BrainStation

There were many times when I thought I wouldn't get through it, but came out on the other side feeling confident that I have the core competencies to be an employable developer.  Not everyone gets through it, so you have to make sure that tech is something that you really feel like is the right path for you.  If so, BrainStation will offer you a great experience, and will prepare you well for the real world.

After completing BrainStation’s bootcamp, it was really impressive to see how far I have come in terms of skills and readiness in the industry. I was thoroughly satisfied with the content that was taught during the 12-week period. 

BrainStation's bootcamp was very fast-paced and rigorous, but I learned a lot and met some great people along the way.  Having multiple educators for the same subject threw me off at first, but I think ended up being a great way to balance and get different perspectives on the coursework throughout.  I don't think it was the best format for me, but definitely took a lot out of the experience.

I signed up for the BrainStation in-person bootcamp to transition into the UX industry from being a studio artist. I have a background in design and a design degree, which I think helped me in this course. BrainStation would be a good fit for those who need to increase their understanding of Figma, work collaboratively with other designers and data scientists, get familiar with the design process, and build a framework for applying to UX jobs and a portfolio. There is support for graduates after the bootcamp to find and apply to jobs - I am writing this on my last day in bootcamp so to be continued! I really enjoyed going in person and working alongside other students, as well as my very knowledgable educators.

- Overall happy with the skills that I gained from the bootcamp.
- Did not know any code and now I can build a front end website and backend databases. 
- It is a bootcamp and you only scratch the surface because there is so much you can do with coding. Would have appreciated more time practicing concepts rather spending each week focused on projects.  

The comprehensive curriculum covers all facets of data, offering a deep understanding of the various career paths available in the field. It is designed to set you up for success following your bootcamp experience.

I did the 12 week online SWE bootcamp. Lecture hours vary, and some lecturers pace better than others. Overall the learning experience was great, and I enjoyed the projects, which is good because that's all they have to offer. The career services team is garbage, and the whole '3000 hiring partners' is just 100% bs. A phrase like that paints a picture of some kind of pipeline that funnels talent into the market, but it doesn't exist, and they will be VERY evasive if you ask any questions about what that means. The Manager of Educational Experience has twice offered a 1 on 1 meeting and not followed through, even after I emailed them directly. It's not their fault the job market is terrible, but they could be a lot better about just not misleading students/ candidates. 

The course is a fast paced general introduction to topics like databases and tableau. Instructors are very helpful.
I had zero knowledge with databases or tableau, it helped me
To understand some
Basics at a high level, but I feel I still have a lot more to learn

The class was very back and forth with the instructor to get insight into the day-to-day as well as the fundamentals of product management. Brainstation has tons of events to be informed by working professionals in the industry. 

BrainStation is not a school, it is a business. They do not care about education. The first two weeks they order food for you, make everything sound like its going to be a good experience and that you are meant to be in their program, then after that... the "teachers" which are not industry lead as they claim are always leaving the class room, they go through power point slides just reading them not explaining them nor allowing you to take down notes. Everything they give you as resources you can't take photos of, take home and etc because apparently they have "confidential" material. Most of the time, you get redirected to the teacher assistance which is usually a student that just freshly graduated the previous cohort. so therefore they are also struggling to help you because they are new to it as well. When different companies came out to give us pep talks and tell us about what they do in their current role, BrainStation is all about taking photos, having everyone pose in front of back drops and what not. This contributes to their "look". Their curriculums are not even up-to-date with the industry and they state that a couple times throughout the program.They charge 17k for their in person bootcamp that to be honest off of my experience is not worth a penny. They do have scholarships which is how I attended BrainStation and I feel bad for the scholars who provided BrainStation with the money because they got scammed. Not only myself, but many students felt this way. BrainStation tries to cover it up and have us not speak our mind on our program by trying to convince us that they help us find jobs but in reality it's checking in on how many jobs you have applied to and telling you to switch up your resume 100 times to see what sticks. BrainStation should really be looked into by their scholars because it's a SCAM. Please, please do not waste your money here or your time. Take a look at other programs.

I met amazing and intelligent people while learning useful material that I can implement in my job. This course was so valuable. I highly recommend BrainStation to anyone who is looking to change careers or grow in their current one.

Brainstation provided a great learning environment and sense of community. The instructors chosen for the course I took were great and very insightful. The location is pretty cool! It's located in a popular area in Miami called Wynwood, and it's next to a great bar that you can go to after class. 

I liked the teachers on the course and the only bad aspeacts is the final project, I think they should have a recess of 1 week at least before the final date of the project, just so people could invest more time, also I think they should invest more time going through Figma and explaining some basic things that can really make you above average, or making you step up in comparison to beginners on this tool. 

I knew what I was looking for when I joined, which was to have a 1:1 opportunity to learn from an instructor that has real industry experience in the companies I am interested in. The course is well structured, but I would highly recommend to pre-study or come in with some initial experience and knowledge about the field. Amazing booster for those in related field, but if someone is about to learn about UX/UI solely on this course, it could be hard to keep up. Works well for people who are are looking to build or add a finishing touch to their portfolio in my opinion!

The course was good overall, I learned a lot. I do wish that it was a little bit less fast paced so we could focus on and learn certain concepts properly but it is a bootcamp in the end.

One thing I wish was different was the assignment deadlines, it would be better if assignments were do Monday or Tuesday evenings that way students can ask for help on Monday/Tuesday during open studio as most of the work is done on the weekends so if you get stuck you have nowhere to turn.

An issue that happened a few times here and there was that sometimes you couldn't get help during open studio because too many people had questions so all the TA's where helping others and you end up not getting the assistance you need so best to ask questions earlier rather than later (Friday's before an assignment is do are probably the busiest open studio days).

Attending this software engineering bootcamp from BrainStation has been a transformative experience for me. From day one, the instructors were not only knowledgeable but also incredibly supportive, ensuring that each concept was thoroughly understood before moving on. The curriculum was comprehensive, covering a wide range of topics from the basics of programming to more advanced software development techniques. What set this bootcamp apart was its emphasis on hands-on learning; the projects we completed were challenging yet rewarding, providing real-world experience that I believe will be invaluable in my future career. Overall, I would highly recommend this bootcamp to anyone looking to transition their career into the field of software engineering. It's hard work, but the skills and confidence you gain are well worth the effort.

Currently still in the program. It is very fast. I would heavily suggest studying some JavaScript before start this course. I would say based on your knowledge of programming languages and computer logic will help you decide whether you’re ready for a bootcamp. It requires me more than a full time job to keep up with this program. But I learned a lot in such a short period of time. 

This course was pretty intense and moved very quickly, you often only received feedback required for the project a couple days before it was due. It's not necessarily a negative aspect of the program - I do feel like it has helped me learn to pivot and deliver quickly, which is really valuable in this field - but something that was at times very frustrating and something to keep in mind if you're considering this bootcamp and wondering what the workload looks like. 
There was a good amount of student support from the educators and TAs, they were all very willing to talk on zoom or slack. I feel like guidance from the education team could have been a bit ... tougher? There were some general conversations about 'the reality' of the field/workplace and some difficulties we'll most likely encounter, but I feel like for the sake of being encouraging there were some missed opportunities for some feedback and direction that maybe would be tough to hear, but would be extremely valuable for people trying to break into job market. 
Every now and then, they'd hit us with a "You aren't really going to ever need in this in the real world, but today we're learning about...." which would immediately make half the class shut their brains off. I wish they'd either leave those topics out of the curriculum, or be super clear about why it's still important to know, because with so much on your plate, you stop giving time to anything that doesn't feel relevant to the project you're working on that week. 
For the major projects, like the hackathons and capstone---- I think they were all super valuable experiences, especially the cross-disciplinary industry project. Learning to work on a team in this specific setting, learning how to iterate and deliver quickly, and learning how to talk about your work are all incredibly important to being a professional software engineer. 
That said, something I think they could do better with the capstone would be to let students push it further. There are some requirements that are pretty basic, but because of that, also very limiting. You also essentially have to come up with your own product, which isn't something I'm interested in and isn't very relevant to a lot of software engineering careers. I would have much rather pushed myself to go beyond the basics we had learned to try something that would have been challenging but also more relevant to what I want to do as a software engineer that wasn't limited to the front-end focused curriculum. You're also limited to working with languages and tech that the TAs and educators are familiar with, which was a little disappointing.
All in all, my final thoughts are: This is program focuses mostly on front-end work, some back-end, and not a *whole* lot past the basics, but you *will* learn the basics pretty well. It's real value lies in the team projects, the cross-collaboration with the other schools (UX and Data Science), and the network you're a part of when you graduate. I think you can learn a lot about deadlines and time management, working with others under pressure, and how you deal with frustration as a professional. You're probably not going to come out a whizkid genius coder, but you'll probably be a better learner in general.

I really enjoyed this course.  The support from everyone was great. It was very fast paced for me and I would encourage asking questions and reaching out. They provide a lot of helpful resources for course work. All of the workers were kind throughout my journey and encourages me to move forward. 

The instructors in the Data Science Bootcamp are great, they truly understand that people do the bootcamp to get a job and relate the lessons to industry specific practices. It’s a great way to learn a lot and know how to apply what you learnt in real world applications.