Pros
A great opportunity for someone with an alternative education in coding to get real world experience working with a team and building a project that helps others. The Tech and Product leads are experienced people who will help guide you and the rest of the team along the way. They constantly offer their help in reviewing resumes, going over job postings, preparing for interviews, giving helpful resources for learning, and providing help in any situation. It's great learning to work on a team of other apprentices. We are there to help each other and teach each other. I feel more ready for the professional world of tech from my 2 months of experience at The Difference Engine as opposed to my 2 years of learning how to code. I do put a lot into what I'm building here, learning the new technologies that we implement, and I utilize the help of the team leads, so I do get a lot out of it.
Cons
Sometimes it can feel a little disorganized, which mainly comes from the fact that apprentices come and go so there is a lot of training that continues around you. Also because The Difference Engine would still be considered a start-up, they do have a lot of growing and fine-tuning to do. But that also makes it great because I can provide the feedback to them and they take it and adapt it into the program. I have seen some people come and go who did not put much effort into the program and it seemed like they didn't get anything out of it. This is not a place where they will just give you a job, this is not an "easy in" to an entry level tech job. But if you put the effort into your job searching and utilize the resources you are given you can go far.