CFG degree

[btwin]

Has anyone completed the CFG degree? Considering putting in an application for the next cohort and having a bit of a wobble about the time commitment 😵‍💫

My video interview was outside, at night, lot by my laptop screen with airplanes overhead.
I also applied via a company I didn't particularly want to work for who offered sponsorship only because I wanted to get my application underway
I answered honestly about them, how their Glassdoor score was poor and of all the companies which now suit my desired outcome I'd prefer company B, because of this. Hard to put all this into 1 minute though!

Best of luck to all of you who have applied.

Hi everyone, sorry I am REALLY late to replying here!

Thanks for everyone's feedback. I finally sent in my application and have been fast-tracked to the video interview stage now. The email says there will be 4 questions, but I think when I applied last time there were more! Hoping it really is just 4...

I have applied to Kaluza which was added quite late. Did anyone else apply to this round?

Good luck to everyone that has applied! :)

I put in my application two days ago and have opted to retake the video interview.
Good luck to all applying this round!

Good luck @Rosti1981 and all the best for your video interview. I hope to do mine this weekend!
What company did you go for?

NatWest this time...
Though I hadn't seen some of the recent additions so wondering if I should have considered others now!!

Vain but I've booked to get my hair cut tomorrow to boost my confidence a bit before the video interview. Last time I sounded and looked awful... I know it's such a little thing but I need a bit of a boost!

@Rosti1981 They did add some good ones after, but Natwest seems like a really good one which I nearly applied to! Did you click the option for letting them place you elsewhere if they thought it would suit you better?

Totally get the hair thing, Good hair always makes you feel more confident and even better when someone else does it for you! :)

Yes I was allowed two backup choices I think, went for national grid and Skyscanner (though I think latter only sponsors places) and also ticked that box to say definitely interested in all other places. Software or data though ideally.
I've worked so hard to strengthen my application this time round and make it more coding focused (while also trying to highlight transferrable skills from fairly long career in other sector), I'll be pretty gutted I think if it doesn't go anywhere at all.

Good luck to you as well!

Hey guys i just found this thread today, i recently applied for a CFGdegree and i completed my video interview last week waiting and hoping to hear good news. my first choice was natwest. does anyone know how long after you submit your video interview will you hear back

Hi all. I work for NatWest. It is great company to work. If you are successful you can consider yourself lucky I would say. The company is very supportive in all terms, diverse, inclusive. And as far as I know the starting salary for a trainee in technology starts from £50k which I think is great. Looooots of opportunities for growth especially in technology once you are in the company. If you are invited for an interview with the company let me know I can share some tips on matrix of behaviour they usually base their interview questions.

as for me, i applied for EDF as I want to change the area. I am sure the salary isn’t great than with NatWest but I wasn’t successful last time when I chose NatWest so I am hopeful I will have more luck with edf though they offer just couple of spaces only.

Good luck to everyone who applied this cohort and with you all the best!

I submitted my video interview.
Slightly worried I took the "have fun" part of the last question slightly to the extreme but arrrgh, tis done now! I also couldn't seem to say the word "plethora". I'm not sure why I needed to say the word plethora but never mind.
I hate trying to land key points in less than a minute 😞

I've namechanged for this.

I am doing the CFG degree at the moment and I am sponsored by a company that is offering a job at the end of it.

The course itself is fast paced and (to me) difficult. I did already have a basic understanding of python, javascript and SQL but I am finding it a lot. Most people in my cohort are also finding it difficult, especially those of us working or studying full time.

I would say most people need a good few extra hours (at least) a week to study. Some lessons feel ok and some feel more like a list of things you need to go back and learn by yourself.

The tutors are all nice and happy to help but they are not teachers and you can tell that.

I don't say this to put anyone off. I feel incredibly lucky to get this opportunity and I do think all of my cohort are capable of passing. I'm just saying it to explain that I think you would find it very hard to do the course and only spend the two hours each evening working on it.

If you're applying for a future cohort and have any spare time I would strongly strongly recommend doing as much learning of your own as you can in the meantime. Angela Yu's udemy course was good, in my experience, but I only did the first half and wish I had done more.

I think it can be tempting to wait for the course to start as you just think you'll be learning it all then. Again I would advise against this. The more you already know the easier it will be. You really won't be bored in the course if you learn now!

I know some people sponsored by companies who are not offering jobs and while they seem quite positive about it, I personally would not do the degree without a job offer.

It has been very difficult on my home life to add this onto my other full time commitment and a young child. What's keeping me going and knowing it's worth it is the job at the end of it. I honestly think I might have quit already if I didn't have that motivating me.

The sense of community of nice and the other ladies on my course are lovely. It feels nice to be doing it together.

You need to be motivated and take initiative when you don't understand something to learn it yourself. This really isn't something to do if you have never done any coding before. You really need to have tried it and know you enjoy it.

Hi codemonkeya, thanks for your honest opinion. BTW, are there any people still on here who have completed/are due to complete a course with a sponsored place only and have managed to secure a job afterwards? I'm considering doing that as there isn't really anything suitable in my area for my chosen pathway, or the ones that are are for recent graduates only :(

Thank you, that's really helpful @codemonkeya. I currently work part time three days a week so my hope is that I would really focus on catching up Thurs and Fri. The timing of the live lessons does concern me- it fits around work but not so much caring responsibilities - but I did a different bootcamp earlier in the year (though there was an option of listening to lessons again- I assume from CFG Kickstarters that this is probably not the case with the degree) and my family did have to step up quite a bit so I'd hope they'd do the same again.

If I wasn't part time and/or trying to leave my current job then it would be different - but if I were lucky enough to get a place then it's likely I'd be working notice period in my current job and would need to be super committed and focused on this as a change that needs to happen. Once I've finished some other professional development stuff with my current job I'll go back to Angela Yu, that is a really helpful reminder and one I've not been doing recently - but getting in as strong a position as possible before the start is good advice.

Thanks so much for your insights. I hope the rest of it goes well for you and good luck!!!

Good luck to all of those who have applied 😊

I'm not applying this time around, there aren't any with jobs at the end that I can apply for and after hearing a number of times that it's best to go for one with a confirmed job offer at the end I'm holding out for one of them.

In the meantime I'm just working my way through as many courses as I can, I've already done the Angela Yu course(highly recommend it btw!), and I'm a fair way through the full stack pathway on codecademy (hit and miss on there). I'm currently doing the 100 days of python(by Angela Yu), I also have another full web development course, sql course and react course to get through on udemy (bought them during the sale).

I've also done a few moocs with CFG and I'm currently doing one of their 8-week kickstarter courses and I couldn't agree more with everything @codemonkeya has said. The more I do with CFG the more I feel I need to already know what I'm doing (iyswim) to do the degree.

My experience with the moocs is that although the content (in the slides) is great the tutors tend to rush through things and without trying to sound rude a lot of them(on the moocs I've done) don't have English as a first language so it's difficult to understand them. The kickstarter course I'm currently doing has cemented that idea, we have 2 tutors, 1 of them is fantastic and explains things really well, the other just rushes through it and again because of the language issue it's hard to keep up (and I already know 99% of it so far) I hate to think how difficult it must be for those whose second language is English on top of being new to coding. I don't know if I just have one of those faces or if people have grasped that I'm not totally new to coding but I've had a few people on the course message me asking what is going on, do I understand what the tutor is talking about, so I'm now explaining things to people whilst trying to follow along myself.

I feel bad for saying all that because I think what CFG is doing is phenomenal I just think as a number of PP have said it's a bit disorganised and I really feel like they should state that if you're a career switcher(i.e new to tech) to get in as many hours of learning as possible BEFORE doing the degree as well as during. I'd be very interested in the stats on who applies vs who is accepted and also how well people actually do on the degree (pass rates).

I also saw they are doing a survey but it just talks about barriers to women getting into tech and what new career options people would like as part of the degree. I think they really need a survey asking how people find the courses, what could be improved etc as I think with just a few tweaks it could be so much better.

My final thoughts are I love CFG and they offer so many amazing opportunities (for free!!!) but I think they need to be a lot more honest in their advertising about the fast-paced nature of the courses and that having a fair bit of prior knowledge would be highly beneficial. I can imagine if a CFG mooc or kickstarter course was my first step into coding I would have given up thinking it's not for me and/or I was too stupid to get into coding and I hate to think there may be people out there that have felt that way and given up.

Hi everyone, glad I found this thread. I applied for sponsored place only (nothing in my area), but really want to start preparing even if I'm not successful. What would you recommend for Python? I was doing codecademy but my trial had ended and it's expensive to continue.
Good luck to everyone, hopefully we'll all hear soon.

@DreamHomeCatcher I can highly recommend Dr Angela Yu's courses on udemy, they have regular sales on there so you should be able to get it for under £20(even at full price her courses are worth it!) - https://www.udemy.com/course/100-days-of-code/

Hey has anyone who has applied for the autumn cohort heard back from their video interview yet? 💕

Great, thank you. That looks good and the prices is much better than the £300 for Codecademy.

I haven't. But I've heard from friends and read online people get an update after the deadline has passed.

ah okay, thank you i’m so impatient lol i just want to know now

I was also wondering how much time will we need for study outside classes? I have small children and my plan is to have 8 hours per week dedicated to studying. Is that enough? Anything else would have to be very early in the morning or after kids are in beds. I'm motivated so that's fine, but wondering how much sleep I can plan for 😂

Hey everyone im just trying to get prepared for the course , already know html,css and javascript ... what other languages do i need to know the basics of for the software engineering pathway ?

I'm not on the degree programme so I may not be right here, but I would have thought Python (still my favourite lang to date!) would be pretty key.

SQL as well, I know it's not data path but you do need to work with data as well?

Yeah i was looking though the syllabus and in week 1-2 it says we will be learning about SQL syntax so i thought i might learn the basics of that first and then python gets introduced around week 7-8 so i’ll learn that after! thank you for your reply x