Avocademy

From no knowledge at all to now being a full-time employed UX Designer in a total of 9 months.
From my experience, this particular BootCamp sets you up for success.

The course is designed to teach you how to find information for yourself.  There was always a mentor available if I needed someone to "hold my hand" so to speak if I really didn't understand a topic.   But the course walked you through the topics, and encouraged you to do further reading and research to understand the topic before they took you to the next activity. 

I found that when I tried to fast-track myself or skip over the "recommended reading", it took me longer to grasp a concept and I made more mistakes.  Eventually, I understood the reason they asked us to do this.  I don't know if other students did what I did.  But it took me some time to understand that I needed to be motivated to not do the bare minimum but to go beyond the expectations and read the suggested extra material.  That's what made my knowledge expand.

They get you to hit the ground running with the software from the very start. Looking at where I was then to right now, it's leaps and bounds of a difference.  A lot of that knowledge was acquired through activities, talking with other students, and sometimes doing live mentoring sessions where a qualified designer would help talk me through the challenge I was struggling with. 

I took longer than 8 weeks to finish the course, but they worked with me every step of the way.  The company wants you to succeed, and if you reach out, and put in the work, you will. 

The Career Jumpstart program was worth its weight in gold.  That was 100% the best investment in myself I have ever made.  It was incredibly intense, fast-paced, and hands-on learning.  You work with real clients, on real-world projects.  You're not a student, you are a designer.   But each project is set up so that there's a senior design lead who helps guide the project, mentors who oversee all the designs to help with any roadblocks, and with the hands-on learning you gain so much knowledge and insight into what a designer really does outside of a classroom.    I personally gained enough experience under my belt, that I was leading teams in the end.  It felt like a full-time job, but I knew that this was all in my best interest.   They helped coach me to be ready for interviews and be job ready.   And I got my first paid position with a six-figure salary within weeks of the job application process.   

The keys to my personal success were leaving my ego at the door, always being open to constructive feedback (as it was always in my best interest), and motivating myself.  There were many roadblocks.  It was intense and hard.  I took it each day, and each day I was further along the process.  This course turned my career and life around.  This is one decision I will truly never ever regret. 

I joined Career Jumpstart in February 2022, began applying to jobs on June 9th, and signed a job offer on June 30th. 

I can't express enough gratitude for this program. The real-life experience that this program affords you is vital for actually landing a job. There are tons of interesting projects to work on and many skilled mentors that will ensure you deliver quality products. Case-in-point: the company that ultimately hired me was won over by the high-quality portfolio that Avocademy helped me produce. The position I applied for required 3-4 years of experience but they hired me because of my growth potential, despite only working in the field for 6 months. This is not an unusual experience for Avocademy students. Follow all of their advice and instructions and you'll be golden. The two weaknesses I experienced when I started this program have now been addressed, so I can't think of a reason why not to do this program. 

STRENGTHES
+ Flexibility - most students are also working full-time. 
+ Mentorship - you are never alone. Every step of your project is reviewed by mentors, and often the founder herself to ensure that you are on the right track. Mentors are kind, knowledgeable, and helpful.
+ Real-life clients - you also get to choose what projects you want to be a part of. 
+ Community - despite being completely virtual, I felt great camaraderie with my fellow students because of the daily zoom calls for job hunters and the supportive Slack community. The job application process can be incredibly lonely, draining, and discouraging. 
+ Responsiveness - Avocademy is always willing to listen to its students and dedicated to improving its courses based on student feedback. Every day they are researching industry trends, updating content, and trying to find new ways to support us. 

WEAKNESSES (***which have now all been addressed as of June 2022!!!)
- Technical training - when I began CJ, there wasn't any content created in-house for building your technical skills (such as with Figma). This wasn't a huge problem for me as I found tons of other free resources on YouTube, but not all students took the initiative and struggled with some of their projects. My understanding is that Avocademy has since remedied this issue, and created several videos in addition to masterclass courses to help students hone their design, research, and project management skills. 
- Screening of students - As Avocademy strives to be inclusive, their initial application/screening process for students was very lax. As a result, I encountered some students at CJ that were not as serious or motivated as the rest of us. Sometimes life happens and we aren't able to keep up with all of our commitments, but at a base level, to be successful in the UX field, attention to detail, the ability to learn on your own, and collaboration skills are absolutely critical. Avocademy now has a more intensive application process for its CJ program, but it is inevitable that you may encounter classmates who are difficult to work with. This is arguably a good learning experience as well. 

My job was weighing down on my mental health, and I needed a change. I consider myself creative, empathetic, a problem solver, and a visual learner. After searching for the right career and deciding I wanted to enter the design field, the challenge was to find the right school. I landed on avocademy and gave it a chance. Avocademy's foundation course helped me set foot in the design world and opened endless opportunities for me. I learned all the technical, and soft skills required to become a UX/UI designer and applied them when working on my project throughout the course. I am glad I took the chance because I genuinely feel I found my passion and enjoy working too. The mentor's feedback on the project, resume, portfolio, guidance at every step, and networking are some of the main pros. Although, sometimes it took longer than usual to receive feedback.

When I got an email from Google that they were offering a Bootcamp on UI/UX Design, I became fascinated. I signed up for BootCamp for $39 a month to learn a new profession in technology. It piqued my interest. It was difficult to follow from the get-go, but what was I expecting for $39 a month? As a result of pulling in information about UI/UX, I got more advertisements for it than a basketball player with open DM's. Avocademy was the one I noticed while browsing Tik Tok. The fun tik toks they make caught my attention due to my love of social media, not to mention the opportunity to speak with someone directly. My enrollment came after a few days of soul-searching and an email offering a payment plan directly through Avocademy. What a shock. Although I was overwhelmed not knowing what to expect, I have to give the mentors credit for holding my hand throughout the whole process. They helped me realize that they were committed to my success. Even though wireframes almost broke me, I now understood what they were, so it wasn't that bad. Let's not kid ourselves, every day wasn't sunshine and rainbows. There were times when I felt like I was in the midst of a storm, but eventually, I saw the rainbow. Since I've seen great results with Avocademy, I would highly recommend them to break into the tech field. I am currently working with clients. To better build our portfolio, they find real-life clients for us to work with. Having this experience has been really beneficial to me, and I can't wait to begin the interviewing process. I'll make an update, but I can't tell you how good this experience has been! It's been way too much to put on paper!  

 If you're thinking about transitioning into UX Design and really getting to know what it's like to work on projects within the industry, Career Jumpstart is for you! I chose Avocademy because of their affordability for my situation. You work on real projects with other companies and start-ups with other team members- it helped me get a really good idea of how I work with others and what a design process looks like in live time. The mentorship we receive is one of the biggest pluses of joining the program. Getting help from interview prep, portfolio presentation, or even just general questions I may have, I know that my mentors will be able to provide that support! Avocademy has a wonderful community and everyone is always uplifting each other. I know that I can reach out to someone or express my uncertainties and have someone immediately bring me back up and push me forward. As we all come from unconventional design backgrounds- if you're thinking about changing, do it! I landed my first UX job because of the support I was given at Avocademy and it's made me realize that UX is a great fit for me. 

I spent a few weeks researching UX/UI bootcamps - reading lots and lots of reviews and comparing costs, curriculum, support, etc. - before making my decision to join Avocademy. While the realistic price tag was a major sway in my decision, I feel like I still got the $15k experience. 

The course is designed so you create a mobile app from concept to prototype; an end-to-end design. The course layout walks you through the process step by step and makes it very simple to complete each task. There is a ton of explanation, especially in the beginning, which includes internal tutorial videos, as well as articles and other videos on related topics to help solidify the information. The mentors provided helpful feedback and were readily available. While I do wish there was a little less reading within the curriculum and a little more video explanation, I never felt lost or lacking direction with where to go or what needed to be done. 

One thing, in retrospect, that I really appreciate was that we completed our case study along the way, rather than waiting until our project was complete then going back to put it all together. Having the guidance and support for that part (the most important part that goes in your portfolio and helps you land a job!) was truly invaluable. My expectations were exceeded with Avocademy and I 100% recommend the UX/UI Foundations Bootcamp!