Galvanize

I was looking for a part time program which doesn't cut so may chapters and knowledge, as I am a full time employee. I searched a lot of program and Galvanize had a complete program for me . Program is intense and it should be as the market is really... Read More competitive and find a Data science job is truly hard.

1 year ago I was on platforms such as this to find a worthwhile data science bootcamp. With companies nowadays inflating their own reviews it was a mess trying to figure it out.

I eventually chose Galvanize - their beautiful incubator space was a huge... Read More selling point (which they’ve now sold - they’re in a smaller space now), as well as the small class size and the difficulty/professionalism of their entry exams. It also felt much less like the recruiter was selling me a lie, unlike some of the other boot camps I received offers from (ironically, Galvanize’s recruiter did lie about there being a working beer tap on campus). It’s a competitive field for boot camps and be warned now that they’re all going to inflate their stats and tell you exactly what you want to hear. Atleast Galvanize has the curriculum to back it up.

They fit in 2 lectures and 2 Jupiter Notebook guided labs each day, teaching you not only how to code, but also version control (git), statistics, machine learning, and deployment via AWS. They give you exposure to every relevant topic, and they actually have you build the ML algorithms from scratch - helping you 1 on 1 while you do it (this is an area where I expect larger classroom boot camps to be failing). The two teachers on staff are excellent, and the curriculum covers everything that it should, being largely guided by the ideas of Introduction to Statistical Learning. The fact that they focus on Python is a huge positive. After the bootcamp, the career advisor was great, a really nice guy who was with you every step of the way through the job search, not just because it was his job, but because he’s a nice guy.

I didn’t get the job title of Data Scientist I wanted despite feeling like I was one of the top performers in the class, but I doubt i could’ve gotten a better 3 month education elsewhere and now I know exactly where I need to improve upon to become a data scientist.

At the end of the day if you end up choosing Galvanize, you can rest assured that you’re getting a good education.

I found this program to be immensely helpful in my pursuit of a career in data science. I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in math and initially pursued a career in actuarial science; however, I failed to successfully find a job I was happy with. I... Read More decided in the summer of 2018 to pursue a career in data science; I always found computer science interesting and felt that data science would be a more suitable career path for me.

At first I wanted to self-teach myself the necessary skills. I successfully taught myself the basics of Python, but I found it difficult to plan and follow a proper curriculum while working full time. Through friends I had heard Galvanize was a great program with a track record of successfully placing graduates into data science positions. I left my job and enrolled in the 2018 summer cohort for the full-time Data Science Immersive program in NYC. I met great people and learned quite a lot.

Having a clear curriculum incredibly focused my ability to study and learn all of the relevant material. It took a lot of extra hours outside of the classroom to complete all the readings and keep up with the course in order to absorb all the material, but I thought it was time and money well spent. Galvanize not only taught me the skills to become an attractive job candidate, but primed me to learn and expand my knowledge further. The curriculum at Galvanize was all in Python, but at my current position I use R, C++, Java, and JavaScript alongside Python to complete my work.

Galvanize's job support was wildly helpful. Learning how to communicate with recruiters and understanding how to sell myself as a candidate were invaluable skills. After graduation, I was swiftly hired as a data scientist for a large Fortune 500 company, and I attribute all of my success to my time at Galvanize.

Galvanize Data Science Immersive: I was looking to pivot from my current career path into data science. I had taken some data science online courses previous to this and had completed most of a minor in computer science during my bachelor's. This definitely... Read More helped prepare me for this course. If you haven't done programming before you absolutely need to take some substantial intro classes, which Galvanize does offer. Galvanize was exactly what I was looking for: large breadth of the data science tools with a number of practice assignments to put learning into practice over a short period of time. The career services component was another huge reason I decided on Galvanize. The course was just as intense as previous engineering courses I'd taken in the past. Pros: * Large breadth of topics covered * Intense schedule gets you hyper-focused for quick learning * Practice assignments to engage further learning * Reference material for future reference and continued learning * Knowledgeable teachers invested in students learning * Career services help throughout the whole process * Produces a lot of strong data science practitioners * Great community! Cons: * Intense schedule will put many other parts of life on hold * Not enough time to go in-depth on a number of topics * Low performing students can slip through

1-year after completing Galvanize Data Science Immersive and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. At 34 and already in a decent career field I wanted to make a change. I could have gone back to school or done a different boot camp- but the Galvanize... Read More program, structure, and community drew my attention. You can't argue with results. My cohort was small, only 7 people. 6 finished and all were employed full-time within 3 months. My personal experience was filled with a lot of apprehension and concern around "is this going to be enough?". It was. That simple. Let's be clear - they are not going to apply to jobs for you. They are not going to do the course work for you. If you fall behind it is up to you to ask for more attention. However, I found the instructors to be knowledgeable and willing to dedicate time for those who wanted more attention - but also not hold the group back. Career services offered advice and gave you time when you asked for it. The atmosphere was positive and there were lots of ways to network/connect and hustle to find work. I personally received two six-figure offers within 3 months, and there were a lot of possibles in the pipeline when I did end up accepting a position. Of course your results may vary - but if you are interested in upping your data analytics game, being a master with python (a very useful language), and opening up career fields you didn't think would be possible - I found Galvanize a great place to do it and think it was exactly the right choice. I couldn’t be more pleased with the results at the present, and the future looks great! Why 4 stars? Because there is always room for improvement and that missing star is YOU. You will make it 5 stars if you want it. Some additional thoughts I have: - Do at least an intro to Python course and have some exposure to Pandas - this will help you keep up. It also wouldn't hurt to do a simple Intro to Computer Science class where you really break down loops and objects in coding. Not 100% needed but will help you keep up. SQL practice also will be helpful. You don't need to be a master of any of this by all means - you know more than you realize! - Do full immersive. I completely understand how big of a leap of faith it is to take 4+ months away from work and go without income during that time. I really believe the intensive is the way to go rather than doing it part-time. The crunched curriculum is like a shot in the arm and you will learn/retain more and find more practical uses when you jump in with both feet.

Coding boot camps are all about how much effort and drive you put into them. I was able to fully devote myself for prep for the program about 3-months before it began, and really threw myself into the program during the 3-month duration. I feel like I... Read More got a tremendous amount of knowledge and skills by the end.

There is an unreasonable amount of material covered at a very fast pace. I used to teach advanced university courses, and the Galvanize Data Science immersive was far more intense than anything I’d previously experienced. The three projects in the course are a great opportunity to get deeper knowledge on a subject and show off your work. The projects are great, but I’d recommend that people either partner with companies for projects or think of business-cases for projects.

Another major aspect of the program is the career services curriculum. I’ve taught similar content to university students in “senior seminar” courses, and what Galvanize provided makes me feel bad about what I taught. Very good content and coaching/assistance from the career services rep. Definitely puts you in a situation to get a job.

Post-program job hunt: this is specific to each person and their background. I have an advanced degree in a technical field and was a tenure-Track professor, so my experience won’t be true for everyone. I had three companies actively interested and had final round interviews with all three companies in the same week. Very positive outcome for a career transition.

Overall: an intense educational experience that allows for a rapid re-tooling and career transition. You get out what you put in. Very positive outcomes for me, and would highly recommend the program to others. Brand new college graduates (or less experience) may have a harder time finding jobs afterward, but the program stats on employment are very good.

During this program, we covered everything from the basic programming syntax (which served as the building block) to the more advanced data science/machine learning /artificial intelligence topics (which allowed the student to explore his interests).... Read More The codes that I got from lecture codes, homework, and peers here are valuable, and I find them very helpful for my current projects. The lecture notes and curriculum are successful at explaining fundamental theories.

I think the teachers here are very knowledgeable, and their lectures are well-organized and efficient. Many of the teachers also shared their experience in the data science industry and gave us ideas about what it is like to work in the data science industry, which was another good point of this program. When students needed helps, TAs, managers, or teachers were available either in person or on slacks.

Galvanize gives you the tools to build and succeed. The program prepared me for the real world after graduation. All of my class mates got placed at great companies. Teachers and staff go above and beyond to support and build not only you're skills but... Read More your after graduation network. After the course me and a few other grads were able to build an entire platform and push a machine learning product into production. Galvanize helped launch my career and built me a network of technical contacts I can lean on.

The Denver Galvanize campus on Platte St. offered our cohort an incredibly challenging and rewarding experience.  Most days, we received two mathematical theory-based lectures that were followed by practical coding exercises validating those earlier lessons.... Read More  Mornings and afternoons followed the same schedule, affording us a predictable workflow that we could personally optimize.  In addition to a lead instructor who had enjoyed a very impressive career in data science, our mentors included graduates from recent cohorts who returned to give back to the community.  Without exception, these adjunct instructors inspired us to persevere; we were following their recent footsteps even as they were now playing on (and sometimes leading) top-level research and development teams in Colorado.  Daily homework consisted of prescribed readings in preparation for the next day's lessons as well as formal exercises from the career services staff, who met with us every few weeks both in cohort-wide and individual sessions.  It should be noted that each of us was so well-prepared for the job search that even though our group's size was significantly larger than most, we quickly received invitations to the job interviews, executed well, and landed jobs in data science in record time.  In summary, the faculty and staff at Galvanize in Denver have crafted a robust program and they execute exceedingly well.

I attended Galvanize's Data Science Immersive program from September through December 2018 at the Denver Platte campus. My overall opinion is that this program is not for the faint of heart because it is an immersive program (9am-6pm every weekday for... Read More approximately 3 months with a couple of breaks). However, since graduating I have found that it has helped prepare me above and beyond my expectations and I would 100% go back through the program to do it all again. I had a very positive experience and would highly recommend it to anybody serious about making the transition into data science. Here are a few things I think would be helpful to know with some of my opinions (no particular order): 1) Instructors have a deep understanding of the subject material and can communicate it to the students 2) Instructors care about the students - many of us were friends with our instructors by the end of the program 3) My peers were all nice and helpful and we all helped each other every step of the way - each cohort could be different but mine was very positive from start to finish 4) Career services did a great job preparing us for the job search - we would meet with our career services manager regularly (every 1-2 weeks) for group training, one-on-one sessions, mock-interviews, etc. 5) Learn by doing - we would start with a lecture on the topic and theory and then we would immediately jump into applying the new topic through coding 6) It's a major time commitment - we were all on campus every weekday from 9 am to about 6 pm and then I would typically go home and study some more 7) Weekly case studies were used to bring the new concepts from the week together 8) Personal capstone projects - this gave us opportunities to work on individual projects and go much deeper into certain technologies and concepts 9) Supportive alumni community - alumni have always been receptive of meeting with me and extending advice and mentorship - a lot of alum seem to go to alumni events and the student capstone showcases - a lot of alumni work at reputable companies and are willing to meet with and help new graduates with their job search 10) The cost of the program is pretty significant - my program was on the higher end of the spectrum from my research, but they made the loan and payment process painless Overall, Galvanize's Data Science program is challenging but if you are serious about transitioning into this field and willing to put in the work to learn the material and apply what you are learning it is well worth the time, effort and cost. Galvanize helped prepare me to successfully make the transition.