BrainStation Reviews
Page 36
-
David
Amazing experience
Curriculum is well-balanced and matched to the most in-demand skills. Instructors are well-versed, great at explaining concepts, and capable of suiting many learning styles. Bountiful support from TAs round-the-clock. In-depth, high-touch career support for life. Can't recommend Wyncode more highly! -
Chrystina
UX Design - Full Time Diploma
Read more Read less of Chrystina's review
This is a full time UX Design program that focuses on teaching you the UX and the UI components of Product Design. It was done completely remotely. It initially had 2 instructors and an associate instructor, about halfway through the course, 1 instructor was taken to do the dedicated online course and we had no choice on which instructor they should take. We were then left with 1 instructor and another associate/in training instructor. The in training one didn't provide much guidance when it came to assignments and a lot of the assignment guidelines were ambiguous at best. When we asked for clarification, we were given a different answer from each person. Ww had 4 TAs, one left midway through as she secured a full time UX position at a company so we were given a new TA. The TAs are hit or miss, they had all recently finished the program and didn't have much experience out in the field so we found that they were good to bounce ideas but it was also strange that once we completed the course, they would be our competition in the job market.
This course was initially supposed to be held in class but changed to full remote because of COVID. There's a demo day at the end of the program that you're continually working towards but found that it was lacking in support when it came to the actual preparation and the part of what happens after the program is complete and you have your diploma. There isn't much in the way of helping you find a position after you've completed the program.
It's a very stressful experience, as most bootcamps are and with transitioning to a new career, it adds even more stress. The added stresses of working fully remotely as well made it even more difficult. There are a lot of tight deadlines and very little guidance, there are supposed to be industry speakers or guests who come to speak to you but that only happened when we pushed about when that would be happening.
Overall, it was a good experience, I felt like I got a good base knowledge in order to build and grow from that but the ambiguity and non answers were a lot and it just added to an already stressful experience. It's not for the faint hearted, that's fo sure. -
Jessica
Hands-on practical learning
Read more Read less of Jessica's review
I’ve taken two courses (digital marketing and data analytics) and can’t recommend it enough. The instructors have day jobs in the disciplines they’re teaching so I find what they teach has real-life practicality to it. They’re great at answering questions about getting into the field, and teaching not just theory but practical knowledge you can’t learn from a book. The final projects require you to consolidate all your learnings into one final pitch of sorts - really great courses for anyone looking to upskill or learn something new. -
Lauren Andres
10 week web development course
Read more Read less of Lauren Andres's review
I recently completed the 10 week part time web development program. I found the online live course to be a really great option that allowed for the convenience of taking the class from anywhere, but also provided the structure that I needed with a designated required class time each week. As a designer who frequently interacts with our development team, I took this course to better understand the dev process. I was happy with the knowledge I gained by the end of the 10 weeks. The instructor dove into both css and html, and provided us with the information needed to create a basic one page website as a final project. Our instructor was super helpful and patient with all questions; he never made anyone feel like any question was dumb or a waste of time. I would not go into this course expecting to be a professional developer upon completion; there just isn’t enough time in 30 hours to learn everything you need to know, and that’s not really the intention of the part time course. However, I think this course is great way to get a good base of html and css, and start you off on the right foot in the coding world. -
Cody
Social Media Marketing
Read more Read less of Cody's review
The social media marketing course covers most of the social platforms and dives deeper in Facebook ads specifically, which I believe is the most valuable aspect of the course. I think there should be a Facebook ads certification that goes along with this course and that could add more value to it but it's also something you can go and get yourself.
If you have none or limited knowledge of social platforms this is a great way to learn the basics and strategies across various platforms. -
Paige
Digital Marketing Certificate
Read more Read less of Paige's review
I really enjoyed my learning experience with BrainStation! I signed up for this course because I was looking to start a career in digital marketing and I had very limited professional experience. As a learner with little experience in the field, the curriculum was exactly what I was looking for touching on very important areas such as SEO, paid social ads, paid search ads, social media, Google Analytics and email marketing. The instructors (Deborah and Jordan) were really great, friendly, approachable and did a great job of explaining the content and bringing in their real world knowledge. I was hired into a full time job as a result of this learning. Highly recommend. -
Moe Ahmed
Product Management
Read more Read less of Moe Ahmed's review
Course Summary
- Opportunity Discovery: customer discovery, customer personas
- Value Propositions: market research, vision statements, value proposition
- MVP: lean canvas, build-measure-learn cycle, pivoting, lean UX, wire-framing, user testing
- Agile: agile software development, scrum, story mapping
- Market strategies: product launch, market positioning, lean analytics, success metrics
- Product Finance: risk management, revenue models, pricing strategies -
Amy
Social Media Marketing (Online Live)
Read more Read less of Amy's review
I’ve completed two courses now at BrainStation – Digital Marketing and Social Media Marketing. While Digital Marketing provides a good (high level) overview of many digital channels (including a week on social media), it was helpful to dedicate the full 7 weeks to Social Media Marketing. The curriculum dives into Facebook and Instagram with less time allocated to YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Influencers.
The course brings you through the full cycle of campaign creation; from identifying your segment, setting objectives, ad creative and copy, and implementing campaigns. Getting set up with Facebook Business Manager and working through the tool in class and with the instructors’ tips was great! I’d say it’s a pretty good balance of learning and application.
I have huge appreciation for the instructions, Alex and Amber! They enhanced all of the course material with their own experiences and insights from being professionals in the industry.
I recommend the course for people new and/or somewhat familiar with social media marketing (I’m in marketing myself but don’t work in digital marketing), but it may not be advanced enough for someone already with a hand in paid social.
-
Kumail Zaidi
Worst Experience Ever
Read more Read less of Kumail Zaidi's review
1) The content that is taught be BrainStation in their web development program is not even adequate knowledge to lend a job in their affiliate company Konrad.
2) There is hardly any support after you complete the program. If you bring this up and keep bugging them you will surely be on their "black list".
3) There is hardly any Database and Authorization covered in the course. Which is one of the keys.
4) Waste of Time, and Money!! Double loss!!
5) Last but not least, there is 0 Job Assistance! ZERO!!
I will not Recommend them to anyone. -
Andrea Morales
Online UI DESIGN
Read more Read less of Andrea Morales's review
I enjoyed the online training, John Kantor our lead instructor was great on every class, he was prepared and seems to have a great knowledge about topics. David Aboutboul was always sharing great links and information, he also had goo knowledge and was a good compliment to discuss other software options for pc users.
I had a great experience, refreshed a lot my knowledge in design, got confident on what I already knew. Understood better the concept of UI Design and added a couple of software to my list, which is great!
I recommend Brainstation to those who have a previous background in design and know how to use the tools, if you are a begginner you may want to learn about design FIRST! -
Ryan
Product Management course
Read more Read less of Ryan's review
I took the 10-week in-Class Product Management course in Vancouver. I am a current Product Manager and had read multiple books prior to attending. The main difference between a MOOC and a Brainstation course is having an industry expert live. You can ask questions to both the instructor and your classmates. I'd recommend Brainstation after you have a basic understanding of your course topic (use free MOOC courses/podcasts/books) to develop greater depth. -
Christina
Amazing experience!
Read more Read less of Christina's review
If you're thinking about joining Wyncode to pivot your career to UX/UI Design, think no more! Wyncode has been an amazing experience that challenged me and gave me the foundation of the designer that I am today. The support from the staff and students is unparalleled. You honestly feel like you are a part of a family (Wynfam), and the career support is greatly appreciated. They truly want you to succeed and thrive into the world of tech and design. So grateful for the experience! -
Brandon Merchant
Amazing UX/UI Immersive Bootcamp
Amazing school to learn valuable skills in the UX/UI field. Phenomenal instructors and TA’s who taught and encouraged us students every step of the way. Very rigorous 10 week course but I’ve learned more in this program than ever before. I would recommend this program to ANYONE interested in entering the Coding or UX/UI field. Plus lifetime job support!?!? Couldn’t be better! -
Jessica
User Interface Design
Read more Read less of Jessica's review
My instructors David and John were amazing! John was very personable and would always try to include his students in the discussions so we were not just sitting there for 3 hours straight listening to his speech. The true value I got from this course was the mentorship and project feedback from David outside of class. He was very responsive, detail-oriented and cared a lot about the success of his students. I would rate my instructors 1000000/10 if I could.
Other than that, the course curriculum was not great and definitely not worth over 3.5k for 10 weeks part-time. Luckily I had a scholarship and an employee development fund that covered most of the cost but the course was designed for people without a design background and for beginners as there wasn't a focus on UI design principles. UI design is pretty subjective as it differs from project to project so I can see why it could be difficult to teach but much of the content was pointing out the history of UI, showing pictures of real-life objects and what you can do to translate it onto a digital product, basic knowledge of design principles and teaching you how to use programs like Sketch/InVision (which was barely even covered). I can't imagine what the 5-week course is like... even though it's just a condensed down version of the 10 weeks.
I feel like this course should focus more on teaching us design principles and design languages for both Andriod/ios/desktop/tablets. It also felt like the course was more about teaching you what you CAN design than teaching you HOW to design.
Overall, I had a really good experience and lucky that I had amazing instructors!
-
Marcella
The best bootcamp ever!
Read more Read less of Marcella's review
Wyncode is the best Bootcamp and I will explain why. First, they treat every student as a person, not a number. They know you and they make you feel being part of a family. Second, they are very supportive, not only regarding the course itself but even if you feel overwhelmed because it is a very fast-paced course, they will help you. Third, they will teach you not only technical knowledge and how to be a developer, but they will teach you about believing in yourself and how to develop good soft skills to be able to get a job after course. Plus, they have what they called "wynwork" meetings with great opportunities jobs. I attended this course and after 2 months I've got a great job. -
Alejandro Jannaut
UX/UI C10
Read more Read less of Alejandro Jannaut's review
For someone looking to get started in technology, Wyncode is definitely an amazing opportunity! I was part of cohort 10 for UX/UI Design and I enjoyed every single minute of it. My instructor, Gessica Tortolano, was amazing; She has an impressive background and expertise so learning from her was an outstanding experience. Gessica and other TAs like Kaiya, Rachelle, Nishita, and Veronica with whom I interacted every week, were extremely helpful and supportive. Vasti, Beto, Johanna, Juha, and everyone else at Wyncode were energetic and gave inspiring talks every week. They encouraged students to collaborate and learn as a group to prepare us for "the real world". I 100% recommend Wyncode, especially the UX/UI Design program! -
Eniko Harnagea
Product Management Course
Read more Read less of Eniko Harnagea's review
I signed up for the Product Management course at the beginning of 2020 because I was contemplating a job/career change.I am passionate about solving complex problems/situations and it seemed that the Product Management course could give me a good insight on the entire process.The course itself is complex, with lots of information and details to go through; it could probably be more challenging to take this course as self-study, especially for someone with very little to no experience and involvement in the product development cycle (like myself). The 2 instructors leading this course were first of all very knowledgeable, experienced, passionate and personable. They did a great job explaining the course material as well as creating actual scenarios from ‘a day of a PM’; they provide additional examples of situations and resources to refer to and learn from. They were also very approachable, I felt very comfortable reaching out to them outside of class with any questions or requests for feedback. I finished the course with a good understanding of the overall product cycle as well as some great resources that, at the very least, are great reads and ‘aha moments’.My favourite part of the whole experience was meeting and connecting with people and the opportunity to participate at ProductCamp BC; I was able to build some amazing connections and with many of them I keep in touch with to date. Completing the course did not necessarily result in a career change for me, for now at least, but it gave a fresh perspective on my current job. I look at my industry from a different perspective now and I see opportunities that I’ve dismissed before, which is very energizing and exciting! -
Senior Illustration design student
Worth it.
Read more Read less of Senior Illustration design student's review
As a 23 year old, I was hesitant to spend 4 digits on a 5 week course, it's the equivalent of taking 3 courses at my university for a semester. However, my curiosity prompt me to sign up and go for it.
You get exactly what you pay for, extremely experienced instructors with excellent up-to-date industry work experience. It is very fast-paced but since it's only one class per week, you have the other 6 days to catch up on anything you want to look into!
Do it if you're on the fence, I have no regrets from this learning experience.
-
Jordan
Fully Online Remote Web Development Program
Read more Read less of Jordan's review
The education team is great and very helpful. BrainStation really knows what they're doing and how to deliver such an intense program.
At some points in the program, there are moments of doubt and questionable thoughts:
-Should I quit, should I drop out? Is this really for me? I don't want to fail out of the program.
-What is going on? Do they know how to teach and layout the material? Why didn't they just teach us this from the beginning?
In the end, after going through the entire program, everything worked out and the pace and style of how the program is structured is great.
A fully online program has its challenges but so does everything else.
I actually wish I started studying in their Part-Time intro the Web Dev course-program because I was looking at programs for a very long time. It probably would have made the full-time program a little bit easier on me too since I come from a background with very little coding experience.
My advice to anyone that enrols in the full-time program:
-Trust the program and listen to the education team.
-Ask questions.
-Help fellow classmates.
-Use an Apple computer.
-Plan and prepare that you will do nothing else for the entire length of the program.
-Put it in the time, effort, and work.
And lastly, if you are taking a long time, thinking and considering, about whether or not to take a full-time program then at least take the part-time Intro to Web Development. -
Gi Kim
UX Design
Read more Read less of Gi Kim's review
My experience for UX Course from Brain Station has been nothing more than amazing! When I started, I knew nothing about the industry and by the time, I completed the course, I felt like I can change my career with a confidence.
Our course teacher, Jenna has been nothing more than incredible and well skilled within the UX/UI industry. She taught us all the tips and tricks she learned during her career and that she made us feel comfortable and easy to learn with descriptive explanation. Brain Station also laid out a great course curriculum and exercises that can be utilized within the real world environment.
The course was short but very much detailed and well put together for all students to learn.
I highly recommend to those who are interested in going in to UX/UI field and for me, Brain Station has delivered more than my expectations. I'm looking forward to signup for the UI certification course during Fall/Winter of 2020 as well.
I have nothing but the best to say about Brain Station and Thank You for your assistance to get my feet off the ground in new career path. -
Rebecca
User Interface Design
Read more Read less of Rebecca's review
I recently took the 12-week User Interface Design course from Brainstation and it was wonderful! The BrainStation team made it easy to learn in both a classroom setting (and later online). The course materials were all incredibly hands-on and very relevant to my transition into UI & UX roles. My instructors were incredibly knowledgeable and provided students with relevant industry knowledge and expertise. I would highly recommend this course and others like it for anyone look to upgrade their skills and leave with a strong portfolio piece. -
Rohan Mehta
Product Management Course Toronto
Read more Read less of Rohan Mehta's review
The BrainStation course is great for giving you a foundation for Product Management. They have you pick a product and go through the thought process as a full time PM would. The instructors work in the field and are great at using their real life examples to bring concepts to life and the feedback they give you is good for your growth. My only issue is that you're paying thousands of dollars for this with little to no assistance with finding a career after. I don't know a single person from my cohort who got a PM job afterward and the school provided no help. I will give my instructors a shoutout as they took the time to give interview advice and look over people's resumes on their own time. That's a plus for the instructors and not the school. If Toronto has an APM program, why can't BrainStation work with companies to create their own for graduates in the cities they operate. Overall, I had great instructors with a great cohort but don't expect to have help finding a job. -
Bernard Malijan
Social Media Marketing Review
The course was a very good refresher and introduction to social media marketing. The instructors were friendly and approachable, and they boiled down the concepts very well. I would recommend it to anyone who needs to further their understanding or just want to build a good base for social media marketing. -
Imran Tahir
Data Analytics
Read more Read less of Imran Tahir's review
Learning Data analytics course designed by Brain Station was such a big achievement. During continuation of my day to day job it was so easy to learn in a very short time and professional way. This course is amazing, consists of advanced excel, learn and practice on query writing in SQL, learning and practice on tableau with easy to learn online methods. Instructor was so experienced that he never took a second for any questions to answer in a very professional and friendly manners that everything he explained got feed and saved into my mind like data is copied to the brain chip. Thanks to Brain station for this valuable quick course. I would like to recommend this course to the people who want to take a jump in their career to achieve great success.
-
Daniela
Great introduction
Read more Read less of Daniela's review
I wanted to explore a new career path and the 10-week User Experience Design course at Brainstation was a great experience. It helped me understand the basics of UX and gave me a good overview of the field. The instructor was an expert in the field and showed us examples from his own work experience, which was very helpful.
I would definitely recommend this course for people who want to introduce themselves into UX. -
Harry Umel
Digital Marketing Certificate
Read more Read less of Harry Umel's review
I took the Digital Marketing certificate course in early February. The course contained a large amount of information and the pace of the course is rather fast to ensure all topics are covered. That being said, this means the course information is very compressed; take the course if you're willing to put in the time to re-read information after class. Scott (teacher) was extremely helpful in providing real-life situational examples of when to use certain methods (Paid ads, PR releases, SEO, etc). -
Rebecca L
User Experience Design
Read more Read less of Rebecca L's review
The instructors were extremely knowledgeable and I learned a lot in the 3 months I took this course! It definitely gave me the basics of UX in a short time though the learning continues after. You get pushed to produce a lot in a short time and in the end, you come out with some version of portfolio. They helped me a lot with my projects and the feedback was good. Be prepared to breathe, eat, and sleep UX though! Being job ready is up to you once the course ends though. -
Hariharan
Mr
I took the 12 week Digital Marketing course via in class sessions and it was great! The BrainStation instructor made it easy to learn and the course material was clear enough to grasp. My instructor was super knowledgeable and provided relevant industry examples. I'd recommend BrainStation to anyone looking to kickstart their career in tech -
Dee
UX Design Course
Read more Read less of Dee's review
My overall experience was great.
The brainstation instructors were industry professions who not only taught the course material, they provided us with the tools and tricks needed to succeed in the industry.
The classes were very engaging and the instructors always matched the pace of the group’s learning ability. Very valuable feedback was given as to how to effectively navigate the new material and improve your work.
I am definitely looking forward to taking another course soon. -
Jordan
BrainStation UI Course
Course was excellent for beginners in the area! -
Alex T
Great Intro to UX Design with Practical Applicaton
Read more Read less of Alex T's review
I had a great time with the Intro to UX Design course. I took the 6week certificate course to learn the basics of UX Design with the aim of helping me develop projects in my current career. Avi, our instructor, had a real passion for everything to do with design. He was able to share his experience and his insight which helped me gain an appreciation for the intricacies of Design. They went through each stage from ideation to conceptualization to user interviews to the design process. The best part was the practical application. Being put in an environment where we had to work with other people to present a final project gave us a realistic perspective of what UX Designers really do. I’ve been able to use a lot of the skills I’ve learned to my own projects at work and have actually started studying design concepts on my own. I’d definitely recommend this course and take another Brainstation course in the future!
They also have a lot of events you can attend for learning and networking! -
Tom Park
Alum of Python and Data science ciurse
Read more Read less of Tom Park's review
I’ve taken the the live python bootcamp and the data science virtual class. I’ve take a number of exec Ed courses and boot camps and I’ll very happy with Brainstation. Instructors aren’t just reading a long python worksheet - they’re willing to answer questions. And the materials are really excellent - I often go back to them. And this is written as a person who is totally new to programming. Highly recommend -
Florence
UX Design Diploma
Read more Read less of Florence's review
Brain station was a great start in my UX journey of building the foundation that I needed to pursue UX. I was able to learn the whole entire process of figuring out what the UX problem is, building personas, and other tools to help me solve the problem. I've learned a lot through the process and the instructors and teaching assistants were great. They always gave me insightful knowledge on how I could improve my projects and definitely all the feedback was always needed to help me grow.
The only set back was the fact that the projects that we were given didn't have any business constraints where we were able to work with an actual company. As a result, after I graduated from Brainstation, that was one of my biggest blockers of getting a job. I had a good enough portfolio that allowed me to get interviewed at a lot of great companies, but the moment they realized I didn't have any actual UX job experience and I didn't have a project that worked with business constraints, I wasn't able to move further to the other round.
Another thing was, the job assistance didn't help me much, if anything at all, if I have to be truthfully honest. Don't get me wrong, the career counsellors were GREAT and had GREAT personalities. They were always ready to look over my resume or give me mock interviews, but I personally found more success connecting with ux professionals that were already in the industry to give me feedback on my resume, portfolio and interview.
As a result, for whoever is entering the bootcamp, I would recommend you to go into this bootcamp, only if you truly have a passion or interest in doing either coding, ux design, and etc. Because for people who have the expectation that they would get a job right away after doing a bootcamp, it is false.
You're going to need to grind, because my learning definitely did not stop after the bootcamp. I had to push myself to learn more.
However, I was only able to grind successfully because of the great foundation knowledge of UX that I got from Brainstation.
I ended up getting a job and I am very thankful that someone was able to give me a chance and I have grown in a lot of different ways. So in the end, if I were to go back I would go back to Brainstation.
I do not think going to a bootcamp is needed to get into UX and I do think all of it can be done through self-learning. However, I just know that for me and myself, I do better learning in class. So in this case, there is no right or wrong. It's what you feel is best for yourself. However, I would like to note that one of the the benefit of learning at Brainstation that you can't get from self learning is that you will be able to be in a class full of students who have the same passion as you and you're able to bounce ideas off each other.
-
James Hoffele
Data analytics for the win!
Read more Read less of James Hoffele's review
This course boosted my knowledge and skills with data through a focused curriculum, experienced instructor, and inviting classroom environment. The assignments and tasks were relevant to the work world and follow-up with the instructor was welcomed. I would highly recommend brainstation to anyone who wants to quickly gather data analysis skills and confidence to apply them in their day job. -
Darish Sakeesing
Amazing experience to get foot into the door
Read more Read less of Darish Sakeesing's review
I took the month long data science bootcamp at Brainstation( NYC soho campus) and loved every moment of it. The instructor was very knowledgeable and introduced the topic really well. This is NOT an intro to programming class so if you register, make sure you understand how to code. The instructor did a fantastic job helping people who had no prior coding experience and I felt that took time off the main topic: Data Science.
After this bootcamp, you will have all the tools to work for a data science position and to dive deeper into the world of data science. This bootcamp really changed my career path and I am grateful for that. -
Ana Maria Montero Barrantes
I met amazing people...
“Thanks to the course, I met many incredible designers, who today work on social impact projects, people who in one way or another influence trends, solutions and guide me as inspiration. The support of the people in charge of coordination was excellent, even after leaving the academy they continue to support and encourage learning initiatives.” - Ana Maria -
Joty
Ux Design
I learned so much in just one month at brain station. Highly recommend to anyone looking to acquire new skills in a short amount of time! -
Abbey
User Interface Design and Product Management courses!
Read more Read less of Abbey's review
I just completed my second BrainStation course. Last summer I took the Product Management course on campus in Vancouver, BC and this summer I took the User Interface course online. They were both one night a week for 10 weeks.
The quality of both courses was excellent. I like the 10 week format because I need time to really absorb what I am learning. The product management course is offered over 5 full time days (or was last year anyway) and I really don't think I would have learned as much. With the 10 week format there was enough time to actually do the homework each week. If you keep up with it one night a week of doing homework is enough, but for me it is hard to find time. I actually tried to do a 5 week accelerated program, the User Experience Design course, but I got sick and only went to 2 classes. Still that was almost half of the course and it was way too fast. I just barely got the homework done but didn't really spend enough time to absorb what I was doing. If you are used to taking courses and/or are not working full time you should look at the 5 week accelerated programs though. They are the exact same material as the 10 week ones, just twice as fast.
My teacher in both of the courses I finished were really great. They were both working industry professionals with a ton of experience. One is a VP even! This was the part that I liked the best, they both shared a LOT of information in addition to the slides such as showing us real documents/designs/roadmaps/etc that they had worked on for various projects. Being able to see what the real work looks like really helped me understand the topics we covered in each lesson and also gave me confidence at work that what I was producing was the correct thing or in the correct format. Also both courses had teaching assistants and I liked both of them a lot too. It was good having two different instructors available because we got to hear two different experiences.
The only downsides I can share is that the online course just had way too many people in my class but that is probably because it was the first session after the pandemic started. The 5 week course I started was also online but had 2/3 the number of students. But overall everyone is really great there. In fact I withdrew from that 5 week course halfway through and then was allowed to register in the UI course instead once I was no longer sick and that was
As far as diversity goes I had 2 white instructors, an Indian instructor, a Black instructor, and an Asian instructor. All my instructors were men but in each of the classes I would guess half of the class was female. I know that there are female instructors also as I know a couple but my instructors were all men. All of the BrainStation employees I interacted with aside from teachers for all 3 courses were women. So I would say I interacted with an equal number of male and female employees at Brainstation and of all ethnicities.
I really learned a lot in both courses and I 10000% have used stuff from these courses at work! I had to take on the role of Product Manager for 6 months at the planning phase of a new product while we looked for a full time PM and I was completely armed and prepared to do that. There were some bumps along the way, especially as I learned to translate the "student project" level of my knowledge into real business deliverables -- and learned how to make slide decks from scratch! (BrainStation final projects come with a template you can use if you want so you don't have to be great at that stuff to do the course) I can safely say that I outperformed expectations of me and I owe the credit completely to the Product Management course!
The User Interface Design course that I took I finished it just recently after handing off the role of PM to our new permanent product manager. I took this one for me, not for work. I always had this mental block against graphics, I was convinced I couldn't do anything that involved graphics. So I decided to force myself through it by taking this course. Don't get me wrong, I struggled. This design stuff does not come to me naturally and although the software is pretty straight forward when there was something that I couldn't figure out it was really hard. Plus my designs were not great. But by the end of the course I was using the software and my designs were pretty good! I am not a natural talent, I'll need to keep working on it if I really want to get to a professional level, but where I'm at now is pretty good! The app I designed looked better than a lot of apps I've seen. I was pretty happy with what I learned and how much I grew and got over my fears in this course.
There isn't a lot of instruction on how to use the programs nor how-to's on making designs/graphics themselves but instead the course teaches a lot about the theory of User Interface Design and you do designs as the course goes, working on your final project a bit each week, applying what you have learned. For some people that worked out well. For me it was hard because I spent a lot of time trying to learn the software. I ended up buying a $15 Udemy course on how to use sketch and I spent a week watching that. After I did that I found I was able to really apply what I was learning and doing the designs wasn't as frustrating (or pointless) as before.
I am a mobile developer so I already had the code part but whenever I tried to make an app it was always extremely ugly. I'm really looking forward to using my design skills and product management knowledge to plan some apps! -
Guillermo Tellez
Data Analytics
It was a super practical course. I liked that they covered Excel, SQL and also Tableau, super helpful for my job and future opportunities! -
Savitha
User Experience Design
It was a great course from which i could learn from scratch to build an app with guidance. It was very useful and informative at the same time. I completely recommend this course from Brainstation.