Practicum: Coding bootcamps

I am about halfway through the Data Science program at Practicum. I have taken other casual intro courses, and I can definitely attest that the initial foundation section is smoother than most other programs. They let you start slow before getting your... Read More hands really dirty. In my time so far I have - learned about basics and intermediate Python methods, analyzed large datasets to practice aforementioned methods, built an app, learned basic and intermediate SQL methods, and am now beginning to apply SQL in projects. I would recommend this course for students interested in a good value and a good life balance program that will give you time to digest everything.

I’ve been interested in learning how to code for data science purposes for a while, as I see a lot of value and potential in the field (it’s a burgeoning field in my old economy blue chip company). My background is economics, and I’ve worked in finance,... Read More but most recently more in the area of regulations. I’m trying to switch careers. My tech background was as project manager in data warehouse and light coding in SQL, Access and R (as in very light, maybe no more than 200 lines of code over my entire career). I’d taken a couple of basic Coursera courses with the U of Mich (they were great foundation courses) and the ML course with Andrew Ng (unfinished), as well as some courses in linear algebra and probability and statistics to see if I could hack it mathematically. Once I decided I needed more structure beyond the huge and chaotic universe of MOOC’s and youtube videos, it was time to decide if I wanted to go whole hog and do a masters or certificate backed by an academic institution. I thought about the certificate structure but honestly, had been disappointed a few years back by completing one sponsored and paid by my company. I thought it was somewhat shallow and rote, and didn’t quite touch on real work. In my research I looked more into bootcamps. I had first heard of bootcamps through a cousin who’d completed it and a couple of years later was already working as a software engineer, and 5 years in as a senior software engineer. Pretty impressive considering he came from a completely different field, albeit a quantitative and scientific one (chemistry focusing on food science). In any case, I was impressed by the range of programs, onsite and remote, and was attracted to completing an onsite one, since I wanted to feel the intensity of the coursework with others. Unfortunately, being in the West Coast, there didn’t seem to be tons of options – General Assembly and a couple of others. The price tag varied from 7k to 20k for data science. I am penny pinching a bit, but if I had a great guarantee about the product, I would have paid up. Ultimately as well, I had to settle for a remote program with COVID rampant and also for my family life (seemed sensible to have the flexibility). Fast forward a couple of months and tons of internet research as well as testimonials and youtube interviews with past students in a variety of programs, I settled on going with Practicum with some skepticism to be honest. At first I was wary of the foreign connection because I wasn’t sure if time zone would be a factor, or language, or if the other students would even be American, which matters a bit from a co-working standpoint. I decided to go for this program because: 1) the timeline seemed realistic – up to 9 months to do something that’s pretty hard, some programs say 3 months, which is a pretty short timeline if you haven’t coded, done prob/stats, dev tools, etc.; 2) the number of projects that would be part of the portfolio – I think 9 or 10; 3) code review for each project; and 4) pair-programming or co-working opportunities. Two months in now, I’m in sprint 4 out of 17 sprints and I have to say that I’ve been challenged and feel more and more confident in Python each day. Of the 4 reasons above, I’m satisfied with 3 of the 4. The pair-programming hasn’t really worked out in that we’re all working at our own pace so we work largely with the tutors and not with each other. There’s probably opportunity to do so, but so far no one has reached out yet. I reached out to one student, but frankly, he was working really really fast. So I wouldn’t expect a lot of pair-programming within the cohort and frankly, the cohort seems to fall apart pretty quickly after the start date. I might still try to find someone who’s on my pace and work more closely with them. That said, there’s a lot of reality in coding by yourself, and the tutors are there. The tutors and the community manager are really the high point. I’m not putting down the material, but I have to say that the first iteration of the material can be pretty heavy-going and it’s hard for things to gel without some practice in the form of the project. You’ll find yourself going back to the material more once you work on the project. That said, you probably go into the course material as much as Google, Geeks for Geeks, and other online resources, which is a realistic scenario when you’re coding for work, I hear. In any case, so far, 2 months in, the tutors have been responsive, and the community manager does get all the information you need into slack, such as open tutoring hours and scheduled workshops (they look really good and they’re recorded, or you can also participate live). Your experience is probably largely determined by how often you use Slack to get help, how on top of it you are during the code review of projects, how much you engage with Sandbox exercises and workshops and with your tutors and community manager. My workload is about 15-25 hours per week so far. I’m trying to complete each sprint in 2-3 weeks, and I think I might be on schedule. I try to finish the asynchronous material by day 3 or 4 of my sprint, the project by day 8 or 9 and then finalize with several rounds of code review by day 14 through day 18. I stick to the curriculum so nothing extra, but I do spend a lot of time iterating over the asynchronous material when I’m doing the project or on Slack looking through questions in my sprint to learn more. My tip for those learning to code is to find a structured way to learn and accumulate more experience coding, from basic exercises to learn syntax to longer projects and maybe then competitions. You have to code to learn to code. If you’re not disciplined in self-learning, find a program you like and believe in. Overall, as a no-tech background person, in the 2 months I’ve learned a lot it seems and I’m much more comfortable with the Python syntax. I’m gaining in fluency and confidence as well. The material is pretty good, but having the projects and code review really seals the deal. Pros: good project topics, good code review in general and good turnaround time, good tutors who answer your questions in Slack, interesting workshops, realistic timeline to learn something new, very economical relative to other programs (monthly installments available), overall good turnaround time from all support staff (tutors, community managers, code reviewers) Cons: the asynchronous material can be a bit general or hard to absorb until you reach the project and the questions/quizzes aren’t always relevant, some time difference lag (some of the tutors are out of country, though I think they’ve managed the time difference well), and sometimes the code review content could be clearer Obviously, I’m about 25% through so best to take that into account when you read this review.

I wanted a career switch into tech for the higher earning potential, and the ability to work from home. I initially was accepted to a few data science courses. I chose practicum due to the flexibility in how many hours I spend on the platform, and the... Read More promotional discount they were having at the moment. Also, the money back guarantee was a plus. I liked how they chose to teach python instead of R, as python is more widely used. I saw their curriculum and compared it to job posting for data scientists, and saw that it covered what I needed to know. I did not want to be glued to a computer from 6-9 pm a few times a week for mandatory zoom calls, as I work a full time job. Practicum admissions quoted about a 6 month completion time, if you spend 15 to 20 hrs a week, plus a few more months for career guidance. I found that if you dedicate more time, you could complete the course in half the time. I spend 6-8 hrs a day on the platform and have found myself close to half way in a little over a month. I like how the platform is completely online, and practicum has its own interactive learning platform, which makes it easy to search for things, do the courses on different computers. Then you have 24 hr tech support on the site who can also give you some hints. Then, the beast feature is the slack community. You have access to other practicum students, and tutors to collectively ask questions and see questions from previous students. Tutors hold office hours on a regular basis, and hold workshops every other week. Another factor that made me chose practicum was the amount of projects we would have at the end of the program. My research indicated projects were quite important when looking to differentiate yourself. Practicum has a project basically at the end of each sprint, which allows you to hone the skills you jut learned, as well as build upon previous skills. The projects are interesting, and you get feedback from a reviewer on how to complete the project and improve your code. Practicum is allowing me to make my career change. Since I am extremely motivated to complete the course soon, I am able to devote as much time as I want. I advise anyone deciding on which bootcamp or course to take, to try practicums into course. There, you can gauge what the rest of the platform will be like, and you can decide from there. Initially, the material was a little challenging to work through, and I needed to ask a few questions throughout the day, especially when I was first getting started. Then, they added a feature that shows you the solution after 3 attempts. this dramatically speeds up the learning time, as you are not stuck waiting for your question to be answered before proceeding to the next section. What I can say is that they look at the feedback they receive after every sprint, and are constantly making improvements based on that feedback. I've seen them make two critical improvements in less than a month, based on student feedback(solutions and a stats Tutor). I look forward to completing the courses and starting the career accelerator program. Id like to take the opportunity that they provide to do a sort of internship at the end of the course. Not sure exactly what the other bootcamps are like, but I'd highly recommend practicum to anyone trying to become a data scientist.

Before I joined Practicum, I had been studying on my own for about year. I had completed CS50x and CS50P and I knew that I wanted to get a job as a programmer but I was a little lost on how to get there by myself. I decided that I should start looking... Read More at some bootcamps. I did all kinds of research: googled the best bootcamps, read these very reviews you are, watched YouTube interviews about bootcamps, and read Reddit threads. I decided to have a chat with the admissions counselor and I knew that Practicum was the best choice for me. What I was looking for out of a bootcamp: cost for length, a sense of community and support, a good career services department, curriculum. Curriculum: The curriculum for most of the top rated bootcamps was all very similar. I ultimately wanted to go with Practicum because React is a big part of the sprints and I noticed a lot of employers these days are looking for engineers with experience in React. This made choosing Practicum a no-brainer. The rest of the curriculum is also very useful (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.js). The curriculum is presented in a well organized, logical way with each part building on the one before. The interactive learning platform, combining theory and practical exercises, has been a great way to learn. Career Services: Because of my situation, I wanted a program that offered good career services both during the program and after graduating. Practicum has just that. During the program there have already (in 5 weeks) been 2 seminars on networking, interviews, and LinkedIn profiles. Career services will help with mock interviews and help you by reviewing your resume. Coming from a non-tech background, I view all of these things very important for me to land a job in software engineering. Also, Practicum has a conditional guarantee that if you don't land a job within 6 months of graduation they will refund your tuition (though the admissions counselor told me they have never had to do this). Community and Support: It is hard to choose one of these criteria to say makes me the happiest that I chose Practicum, but this may be it. While going through the program, there is a large community of fellow students, community managers, tutors (people who hold jobs in the tech industry), practicum employees, and senior students who are available to help. We use Slack for this and there are different channels for the various stages of the program. If you ever have a question, you can post in one of the Slack channels and someone will get back to you. In addition, the tutors, senior students, and some employees offer co-working hours on Zoom where you can join and ask questions in real time. This feature has been immensely helpful and it is exactly what I was looking for when searching for a bootcamp. Getting real time feedback on code and being able to pick the brains of actual programmers has made a big difference to me. Cost and Length: I could not believe the cost of some of the bootcamps I encountered while searching for one. Some of the American ones especially. Why not just use that kind of money for a second Bachelors I thought? When I saw what Practicum offered for the cost they offered it was, again, a no-brainer. Though one could view the SE program as too long (part time, 10 months), I think that Practicum does a good job of going at a good pace and introducing the material in a sound and thorough manner. They also provide a lot of additional resources to read outside of the platform which is important in this industry. Many times the answer will not be given to you. Instead, you will need to search for the best way to get something done yourself. Lastly though, the course is self-paced so you can go as fast as you are able to. Cons: I struggle to find anything negative to say about Practicum at this point. The most glaring things have been the occasional typo in the theory portions but when brought up in the Slack channel, the typos are quickly addressed and fixed. Some reviews I read while researching mentioned a drop off in support but I have yet to see that and at this point, I find it hard to believe. The amount of support has been stellar. TL;DR: IMO Practicum's Software Engineer bootcamp has a thorough, modern curriculum with a great network of support and community. After graduating, the program continues to support you through their career services department. Practicum is the best bang for your buck.

If I can do it you can to! I come from a background sales and management, however I have always been intrigued at the possibilities of a tech career. My biggest apprehension had always been the learning curve it would take for me to be successful in tech.... Read More With zero to very little working knowledge of any technology let alone coding. I struggled with trying to figure out how to use basic Mac computer GUI (Graphical user interface) at times. So when I decided to finally peruse my long lost passion in technology, I needed something very beginner friendly with a lot of support. After reading all the reviews watching YouTube videos I landed on Practicum: Coding Bootcamp. It was the best decision I have made! Practicum offers a very involved approach to your learning, they have a curriculum that is a very step by step approach. With different ways of learning a concept (videos, reading and applying) and chapter quizzes/tests to reinforce the learning. At first you learn a new concept and then you get to apply what you just learned into a project that you can put towards your portfolio! Now being completely new to tech, some of the concepts were challenging to grasp so I leaned on the amazing support Practicum has. They have tutors who are very knowledgeable and eager to help you! They also utilize co-working hours, with someone available almost all the time to help you through something. Then they have your assigned community managers to help you on the admin side of things and keep you motivated! Finally one of my favorite things they offer is the career support and training, with a job placement guarantee! So if you are doing your research and trying to decide where to go, weather your a beginner or a working professional in tech. Practicum: Coding Bootcamp hands down has the Curriculum and support to help you become successful!

Completing the sprints meant that I was capable of doing the projects and the tasks assigned to me. With each project completed, I feel a little more confident each time. I think the most effective parts of the course are definitely the projects. The... Read More projects in a way force you to be resourceful and reach out for help from the tutors if needed, which aids in the learning experience. What skills and knowledge did you gain? Not only have I gained hards skills in python, SQL, and Tableau, but I've become much more adept at learning and looking for answers on my own. I'm feeling a little more confident in the job search and I'm hoping to get a job in Data Science soon.

I'll start with some background... I recently completed my master's degree at the Faculty of Economics. In the process of studying various subjects related to statistics, I had to deal with data analysis. Many of my classmates were already familiar with... Read More data analysis and had experience from undergraduate studies. I had to learn everything from scratch. This is how my interest in the Date of Analysis was born. Why exactly Practicum Bootcamp? One of my friends, having learned about my interests, advised me to the Practicum Bootcamp school, since he himself had recently completed his courses and was very satisfied with the training he had completed. Practicum Bootcamp has a very convenient interactive interface, friendly and always ready to help tutors, interesting projects, and training can be done at any convenient time. I especially want to note the responsible tutors who are interested in success in passing a certain stage of the Bootcamp. It is also important to note the Slack community here, where you can get assistance or also help other students when they are stuck and get advice from the tutors or managers of the program. As you know, the IT sector is one of the fastest growing sectors of the global economy. And one cannot do without knowledge of data analysis in modern business. I have not yet completed the course, as I combine work with study, but I have already noticed progress in the date of analysis. Therefore, I advise Practicum Bootcamp to anyone who wants to improve their career advancement or upgrade their knowledge.

At first, I didn't really know if what I was getting into would be worth it or not. For some one like me, I have done nothing but physical labor my entire life, constantly moving, always using my hands to see the work I have done. Because of this I didn't... Read More know how I would respond to doing a different type of work, where I'm sitting down in one place and on a computer (I'm not tech savvy at all). I have very little experience with computers but I was referred the program by someone close to me as a new outlook on work. One where I would not have to physical pain or tiredness to get my money. So I signed up for the trial week just to test it out. At first it was a little overwhelming, but I kept thinking, it would be worth it for a better life. The instructions and interactive course were clear, and it used examples and explanations to drive the point across in a way you can understand. After the week course, at the end you are given a mini project, and by the time you finish you've made this small, simple webpage, and you feel accomplished that you actually made something. It reminded me of hands on work just instead of physically making something, you created something digitally. I felt eager to learn more. So I signed up for the full course and it got more challenging, "how can I remember all of this information?" is how I started to feel. How it's structured though is learning through practice, where each lesson you're learning something new but building on things you previously learned. Sometimes I would get stuck but if you ever feel stuck they have a whole community willing to help and share ideas! There's other students learning the same thing so they might have similar questions and post them in their respective forums, so that students and tutors can respond. Other times I needed a more detailed explanation and a tutor is always more than willing to hop on a video call to explain something to you in a way you can understand. There's also regular coworking hours with the tutors daily (I strongly encourage logging in) where you can interact and ask questions or see what other students are working on. You have more than enough support if you feel stuck and as you continue you get better each day. The projects at the end of each sprint further your understanding of what you have been working on and you start making more and more complex webpages, and you see how far you've come and what you are able to make. There's a sense of pride and excitement you make, and I continue to look forward to things I am learning and what I will be able to do.

i chose to pursue software engineering because i realized the potential it had to open many doors for me. im currently still a student at practicum but in my short time within the program, i feel extremely confident that once i complete the program, ill... Read More be set up for a very comfortable future. i also like solving problems and figuring things out and when im stuck on something coding related and i finally figure it out, i get a euphoric feeling i dont get from anything else. even if i cant figure out the coding problem im stuck on, tutoring is available most of the time and thankfully the community operates through a chat room that makes it easy to communicate with tutors who respond fairly quickly. i dont have much time to spend studying as i work most of the time but the program is pretty flexible and even though there are set hard deadlines, if you ever need a little extra time, you just message the community manager and they can help you out with setting that up. im very happy i chose practicum as my bootcamp, highly recommend if youre interested in joining a bootcamp.

I don't suppose I can really say how Practicum stacks against similar bootcamps as I have never tried another. I can say that for the price, Practicum seems to be offering some of the best and most applicable curriculum to move into the field of web development/software... Read More engineering. I decided to take this bootcamp, in part because it is much cheaper than others, but also because it came highly recommended from a friend. He had the same degree as I did and was just as unhappy in his job as I am in mine. He said he learned a lot, and I saw how he was able to move from working in traditional engineering at a site in the middle of nowhere, to being able to work fully remote/hybrid in a much more interesting city, making even more money, doing more interesting work. Practicum has absolutely been the bootcamp for me. The flexible schedule and part time learning has been essential. I have been able to maintain my full time engineering job while learning at night and on weekends. The platform is mostly very intuitive. Every now and then, it seems hard to gather what a task is actually asking of you, but there are hints available, and if it comes down to it, you can see a solution after several attempts if you were potentially solving the problem in a different way. The projects seem like they will help me stand out in an interview. Overall, would recommend to anyone looking to get into this industry.