CareerFoundry

I've been enrolled with CareerFoundry for the last three months, and it's been a life-changing experience. I've wanted to make a career change for years, but time and financial constraints have always held me back. I'm so glad I decided to take the plunge with CareerFoundry. Their curriculum, support, guidance, and resources have given me such confidence in what I do now and what I hope to do in the future as a designer. I can't wait to see what the future holds!  Read less

The course is comprehensive. It is laid out in a way that helps a newbie like me build a foundation and eventually become a pro with practice and hands-on coursework. The best part is my tutor Leon who goes through your homework in detail. The mentor is also helpful until he left the company mid-way, and I had to start the mentorship with another person. There is a slack support network which is good when I have questions and need help doing research and testing. One thing I would pick on is to allow more leeway and time to finish the course. The course must be finished within a year, but for a first-time working mom like me, it’s impossible to complete it on time. To extend the programme, I must pay a hefty extension fee after I have used up the free extension period. I would appreciate it if the extension fee was not so expensive. Read less

Careerfoundry course hasn't felt like a bootcamp. It is really good information and the courses are fun and interactive making it easy to want to learn! When I first started the course I was unsure if I would be comfortable doing this course online and sort of "self taught" but with the support of my tutor, mentor and other student, I have adjusted and really do enjoy the program! I get excited to work on my tasks, submit them and hear back from my tutor with his opinions! I also love that my tutor is in the field I want to go into. He gives me insight to how I will utilize these skills in the real world! Read less

 Even though I have already worked with data and developed Power BI dashboards, the course is valuable since visualization is an integral part of the Data Analytics process, but you need to execute other steps, previously and after.
·        It is appropriate for someone who is not an expert in Excel. A specific module is dedicated to it, and you will learn how to make grouping and summarizations (among other valuable functionalities).
·        It indeed provides you with the basic concepts of Data Analytics that are the foundation for the next steps in this journey.
·        I would say it is a practical, self-guided and tutor-supported virtual course that will give you a better understanding of the world of Data Analytics. Read less

I came into this program with little knowledge about UX Design and I can say that I've learned so much from this bootcamp already. I'm 75% done and I find it valuable that this bootcamp is self-paced as I have a job on the side. This course does a great job with lectures, providing real-life examples, and useful resources. I especially find it valuable that there is a tutor and mentor assigned to students from the start to the end. Read less

The Full-Stack Web Development Program is great for beginners and people with no prior knowledge or experience with coding. I have learned so much within the past few months, and my tutor/mentor have been very helpful throughout the process. I love that the course is completely self-paced, which is great for people that need the flexibility and a program that can accommodate their schedule. Read less

I did a lot of research into various boot camps before deciding to enroll in CareerFoundry. What I really value as a student is how the coursework is laid out: not overwhelming, spaced out property, and builds on itself. I started with limited UX knowledge and the lessons started out with very basic (yet helpful) information. Then it gradually dived deep into UX. I never felt lost nor overwhelmed. My tutor is fantastic and provided quick feedback on my assignments. My mentor has provided with some steps I can take to reach my goals as well. Overall, CareerFkubdry has exceeded my expectations. I work full time and am able to balance the school work just fine. Read less

I have thoroughly enjoyed my UX bootcamp through CareerFoundry. I was paired with a mentor who had 20+ years of experience in the field, and she provided invaluable feedback on my projects. After finishing my program, I feel that I am well-prepared for a career in UX. The UI specialization has deepened my skills and better prepared my portfolio. The CF Slack community is also very helpful and there are many job opportunities posted as well!  Read less

I am near graduation in this Bootcamp. Honestly, to say, I am very disappointed. Of course, not everything is too bad, so I will also list the advantages of doing this course.
- The curriculum for Data Analyst is well beyond the standard. You do not learn even the basics of Statistics. Regarding learning the core course, they do not focus on teaching you algorithms - essential for learning programming languages, like Python and SQL. You need to teach yourself on another website to learn something properly. If you want to learn SQL and Python, Pandas, for real, you need to get help from other sources.
- Another issue is teaching Excel and Tableau. The learning is very superficial, you cannot learn well Excel and Tableau. There is a lack of videos and even descriptive material for you. You need every time to watch youtube for learning something important.
I guess there is a lack of videos because they want to save storage space in their cloud server...

- Mentors: In a technical aspect they are good - however, one of my mentors seems to lack of understanding technical skills. Despite this, they are not too bad. The only problem regarding mentors is, that you maybe need to wait a lot to let them to answers your messages. I found out that they only answer fast to you when you submit an exercise. If you just write a message to their mailbox, you can wait for about a week to receive an answer. I guess they have an internal indicator regarding this. So every time I need a fast answer, I just post a new answer to an exercise.

However, they have advantages: Since they have everything on the internet, you can do this course at your pace. This is a good advantage when you do not have time to be in a Bootcamp (or you can't because you work or you need to attend classes)
They also focus a lot on presentations. This in fact their strong point. The feedback regarding the presentations is also good, so I guess their focus on this helps you to communicate your results to stakeholders. However, sometimes they focus too much on convincing you to make PowerPoint presentations and you start to wonder if it is useful for a Data Analyst to make them all the time. 

I guess this is because they seem to be very strong in UX design courses - it seems to be their core competence - but I guess the person who designed the Data Analytic course does not understand the daily tasks of a Data Analyst course or just understands about UX design. I am saying this because even portfolio examples are only focused on UX design - there are poor portfolio examples as a Data Analyst.

Finally, regarding the job preparation course. If you are in Europe, you can have trouble - the focus in doing your resume, for example, are much more regarding a Marketing piece, like the resumes in the USA (and maybe to a startup in Berlin) than the Eu standard. So, if you are in the USA (or Berlin) you won#t have any problem. However, resumes in the EU have their own standards, and this can lead you to be ditched if you have just made a boot camp rather than a Master's or training in informatics (or Math, in the case of Data Analyst)
Another problem in the Job preparation course is the lack of training regarding you to answer technical questions. Does everyone know that in such a technical role as a Data Analyst employers question you some technical questions (for Ex. What is descriptive Statistics? what is the variance mean? what is a string? and so on). Since there is a lack of training on this, you need to look on the internet to see questions regarding this matter. Some employers even let you make a test in code (sometimes Excel, Tableau or SQL, Python). Since everyone seems to have a good portfolio on Github and Linkedin, a lot of good companies before hiring you allow you to make a test first. The course does not give you a clue on this. But they focus on you to build your portfolio (even if you do a Data Analytics course) I guess this is because of their focus on UX design. For sure they marketing someone who was hired by a good company, but remember, this can be in another country (not in Germany, for example). Sometimes this person was hired because he already had good technical skills, so just need to remember that. 

Summing up, I guess you can do this course if:

- Do not have time to attend a Bootcamp
- you just need to improve your skill in your job
- you know the basics of programming and Statistics and math
- You finished your Informatics Masters and need to polish your skills
- you do not have much money to attend a Bootcamp.
- you have no clue on how to advance your career as a Data Analyst, despite having a good technical background
- you want to be a UX designer ( I guess they are really strong on this)

However, do NOT attend this course if:

- You never programmed before
- you do not desire to be a UX designer
- you lack technical aspects of IT 
- you do not have good Math or algorithm background
- you are not comfortable or good as a storyteller
- you need to find a job in the new career fast
- you are not confident in Excel or Tableau

This is my experience. For sure this is not a too bad course; they just need to update it. If they had more videos on technical topics, I guess this could be an excellent course (better than a lot of boot camps that exist in the world)
Remember though, that despite the market is in need of a lot of Data Analysts, the market is saturated with fresher boot campers who know nothing about anything. This can even be a problem in your resume. 
 





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I have completed half of the course and I am not satisfied. Although the subject is difficult and requires a lot of study, I feel that through YouTube tutorials I am able to understand better. It is a lot of money that one invests in the program to be constantly requiring external sources to understand the subject matter. I don't think that at the end of this program I will be prepared to find a job with the skills I have gained. At least from my personal experience, this is not the best way for me to understand and learn the subject matter.  Read less

CareerFoundry's Full Stack Web Dev course is well thought-out and walks you through understanding and utilizing some of the popular and in-demand technologies. The lessons do need to be updated a slight bit to adjust to the changes in more recent updates to said technologies, but they give you a good feel for each of them regardless. But what I appreciate the most is the amount of support you get from the mentor and tutor they assign to you. If you get stuck, you can always reach out to your tutor for help to get you unstuck. The career assistance is optional, but I would greatly recommend opting in to make the most of what CareerFoundry can give you. You would be given a career advisor and you would walk through some tasks to help you prepare for that job hunt after you're done with the technical learning.

All in all, I feel like I have learned a lot more than what I would have if I had studied most of these on my own. I would recommend this course, though I would first get a feel for some of the basics in HTML, CSS and a little bit of JavaScript to get a good start in the course. Read less