Metis

I enrolled in Metis after a few years of working in analytics as a way to expand my technical toolkit and go deeper into data science. I’d done a lot of research on bootcamps (and taken a somewhat disappointing part time course at one of its competitors)... Read More beforehand. I can say with confidence that Metis has the most intensive curriculum in the field and the highest bar for admission and success. The technical assessment you have to pass before you’re even admitted and the amount of pre-work you do before Day 1 should clue you in. The instructors, TAs, and career team are all extremely gifted and do so much to help the students. The curriculum is well planned and constantly updated. Because every cohort is only 3 months, there’s a lot of room for them to innovate and they take full advantage: you’ll be exposed to the most cutting edge data science tools--things you won’t get exposure to as quickly in your job or at a more traditional program. The team also does a lot behind the scenes to personalize guidance and make sure every student is on track. However, because of the high bar and intensive curriculum, you have to be fully committed to not only get through the bootcamp, but get the most out of it. Creating a new project from scratch every 2 weeks while learning new material daily is intense. You need passion and curiosity to fuel you. You need to really love learning and doing the work. It is not for the faint of heart. You also have to be willing to ask for help. It’s easy to grab time with instructors and TAs as long as you’re proactive about reaching out. All the other students are extremely helpful. There's a real sense of community and that lasts way beyond graduation. The most successful projects I saw were from peers who combined pure passion with technical learnings and took full ownership of their projects (from ideation, to documenting their repo, to blogging/marketing their portfolio). Throughout the program, you’re able to explore different avenues of data science work, which is invaluable in helping you understand what type of role you want next, especially as the industry continues to grow. The careers team is helpful during the job hunt, but I think people often have lofty expectations. Careers will give you the tools to succeed, but that’s the most they can do. Networking, applying for jobs, etc. are things only you can do for yourself. I know of many peers in the cohort who were very proactive, brushed off setbacks, and landed jobs they really wanted within 1-2 months (some of them pivoted from completely different industries). In my case, Metis directly led me to my post-bootcamp Data Scientist role. Every cohort, the career team shares graduate profiles with all prospective employers via email, and before I’d had a chance to even apply, a company I’d wanted to join for over a year reached out after having seen my profile. Several of the other companies I interviewed for also recognized Metis and the strength of its program when I spoke about my experience. Upon accepting the offer from my top choice and current company, the career team was also very helpful in guiding me through the offer process. Metis opened the door to my next chapter and is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made for my career. I highly recommend this program. First, it gave me the knowledge, tools, and guidance to level up to a new version of myself and the room to explore what kind of data scientist I wanted to be. Then it quite literally opened the door to one of my favorite companies and a role that aligned with exactly what I was looking for. It also gifted me a lasting network of friends and data science peers: our shared passion for the field got me through long bootcamp nights and still energizes me every time we reconnect. If you’re passionate about data, willing to do the work, and be proactive about your career, then look no further!! May Metis be a game-changer for you as it was for me!

I attended Metis in the summer of 2020 after spending a decade in education as a math teacher and administrator. Simply put, Metis was the best decision I ever made. The experience changed my life and gave me the skills and confidence to pivot to a completely... Read More different industry. As an educator, I was consistently impressed with the quality of the curriculum and support and expertise of the instructors. While it can feel a little like information overload at times (it is a bootcamp after all), the projects are where your learning really comes together! The experiences I gained with the projects prepared me to hit the ground running in my new job. The career support was truly the best career information I've received in my professional experience. Throughout the experience, they plan workshops, alumni sessions, and one-on-one support that prepare you for the job search process. After the bootcamp, careers is there for you as much or as little as you want. Additionally, the Metis alumni community is AMAZING! With the support of careers and the alumni network, I was able to land a job as an Associate Data Scientist just a few weeks after graduating! I highly recommend Metis to anyone looking to transition into Data Science!

I went to back to school as a non-traditional student in my mid-20s a few years after getting out of the military and got a physics degree that I never thought I would achieve. After that accomplishment, however, I spent years trying to break into a field... Read More that would allow me to use some of the skills I learned in that degree, but I could never bridge the gap between my academic and life experience and what would be expected on day one in a field like data science. This bootcamp was truly been a life-changing experience for me, and I’m really grateful to the staff at Metis. To get accepted late last year at the end of a difficult 2020 was a much-needed career boost, and I'm confident that the skills taught to me in the bootcamp will help me bridge the gap between my academic experience and the experience needed to walk into a workplace on day 1 for a data science role.

As someone making a career switch from a non-technical field to data science, I wanted an intensive, comprehensive educational experience that would prepare me well for a data science role. Metis delivered in this realm and more! The rigorous and thoughtful... Read More admissions process and the pre-work curriculum helped me gauge my strengths and weaknesses even before starting the program, which set me up for a rich experience. The curriculum itself covers a wide breadth of topics, while keenly focusing on the areas of data science that are most applicable and useful for application on the job, and teaches you foundational principles and the reasoning behind the skills and tools you need to ensure that you are learning data science from the ground up. I found this to be a huge advantage while interviewing for jobs as interviewers were surprised at how deeply I understood the statistical analyses I performed and machine learning models I built. I also came out of the program with a robust, multi-project portfolio, which was a key factor to success in getting interviews and being hired for my current job. The curriculum also helps build your presentation and communication skills, which were crucial in job interviews and in the workplace. There was also a great deal of support available and you can tailor your experience to how much or little support you want or need. Everyone involved in the program, from instructors to TAs to program managers to the career team to the director, is clearly invested in your success and well-being and are highly attentive to your needs and desires. They also take feedback seriously and ask for it often and quickly respond to it, which I observed in real-time during the course of the bootcamp and highly appreciated. I was also highly impressed by the other students in my cohort and I believe the admissions process does a good job of selecting qualified, collaborative candidates to enrich the bootcamp experience for all students. As with many other programs of this nature, you need to be self-motivated and work hard to succeed, and you get out of the experience what you put in. Being prepared to work very hard and dedicate much of your time to this program is important given the intensive nature of a bootcamp. Also being self-aware and reflecting on what you want out of the program and what you need to get there helps to get as much out of the program as possible, particularly with career support. In short, I could not have asked for a better bootcamp experience and Metis prepared me well for my first data science role, which I was able to land just over a month after graduating. I would highly recommend this program!

Hi, I am currently a Director of a proprietary trading company as well as an adjunct professor at the Business School at DePaul University in Chicago. I took the 12 week Metis data science program between April and June 2020 between the job transition.... Read More I wanted a full-time, in-person data science/coding boot camp.  I had a commitment issue with pre-recorded videos. Also, I wanted a real time interaction with instructors to resolve any issues that I would face as opposed to getting into a rabbit hole trying to find the answer myself, since I sometimes do not even know what the issue is. While the Metis program was offered through zoom link due to pandemic, I am truly grateful that I chose Metis program to improve my quantitative and coding skills. I had such a high quality and efficient coursework and met amazing instructors, TAs and cohorts. I am very satisfied with the quality of the program as it covered a wide range of topics covering not just python coding skills but theoretical mathematical and statistical background necessary to become a good data scientist. I have advanced degrees in mathematics from MIT and financial economics from Stanford Graduate School of Business. While I had already learned many of the mathematics and statistics topics such as regression, classification, etc at school, Metis instructors taught the courses much more intuitive and in an engaging way that there were a lot of ‘ah ha’ moments that I realized how intuitive these concepts were, which I did not have back at these top schools. The instructors were also so good at presentation that it was such a pleasure to learn the way they taught. I learned a lot about not just the course material, but about the way they do presentations. Also, their attitude towards data science and learning set such a high standard that I was very impressed. I could truly see that they did this teaching not just as a daily job, but as their passion. Finally, I felt so lucky to be with such supportive and friendly cohorts that I would like to keep in touch with them even after graduation. I felt that I was always welcome in the group and wanted to work with them in the future. I loved the program so much that when my son (currently in elementary school) goes to college and if he decides to pursue a science and engineering major, I will enroll him in the Metis program as a gift for his college entrance. I think all the materials and skill sets that I learned from Metis are so fundamental and critical for any person with a quantitative major or a career path, that I want my son to learn these concepts and skill sets as fundamental building blocks no matter what his major/interest would be. Overall, there are many data science/coding boot camps or degree programs, and I am afraid that some of them focus on teaching students various technical skills without really emphasizing the fundamental understanding of when and why we use these techniques. I sometimes interview students out of master's programs in data analytics. While they claim they did many projects using many fancy machine learning projects, the majority of them do not have 'true' understanding of why they used the specific methods and why some approaches would work or not work. Some of them do not even understand basic concepts such as 'over-fitting' vs 'under-fitting', or 'R-squared' in regression. When solving real world problems, one has to have a solid understanding of the problem as well as the methodology that they want to apply, so that when a method is not working, they would understand why and what to do next. Just blindly repeating 10 different machine learning technologies without any idea of why they are working or not working is not acceptable. In that sense, I learned a great intuition on topics from Metis class, and am very happy with the quality of the program. It was totally worth the tuition.

I attended Metis Data Science Summer 2020 Cohort after working at United Airlines as a data analyst. Wanting to make the jump from data analyst to data scientist, I decided Metis was the right choice for me. The coursework is excellent and expansive,... Read More covering important data science concepts ranging from natural language processing to deep learning. The coursework is regularly updated to stay up to date with the most recent concepts and algorithms to keep up in a very fast moving industry. The instructors are excellent and patient. It is fairly easy to find time for 1 on 1 interaction with an instructor or TA, despite being in a cohort of about 30. I liked the project based curriculum, as it allows you to apply concepts learned in class to areas of your own interest. Presentation days are great as you get to see how the same data science concepts are applied in countless different settings. Furthermore, the projects are a great talking point in the interview process, which leads me to my next point. After graduating Metis, I didn't utilize the career support much. 2 companies did look through the Metis directory and reach out to me, but other than that, most of my success came from LinkedIn or other job boards. I was fairly lucky that a recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn about a position that was somewhat similar to my previous work experience. My previous work experience, plus my newly learned knowledge of basic data science concepts helped me pass the interviews and land a data scientist contractor job. However, I consider myself lucky, as this position happened to overlap with my previous work. I believe most people in my Cohort are still looking for employment opportunities. I would not have passed the technical interviews and landed my current job without the basic data science concepts I learned at this bootcamp. With that said, I believe that previous work experience is crucial in how your recruiting process goes. If you have a few years or experience under your belt, then this bootcamp is for you. If not, it could be trickier for you to find employment opportunities, despite the high quality of the bootcamp.

I, like you, was searching on sites like SwitchUp about 8 months ago to decide if taking a leap into Data Science with a program like Metis was worth it. I entered with a heavy dose of skepticism (which is a good thing for a Data Scientist!) and collected... Read More all the data I could from a bunch of sources. If you're doing your homework, that's a great sign! My short review: do it! Metis is transformative and constructive and I could not have made the career moves I have been able to make without the support system Metis provides. I've had my fair share of "traditional" schooling (through a doctorate) and I taught for many years. Metis is unlike any traditional program. It has to be given its short and intense structure. You need to be willing to self direct much more than you had to in college/grad school. The days are long and the material is enormous, complex, and presented at a rapid pace. A successful student makes their own success by staying on top of lecture and materials. The support that Metis provides from teacher to TA is phenomenal, sincerely. Again, I am changing a career from education and academia and can say that the quality that Metis provides is world-class. Stuck on code that just won't work? Your instructors will walk you through with a smile. Confused by concepts that Google just published a white paper on? Your instructors have already read all about it and will take personal time to explain. Here's an important point that I think is the biggest positive at Metis: They never hold your hand! Need a data source? They teach you how to scrape, import to a database, clean, etc. They never just hand you a project with a clean dataset. During the job hunt they give you incredible resources to find the job that's right for you (but don't just "give" you a job). Let's talk about those resources. The biggest by far is the alumni network. I took hours of calls with alumni who just wanted to help. They would write checkup emails and provide references to any place they could. The network is above and beyond what I could have hoped for. Now that the world is very remote and Metis is more global than ever, the ability to call an alum half-way around the world is an invaluable perk. Upon successful graduation, you will enter this unparalleled network of data scientists from West to East in the US and throughout the world. Your career advisor (or really advisors because they all want to help) is there to walk you through every step of the way. Ashley was kind enough to call my cell in the hours leading up to a big career decision. The team was always there to guide but not command. I appreciated this. Careers wants you to get a job almost as badly as you do (its their job after all!). It would be very easy for them to just say "take the first job that comes". Instead, they get to know you holistically and spend time to make sure that the move is right for you. Some programs promise a job. I can only imagine what that promised job actually looked like... At Metis, they promise you the full support to get the job that's right for you, and they delivered! The people Metis attracts (hopefully you!) are some of the most clever and engaged people I have had the privilege to work with. I keep in constant contact with new friends who are facing the same challenges in career conversion that I have faced. This includes the instructors who I have also become friends. When you're surrounded by smart people doing what you love that experience naturally rubs off on you. Metis puts a heavy emphasis on collaboration and I became a better data scientist (and remote worker!) through daily stand-ups and collaborative sessions. Metis is a life changing opportunity. You will get what you put into the program. If you are ready to work as hard as you've ever worked to truly learn a new skill, you are the perfect candidate for Metis. My hunch is that you must be that type of person if you've read this far into a review. That hunch tells me you're the type of skeptical, curious, and rigorous person that would make a terrific Metis student and a sharp data scientist. You've got this!

I attended Metis in the Spring of 2020, and as a high school math teacher for the previous 8 years, I entered the program with minimal coding and data science skills. In my 12 weeks there, Metis transformed me from an apprehensive career-changer, to a... Read More confident and competent data scientist. Post graduation the career services team supported my job search, and after 3 months I received two excellent job offers. I ultimately ended up at an extremely successful start-up where I am able to leverage my skills as a data scientist and educator. There are many positives to share from my experience, but I will highlight some of the major ones below: 1. Upon graduating you will have a robust data science portfolio: Throughout the bootcamp you will complete 5 projects (1 group, 4 individual). Other than a few basic requirements for which tools and algorithms to use, you are in complete control over your project. You come up with a problem, find data, complete an analysis and present your results. Some people may prefer more structure, but if you are uncomfortable with this fluidity then maybe reconsider trying to become a data scientist. The hands on work prepares you for the "real world." In addition to the projects, you'll write a minimum of two blog posts and maintain a Github page. Both are instrumental in your job search. 2. The instructors are excellent and truly care about their students: The instructors are experts in data science, programming and presenting results. They are always willing to help you scope and debug your projects, but they definitely do not hold your hand. They are also open about some of the personal struggles you may face as a data scientist, such as imposter syndrome and battling perfectionism, and will help you grapple these issues as well. 3. Your python programming skills will improve dramatically You will write a lot of python code throughout the bootcamp, which is essential because Python is overwhelming the most common language used by data scientists. By the time you graduate, as long as you put the work in, you will have the python programming skills necessary to perform in the workforce. 4. The career services team is excellent and supports you during and after the bootcamp They will tell you everything you need to do in order to make you a strong candidate, and they will also help you get there. This includes: updating your resume, encouraging you to write a blog, encouraging you to maintain a Github page, apply to 7-10 jobs per week (or whatever you feel comfortable with), recommending resources to study post-graduation, etc. Again, they can't force you to do all of these things, but if you follow their guidance you will put yourself in a much better position. They will also coach you through practice interviews (both during and after graduating) and will provide guidance throughout the application process. I have plenty more to say about Metis, so please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions.

I’ll start with the pros. I fell in love with Metis during the bootcamp. Perhaps the most life-changing learning experience that was brought about in such a short time. Yes, it’s intense and probably not for everyone. But it struck the right balance between... Read More classroom instruction, projects, independence, and guidance that helped me get out in one piece. The instructors and the TAs went above and beyond their call of duty and are generally incredibly knowledgeable. Some of the staff can definitely land an industry job that offers them a pile of money but my hunch is that they are staying at Metis because they simply love teaching. The diverse set of peers challenged me, expanded my thinking, and I can honestly see myself being friends with many of them in real life once this lockdown is over. NOW, ONTO THE CAREER SERVICES, WHICH NEED A SUBSTANTIAL REVAMP. Any decent career service should provide 1) resources and tools such as resume reviews, interview prep, etc., and 2) a network of companies that are willing to hire graduates, such as in career fairs. On #1, the resources are plentiful and the advisors offer amazing advice. However, on #2, the program fails miserably. The hiring partner listings are mostly unhelpful; of the few that pop up, the majority are for mid-level positions with 4-5 years of experience in data science. For any cohort that graduated in 2020, a rough estimate is that 50% of the graduates do not have jobs based on the many conversations I had, and the figures are likely higher for September and December grads. If true, this is a dismal figure for a bootcamp with such a high tuition cost… how is it different from a MOOC at 1/20th the price? The career advisors’ recourse is to double down on the resources they provide (see #1), point out the graduates who have successfully landed jobs, Metis alumni connections, etc. No, what we graduates need more of is #2. That is, career fairs and/or a sizeable network of employers and recruiters that are CURRENTLY willing to hire fresh graduates, not just a list of companies that previously hired Metis grads. Most Metis alumni are not hiring managers or recruiters and have little say in the hiring process, so just telling us to go network with alumni isn’t great. ADVICE TO CURRENT MANAGEMENT. We understand COVID has made career placement a challenge. But, the current system is not working for us. Too many 2020 graduates are still without a job. Host career fairs. Many universities have hosted successful virtual career fairs. Allocate substantially more resources to careers and do a major overhaul of the current career advising system. I know the career advising system worked during the in-person era, but Metis is now permanently a remote bootcamp and needs a new system. Without such changes, I cannot recommend Metis to any prospective students.

In February 2020, I was a full-time career musician who didn't even know what Python was, let alone how to create neural networks and algorithms using it. On year later, I received a full-time job offer as a Data Analyst (while in the interview process... Read More for a separate Data Scientist job) , and that simply would not have been possible without Metis. My case is not typical (I had a pre-existing relationship with the company, but had previously been rejected from the position) but I still credit Metis for giving me the qualifications and confidence to snag this role. Metis was recommended to me by an alum after my own self study in Python and data science; I could tell from quick research that it was intense, challenging, and well-fit for motivated, self-starting students. The admission process was straightforward, including a technical screening and personal interview. I was prepared for the technical screening after approximately four months of self-guided study in Python (using Coursera and Udemy), and a bit of linear algebra review. i would suggest doing some Python challenge problems before undertaking the admission exam, especially if you're not very comfortable solving basic to intermediate problems on the fly. I was accepted to the program and found out that Metis offers a $3,000 diversity scholarship that was a substantial factor in my decision to attend. Basically every protected minority is covered by this scholarship. It was clear on my first day of class that Metis walked the walk on valuing diversity. We were a decently ethnically diverse cohort (starting with about 30 students), coming from many backgrounds and skillsets. My background in the arts and the non-profit sector gave me confident presentation skills, but I was far less skilled than many of my classmates at programming. It became clear who was good at what, and my experience was a cohort of data scientists eager to help each other with our own individual expertises. Metis utilizes a project-based curriculum, with one group project and four individual projects. The "final project" is emphasized in the promotional materials and talked about a lot, but in my experience so far, all four individual projects have come up in interviews and are equally weighted. The units are (basically) Exploratory Data Analysis (group project), Linear Regression, Classification, NLP, and a final project that probably (but not necessarily) integrates a neural network or some other sort of deep learning. Although you learn a lot in there, the class felt like it was divided up into these five specific units. There was a West Coast and East Coast cohort, but we had our lectures and various speaker events together. There were separate instructors and TA's for both, but the lines were blurry and I felt comfortable chatting with both TA's and teacher sets. I found the teachers to be very qualified and mostly very adept - some instructors are more willing to hold your hand through the learning process, and some will basically present you the material and leave it up to you to facilitate your own understanding. All lectures are recorded and made available. The teachers are responsive to your needs; if someone asked for a lecturer to go a bit slower, they always did. Career Services post graduation are excellent if you take advantage of them. My Career Advisor, Jen, was such a knowledgeable and confident expert in the hiring process and was helpful whenever I had questions. You are provided resources on Salary Negotiation, Networking, and admission into the alumni Slack channel where jobs are frequently posted. Our program manager, Jesel, was also very personable and excellent at keeping us informed through every step of the process. I have no complains about my experience, but If you decide to go to Metis (or any bootcamp), your potential success is hinged on your own initiative. Instructors and alumni of the program told me that writing Medium articles and creating public-facing articles for your projects go a long way, and they were 100% correct. My articles came up in every interview I had, and I believe that my Classification project article was what locked in interest for the position I was ultimately offered! Rewatch lectures, find extra resources for things you don't understand, and utilize the brain power of your cohort members. Metis certainly provides all of the tools you need to succeed as a data scientist, but you have to take the initiative to take them. Good luck!