Wandering around Bath and taking in the Georgian architecture, you might be surprised to hear that the city is part of the largest tech hub outside London.
Loads of really exciting tech companies are popping up and blossoming in Bath, which make it a great place to work as a software developer. Looking at the companies that some of the academy graduates have moved on to is a testament to this – check out companies like Seccl, the people behind an innovative cloud based wealth management software, and Rocketmakers who create digital products.
As far as tech communities go, Bath is very well served. There is a huge meetup scene with get togethers covering a whole range of topics including Javascript, Agile, PHP and even ‘tech for good’. When I was learning to code as part of the very first Mayden Academy cohort in 2015, I found that joining this community, and having conversations with people about tech outside of the academy was really complementary to the immersive nature of the course. It also provided lots of great networking opportunities for post-academy job seeking.
The extensive food options in Bath are always on hand to help deal with all the late evening coding sessions. Whether it’s fresh Indian street food at Chai Wallah or my current favourite, The Pizza Bike, there are some great eats in and around the city.
And let’s talk commute – this was one of my biggest concerns having suffered some pretty terrible ones while living in London over the years. The good news is that the academy is located about a 5 minute walk from the train station, with frequent trains to and from London (about 1.5 hours) and Bristol (12 minutes), so you don’t have to worry about bolting out of the door to make your train. An important part of the learning process for me is trial and error, and being able to stick around after the day’s lessons and try out the day’s code concepts with the other academy students was invaluable.
So if you’re thinking about learning to code and are considering Bath as a location, my advice is to go for it. This is an amazing city with friendly people, great food, and a growing tech scene. Give us a shout if you have any questions.
