The Fullstack Academy Software Engineering Immersive: Enhancing the Bootcamp Experience

Celebrating over 10 years as a trailblazer in tech education, Fullstack Academy was founded in 2012 with a bold and novel mission to rapidly prepare its students for lasting success in the tech field.

Since then, the company has expanded into multiple locations and tech-centered subject areas—including Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, and Product Management—and partnered with over 20 top US colleges and universities to make high-quality tech career training more accessible to those located outside of traditional tech hubs. Fullstack Academy tech bootcamps have graduated a cumulative total of over 7,000 students (and growing!) and are consistently rated as some of the most comprehensive tech education programs in the nation.

Making Our Move

“At a time when professionals are seeking to get more out of their careers, we felt the need to sit down as an organization and really evaluate who our flagship coding program is for, what their needs are, and how we can best meet those needs in the current landscape,” states Fullstack Academy CEO Jerrad Tausz.

“Essentially, we determined what we suspected all along: that our curriculum should remain as current, comprehensive, and challenging as ever, but that student readiness for bootcamp is best measured by the students themselves. As a result, we’ve enhanced the Software Engineering Immersive to be more accessible and efficient—while holding on to the curricular rigor that has made Fullstack Academy a leader in the tech education space.”

At Fullstack Academy, we’re proud of the tech training institution we’ve become—with industry-experienced instructors, real-world tools, professional career coaching, and hands-on, practical experience at the heart of all our tech bootcamps’ student experience.

We believe that in tech—and software engineering in particular—being a leader in the tech education space also means keeping up with wide-scale and small-scale changes. This includes researching and implementing the most recent technologies used, professional support needed, and resources available to help our coding students launch fulfilling careers.

To do that, we’ve made relevant updates to our flagship Software Engineering Immersive—not only to ensure students build in-demand skills in an ever-changing tech industry careers landscape, but also to break down barriers in gaining the education necessary to get started.

Here’s what’s new (and what’s not!) for the Software Engineering Immersive:

Curriculum

The Foundations phase of the bootcamp was previously designed to be completed independently by students before joining the core curriculum. While the self-led Foundations curriculum provided students with important coding skills and concepts, some students expressed a need for additional support to help them build confidence in their newly acquired skills.

After brainstorming how to reconcile student expectations of the Software Engineering Immersive with the ever-changing tech career landscape, we've determined that a live online, instructor-facilitated approach throughout the program best supports students of all starting skill levels to build the skills they need to succeed and see themselves in tech.

• Foundations content is now instructor-facilitated as the first unit of the bootcamp—featuring live online instruction, weekly checkpoints, and a culminating project to ensure students reach a uniform level of understanding of foundational coding concepts. This means that students of all starting skill levels can begin and complete their coding education with Fullstack Academy.
• Although the curriculum structure has changed, the core curriculum of the Software Engineering Immersive remains the same. Now, you’ll progress through 5 units of content over 16 weeks full-time and 28 weeks part-time. Learn more about our curriculum on our program page.
• We’ve made curricular updates throughout the bootcamp to prepare students with the most in-demand skills available. Get your syllabus to learn the details.

Particularly for students who do not identify as beginners, the new Foundations on-ramp also offers an increased focus on team-building, project management, and working as part of a development team. That way, in addition to practicing foundational skills, you’ll gain valuable, industry-simulated experience working with teams to bring a project to completion.

Admissions

Our years of experience in tech instruction have taught us that technical coding skills are not necessarily a reliable indicator of student readiness for the bootcamp. Instead, our non-technical assessment measures students’ computer literacy, logical reasoning skills, and commitment to the pace of bootcamp learning.

As a result, students will no longer need to demonstrate intermediate-level coding skills to be eligible for the Software Engineering Immersive. However, prospective students must be prepared to rapidly upskill in preparation for the core curriculum, which is just as rigorous as it’s always been.

Modality

You asked, we answered! Part-time cohorts are now available for both Fullstack Academy and the Grace Hopper Program—with classes held on weekday evenings only. The part-time version of the Software Engineering Immersive offers the same curriculum, structure, career support services, and overall learning outcomes as the full-time bootcamp, but is held part-time over 28 weeks.

Explore the Fullstack Academy Part-Time Software Engineering Immersive.

Explore the Grace Hopper Program Part-Time Software Engineering Immersive for women and nonbinary students.

Career Outcomes

Another facet of our program that we’re proud to maintain is our professional Career Success Services. All Fullstack Academy coding students have access to our Career Success curriculum, which begins at the very start of the cohort. Throughout their bootcamp experience, students may access live workshops, office hours and asynchronous modules designed to help them build their job search toolkit—which includes a completed resume and LinkedIn profile. Following successful completion of the Career Success program, students can choose to opt into additional coaching support and receive guidance in resume and LinkedIn optimization, interview preparation techniques, networking guidance and much more for up to a year following graduation.

Fullstack Academy services are facilitated by professional Career Coaches and are distinct from career placement, which other bootcamp providers may offer as an alternative to career coaching. At Fullstack Academy, we believe third-party placement services don't take into account the unique career goals of students. Plus, some bootcamp providers use third-party placement services for the sole purpose of boosting their bootcamp “hiring outcomes'' numbers rather than focusing on the quality of job placements or the workplace requirements of the individual.

At Fullstack Academy, we tailor our coaching to the individual needs of our students because we believe foundational career-building knowledge—rather than just a one-time job placement—serves students far beyond their first post-bootcamp job. Additionally, we aim to maintain student trust and transparency through our graduate outcomes reporting:

• In 2021, we released our official Outcomes Report detailing hiring outcomes for our 2019 full-time coding bootcamp graduates via reputable, third-party analysts.
• Fullstack Academy is committed to continued transparency with hiring outcomes and joined the Workforce Talent Educators Association (WTEA) as a founding member in 2022. WTEA is a nonprofit committed to ensuring quality and driving excellence in career-building education. Through its Career Impact Audit and WTEA Accreditation, the organization will set new benchmarks for quality in education, including student satisfaction and graduates’ success in the job market as well as other governance and academic quality measures.
• Learn more about our partnership here, then stay tuned for subsequent Outcomes Report releases through WTEA as they become available.

The Long and Short(er) of It

In sum, here’s what you can expect as an incoming Fullstack Academy or Grace Hopper Program coding student:

• Shorter duration. Through our streamlined approach to foundational coding concepts, full-time programs may now be completed in as little as 16 weeks.

• Increased flexibility. Choose part-time versions of the Software Engineering Immersive through either Fullstack Academy, or the Grace Hopper Program for women and nonbinary coders.

• Refined curriculum structure. The core curriculum of the bootcamp will continue at a rigorous, accelerated bootcamp pace, but now begins with a comprehensive Foundations on-ramp to support students of all starting skill levels.

• Relevant technical updates. You’ll use the latest technologies, tools, and JavaScript coding concepts to prepare for a lasting career in software engineering.

• Increased support. Between an instructor-facilitated structure, regular mentor guidance, industry-simulated team projects, competency-based grading, and professional development support through our career success services, you will graduate from Fullstack Academy with the skills and resources you’ll need to be successful.

• Same great program. Fullstack Academy is one of the longest-running and most reputable tech bootcamp providers in the nation. We remain dedicated to our mission of transforming lives and powering the future through tech education, and strive to instill that mission into everything we do. See our student reviews.