BrainStation

I hate that I grew to have a type of grudge towards wyncode. Wyncode is everything everyone mentions here. You meet amazing people who become family to you. You're losing your mind studying non stop. The professors are amazing. The staff is ehhh ok. The TA's are great people. And Yes, you will most likely cry from frustation if you have no experience what so ever in coding. I was a happy student here. Even though at times I felt as if I would never be able to do this I still wanted to do what I can to accomplish this. I had a hard time, went to the next cohort but still tried. I mett amazing people who until this day I keep in contact with. The owners are very into their public appearance. Which is okay and it should be but to an extent. I was very discouraged the moment I was called for a small meeting in regards to my "behavior". I will be very honest, I am very silly and love to joke around which is who I am and that is my personality itself. But NEVER did I EVER do anything to disrupt a student or do anything to have someone lose their focus or be abruptly rude. What I was told I was being called for was absolutely ridiculous and felt as everyone who was speaking to me felt as it was just as ridiculous but were doing their job in telling me. I took very much offense to it because this place I loved to be at instantly became a place I hated to attend. From there on I was discouraged and didnt want to be present in class anymore and everything went down hill. Didnt learn the half I stayed behind for from being discouraged. I wish I couldve been maybe even refunded in some type of way after this. For it being so much money, I personally dont feel as I got what I deserved for the money I paid and worked HARD for and QUIT my job for. I appreciate the assistance and help I got from being sent to the next cohort, but I dont appreaciate the bogus accusations. It totally sucked, this is something personal that happened with just myself and wont deny that it can be great for anyone else. I just wish things were handed differently and couldve been concluded differently. The instructors are great and teach very well. The curriculum isnt always clear but at the end of the day if you do google hard enough you will find your way around it. Job assistance was overall blah.

The Digital Marketing certificate was an excellent introduction into the world of Marketing and Digital Marketing. I had very little experience coming in, and it really is designed for people without a background in the field or who need to brush up on older marketing strategies/need a refresh. While it moves at a very quick pace, I felt that it covered everything that I needed to get my feet wet and prepared for at least some baseline marketing knowledge in my next role.

This experience literally changed my life! Wyncode gave me so much structure and knowledge, as well as a great support team. The extra help you get outside classroom hours is unreal, everybody is willing to help, without making you feel like you should already know that, and with a limitless amount of patience. If you put the extra time and work, you will definitely be rewarded. A little word of advice: you should practice coding for a while before you start the bootcamp: I had no knowledge in coding (background in education), and although I have learned a lot in these past 10 weeks, there were many times I felt lost and would think "I wish I would have practiced this a little before starting this course". So if you are thinking about giving it a try, I strongly encourage you to do so, but I also belive that practicing some coding before you start will make a huge difference in you learning experience.

I came into the course with a good understanding of basic Python programming and Data Science Algorithms from a few online courses.  I was looking for the opportunity to sit down with an experienced Data Scientist for hours, to gain some practical problem solving and technical experience. 

Jeremy was the Data Scientist teaching the course at the time, and he was terrific! He took great care and providing top-tier education. The most significant benefit from the class was watching Jeremy's workflow in solving common and other uncommon Data Science problems. These observations set a very high standard of quality in my work and helped me further my studies in DS via my self-studies after the course (always be learning). 

The second largest benefit from the course was the network that I built in the class of fellow Data enthusiasts in Toronto.  I have remained close with my classmate as we all transitioned into Data Science roles in industry. Support each other when needed. 

After the program, I transitioned from a job as a client services consultant to a Data Analyst and had to increase my annual salary by 20k (quickly making up for the cost of the course in the first year). 

Brainstation has some amazing programs and some not so amazing programs.

Unfortunately CoureReport does not do a great job of distinguishing which sections of Brainstation are A+ 

and which parts are C- at best.  I can tell you, without a doubt, that Courereports was instrumental

in my making the decision to go to Brainstation.  Boy Was I Wrong !

As stated earlier, whereas some programs at Brainstation are truly exceptional, other programs

are truly works of amateur art and in need of severe assistance.  The instructors, if you look closely, 

who started these new sections had no teaching experience but where told by the new owners to

make a program.  Those instructors are no longer found herein, and you find brand new instructors

who very clearly state that this is their latest version of the program, as if though you are a guinea pig.

The class sizes here vary widely from term to term.  The summer session you can have twice the number of students than in Winter session.  You cant help but think to yourself, my God these people have no idea what the hell they're doing.  How in Gods name did I get here ?

As good as CourseReports professes to be, it does the students a distinct dis-favor by not itemizing the 

items on the menu and assuming that the Kung Pao chicken is as good as the Burger offered.  

If a school limits itself to only one program, then the ratings would be accurate.  If the school

has multiple programs and you have one rating system for all those programs, then the

review system is fundamentally and profoundly flawed.

Yes, absolutely, Brainstation is fabulous for some programs and total absolute rank amateurs for their others,

and the applicant would be gravely mistaken to think a 5 Star rating for one of their programs equals 5 Star

for every program under the same roof.  They could not be more wrong.

Course Reports attempts to guide the students, but by not clearly advising on the various different

programs under the same roof, it is profoundly misleading the students to believe the quality

is consistent all around for all programs under the same roof.  That would be a fatal flaw.

Jo Juha & PK & Austin and whole team are awesome, you really are part of the family and they look out for you regardless of programming or life background. 

The way the bootcamp is designed is awesome too, it really makes you not only challenge to learn coding but also to display your talents with projects so you can be proud of your skills. 

The only thing I'll say though is that programming isn't for everybody. I barely survived the bootcamp and was always behind and seeking help of the TA's(who were also awesome) and others, and now even though I'm getting some job attention I am scared of being so underqualified and still am reviewing my stuff. I think out of my batch half of gotten dev jobs through wyncode circle. I feel embarassed to call myself a full-stack developer when I can't finish a rails app without help or hours of googling. The bootcamp after week 2 is intense. I'll see where the job hunt leads and hopefully through that can get more experience. Overall I recommend it, but it may be a smart idea to delve more into programming on your own then join it and if you're a slow learner then get a feel for it before taking the full leap. 

I think my time at Wyncode was interesting. Our cohort did not entirely get along. No one wanted to participate in socials and no one really keeps in touch. It was just a weird time.

Overall, I thought that the curriculum was fine, and they did their best to prepare us for interviews after Wyncode.

My biggest disapointment  is that I needed money to start paying back my loan, so I never got to actually use my new dev skills. It almost feels like a waste of money.

I attended BrainStation for the full time web development course in the Summer 2017 cohort.

Overall, I have nothing but great things to say about the course, its instructors and the people I met throughout my ten weeks there. I personally had dabbled in development before taking the course (not web), and I certainly still found the course challenging and fulfilling. From my own experience and from others, I believe that to get the most out of the WDFT course, you should have at least some beginner understanding of programming/logic/development. The course moves very fast, and concepts and content get stacked upon itself very quickly as the final weeks close in.

I believe that what you learn in those 10 weeks would be the equivalent of a self-taught learner spending 4-5x longer on the same content. Also bear in mind that upon completion, you earn a certification, have more networking opportunities, and have an up-to-date record on what technologies are being used at that very moment (as frameworks, languages and services become deprecated rapidly, all the time).

I recently completed Brainstation's Digital Marketing (part-time) program this summer, and was pleased with the learnings I took away from the course. Coming from a Communications background, and having dug a little into digital in my own spare time, this program was a great refresher about the general scope of digital marketing - from SEO/SEM, social media best practices, Google Analytics/Adwords, content creation, and generating ad campaigns. That being said, if you're looking for a deeper dive into SEO/SEM, I would recommend looking into their SEO-specific program as what's touched on in the DIgital Marketing course is very high level.

Beyond the course material, Brainstation has an unbelievable network of educators that lead their various programs, and I was fortunate to be instructed by Emily and Britt. They were able to integrate their professional experiences into the course material, bringing knowledge from both the corporate and freelance worlds.

If you don't already follow Brainstation on Instagram (@brainstationyvr), you're quite possibly missing out on one of Vancouver's most aesthetically pleasing interior design spots. Brainstation recently relocated their Vancouver HQ from Yaletown to downtown Vancouver, and so the facility sports fresh white walls, and minimal finishings. It's also within walking distance of a multitude of shops and great lunch spots.

The Brainstation community is welcoming, and their customer service is on point! If communicating via email, you can expect a response within 24 hours, not to mention follow-up emails to ensure your questions/learning goals (if you've enrolled in a class) are being met.

In short, if you're looking for a quick refresher on all-things-digital (without diving too deeply into any given area), this is the course for you. And beyond the actual lecture slides and course materials, it's a great place to meet likeminded students/industry professionals. (Make sure to check out their available scholarships too if the course prices are a bit steep for you!)

I took the full-time web development course and I have had a very bad experience for various reasons:

1) the teacher is generally ill-prepared for class, and he rushes through concepts without clearly explaining them

2) When you ask for help, instead of giving a clear answer, the teacher will give you 10% of the answer, tell you to go off and figure it out yourself, and then punish you or asking him a question in your assignment grade which is demoralizing 

3) There are not very many resources available for students to self-study 

4) This course has been a huge waste of money and time

Took an accelerated, 4-day full time, product management course and have to say it was relatively disappointing considering the cost. I'd recommend instead to take an online course if you have the discipline.

Pros:

• Great instructor: Knowledgeable, friendly, easy to work with.
• Cool space, unfortunately highly underutilized. 

Cons:

• Very pricey: Full price = $2250 or $563/day
• Curriculum was far too overpacked to do much more than review slides and lecture
• Little meaningful practice of the content
• No prep work/homework so lots of time wasted in class
• No accreditation
• Lack of attention to details

If I were to sum up my experience, it was a very expensive 6.5 hours daily, with about 4 hours of that being review of slides in a very rushed fashion. The instructor had to skip some sections of content to keep up.

The instructor was great, really knowledgeable and did what he could to deliver as much value as possible in the 4 days.

Unfortunately, the curriculum is far too packed for this format and allows for almost no time to actually practice anything in a meaningful way. Our final projects were very hastily put together with little feedback and definitely not something you would want to add to a portfolio. All we really had time for was reviewing slides, and doing rushed exercises.

Given that there is no accreditation, I felt my money would have been better spent on a bunch of really good books, an online course and investing some time to meet with other product managers for coffee.

As a side note, the space, administration and introductions of the course were rather unwelcoming. At one point the school was actually being rented out for a private hair styling event during our course and we were sequestered in our classrooms for a day. Considering the price it seemed there was a general lack of care for students and that it was more of a money grab. I shared most this feedback on our course wrap up, but never heard back.

"Just wanted to give some feedback for the Digital marketing course. I don't know where you found this guy, but Josh is hands down the best educator I have had, in anything. Always keeps the class engaging, makes it exciting from 6:30-9:30pm on a work night, extremely knowledgeable, great communicator, makes everyone feel comfortable for a very diverse group, hilarious, empowering, and made Thursday nights at Brainstation something to really look forward to. I think I speak for a lot of people in the class. Like I said, BS Toronto couldn't have found a better guy to lead this course. Kudos to Michelina and Hailey too, they were super great supplementary educators and kept the 10-weeks fresh and experiential. Thanks to the whole team for the great experience."

Let's be honest. Tech is sexy today and that is where most jobs are available. Tech jobs pay well too. That is where organizations such as Brainstation are looking to cash in. To be completely fair, here are my two cents on brainstation:

- Most teachers are excellent. They know their topics and teach very well.

- The courses won't challenge you. I took product management and the actual meat of the entire 10 week course was week 7 to week 9. Week 10 is reserved for presentations so that doesn't really count. Week 1 to 6 was spent talking about some really simple stuff. All of this  information is available on the internet

- There is a lot of False Advertising. For example their ads say "Become a Product Manager". This is how they advertise their product management course for example. Having worked with  a lot of product managers in my own companym I can tell with confidence that Brainstation's PM course will not make you a PM. It's a part-time "get your feet wet" course and that's all that is. 

I came in from a totally different field, with no coding background.  Wyncode looked like a place that could get me employable, so I decided to give it a shot.  You will learn a ton of great skills, but you have to be motivated.  Basic computer skills are a must.  I had a job offer BEFORE I graduated!  Instructors and TAs are good, though none are trained in education, so there are definitely problems in the curriculum and with the teaching styles.  The cost of the program is too high in my opinion--they seem to spend a lot of money on spoiling the students: beer, food, social events, etc.  I think they should cut all of that and drop the price.  I paid to learn, not to party.  The two main instructors are incredibly different, so make sure you inquire before registering. VERY wide range of abilities in the classes, which can make pacing difficult.  They do a great job at the end helping you find, interview and apply for jobs--very supportive.  If you are ready for a life change, love being on the computer, and have the the financial means, go for it!  Wyncode is definitely NOT for everyone though, several of my classmates were miserable at coding and will likely never get a tech job.  Wyncode has started to get a good name in in the area though, and I would recommend it if you know you can do it.

I have just finished the 10 week Digital Marketing course at BrainStation, and I'm really happy with what I have learned. I wanted to take the course to further deepen my knowledge in digital marketing (notably through social media) as I had been playing around with my own online business. This course made me realize that there are so many layers to a proper digital marketing strategy, and learning from educators that work in the field was so valuable to me. 

My favourite thing about the course was to be able to have amazing teachers - ones that were always open to communication and to help whenever we needed. We were constantly able to ask questions and create discussions from there, also we were always connected through slack (everyone was very responsive). I have now a larger network of people that are interested in similar things, and I have already done some additional digital marketing work for Toronto based companies. 

I would recommend this course to anyone that needs a refresher or basic knowledge on how to build a digital marketing strategy! I look forward to keeping in touch with the people I have met and keeping a relationship with BrainStation (as they always have amazing events).