Galvanize

The Good: Hack Reactor's curriculum is very well developed and does an excellent job preparing lay people for a career in tech. Their instructors are also very helpful and very encouraging. You also really feel a sense of community with your peers, even... Read More though you are interacting remotely. The Bad: The JavaScript curriculum is intense and exhaustive. Compared to other prep courses, Hack Reactor expects you to get JavaScript down very quickly and their Technical Admissions Assessment is notoriously very difficult. I had to take the prep course more than once to feel ready enough to complete it. The Ugly: The parent company Galvanize Inc. sees their students as numbers and not people. They recently began administering non-technical admissions assessments that are required for admission in the form of 'aptitude tests.' The aptitude test consists of a very arbitrary set of logical problems and a typing test to gauge a basic requisite skill sets prior to admission. The problem is: even if you have a lot of knowledge concerning JavaScript, you can still be considered an incompatible candidate for software engineering if you fail the aptitude test. My advice is save you money and especially your time with this boot camp. My assumption is that they are orchestrating more barriers to entry to have more control of the massive influx of people who are requesting admission. They have made very grandiose claims that many people would have an easier time getting admission to Harvard than their program. If this company spends this much time an resources devising ways to weed you out (than letting employers do it themselves), then they should not be deserving of your time or respect.

The first 10 weeks of this 18 week coding immersive are fast and hard! It feels like drinking from a fire hose with all the technologies you will be learning. However, if you just follow the teachers instructions you will succeed beyond your own expectations!... Read More Some of my classmates had no coding experience and others had 7 years of python experience. Both greatly improved their game. So what makes the Galvanize coding immersive so impactful? Coding can be hard and feelings of impostor syndrome or general distress may set in. This is normal. The Galvanize coding immersive has instructors who specialize in helping students overcome these defeatist thoughts that everyone feels at some point in their journey. Additionally, I can't speak highly enough of the technical instructors. They are brilliant but make sure their code is easy to understand, which aids your learning process. They are accessible throughout the entire day to help you get past "sticking points." Funny enough, as you progress through the course you require their help less and less as you learn to navigate the docs. I totally recommend this program for anyone trying to get into coding. Just buckle down for 18 weeks and change your life!

I think the pros definitely outweigh the cons of this program. I came into the programing having completed the course prep work a month before. They have instructors and student aides that help you through the prep work and all along the course. I think... Read More there is a good mixture of self study and instructor-led sessions. The con is that if you are not fully committed then your learning will suffer. You have to practice what they preach every day or you are not going to retain much. You are going to get behind quickly because it's fast-paced and each lesson builds on the other. If you put in a good effort, ask a lot of questions, ask for office hours, and communicate with your cohort mates, this course will help you become a software developer.

The course is thorough in regards to full-stack web development, with an emphasis on practical methodologies and technologies making the curriculum practical and efficient. The staff alone made the program a smooth and memorable experience, and the overall... Read More content was well designed and structured in a logical fashion, constantly building off the previous lessons for a more unified understanding. Definitely would recommend it for those with an interest in software engineering, regardless of your skillset.

Galvanize was a great experience for me, and I'd recommend the DSI to anyone looking for a career transition to data science. The course material is interesting and comprehensive, staff is engaging and knowledgeable, and my cohort was friendly and motivated.... Read More I also appreciate that the curriculum seems up to date with current data science industry standards, based on conversations with people in the field. In terms of structure, the DSI is a combination of structured vs. unstructured and collaborative vs. independent learning. Everyday students have a set schedule of lectures and assignments to work on, both independently and within groups. But at the same time there's also room for self-guided learning and creative thinking. My favorite part of the DSI was applying what we learned in the classroom to real world problems through group case studies and individual capstone projects. We got the chance to dive deeper into areas that interested us, come up with our own ideas, and build our own projects from the ground up. Once we covered most of the course material, it was time to apply for jobs. The job search process was made much easier by our career advisor, who consistently offered students advice, support, and overall preparation for the search. He was a huge help guiding us through the entire process, from interview prep to post-offer negotiation. Students are encouraged to start applying a few weeks before graduation, and have access to personalized career support for up to six months after graduation. Overall Galvanize does a great job of not just teaching students a variety of data science concepts but also equipping students with the tools needed to get a job in the field and take control of their own learning after the program. The environment is welcoming but also pushes students to go beyond the basics and think outside the box. I learned so much in a short amount of time, and can't recommend it enough!

I went through Galvanize's Remote Part Time Data Science Immersive program and even though there were a lot of times I doubted my ability to get through this, but thanks to the great instructional staff and my cohort, I somehow made it through and became... Read More more confident in my capabilities as a data scientist and as a person. The curriculum was created for people at all levels, though reading the math could be a bit difficult (but the instructional staff was more than happy to share resources that explained the topic and to break down the topic for every student). My instructor was always willing to go the extra mile to answer all of our questions and even spent hours outside of class to do some extra research to ensure our questions were answered fully. The instructor and data science residents were always willing to help and work around our schedules (especially since a few of us in the Remote Part Time program had full-time jobs) and they would stay up to make sure we got our questions answered.

Galvanize's Data Science Immersive sure lives up to its name. The full time program is an immersive, challenging experience. As a recent graduate, I left the program with a host of new skills and understanding of what is expected of a Data Scientist in... Read More industry as well as access to valuable post-graduation career services.

It's a hard program and new information and material is constantly being thrown your way. It's hard and frustrating, but keep pushing through and when you complete the course you'll be way more capable than before. The instructors are incredible and really... Read More go above and beyond trying to help. The job placement program is strong and they work hard to get people into fields they're interested in.

Here we are. One week after graduating from Galvanize / Hack Reactor and I have to say that I'm still in shock and awe as to what I just accomplished over the past three months (technically 7 months since I went through a prep course and a pre course... Read More prior to the boot camp). For those looking to have a big change in their lives with software engineering and / or data science and are curious about the pros and cons to each specific boot camp, I hope this review helps in your decision to look into Galvanize / HR. From the get-go, I knew I was in for a long and challenging road. I have absolutely no prior technical experience. My previous experience stems entirely from the arts, with music and film and a communications major from my college in 2012. Prior to late 2020, I had never written a line of code and I couldn't have even told you what a line of code would represent or how it worked. My first week of Hack Reactor was very tough to put it honestly. I considered dropping out the second day. I thought I would never be smart enough to learn this information. My self-doubt and 'imposter syndrome' was at an all-time high. It's also noteworthy to mention that I generally pick things up pretty quickly. Unfortunately I realized that coding was not one of these things. Through the current seniors (at the time, I was referred to as a junior), I was reminded and guided towards not giving up, not quitting and just pushing through. I was told that this feeling happens with practically everyone. Something that was actually later confirmed. I decided to stay in the boot camp and relentlessly study. Failure / dropping out wasn't an option. It's a reasonable assumption to think that I struggled as I went - this is true. While it felt like others were picking things up quicker than me, I used my hard work ethic to continue to do whatever I could to learn, absorb and grow, despite feeling like I wasn't learning quick enough. As time went on, I started to get into the flow of things and feel a bit more comfortable with the course. During the half-way mark about six weeks in, we had to take a gating assessment which allows us to move forward to the senior phase. I took the assessment and felt unsure about how I did. I found out that I passed and several days after, to my surprise, I found out I passed with flying colors. I started to get a little easier on myself with my self-doubt as I continued through the senior phase and towards graduation. **Don't let this gating assessment turn you away from HR. I've been told other boot camps have similar gating assessments as well, I think they're pretty common throughout the industry*** Along my journey, I realized numerous things that while I can't directly say whether or not other boot camps have this, I know that my experiences with them in Hack Reactor were some of the best of any schooling I've ever had (if not THE best). -The people - The group of people inside of my cohort were the most intelligent, humorous, kind, funny and well-rounded humans I've ever gotten to know. I was in awe every day jumping into our cohort and feeling the love and support and energy from this exceptional group of people. I don't think I could have (or would have wanted to) continue through the boot camp without this group. A group that I'm also proud to call friends. -The projects - I've been told some of the content that HR offers isn't offered anywhere else such as the SDC (systems design capstone), which is a project built entirely on the backend of a full-stack application, where you use databases, instances, load balancers, servers and much more to fully integrate the backend to a front-end website. I've also been told by further along HR alumni that this was the project that recruiters were the most interested in hearing about during interviews. -The community - I'm not sure exactly how this works at other bootcamps, but HR offers a wonderful opportunity for students who have recently graduated to stay another cycle of a future boot camp and be the "help desk" for current students, to assist them with questions and guide them towards their own coding discoveries (never directly giving them the answers). This is powerful for multiple reasons but a primary one being the continued growth and learning of recently alumni who may feel like they still have a lot to learn. -The goals - I attribute my success to this bullet point. HR is NOT just about your technical skills. It's much more than that. Generally they discuss the 'four pillars' including technical, social, hire-ability and self-management. As I mentioned that I have no technical background, what I do feel my strong points are include soft-skills with networking, hire-ability, self-management and social. This helped in my chance to actually shine in this course even though I wouldn't consider myself anywhere near my peers in the technical area. In summary, Hack Reactor of course may not be for everyone. Every boot camp I'm sure has something to offer everyone. But I can't say enough outstandingly wonderful and positive things about them. I'm sure I've left off a lot of information (even though I wrote a novel haha), but the gist is this - as I mentioned, I have no technical background. And to be honest, I still don't feel like the world's greatest engineer. I still have my self-doubts, I still have my imposter syndrome, I still wish aspects of what I code came to me easier, but the fact is, they don't and I've had to work twice as hard, if not 3 or 4 times as hard to have these concepts solidify for me vs others. But what's so incredible here is that if you're willing to work, work relentlessly and prove that you want it bad enough, you will succeed. Galvanize / HR saw this in me and after I applied, they offered me that position I mentioned above as a help desk staff, where I get the opportunity to continue to grow and sharpen my skills while helping educate students going through the program now. This proves their position that it's not all about the technical skills. Of course, those skills are important and I won't say I didn't work hard on them; I did and do every single day. But those skills are only half the battle into the workspace and into the interviews. Thus what I do offer is patience, fun energy and a desire to help students grow and learn in a fun yet challenging work environment, which is a sought after piece of the puzzle. YOU CAN DO THIS! LEARN FROM THE BEST AT GALVANIZE / HACK REACTOR :)

Came into the course with very little coding experience in Python but some good fundamentals in Math. The prep course was very useful and set me up really well to start the course. Once we began the actual course it help a very fast tempo and you really... Read More need to be focused to keep up with all of the material. Lucky for us, the instructors and assistant instructors are dedicated to helping you understand the material and complete your projects! The course, material, and instructors are top notch but you need to be dedicated to the course. Once the course is complete and your portfolio is ready its time for the job search. There is a dedicated employment advisor that prepares you for all aspects of the job search throughout the course and then is dedicating to helping you for a year after the course is over. This was such an important part of me finding a job and I could not say enough good things about them. This course was one of the best decisions I have made for breaking into Data Science. Thank you all so much!