Co.Lab Reviews
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Tyler
Good program and you get what you put in
I joined Co.Lab as a designer for a cohort earlier this year. While there were difficulties with my team, Sefunmi and Helen were both incredibly supportive, understanding and helpful in getting a great value out of my time. For those looking for a real-world project to put in their portfolio while they look to break into tech, I definitely recommend Co.Lab as an experience.Helen Huang of Co.Lab
Co-Founder
Jan 20, 2023
Hello Tyler,
Thank you for sharing your Co.Lab experience! Just like in a real-work setup, teams face unexpected difficulties all the time. The program then helps you understand the nuances of working with others, especially with a cross-disciplinary team.
And you were able to go above and beyond that! You were great.
You Belong in Tech! ✨
Helen -
Blake
My Co.Lab experience landed me my first role in tech!
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Co.Lab’s 8-week intensive gave me the “real-world” experience I needed to get hired in my first role as a full-time developer. From start to finish, you’re immersed in fast-paced development, learning vital tech tools and workflows from mentors, while growing your network with other aspiring techies around the world. I would definitely recommend to anyone switching into a career in tech, Co.Lab will set you apart!Helen of Co.Lab
Co-Founder
Jan 18, 2023
Hello Blake,
Thank you so much for the program recommendation!
We have always envisioned Co.Lab to be a place where career shifters can get not only the technical know-hows to succeed in tech, but also the community support to push through with the job hunting process. Our team is really happy that you thought of your program experience positively.
Good luck!
You Belong in Tech ✨
Helen -
Victoria
Great experience!
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I wanted to get some cross functional team experience and this was exactly what I needed! Working as the sole product designer on the team helped me understand better how to communicate and collaborate with developers and the product manager. Within 8 weeks, we were challenged to create an MVP. Our mentor was kind and helpful in guiding us along the way. This opportunity contributed to the skills I needed to land my first official UX design role and I’m super grateful to Co.lab!Helen of Co.Lab
Co-Founder
Jan 18, 2023
Hello Victoria,
We're also grateful to you for trusting and allowing us to be part of your tech journey! One of our key differentiators as a program is our network of pre-vetted, hands-on mentors who are also expert industry professionals. We're so happy that you found your mentor kind and helpful!
You Belong in Tech ✨
Helen -
Alex
Product Manager Hands-on Experience
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Wondering how to crack the "chicken or the egg" problem of breaking into PM without previous PM experience? Co.lab is the way to get that hands-on experience. As someone trying to break into product management from a non-traditional background (dentist), Co.Lab was a game-changer for me.
During my interview process, I relied heavily on my project and my experience with Co.Lab to reshape my narrative from that of a dentist to that of a PM.
Another plus is the community and network of other Co.Laborators you get to join. Everyone is so supportive of one another and is a great resource to have in itself.
Highly recommend.Helen of Co.Lab
Co-Founder
Jan 18, 2023
Hello Alex,
Thank you for the positive review! It's great to know that the Co.Lab program was able to solve the 'Catch-22' problem for you, especially as a career shifter.
Here's to hoping to more successful interviews!
You Belong in Tech ✨
Helen -
Kristelle
Product Manager
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Co.Lab was a great experience for me to test not only my skills as a product manager, but also my PM personality and how I would engage with a team. Giving me an opportunity to work with a global, cross-functional team was an invaluable gem that I was able to take with me wherever I went. The courses are insightful, the instructors were passionate, and both the process and the outcome was rewarding.Helen of Co.Lab
Co-Founder
Jan 18, 2023
Hello Kristelle,
Congratulations on completing the program!
We're elated to know that the Co.Lab program successfully served as a platform for you to safely learn about the roles and responsibilities that go along with being a Product Manager.
Best of luck!
You Belong in Tech ✨
Helen -
Masih
Amazing
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At Co.Lab I worked with a talented cross-functional team to build a product from the ground up! I owned my role as a software developer and jumped right into gaining real-life experience in tech.
Co.Lab seemed like a dream to me, before I joined it was like it sounds too good to be true! it was!
I'm so glad I invested in myself by joining CoLab and working with such a fantastic team!
Our mentor, kept track of our progress each week and attempted to assist us. On the other side the Co.Lab support team has been quite helpful in guiding and assisting me.
I highly recommend the Co.LabHelen of Co.Lab
Co-Founder
Jan 18, 2023
Hello Masih,
You were also absolutely amazing! Quite glad that the program brought about so many learnings not only for you and your team.
Congrats again on landing your dev role!
You Belong in Tech ✨
Helen -
Usra Abid
Great for bootcamp grads!
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As someone who received their background in tech through a coding boot camp, upon graduation one of my main goals was to gain experience in the tech industry through developing new products. During my time at Co.Lab, I was able to partake in and witness both the rudimentary and final stages of developers, product managers, and designers all working together to assemble a product right up until its shipment. Moreover, Co.Lab provides you with the opportunity to strengthen both your networking and heuristic skills through events and workshops that are geared toward giving you a greater understanding of the tech industry in itself. To provide you with the utmost experience the program even facilitates its very own demo day where you get to showcase your product to judges from many companies and receive valuable feedback on your work. Overall, Co.Lab, is a great transitional program especially for people who just got out of bootcamp or those who have some coding skills, that want to have experience working in a multidisciplinary team before getting a job in tech.Helen Huang of Co.Lab
Co-Founder
Jan 20, 2023
Hello Usra,
Thanks for sharing! Our team appreciates your kind words.
You Belong in Tech! ✨
Helen -
Pamela Singh
Co.Lab
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I learned more in Co.Lab than my entire 4 years in college. Learning by doing isn't just a cute catchphrase but a very important part of this program that Co.Lab teaches you. I learned more from doing, taking risks, and trying my hardest which has an amazing community that supports you along your journey. I never thought I would develop friendships, meet a group of amazing people who care about your journey, and most importantly not being afraid of learning something new.Helen of Co.Lab
Co-Founder
Jan 18, 2023
Hello Pamela,
Thanks a lot for the high praises! At Co.Lab, we believe that 'learning by doing' is the best way to facilitate learning. Not only does it put context on the skills that you're putting around your best, it also teaches you how to reach out to other people and develop the necessary soft skills to become a well-equipped techie.
Greatly looking forward to your future successes!
You Belong in Tech ✨
Helen -
Fnane Berhane
Product Manager
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As someone looking to gain practical Product management experience Co.Lab was the perfect program. I got to build a cool product, work with actual designers/devs, and really felt validated by current PMs in tech. Co.Lab gave me the assurance I needed to know product management is something I could do. It's even helped me land multiple interviews with Co.Lab being my only PM experience. For anyone trying to break into product I highly recommend Co.Lab!Helen Huang of Co.Lab
Co-Founder
Jan 20, 2023
Hello Fnane,
Congratulations on landing multiple Product Management interviews!
We're happy that our program's community support and mentorship made a huge difference in your tech journey.
You Belong in Tech! ✨
Helen -
Adil R.
A community dedicated to your success
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It is difficult to describe the Co. Lab experience except that it is a community dedicated to helping you achieve your goals. The curriculum itself was very well thought out and staged so that as a PM you could discover a problem and validate that it was a problem and then when paired up with your team (a designer and developer) you were able to create solutions and get an MVP ready. The program was full of mentors from Big Tech to Startups (even a Rocketship!) and they were available any time (literally) to give you feedback and guidance. The fun didn't end with demo day, where we were able to present in front of industry professionals but continues until today where the support to find jobs and continue our projects is also available.Helen Huang of Co.Lab
Co-Founder
Jan 20, 2023
Hello Adil,
Thanks for sharing! One of the most debilitating problems me and my Co-Founder, Sefunmi, had experienced when breaking into tech was the lack of community support.
Finding a job in a hypercompetitive industry like tech can be challenging, if not outright scary. That is why we built Co.Lab: to form a community of aspiring techies so that they may leverage each other and find support no matter where they are in the job hunting process. It's gratifying to know that you share the sentiment!
You Belong in Tech! ✨
Helen -
Anonymous
Great program for hands on experience with cross-functional team
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I was a dev during the 8-week program and I had never worked with a product manager or designer before, but it was very interesting to see what they prioritized and to navigate communication with the whole team to refine and ultimately deliver on our product vision. Co.Lab managers gave week-by-week deadlines that gave time at the beginning for ideation and design, and started requesting coded prototypes by week 4. The product is very open-ended and I believe the pace and difficulty is ultimately decided by what product your team decides on.
Pros: - Hands on experience walking through the process of creating and delivering a product- I learned a lot of terminology around products from the worlds of product management and design.- confidence that I can learn new tech and use them to make something impressiveCons: - Our mentor mostly only checked in with the product manager unless you reached out first.- not a lot of job support or career coaching if that's what you are mainly here for.- only 3 teams are chosen to present at the end of the 8 weeks, out of a cohort with ~15 teams. -
Anonymous
Informative, Innovative, Inspiring
The Co.Lab Product Management SPRINT program was a very unique and valuable experience. I was able to learn a lot in just four weeks and got insightful feedback from an industry professional on my work. I really loved the community Co.Lab built between students, mentors and everyone on the Co.Lab team. -
Anonymous
Great Program Experience
Co.Lab was a great. It gave me real world experience that I was looking for so that I could put it on a resume. Our team was all focused on the goal and we could create, design and build a great website. Our mentor had so much knowledge and I was able to gain a ton of great information from him. Highly recommend! -
Anonymous
A career boosting experience
I've got so many job offers as a product designer after my role at Co.Lab. The experience has really boosted my resume and also helped me in interviews. I would recommend co.lab to anyone looking to start their career/boost their career in product design. -
Anonymous
Would Not Recommend
Read more Read less of Anonymous's review
A course that tries to build a product in 8 weeks. Heavily geared towards Product Managers and Designers leaving developers in the dust. As a developer, you are joining to build out substandard products purely based on what the product manager decides. As a result more than half the projects do not reach anything that looks like a working site as devs drop out, which is normal as it is hard to build something for someone else AND pay for the privilege. You can get that experience anywhere. Mentors are great but most likely not a dev (again this is for PM's and Designers).
They understand this issue though as they are starting to develop a program that doesn't advertise a built product and developers at all. That program will probably find more success than this.Helen of Co.Lab
Co-Founder
Jan 17, 2023
Hello,
First off, thanks a lot for sharing your honest feedback. We apologize that we weren't able to provide your expected learning experience, and definitely promise to do better in the future cohorts.
Since our aim is to simulate a real-work, cross-functional experience, the challenges that plague real teams also naturally exist in our program setup. These are frustrations that we intentionally facilitate in hopes of our students learning how to deal with them as they come, and eventually winning over. We are in the utmost belief that these experiences are valuable because it affords our students a safe space to explore the uncertainties of the workplace with guardrail support.
However, there's definitely areas for improvement. And that's why your feedback is very important to us as we try to pivot, optimize, and plan for the next iterations of programming.
We'd love to discuss more about your experience and learn what we can do better as a team moving forward. You can reach me directly at helen@joincolab.io if you'd like to share more.
Either way, you belong in tech and thank you again!
Helen. -
Anonymous
Designer
The experience was amazing! I gained my experience working in a cross-functional team, including two developers and a project manager. I would recommend this program to those who want to gain real-world project experience.Helen Huang of Co.Lab
Co-Founder
Jan 20, 2023
Hello there,
Thanks for your sharing Co.Lab program experience.
You Belong in Tech! ✨
Helen -
Anonymous
Product Management Track
It teams you up with a team of 2 devs, 1 PM, 1 designer to create a MVPHelen of Co.Lab
Co-Founder
Jan 18, 2023
Hello,
Thanks for the review!
You Belong in Tech ✨
Helen