This experience will be absolutely crucial for the job inteviews following the course and we prefer to start practising early. Most importantly you and your partner will support each other on your journey - having two pairs of eyes will make it much easier to spot an out of place comma or a misspelled variable name. Pair programming is also an opportunity to learn from each other and discover new ways to solve problems.

Test Driven Development

Test Driven Development helps you to focus on code structure and quality from the very beginning. Writing tests is a way of ensuring our code does what it is supposed to, and encourages us to structure it in small, logical pieces. Having tests in place will make it much easier for you to make changes to your code with a high degree of confidence you have not broken anything along the way.

Guest speakers

Every week we have guest speakers who are either experienced engineers or represent some of the companies looking to hire our graduates. They provide the perfect opportunity to learn more about what they do, how they work and most importantly what they look for in new joiners. This experience will help you understand more about the work of a software developer and position yourself as an ideal candidate.

Portfolio

Most companies we speak are not interested in certificates, they want applicants with skills. Every weekend the students at Constructor Labs build a project using the skills they have learned. At the end of course we encourage students to pick out 3 or 4 favourite projects to create a portfolio of their best work. This will give hiring companies an excellent insight into your ability and proof of your skills.

Demo day

As part of the course you will work on a group project. As the grand finale to the course we will hold a demo day where you will get to present your group project to our many hiring partners. This will provide with a first opportunity to make an impression with potential employers and start securing interviews.

Coaching

Towards the end of the course we will provide you with plenty of information about how to best look for work, how to present your portfolio and how to prepare for interviews. We also provide coaching session with one of London's top recruitment consultants who will help you communicate your strengths. You can see some of our application techniques at:How to get your first software developer job.