General Assembly

In October, I took the Bitmaker Lab's Web Development course. Before taking the program I had no coding experience outside of a course I took years before in high school. By the end of the course I had the proficiency to code some pretty awesome web apps... Read More and equally importantly - the ability to also learn other languages. They did a great job of balancing teaching with hands on work. It really solidified the things we were taught. I'm sure it's been said before but much of my success at Bitmaker was a result of their super helpful lead and assistant Instructors. It was such a jazzy-energetic environment, where everyone just wants to be there to learn and build great things. I spent time after each class really learning and absorbing what was taught, and it was absolutely the right approach because there was often something new to learn the next day. I think some students who had to balance the course jobs and commitments had a hard time. (Pro tip: The more time you put in, the more you'll get out) At the end of the course, Bitmaker had a hiring week and a night of presentations to showcase apps we built ourselves over last two weeks. That led to a ton of new opportunities and by the end I had been through 15 or so interviews and received 4/5 job offers. Without a doubt Bitmaker gave back everything I put in, and I'm happy to have gone. Well worth it!

I recently completed GA's Web Development Immersive and am so incredibly glad I discovered the program. For me, it was a positive, uplifting environment where I made incredible friends and connections. The instructors and staff are truly dedicated to... Read More helping change peoples' lives and give them valuable, marketable skills.

I had researched other coding schools, however, none seemed as personable and prestigious as GA. Also, no other school's curriculum or course format seemed to fit my needs quite as well.

That being said, it was no cakewalk; I had very little trace of a life outside of GA for the duration of the three-month course. 10-12 hours each day (in order to successfully retain most of the concepts) is no exaggeration.

I'm currently in a full-time three-month contract position, and because of the effort I put forth in the immersive, I have very few concerns about attaining my next role. A big theme at GA is "growth mindset" and this is an especially helpful thought pattern for when you're feeling less-than-capable.

However, before you decide to take the plunge, ask yourself: do I love learning constantly, do I have emotional fortitude (e.g. being comfortable with struggling through concepts daily), am I doing this for the pure joy of building/creating/designing, and am I willing to dedicate three months of my life to coding and sleeping? If yes, then I highly recommend! Good luck!

Pros:
You'll emerge from the immersive with a customized, branded, functional UX Design Portfolio which includes at least four design projects.
You'll learn from experienced industry professionals.
You'll have support in your job hunt from GA staff.
You'll... Read More be exposed to over fifty tools and techniques for practicing UX design, including user research.

Cons:
In 10 weeks, you're going to be drinking from the firehose of new information - this is a boot camp experience and it can be stressful if the rest of your life is in any way unsettled. You'll also get exposed to the techniques and tools, but it will be up to you to put in the iterations required to integrate the training and convert it to fluency.

Pros: Great environment, phenomenal network, amazing camaraderie. In just 10 weeks of the Product Management Immersive (PMI) you can go from a newbie to someone who's well-versed in all things PM. You work through five projects in that time period, including... Read More client work and a full-scale product of your conception done with a team of developers and UX/UI designers. There are moments when you are ready to scream and break down because of the pressure and time restrictions, but in the end you come out with one hell of an amazing feeling, a portfolio of work and a resume worth noting.

For the ten weeks you're in, your class, your teams and General Assembly community are your family and your world. Post-grad - that's your go-to network in case of anything. And I mean it. You do not stop being a part of that community just because you graduated.

Instructors are experienced veterans in the field and impart a great deal of pragmatic/working/applicable knowledge to their students. They also push you a lot. It's not called a bootcamp for nothing. Practical exercises are abundant in every lecture and the learned skills are solidified through projects.

GA has a producer for everything: admissions, course, outcomes (job coaching and recruitment). Those are the people that help you progress from start to job.

We had a chance to present (and defend) out final projects (a full-scale site) at an industry night in front of a panel of industry experts. Additionally, there's a Meet & Greet event upon completion of the program where employers come in to look at your projects and you get a chance to network with them.

Cons: PMI is a relatively new GA program as compared to others (as of the date of this writing - 08/11/2015). There are some curriculum glitches, as the instructors are still trying to adjust it to the needs of every new cohort. Sometimes there was too much information provided which could not be properly soaked into our already exhausted minds. Having said that - everybody has their strengths, whether from prior experience or personal acumen, and some topics might be easier or harder for you specifically. The classmates help each other to catch up on whatever is needed (see "camaraderie" above).

Job coaches are very helpful, but overworked. They teach and assist you regularly, while during especially hectic weeks (like meet and greet weeks) it might be tough to get a hold of them. Nevertheless, these guys are extremely knowledgeable and very amicable. You come out with a great professionally looking resume, a GA profile (don't underestimate the GA profile) and a LinkedIn page worth mentioning.

Conclusion: PMI at GA is an outstanding program overall. Even with a few problems, you get highly rich pragmatic education that manages to compress years-worth of MBA, design schools and project management training into a 10-week program, and with better results. Additionally, you get into a very entrepreneurial/startup spirit during the course. Business development does not seem like a scary arcane monster anymore after you learn as much as you can in PMI: it's just a collection of processes for which you have now been endowed with a set of practicable tools.

The burning question: the job search. I know this is one of the major concerns for every bootcamp applicant and attendee. It's been a couple of weeks since the graduation and I'm applying in batches. So far I have some interviews coming up and replies from companies about when they'll beefing up their staff ranks (it's August, and many companies wait for fall budget approvals). Some of my classmates either already got into an internship through their client project connections or going through rounds of interviews.

During the course we had a number of panels with former students who either currently working or interning as product managers or in similar positions. Similar, that is because product managers are often not called product managers in many companies. You have to go by job descriptions. It might be strategists, marketing managers, producers, and whatnot.

GA has its own job board, which appears to be effective since I've got a couple of interviews out of it coming up this week. Following advices of career coaches seems to help a lot in getting interviews.

The bottomline from lessons of those who've done it before us is you really need to network and ACTIVELY search for the job. Unless you are independently wealthy and can afford a nice year-long vacation. Good for you, I say, good for you.

I was beyond impressed by my experience at General Assembly Seattle. The instructors are extremely invested, knowledgable and committed to sending their students into the working world prepared. I loved that the course is constantly being updated and... Read More changed to reflect what is important to a specific market (example: Sketch is becoming more popular and important in Seattle, so it was added to the course to reflect that). Another big pro is that you leave the course with a job-ready portfolio, with at least 3 high quality UX projects inside. The course emphasizes collaborative work (because much design work is incredibly collaborative). This is a big pro in terms of job-readiness, but can be one of the more stressful aspects of the course.

I think the biggest con of the course is the intensity of it. I was ready to completely immersive myself in the course - I spend 70-100 hours a week working while in the ten week program. I didn't have another job, didn't see my friends very much and didn't keep up with many of my extra curricula's. I also was careful to take care of myself (mentally and physically) outside of the course. If you don't have the support system, or willingness to invest this much time and energy, I don't know if you would get as much out of the course. GA does provide outcomes support - but it is really support, you need to drive your own job search.

Before taking the GA course, I was working as a professional Irish dancer and movement educator - I currently work as the Designer in Residence for General Assembly, and am consistently going on interviews for UX jobs that I would love to have.

I went to GA Seattle WDI (Web Development Immersive) course. It changed my life. Within 1 1/2 months of graduation, I was offered a great job at a company that's considered one of the top 5 to work for in the pacific NW. Starting next week I'll be a Software... Read More Engineer making more than twice what I made in my previous career, and I enjoy the work much more. I can't heap enough praise onto the General Assembly Web Development program. Like I said, it's changed my life in ways I didn't think possible.

I've not only taken the 11 week Data Science course but have attended many workshops and watched many courses online. Overall, GA has really helped me stay current with my skills and helped me innovate in my company. It's been quite some time since I... Read More was in school so this was perfect. The instructors are great and really take the time to assure that you understand the material. They even give up several hours on Saturdays to help! Highly recommend.

I recently completed an Ad Optimization part time course with Bitmaker Labs in Toronto and couldn’t have more positive things to say about my experience. The course focused on building ads on Facebook and Google Ads by learning about copy writing, demographics... Read More and tricks and tips for each of the platforms. We had an industry expert from a high profile company lead our 12 week program. He offered incredible insights and support throughout the entire course. Another element of the course I really enjoyed was the networking opportunities. Our instructor was very well connected in the digital marketing and Toronto community and was able to bring in several guest speakers to share their insights with the class as well. Not only did this make the content diverse but again exposed us to insights from other local companies to further expand our network of connections. If you are looking to take a part time course with Bitmaker I would highly recommend doing so. 3 hours/week may seem like a big time commitment but as someone working full time I can tell you it was doable and worth the time.

I had a great experience at Bitmaker Labs. I went in with little to no expectations and had a very positive experience. The course was very manageable, being that it was only part-time and occurred once a week. I knew there was no obligation towards,... Read More assignments or attendance yet I still took the class very seriously, it was because of this attention and determination I felt that I was able to get the most out of the course. It is quite costly, but if you are serious and want to pursue your course (or program) as a career, it's worth it, because with a course like this one; you get out, what you put in. I took advantage of my talented instructor and the awesome guest speakers that came in, it's not everyday you come across, highly talented, skilled and experienced individuals like that. I went into Bitmaker with a very low level of knowledge in different areas, for example, Photoshop was a program that I wasn't too comfortable with and with just one three hour class I was able to actually learn the basic essentials of it and use it with so much more confidence today. Bitmaker didn't actually help me find a job because I didn't reach out to them for that, I ventured out on my own and landed one. I did however use the skills and knowledge from what I learned at Bitmaker in my interview process and still use them at my current job. I had great lecture notes from the course that I actually used to study over for my interviews. All in all, Bitmaker was an amazing opportunity and am so thankful to have met Greg Moore (my instructor) who was my true inspiration to pursue UI/UX design as a career.