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Let me start by saying that I've heard similar reviews to this by people from all bootcamps (I spent a month in an internship with ~30 people who came from bootcamps and we swapped stories). Also, I came into the program from a graduate program in STEM and got an internship quickly after - overwhelmingly because of the MS in a STEM field - so these things influence my views.
The top five problems that I found (I am sure I am missing some):
1. Calling ...
Let me start by saying that I've heard similar reviews to this by people from all bootcamps (I spent a month in an internship with ~30 people who came from bootcamps and we swapped stories). Also, I came into the program from a graduate program in STEM and got an internship quickly after - overwhelmingly because of the MS in a STEM field - so these things influence my views.
The top five problems that I found (I am sure I am missing some):
1. Calling it a "bootcamp". Bootcamp implies speed and rigor. This program was easier than a lot of the *single* classes I took in undergrad, not all of the classes I took in a semester, a singular class.
The first quarter was frighteningly basic. I could not understand how you could decide to change careers without that basic level of knowledge and experience. It's about the level of the frontend part of FreeCodeCamp. If you're thinking about basing your life around this career, shouldn't you know what it is first?
The second quarter was painfully slow. It was four weeks. I had worked through 3/4 of the material in a few days in the break week after quarter one (not all of the week, mind you). It was so slow people were going home in the early afternoon every day. (2-3pm) What?
The third quarter actually picked up enough rigor to take up 8-5 work (not evening hours, but at least 8-5) and was the only quarter that wasn't frustrating.
The fourth quarter had that "summer's coming let's chill out vibe" a lot of the time. Frankly I think there was a lot of people giving up on their expectations of a bootcamp by this point. A lot of resignation to the fact that you put a ton of money into something that just didn't deliver a quality education.
Also, Fridays were mostly a waste. There were no lectures on Friday, only a review and "lightening talks". This review consisted of going through the bullet points written into the lectures and writing them on the board while a few sentences were said about that bullet. The lightening talks were supposed to be five minute (always much longer) talks about a tech topic so that people could get used to talking about tech topics in front of a group. Less than a quarter of the lightening talks met those qualifications. The lightening talks were primarily people talking at length about things they were interested in kind of like show and tell, but you're paying $4.2K for it ($21K / 5 days). Almost everyone goofed off after lightening talks ended at three making it hard to accomplish much of anything on that day. Seriously, that means $4.2K wasted to one-line reviews and people gushing about something completely off-topic.
2. The instructor situation was chaotic.
There were four instructors. One was supposed to have been in the field for a long time (the primary instructor). Two were supposed to have been in the field at any point ever (including small contract projects). One was a student from the cohort before.
The first primary instructor we had really didn't know a) how to instruct and b) javascript in a meaningful way. There were warnings from the students in the cohort before ours (who he did a practice lecture with) and from the instructor himself *not to hire this guy*, but they did anyway. It went so badly that they fired him before the first quarter was over.
THEN they took one of the few instructors from the other cohort and made him into our cohort's primary instructor, leaving the other cohort with only one instructor (the other two instructors having gotten jobs/left). The instructor that came to us had just started an MS program, so he was really busy already. The one instructor for the other cohort had a serious family emergency soon after the fiasco with us losing our instructor and we had one instructor left between the two cohorts. The really good instructor had to be shared between the two classes leaving him exhausted and us worried about asking too much of him.
Near the end of our cohort the instructor who had the family emergency before left. I don't know the details, but there's definitely a fight between corporate, who seem to be concerned primarily with money, and the instructors, who seem primarily concerned with education. There were mumblings in the hallways were of this clash pretty regularly. At the end of our cohort, our primary instructor left, likely because of the same concerns. This was the last of the really quality instructors I had known at Galvanize.
3. The pedagogy reflected a complete lack of understanding of teaching/learning. I had been in some sort of teaching/TA/tutoring role for the previous eight years. There's a huge difference between instructors that try to improve by studying educational reasearch and those who do it just through experience or through books the latest fad book with zero citations. Galvanize chose to do the later.
They were dogmatic in their use of "Teach Like a Champion" which included such gems as having the students read outloud the lectures to the class. These lectures (which were actually, more often than not, well put together) were written by someone in corporate, occasionally edited by the instructional staff. This often meant that the instructors themselves didn't really see it as important to read through the lectures ahead of time and anticipate what questions might be asked (like any good instructor knows to do). There were a shocking number of times that the instructors (one in particular) didn't know something was in the lecture they were supposed to be teaching or, even worse, would start to give a half-baked-in-the-moment example of what the material meant only to make the situation FAR worse. These were rookie mistakes that every instructor should make once (I definitely did) and then they should be guided to see that they have to plan ahead. That didn't happen here. Up to the last day, there were painful lectures where there was clearly no planning in advance.
4. There was a complete lack of ability to deal with behavioral problems.
(To be fair, there shouldn't have been behavioral problems in a classroom setting of 16 adults.)
One student was verbally abusive to the instructors and, occasionally, other students as well as being loud and disruptive during lectures. Rather than dealing with this right away, we went through the first quarter and a half with the instructors walking on eggshells around and giving special attention to this one student, greatly decreasing any question or lecture time for the rest of us. It took most of the student body having to set up a meeting with the main instructor (who was beat for the reasons listed above) for anything to change. To his credit, after that the situation in the classroom became more reasonable. He has amazing interpersonal skills and solved the problem, but he's not around anymore, so don't expect someone to know how to handle a similar situation (not that there should even be this situation in an adult classroom).
5. The numbers aren't trustworthy.
Early on in every bootcamp more people were getting hired because the marketplace wasn't saturated with bootcamp grads like it is becoming more and more every day. The hiring rates are inflated from the first group. In our cohort, we definitely haven't hit the "91%" hiring rate the website is currently claiming, despite having been out for six months. And among those who get hired the majority are hired on short contracts which, despite offering little by way of stability, Galvanize doesn't distinguish from more stable sitatuions (which most people are looking for).
Take note of this line on their website: *Placement rate and average starting salary based on 2014-2015 Placement Data
Likewise, they've conviently used the average salary in their reporting. Anyone who has taken a statistics class can tell you what's great about averages compared to their more honest peer - the median. It can make the numbers look more extreme than they actually are. If a few people get really high paying jobs, they drive up the average tremendously.
Additionally the salaries are not what most people might assuming because these jobs are contract jobs so they don't include benefits. That means that the employers have to pay a bit more to entice people to benefit-less jobs.
When I brought this up in by posting an article about other bootcamps agreeing on a common standard in the alumni slack channel, there was a quick move to defensiveness by people who were currently employed by Galvanize signalling to me that it's not likely to change.
To be fair, here's a list of the five positives I can think of (once again, I am likely missing some):
1. The career services person was constantly reminding us of the most important part of the job hunt, which is networking. Of course I knew that this was very important, but having someone there to not let you brush it aside (because you hate it) was really good for me.
2. Galvanize being a longer bootcamp means that you get to go to a lot more networking events during the program. I went to about three a week, on average. The program being six months rather than 14 weeks meant I went to ~70 events rather than ~40, which helped.
3. The career services person pushed me to put what I really wanted to do (work with data) on my resume even though I was nervous I wasn't prepared. Now I have an amazing position doing exactly what I want. (Go Gina!)
4. There are a lot of events at Galvanize and its surrounding businesses, so getting to networking events is very do-able.
5. There are a lot of snacks. I gained about ten pounds because I love snacks. ;)
I can't speak to the experience of job hunting because I was lucky enough to get an internship directly after the program, but I can say that the feedback on why I got that internship points to the idea that the bootcamp was not even a factor in getting it. The impression I get is that I got an opportunity to interview largely because of my MS in a STEM field and that I got the internship because of a combination of having spent the last seven years working through math/science problems generally and having spent the summer before starting Galvanize working through Cracking the Coding Interview specifically (aka - I did well on whiteboarding).
The only thing the bootcamp experience did for me was expose me to more people, and if I were to go back to me when I was trying to figure out what to do I would have just networked more and learned on my own time (much faster). I honestly think that, being profit-driven the whole system tends to take advantage of people who are desperate for jobs and that there is a good chance that the bootcamp system (like academia) will end up leaving a lot of people in debt without jobs when the bubble finally bursts, which it will because this is tech.
If you're wondering why I am one of the only negatives among a sea of positives, it is likely because those who have a positive experience have nothing holding them back from posting it. I waited six months until I got hired (not just intern) to post just in case I made people angry and ruined a networking opportunity. If you haven't found a job, you're even less likely to post because you *definitely* need everyone in your network. Keep this in mind as you search through the reviews.
Bethany Lindsey of Galvanize
Program Director, Seattle
Dec 06, 2017
Description | Percentage |
Full Time, In-Field Employee | N/A |
Full-time apprenticeship, internship or contract position | N/A |
Short-term contract, part-time position, freelance | N/A |
Employed out-of-field | N/A |
How much does Galvanize cost?
Galvanize costs around $19,480.
What courses does Galvanize teach?
Galvanize offers courses like 12-Week Software Engineering Online Immersive, 19-Week Software Engineering Immersive with JavaScript & Python.
Where does Galvanize have campuses?
Galvanize teaches students Online in a remote classroom.
Is Galvanize worth it?
The data says yes! In 2022, Galvanize reported a 100% graduation rate, a median salary of $95,000, and N/A of Galvanize alumni are employed.
Is Galvanize legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 216 Galvanize alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Galvanize and rate their overall experience a 4.5 out of 5.
Does Galvanize offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Yes, Galvanize accepts the GI Bill!
Can I read Galvanize reviews?
You can read 216 reviews of Galvanize on Course Report! Galvanize alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Galvanize and rate their overall experience a 4.5 out of 5.
Is Galvanize accredited?
While bootcamps must be approved to operate, accreditation is relatively rare. Galvanize doesn't yet share information about their accreditation status.
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