Springboard

I honestly can't say enough great things about my experience with Springboard! The curriculum is thorough and in depth, my advisor was extremely helpful and understanding, the career coaches know their stuff and by far the most valuable aspect was my... Read More amazing, encouraging mentor who helped me develop as a designer throughout the course. I was so nervous to tackle a career change in my late 20s, and I was insecure about my design skills at first, but I can confidently say that I can see from where I started to now how much I have grown and improved. I have to say, it is challenging and rigorous, so if you're looking for something easy breezy this might not be for you, but if you're willing to put in the time and effort, this course will set you up for success in UI / UX design!

I was an accountant for 6 years and decided I was unhappy in it so I pursued Software Engineering for better work/life balance (among other things). I did Springboard from March 2020 - May 2021 (took multiple breaks). I started applying to jobs on May... Read More 30, 2021 and only interviewed with 1 company (1 phone screen and 1 virtual onsite) and received/accepted an offer yesterday, June 17, 2021, as a Software Engineer I. What convinced me to choose Springboard (in order of importance to me): 1. Flexibility - While I would rather go to an in-person classroom style bootcamp, I didn't want to do those 3-month intensive bootcamps where I had no time for anything else. Springboard provides remote learning and therefore, this teaching model wasn't affected by COVID (I applied in Feb 2020 and started in March 2020) and even prepares you for a remote job afterward, if that's your goal. 2. Instructor is good - If you want to see if you like his style, take Colt Steele's Udemy Web Developer Bootcamp course or check out his Youtube channel. 3. Job guarantee - if you don't get a job within 6 months (I think with COVID, it's now a year) of graduating the course, you get a full refund. Be aware there are still requirements to follow in order to qualify to get the refund. 4. Accountability - weekly 1:1s with a paired mentor who is a professional in the industry 5. The topics the bootcamp covers are pretty extensive 6. Price - Given the amount of material, support, and timeframe, the price is way better than those 3 month intensive bootcamps. I chose the month to month payment plan, but if you can afford it, just pay upfront. After taking the course, here are my pros/cons: Pros: - Flexibility (see above) - Accountability - I had a really great and supportive mentor throughout the entire course. However, you can switch mentors if you want. - Multiple Break Options - Pause(s)/Freeze for when life gets abnormally busy or you need a break from the course. Both options push your deadline date. - 2 Live Code Reviews with mentors who are not your regular mentor - Really supportive student advisers, who can be an extra accountability point - Semi-weekly office hours (curriculum-related and general questions for student advisers as well) - recorded so you can reference whenever - There's a lot of material and you get so much practice with tons of projects and exercises with "further study" sections - 10 assessments that are reviewed by your mentor + 2 capstone projects - TAs are available via chat during normal business hours - Career office hours (go over topics related to resume, Linkedin, networking, etc.) - recorded so you can reference whenever - 8 career coach calls/check-ins - Placements team to help send job opportunities to your inbox closer to when you are completing the course (I believe this team was created in 2021) - They care a lot about their students - They ask for a lot of feedback from students and will make changes or improvements that make sense. - Everyone is so nice and supportive Cons: - Interview readiness: Interviewing was probably what I felt least prepared for at the end of the curriculum. If you are making the switch into software engineering, you need to know now that interviewing is a whole different ballgame than the actual job itself. Some software engineers go to interviewing bootcamps JUST to prepare for interviewing. It's one thing to know how to code and problem solve, but to also be able to talk through your thought process AND have your code work or have to figure out bugs in your code while someone is watching -- interviewing can be really stressful. I was super lucky because I have a software engineer friend that practiced with me every night for 1.5 months to help me prep for the MOCK interviews, and I ended up still not passing my first attempt at the coding mock interview (I think I had been practicing with my friend for a month already at that point). In addition to practicing with my friend, I even scheduled 1 practice mock interview with Springboard before attempting and ultimately passing my second official coding mock interview. FYI if you don't pass within 2 tries, you no longer qualify for the job guarantee - so at the time, it felt like high stakes to me. However, this shouldn't have been the focus (see Tips below). I also understand that not everyone has a friend that they can practice with every night and get valuable feedback (yes, I know she's a very good friend), so I think Springboard needs more support in this area where students can choose to practice with a live person however many times they want, in advance, to prepare for the coding and white-boarding mock interviews. - Pretty new curriculum, including policies and procedures: At least at the time that I started, they were still figuring out kinks/bugs in the curriculum so the exercises could change shortly after you do them (this happened to me) but there wouldn't be any notification about it. Now that they have hired more people, the communication is better about this sort of thing. While the changes can be annoying, this is also a good thing because that means they care about their curriculum and students and are always looking for ways to improve. They have also made a lot of updates and come out with new documentation around their policies and procedures. You as a student just need to go with the flow. - Every time you have a question or have a bug that you can't figure out, uploading your code to Google Drive or GitHub and then having to type out your issues/questions to the TA in a little chat box can be really annoying but this also gives you training on what it's like to work remotely - Although, I think in work settings, it's more likely that you would be able to have a quick meeting and share your screen. I know Springboard is trying to work on a solution to this, but this also isn't the end of the world. I can see that it's probably much easier to ask a question in person/be in a class setting for when you do have questions. - No new friends (at least for me): You don't really get to know your cohort that well unless you take initiative and be really social online - but to put it bluntly, I'm older and I'm not doing this to make friends haha. Everyone in my cohort/online did seem really nice and I knew people in my cohort who made individual study groups or paired up, but this just wasn't my thing ONLY because I already had a friend who was taking the UI/UX bootcamp with Springboard (she was probably ahead of me by 6 months) and we were each other's accountability buddies, and that was really helpful. Even after she graduated, we could keep each other accountable on her job search and my progress with Springboard. I understand that this is rare though so if you want to socialize and make study groups with your cohort, by all means, do that. Tips: - I'm not sure if this is still the case, but when I enrolled they let us access the curriculum 2 weeks before our cohort start date, and the deadline to decide if you want a refund is 2 weeks after the cohort start date. This is basically 1 full month where you get access to the curriculum to try it out. If you're on the fence about choosing Springboard and you're not in a rush to do the bootcamp, enroll in a cohort date late enough so that you get this 1 month trial. - Keep in mind that the point is to NOT get a refund, the point is to get a job with your new awesome skills. - With self-pacing learning, it's important to stay disciplined but stay healthy. Stick to a schedule. Turn off distractions. Make sure to eat well, drink water, exercise, and get plenty of sleep. You can't perform your best if your health goes down the drain. This is for your mental health too. - Take breaks if you need them! - If you don't think the weekly 1:1 mentor calls are enough, get an accountability buddy - could be from your cohort or could be a friend. - Reach out to your student advisor because they are super helpful and can keep you accountable too. - Career changes are DIFFICULT! Find your "why" and remind yourself of it when you're feeling unmotivated. Or better yet, look at it every day or week. - Do your best. Don't give up. Keep a positive attitude. It's a marathon, not a sprint. If you fall down, get back up again.

I started off my journey through Springboard during the cusp of the COVID pandemic. Although that lead to many hardships I could never have predicted, I always knew that I had the support of my mentor and the Springboard Team. My student advisor(s) were... Read More always very easy to talk to and get ahold of during these hardships. They allow for a couple of pauses that I definitely took advantage of as they allowed me to collect myself, take breaks, and be easy on myself. During these times, taking care of yourself first is of utmost importance. Some things that I wish I did more: -The Unlimited Mentor Calls. Specifically while completing my capstone project, there are so many aspects to starting and completing a whole UX Design for the first time. While my mentor provided so much feedback that allowed me to complete my projects with grace, a little more help would have been useful. Be prepared to find a lot of the curriculum to be easy "searchable" from google. While the content may not be hard to get access to, the way they organize it is beneficial for those who want an extra hand at learning UX from the comfort of their own home. Overall I enjoyed my experience and would recommend this Bootcamp for someone who wants to not feel as rushed throughout the program. You are able to truly consume all the knowledge at a healthy pace.

I liked how Springboard gave a great hands on learning experience through case studies and practice work like DataCamp. On top of this data analysis tools they also have you do weekly meetings with a mentor, giving you real world examples of their job... Read More and how data analysts operate. On top of all the great curriculum you get unlimited support! From 24/7 extra help calls to office hours and career coaches you can learn the tools for data analysis while also being part of a greater community making new connections.

The cost of this bootcamp definitely deterred me in the beginning. And while I was in the middle of my bootcamp during quarantine, Google came out with a free UX course. But I thought about it and I realized there are a lot of free resources online to... Read More learn UI/UX skills. However, I think the 1:1 mentor calls, career coaching, projects that you get to put in your portfolio are worth it. And it's not easy to figure out what you don't know, Springboard hires mentors and teaches you things you couldn't learn in a class or on your own. You have people with real world experience to give you an edge over the plethora of people graduating with design majors. Pros -teaches you all the latest skills you need -gives you access to resources during the bootcamp that you normally couldn't get -1:1 mentoring -Career coaching -works with your situation -Peer reviews, Mentor review, and hiring manager review for all of your work -mentor is genuinely there to help you Cons -cost -more intense than your average bootcamp

Program covers all the basics such as Excel, SQL, Python, Statistical Testing etc. I feel I got a well rounded education and learned the fundamentals. The part of the program that really stands out is that you are assigned an mentor industry who is in... Read More the industry. This is one of the most helpful aspects of the program. I

Springboard was a wonderful experience, and it gave me a solid foundation in UX Design. My mentor and the Industry Design Project at the end definitely were the best parts of the course. I do think that there is still a lot to learn in the field after... Read More completing the course, but it gave me a solid foundation to build upon. I also like the continued career coaching after the course was completed.

I was looking for an online self paced course on data analytics. I saw that Springboard has one for a cheaper price compared to other bootcamps and plus with job guarantee. That is how I picked and I was satisfied with it about 70%. Career coaches were... Read More great! On demand mentor calls were very helpful as well. My own mentor from India was an expert too.However, I had to change him during Covid-19 rise in India. The part that was missing for me the general guidance from the curriculum writer for each unit. I would have appreciated more practice(especially on SQL) as well.

I recently wrapped up the Springboard UX Career Track. I can't say enough good things about the curriculum or the mentors. My talents were stretched and expanded in meaningful ways through the course, and the exercises were extremely helpful in building... Read More the knowledge base necessary for a career in UX. Springboard is mentor led, and the mentor who guided me through the end of the course was a great voice for insights into improving my portfolio and representing myself professionally. The industry design project internship gave me an opportunity to put these skills into real life practice and make measurable impact at a company. You can't ask for more than that in a six month program. The weak link in the chain is career services. During my stint, I had some great career service calls where invaluable advice was provided, a couple of middling calls where it seemed like the coach needed to go through a script, and a no-show. To me, this isn't a deal breaker. I've been in the workforce for a decade now, and I know my strengths, my weaknesses, and how to represent them in the hiring process. UX-minded folks out of college, though, will want to be tenacious with advocating for themselves with job coaches. Again, there are really wonderful coaches on the Springboard roster. TL;DR - It's a good course! While career services could use improvement, the curriculum, mentors, and internship portions are stellar.

Pros: Let me say that the course is designed with the user in mind. Everything is easy to find, you have access to your student advisor to have all your concerns and questions answered. You get weekly support from your mentor. You get to learn at your... Read More own pace! This course makes coding less intimidating. Cons: Are there any? Well you decide for yourself. Only con for me was wishing we weren't in a pandemic so I get to have the on-campus experience.