| | Ashley Hardin, PhD | I was a member of Project Shift's first cohort and, being a former teacher, I knew the first iteration of any course was probably going to be a bumpy ride. But I did it anyway for a couple of reasons. First of all, I just really liked Aaron. Is that a dumb reason? Maybe, but it worked out. I could tell he was passionate about what he wanted to do, and I loved his enthusiasm. Secondly, I liked that the program was competative to get into and they wouldn't just accept anyone. Another bootcamp I was 'courting' at the time that shall remain nameless made it obvious (to me) that they were just trying to fill seats. That was very offputting to me because I wanted to be in a course with others who had similar abilities and goals since this was such a tight timeline.
The actual course exceeded my expecations. Like I previously said, I was expecting a ton of hiccups, and Aaron and Sean were both extremely candid about how this was the first time and they were probably gonna screw some things up. And for sure there were issues here and there, but overall, the curriculum was really well thought out. You could absolutely tell how much time and energy they put into deveoping the course materials. Also, I found the lessons easy to follow and, more importantly, easy to learn from. I liked working closely with the other members of the small cohort (there were only 7 of us), and I really felt like I got to know everyone and we had a ton of fun.
In terms of post-bootcamp, it's only been a few weeks so I cannot really speak to long-term career prospects, but I will say that Sean and Aaron have been super supportive and have put all of us in touch with people in their large network, many of whom have job openings. I was lucky because I landed a part-time contract position like two weeks out, which works perfectly with my schedule. It was really a best case scenario for me, and I found out about the opportunity via one of Sean's connections. |
