Springboard

Just to provide some background, I’m a former teacher of 11 years, hoping to make a career transition in data science/analytics. I just recently completed Springboard’s Data Science Career Track certification program, and here are my pros and cons. Pros:... Read More - Being paired with an expert mentor for the entire duration of the course is incredibly helpful. My mentor pushed me to go deeper beyond the curriculum and helped my projects really shine. - This is my preference, but I appreciate the self-paced online nature of the program, as opposed to live lectures. There are numerous case studies throughout the program that give you a guided opportunity to practice what you just learned, which is really helpful. - The two required capstone projects are great for your portfolio, and really help you see the data science life cycle from end to end. Cons: - The statistics curriculum is really lacking. Having no background in statistics, I found it hard to keep up with as they covered difficult topics superficially with speed. Part of the statistics curriculum is reading a book called “The Art of Statistics”. Unless you have prior background in statistics, this book is not easy to understand. - The program does its best to cover many common machine learning algorithms, but they don’t really go into detail on how the algorithms work. You’ll watch some pre-recorded online lectures from Harvard, but it’s hard to learn from a one-off lecture without really building the fundamentals of how basic algorithms work. I am just beginning my job search, so I cannot speak to the quality of the job support. From what I understand, you meet with a career coach biweekly to help you with your job search. To qualify for the job guarantee, you need to apply to 4 jobs per week and make 7 networking connections per week and do 2 informational interviews per month. They definitely emphasize networking as the main way to get your first job, as opposed to cold applications. All in all, I definitely learned a lot from this program. If you are an independent learner and are OK with taking additional courses on statistics and ML after completion, I would definitely recommend this program.

I was a little skeptical at first but enrolling was smooth. I also attended the prep course which was free. - Pros: great support and curriculum/projects. I still look back at the projects after completion every time I need at work. - Cons: mentor matching... Read More (and hiring) need more work. I finally found the one I like after 3 tries. - Overall, it’s worth it!

I really enjoyed the self-paced model where I could go through the lessons at my own pace. I had been a web developer about a decade ago, and have enjoyed getting back into coding and learning some new skills. I have a friend that went through the program... Read More last year, has a great job today, and I'm excited about how Springboard will help me advance in my career!

This bootcamp was excellent. The mentor was incredibly knowledgeable and articulate. This was the first time I have taken a class in a remote format. I really enjoyed this class and the format it was presented in. I liked the fact you were very clear... Read More that more internet research may be necessary for some assignment. To be honest, there is nothing that I disliked about the course. I will definitely be taking another online course from you! Thank you.

Overall my experience with Springboard was great. Pros: You learn a lottt. They take you through the detailed process of UX. They have a great support system to help you with any challenge you may be facing as a student. One thing I realized with springboard... Read More is they are all about your success, they actually want you to succeed. With springboard it's not the money, its the value they get to add. My mentor was so instrumental to my growth as a designer. I learned emotional maturity as well during my weekly meetings with my mentor from the great advice she gave me. Trust me, emotional maturity is very important on your design journey. Con: The program would most likely take more than six months. So Prepare your mind before you start, if you want to finish within 6months.

I took the UI/UX Design Career Track and felt that the course gave me enough projects to develop my UI/UX skills. The client project is also a good aspect because it gave me a real-world scenario of how to handle future design positions. At the same time,... Read More make sure you put the time and effort to get the most out of the curriculum. If you don’t you might have the tendency of feeling it’s not worth it. They’re providing all the support and material (which can be found online), organized for you. So, I definitely felt like I had to push myself to understand the materials given to me.

Pros: Mentor support, career services, job guarantee, curriculum content, flexibility. Cons: Curriculum delivery This was my second bootcamp experience, after having a misunderstanding about the job guarantee with the first one. Once I vetted Springboard's... Read More job guarantee, it was a no-brainer to sign up. At the time of this writing (March 2022) I had an option to pay only after I received a qualifying position, or else I wouldn't have to pay at all. The curriculum is outstanding for the small timeframe that it's delivered in. My only wish is that it was delivered in a different format so that I could have used my phone to work on it instead of having to be at my computer for it. The mentor experience and career services are absolutely top notch for Springboard. My wife had a baby in the middle of my cohort, and Springboard allowed my to pause for a very generous amount of time with 0 repercussions to the job guarantee or completion. I cannot put into words that amount of relief that washed over me once they gave me that option. Great overall experience, with small matters for improvement, but nothing that really detracts from the course.

I had a very positive experience with Springboard’s Data Analytics course. The coursework was relevant to the work I am doing on my job now. The mentor and job readiness aspects of the course are really invaluable. I would recommend the course to anyone... Read More interested in learning the foundations of data analytics.

You're really doing it for the four major projects that are used to build up your final portfolio. You go through the full process of researching and planning and creating prototypes for mobile or web apps. The final piece is more of a very short internship... Read More with a client and a team of fellow Springboard students. The rest of the course includes a decent amount of publicly available videos and articles and is pretty much entirely self-paced without any real deadlines. Probably the best part of the course is the mentor program. You're matched with a mentor who is currently working as a UX Designer who will help guide you with a 30 minute call each week. I was fortunate enough to get a very enthusiastic mentor who gave a lot of feedback. I can't stress enough how helpful it was to have someone with real-world experiences to discuss things with. Your milage will vary based on how good you are at setting your own pace and deadlines and getting a good mentor. I will also give Springboard credit for updating the curriculum and their extremely responsive and thorough customer service. The do seem to be actively working to improve the experience (for this course at least). Of my four star rating, one of them is entirely due to that. A small caveat is that this course might be difficult for people who have never used any design programs (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.). Any prior exposure to those goes a long way in making things easier.

I spent a year in the self-paced UX/UI design course. I choose springboard because they have a comprehensive curriculum, flexible payment plan, real-world project and 1-1 mentor. The curriculum provides great practice opportunities and freedom for me... Read More to work on projects I'm excited about. the IDP helped me build good teamwork experience and gain more insight into the UX work for start-ups. The Springboard is very responsive in the entire process. They gave me flexible breaks and helped me with mentor switch according to my need. Pros: Comprehensive curriculum, enough practice to build a diverse portfolio, a real-world project for real work practice, the springboard team is responsive and are flexible with adjustments according to my personal needs Cons: The mentors come from diverse backgrounds with different levels of experience for mentorship. Besides working with the mentor, you have to push/work hard and be self-driven for how much you get from the course/mentor. Also, it's hard to build a solid connection with classmates.