CareerFoundry vs Springboard

CareerFoundry starts off like many other businesses: they lure you in to buy their product. A specialist called me and gave the usual salesperson pitch, answering all my questions and guaranteeing that nothing would go wrong and that the course would... Read More really help me land a job. And if you don’t find a job, there is the Job Guarantee, which is their biggest selling point.

Basically, after course completion, you have six months to find a job while completing a job search assessment. The assessment consists of 30 job applications, 30 networking outreaches, attending networking events, completing an independent portfolio project, and a bunch of other tasks. The assessment is designed to help you land a job, so it is useful—but keep in mind, it is very extensive and time-consuming.

At the end of the six-month job search, I completed the entire assessment, attended monthly networking events, screenshotted and uploaded every step of 30 job applications per month, and completed my independent project. However, I was not able to get the Job Guarantee refund because I forgot to do one thing. I forgot to list my independent project on my resume. The entire project is detailed on my portfolio website, which is listed on my resume, along with other projects I completed—but I did not explicitly state this specific independent project on my resume. For that reason, I was told I did not fulfill the requirements and was denied the refund, even after multiple appeal attempts.

From this experience, just know that they will enforce the Job Guarantee requirements very strictly—even if you have completed 99% of them.
As for the course itself, the material, mentors, and tutors were decent overall. My first mentor missed two of our scheduled meetings and wasn’t very helpful. She made it difficult to ask questions and talked 99% of the time, mostly repeating cliché phrases about not giving up. Thankfully, my tutor and second mentor were really good and made up for that experience.
The material itself feels like an introductory college class. You are assigned readings and assignments to complete. For the first 20% of the course, it feels like you are genuinely learning and actively applying what you’ve learned. Then the difficulty ramps up exponentially and becomes ridiculously challenging, to the point where it feels like you need prior knowledge in data analytics to complete the assignments. There are tasks where none of the readings cover the topic at all—you’re just left confused. No examples, nothing. You have to reach out to your tutor and wait 24–48 hours for a response. If not, you’re left Googling and hoping to find a solution, which is how I completed the majority of the assignments.
Some assignments were so unreasonable that you had to look at another student’s submission (which they provide) and borderline copy their work just to complete it. The Python code, SQL queries, and formulas these students used were far more advanced than anything discussed in the reading material. I am fairly certain the tutors know most students are copying example submissions, because there’s no way someone completely new to data analytics would be able to write that level of code independently. In my opinion, you must already have some foundational knowledge before signing up, or you’ll spend countless hours on Google or copying someone else’s work rather than truly learning.

With all that being said, if you’re looking for a basic introductory course in data analytics with no expectations, this program is okay. However, if you’re looking to land a job or transition careers, this course is not enough. Consider the job market and the competition—completing one bootcamp is not enough to compete with people who already have industry experience.

This leads to the Job Guarantee satisfaction refund. If you enroll with the expectation of receiving the refund, I sincerely wish you the best of luck.

Lastly, this course is extremely time-consuming and requires a significant amount of mental effort. If you have a full-time job, I strongly do not recommend this course.

After completing the Full Stack Web Development program and sharing my portfolio with a few people that I personally know in software, I'm confident that I am ready to start my career in the tech industry. Their approach of learning by doing is perfect... Read More for me. I started off struggling with javascript, mainly functions, but by the end of the course it was like adding 2 plus 2. My tutor John has made me so confident now in troubleshooting my own code, something that was very daunting at first. Everyone else that I ever came in contact with from the careerfoundry team were also very helpful and always messaged me back in a timely manner, often times the same day. Overall I would recommend this same course to others who are trying to make a career change into tech like I was.