BrainStation

Great experience at BrainStation - my lead educator was wonderful but unfortunately, he did not give many lectures. Lectures were often given by Associate Educators and while some of them were knowledgeable, others just would read off of powerpoints which we can obviously do ourselves. I liked the hands-on approach and the fact that we did labs to learn how to apply certain skills. I was disappointed at times when the educators told us to teach elements ourselves, for example, the design tool Figma by suggesting we watch YouTube videos. At the cost of this program, I would expect it to cover every inch of the UX design process, without suggesting we look at external resources constantly. I think the value does not match the cost, but overall it taught me a lot in a short time span and led my employer to recruit me, allowing me to secure a job post-graduate in less than a month. They have a great network with employers and many employers in the Toronto area specifically look for BS grads.

Intro to Python programming

TDLR: Take a look at the instructor's list before you get into the program. 

Firstly, if you think Bootcamps will change your life, they will NOT. You have to change your own life, you must put in the work and effort.  That being said, you sometimes need the right nudge, sometimes you might just want to see how far you can go. If that's what you are looking for, go do a Bootcamp. And if Daniil and Michael are your instructors, go for Brainstation. There are other great instructors, and you might make connections with them, but for me, it was those two people who made my time at Brainstation worthwhile. And if your cohort is as amazing as mine you will make some friends for life. No, not just friends. Some amazingly talented friends.

I cannot say I was too happy with the curriculum, but that was because I already knew most of them, which might not be the same in your case, most of my other friends were pretty happy with it.

Almost all my friends from my cohort got a job, but it was not really because we got job assistance. We had to do all the work, make connections via LinkedIn, talk to people, etc. I don't think I ever got any referral from Brainstation. But it was very important for me to learn how to polish my Linkedin, resume, etc, and Brainstation's support for that was spot on. Especially, Lindsay, she is amazing and very supportive.

Overall, if you are looking for a good Bootcamp, where you can get as long as 24 months to pay off your tuition, Brainstation is definitely where you should go.

My entire BrainStation experience was amazing from start to finish. The most supportive learning environment where you will make amazing connections that will undoubtedly help as you move forward with your career transition. If you are prepared to put the work in and really want to be successful, there really is nothing to stop you - you will be encouraged and supported throughout whilst receiving all the help you can imagine to make your eventual job search successful. Cannot recommend it enough.  

I started my web development bootcamp at BrainStation when I was lost in the world of too many information, too many reading materials and too many suggestions to become a developer!!! I couldn't follow one direction and most importantly, I didn't know how to proceed. In this scenario, BrainStation helped me with a strong curriculum which is very up-to-date and after graduation, I was able to call myself a developer!!! The instructors and TAs are amazing. They will always impress you by their dedication. Getting into BrainStation was the best decision that I've made in recent years. 
One suggestion: I found that having some basic knowledge in the program content will lead to a more successful completion. Because, the time is short and they cover a lot of materials. And be prepared to work SUPER hard to graduate. 

A 3 month comprehensive Digital Marketing Course

I wrestled with the decision of going to BrainStation for nearly a decade it seems. I was in the restaurant industry for the majority of my adult years, and kept deciding that change was hard, and continuing what I was doing was easy. So I decided against it until around October 2020 when I looked into the program one last time.

You don't need to have a degree in CompSci to be successful in this camp and get a job! You need to be interested in coding and its languages, thinking differently, the web, computers and self-improvement.

I took the bootcamp in Jan 2021, and graduated 3 months later in April. It's rare that you'll walk out of the program and straight into your new office as a developer. But it's not rare to begin job hunting and applying after you graduate, get some interviews a few weeks to a month later, win some, lose some, then get your first job in the industry another month or so after that. Which is exactly what happened to me! 

Don't get me wrong, the bootcamp is difficult. 

Why wouldn't it be when you're trying to jumpstart a career in a completely unknown space. A small number of people dropped off along the way for various reasons, sometimes personal, but the majority of us went through a grind together, pushed each other, made some great friends and are better people having made it through to the other side.

The instructors we had were incredible, all of them were different with their own strengths, but all shared a passion for what they were teaching us and so genuinely wanted every one of us to learn and succeed. Huge thank you and shout out to all of them (Nolan, Daniil, Mike and Anvit) and our TA's (Maggie, Cleo and Jimmy)

There's a great feeling at the end of the program and we're presenting our final App, where you see the pride rolling in from the instructors and fellow classmates, where you breathe this sigh of relief and look back at what you didn't know, and what you now know and just built with it. It's hard to believe until you do it.

I couldn't be happier, going from a dying restaurant industry, to one I've been literally only daydreaming about for years. 

It changed my life going to BrainStation and if you sound anything like me, I'd try to make it happen however you can :)

I already went to school for computer programming before I went to BrainStation. Going in, I wanted to mainly learn new and better practices. I didn’t expect to learn many new programming topics or techniques. Oh boy was I wrong. They taught me way more than I thought I already learned and got me to a know new level of programming that I wasn’t at before. I went back to all of my old projects and updated my code with these new things I’ve learned from BrainStation. 

I decided to engage with BrainStation a few years ago when I visited the Vancouver campus; I left the building impressed by the environment and the overall education program.
This past July, I started the User Experience Design course. I had the opportunity to learn under the instruction of  Shigeo Katsura-Gordon, who has an amazing background and made the learning experience pretty enjoyable. 
I would recommend BrainStation for anyone who wants to learn a new skill or reinforce an existing one. 

Great course, would definitely recommend it to learn or brush up your data fundamentals! The instructor was clearly quite experienced, and was very friendly and willing to help. 

The curriculum was well structured with several take home (self-learn) assignments that were helpful to practise what we learnt in the lectures. There was also a team data project at the end of the course which was a good opportunity to apply new concepts and present it as well.

I took Digital Marketing and Search Engine Marketing through BrainStation to help pivot my previous career. In the end, I was very satisfied with the takeaways of both these courses. The instructors were terrific, and I was fortunate to have Scott Gabdullin, who was not only great but excellent at delivering the material. He was very knowledgeable about the topics at hand, highly engaged with the class and took the time to ensure students understood the course lessons.

Was it worth taking both courses? Yes, I would recommend it if you want to make the switch into the Digital Marketing world. You scrape the Surface of SEM/SEO in the Digital Marketing course while learning how to effectively bringing other digital marketing channels together to create a high-level digital strategy. While in the Search Engine Marketing course, it allows you to dig in deeper and further learn how to apply the SEM/SEO material that you took away from the Digital Marketing Course. There is some overlap, but I didn't see that as a bad thing, as it was a quick refresher of some simple basics so you can focus on other areas of SEO/SEM to gain much more understanding. 

I can say that after been involved within the Hospitality industry for the last 15 years, I'm confident in pursuing new opportunities within Digital Marketing, knowing the amount I do. I'm fortunate that I had Scott for both courses and Haeri with him in SEM. A dynamic Duo! 

Either way, if you are thinking about either course, they were both informative and I recommend them! 

I learned new design experiences, as well as how to use Figma and familiarity with the design of the phone environment

I really enjoyed this course! I come from a design background (Industrial and Set Design) and have been transitioning into UI/UX slowly but surely over the last two years. I think most folks in UI/UX have transitioned from some other industry or job title, I would say this is the perfect course to give people the knowledge they need without having to go into the job blindly and learning everything as you go. I will say it's hard to say if the job assistance category is relevant here because I simply don't know yet if the course will boost my odds of getting a job in UI/UX, and the job assistance is lacking as far as I know since it isn't really a post-secondary institution and I suppose that isn't their purpose. Also, I don't love their website or the communication method since everything is online right now; it's difficult to keep track of Synapse, Slack, and general BrainStation events, so keep that in mind if you aren't good at checking all your social channels.

The course was overall excellent. While I did not get to choose the dataset and project subject, the project chosen by the teacher enabled me to learn the content well. From learning python basics to learning how to manipulate a dataframe to learning how to pull data into a numerical model, this course provided ample valuable information.

As a project manager this course was good in reiterating the importance of empathetic storytelling in the product development process. It linked this through strategy, design and developement. The facilitator was awesome. 

Really loved this course! Gave me a lot insight in adopting PM tasks within my current role in hopes of pivoting later in my career. 100% recommend to anyone who is even mildly interested.

I found the instructors really helpful and valuable, as they brought in their real-life career work to show day-to-day applicability of concepts. Furthermore, they promptly answered all questions and shared useful tools and resources.

I took part time Data Analytics and Data Science course with BrainStation in quick succession. I found both the courses very helpful and well designed. They have industry experts as their instructors who can guide you with the best practices in the industry. 

I completed a 3 month UX design diploma course from BrainStation and landed a job in less than 40 days after completion. Reasons for picking BSTN -
1. Excellent team of industry experienced educators and TAs
2. Excellent career support services right from day 1 of the course to beyond.
3. Very wholesome and well rounded course structure. It involves the actual course material as well as professional development, networking and cross-fuctional team interactions. 
4. Intense but very rewarding portfolio by the end of the course with at least 3-4 portfolio pieces 
5. Excellent in depth feedback for all course exercises. 

I could not recommend BSTN enough and so glad I picked it over some others. 

I got exactly what they promised, the tools to set me up for a career in tech.