Data Science Career Track Reviews

Pros

- Mentor was great. Really guided me and showed me how someone in the field thinks. Also put my name in at the start up that she works at and they hired me as a contractor!

-Lots of practice on the analytics side. I feel like I'm pretty knowledgeable now

-Mock interviews and career coaches, especially Allison, were great for preparing for interviews. 

Cons

-Was unemployed and finished in 4.5 months. I find it quite hard to believe someone can finish within 6 months with a full time job.

-Second half of course seemed disjointed and unfocused, though that could've been because of the track I chose. 

-They focus on us contacting random people on LinkedIn as a means of "growing our network", which in turn will allow us to get a job eventually. They don't really do much in terms of actually putting you in contact with people who are looking to hire or are open to meeting someone new to the field. 

I had a fantastic experience with Springboard. I took their Introduction to Data Science course in fall of 2017 and their Data Science Career Track course in 2018.  The course was a great alternative to a fully immersive bootcamp, since I wanted something that allowed me to quickly learn the skills required for a Data Scientist while still being able to work my full time job. The course does require a lot of self-discipline in time management since you're working through everything online and there is a lot of material to get through. I ended up spending an average 10-20 hours per week working through the course material so that I could finish in 6 months. The biggest asset for me was the weekly meetings with my mentor. He was a huge help in making sure I understood the tutorials and assignments and he helped keep me accountable and on track.

If you are willing to put in the work and don't mind learning online in an isolated environment instead of in a classroom, I highly recommend Springboard. It was a lot of work, but ultimately worth it because I ended up landing my first job in data. 

I'm very happy I took the Data Science career track, it landed me a job in 5 weeks, was very useful and very flexible.

PROS:
It's flexible, with all the contents online, so you can go at your own speed and take time off if needed.
The contents are complete and wide, well focused onto what the professional world looks for
There is a lot of support, from TAs, mentors, and career services. Always there when needed
The exercises are interesting, gaining good insight from real data

CONS:

If any, some lessons can be a bit tedious or feel that you already went over it before. But this was only like 3 times in 6 months.

The last 6 months has been quite the journey and I'm happy to have chosen Springboard to jet-start my data science career. The program covers a lot of ground and includes concepts such as Python programming, SQL databases, inferential statistics, building your resume/cover letter, networking with professionals, machine learning, etc. 

Pros:
- Everything is online so you can learn at your own pace.
- You are assigned a personal mentor who is a data science professional.
- You have access to extra daily mentor calls with one of the other data science mentors.
- The course will help you complete 2 major capstone projects that you will add to your data science portfolio.
- The curriculum is very thorough and presents you with an abundant amount of resources for learning.
- There are many mini-projects along the way that help you practice your learning.
- You can schedule calls with career coaches who will help you prepare for interviewing and beefing up your resume.

Cons:
- Since everything is online, there are no live instructors who give you feedback in-person.
- Getting feedback on your projects may sometimes take a while because the TAs are typically busy.
- Some of the material was confusing, which resulted in difficulty understanding some of the concepts.

Overall, I would give Springboard a rating of 4/5. I definitely recommend it to anybody interested in becoming a data scientist!

The program helped me to better understand what skillsets that are required to become a data scientist. The most helpful resources from the program are from their mentors and career services. The mentors are data scientists or quantitaive positions from the industry, where they can support your personal projects, interview feedback, and questions that benefit your transition in to data science field. The career service is excellent. I finalized my resume and a set of flow for behavior questions from the program. I feel I don't need to worry about my behavior questions in the future anymore since I learn tips and what people like to hear from the interview. 

I also appreciate immediate service from the program everytime I email them, especially thanks to Kane Li, she is super responsive and helpful. I feel to be taken care of and being supported from the program. 

The only cons for the program is overall the materials are easy and are limited in shaping your ability in becoming a "real" data scientist. The only way that enable you to become harnessing in data science field is by doing capstone projects. I learned a lot from the capstone projects. You can choose an easy dataset as the capstone project, yet I think it would be beneficial if you choose dirty dataset to work on, while it is very time consuming but I think that's what people are looking for as a data scientist in the real world. I am still revising and optimizing it even after I graduated from the program. 

In summary, the program prepare you well in basic skillset and directions to become a data analyst/ data scientist. You will have a clear head of how and what to work on to transitioning to this field. 

I come from a software engineering background.  I have been developing data-centric applications for over a decade but have never did any data science.

I always wanted to take it to the next level by learning data science/machine learning, but I always found it too difficult to do on my own. There's just too much knowledge/learning-paths/etc. out there that I kept getting confused on which way to proceed.

Thankfully, I found Springboard. They have been an absolute lifesaver. The best thing about the course is that it lays out a clear path on how to get from A to Z. No more constant confusion. The mentors there really helped guide me and keep me focused on what really mattered and not get lost down a rabbit hole etc.

The course takes a lot of work. But by the end of the course I was already able to implement data science solutions for my employer. 

'Tis been an amazing experience - I highly recommend Springboard! 

I attended the Springboard Data Science Career Track program for ~5 months. I did some research before entering. I had some coding and data analysis experience before entering. This one suits me the best among other data science courses, because (1) It's online, so I don't have to quit my job. (2) It's mentor supported, very few if any online program offer that (3) It has a job guarantee. Overall, the experience was fantastic.

The curriculum, while not perfect, is well curated and organized and covers not just technical subjects, but also career support. I get 30 minutes with a mentor every week to review my assignments, answer my questions, etc. My mentor had similar background as I do and had gone through the academia to industry transition before, so he was able to offer valuable advices in addition to technical guidance. At the end of the course, I was required to pass 4 mock interviews and complete two capstone projects which prepared me a lot for the job hunting. I landed interviews from many companies, from start-up to large companies like Amazon, near the end of my study. Though, I have to say, the course alone won't be enough for interviews at the likes of Amazon and Google, it should be sufficient to help you land you positions at mid-tier companies.

Overall, I find what I learned very useful, the experience with my mentor pleasant, and the cost reasonable. If you are someone who is considering transition to data science, but cannot quit your job for dedicated bootcamps, I definitely recommend this program from Springboard.

My overall experience with Springboard was great. The most powerful part is the weekly mentor calls and career coach service. When I got stuck in my project, my mentor showed me how to overcome the problem and what companies are looking for in real-life situations. He also provided great feenbacks on my projects and my questions on real data science life. The career coach sevice was excellent and of great help on strategies in expanding networks, improving resumes/cover letters...

I started the Data Science Career Track bootcamp in April 2018, completed Aug 2018. 

BACKGROUND: Graduated with a master's in one of the biosciences, few months prior to bootcamp. Due to my work, already had background in data analysis, stats, and programming in another language besides Python. Some Python tutorials were sufficient for applying to this bootcamp. 

CURRICULUM:  Covers required basics, esp for data science interviews. Mostly based on pre-existing materials online, but Springboard does the legwork of sifting through the overwhelming sea of Internet resources and curating them into a chronological curriculum. Additionally, they’ve got their own resources, including lists of interview questions and networking how-to’s. These were immensely helpful. I also used the interview questions as a study guide, which paid off as several topics appeared in actual interviews. 

STAFF/MENTOR: Lots of support – you can schedule calls with a career coach, do mock interviews, and generally interact with other people in what could otherwise be an isolated journey of self-teaching. Incredibly professional and knowledgeable staff, very responsive customer support. 

I was also very happy with my mentor. The first one I was assigned to was a bit lackluster, but after having to postpone my start date, I ended up with another one. My weekly call with him helped me stay on track, and he was incredibly helpful and encouraging. This included post-bootcamp, when I sought his advice on choosing between jobs.

CAPSTONE PROJECTS: Critical part of my resume, since I didn’t have industry experience or data sci projects where I used machine learning. Starting a project can be intimidating and unfamiliar, so the bootcamp provided me structure. Another Springboard staff member grades your project and provides feedback - I wish their comments/suggestions were more detailed though. 

COST: Steeper than I’d liked, but it paid off. I had the freedom to pursue this full-time, so I did the per-monthly plan hoping I’d complete it within 2-3 months. I ended up taking 4 months, but still avoided the heftier 6-month charge.

JOB HUNT: Again, YMMV – like I suspect w/ many bootcamps out there. It’ll be up to you to do a lot of the networking. I reviewed my Springboard curriculum, plus lots of extra reading outside the curriculum (particularly practice tech & behavioral questions). Also deployed one of my Springboard projects as a Flask web app. I went to events/Meetups, did informational phone calls w/ close and distant contacts, and applied to several jobs (requiring cover letters) each week. 

Overall: Good self-paced curriculum that covers the basics. Pricey, YMMV, but worth it for me ultimately. I found a job 2 months after completing the bootcamp, but a lot of the post-bootcamp work was on me to apply, network, etc. Happy with my mentor and interactions with staff.

Springboard's Data Science Career Track was great! I would highly recommend. I received a lot of support from my mentor, advisor and career services, and I felt like they ALL cared and really wanted me to succeed. I had a fulltime job, was volunteering on a Data Analysis project and have two kids, so I was busy. Springboard understood and worked with me to make sure I was still able to finish and feel good about my work. I appreciated the skype calls with my mentor and career services, and the community board helped a lot as well. I thought it was a great program!

Springboard was a great experience. Though the concepts and assignments were definitely hard and required heavy investment on time especially as I worked full time, the support was definitely there to help me through, especially from my mentor, Alex. I gained a lot of knowledge through his real life experience and through the support of my career advisor, Allison, I was able to get a job by the end of the program as a data scientist and I am grateful for all the support. Definitely worth investing and going through the bootcamp. 

This course really built my confidence in preparing me for a Data Science career through extensive Python training and working through multiple projects. I felt like the program extensively approached the fundamentals while providing support and resources to engage with both the material and employment process. I felt like they truly cared about my development. My only hope for the program was that there would be more practice using Spark and SQL seeing as those are becoming absolute fundamentals in the job market. 

I was looking for a course that would help me bind the various bits of computing, statistics, technology and business knowledge that I've assembled during the course of a pretty wide ranging career and bind them into something more coherent that would take me up to a new level with regard to applying new machine learning technologies in a practical fashion.

The course did exactly that, and more besides. It's supposed to take around 6-9 months but it took me a year, mainly because I was working full-time for a lot of that, and I had to do a lot of catch-up on the statistics and programming fronts (my skills were pretty rusty). 

Springboard were absolutely fantastic about the various delays, accommodated me at every step, and really encouraged me to dive deep into each module as it came along, so that I came out with functional expertise, not just a passing acquaintance with the subject. 

I thought the course was very well constructed and the selection of learning materials was excellent, but what really made the difference between this and other courses was the dedication of my online tutor, who was completely committed, stuck with me through the whole process, and pushed me to do things that I didn't always believe I was capable of!

Doing the course has enabled me to bring machine learning directly into two major projects I'm involved in, which is exactly the outcome I'd hoped for. All in all an excellent course, and highly recommended for those who want a serious overview of the subject and wish to develop some genuine, practical ability.

What I like most about the course is that systematic introduction to every aspect of data science, excellent mentors ( I like my mentor a lot, he's very very knowledgeable and resourceful and taught me a lot), very helpful and encouraging career mentors, and very practical and interesting exercises to help you apply what you've learnt in theory. IT WAS INTENSE. As a full-time Ph.D. student working on transitioning to this field, I've got lots of school work to do. But luckily I had the flexibility to explore this course after school, and I really enjoy it.

I don't particularly like the order of extra learning materials and career materials at the end tho, but again you have the discretion to complete the course in whatever order you like