CareerFoundry

I'm taking the full UX course which includes an intro course, an Immersion course and a specialization course. I love how much they focus on the design process and drilling it in. I also love that you come out with multiple projects for your portfolio. 

Some more things I love:

• Lots of mentorship 
• Video calls with mentors
• Lots of freedom to design your own way
• Constructive criticism 

Things I Don't love:

• It can be hard to talk to student services if you have a problem with a mentor or tutor. They only communicate via email and it can be hard to explain your whole situation and be understood. But they are doing their best to help
• The first project is only up to the first wireframes. So you need to take extra time to make it portfolio ready
• I feel they lack some extra resources they do provide some with the instruction but I find myself having to find my own resources for extra learning as theirs aren't always helpful or relevant. 

Overall, the course is a good bang for your buck and I'd reccomend it. 

I recently completed my UX design course with Careerfoundry (Get a 5% discount) and, I would like to share the answer to the 5 critical questions that I was looking for before I enrolled in the course. 

• DO YOU NEED A BACKGROUND IN DESIGN TO DO THIS COURSE?

• IS THIS COURSE WORTH SUCH INVESTMENT OF MONEY?

• HOW IS THE COURSE IN PRACTICE? 

• HOW’S THE MENTOR AND TUTOR SUPPORTING YOU?

• WHAT IS THE REAL ADVANTAGE OF DOING A COURSE WITH A JOB GUARANTEE?

 

DO YOU NEED A BACKGROUND IN DESIGN TO DO THIS COURSE

Before enrolling in the UX design course with Careerfoundry I was able to complete a bachelor’s degree in Digital media, so I had a good foundation in design. However, I agree with Careerfoundry when they state on their website that you don’t need to have any background in design to do this course as they will teach you all the process from the beginning. The first part of the course is a very introductory project to allow you to get the foundation on UX design.

What I, personally, feel is required is, generally, a good knowledge of using the computer and software, even if they are not design related. You will need to be ready to learn all the software that you will need to use during this course on your own. Yes, you can ask for help or support from your tutor and mentor, but learning software is all about practicing by yourself. The good thing is that in most cases, once you become confident with a part of this software, all the rest will get easier to learn. What I feel is more important than a background in design, to complete this course successfully, is to have strong motivation, and the willpower to keep going when you may feel frustrated on some task or won’t feel confident about your knowledge and skills.

 

IS THIS COURSE WORTH SUCH INVESTMENT OF MONEY?

Many people have been asking me why I did not do a free or much cheaper online course. I probably could do it, and I believe that it is possible to start a successful career in UX design also with that type of course. However, I felt that the advantage of having a mentor and a tutor to support me, the warranty of an updated and quality proved curriculum, and the job warranty, have been fundamental in giving me the awareness that I was working in the right direction and, therefore, to keep me motivated until the end of my course. The fear that the course I would be doing may not have been enough to get in the UX job market, alongside the feeling that I could have wasted my time studying a course without many warranties, would most likely have stopped me in the process.

HOW IS THE COURSE IN PRACTICE? 

The three different parts of the course are divided into achievements, where each achievement includes an average of 10 tasks to be completed. The fundamental course includes just one achievement, the immersion 6 achievements, and the UI specializations 2 achievements. Each task is estimated to require an average of 4/5 hours in total to be completed, but a few of them need more time. Each task usually consists of an initial reading that generally requires from 30 to 50 minutes. In support of each reading, you typically receive plenty of additional suggested resources if you wish to get deeper into the topic. After the reading, you have a straightforward quiz that needs to be done. Usually, it requires less than 5 minutes. Finally, you have to do your task for the topic. This can be anything from doing some user research, wireframing, or some exercise to help you understand the fundamentals of UX design. You will also get access to see three of the best tasks submitted by other students as an example, so you will have a more precise understanding of what is required to do in that specific task. Most of the tasks you will be doing will be part of the final project that you will include in your portfolio. Overall, you complete at least one different project for each of these phases. At the end you will come up with at least 3 projects on your final portfolio, which is what matters at the end when it is time to apply for jobs.

HOW’S THE MENTOR AND TUTOR SUPPORTING YOU?

The tutors are usually UX/UI designers with at least a couple of years of experience in the field, while the mentors are typically senior UX designers with plenty of experience. The tutor is the one who will approve all of your tasks and will be ready to assist you in any problem you may face while working on your assignments. This will be done through chat only, where they are usually replying to all of your questions in a few hours.With the mentor, however, the interactions are through video-chat. You have unlimited calls with the mentor, but I don’t think you will need more than once per week. I found myself also going through the course for two or three weeks without needing any call. The mentor will be the one that will approve the final task of each achievement and the one that should help you to orientate in the world of the UX design industry, sharing tips and advice for being successful in this field.

Other than the tutor and mentor, I found the Slack community created by Careerfoundry to be another great source of support. That is the ideal place to get connected with other students that perhaps are working on the same tasks as you. It is very helpful, especially when you may need feedback or collaborations with other people to complete the tasks.

WHAT IS THE REAL ADVANTAGE OF DOING A COURSE WITH A JOB GUARANTEE?

I admit that the job guarantee was one of the main reasons that convinced me to choose the Ux design course with Careerfoundry. This is because it gave me the feeling that I would always have a final winning situation in the end, with either ending up having a job or having done the course for free. Besides being an effective and powerful marketing strategy from the schools, I think the job guarantee is also a great advantage for students who want to enrol in this type of course with the final goal to land a new job. However, from my personal experience, I feel the real purpose and advantage of doing a course with the job guarantee are to give to the students the confidence they are working in the right direction following a solid method that will provide them with the right skills and knowledge to get started to work in the field. Overall this gives a strong motivation and focuses on working till the end of the course. In conclusion, I would suggest students to consider the job guarantee more as a guarantee of the quality of the course, more than a way to have an exit strategy in case they won’t find a job.

Pros

• Job warranty

• Support from great tutor and mentor

• Easy to connect with other students on Slack community

• Final portfolio with 3 projects

• Flexibility to study part-time or full time

Cons

• Expensive

• Studying from home can feel alienating and lonely sometimes.

• You may get a refund from the job warranty but still not have a job

If you think you want to study with Careerfoundry click here to get a 5% discount to any of their courses.

Choosing between different online bootcamps was a difficult process because there are so many, but I'm so beyond happy I went with my gut and chose CareerFoundry's UI Design Program. The curriculum is very well thought out and allows you to build upon your skills along the way, so many resources are given to you so you can really go above and beyond what is required. I also love how flexible the program is, its self paced so you can move as fast as you want through the material and can take days off when needed. The tutors and mentors I've worked with (and really everyone I've met at CareerFoundry) are so unbelievably helpful,  friendly and knowledgeable. They really are there to support and help you and are willing to give you additional time and resources because they are so passionate about the space. I can't say enough great things about CareerFoundry! 

So far I have learned a lot with the courses, but I must admit that it was a very short start and I often feel bored with the assignments. Some of the tasks are tedious and too simple and feel more like busy work than learning anything new. Of course it's understandable since people are at all different skill levels when they start, but the school would benefit maybe a little from being more flexible depending on previous knowledge of the student. Also, the school seems to concentrate only on XD/Sketch, but I think it would be useful for students to learn a little bit of other design software, such as Illustrator or InDesign. 

Also, the majority of the learning process is reading long texts. They recently added a function in which there is audio of the text, but since they used computer AI instead of a real person reading it, there are many many mistakes in the audio. I think, the program would really benefit from switching to a video format. Especially since so much of what we are learning is visual.